Christmas Eve

I wake up to my younger brother, Joshua, and my older brother, Hunter, jumping on my bed.

"Mak!" Josh yells, "Wake up!"

"That's not the way to wake her up. She needs a prank," Hunter whispers.

"Hunt, Josh," I say, "I can hear you."

Josh pushes his dirty blond hair out of his face. "I knew that..."

I hop out of bed.

"I have some bad news," Hunt says, "Josie and August are coming over."

"What's wrong with them?" I ask, "We haven't even met them yet."

Hunt's mouth drops wide open, dropping his coffee mug onto my bedroom floor. "So you're not kidding?" he asks as he bends down to pick it up. He cut his short brown hair last night, which is not shocking, because he likes to look well-groomed. Once, when he was twelve, he read Seventh Grade by Gary Soto and thought that scowling was the way to attract girls. That's not even close to accurate. Not at all...

"Josie and August mean Aunt Carole," Josh says with terror, "The aunt who gave me a broken piece of a kitchen door."

"She gave me chewed gum," Hunt says.

"She gave me a 2/3 used nail polish bottle," I say loudly.

They walk out of my room, Josh stealing my sweater in the process. I put on my watermelon snowsuit, not thinking about the temperature. I wanted to dress like Aunt Carole.
11:48 a. m, Christmas Eve...

"MAK!" Hunt yells, "AUNT CAROLE IS HERE!"

I groan as I make my way downstairs. Josie and August surround Aunt Carole.

"Happy New Year's Eve!" she yells.

Josh and August burst out laughing.

Josie clears her throat. "Mom, it's Christmas Eve."

"Could you give this to Connor, please?" Aunt Carole asks.

"Connor?" I think to myself.

I have four siblings. None are named Connor. These are my siblings, oldest to youngest.

1. Tracy:20
2. Eliot: 18
3. Hunter:16
4. Me:15
5. Joshua: 13

The front door swings open to a grumpy Tracy and exhausted Eliot behind her. She dumps the presents on me, but I don't catch them in time. I run towards Eli and pull him into another room.

"Mak?" he asks with concern, "Are you okay?"

"Aunt Carole's here, the aunt who gave Josh part of a kitchen door," I reply with terror.

"Well, let's hope for better this year, I bought her a smashed can of Dr. Pepper," he states.

We high-five then walk into the other room to join the others in a not-so-pleasant conversation. I walk behind Eli, not paying attention to his fiery red hair. It's the same color as mine, but somehow it hurts my eyes to look at his hair.

I mutter to Josie, "You're sharing a room with me, August will share a room with either Josh or Hunt. How old is he?"

"Thirteen," she replies with a warm and gentle smile.

"JOSH!" I yell, "DO YOU MIND IF AUGUST SHARES A ROOM WITH YOU?!"

I get no response, but I see Josh doing a dance party on his gold hover board, in the middle of the living room.

"That's a yes," I say proudly.

I carry Josie's suitcase into my room and plop it on the other twin bed in my gray room. Tracy said my room was way too small, back when we shared, but Josie had a different reaction.

"Mak?" she asks, "You're room is so huge!"

She climbs onto her bed, her curly, long, blond hair getting tangled in the process. We talk for hours and hours and hours.

10:00 p.m, Christmas Eve

Josie and I both put on our onesies. Hers has watermelons, mine has potatoes and Mars. The Martian merchandise.

"What is everyone in your family known for?" Josie asks with a grin.

"Eli and Hunt are smart, Josh is strong, Tracy's a brat, and I'm nothing in particular," I reply.

"What are their GPAs?"

"Ask them."

Josie asks both Eli and Hunt their GPAs. Eli's is 3.5... Repeating decimal. Hunt's is 3.851.  She pulls them both into our room, and also grabs Josh and August.

"No Tracy," she says.

I nod.

As soon as we get into our room, Josie clears her throat. "We are going to prank Aunt Carole. Tracy is excluded, because she's a brat. Eli pulls the pulleys, while Josh attached countless bricks. Hunt and Mak are in charge of the setup for the blue cheese dressing. I check in on the sleeping people. Every 15 minutes, Mak and I switch jobs. Got it?"

We all nod, completely lost in what she just said.

"We're in!" we exclaim at once, some of us raising our hands in the air with triumph.

I fall asleep right then and there

12:00 a.m, Christmas Day...

I wake up to Josie, punching my stomach. I walk to grab Hunt and Eli, while Josie grabs everyone else. As soon as we arrive in Aunt Carole's temporary bedroom, all of the supplies were set up:

- 1 pulley
- 1 rope
- 1 bag of blue cheese dressing
- 1 safety pin
- 2 rubber bands
- 1 copy of Josie's brilliant mind
- 1 List of things we could do if she wakes up
- The rest of us.

Eli goes to where he's supposed to, and Hunt and I sit and stare at all the supplies.

"What are we supposed to make?" I ask with confusion.

"I don't know. If I knew, I would tell you. I'm sorry, Mak," he replies with bewilderment.

I nod in reply. I attach the blue cheese dressing to the rubber band, which I connected to the rope.

Josie walks into the room. "Switch?"

"I just got here," I reply.

"Watching Tracy sweat in her sleep is absolutely disgusting," she says.

"Fine," I mutter.

Josie smiles as I walk up to Tracy's room. I open the door. I watch her sweat pools of water. Her hair gets drenched by the amount of water she sweats per minute. I text Josie.

Me: SWITCH?!

Josie: No way, José.

Me: PLEASE?!

Josie: No.

Me: Tracy's sweat is gross.

Josie: Fine, switch in 5. Go watch your parents or my mom.

Me: Okay.

I walk out of Tracy's room and walk into my parents' room. I see them cuddling nicely in bed. No sweat, no noises, except for Dad's snoring occasionally. My phone vibrates.

Josie: Switch.

I walk down to Aunt Carole's room. Josie and I switch jobs. I see that the machine is almost finished. I add the safety pin. I check on Eli. Josie runs downstairs as another switch signal. "We're done," I whisper.

Josh yanks me by my arm outside. They are closely following us. When we arrive outside, I said, "What do you want to do? Walk?"

Hunt exclaims, "SNOWBALL FIGHT!"

"TUBING!" Josh exclaims with the same amount of enthusiasm as Hunt, "MAK WANTS TO!"

I laugh to myself. "Don't bring me into this. Josh is right! Sorry Hunt!"

Josh does the whip and nae-nae in the snow.

"LET'S GO!" I announce.

We climb up a small hill nearby, our feet almost sinking into the snow. When we all arrive, Josie reveals some tubes that she's been hiding. Josie tubes down first. Her moves are very graceful, very perfect, very brilliant... Then, Eli tries. He bumps into a tree. I run towards Eli.

"Are you okay?" I ask with concern.

He nods. "Mak, throw a snowball at Josh for me. Please. One at Hunt, too preferably."

I nod. "I'm in!"

We high-five each other. I climb back to the hill. Josh and Hunt tube together, with me closely following behind the both of them. I gather up too much snow. I throw a big snowball at Hunt. He looks back, but doesn't see me. He continues to tube. I throw a snowball at Josh.

"Hey!" he exclaims, and throws a snowball at me, too.

4 Hours Later...

As the sun rises, we all walk inside the house, leaving Tracy, who is pretending to babysit us outside, to get punished. She's the oldest in our family. Rocks for her, sucks for us. I take off my watermelon snowsuit and sit on the carpet floor. I watch everyone else take off their ridiculous snowsuits. Mom walks into the room with a very cheerful expression on her face.

"Hello," she says with such a cheerful voice, "Want some hot chocolate?"

We all nod in unison.

"Extra whipped cream, please," Josh orders.

We all burst out laughing, except for Josh. His bright blue eyes suddenly turns gray and then he shrugs it off. Mom walks into the kitchen to fix hot chocolate for us all.

"EEK!" Aunt Carole shrieks, "JOSIE! DEARIE! THIS BLUE CHEESE JUNK! DEARIE, TELL CONNOR TO HELP ME CLEAN IT UP!'

We all glare at each other for a minute.

"Connor?!" we all yell in unison.

"Who is this dude?" I think to myself, "Aunt Carole is pretty stupid, from what I know."

I feel bad for Josie.

Just as Mom walks into the room with all of our hot chocolate, Josie sprints over to Aunt Carole's room to clean up the mess. She puts a big dollop of whipped cream on all of our hot cocoas, but Josh's and August's portion is so huge, the whipped cream is falling out of the cup. We all burst out laughing. The abnormal ones: Josh and August, play together while the normal ones: Eli, Hunt, and I, sit around the fireplace in silence, quietly drinking our hot cocoa.

Tracy storms into the room. "MAKENNA! MOM! MAKENNA DID SOMETHING!"

Mom walks into the room. "Tracy, sweetie," she says with the calmest voice I've ever heard, "What did you do, Makenna?"

"Mom," I start with a slight smirk on my face, "Tracy failed at babysitting us outside. She was filing her nails."

She nods with an understanding look on her face. Josie and Aunt Carole walk into the room, both of them fresh and clean, their hair soaked with water.

"Time for the gift exchange!" Aunt Carole yells, like she's in charge of the place.

Tracy hands out her presents. I receive a gift card to the local bookstore. I walk up to Tracy saying, "Thank you." I reach to hug her. She pushes me away.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" she roars like I have Ebola.

I return to my spot on the carpet I pass out my presents, and so do Josie, August, Eli and Josh. It's Aunt Carole's turn. She hands all of us presents, neatly wrapped. I open it with hopeful thoughts. It's one of those broken plastic spoons that you find in a fast food place. I nod in her direction. I look at me brothers with a sympathetic look on my face. They reply with the exact same look. Josh pushes his un-groomed, long, blond hair away from his face.

3 Hours Later...

All of us kids, except for Tracy, huddle around the fireplace, hold hands, sing Christmas Carols, and stay up all night. I know it's a weird family tradition, but at least we have one.

"Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock
Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring
Snowing and blowing up bushels of fun
Now the jingle hop has begun

Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock
Jingle bells chime in jingle bell time
Dancing and prancing in Jingle Bell Square
In the frosty air.

What a bright time, it's the right time
To rock the night away

Jingle bell time is a swell time
To go gliding in a one-horse sleigh
Giddy-up jingle horse, pick up your feet
Jingle around the clock

Mix and a-mingle in the jingling feet
That's the jingle bell,
That's the jingle bell,
That's the jingle bell rock!" we sing with a happy look on our faces.

This Christmas has been a great one. Just make Aunt Carole give better presents.