Finals are almost done now, and it's almost time to go home for winter break. That made me happy, but I wonder where Cam, Scarlett, and Harper are gonna be able to stay because they don't have anywhere safe to stay. I'm at dinner with them tonight, discussing a plan. "I'm not looking forward to break," said Harper.
          "Me neither," added Scarlett. "I can't go back to my mom or dad."
          "I'm not either," said Cam. "Mine are just gonna trap me and make Christmas suck."
          "I'm so sorry guys," I told them. "I'm gonna call my mom to make a plan for going home tomorrow for break. To see if they have any extra rooms for you guys to stay."
          I noticed the others looking up and smiling at me, just about to get up and hug me– I could tell by the looks on their faces. That's what they did, so I went along with it and hugged them too.
          "You'd do that for us?" asked Scarlett. "You are awesome."
          "I love you Luci," said Harper.
          "Me too. I'll start packing tonight just in case," said Cam.
          So, I gave my momma a quick call when we left the dining hall, sitting at an outside table by then. I explained the situation to her the best I could and sounded as convincing as possible. Over the phone after explaining it and asking if they could come stay over break, she says, "sure thing! Any friends of yours are welcome over here at home. Just make sure they bring with them everything they need."
          I smiled at, nodded at, and gave thumbs up to my friends as they cheered. "Thank you so much, Mom. They are going to be so happy... you have no idea how much this means to them."
          "Oh, no problem. We'll be there at your dorm building tomorrow morning at eleven. So we can maybe stop for lunch."
          "That sounds wonderful momma, thank you."
          "You're welcome, sweetie, I love you."
          "Love you too." And we hung up. I brought the friends in for a group hug, happy that they were able to stay here.

Soon enough, eleven the next morning arrived. The friends walked over to my building with their backpacks and suitcases. Luckily, Mom and Dad came to pick us up in our bigger van (we had that when my older brother, aunt, uncle, and two cousins used to live with me). So Cam, Scarlett, Harper, and I could take the two rows behind the front and fit all of our stuff in the row of seats and back behind us.
          And on the hour-and-a-half ride home, we took time for my parents to get to know my friends and what they like (excluding the trauma), and then singing songs and laughing at each other's jokes. I'm glad that my parents were so welcoming to my best friends, enough to take them in with us over the holidays.
          When we arrived home, we took our time to unpack our things and give everyone a room. I took my own bed in my room, Scarlett took my older brother's room, across from mine (he already moved out and is living his own life now), Cam took the bedroom that a cousin used to live in, and Harper took another cousin's old bedroom. We all settled in quickly and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon watching movies and playing games that Harper learned in his high school theatre class.
          It was then one of the happiest nights of our lives: the four of us friends playing games and singing songs I played on both my guitar and piano as Mom and Dad worked on dinner together, then the evening ended with a night of all six of us watching music videos on YouTube on the TV.