Chapter 51: Express Christmas
"It's so unfair!", Matt complained, "Why do I have to go?".
Zephyr, who was quietly reading a book on the couch, looked up and replied, "Because I'm the one who always cooks while you just chill".
"Why can't Desiree go then?", Matt whined.
"Because I have to cook lunch and drop Zephyr and Bella at school", Desiree answered, appearing right behind Matt.
Quickly swivelling, Matt came face-to-face with Desire, who was smiling sweetly. Despite the smile on her face, Matt knew that if he didn't comply, he was done for. "S-sure honey", Matt stuttered before zooming out of the room.
"I don't know how you survived with him as your Dad", Desiree muttered, shaking her head as she heard the roar of the engine as Matt's car sped out of the garage.
"Sometimes, I wonder that myself", Zephyr commented, contemplating about it himself. Turning over the page of his book, he asked, "I'm curious. What do you see in him?"
"That's a tough question", Desiree murmured, "But I think you're too young to know".
Zephyr looked at her before realisation dawned on him. "Eww!", Zephyr screamed, "I didn't need to hear that!".
Seeing his reaction, Desiree laughed and chose to tease him, "You need to get comfortable with this sort of stuff".
"Stop talking!", Zephyr yelled. Seeing that she wasn't going to stop laughing, he ran out of the room, causing Desiree's laughter to further intensify.
"Ahhh", Desiree sighed, "Kids nowadays. So immature". Shaking her head, she returned to the kitchen to cook. Unfortunately, her peace and quiet didn't last long.
"Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!", Bella shouted as she rushed into the room in excitement. Stopping right in front of Desiree with her hands behind her back, she asked, "Mommy, guess what I made?".
A smile appeared on her face and she asked, "What?"
"A snowglobe!", Bella answered, showing Desiree the globe in her hand.
Putting down the spatula in her hand, she kneeled down and took the snow globe from Bella's hand. "Awww. It looks so good", Desiree said with a smile, "Is this meant to be us?".
Bella rapidly nodded her head. "This is Mommy", Bella pointed at a small blonde figure. Then she moved her finger to the smaller figure right next to her, "This is Bella". Then she pointed at a figure with black hair, "That's Zephyr", and then moving to the last figure, Bella said, "And that's Matt".
Seeing this, the smile on Desiree's face grew in size. Placing the snow globe on the counter, she quickly pulled Bella into a warm hug and began stroking Bella's hair.
"What's wrong Mommy?", Bella asked, unsure as to why her mom was quiet.
"It's just that you're growing up so fast", Desiree replied, wiping a small tear away, "It feels like it was just a week ago when you used to call Zephyr Zephy".
Hearing her words, Bella blushed in embarrassment and turned to look away. "I-I didn't do that".
"Already in your rebellious phase", Desiree muttered, wiping another tear from her eyes as she released Bella from her hug.
"Hmph", Bella pouted and crossed her arms, looking away from her mom.
Seeing this, a small laugh escaped Desiree's lips, "Okay. Mom needs to finish cooking so you go and have fun. Okay?". Bella nodded her head and ran out of the room and into the garden.
[Time Skip]
"How's it going?", Mitchell asked, looking at Alex from the rearview mirror.
Unfortunately, due to the earphones in her ears, Alex didn't hear and ignored her uncle.
Seeing this, Mitchell took a hand off the steering wheel and tapped Alex's thigh, snapping her out of her thoughts. Pulling down her earphones, she looked at Mitchell, "What's up?".
"What are you listening to?", Mitchell asked, curious as to what made Alex so distracted.
"A song", Alex answered, not giving any more details which frustrated Mitchell.
"What's the song called?", Mitchell questioned.
"Falling Like the Stars", Alex answered, popping one earphone back in her ear.
"Huh", Mitchell muttered, "I don't think I've heard of it. Who's it by?"
"Zephyr made it for me", Alex replied, looking out the window.
"Oh. That makes sen-What?!", Mitchell yelled, "When did this happen?".
"The song?", Alex queried, receiving a nod from Mitchell, "He sang it to me when we were at the Ranch during the holiday. He recorded it and sent it to me".
"Oh My God!", Mitchell exclaimed, "Is that why you two disappeared on the last day of the trip?".
Alex nodded, "Yeah".
"I can't believe Cam was right", Mitchell muttered.
"What?", Alex asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
"When he noticed that you two were missing, Cam guessed that he might've sung a song for you and Desiree agreed with him", Mitchell explained, "Your Mom and I thought that you two went to make out or something".
"Uncle Mitch!", Alex complained.
"What?!", Mitchell countered, "You two are teenagers who are in a romantic relationship, what were we supposed to expect?".
"I don't know", Alex shrugged her shoulders, "I thought you'd have more faith in us".
"But you did make out didn't you?", Mitchell asked. Hearing his words, Alex struggled for words, her cheeks blushing in embarrassment. Seeing her reaction, Mitchell laughed for a few seconds, "Alex, I'm not your Mom. You don't have to be so uncomfortable", Mitchell said, staring at her via the rearview mirror, "So come on. Tell me how things are going between you two".
Alex looked at her uncle for a moment, before sighing. "Things are going really well right now. We text each other a lot and right before going to sleep we text each 'Good night' and 'Love you'", Alex began, "We're almost always together at school where we hold hands a lot. After school, we go either to his house or mine and he helps me out with homework and revision. When we take breaks between revision sessions, usually we ... make out", Alex blushed as she mentioned the last point.
Mitchell nodded at this but seemed to struggle with how to bring up the next question on his mind. "Have you guys ... you know ... gone past ... first base?", Mitchell asked.
"N-n-no", Alex stuttered, her cheeks an intense crimson, "We're planning on waiting until both of us are comfortable moving past that".
Mitchell, noticing the atmosphere and Alex's growing hesitance in answering, chose to divert attention from what had transpired, "Oh look. We're here".
Snapping out of her thoughts, Alex looked out the window and realised that her uncle was right.
[Time Skip]
"You know what? I'm out", Mitchell declared, looking at the disaster that was Express Christmas, "There's no turkey", he said, pointing at the frozen birds, "no tree", he added, gesturing to the tree that was split in half, "and this looks like the lady she used to be before she died became an angel", Mitchell ranted.
"He's right", Haley agreed, "We're never going to get this together. I'm going to my party".
"No!", Claire yelled and stopping Haley from leaving, "No, you aren't going to some party because you're not going to abandon your family on Christmas".
"It's not Christmas though", Haley argued.
"Exactly!", Mitchell screamed, with everyone agreeing with him.
"Okay! Okay! Fine!", Claire shouted, interrupting everyone's complaints, "You know what? I am really tired of trying to make this work on my own. I will see-".
Before she could finish her speech, Claire was interrupted by the beeping sound of Alex's phone. Seeing everyone staring at her, Alex quickly took her phone out to see what it was. "Zephyr says to open the front door", Alex meekly replied, uncomfortable with all the attention she was receiving.
"Let's just all go", Claire instructed, "It's not like it'll change anything", making her way to the door with everyone following her.
As soon as they opened the door, they were met with loud cheers of "Merry Christmas!". Everyone started screaming as a man used a snow machine to blow snow on top of everyone. At the centre of the front yard, there was a 12 feet tall Douglas Fir with numerous ornaments and decorations on it. Standing right in front of the tree were Zephyr, Matt, Desiree and Bella, with Zephyr holding a large platter with a turkey.
"Oh, my God!", Mitchell exclaimed, making his way towards them with the rest of the family following.
"What's going on?", Claire asked.
"Well", Zephyr began, "Alex told me that Mitchell and she accidentally ruined the tree while Manny told me that someone stole the turkey from Phil. Since you guys aren't going to be able to celebrate Christmas together for another year and 9 days, I thought that it was appropriate to make sure that you all enjoyed Christmas, hence all this", at this, Zephyr motioned to the surroundings.
"I don't know what to say", Claire muttered.
"You don't have to", Desiree answered, "Just take the turkey and have a merry Christmas".
"With the turkey that I just bought today", Matt muttered under his breath, being elbowed by Desiree for his actions.
Taking the turkey from his hands, Claire said, "You know, it's not Christmas without friends and family".
"Exactly", Gloria added, "So why don't you guys join us?"
"Yeah!", Mitchell exclaimed, "It'd mean the world to us".
(AN: I've read some comments about why Zephyr's not always aware of his surroundings even though he's basically a pseudo-Batman, so I'll explain my train of thought. Batman was always aware of his surrounding because he HAD to. He lived in Gotham. A city where someone like the Joker, the Riddler or Scarecrow could attack at any time. As if that wasn't enough, you had people like Amanda Waller and Lex Luthor outside of Gotham. In comparison, Zephyr lives in suburban California so there's no need for him to always be aware of his surroundings.)
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