What am I thankful for?

Thanksgiving arrived at Kale University, meaning that the students who lived nearby went home for the long weekend, the students who lived far away stayed at Kale, and the international students were confused as to what all of the fuss was about. Since my closest family lived on the other side of the continent and I didn't have enough time or money to go home, I was stuck at Kale. It wasn't such a bad thing - if I had to be stuck anywhere, Kale was where I would want to be - but I did miss my mother.

I had neglected to call her as often as I had promised, since I was so busy with both work and school, so I talked to her for quite a while a few days before Thanksgiving. I somehow managed to avoid mentioning Brendon, the Aubergine, or my fight with Patrick as I told her about all of the wonders of Kale. However, she did ask me one tough question.

"Ryan, what are you doing for Thanksgiving?" Mom asked.

As a matter of fact, I didn't have Thanksgiving plans. The Aubergine was closed for the day, so I figured that I would spend Thanksgiving in my dorm room, eating leftover pizza and wallowing in my own loneliness. "I don't know yet," I told Mom. "I'll figure something out."

"Please do," Mom said. "I don't want to think about my son spending Thanksgiving all alone."

"What about you, Mom?" I asked. "What are you doing for Thanksgiving?"

"I'm inviting a few of our neighbors over," Mom said. "I'll miss you though, Ryan."

"I'll miss you too, Mom," I said.

"Well Ryan, I should probably go run some errands," Mom said. "I'll talk to you later."

"Bye Mom," I said. I then hung up and stared up at the ceiling. Patrick was packing up his belongings, since even he was heading home for the weekend. "You know, Patrick, Chicago is so two years ago," I said. He glared at me and continued packing.

What would I do for Thanksgiving? I had so many wonderful friends at Kale, but they were all going home. I didn't want to be alone, even though there didn't seem to be another option. What else could I do? How could I avoid being lonely when everyone was abandoning me?

I took out my phone and logged into my Kale email account. I saw that I had an email from Andy Hurley, so I opened it.

To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and 219 others

From: [email protected]

Subject: Thanksgiving

Hey everyone!

I am aware that many of us (including me) will not be able to return home this Thanksgiving, so I would like to have a Thanksgiving celebration here at Flack Hall. We will be celebrating in the Flack Hall basement starting at 6:00 PM, but we will be preparing food all day - please help if you can!

Please reply to this email to let me know if you are coming. If you are coming, please send ideas for (vegan) foods that we can make and let me know if you are bringing someone who does not live in Flack Hall (freshmen living in the Freshmen Quad, upperclassmen, and friends from other schools are all welcome!)

Thank you and have a great Thanksgiving!

Andy Hurley

Before I could finish typing out a reply, a number of other students living in Flack Hall responded to Andy's email.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Cc: [email protected]

Subject: Re: Thanksgiving

Hi Andy!

I'm going back to Chicago for Thanksgiving. By the way, Chicago is definitely not so two years ago.

Thanks for the invitation, and happy Thanksgiving!

Patrick Stump

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Cc: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and 219 others

Subject: Re: Thanksgiving

Hi Andy!

I'm packing my bags for Tennessee right now, so I won't be able to come to your party. I hope you have a great time anyways!

Hayley Williams

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Cc: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and 219 others

Subject: Re: Thanksgiving

What's a Thanksgiving?

Even after reading everyone else's responses, I had no idea how to reply to Andy's email. I definitely wanted to go, but I didn't know what food to bring or if there was anyone else that I wanted to take with me. My first thought was that I wanted Brendon to come too, but I thought that he might already have plans. However, there was no harm in asking him.

That night at the Aubergine, I asked Brendon if he had any plans for Thanksgiving. He simply laughed and said, "All of my family members live two thousand miles away and probably don't want to see me. Of course I don't have plans."

"Do you want to come to Flack Hall for Thanksgiving?" I asked him.

"Sure, why not?" Brendon said. "I'd love to spend Thanksgiving with you, Ryan."

"We're going to have to bring food though," I said. "Do you have any ideas?"

"How about Rocky Road ice cream?" Brendon suggested.

"The guy who's organizing this is a vegan," I said.

"Vegan Rocky Road ice cream?" Brendon said.

"Does that even exist?" I asked. Brendon shrugged and I said, "I suppose we can Google it later. I'm just so glad that you're coming."

"I'm pretty excited too," Brendon said. He gave me one of those smiles that just made me melt inside, and that was when I knew that this was going to be a truly amazing Thanksgiving.

On Thanksgiving Day, I tried to sleep in, but shortly before noon, I heard someone knocking on my door, and I couldn't tell who it was. Patrick was gone already, so it couldn't be him. It was a little odd living in Room 27 without him, but I knew that he would return soon.

Who could it be? I wondered as I rolled out of bed and opened up the door. "Hey Ryan," Brendon said. "Are you ready to make some vegan Rocky Road ice cream?"

"I wasn't aware that vegan Rocky Road was a real thing," I said.

"Apparently it is," Brendon said. "I found an easy recipe for it online, and all of the ingredients are already in the kitchen."

"Alright Brendon," I said. The two of us headed out of my dorm and went downstairs to the kitchen, where a large group of Kale students were already hard at work. Brendon pulled a pint of non-dairy vanilla ice cream out of the freezer, and he also took out some cocoa powder and non-dairy chocolate.

"What are you making?" Joe asked as he looked away from the garlic bread that he was working on.

"We're making vegan Rocky Road ice cream," I said as I searched for a package of vegan marshmallows.

"That's so cool!" Joe exclaimed. "I can't wait to try some."

"Me neither," I said.

"Uh...Ryan?" Brendon said. "I might have screwed up the recipe a little bit."

"What did you do?" I asked. I looked back towards him, and he was splattered with chocolate ice cream. Despite all of his virtues, Brendon Urie clearly had no idea how to operate a food processor.

"We might need to buy some more chocolate," Brendon said sheepishly.

After Brendon got himself cleaned up, the two of us left to buy some more vegan chocolate from the grocery store in the middle of town. On our way there, I got a text from Gerard.

"I think my brother joined a cult," the text read.

"What makes you think that?" I texted back. It didn't surprise me that Mikey was evil enough to join a cult, but I still wanted an explanation.

"He mentioned some Society of the Semicolon that he's in," Gerard said. "Doesn't that sound like a cult?"

"It does," I admitted.

"I'm investigating this, but I'd love to know why my parents aren't mad at Mikey for joining a cult at Yale, but they're mad at me for spending a good chunk of the family fortune on the Greek Friendship Society house," Gerard said. "I'll keep you posted, Ryan."

"Who are you texting?" Brendon asked me.

"Gerard," I answered. "He was just telling me about how his brother joined some cult called the Society of the Semicolon."

"That sounds more like a Yale secret society than a cult," Brendon said.

"What's the difference?" I asked.

Brendon shrugged and then asked, "Ryan, have I given you my phone number yet?"

"I don't think so," I said.

"I should do that," Brendon said. He then told me his number, which I put into my phone. I then sent him a quick text, and Brendon's phone buzzed.

"Why am I texting you when you're right next to me?" Brendon read. "Ryan, that's a great question, but I think that only you can answer that one."

Brendon and I arrived at the grocery store, purchased the vegan chocolate, and returned to Flack Hall. On my way home, Brendon asked, "Ryan, you don't believe what Dallon said the other day, right?"

"Of course not," I said.

"I was just making sure," Brendon said. "He's such a liar."

I would be a fool to believe someone like Dallon. He had betrayed Brendon by lying about him to me, and I just couldn't trust someone like that. Dallon was the worst sort of person there was. I didn't want to be associated with him in any way.

My phone buzzed, and when I pulled it out, I saw that I had another text from Gerard. "Apparently the Society of the Semicolon isn't a cult," he texted. "Mikey told Mom and Dad about it, and apparently it's a secret society that Mom was in when she was at Yale. She's very proud of Mikey for joining the society. There's also a Society of the Exclamation Point, and both of these societies started up as a result of a punctuation dispute fifty years ago."

"Glad to hear that Mikey isn't a cult," I replied. I then texted Patrick, "How's your Thanksgiving going?" He didn't respond to me.

I shoved my phone back into my pocket as Brendon and I approached Flack Hall once again. We returned to the kitchen, where we managed to make vegan Rocky Road ice cream without spilling it all over ourselves. However, Brendon did eat copious amounts of the ice cream before we even got a chance to serve it.

"What can I say?" Brendon said as he stuffed his mouth with dessert. "It's delicious!"

A few hours later, Thanksgiving at Flack Hall truly began. We ate dishes from all over the world, along with a few traditional favorites. All of the food was tasty, but the ice cream that Brendon and I had made was by far the best dish.

Throughout the meal, Brendon chatted with the residents of Flack Hall. He seemed to get along well with all of them, making it clear that he was the social butterfly of the group. Even though Thanksgiving went well, all of us still ended up having to leave, and it was sad to say goodbye to Brendon. I enveloped him in a hug just before he walked out the door, but I knew that it was only a matter of time before I would see him again.

On the last day of Thanksgiving break, something magical happened. When I woke up, I looked out the window and saw that the Kale University campus had been transformed overnight. All of the buildings and sidewalks were coated in a thin layer of fresh, white snow.

I don't give a damn about the weather, but I had never seen anything like this before. Beautiful things like this never happened in Las Vegas. Was this some sort of miracle, or did snow fall all the time in Old Haven? Who or what was responsible for this glorious day?

I couldn't stop myself from throwing on my coat, running outside, and just standing in the snow with my arms outstretched, letting the snowflakes fall on me. It was a lovely feeling, and although it may seem strange, it felt right. If it felt right, didn't that make it right?

I spotted a small group of people approaching Flack Hall. When I got a closer look, I saw that it was Patrick and his parents. "Ryan?" Patrick said as he hauled his suitcases into the residence hall. "What are you doing?"

"I'm just appreciating the snow," I said.

"You're weird," Patrick said. "Snow isn't something to be appreciated. It's just a pain to drive in."

"I think that snow is beautiful, but I suppose that beauty can be subjective sometimes," I said. "How was your Thanksgiving break?"

"I spent most of it applying for an internship," Patrick said.

"Where's the internship?" I asked.

"It's at the Old Haven Veterinary Hospital," Patrick replied.

"That's neat," I said. "I hope you get the internship."

"Me too," Patrick said. "Wait a second. I'm not supposed to be talking to you." He suddenly turned away from me and dragged his remaining suitcases into Flack Hall.

It was clear from my experiences during Thanksgiving break that I had plenty to be thankful for. For example, I was thankful for snow, friends, family, vegan Rocky Road ice cream, and Brendon Urie. I didn't know who or what to thank for all of these lovely things, but I did know that they made my life worth living. As my first year at Kale continued, I knew that I had to keep the people and things that I loved by my side at all costs, because they were what made being at Kale special.