ᴅᴇᴄᴇᴍʙᴇʀ 25ᴛʜ, 2022
9:34 ᴀᴍ

"Toby! Tobyyyyyy!!!" The feeling of someone's hands shaking me viciously scared me awake. "Gah! Wh-What the hell-" I sprung up from my bed. My bed was covered in ripped black sheets. As I blinked a small bit, I looked around around my chipped wallpaper and heavy metal posters surrounding my room. My black rug was ripped up a small bit on the edges. I rubbed my eyes quickly before looking up. It was Kimberly. She was wearing a pink and yellow striped ugly Christmas sweater with fake reindeer antlers, along with a fake red nose. She looked down at me with a huge ear to ear smile. "It's Christmas!!!" She shouted. I rubbed my eyes again, this time slower. "Ah..." I groaned. She grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the bed. Thankfully, I was wearing my Christmas pajamas, and not just sleeping in my underpants, like I usually do. My pajamas were covered in skulls and Christmas trees in that pattern. As Kimberly continued to pull me out of the room, I grabbed my red beanie on the way out, which was hanging on a nail right next to my door.

She ran down the stairs while still clutching my hand tightly. I struggled to keep up with her, as I was still half asleep. I wanted to tell her to slow down a small bit, but I didn't wanna bring her mood down, not even a little. As I was being pulled down the stairs, I looked to my right and saw the huge Christmas tree me, Octavia, Kimberly, and Sahara all put together the day after thanksgiving. It had all kinds of colorful ornaments hanging on it's small branches, and a few black and orange ones along with skull shaped ones that I bought. Octavia was sitting on the dark red sofa with a cup of coffee while wearing her red and brown robe. Bailey, Brooke, Sahara, and Leah were already downstairs. Bailey and Sahara were sitting next to the tree while Brooke and Leah were sitting on the couches. Octavia turned her head to her left after she heard us running down the stairs. "Ah, Merry Christmas, you two!" She said with a huge smile on her face. I giggled a small bit as Kimberly reached the bottom of the steps. She pulled me along with her. I had to hop down two steps in order to keep up with her. She finally let go of my hand when she reached the Christmas tree. She sat down by the tree and waited patiently to start opening presents. I stood where I was for a few seconds, then slowly walked next to the tree with everyone else. The faint sound of a lawnmower caught my attention. "That might be Mr. Sprinkles ..." I said, still sounding half asleep. Mr. Sprinkles is our neighbor. In fact, he's actually the father of one of my closest friends, Elliot. Half of the city folk who used to live in my old city moved here in the forest, due to half their homes being destroyed in Brianna's attack. They lived on the right of us. On the left was Mrs. Jones and her wife, Beverly. They're the mothers of my other best friend, Michael.

"You can go wish them a Merry Christmas, if you want." Octavia said before she sipped her coffee again. I shook my head. "Nah, I wanna spend a lil' time with you guys before I go out." I replied. Octavia smiled and nodded back. "We're opening presents in a few minutes, guys, I just have to clean the table off." She said before she stood up from the couch and placed her coffee mug on the end of the table. "I'll help, Octavia!!!" Kimberly beamed as she grabbed every coaster on the table, along with 3 coffee mugs. She ran off into the kitchen. Octavia giggled, then grabbed the last 2 empty coffee mugs along with one coaster and walked off into the kitchen with Kimberly.

I leaned my arm on the couch and rested my head on my elbow, waiting patiently for everyone to be able to open their presents. I twirled a small piece of my hair in my finger while smiling. I was excited for everyone to open the presents I got them. I each got them one thing. I almost got my ass beaten at the mall on Black Friday trying to get the presents for them.

Octavia and Kimberly entered back into the room. They had huge smiles on their faces. A few drops of water were on Octavia's robe, but she didn't seem to care. Without even asking anyone, everyone in the room ran over to the tree and started ripping open presents. The sound of wrapping paper being ripped apart made me feel warm. Kimberly tapped me on the shoulder, grabbing my attention. "Here! This is from all of us!" She giggled before handing me a small present. It was rectangular, thin box covered in Santa Claus wrapping paper. I quickly ripped through the paper, and I felt my chest grow warmer and warmer the more I looked at it. I smiled, then looked up at Kimberly. She was smiling too.

What did I get, you ask?

Well, maybe that's a story for another day.