Alex was writing the date on the chalkboard, December 14, when he realized what important date was coming up. Christmas. Now that he couldn't give John art supplies he had to figure out another idea. He had one, but he wasn't sure how it would go. It wasn't that he thought John wouldn't like it, it was that he didn't know if he would be able to pull it off.

"I feel sick," Alex complained to John that Monday. John laughed and shook his head.

"I wonder why," John said sarcastically. "It's not like your caring boyfriend warned you to not eat a bunch of raw cookie, and yet you did it anyway." Alex rolled his eyes, laughing.

"Fair enough," Alex admitted. John smiled proudly. "Hey, do you know when Christmas break starts?" John thought about it for a second.

"I think the twenty-first," John answered, glancing over to try and look at the calendar the Alex had above his desk. "Won't that be nice? Two weeks of free-time?" John sighed. Alex nodded in agreement.

"You know, I used to prefer being at school before we started dating," Alex said, looking at John.

"Ugh, that sounds wretched," John said. "I love this place as much as the next guy, but I can't imagine preferring being here." Alex shrugged.

"It's not so bad when you get used to being here," Alex said. "The problem is that now I'm used to being in your arms." John hugged Alex from behind, chuckling.

"You've clearly been watching too many Hallmark Christmas movies," John said. He assumed Alex rolled his eyes, considering that was a very Alex thing for him to do.

"Maybe I'm just trying to be romantic," Alex said. John snorted, and shrugged.

"I mean, you did use a pet name for me on Saturday," John teased. Alex batted at John's arm.

"I didn't mean to do that, and you know it," Alex said, his voice pouty.

"You still did it, love," John said, drawing out the last word. Alex laughed, chills coursing through his body. Their weekend was well spent, but now Alex was thinking of better things he could have done. He glanced at the clock, hoping the bell would ring soon, to avoid this escalating any further. However, before he could even turn his head to check the clock the morning bell rang, and John left the room, kissing Alex on the forehead as he left.

A couple kids filed into Alexander's classroom. He didn't like this grade quite as much as he had the last, but he still saw some of his favorites, like Philip in the halls. He finished filling out the board, and went over to his desk for the last few minutes before his first period started. He paged through his binder, taking a last minute glance at his lesson plans. Then, before he got up to start teaching the lesson, he rolled his chair over to the computer and quickly bookmarked the tab he had open.

It was the turtle page on their local pet store's website.

Oof short chapter

Edit: We have standardized testing in ELA this week, which means these chapters might be a bit shorter because I'm sTrEsSeD