The Miner's Girl

Chapter 23

(((December 12, 2015)))
Nicole's POV
It is now December, and people are traveling home for the holidays. Our old friends are coming home, and I've missed them. Over the past few days, Parker and I have hung around with our friends, and it was really fun. I had forgotten what it was like to have friends like them, in Alaska. Anyone that says Alaska is just a place of snow and ice, obviously has never been there. It actually rained quite a bit, no snow yet! It has been just over freezing, around forty degrees. Almost two weeks have passed, and nothing very eventful has happened. Time with friends, family dinners, and time at home is what took up our time.

Parker and I finished the photo album for Grandma and Grandpa. We organized it, and decorated the front and back. We decided to go vintage, and got pieces of old newspaper, and old copies of pictures and pasted them on the covers. It kind of looked like scrap art, but it worked, like a collage. We wrote on the front "The Schnabel Family" in big, bold letters. At the bottom under that, we wrote "Est. 1920", because that's the year that Grandpa was born. On the back in little letters on the bottom, we wrote "Christmas 2015". Parker and I were pretty proud of ourselves for making it, and Mom and Dad liked it too.

Parker and I had our one month anniversary on December 10th. He gave me some flowers and Christmas candies. He bought me a little Christmas teddy bear. It's cute. I ordered Parker some stuff for Christmas online, and it's being sent to Hannah's house. She's keeping it for me. I'm not saying what I got him yet, but it's really nice.

Christmas decorations are up. My Christmas tree is up; Parker helped me put all my little decorations up after we helped his parents and grandparents with theirs. Our nights are filled with Christmas movies and midnight snacks, when we're not with our friends until really late. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

It's now three days before my birthday, and we're packing up to go to North Carolina to be with my family for their Christmas. The flight is at 9:00, and it's now 6:30. Parker woke me up at 6:00 when he got up to go to his house to pack his bags. We're packing a lot, because we're going to be gone until Saturday.

Parker came and picked me up around 7:00, and we left around 7:30, after about ten checks to make sure we got everything. The plane took off, and we were in North Carolina around 5:00, EST. Hannah was there to pick us up, and it took us about three hours to get home. She took us to my grandma's house for a little bit, and then we went to her house.
***
We were all sitting in Hannah's room. She and I were sitting on her bed while Parker was sitting on her beanbag chair. We had greeted my aunt and uncle, but Hannah didn't want to stay around them, because they were still mad at her, and vice versa. Kayleigh was at a sleepover with one of her friends, and wouldn't be back until right before the party. My other younger cousin was in her room; she had been in here with us, but she left. We were talking before Parker and I had to go to my mom and dad's house to sleep.

"So how did the last midterms go yesterday?" I asked Hannah.

"I passed. Thank goodness."

"That's great. Now you just need to make it through next semester." I said.

"And two more semesters after that." She laughed.

"True. But you get a summer break." I pointed out.

"I think I'll just quit after this semester." She said.

"No, you're not. You can't quit." I gave her a look and took a deep breath. "Parker, tell her that she can't quit."

Parker looked up from his phone. "Huh?....oh, yeah, you can't quit."