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ƒσυя ¢αℓℓιηg вιя∂ѕ, тняєє ƒяєη¢н нєηѕ, тωσ тυятℓє ∂σνєѕ, αη∂ α ραятяι∂gє ιη α ρєαя тяєє

Title: Oh What Fun

Prompt: Chaotic Christmas tree decorating - everything that could go wrong does.

Synopsis: A group of friends attempts to surprise a family by decorating the tree and persevere through the face of many struggles.

Requirements: [Word Count] 1000+

"Are you sure we're allowed to be here?" my best friend Alex asks, running his hand through his sandy hair.

"No," Julie and I say together.

Alex groans, "I'm so tired of your illegal schemes." But we all know he's joking, since he's one of the first people to join in on said illegal schemes every time. "When you say 'I have an idea', you really mean 'I have a terrible plan that Alex won't like but will still go along with'."

Julie slings a slender arm around his shoulders. "And you go along with it every single time," she points out.

"Yeah," he grumbles. "Because I'm really that stupid."

"You're not stupid," our fourth - and final, at the moment - member of the squad says. Rhea pulls her hood off, revealing her dark curls and piercing eyes. Her dark skin seems to glow in the sunlight, and, raising her hand, she swings a key ring around a slender finger.

"It's not breaking and entering if we have a key," I point out.

"Yeah," Alex mutters. "It's just entering."

"Shut up," we all chorus.

Rhea unlocks the door, and we all pile into the small entryway. We're sneaking into our fifth Musketeer's house, not for any nefarious purpose, but to perform a bit of Christmas magic.

Lio and his family were out of town, but they would be back at precisely 4:30 this afternoon. As it's 7:30 in the morning, we have 9 hours to get a tree, decorate it, and get out of the house. Easy peasy.

We have a plan too, perfectly organized so that we can divide and conquer. Rhea takes Alex to the Christmas tree farm, while Julie and I untangle the lights and ornaments.

"Woah," Julie says, pulling a gigantic ball of string lights out of the box. I look up from where I'm organizing the ornaments and snicker.

"It's bigger than your head," I laugh.

"It's bigger than your brain," she retorts.

Just then, I get a text from Alex: Ally, we have a problem.

What kind of problem? I reply.

Rhea jumps in, sending two pictures into the groupchat. Which of these trees = better option? Pick ur poison

Both trees are bad. No, bad is an understatement. They both look like that tree from Charlie Brown, but even skinnier and more dead looking.

Uhhhhh, I reply. The first one?

She sends back a thumbs up, and Julie and I resume our task. I lay out the ornaments, organizing them by color and shape, then help unravel the ball of lights.

There's a sharp beep from outside. "Rhea's back," I comment unnecessarily. She and Alex make it through the door with the tree, which looks even sadder than it did in the picture.

"So..." Rhea says, setting it down. "You should probably make sure to buy your tree before Christmas."

Alex snorts before going to help Julie, who's looking at me. "What do you think, Ally?"

"It's...perfect," I lie. None of them look like they believe me, but we're burning time.

Just then, a crash draws all of our attention to the ornaments I'd laid out on the floor. "Oops," Alex says. I bury my face in my hands. They've dropped the ball of lights on top of the ornaments.

"We're already behind schedule, people, let's get moving!" I call, lunging forwards to move the lights. Rhea snaps into action, digging through the shards of broken baubles to fish out the unbroken ones. I pass the string lights to Julie, and Alex and I work on sweeping the glass off the floor.

We're behind schedule, and now, since we've sent Rhea to the store for more ornaments, over budget. "Come on," I mutter, opening up the Notes app on my phone.

Get tree. Check. Untangle lights. Check, kind of. Organize ornaments. In progress. Pick up topper. Nope. Decorate tree. Not even close.

We've wasted too much time - it's 10:30, and we don't even have ornaments for the tree. Alex and I start winding the lights around the branches. Three seconds later, the tree topples over. He curses loudly, "We forgot the tree stand."

Julie almost drops the ornaments in her hand. "I'll go get it. I'm the only other one with a car."

I sigh. We're down to two Musketeers now.

Rhea texts me that she's paying for the ornaments now, and right as I'm about to put my phone away, a notification pings. "Great!" I say aloud, "The tree topper is ready!"

Alex knocks on the table and says, "Finally something is going right."

I shoot Rhea a text and ask her to pick up the topper on her way back, then sink onto the couch. "There's nothing to do," I mutter. "No tree stand, no ornaments, no topper. And we've spent four hours doing absolutely nothing and we only have five hours left."

"Relax," Alex says soothingly, patting my arm. "Five hours is a long time."

And then, of course, my phone rings again. "It's Rhea," I tell him worriedly.

When I pick up, Rhea sounds frantic. "So...we kind of have another problem."

"What problem?!" I nearly shriek.

Rhea turns on the camera and pans over the tree topper box. It was supposed to be a shiny silver star, but instead, I'm looking at a giant kangaroo on top of a rock.

"What," I say, voice shaking, "is that?"

She sighs, "It's the tree topper for Reid. Not Rhea."

"So someone has our silver star and we have their KANGAROO?"

Behind me, Alex snickers. "Well, I'm sure they're very disappointed too. I mean, clearly they wanted that kangaroo."

I wheel on him. "Not. Funny. We need to get the right topper."

Rhea, trying to diffuse the ticking time bomb that is me right now, says, "I'm sure Lio and his family won't mind a kangaroo tree topper. They'll like it."

"NO!" I explode. "We need this to be PERFECT."

Alex backs away slowly. "Ohhhhkay Ally, nice and calm. Chiiiiiill out."

I take a huge gulp of air and let it out slowly. "Okay. Just take the topper. Everything's okay. Bring the topper and the ornaments."

"There you go," Alex says soothingly. "Deep breaths. Deeeeep breaths."

I turn to glare at him, and he mimes an exaggerated deep breath at me. I sigh, "I'm sorry, Alex. I'm just- so, so stressed."

"Hey, it's okay! I get it. This is mildly terrifying and I didn't even plan it." He pats me on the arm, "But it'll all be okay. I promise."

I hug him, and after a moment, he hugs me back. When we break apart, he runs his hand through his sandy hair, a small smile on his face.

"Thank you," I whisper. "I needed that."

The moment ends when both Julie and Rhea pull up in front of the house. "FINALLY!" Alex and I yelp in unison.

They barely make it through the door before I'm rushing to Julie to grab the tree stand and Alex is taking the ornaments from Rhea.

As I'm setting up the tree properly, Alex asks, "Are the ornaments...supposed to be orange and yellow?"

"What?" the rest of us whip around to look at him.

He holds up the open box, revealing plastic baubles in garish neon orange and highlighter yellow.

Rhea lunges for the box, reading the label. "In my defense, it does say that they're red and green stars. Not...that."

Alex and I tear open the rest of the boxes, finding only bright colored ornaments inside.

"Oh god," I mutter, sinking into a chair. "Oh my-"

My friends gather around me. "Hey, Ally," Alex says. "It's alright."

Rhea wraps an arm around my shoulders and Julie does the same on my other side.

"We did the best we could."

"It's not our fault."

"I'm sure they'll love it."

"You'll be okay."

At the last one, the tears finally fall. I curl into myself, trying to hide my face. My friends up the comforting level, all three of them piling onto me in one large group hug.

When I finally compose myself, the first thing I say is, "I love you guys."

"We love you too," Rhea replies. "But we have a couple hours left, and that tree is not going to decorate itself!"

———

When Lio and his family walk through the door, we chorus, "Merry Christmas!!!"

They look around in wonder at their misshapen tree, decorated with brightly colored ornaments and a kangaroo tree topper.

They take in the lights we've strung around the house, the warm glow of the fire in the grate.

They see us, hand in hand, holding tight to each other.

They know that everything is okay.

And together, we smile. Together, we are okay, as one.

WORD COUNT 1426

~~~~~WELCOME to day eight

i'm sorry for that crappy update yesterday. have a fully written story to make up for it.

prompt was given by the wonderful ScarlettAuthor!!! I had fun writing it, hope you enjoyed.