Chapter Text
Several weeks had passed since the Rowden incident, the assassination attempt on himself and Sera, the (failed) attempt of stealing the recovery machine, and he’s managed to hold onto his ability despite that being several weeks ago. John steps into the Safe House, Remi and Sera giving him a small wave, to which John walks closer to the two, curious to hear what they’re talking about.
“Hey Sera, hey Remi, what’s going on?”
“Hey John, we were thinking, since it’s December, maybe we should do something special!”
The pinkette smiled, to which Sera nodded in agreement.
John had absolutely forgotten it was December, but he shrugged it off to listen to what their idea was.
“I kind of forgot about that to be honest, anyways, what do you have in mind?”
“We were thinking about doing a secret santa, everyone puts their name on a slip, whoever pulls it out has to get them a gift, we’ll give them two weeks to prepare before giving them.”
Sera looked at John, waiting for his response to the idea.
“I suppose it’ll work, but I have a feeling I’d be a death sentence to get.” John was joking of course, he knew it wouldn’t be that bad, but he knew there’d be some problems.
“Eh, whatever, we’re planning to do the names and stuff after school, that way everyone can come, well, if they want to.”
Sera elbowed John in the rib, she knew he wasn’t the best at this kind of thing, so she was gonna give him an out, although she’d absolutely make fun of him for it.
“Alright, but I’m gonna participate, I’m not about to give you an opportunity to call me a coward or something.”
Remi chuckled at the response before beginning to prepare.
After a few hours, everyone in the Safe House was gathered in the auditorium, somehow Remi got her hands on the keys to it. Remi went to the podium, making sure it was working before beginning to speak.
“Hello Safe House members! Since December has started, a few others and I came up with an idea! A secret santa! Basically everyone puts their name into a hat, and whoever name you end up with, you have to pick out a gift for them! Not everyone needs to participate of course, if you don’t want to that’s perfectly fine! But if you do somehow manage to pull your own name, please put it back and grab a different one. Now, a few rules before people start signing up! Number one, you may not ask other people for advice, you must find out yourself! Number two, you may not switch with someone else. And number three, no direct questions about gifts!”
John shrugged, he was gonna ask for Sera’s help, but he had started to know more of the others in the Safe House, so the only way he’d break that rule was if he got a certain blonde asshat.
Arlo was looking down at his phone, Sera dragged him to do this cause she thought it’d be fun, sure, he knew some members, but chances are he would get someone he had no clue about them, he at least thought there was no way in hell he’d get John, perhaps the person he’d have the hardest time choosing something for.
Eventually all the names were gathered into a hat, and people began to pull out names, both John and Arlo had tried their best to blend in more with the crowd, hoping that they wouldn’t get each other’s names. Unfortunately, lady luck decided to curse the two, with both of their faces being remarkably similar, a look of intense annoyance.
John knocked on Sera’s dorm room door, he didn’t want to break the first rule, but frankly he couldn’t care. The magenta haired girl opened the door, inviting John in.
“Hey John, is there something you need?”
“Yea, it’s about the whole secret santa thing”
“Damn not even twenty four hours in and you’re already about to break the first rule. Was the person you got stuck with that bad?”
Sera snickered as she laid down on her bed with John sitting at the foot of it.
“Yea, but frankly you’re probably the only person who can answer this and wouldn’t give a shit.”
“Which unfortunate soul did you get stuck with?”
“Arlo.”
“Well shit, no wonder you were so quick to try and break a rule, Arlo isn’t an easy one to pick a gift for”
“Yea, and I can’t ask Remi, Blyke, or Isen for advice cause Remi will do something, and I don’t want to talk to Arlo about this kind of thing, so can you help your best friend out? Please? I’ll get you boba?”
“Hmmmmmm, on one hand, you getting me boba is pretty good, but on the other, I would like to watch you suffer trying to figure out what to get Arlo”
Sera gave John a light kick to the rib, sticking her tongue out, to which John threw a small book at her.
“God damn it Sera! Please help me out!”
“Hmm, I’ve decided”
“Okay?”
John held his breath, slightly worried.
“I’m gonna let you suffer~”
Sera said with a smug smile on her face, to which John responded with two middle fingers.
“Fuck you Sera!”
“That’s not your job dumbass, I’m into women”
“You know that’s not what I meant, Sera!”
“Anyways, have fun suffering~”
John walked out of Sera’s dorm, flipping her off one last time before going to his own dorm room. When John got back to his dorm, Blyke, Remi, and Isen were having a chat, the redhead noticed John, patting him on the back.
“Hey John, what’s going on?”
“I think I managed to get stuck with the worst person for this whole secret santa thing.”
“You tried to ask Sera for help and she refused, didn’t she?”
Remi said that quite bluntly, to which John nodded.
“Well who did you end up with? You’ve already told Sera, I’ll give you the exception.”
“I got Arlo, what could I even give that prick?”
The redhead and the orange haired boy looked at each other, shrugging their shoulders.
“Well even if we were allowed to help, I’m not sure what you could give him, he’s probably the worst to get a gift for”
“Yeah, I had a feeling you couldn’t or wouldn’t help me anyways. Whatever, I’ll figure something out, hopefully…”
John walked into his room, closing the door before flopping on the bed and pulling out his phone, deep in thought. What could he do? Sure, Arlo did vouch for him to go to Rowden with the Safe House, but outside of that, the two were effectively enemies. After everything the two of them had done to each other, it seemed incredibly difficult to even try to talk to Arlo. Sure, he’s changed, even Arlo recognizes that, but Arlo was one of the people he hurt the most, physically of course, the two were never that close. As he pondered, Sera’s words echoed in his mind, “Why not try giving yourself a second chance too?” John looked through his contacts, finding Arlo’s number before beginning to type out a text.