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It was a usual 54 degrees in Los Angeles this December day. That was pretty average honestly. The relatively warm winter weather would not stop the city of LA from the traditional winter festivities.
Anne was draped across her living room couch, phone in hand. Her hair, which usually reached her mid-back when she was standing up strait, was hanging off the edge of the couch.
She was wearing a dark green shirt with a maroon skort. She had fluffy candy-cane striped socks covering her feet.
She was scrolling her phone, passing time by. She had been enjoying winter break so far, but didn’t have much to do. This year was just different, as last year had been, but this year wasn’t different in the same way.
A video of a news report came up. Anne stopped at this video, finding it interesting.
“As preparations begin for this years Christma-palozooza parade, citizens of Los Angeles are reminded of the events that went down just last year at the annual Christmas Eve parade.” The news lady began.
That’s the line that caught Annes attention.
A small video began to play in the corner of the screen. “As you can see here,” the woman continued. “A large Santa inflatable supposedly came to life and began attacking other parade floats, causing the parade to come to an abrupt stop before finishing its previously planned route. This lead to the popular inflatable going up in flames later that night, after following another float off the parade route, traumatizing children awaiting the arrival of Santa on Christmas Eve.”
Anne rolled her eyes, preparing to swipe the video away, when another statement caught her attention.
“No one is sure exactly how or why this situation occurred, as it is extremely bizarre. However, Los Angeles is no longer a stranger to bizzare. About eleven months ago an alleged invasion took place here in LA, a little over a month after the disastrous parade situation.” The news lady continued.
That stopped Anne from disregarding the video.
“What did these two events have in common? You may ask. It isn’t a question of what, but who. Now high school Freshman, Anne Boonchuy, was tied to both of these events. Some people may recognize her name from the unsolvable missing case in June of 2019, which three teenage girls disappeared without a trace. Or others may recognize her from last years Christma-palooza parade, at which she screamed ‘I’m Anne Boonchuy!’ From her family’s float. This float, coincidentally or not, happened to be the same float the sentient inflatable Santa went after. If neither of these situations ring a bell, then this last one should. Any citizen of Los Angeles living or visiting in late January of 2020 knows about the invasion, an event in which an amphibian robot army attacked the city of LA. The unlikely hero’s of this strange and overall bizarre event were none other than the three missing girls. Most known – Anne Boonchuy.” The woman on the news continued.
Annes muscles tensed, as a video of her using her calamity powers to fight Andrias began playing in the corner of the screen. She hesitantly kept watching.
“No one is sure how or why these events connect, but there is a clear link as of who is connecting them. Now, as the Christma-palooza parade draws near in just one week, officials are taking as many precautionary measures as possible to eliminate the chance of another disastrous parade fail. While they are quite hilarious to watch on YouTube, Los Angeles has had its share of parade fails for now. In other news…”
The reporter was cut off, as Anne turned off her phone. She let out a loud sigh, and placed it down on the coffee table.
After a moment she picked her phone back up and dialed a particular number.
The other end picked up.
“Hi Mom,” Anne said immediately after hearing it pick up. “Anne, what’s wrong?” Her mother asked.
“What? Why does something have to be wrong if I’m calling you in the middle of the day, during work?” Anne questioned.
“Anne, you never call the restaurant phone for anything other than food.” Mrs. Boonchuy answered.
“Did you see the news this morning?” Anne questioned quietly. “No, why?” her mom questioned. “Guess who was on the news again. Me.” Anne stated, with a sarcastic laugh.
Before her mother had time to respond she continued. “I’ll send you the link. Anyway, any updates on the whole parade situation?” Anne asked. “Nothing yet.” Mrs. Boonchuy replied.
“I think they’re just being extra cautious. After last year, I don’t blame them. Why would they invite us back after that?” Anne replied.
There was a knock at the door.
“Oh, Mom, I gotta go. Theres someone at the door. Um, I’ll send you that link. Love you, bye.” Anne finished, hanging up the phone. Anne walked over the door, taking a quiet breath in and opening it, preparing for anyone to be there.
Sasha was standing on the other side of the door. Anne hadn’t been expecting that.
“Hey,” Sasha stated with a small wave. “Sasha, hi.” Anne smiled, almost shocked to see her. Sasha was wearing black leggings, her hair was in two space buns atop her head. Anne couldn’t see the shirt she was wearing, as it was covered by a white cardigan with a blue stripe around the arm and silver stars on the sleeves side. She was wearing pink fuzzy slippers, that were kind of like shoes.
“Did you, um, walk here?” Anne questioned. “Yeah, its not that far.” Sasha answered. “You walked to my house, which is at least a ten, maybe fifteen minute walk, in slippers?” Anne laughed. “Yes, whys that so funny?” Sasha asked, stepping inside. Anne shut the door behind her. “I don’t know, its just such a ‘you’ thing to do.” Anne laughed.
“Says the person who used to ride her bike to my house wearing flip flops.” Sasha replied. “Anyway,” Sasha continued. “I saw the news about an hour ago, wanted to make sure you were ok.” She finished.
“Awe, Sasha. I’m fine. A little frustrated though. How are they even getting this information?! ‘High school freshman, Anne Boonchuy’ what do they follow me to school now?! It’s fine though, we’ve been out of the news since February. I’m probably overreacting.” Anne responded.
“I don’t think you were completely overreacting. I think you’re just lucky they don’t have recent footage of you.” Sasha answered.
“You’re Right. You’re right.” Anne responded. “So,” Sasha began, taking a seat on the couch. She didn’t relax at all. “How’s end of the semester and winter break been treating you?” Sasha asked.
“Fine. High school finals are kinda crazy, and it’s been pretty lonely without you and Marcy.” Anne replied. “Yeah, I miss you guys to.” Sasha responded.
“Sasha, we live in the same city. But we talk like there’s no time to see each other. We barely hang out anymore.” Anne exclaimed. “Yeah I know. I come visit you at lunch on Fridays though.” Sasha responded.
“It just feels like we keep loosing time together. I mean, this semester has gone so fast.” Anne continued. “It really has. But, I’m here now. We have all of break.” Sasha smiled.
“What do you say we go get some hot chocolate, and do some Christmas shopping? We could even pick something up for Marcy and send it to her. You know, make the best of time now before we get back into school and our other friend groups.” Sasha suggested. “Sounds great to me.” Anne replied with a smile.
Anne stood up grabbing a red sweater from off the floor, and sliding it on. She slipped her phone into the pocket.
“So how did finals go for you?” Anne asked, as the two walked down the sidewalk. “Oh, they went fine. They really try to make high school finals way more stressful than middle school ones, don’t they?” Sasha questioned.
“Thank frog, I wasn’t the only one that thought so! The teachers really got all scary about saying how getting an A and a really good grade on the final are ‘crucial’ to life after high school.” Anne exclaimed.
“Literally! How important is one little final really gonna be in the long run?! They honestly made me want to fail them all on purpose.” Sasha replied. “Of course I didn’t though.” She added quickly.
“Ha! Honestly if they are scaring us about finals, the girls who had to learn an entire semester of material within three months to take finals with mid-terms on top of the current stuff in order to graduate, then they need to check their methods. I know some, ok a lot, of people in our school are slackers but still. It’d be nice if they didn’t stress us out 24/7 about it.” Anne responded.
“So true.” Sasha laughed. Anne laughed as well, but it fizzled out into an awkward silence.
The quiet lingered over them for a moment. “So, um, hows cheer been going? I noticed you’ve been staying after like everyday.” Anne asked. “Cheers been good. The teams pretty cool, but everything we do is kind of meh, tbh. Its only because we have two girls starting with no experience so we cant do anything crazy as far as stunts. Ands that thing about staying after, I don’t stay for cheer everyday. Cheer is three days a week. I joined Drama club cuz my girlfriend’s in it and really wanted me to be.” Sasha explained.
“Oh yeah, you’re girlfriend! I met her at homecoming, right?” Anne asked. “yeah, Layla. Anyway, she was really excited about it and wanted me to join drama club, so I guess I kinda figured why not. I’m on tech, costume-makeup crew to be exact.” Sasha replied. “Ooo, and hows that?” Anne questioned. “So far, pretty boring. I haven’t done much, but the shows in February so I’m sure we’ll start actually doing stuff by then.” Sasha continued.
“That’s enough about me though, how’s tennis going?” Sasha asked. “I’ve been practicing like crazy to make the Spring team, with tryouts coming out in late February it’s been kind of hectic.” Anne replied. “I still cant believe you didn’t make the fall team. You’re so good at tennis.” Sasha exclaimed. “Thanks Sasha, I kind of came to terms with it after a while, and I’ve been helping out with equipment and stuff on the team. So, I’m really hoping Spring will go better.” Anne explained.
“I’m sure it will, plus you have all your new tennis friends helping you practice and everything.” Sasha replied. “Yeah, its really just Liz, Clara, and Richardo though. How’d you even know about that?” Anne questioned. “I have my ways.” Sasha said with a smile. “Stop trying to be a creepy stalker.” Anne stated in annoyance, with a smile. “Fine. I’ve seen you and them go practice up at the school tennis court some days while I was at cheer, or leaving.” Sasha explained. Anne laughed, “thank you fro the non-creepy honest explanation. I appreciate it.” She smiled. “No problem.” Sasha laughed, unfortunately leaving another quiet silence.
“You know, I keep thinking about last Christmas…” Anne began, but was interrupted. “Not the dumb song.” Sasha stated. “No. Not the song. I mean literally last year. It was the first Christmas I can even remember without you and Marcy. And of course, all I could do was think about you both, I tried to distract myself with all of this other stuff. The parade float, and the Plantars being here. And it kind of worked for a while, but personally I think when you try not to face feelings about something it doesn’t end well, which it didn’t. Anyway, here I am, a year later. The same, maybe different, stupid kid as before, spending Christmas without you and Marcy. Just like last year. “ Anne sighed.
“Anne, why do you think I’m hear?” Sasha questioned. “Um, because of the news thing? That’s what you said earlier.” Anne replied hesitantly. “No. You idiot. I’m here because this whole dumb season is about spending time with people you care about, and even if we haven’t actually talked in a while, I still care about you. Theres a million other people I could be with right now, my parents, my girlfriend, my friend group, but no. I wanted to spend time with you. You.” Sasha replied. That brought a smile to Annes face. “Thanks Sasha.” She said quietly.
***
“If you could have one gift, absolutely anything, for the holidays, what would it be?” Anne questioned, as her and Sasha sat a small metal table set up out by a hot chocolate stand. The nice thing about winter in LA, was that it was still warm enough to be outside. This weather was their version of cold.
“Oh, that’s a good one. Um…” Sasha began, pausing to think. “I guess I would want my duel swords lol. I miss sword fights.” Sasha laughed. “What about you she asked. “I’d want a way to talk to the Plantars. I write them these letters every once in a while, but all the letters end up in a shoe box under my bed. I’ve sent texts to my old phone, back with Sprig, but you know how that goes. Not delivered every time.” Anne replied.
“Frog, you got all deep and emotional and all said was duel swords.” Sasha frowned. “Its fine,” Anne laughed.”So, where do you wanna go next?” Anne asked. “Mall?” Sasha replied with a question. “Sounds good to me. You think they have it all decorated for the holidays?” Anne relied. “I’m sure.” Sasha laughed.
The mall was buzzing with people, as any mall or store would be around this time of year.
“You know, Anne, if were gonna be hanging out over winter break, I think we need carry on the old tradition.” Sasha smiled menacingly. “Sasha stop. I know what your thinking.” Anne stated. “Oh come on, but we always used to all wear matching sweaters to school on the last day before break. Schools over, but we can still have matching sweaters for Christmas Day. Anne, please!” Sasha argued, making the biggest puppy eyes she could manage. “Fine. Fine. Under one condition.” Anne began. “I get to pick this year.” Anne finished.
“What?” Sasha exclaimed. “Sasha, you got to pick the last like five years, except for last year, because you were all toxic and bossy then. I think its only fair that its my turn to choose the sweater.” Anne responded flatly. “Ok, your right. But, I would like the power to tell you if I absolutely despise the design you have selected.” Sasha continued. “You get one veto.” Anne stated firmly. “Alright, deal Boonchuy.” Sasha laughed, as they walked off into the winter shopping madness.
***
Anne and Sasha sat in Annes living room. There were scraps of colorful paper spread across the floor and coffee table.
Sasha had scissors in hand, the source of the paper scraps.
“Ok Sasha, what do you think?” Anne asked, holding up a red folded piece of paper which she had folded into a card. It displayed a green construction paper frog, wearing a Santa hat, that she had glued on. Written across it was two words ‘Hoppy Holidays!’
“I love it! It’s perfect. Marcy’s gonna love it to!” Sasha exclaimed. Sasha’s eyes followed the card as Anne continued to work on it. “My card so basic compared to yours.” Sasha complained, glancing back down at the blue construction paper card. “No its not! You’ve been cutting out snowflakes for it for the past half hour!” Anne exclaimed. “Thanks, but I think yours is better.” Sasha responded. “Well, I think yours is better.” Anne argued. “No. Stop.” Sasha refuted. “No you!” Anne exclaimed. “No. Yours is better.” Sasha proceeded to argue.
“Ok. Were done with this discussion.” Anne stated with a laugh, suspecting that at this point Sasha was just trying to be annoying. Sasha laughed, confirming Anne correct.
Both girls proceeded to work on their little holiday arts and crafts project. “Sasha, if we were in one of those cheesy Christmas specials, what do you think it’d be about?” Anne questioned.
“I think it would be pretty boring honestly” Sasha laughed. “Yeah?” Anne asked, wanting elaboration.
“Yeah, I mean it would probably just be like full of those severely typical things you see in holiday specials. Like you and me reunite and then go on a mission to have the best Christmas ever, even though were missing Marcy. And do all this Christmas stuff. Then there would be some fight between us about it and later we would have a heart to heart and it would end happily. That’s if you wanna go the hallmark type special route.” Sasha explained.
“That’s kinda funny actually, cuz were kind of living that right now.” Anne replied. “Well, not exactly, because were not fighting, and were not on some dumb mission to have the best Christmas ever. Were just kind of living in the moment, you know?” Sasha asked. “Yeah. I like that. Living in the moment. Cuz the past is all crazy, and the future’s o berated. I like right now.” Anne smiled. “Me to. I think right now is pretty great.” Sasha smiled as well.
There was a moment of quiet between them yet again. “Sasha!” Anne exclaimed loudly, breaking the silence. “Yeah?” Sasha questioned with a sarcastic, annoyed, but joking tone. “You know what Marcy needs with the sweater and the cards?” Anne questioned excitedly. “What?” Sasha asked sounding suspicious of Anne. “Cookies! We need to bake cookies for her!” Anne yelled, being a little overly silly about her idea. “Can you mail cookies?” Sasha questioned. “I don’t know, but we can try!” Anne exclaimed. “Sounds good to me,” Sasha laughed.
The unfortunate thing about winter break was that it flew by so quickly. It was half over by now, Christmas Eve.
It was already dark outside now.
Sasha was sliding her shoes back on, preparing to leave. Anne grabbed Sasha’s jacket from where it was hanging in the doorway. “Don’t forget this. It’s pretty cold outside.” Anne stated. “Thanks.” Sasha laughed.
“Oh, and before I forget,” Sasha began, grabbing her jacket from Anne and digging through the pocket. “This is for you.” She said, handing Anne a small box.
Anne carefully took it from her. The box was heavier than it looked, especially for its size. “Oh my frog Sasha! You didn’t have to do that! My gifts upstairs, wait right here.” Anne exclaimed. Sasha watched, with a smile on her face, as Anne sprinted up the stairs and to her room.
Seconds later Anne came running down the stairs, coming to a stop in front of Sasha. “This is for you.” Anne said, barely out of breath.
“Thanks Anne.” Sasha laughed. The gift was almost flat, but still covered in wrapping paper. “I’ve had a lot of fun running around with you this week.” Anne stated, as she walked Sasha to the door.
“Yeah me to.” Sasha smiled, standing just outside. “So, um what now?” Anne asked. “I won’t be around for the next week. Some junk about spending New Years in New York. So I, um guess I’ll see you around school.” Sasha explained. Both sounding kind of melancholy.
“So we just go back to living our lives, same as before?” Anne questioned, almost hating the sound. “Yeah.” Sasha answered quietly.
“Merry Christmas Anne,” Sasha said. “Happy Holidays Sasha.” Anne gave her a light hug. Sasha slightly smiled, before turning away. Anne watched her walk away, she stood there in the doorway watching until Sasha was out of sight. Just as she had done when Marcy left. They both refused to admit it, but both of them knew they had just unofficially parted ways again for who knows how long.
Anne let out a sigh, before turning back into the house. She sat down on the couch. Anne examined the small wrapped box Sasha had given her.
“What’s that?” Anne turned to see her father having just entered the room. “A gift from Sasha,” Anne replied, turning back to stare at it.
“Are you going to open it or stare at it?” Mr. Boonchuy questioned. Anne slowly and carefully tore at the paper, slowly revealing a brown box.
Anne lifted the flaps of the little box. Inside this box was foam covering the object. Anne shimmied the foam out and took out the object it had protected.
It was a small snow globe. The base was blue, with a little silver plaque on it. ‘Anne <3’ it read. The figure inside the snow globe was a little frog. It was sculpted in a cutesy type art style, and painted a shade of light green.
Anne shook the snow globe carefully. Instead of snow, tiny blue sequin-like gems glided across the small enclosed sphere. She smiled at it. Her eyes reflected in the shiny glass.
***
Sasha was sitting in her dark bedroom. The small flat gift in her hands. She was sitting on the corner of her bed, her long legs hanging off the side.
She carefully tugged at the wrapping paper. Underneath the wrapping was tissue paper, taped around whatever this object was.
Sasha carefully unwrapped the tissue paper, revealing the gift. It was a keychain – a keychain which had two swords crossed, red and blue. They almost exactly resembled hers. Written on the tissue paper under it was ‘you said you wanted your duel swords – this was the best I could do :) ’
Sasha chuckled. “It’s great Anne. Thanks.”
***
Last Christmas, the piano instrumental version, played quietly from the radio through the dark room. The only light that lingered there was from the moon, shining in through the large window on the wall.
Snow lightly fell against it, but left hardly a noise against the cool glass window panes.
A teenage girl, around fifteen, carried a box over to the window seat. She stroked her dark silky medium layered hair behind her ear, pushing the stand out of her face. Her soft brown eyes were fixed on the package in front of her.
She carefully tore the tape off and peeled back the flaps. Inside there was a note, it covered the other contents of the box.
She pulled the note out and slowly scanned across the lines, reading each word like it was the most precious word she’d ever see.
“Marcy,” it began.
“We can’t begin to express how much we’ve missed, how much we still do miss you, especially at this time of year. We hope all is well at your new home, because everything’s fine here in LA.
This letter is starting to sound like such a bummer. We just wanted to let you know that we were thinking of you.
We brought back the sweater tradition, thought we’d inform you of that. That’s why this box contains a sweater. Anne picked it this year, it’s your turn next year. We hope you like the design on it. Sasha vetoed the green one with a cracked gingerbread man that said ‘oh snap’
We tried to send cookies to, but apparently it’s kinda expensive to ship a whole box of homage cookies. Can you believe that?!
Anyway, we wanted to wish you Hoppy Holidays. <3 <3 <3
Love your girls,
Anne Boonchuy & Sasha Waybright”
Marcy smiled at the note and sat it on the seat, beside her. Under the note we’re the two cards Anne and Sasha had made for her. She looked at them, and proceeded to sit them with the note.
The only remaining object in the box was the sweater. It was folded neatly in the bottom.
Marcy carefully lifted it out, examining its design. The sweater was a combination of pink and blue, but mostly red. On the front was a fuzzy kitty with a sparky green ribbon tied in a bow loosely around its neck. Along the sleeves were a cream-ish white snowflake pattern.
Marcy slightly chuckled, smiling at it, knowing this was something Anne had hand selected. She slid it on over her plain pajama shirt.
Marcy gazed out the window.
The snow slowly drifted down. The grass was covered in the white fluffy powder. The road was in need of a snow plow, as the precipitation continued to gather over it. Christmas lights reflected onto the glass from outside, as the Christmas Song played quietly through the radio.