The next Friday, Chase was walking down the path to school when he found Alicia walking ahead of him. He sprinted to meet her.
"Hey, Alicia." Chase said as he tapped her shoulder.
"Hi." Alicia mindlessly responded.
"Great time we had last Friday." Chase acknowledged shyly. "Maybe we can hang out more sometime."
With a rapid change of character, Alicia blushed, yet continued ignored him. They continued to walk in silence. Suddenly, she grabbed Chase's hand.
"Huh?"
"We're going to be late, idiot." Alicia said. She began to pick up speed at drastic rates.
"Let go!" Chase yelled as he flailed about. "I can't run this fast!"
"Well, scrambling around won't help!" Alicia responded with a hint of embarrassment, not bothering to look back.
They barely made it to school, however the struggle of Alicia tugging Chase to school and refusing to let go difficult. It had reached the point where, Alicia dragged a drained Chase across the floor through the school's entrance. They bursted into their homeroom, right as the bell rang.
"You're welcome." Alicia panted as she sat down
"You just dragged me around for a mile." Chase breathlessly commented.
"No need to thank me."
Homeroom flashed by with a couple of announcements.
"Class, we have winter break starting tomorrow. I hope you use this time to study for the finals that you will be having when you come back. Also we have an concert that will be performed by our one and only school band. I hope you all come to support the band"
The whole class groaned, as Chase looked at them offended. Before Chase could throttle them, the bell rang once more. As Chase started walking to the next class, Alicia caught him by the collar.
"Gah!!!" exclaimed Chase. "What are you doing?"
"You are suppose to go to band next!" retorted Alicia.
"Wait aren't we supposed to go to-"
"It's a rotating schedule, dummy"
She spun him around and started carting him the other way. They arrived sooner or later to the band room.
"Hello!" Mr. Joe called, jumping off his desk. He dusted himself off. "Man, I love doing that."
"Hi, Mr. Joe." Alicia and Chase both replied.
"Well, today, we are going to have a study hall period!" Mr. Joe announced. "Well, you guys are the first kids to come, so take a seat."
Several kids started to file in. Carson and Fleur sat next to Chase and Alicia.
"It's been a while," Chase said as he shook Carson's hand.
"Yes, it has," Carson replied.
"I've saw Eliana's instagram post. Amour sincère." Fleur commented in her French accent..
"What does that mean?" thought Chase.
As if she could read his mind, Fleur shrugged and walked away. When she was out of hearing range, Carson got closer to Chase and Alicia.
"Can I tell you guys something?" Carson asked.
"Yeah, sure!" Alicia said.
"I mean it had been not that long since I last saw you guys." started Carson, " I was planning to tell you early, but it sucked when the school split the band by grade."
"Mhm." nodded Alicia and Chase.
"I have been spending more time with Fleur, and whenever I am around her, I feel, like, really tense. Is something wrong with me?" Carson asked worriedly.
"No, but I think you have a crush on her." Chase affirmed.
"Are you sure?" questioned Carson.
"That how it feels to have a have a-"
Chase contemplated. "Wait, I know how that feels, but-"
A lack of response from Chase made Carson even more worried. "I can't talk to her! I'm a geek!" Carson said.
"Well, last week, my friend Lukas got the captain of the tennis team to go out with him. With that, I can assure you anything is possible." Alicia recalled.
Carson's eyes widened. "Lukas Trotsky?"
"Yep," Alicia replied.
"Well, I mean, if he can... I guess I'll try. Plus, you two seem to have a lot of chemistry together, so I trust you guys with, uh, relationship stuff." Carson started to walk towards Fleur.
Chase and Alicia looked back at Carson, confused. It wasn't like they had lots of experience with the "relationship" stuff. Alicia and Chase walked out of class.
"Well, that was interesting." Alicia said
"Yup." responded Chase, still surprised.
"Are you ready to meet up with everyone?"
"Wait. What!" Chase exclaimed, waking up from his shock.
The day went by, and it was finally the start of Christmas break. The first snowfall came soon after that, and Chase met all of his friends at their childhood hangout: Hollow Run Park. Chase, Alicia, Ethan, Lukas, Eliana, Ren, Brandon, Michael, and Reina showed to the park. They all met at the fountain.
"Look at all this fresh snow!" Ren said, picking up a small pile of snow. She then proceeded throw it at Michael.
"Hey!" Michael exclaimed as he dusted up his jacket. An idea popped into Chase's head.
"Why don't we have a snowball fight?" Chase suggested.
Everyone agreed, and they picked to play with teams. After picking, the teams were Chase, Ren, Alicia, Lukas, and Michael against , Eliana, Ethan, Reina, and Brandon. They were given five minutes to build a fort.
As soon as they started, the teams got to work on making snowballs. Snowballs crumbled against the wall Chase had built. Chase peeked out.
"Muhahahahaha!" He confidently cackled. "You can't get past our defenses!"
Brandon peeked out as well. He was holding a snowball. Without saying anything, he flung the snowball with such speed, it whistled through the air. Chase dove out of the way, and the snowball hit his fort. It exploded into a cloud of white dust. When the dust cleared, Chase's team's only protection was gone.
"RUUUUUUN!" Chase yelled to his team as he sprinted away. Snowballs whizzed past them as they reached a nearby tree.
"We have no protection. We're done for!" cried Ren as she threw up her hands.
"Don't worry, I'll protect you." said Michael wrapping his arm around Ren, who blushed intensely as she slapped him away.
"First, we have to get closer." Chase strategized. "Then, we will hide and ambush them.
After another minute of hiding, the other team seemed to have run out of snowballs. Chase gave the cue.
"Go! Go! Go!" Chase sprinted forward, his team following him.
"Why, and for what reason, are they following me?" thought Chase as he charged.
They somehow made to a deeper patch of trees unscathed.
"Ok. So now what?" Ren asked.
"Got it!" Lukas cried, holding up enormous sticks."Let's build a fort out of these!"
"You are insane!" yelled Alicia. "Let's do it!"
Michael, Alicia, and Lukas started to build a fort out of the vegetation that was nearby.
"Make sure to build it a little back so that as soon as they try to get through the trees, we can rush them." Lukas yelled, "Also, pack snow in between cracks to hold them together."
"Great idea, Commander!" retorted Chase.
"Michael, circle around the tree line, and hold them down to give us time." Lukas ordered.
Michael rushed off as Ren, Alicia, Lukas, and Chase finished two sides of the fort.
"Ok, Ren and I will finish the walls." stated Lukas, " Chase and Alicia will start building ammunition."
After a few minutes of hard work, they finished. In the distance they heard a scream, and a moment later, the sound of a person falling into the snow.
"Sounds like Michael's down! Everyone! Battle stations!" commanded Lukas.
He pulled Alicia to the side and whispered something. Alicia rushed out of the fort and started burying herself into the snow.
"What did you tell her?" inquired Chase as he grabbed a snowball.
"You see how to the southwest there is a snow drift? I told her to hide there, because her jacket will blend in." Lukas replied. "She'll be our secret weapon if things go south."
They heard the footsteps get louder and louder, and sure enough, they saw the opposing squad marching through trees.
"FIRE!" Lukas yelled.
Chase, Ren, and Lukas threw the snowballs.
"Two hits!" Lukas reported as they swooped down, avoiding flying snowballs.
"Who?"
"Ethan and Eliana." said Lukas.
"That leaves-"
Chase didn't get finished as the wall exploded showering Lukas with sticks. Soon, he was pelted with snowballs.
"Sorry Lukas!" shouted Reina from the distance.
"H-how did they-" stuttered Ren.
"There's no time to explain!" Chase darted around, Ren following. Ren was fast, but not fast enough. As she left the patch of trees, she was hit in the back of the head and face planted into the snow. Chase was able to tag Reina on the way out, who was way too focused on seeing if Lukas was okay. Chase continued to run, until he saw a figure in the distance: Brandon. Chase made a snowball and started to weave around, slowly making his way to Brandon. Brandon continued to hurl snowballs, but none found Chase. He ducked behind a snow mound. When Brandon started to frantically grab more snow, Chase saw his opportunity. He ran towards Brandon until he was confident in hitting him. This was it. He threw the snowball with all of his strength, but it didn't release. He tried again, but to no avail. Brandon stood up with a fresh snowball. He flung it at Chase's head, which was the last thing he saw. He woke up a few seconds later, covered in snow, with Brandon right next to him.
"You got destroyed!" Brandon teased. " Your snowball stuck to your mitten!"
He continued to ridicule as Chase noticed a figure. He couldn't tell who it was because the sun shone directly into his eyes. It didn't take long for him to figure out who it was: Alicia. She was on top of the snow drift. She had snuck up behind Brandon, with a snowball as big as a car tire. Brandon was slightly under her. She hurled the snowball up as hard she could, just in time for Brandon turned around curious to see what Chase was staring at. He got crushed by the mound of snow.
"We won!" Alicia jumped up in elation.
"Maybe we took this a little too far." Brandon said, muffled by the snow. "You guys want cookies and hot cocoa at my place?"
Everyone agreed. They spent twenty minutes getting the snow off of Brandon, and they set off to Brandon's house. It was nearby, which was good, because the group was exhausted. After a quick break of hot cocoa and cookies at Brandon's house, the group headed out.
"Hey, guys, I have an idea." started Ethan.
"What is it?" Brandon asked.
"Let's do a Secret Santa!" exclaimed Ethan.
"Huh?" everyone said, clearly confused.
"Everyone has around twenty dollars in their pockets, right?" Ethan started. "We head to the mall with a time limit of an hour. We meet at the food court, and exchange gifts."
"Don't have anything else to do, and it would be a great way to bond with everyone. Everyone in?" Michael asked.
Everyone nodded in agreement. They rushed to the malls' entrance.
"Alright, I wrote everyone's name on slips and put it in the hat." said Ethan. " Everyone grab one, and line up."
Chase grabbed one and received Ethan.
"YES!!!" Chase exclaimed in his head.
"Remember, try not to get kicked out by mall security." Ethan reminded. "Ready, Set, GO!"
Chase ran immediately to the right, headed to the music shop. He knew exactly what he was going to get him. As a fellow saxophone player, Chase knew that he needed to get Ethan reeds, the thin strip of wood that made the vibrations to produce sound, and they were easily broken. Ethan, being a clumsy person, broke at least one per band class.
As Chase walked by, he saw the stores he had been in on Black Friday. He imagined Eliana dragging him and Alicia around, the food court where Lukas "asked out" Reina, and lastly, the store where him and Alicia got their matching backpacks. Chase kept on jogging until he found the music store. Chase walked in, and asked the clerk if they had 3.0 reeds. As the clerk went to get it, Chase saw Michael and Elina run by the store. He looked at his watch, 45 minutes left. He bought the package of reeds, and walked out just as Brandon came barreling around the corner.
"Chase!" wheezed Brandon.
"Yeah?"
"I need help!"
"For what?'
"The exchange! I got Ren, but I don't know what to get her!" Brandon explained, "Any ideas?"
Chase paused for a moment in deep thought.
"I got it!" whooped Chase.
"Well?" questioned Brandon. "What is it?"
"Get her something that has to do with jokes!"
"What!"
"She likes to joke around, since she has such a light-hearted personality."
"Ohh! I see what you mean!" understood Brandon. "Thanks, Chase!"
Chase watched as Brandon rushed off. He headed to the food court, and bought a bag of chips. To his surprise, Reina was already sitting there.
"You are already done?" blurted Chase.
"Yah." Reina replied, not blinking an eye, "It was really easy."
"Wait, who did you get?" Chase inquired.
"You'll find out soon." she answered. "Besides, there is only about ten minutes left."
"Did we make it?" a voice called out.
Chase turned around and saw Michael, Eliana, and Ren.
"Yup. You definitely made it." responded Reina.
"How did all of you arrive at the same time?" jabbered Chase with intrigue.
"We all had the same idea for the person we were buying for, but we didn't see what each of us bought!" replied Ren enthusiastically.
They waited excitedly as the others arrived. Soon Brandon, Lukas, and Ethan returned.
"Time's up!" Ethan declared.
"Where's Alicia?" Chase asked worriedly.
After a few minutes, Alicia sprinted to them.
"I'm here!" shouted Alicia as she plopped down on a nearby chair.
"Well, now that everyone is here," Ethan presented, "Let's exchange gifts!"
They gave their gifts one by one. Ren started, and gave a Michael a black hat with the words in bright blue shirt. On the back it also said "Ladies beware!" Michael, without realizing this, put the hat on. Eliana gave Alicia a white blouse, and whispered something into Alicia's ear that made her blush. Brandon bought a book for Ren titled Comedy for Dummies.Reina whipped out a book on the airplanes of World War II and handed it to Lukas.
Lukas handed Brandon a baseball.
"I couldn't think of anything else." he said sheepishly.
"No problem, my dude!" laughed Brandon. "Nothing wrong with having an extra baseball or a hundred."
Chase handed Ethan the reeds, with an impish grin. No words needed to be exchanged due to the understanding between the two. Michael handed Reina a tennis polo shirt in purple, which happened to be Reina's favorite color. Reina looked at it with a mixture of confusion, happiness, and contentment.
"How did yo-"
"I asked Lukas." he interrupted.
Reina beamed at Lukas. However, everyone turned to Alicia as they realized who she got.
"Here." she said blatantly, as she shoved a sketchbook into Chase's hands.
Everyone besides Chase and Alicia groaned, silently wanting more chemistry between them.
Chase looked at the sketchbook unsure of why she would give him a sketchbook.
He opened the sketchbook and looked at the first page. He fully understood why Alicia was late. He looked at Alicia who was blushing, and nodded. The others sighed in relief that something did happen. With a couple of awkward remarks, compliments of Ethan and Brandon, and a couple of fresh bruises for them as well, everyone headed home. Chase's mom picked him up from the mall. In the car, Chase opened the sketchbook once more, and read the words and the sketch again. Inside was an elaborate sketch of a flute and the words "Thank You" etched on the side. Underneath the entire sketch was the words "I'll teach you how to draw. - Alicia." Lost in thought, Chase couldn't think of anything, nor hear anything else as he headed home.