Madeline woke up, her eyes heavy as she opened them. Her vision was blurry and partially obscured by the pillow she had her head buried in.

She closed her eyes and yawned, flipping over. At the movement she realized how chilly the room was. She pulled the thick blanket closer around her. Forcing her eyes open again, she gazed out the window. Snow was falling in a steady unpredictable flurry of white flakes.

She sighed and sat up, though keeping the blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She reached over for her phone on the nightstand. She turned it on to see if she had any messages.

'8:53, December 25'
'Events for today: Christmas'
'Notifications; 3'
'New messages: 4'

Madeline felt a sinking feeling. December 25th. Christmas.

She never particularly looked forward to the date. Her dismissive parents would never get her or Mary, her younger sister by 5 years, anything. They would not wake up either of their children in the morning with a cooked breakfast or wake them up to open the presets under the tree.

In fact, there was no tree. Not a real one at least.

Madeline pushed herself up from bed, abandoning her blanket for a robe. She made her way downstairs to make herself some hot chocolate, continuing to think about her childhood memories.

She had one time, using her own money of course, purchased a three foot wooden tree. It had a wooden base and a 2D silhouette of a tree, but with a split down the middle. One would then take the other part and insert it in the split, making an 'X' shape from an above view.

Madeline then painted it it green, with white and silver snow on the outside parts of the tree. She then purchased some simple LED lights and let Mary throw them on the tree, with some guidance.

The microwave went off, pulling her from memories and back to her melancholy reality.
She grabbed the coco powder, having forgotten to do so before hand. She added it into the cup and stirred half-heartedly before making her way to the couch in her living room.

She took a gentle sip of her hot chocolate, careful not to burn her mouth. She sighed again and lowered her arms, resting her forearms on her thighs and only holding loosely to the mug as she set it between her criss-crossed legs.

Her mind wandered back to Mary. That joy-filled smile at whatever present Madeline had purchased with the extra money she scraped up from her pay as a pet sitter at a place near the high school.

Mary always felt bad for not having money to buy Madeline anything- but she would always find something, be it a drawing, an old toy, or sometimes just a handful of a few dollars.

Madeline felt her eyes heat up. A single tear ran down her cheek and followed her smile. Her smile fell as she realized how much she missed her old life, her sister, her old school.

She sniffled, not allowing herself to cry.

She continued to sip on her hot chocolate, her eyes tearing up, her mind full of memories of her sister, and her thoughts of regret she felt of moving out without her sister.