*2 weeks later*

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!" Kevin cried out.
Since my parents were at a convention of some sort, I had asked Kevin, Chris, and Richie to help decorate the house for Christmas. Yet, Steven and Joe had crashed our party too.
"Everywhere you go!" Joe joins in.
"Please shut up." Steven muttered. "I have a headache."
"Would you like an aspirin?" I ask him.
Steven was paying attention to some random cartoon.
"Huh? Oh, no. I'm fine." Steven told me.
We go back to putting the tinsel on the tree.
Devil's Haircut by Beck was playing on Pandora.
"Don't you have a Christmas station?" Chris asked. "You know, The Grinch does not sound too bad right now."
"You sound bad right now." Richie looked at Chris.
Chris sniffled. "Allergies."
"Gotcha." Richie starts taking ornaments out.
After a minute, he stops.
"Aww, so cute."
I turn around to see the ornament.
It's a picture of a butt-naked baby.
That baby is me.
"Nice ass." Kevin is now looking over at the portrait.
"Bend over!" Joe made a silly face.
I flip them the bird.
"Fuck y'all." I mutter.
We continue to hang up the tree.
Jingle Bell Rock comes on.
"This. Is. My. Jam." Joe snaps and claps to the beat.
"Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock..."
We start having a dance party.
"Wait!" Steven yells out of nowhere.
"What?" we ask him. Chris turns off the music.
"I wanna make sugar cookies." He smiles at us. "Arch-man. Give me your keys, we're going on a field trip."
"With The Friz?" Kevin says with excitement, like in The Magic School Bus.
"No way!" Joe joins in.
"Aaaaww!" Chris mutters.

Crusin' down on Seventh, here in Tampa, feelin' good...
Steven turns into Publix.
"We should make Funfetti." Richie says. "It's more colorful."
"You're gay." Kevin looks at Richie.
"How about M&M cookies? You know, we could use the red and green ones?" Chris explains.
"Thinking outside the box, Arch." I smile. "I love it."
"Let's do it." Kevin steps out of the car.

I had only stepped into Publix one time, but I hadn't really noticed how nice it really was.
"Where's the cookie aisle?" I ask the boys.
They look at me with silly grins.
"You're cute." Chris licks his lips.
"Seriously, you are a babe." Joe gives me a smile.
"She's my babe!" Kevin playfully shoves Joe. "No one puts Baby in the corner."
"Isn't that from Dirty Dancing?" Chris asked.
"Yes, sir." Kevin tips his hat at Chris.
"Guys, seriously. Where. Is. The. Cookie. Aisle?" I pout.
"Aisle 8." Steven leads us to the aisle.

"Why can't they be chocolate chip?" Richie asked.
"M&Ms are like big, round chocolate chips." Chris tells Richie. "C'mon, Shaff, you're a seventeen-year old individual."
"A sixteen-year old individual, actually."
"Whatever. Just grab the mix."
"Okay." Richie grabs the cookie mix.
"Hey, guys, we should get some icing, while we're at it." Steven adds.
"No, Steven!" Joe cries. "Are you trying to ruin the cookies?"
"Very funny, Panik." Steven rolls his eyes at Joe."
"Actually," I look at Steven, "that sounds interesting. I'm up to try something new."

"Why is there icing on my shirt?" Richie looks at his Wu-Tang Clan t-shirt.
"Why Wu-Tang Clan?" I ask Richie. "Isn't that a rap group?"
"Yeah." Richie says. "It's actually Mikey Mahtook's shirt, though."
Joe was shoving a spoonful of icing into his mouth.
"Gross, Panik." Steven gives him a dirty look. "You're putting spoonfuls of pure sugar into your mouth."
"I do thish wif cookie dough." Joe says as he grabs cookie dough and shoves it in his mouth.
"Thanks, Joe, what you just ate takes away about two cooked cookies." Chris gives him a look.
"Get in the spirit, Arch. Jeez."
I turn Pandora radio on the Christmas station.
Kevin puts on a Santa hat.
"Ho, ho, ho!" Kevin kisses my neck. "You wanna be Santa's Little Helper?"
I giggle. "Sure."
"Great!" Kevin says giddily. "I love smiling. Smiling's my favorite."
"Is that from Elf?" Chris jumps up and down. "That's, like, my favorite movie!"
"Mean Girls is my favorite movie." Joe grins.
"Bullshit, Panik." Steven mutters. "He likes The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie."
"No, Souza! Everyone knows my favorite movie is Good Burger."
"Good Burger's stupid though." Kevin slaps Joe.
"I'll admit it. The Sandlot's my favorite movie." Joe nods.
I smile at him. "Mine's The Fault In Our Stars."
"Ew. Girl movies." Richie makes a disgusted face.
"Seriously though," Chris smiles, "we should watch Elf."

We ended up instead watching Prep And Landing, that dumb Disney cartoon.
Joe brought the cookies. Why we even trusted him with them in the first place, I don't know.
"Here y'all go." Joe slides the platter on the table.
Me and Kevin were finishing up the tree.
"One. More. Ornament." I try to reach the top, but end up failing.
"Need help?" Kevin asked and leaned over. "Get on my back."
So I did as I was told.
And just like that, the star was on top of the tree.
I hop off Kevin's back.
"Christmas has started." I dust off my hands.
"Not exactly. Chris?"
"Yesh?" he says, munching happily on his cookie.
"Turn out all the lights."
Chris hops off and runs to turn off all the lights.
"You ready?"
"YES!" Joe yells. "I want presents and food and Jesus' birthday cake."
"Joe," Steven taps him, "shut up."
All the lights were off now.
Me and Kevin took turns with the countdown.
"One."
"Two."
"Three."
Then, the tree illuminated back to life. "Whoa." Joe's eyes lit up.
"Nice." Steven smirks.
"Aaah." Chris exhales.
"Merry Christmas, Reb." Kevin smiles.
"Merry Christmas to you too." I kiss him.
"It's not Christmas yet!" Joe yells.
We all laugh.
This has been the best day.

A/n:
#SquadGoals, much?
Lol....
So I skipped ahead a bit....
I hope you don't mind!
And the next chapter will focus on the video incident, so this was a fun chapter to enjoy.
Hey, here's a joke....
What's an activity Joe Panik likes?
Having a Picnik!
Get it? No? Okay.
And I also found out that the Astros are interested in McGee and Boxberger.

-Rease
PS. Congrats to the one and only KEVIN KIERMAIER for winning that Gold Glove!