"You do know this is really stupid, don't you?" I said, trying to stand my ground in an argument against Granny and Grandpa.

"Need I remind you that you fainted yesterday, and despite what you might think, normal people don't get up and go to school the next day. I'd have the head teacher on my bag if I let you go in today, regardless of what you think. Besides, the circumstances are unusual, to say the least, just spend today chilling out, you're always complaining about the school work so embrace the break for once in your life," Granny said.

"Fine, but only because I enjoy daytime TV," I replied, trying to see the bright side of the scenario.

Granny had insisted that I take a day of school after the fainting incidents in Drama despite how many times I had told her I was fine, she didn't listen. To be honest, the moment I woke up staring at the Drama room ceiling, I felt perfectly fine. It was as though it hadn't happened at all, but it had and there was no denying it. Despite all the insistence I had made in the aftermath, Grandpa had to come and get from school, so I ended up spending the afternoon in bed, forbidden from going anywhere else whilst under the watchful eye of my Grandparents.

They couldn't find a logical reason for the fainting incident, but they tried. In the end, they put it down to the cold, but that didn't make any sense. The cold was disappearing, back to the depths in which it came, so why it would suddenly throw a curve ball at me seemed completely stupid. It should just banish itself back to hell and never disturb me again. Personally, I thought the fainting was down to the other thing, but I wasn't going to tell them about that. No way. I would much rather have bathed in chocolate then tell them. As fun as bathing in chocolate is, it isn't exactly a practical experience and it's really, really sticky, trust me.

"Your granddad and I have a meeting at the town hall at half past, so we're going to leave now to make sure we make it on time. We should be back by lunchtime, okay?" Granny said, slipping her coat on whilst she was talking.

"M'kay. Enjoy being ranted out by some really uptight people," I said, laughing. Granny and Grandpa had gone to several of these meetings in the past and every time they came back vowing to never go to another, yet the moment the email came through about the next one, they were raring to go. It was weird, to say the least.

"Oh, we will. If you need anything, text me. My phone will be on vibrate so I'll know when it goes off without annoying everyone else. You'll be okay on your own?"

"I have the TV, I have the sofa, I'm good."

"Right, we shall see you later then, Kenz!" Granny said.

"See ya," I replied, turning my attention away from Granny and Grandpa to the TV, where a new episode of Four in a Bed was about to commence. The moment I heard the door close, let out a loud groan, glad to be free of the suffocating presence that was my Grandparents.

Honestly, I didn't want to spend an entire day watching Four in Bed whilst lying on the sofa feeling as though I was going to be bored out of my tiny little mind. I would much rather have put up with the comments from Mrs Reynolds then do that, but it wasn't as though I had much of a choice and if I left the house, I would have been lectured within an inch of my life. Especially if I didn't make it home before they did, and that was a huge possibility. So, rather than being confined to the sofa, I did everything I possibly could to avoid the sofa, something that worked for a total of two-point-five seconds before I ended up back in the same position, listening to the mocking tones of the voice over guy.

After one episode, I really didn't want to watch another. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy daytime TV, it was fun to watch and see how annoying people really were on those shows, but there is only so much a person can take before they lose their mind, and for me, it just happened to be one episode. So, I opted for something else, a Christmas film. I might not have been a big fan of Christmas itself, or at least not the Claus version of Christmas, but Christmas films were different, they just felt different.

I loved spending afternoons curled up in front of the fire, a classic Christmas film playing on the TV, a mug of hot cocoa in my lap. It was like heaven. Christmas films were an escape from the world that I had become so detached from. They were always set in either New York or a small little town in the middle of no-where. A place where two complete strangers would bump into each other, or meet incidentally and by the end of the film, they would fall in love and live happily ever after. Although it appeared cliché, cheesy if you will, it was fun. Christmas was shown to be a magical time of year where anything could happen and that, for some reason, made me happy.

Christmas films were so cute in comparison the rush of Christmas itself.

When the Christmas film started, I snatched the blanket off the back of the sofa and curled up in it, wishing I could start the fire and make myself a cup of cocoa, but if I had done either of those things, I would have been in trouble. Yup, I couldn't even do that. Instead, I just watched the film whilst snuggled up in the blanket and reading the messages that were coming through from Niska and Joel, neither of them being particularly happy that I was missing a day.

I didn't really feel like missing the day either, but there was nothing I, nor they could do about it. Granny and Grandpa were as stubborn as the Reindeers on Christmas Eve. They didn't do anything unless they had a reason for doing it, just like the Reindeers. They wouldn't fly without having eaten an entire sack of carrots beforehand. Granny and Grandpa were adamant I had to stay off school in order to prove a point to both me and the school. Seeing as schools recommended the student stay off twenty-four hours, that was their reasons for keeping me off.

"I am so bored," I said to myself, lying upside down on the sofa and watching the film play. "B. O. R. E. D"

"You've never made a snow angel before? Ever?"

"No. Let's just say that my parents weren't exactly into that sort of thing. They would much rather have thrown an extravagant party then let me have any fun."

"Wow, how did you live?"

"Like a Prince."

"I was joking."

Just as the girl pushed the guy back into the snow, the front door opened, earlier then I had expected, but surprising me to the point I fell off the sofa and ended up laying on the floor staring up the ceiling. Not exactly the best thing to do considering I was trying to convince I was completely fine and, therefore, lying on the floor wasn't exactly going to cut it. Not completely, anyway. Trying to act natural, I pushed myself up and leant back against the sofa, trying to act as though I was intentionally sitting on the floor.

"You're back early," I said, trying to act cool and collective and in the zone. Personally, I don't think it worked too well.

"The meeting was pointless. No one really knew what they were talking about and a lot of the comments were just repeated from previous meetings. Completely pointless," Granny said, hanging her coat up and dumping her bag on the floor, just behind the door.

"You say that every week. I bet you a tenner you'll go to next weeks and make the same comment," I replied.

"Do you even have a tenner, Kenz?" Grandpa asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Nope, but that shouldn't matter, I'm going to win," I joked.

"You're on. What are you watching, anyway?"

"It's a film about a Prince who is being forced into a marriage so leaves home to find his one true love," I said, cringing at how lame the plot sounded the moment I said it. Let's face it, it was a good film to watch, but the plot was so cheesy it would have been funny if it wasn't so good.

"You have a weird taste in films," Grandpa said, shaking his head at me.

I ignored him, and instead went back to watching the film, wrapping myself up in the blanket that had been discarded on the sofa when I decided to lay upside down. Granny and Grandpa left me to it, allowing me to watch the film and simultaneously distract Niska and Joel from their schoolwork by spamming them with messages of how much fun I was having. They didn't need to know the truth seeing as I was having so much fun winding them up. I expect they knew I wasn't having that much fun seeing as I was talking to them rather than paying any attention to what was going on in the film, no matter how hard I tried.

It wasn't until the end credits began to role that I realised I hadn't paid the slightest bit of attention to the last hour or so of the film, but I knew how it had ended. It was predictable, and that's what made me love them. These films had endings you could case, you could decide the plot from the very beginning and be completely correct by the very end. It was completely different to life where you don't know what's going to happen, where each day is shrouded in mystery, a black hole with no light. If life had been a film, it wouldn't be too bad. After all, maybe I would know what decision I would make before I had to make it.

That was what continued to bug me, despite everything that had happened, the fact that time was running out for me to make my mind up was not reassuring. Especially since I didn't know what the answer was going to be. At first, I was sure leaving was what I wanted. I was adamant that that would be my ultimate decision, but over time I came to realise that it wasn't going to be as simple as that. Home was home, there wasn't much more to it than that, but home came with an ongoing battle of a constant Christmas. The struggle to have a voice over Nick and the fact that I'm a girl. Whereas school, living with Granny and Grandpa, I had friends, I didn't have to deal with Christmas every day, I could relax. But, I also got ill and had to do homework and they were definitely turning points.

Basically, I had a month to make my mind up and I was no closer to coming up with a solution then I was when I first moved away. Characters in films always have it so good, but unfortunately, life is not a fictional tale of love and happiness. It was an over-complicated bubble of chaos.

With the film having finished, I quickly put it away in the case and decided to stretch my legs. I had been sat down for so long that my legs were numb, and my feet were aching with pins and needles, so I had a shakeup. I stood up and stretched, feeling my limbs click with the sensation of being used for the first time in a while. One of the first things I noticed after getting myself in order, was the fact that both Granny and Grandpa had disappeared from the living room, not that that's too surprising, they had seen more Christmas films at least fifty times in the past. So, I decided to take a wonder, dropping the blanket back on the sofa and heading to the kitchen, stopping just short of the door.

"Nicholas is just as confused about what's going on as we are, though he reckons she's making it up, that's the kind of comment I'd expect from him. I don't know what his problem is but one of these days I'm going to have to have a word with him about his treatment of Kenzie, it's getting a little ridiculous now," Grandpa said. "What did Holly have to say?"

"She's concerned, but every time I've spoken to her about Kenzie she sounds concerned, but this was a whole other type of concern. I think she has the same idea we do, but unless Nicholas realises it, there is little else we can do to help or set things right. I didn't think it would happen as fast as it has, though," Granny's voice chipped in.

"None of us did, but we had this discussion before we agreed to let her stay. The idea was always there, I mean we were worried about Ivy before we agreed to send her away, but she was older, she knew how to control herself better. Kenzie is a kid, she doesn't have a handle on things the way Ivy did, but maybe we can get things under control over the next few weeks. The Christmas fair might be able to help us along the way with any luck, but it's going to be a waiting game."

"We really need to have a word with our son and how he treats his own kids."

"I second that."

My legs were frozen in place as I listened outside the kitchen door, trying to process what I had just heard and why they were discussing me, of all people. I figured it had something to do with the cold and the fainting incident, but I couldn't confirm it, nor did I want to. What weirded me out the most, perhaps a little too much, was the fact that they had discussed it with my parents in the first place. For one, Papa never cared about what happened to me, whether I was sick or what, he just didn't care. Mama was always concerned about my well-being, it was just her way of life, so telling her was just going to make things a thousand times worse than they already were.

What made the entire conversation worse, wasn't the fact that they were talking about me, it was the fact that they were talking about what was happening to me. They may not have made it clear, but it was obvious they were talking about me losing my Magic, my Claus heritage so to speak, and that was terrifying. I didn't want to lose who I was, what I was, but if Papa didn't believe them if he thought I was making everything up, the sickness, the fainting, all of it, then there was almost no way to get things back on track. Not without him, as much as I hated to admit it.

I was pulled from my mental block by the sound of the doorbell, ringing loudly throughout the house, startling me and making me realise that I probably should have moved away from the door before I was spotted. Jumping away from the door, I almost swan-dived onto the sofa, switching the TV on to whatever channel I could find that would make logical sense for me. Incidentally, I landed right back on an episode of Four in a Bed, back where I started but having taken that break to watch a Christmas film to stop myself from going insane.

"I'll get it then, shall I?" Grandpa joked, exiting the kitchen to join me in the living room.

"You're the one who told me I needed to take it easy. Had you not, I would have been coming home from school right now rather than relaxing on the sofa with a rerun of Four in a Bed," I said, laughing.

"Don't you turn this on me, young lady," Grandpa said, his tone was mocking, but his face said otherwise. In response, I stuck my tongue out at him, trying not to let on that I had heard their conversation. Subtlety was not my strong suit by a long run, and I didn't want to give myself away so easily, especially if I could find a way around it myself. "It's for you."

Rather than move from the sofa, seeing as I couldn't be bothered in the first place, I turned around and looked as Grandpa stepped aside and revealed Niska and Joel, neither of whom looked particularly happy with me, personally, I couldn't think of a reason, but I was sure I was going to get one with a matter of moments. Niska wasn't exactly known for keeping her mouth shut when she had a problem with someone. She was like a firework, calm to begin with, but if you light a fuse she explodes into a million pieces. Unlike fireworks, her explosions weren't exactly pretty.

"There's the slacker! I can't believe you got to spend the day lounging around on the sofa watching TV whilst we had to deal with school! That is so unfair!" Niska complained, instantly making herself comfortable in the armchair.

"Not my fault. Don't you miss enough school with your braces anyway?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow and folding my arms across my chest.

"That's different."

"It's not, Nisk, don't try and worm your way out of this one. If anyone should 'ave a grudge against her it's me. I was left all alone in food tech, no partner, nothin'. Leo took the mick out of me for it for the entire two hours," Joel said, stating his case.

"Are you trying to guilt trip me or something? Need I remind you, that I fainted yesterday and having time off school just makes sense. Unless you want to catch whatever it is I happen to have. If yes, be my guest because I don't want it."

"I'm good."

"Did you come here for a reason or to just wind me up?" I asked.

"We thought we'd bring you your homework, ya know since you missed all that school work today. Mrs Reynolds decided to pile it on seeing as you know how much she loves you, you also have some work from Jason, though none of us can figure out why seeing as all we're doing is working on our pieces. Maybe he's punishing you for disrupting his lesson," Niska said, trying to look smug with her head tilted to one side and an eyebrow raised. She didn't look smug, she just looked stupid.

"D'you reckon I could use being ill as an excuse for not doing the homework? No? Damnit. My day of relaxation just turned into an afternoon of battling through the homework I never asked for," I replied, rolling my eyes.

"Enjoy yourself. We should go, I promised dad I'd help him build a snowman out of clay, why I don't know," Niska said, shaking her head.

"Have fun, don't work too hard or you might explode."

"Ha-ha, you're hysterical."

With a simple, rather ridiculous grin, Niska emptied her bag of the homework she had collected for me and gestured to Joel with a hurry-up motion. Joel, who had been sat on the arm of the chair, almost completely silent, simply shook his head and followed her, though I couldn't help but notice a look of concern on his face. The two of them left with nothing but a wave and, in Joel's case, a small smile in my direction, though that didn't hide the look on his face. Joel was continuing to both amuse and slightly alarm me with his actions, the way he behaved around me, even Niska was starting to notice it, but neither of us were going to bring it up with him. That would be too weird.

To be honest, I don't know what it was about Joel that made us question his behaviour as much as we were. Niska said that he had always been the quiet one who never bothered anyone and mainly stuck to himself, even when he was just with her he was a pretty quiet guy. Apparently, he was like a completely different person, but that didn't surprise me seeing what he was like when I first met him, it was still odd, though. Plus, every time I saw him, he always looked a little weirded out by me, but I don't think anyone else noticed other than me. Maybe I was better at reading people since I hadn't spent too much time with them and was wary of everything. I don't know, but whatever it was, it was annoying.

The only thing I could hope for was that Joel was just coming out of his shell a bit more and that it had nothing to do with the idea of him hating me for no reason whatsoever. But whatever it was, whatever had dramatically changed his behaviour, I knew Niska was glad of it, she could finally get him to participate in Drama lessons. Something, according to her, every teacher in the past had tried and failed to do. And no, I was not using Magic to hoodwink him into acting differently, magically controlling someone is not a thing, no matter how much I wish it was. I would have done anything to control Mrs Reynolds in order to get her to leave me alone, but that wasn't going to happen.

"What did they want?" Granny asked, walking into the room and leaning against the chest of draws near the TV.

"They just brought me my homework, and to have a go at me for missing the day, the usual," I said, smiling slightly.

"Well, looks like there's a lot there so I would start if I were you, you don't want to get a detention when you go in tomorrow, do you?"

"Aren't I supposed to be resting? Surely homework counts as overdoing it."

"Nice try, missy. Get to it, you don't want to fall behind."

"I'm going, I'm going."

Granny shot me a small smile before shuffling back into the kitchen, probably to start dinner or something, I don't know. What I did know, is that the smile wasn't a welcoming, or even a relief smile, for me, it showed concern. Granny was trying to act calm, that much was clear, but she wasn't exactly good at it. The concern, worry and whatever other synonyms come into play, were evident on her face and I wondered why she didn't just come out and say what she was thinking. Whatever was going through her mind about me and recent events was clearly bothering her, and I wished she would have spoken to me about it rather than leaving me out of the loop. Especially since it concerned me.

Whether Granny and Grandpa were right to be concerned I didn't know, but I was going to try my hardest to fix whatever the problem was, though how I was going to do that, remained a mystery to me. 

~~~

A/N - WE HIT 2K LIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, this is a huge milestone for me, especially since this hit 2K, Dear Theodosia hit 4.7K and Checkerboard hit 100 reads all in one week! I don't know about you guys, but I am so happy! I owe it down to you guys so thank you so much for helping me reach this milestone, it means so much!

Anyway, onto the chapter! What do you guys think of Kenzie's opinions on Christmas films? I for one love them, even if they are a little predictable. Do you think her Grandparents are right to keep their ideas hidden from her? What do you think she will do?

Don't forget to vote and comment if you enjoyed and add to your reading list so you never miss an update!

Dedication - This chapter is dedicated to QJ_Newman who is writing an amazing book that you should check out! It's called Red and Blue: Wars of Gearz and is awesome!

First Published - November 23rd, 2017