Laughter filled the house as some of the various people in it attempted to perform a talent and fail in the process, everyone laughed except Eboseremen who just glared at her Mother and him. Asike Aghogho sat in between Omoruyi and Olasupo who had embarrassed themselves by trying to sing and dance respectively, his attention focus was on her sisters as they danced to Charged Up by Otedola's daughter, DJ Cuppy. They moved their hips and their hands in various formats that left the family in awe but they always had to ruin it by doing something as stupid as trying to Ballet, Eghosa had slipped in the process and fell on Efosa, which made everyone laugh, everyone except her still.

She stared intently at the boy who sat opposite of her along with the other boys and wondered why he had chose this time to be here, although her mother had explained it to her about his Parents not being around, she hated the fact that it was their house he had to come stay in for the Christmas. She knew he had something up his sleeve, he always did.

Asike Aghogho was the only child of the first family they had met when they moved to this area when she was seven, they had lived some distance away until they moved away three years ago. Right from the first moment they met, they had never gotten along and, Ebose noted, this was due to his character and Personality. He had always been a trouble maker, torturing and pranking her at every chance they got. She had been the sweet innocent girl who tried to forgive him as he went on his little rampage on her, hell bent on making her life miserable by being destructive to everything she did.

An example was the cooking contest they had when she was 13, she had baked a three layer cake and she was extremely sure she would win until the next minute when Asike had walked towards her and had smirked at her baked art, she knew it was all over when he pushed it off the table and towards her with a fake sneeze. There was also the time he had visited and met her preparing a video for her presentation, It had been a mistake to let him see the video because the next day when the whole class watched the video which was supposed to be about the political activities that were happening in the country and how they affected the various ethnic group, it was her, laying various curses at him when he had successfully played his different pranks on her on different occasions, she had been suspended for submitting that and had matched straight to his class and slapped him there, but that did not go well for her because a teacher had assumed she was the villain in the midst and she was suspended for extra two weeks. It was at that time she decided to always pay him back by learning the sweet art of pranking. Still, he was King.

He had been given a nickname that matched his personality and his attitude and it had stuck with him. From the way he had appeared with a deep smile which allowed his deep dimples to show, she didn't want it to but she was sure it would go one way, his nickname way, Jagajaga.

The twins had ended their presentation and the next set of persons to take the improvised stage were the fathers, Iredia, Eronmosele and Osaze. Almost everyone smiled at the as they rolled up their imaginary sleeves and stood, one person faced south, the other west and the last stood alone to address the crowd.

"Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen," her uncle Eronmosle addressed everyone, "Our special show for this Christmas eve is to Sing Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas by John Williams," their wives giggled but the children raised their brows confused. They had not heard of the musician neither the song, Ebose took her attention off the boy and proceeded to watch the fathers as they cleared their throats and began in deep voices

"Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas," Iredia began the sing in his bass tone,

"Sing a song for the glorious season," the other two followed,

"Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas," he went next,

"Sing a song for a Happy New Year,"

"Sing Merrily, Merrily, loud and strong," they all sang together and moved their foots like they marching on the spot. It was a funny scene but everyone gawked at how well they could combine their voices into a beautiful piece even without a beat or instrumental. Ebose couldn't hear everything because she was shocked her father could sing as good as that, he never did. She vaguely heard words like Santa, Follow, Holiday, Reindeer fly. Her smile was so wide she felt like her mouth would rip wider in the process, but the sight of the men singing a Christmas song and enjoying themselves was very marvelous.

"Sing along now, sing a song for a Happy New Year," they all ended together and bowed after. Their wives smiled at them with so much glee and love in their eyes.

"Well, Ebose you are the last person remaining," She turned to her Mother and gave a nod coupled with an hidden glare because she knew if her Mother caught her life goal to be an Event Planner would be gone in a second as she would descend on ber with her full bosom and slippers. The two small children had sang a Moanas song while the wives had done a bad job at mimicking their husbands, only their husbands laughed, the rest just stared and Nnenna wanted to do Karate demonstration but no one agreed to be her figure. Asike had come late and she did not bother to put him on the list of guests, she wouldn't even want to put him.

She got off the couch and walked to the middle of the room, which was the improvised stage,

"I'll be doing a Christmas Poem," she began

"Booooooring," Omoruyi whispered loud enough for everyone to hear and the young adults chuckled, Ebose decided to ignore because she did not want have her parents come at her in the process and she had to avoid anything that would make them think sh was not fit to be who she wanted to be.

"I don't have a title for it but here goes," She took in deep breath and recalled the lyrics from her long term memory, remembering the tired but happy moment that had made her write the poem. It was the moment after she had struggled to put up the decorations outside the house, the moment after the struggle had ended and they looked perfect, the moment she knew this Christmas would be perfect.

"The light air fills the house, with the lights shining bright,

I wonder how I'll groom the beauty of the blinding sight.

Here I stand, In the midst of the sounds,

The melody a haunting hound.

I await the feeling of extra emotions,

Not the hour of demotio-" a cheer drowned out her poem, she opened her eyes to see where it had come from and saw Asike with his hand over his mouth in an attempt to beat box and the rest hailed him.

"What are you doing?"

"Well, the words sound very nice so I decided to add beats to the beauty, you feel me?" He smirked at her and she was about to give an angry reply when the other people in the room agreed to it, she frowned at them.

"My poem does not need a beat na,"

"Honey, try it, lets see how it goes and beside, this could be Asikes Talent performance," her Mother sweet talked, she knew she just did not want the boy to feel like he was an outsider. But he was and would forever be in her opinion, he had already began to change things with his arrival, she hated it.

"Fine," Asike stood up and walked to stand beside her,

"From the top," he stated,

"My poem, I declare what is to happen," Asike raised his hand slightly in mock surrender.

"From the top," she repeated and he began to make weird sounds with his mouth that sounded artistry, but she would not admit.

"The light air fills the room with lights shinning bright,

I wonder how I'll groom the beauty of the blinding sight." She had to make the poem sound like a rap, it felt a bit nice, just a bit.

"Here I stand, In the midst of the sounds,

The melody a haunting hound.

I await the feeling of extra emotions,

Not the hour of demotion.

This happiness I feel,

Comes from the real,

I cannot comprehend,

How christmas will end.

But I'll have to wait to feel and see

the touch of the Christmas sea."

She ended but, as she predicted, he did not end with her, he kept on doing what he called beat boxing which, she was sure was spit spilling. She tapped her feet as she waited for him to end and he eventually did. Everyone clapped for him and talked about how wonderful he could use his mouth to create a beat which proved they did not hear a line from her poem, she had just been rap-talking to herself all along.

"Nice poem bobo," Osaze complimented her when he saw her down face, she had the urge to ask him to say a line from the poem but that would be disrespectful and would also be disappointing for her because she knew he did not hear anything. After the cheers and claps for Jagajaga  had stopped, she proceeded to share an A4 paper for the carol, it was 11:45pm and they needed to end this before 12:00 so they could all rest and be ready for the Christmas day celebration.

"We'll be singing Marys Boy Child Jesus Christ," she watched as everyone looked at the piece of paper with the words written in Times New Roman.

"Aunty Adeshola, please come and lead this," she knew how beautiful the womans voice was and decided to allow her lead the carol as she walked over to her seat with a gesture for all of them to stand up. They did as she ordered and looked at the paper with serious faces this time.

"Long time ago in Bethlehem, so the holy bible says,

Mary's boy child Jesus Christ, was born on Christmas day," She began and everyone followed suit,

"Hark , now hear the angels sing, a king was born today,

And man will love forever more because of christmas day,

Marys Boy child Jesus Christ was born on Christmas day."

Ebose looked up from the paper, her heart full of happiness as she saw everyone singing with gladness on their faces, Chetachi had fallen asleep on her Mothers body and this prevented the woman from standing up but she sang with joy. Although, she did not give Osemudiamen a copy, she struggled with her tall elder brothers so she could sing along. Her eyes landed on Asike as he walked out of the room towards the dining, her heart beat faster, he was up to something at the moment and she had to stop him. She followed him, everyones attention still on the carol song, he stood before the decorative glasses on the shelf that were placed up to beautify the room. Framed pictures of everyone who lived in the house were also on top of it all. He kept his stare on the pictures an from his back view, she could not tell what he was doing.

"Why are you here?"

"I thought you were leading the Carol Menmen," he said the nickname he had given her after he had put moimoi in her tea and watched her vomit the contents immediately. Her mother and Mrs. Aghogho had left them home together with her sisters when they decided to do a womens day out. It had been a terrible experience as he laughed at her face and began to call her Menmen.

"What are you planning to do Asike?" She had no nickname for him and she did not want to give him the benefits of knowing her fear by calling him his regular nickname.

"Why didn't you grow up cute?" he bulged his dimples out and then gestured towards the framed picture of her face. He reached for it and had an evil smirk on.

"Drop it, Asike." She moved from the distance she was, closer to him to pry the picture from him remembering how expensive her father had gotten the frames at her mothers request, if anything were to happen to just one of them, it could be the end of her career or worse, her life. He raised a brow at her and she realized her choice of words.

"Don't you dare," she had said the magic word, she knew it was too late immediately the word had slipped out her mouth. Never say 'Dare' at the front of Jagajaga.

"As you wish," he released the frame from the grip of his right hand and she could swear she saw in slow motion how it went down with her eyes wide open. But in that same instant, he caught it back. She wanted to explode with anger as he laughed silently. In the background, they had moved from hymns to regular Christmas song now. She grabbed the frame from him and tried to place it back where it should be, with the process she calmed herself.

"Flying cockroach," Asike said, calmly but because he knew she was scared of all kinds of insects, his tone sounded like a shriek and Ebose shrieked, her hand let go of the frame and it made out with the floor producing a loud crash.

"What happened o?" The panicked Mothers rushed to the dinning room to see the situation.

"There was a cockroach, a flying one, Asike saw it," she turned to the boy to help her out but his look was that of the devil. Everyone had gathered now to see what had happened. She had been pranked.

"Clean it up Ebose, that will be all," those words made her eyes sting, if she had said that would be all, it meant she would take over the whole event tomorrow which would mean Ebose would not be able to achieve her one true goal in life, "For today, lets all rest and then tomorrow is Christmas day, good night." Everybody nodded and proceeded to head up to their rooms, her father gave her a thumbs up irrespective of seeing the broken frame, her framed picture on the floor, it was either she had done a good job or he pitied what her life would be after everyone left the house and had to do something sympathetic. Either way she could never get over the fact that Asike had made her almost spoil Christmas.

°°°

Chapter Two and delivered today as said.

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Emmanuella.