Christmas Wishes (conclusion)

Amber leaned back. It wasn't appealing, but she didn't have anything against boys. Especially when they weren't being dumb. But she just wasn't one of them and to become one…would make her feel weird. Nodding slowly, Amber conceded her brother's point and answered, "It wouldn't be right. We need to make things right…even if our Christmas is full of weird, older relatives."

However, neither of them had any idea how they might go about that. The only idea they had was that they might check the freezer in the garage again or the front yard for a sign of the sprite. It was a very slim chance, but it was all they had. Before they went looking, Amber apologized to Denise and gave her a quick, comforting hug. Denise tensed for a moment from the hug but accepted it and the apology.

Dressing up warmly in clothes too pink for Denise's taste, they made their way past the kitchen where Harmony and Felicia were trying to reach shelves for plates. They both happily declared, "We're making breakfast." In a moment, they nearly dropped one of the plates. Amber desperately hoped they could make something edible but admitted it was likely their typical Christmas dinner wouldn't happen.

The garage felt cold, especially since the main icebox of the freezer was left open. It blew towards them. Approaching it, they soon recognized the little winter sprite resting on the ice like it was a cottony bed. Its spindly arms bent behind it. Amber ran over and asked, "Can you change all this back?" Denise scowled at the sprite and clenched her hands for emphasis.

Bending its icy head towards them, the sprite regarded them calmly and asked, "But I thought you wanted all this? Plenty others your age to play with and enjoy on Christmas."

Amber tried to explain their expectations were different until she realized they hadn't really thought out exactly how there would suddenly be kids their age around. However, she noted, "But it wasn't supposed to be like this."

Denise chimed in, "And I asked for little boys!"

Stretching, the sprite noted, "Don't worry. I decided to divide up the day so there will be boys later for those that asked for them. And a special, different surprise tomorrow…"

Amber bit her lip and asked, "So…after today…and after tomorrow…that's it?"

The sprite laughed like chipping ice and asked, "Why? Want more?"

They both furiously waved their hands at it and denounced any possibility, much to the little sprite's amusement. Looking at both of them, it said, "Oh, humans. You all think you know what you want so well and yet you're so fearful when you get it….you each will get eight hours of what you asked for. My magic isn't unending. But I'm not saying what you get tomorrow. It wouldn't befit the season to know everything that's coming. Hope you both enjoy your day."

Before they could ask any other questions, the sprite faded and the icebox snapped shut. They stared at it for a bit before Denise looked over at her sister and asked, "Eight hours?"

Thinking back to the time on the hallway clock, Amber suggested, "It must have meant that there are a little less than sixteen hours left to Christmas Day. Which means there are eight for little girls and eight for little boys." That sounded like it made sense to her.

Denise lamented, "You mean I need to be a little girl for almost eight hours more?" Amber gave a comforting pat on her brother's shoulder. Together, they made their way back to the kitchen to check on breakfast. Harmony and Felicia had actually done a good job. About as good as Amber did when she made breakfast on her own. It wasn't perfect, but it was okay. Amber decided to help out with making sure everything was set up and she dragged Denise along to help.

Breakfast itself was barely-contained chaos with all the girls fussing with their new toys, dollies, or whatever. As Amber looked around, she immediately thought that they should all put their toys away while they were eating. Before saying it, she felt the words in her mother's voice and recalled all the times she'd been distracted at the table. She slumped a little and looked at her brother/sister. Denise was eating ravenously, only stopping to pick out some tiny bits of eggshell which had been left with the yellowy-grayish scrambled eggs. Then she added a lot of salt.

Mikayla got jam on her writings and glared at them. Felicia wore her apron as she ate. Debbie had finally let Clare go but they both kicked at each other's feet under the table and alternating between giggling and glaring at each other. Geri play-fed some food to her dolly and made little "nom nom" sounds. Emma scooped her food into a form resembling a mound of cat food. Regina slowly counted the pieces of sliced fruit she had (Amber winced as Harmony cut up some extra fruit with an especially sharp knife). While Amber expected some protest from Harmony about Felicia making eggs, she just hummed to herself and had a lot of fruit. Issy hummed too and ate slowly. Cara had to prop herself up by leaning on her fork and munching sedately.

It was definitely a different kitchen situation for Amber. Denise just ate until Emma came over to her and said, "I wanna see you in your pretty, new dress! I'll give you cute whiskers and a total makeover!" Clinging to her last bit of charred toast, Denise was dragged away by catgirlish Emma for parts unknown. Amber flashed her a sympathetic look. But it was Amber's turn when Harmony expressed the same hope for her. At least she didn't drag her away.

The dress-up session reminded her of a time at a neighborhood friend's sleepover. Only Harmony was deeply earnest, making sure Amber had little flowers tucked into her red hair at just the right places.

Denise with uneven black whiskers drawn on her face and little kitten stickers emerged later. Then came more game gifts. The math games from Regina were instantly boring to just about everyone else. Emma made it her goal to drag away Regina and make her nice and cute. There were some pen and paper games too.

Someone finally got Cara up and about for a game like Simon Says even though she still yawned every so often. Felicia and Harmony helped to organize everything as they went from one game to another. Everyone had a chance to lead. Amber was impressed, but then she'd been to some of Harmony's yoga classes and knew she could be in charge. For Felicia, she knew mom always made sure the house was in order. But all this was a couple extra steps outside of order.

By the time it was getting to noon, the rest of them still seemed so hyper (aside from the obvious exception) and Amber felt quietly tired. It wasn't that the games weren't fun and all the other stuff, it was just she wanted to do something else. She wanted to maybe help mom with the laundry or play with her toys. Some in the group were fun but it was just so chaotic and so much was going on. She liked quiet fun. She liked playing in the snow, but this group was like they had way too much sugar, as her mom would sometimes say. Again, Amber gave a frown. Denise leaned towards her and asked, "What are you thinking?"

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She looked at Denise, who had since wiped off the dumb whiskers but still looked plenty girly as she was, and asked, "Do you find this…fun?"

Denise creased her Emma-narrowed eyebrows, gestured at her current apparel, and asked, "What do you think?"

Amber shook her head. "What I mean is…how things are…with all them?"

Denise looked at some current card game Debbie was leading with odd rules and sighed as she stated, "I do miss mom and dad. And the rest weren't too bad. It just…kinda stinks when it's all one or all the other."

Amber pressed her hands to her face and murmured, "This isn't the fun I wanted. I wish we could rewish…"

Denise added, "I wish that sprite thing hadn't taken this to extreme…" Amber almost wanted to clamp a hand over Denise's mouth in case the creature was listening and intended to make things even worse. But nothing changed…until the afternoon.

It came when the clock struck four and thoughts of the big Christmas dinner were starting to float about. As simple as a blink, everyone in the room changed into little boys. Soon after, things weren't that different.

Mikey seemed even more solemn. Felix was taller and kinda hovered over them more like mom would when she thought they were goofing around. Danny was pretty mean with pinching Cleve. Garry was now messing around with little robots and action figures. Emmett walked around like a tiger and would pounce on stuff on the floor and roll around. Rod still stuck to his little math columns. Harmony's name didn't change though. Isaac still had a lovely singing voice and Oscar had suddenly turned into someone hyped up on sugar, nearly toppling the tree over with a head butt.

For Amber, she tensed for a good while and tried not to sense anything on "herself". He accepted the name Andy pleasantly, but it was disconcerting to try to associate himself with another name. He kept wanting to correct everyone who used it.

Andy looked to his brother, who appeared quite relieved to finally be out of that dress. Their clothes were pale blue with a lot of corduroy. The games weren't that different but there was a quick smattering of arm-twisting and tackling which may or may not have been intentional.

Andy scooted to the side of the room and tried not to look at the clock. At least Emmett had turned the TV on to watch a nature documentary which was narrated by an overzealous little boy who couldn't get over how cool tigers looked.

Denny got into some games and felt quite comfortable as Andy hugged his legs and winced. He really didn't want to learn about the differences between boys and girls this way, and he absolutely didn't want to see what he looked like. He could imagine from the short feel of his hair and his slightly-smaller hands. Blinking slowly, he felt warm, hot tears on his cheek. He tried to wipe it away, his heart racing. He tried to hide his face but Harmony noticed.

Scampering over, Harmony ducked down over by Andy and asked, "What's wrong?"

Andy didn't want to talk. Denny looked over and scooted closer. Inside, Andy worried about what they would do. They were a bunch of boys, after all. But, as he looked up, he noticed that Felix was sitting next to him and slowly put his arm around him. Felix asked, "You okay?"

They were all clustering around him. They were quiet and watchful. Cleve picked at his nose a little, but he still watched. Glancing around, Andy wasn't sure what to say but tried, "I…just. It's…this Christmas wasn't like it was supposed to be. And I'm scared and worried and I dunno…" Denny grimaced and leaned towards Andy.

That was all he said before ducking his head down. Then, Harmony gave a giggle and said, "Duhhh. Christmas is never like you expect. Maybe it's better. Maybe the last one is better. Maybe you hope the next is better. Maybe it really sucks turtle balls and you don't get anything you want or everything is crazy like today and it's too cold to really have fun outside. But there's one cool thing about Christmas I want you to know…"

Andy waited and listened. Harmony grinned. "We're all here! We're your family and it's cool because it's Christmas and we're here! Maybe you get pinched a lot by some of us..." Danny stuck out his tongue.

"…Maybe some of us don't pay too much attention to you because we're so busy with other stuff…" Mike glanced up from some writing and Felix looked down at his feet a moment.

"…Maybe some of us are weird…" Garry made a little "boom" sound as he was still playing with his figures. Harmony glanced over at Emmett on four legs and then bowed his head a little with a smile.

"…And others aren't the kind you want to hang around with allll the time…" His eyes scanned the room for no one in particular before coming back to rest on Andy and finishing, "But we're family and this is Christmas and we'll make sure it's the totally coolest one you can have!"

From that point on, Andy was treated like the center of attention with traded gifts and all sorts of weird and fun things. Denny got roped in as well and definitely smiled a bit with his brother.

Andy tried on a slight smile from time to time. As Harmony gave him a hug from behind, Andy glanced into his eyes and saw a calm little twinkling in them. Harmony whispered, "Don't worry. Everything will be fine. After all, it's a magical day and tomorrow will be magical too…Amber."

Surprised, Andy bent his head towards Harmony. For the briefest of moments, possibly with the twinkling of the Christmas tree nearby, Andy thought he saw a strange but familiar sparkle in Harmony's eyes, like moonlight reflecting off ice. Then, it drifted away.

To Harmony, Andy asked, "You said…Amber?"

Blinking to himself, Harmony looked at Andy and asked, "Hmm? What? Amber? The rock? Did I?...Weird. I must've spaced out there. Sorry!" He squeezed Andy's shoulder and hurried over to the kitchen to work with Felix on supper.

Settling against the carpet, Andy looked at his brother, who flashed him a look but gave a quick hug. Andy just chuckled. Despite it all, despite a Christmas where everything was messed up, a warm calmness filled his body.

He knew it was right. Everything would be fine.

And he couldn't wait to see what would happen on his birthday!