A/N: OH SHIT YALL MY BAD LMFAO I FORGOT TO UPDATE SOOO HERES AN EXTRA LONG ONE FOR YA :') enjoy !!

Freya's POV:

Living with Artemis in a foster home has been...well, not the best. Seeing that our—well, her parents being arrested on the news took a toll, and let's just say things between us were awkward.

Neither of us talked about it and I'm positive we didn't even want to talk about it.

On the somewhat bright side of things, I didn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn to do any warm-ups, I didn't have to do anything related to help the Injustice Society.

I was free and it never felt so refreshing.

Except for one thing. I still have nightmares and I guess there are still bits of Brainwave's side effects from the mind block but I didn't want to burden the others. They didn't need to know about it.

Especially since I'm barely getting out of thin ice with them so the most I could do is just sleep somewhere else whenever I could to get a decent sleep.

I mean, it's sort of almost every night but we don't need to talk about it.

It took a while for me to make it up to the others to trust me again. It was awkward the first couple of weeks but with Courtney's help, they're slowly getting used to my presence again.

All except Yolanda and Rick.

Rick kept things cordial but continues to make some snarky remarks here and there which can sometimes hurt but at the same time, I deserved it.

Yolanda on the other hand, she's friendly to me of course, but not to the point of our usual daily night calls. She's still iffy at the same time and honestly, I didn't blame her. I willingly broke her trust after she was still heartbroken over Henry and I wanted to fix that.

Like today.

Courtney invited our friends to come over and prepare for Christmas dinner and let's just say, I'm having a mini panic attack in her room.

"This isn't stupid, right?" I ask Courtney as she finished wrapping her Christmas present for Pat while I paced back and forth in the room. "Like, what if Yolanda rejects the gift I got her? Dammit, I knew I should've kept looking."

Courtney raised a brow. "Freya, have you not heard of Secret Santa before? It's just a coincidence you ended up picking her name."

"I've heard of it but I've never actually participated in it!" I groaned in frustration and sat on the bench near the window, watching as the snow fell from the sky. "I knew I should've gone shopping with you and your mom." I murmured, bringing my knees close to my chest.

"Hey, I'm sure your gift is great." She assured with a smile. "And knowing Yolanda, she'll be happy with anything if it comes from the heart."

"Not if she still doesn't completely trust me." I mutter in annoyance. "Do I have to go down there? Honestly, I think I'm starting to have a fever—"

A snort escapes from her lips. "Is the Freya Nelson, the girl who runs headfirst into danger...afraid?" She emphasized which caused me to glare.

"I'm not! I'm j-just looking out for the others!" I defensively argue.

She rolled her eyes and stood up from her bed to walk over to me, grabbing both of my hands to pull me to stand. "You're not ditching. This is our first Christmas together with our friends."

"I mean, I'm technically not ready."

She raised a brow and grabbed my shoulders to turn me around to the mirror, revealing the black Christmas sweater that had patterns of reindeer and small snowflakes with jeans and black boots.

"You seem ready to me." She chuckled. "I knew the sweater would look great on you."

Before winter break, Beth gave me my Christmas gift early at school and it ended up being a sweater. I would've worn something different but Courtney forced me to wear it since it apparently showed that I'm grateful for the gift.

I mean, don't get me wrong. Beth has been nothing but kind to me and it is a pretty sweater. It's just something I wasn't used to doing.

"I hate you."

She grabs my gift from the dresser and presses it against my chest so I could hold it. "No, you don't." She chuckled and I reluctantly grab the gift. "Come on, everyone's already here."

She grabs Pat's gift from her bed and I follow behind her as we went down the steps, hearing the song Jingle Bells come from the kitchen.

"No! This is the last straw, damn it!" We hear Mike curse, Courtney and I quickly move out of the way as Buddy went up the steps with a chicken leg in his mouth while Mike followed him.

"Mike!" Pat scolded.

"Golly gee!" Mike groaned. "Buddy, stop!"

I share a look with Courtney and instantly we both laugh at the two. "I'm gonna go say hi." I say, secretly not wanting to talk to Pat and she nods before we split off from each other as she goes to give him his Christmas present.

I walk to the kitchen, seeing as Barbara and Beth were decorating Christmas cookies with smiles on their faces as they swayed to the music while Rick watched from the side, discreetly grabbing one of the cookies from the plates.

"Look who finally came out of their cage." Rick announced once he noticed I came in.

I awkwardly smile. "I was wrapping a gift." I lie as I hold up the gift but look over at some of their decorated cookies. "Wow, these look great."

"Thanks, Freya!" Beth grinned but her eyes lit up once she looked down at my sweater. "Aw, you're wearing your secret Santa gift!"

I chuckle. "Why wouldn't I? It's great."

"I agree." Barbara added on before she gestured to me. "And you were barely wrapping a gift? Who is it for?"

I look behind me, making sure she wasn't around before I looked back at them. "Yolanda."

"Aw!" Beth squealed. "What did you get her?"

"Uh...no offense Beth, you're not exactly good at keeping secrets." Rick chuckled.

She gasped. "Am not! Tell him, Freya."

I hesitantly smile. "Well..." I dramatically trail off, remembering how she accidentally told Rick what Courtney got for him.

She plucks a grape from the bowl in front of her and threw it towards me, but I take a step back, catching the fruit in my mouth before I smirk.

"To be fair, I wasn't trying that hard." She tried to explain as I chuckled at her reaction.

"Sure. Do you guys know where Yolanda is?" I ask.

They nod their heads behind me and I turn, seeing her barely pour herself a glass of punch from the punch bowl.

Was it too early to give her present? I mean, shouldn't I wait until later?

"Is the Freya Nelson afraid?" Rick's voice broke me from my thoughts which caused me to turn away. "I thought you were you trained in the ISA to show no fear? To be ruthless? Emotionless?"

"Rick." Beth sternly spoke which caused him to shrug.

"It's fine Beth." I give a small smile. "I'm okay. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas!" Barbara and Beth say in unison before I walked over to the punch bowl where Yolanda stood.

She takes notice of my presence and a small smile forms on her expression. "Hey, Merry—oh?" Her eyes trail at my Christmas sweater with a curious expression. "You know, I didn't take you as the type to dress in the holiday spirit."

"I'm usually not, but it's Beth's gift from Secret Santa." I awkwardly explain and she nods slowly with amusement. "I swear, I would've worn something else."

"Sure." She teased.

I gesture to the mini snowman on her headband. "You can't make fun of my sweater when you have that on."

She raised a brow. "I made this myself."

Oh god. "I-I-Uh, I take it back." I cough out, feeling my face flush in embarrassment. "I think it looks great!"

She starts to chuckle which causes me to furrow my brows in confusion. "I'm just kidding. I bought it at Target." She grabs an empty glass from the table before she looks at me. "Punch?"

"Sure."

She fills the cup halfway before handing it to me with a smile and holds her glass close to mine. "Cheers."

"Cheers." I unsurely repeat, clinking my glass with hers before we both took a sip of the punch.

"Not that I'm nosey or anything," She trailed and I raise a brow. "but who's the gift for?"

I look down at the gift in my hands. "Isn't the whole point of it supposed to be a secret?" I narrow my eyes.

"Yeah well," We look over at Barbara and Beth, seeing that they were still decorating the cookies. "It'll be a while until they're done."

Maybe this was a good time to give it to her after all.

"You think we can go outside?" I ask but a look of hesitation crosses her expression but I quickly shake my head. "It'll be fast, I promise."

"...All right."

We walk through their dining room to grab and put on our coats before we walk outside. We were instantly met with the breeze but thankfully, the cold wasn't too bad.

"So, who's it for?" She asks as she shoved her hands in her pockets.

I hesitantly hold out the gift to her. "You."

Her eyes slightly widen. "Oh."

"You don't have to open it now. It can be when you go home—" I try to explain but the next thing I knew, she's tearing the wrapping paper off.

Once she pulls open the lid, it reveals a smaller box and a journal inside. "Two gifts?"

"I didn't know which was better so I sort of...ended up going with both." I nervously scratch the back of my neck. "Open the smaller box last."

She grabs the journal inside and flips through the pages but her expression slowly turns into confusion before she looks up at me. "Freya, is this yours?"

"Remember when I made a joke about how I'd let you see my journal full of my secrets if I liked you enough?" I asked and she nods. "All the things that I've never told anyone, it's all in there. Likes, Dislikes, embarrassing memories, my thoughts, even the things I did in the ISA I'm not exactly proud of. I wanted to give this to you to show you who I am. The last thing I wrote is recent so...you should read it."

A look of discomfort washes over her expression. "I can't take something personal to you." She tries to hand it back to me but I quickly shake my head.

"Don't worry, I have another copy." I say and hold a pen out for her to see which causes her brows to furrow in confusion. "Sportsmaster and Tigress forced me to go to therapy with Brainwave to talk about my nights and after the 'checkups', I'd write down whatever I saw in my dreams in my journal. Turns out, they had William Zarrick hex my pen so whenever I wrote in my journal, they had another journal which copied everything I wrote down so...now it's yours."

"Freya, this feels like I'm invading your privacy." She tries to push the book in my grasp but I push it back in her hands.

"Yolanda, you said I had to gain your trust again and I made a promise to myself that I would. Starting with giving something that's been my safe place to someone I care about a lot because...you've always made me feel safe to be vulnerable with." I admit as I shove my hands in my pockets. "Just read the last entry."

She hesitantly flips the pages once more before she clears her throat. "After almost ten years, I finally remember my most vivid memory which was the day when my life changed. The day that was supposed to be the feeling of warmth by happily being surrounded by family, ended up being one of the worst days of my life where I lost my father. A chance at a regular life." She sadly trailed off and I nervously pick at my fingers. "Sadly enough, I don't even remember much about what happened to my mom."

"The people who I thought were my real parents called me their secret weapon to become the next generation that would take over their spots in the Injustice Society. I remember waking up in the middle of the nights, suffering through constant nightmares of that tragic night and I never understood what I did to deserve them. I mean, all I did was train to prove to myself that I belonged. Nonetheless, after years worth of harsh training, I was let into the ISA's meetings and was tasked with my first assignment which involved enrolling in a high school. This led to my first day of school being my most vivid memory of them all since it was the day I met her. The girl who saved me, Yolanda Montez." She paused again and looked up at me for permission before I nod for her to continue. "She showed me a new perspective of life in a new way where I always saw the bad and toxicity in the world. For some odd reason, she consistently made me rethink my actions of what I had been doing to the JSA but I was too selfish to see the error in my ways. She and along with the rest of our friends made me realize that I wasn't going after something a group of people considered my destiny. I was going after their American dream." She looks up from the journal. "Your first day was my campaign?"

I nod. "You were the first person I talked to who didn't annoy me as much."

She smiles before she continued to read. "She's the reason why I never skip school because seeing her makes it bearable to stay. She's the reason why I wanted to change and follow in my dad's footsteps so I can be the hero that I'm destined to be. She's the reason why I stayed in Blue Valley instead of leaving to a different state without telling anyone. If she ever reads this, she deserves to know how special she is, even if she has moments when she doubts herself. I hope by now she knows that..." She trails off and looks up to meet my eyes with confusion. "Knows what?

"That thanks to her, she made me become the best version of myself." I admit, feeling my nerves increase once the words left my mouth. "That night on the balcony, I didn't know how to describe what I felt until I reflected the painful memory of hurting your feelings. I never want to relive that feeling and I made a promise to myself that I would never hurt you again. I always considered my heart as this sort of weakness about myself which is why I never opened up to anyone, but...you showed me that it's okay to let people in." I shake my head, knowing that I was rambling again. "What I'm trying to say is...I'll risk everything if it means you get to live."

The corners of her mouth perk up, a tint of pink forming on her cheeks as she shyly looked down. "T-That's uh," She cleared her throat. "really sweet. Thanks, Freya."

"You should open your other present." I mumble, breaking the awkward tension since I didn't know what else I could say.

"Right." She puts the journal on the bench before grabbing the smaller box. She pulls open the lid, revealing the silver necklace that had a small locket.

She opens the locket which showed the picture of us cheekily smiling from when she came over to my old house. "Freya, how much did this cost?"

"Courtney gave me an old chain and I sold my ring daggers for the locket at a pawn shop so..." I trail off and she raises a brow, waiting for my answer. "don't worry about it."

"Usually I'd be annoyed but this is nice." She smiled at the locket before she hands it to me. "Can you put it on?" She turns her back to me and moved her braids out of the way.

"Yeah, uh—" I answer and unclip the locket, moving the necklace over her head and carefully clip the hook in the chain. "there we go."

She turns around to face me with a smile. "How does it look?"

"Pretty co—" I pause before I shook my head. "Beautiful." I correct myself which causes her face to flush at the compliment since I didn't awkwardly try to cover it up.

The corners of her mouth perk up a bit. "Thank you, Freya."

Someone obnoxiously clears their throat, causing Yolanda and I to look away from each other to turn and see Mike with the front door wide open. "I wanted to give you guys a heads up that we're gonna take pictures but don't worry, don't worry. I'll stall a bit, you crazy kids." He innocently raises his hands as he backed away. "Now I see why Courtney put a mistletoe there." He smugly added before he shut the door.

I curiously look up and see the evergreen leaves with small white berries that hung above our heads which causes my eyes to widen.

"Oh, wow." Yolanda softly spoke as I awkwardly lock eyes with her, seeing the amused expression on her face.

"I, erm—I didn't know she did that." I clear my throat. "If I had known, I would've given you your gift in the living room."

"It's—"

"I swear, this wasn't on purpose. We don't even have to--"

"Fre—"

"We can just pretend that this didn't even happen. I can walk one way and you can walk the other way, then--"

"Freya." She grabbed my hands which caused me to stop talking, making sure I stayed in my spot. "You're rambling."

"Sorry," I nervously chuckle, my eyes glancing between her eyes and our now interlocked hands. "we don't have to."

"Well..." She awkwardly trailed. "do you?"

"I wouldn't be opposed to it." I assure, seeing the look of hesitation on her expression. "Are you sure?"

She takes a step closer to me. "I mean, if it's a holiday tradition, shouldn't we?"

"If it's tradition," I say, feeling my heartbeat begin to pound as she wrapped her arms around my neck and I nervously rested my hands on her waist. This is where people usually placed them, right? "then is this a bad time to tell you that I've never kissed anyone before?"

Her fingers nervously twist around the strands of my hair, almost as if she was debating whether to be the first one to lean further.

"It's okay." She whispered, feeling her breath hover over my lips as I briefly glanced down to hers.

"Are you sure?" I whisper and she slowly nods her head.

The feeling of anticipation circled my thoughts, wondering what it would feel like to press my lips against hers until it slowly led to the insecurities.

As much as the urge to lean in practically overwhelmed my thoughts, I tilt my head slightly to momentarily press my lips against Yolanda's cheek.

Deep down, I knew in my heart this wasn't the right time. For me, at least.

I shyly pull away and see her cheeks flushed with pink as her expression softened into a look of adoration. "Merry Christmas, Yolanda."

"Merry Christmas, Freya."

I remove my hands off of her waist and she reaches down to the bench to grab her gifts. As we walk inside, we see Mike walking down the steps with his camera equipment while everyone else met up in the living room.

Before Courtney could stand in her spot, I grab her arm and drag her away from everyone else so they wouldn't eavesdrop. "Seriously, Court?" I whisper which causes her to furrow her brows in confusion.

"What?"

"The mistletoe." I sternly emphasize and her expression twists into a teasing smile.

"I'm just giving you guys a little push." She laughs before she nudged my side. "I'm assuming it worked."

My cheeks flush, remembering the moment between Yolanda and I not too long ago before I shook my head. "It didn't."

Her eyes slightly widen. "What? Did you chicken out? It was perfect!"

"I don't want my first kiss to be something that was forced." I explain with a small shrug. "I want it to happen naturally."

She blankly stares at me before she slowly shook her head in disbelief. "That's gotta be the stupidest thing I've heard."

I amusedly smile at her sentence before I pat her shoulder. "Yeah well, it's something that I want Court, so all I ask is for you to not force it."

Courtney nodded with a smile. "I won't."

"Good." I whisper before we walk towards where our friends and her family stood in the living room.

Pat, Rick, Yolanda, and I make sure to stand in the back since we were the tallest while Barbara, Courtney, and Beth stood in the front.

Buddy leaped on top of the table in front of us as Mike finished setting up his equipment for the polaroid.

"All right, Whitmore-Dugans, let's do this!" He confidently announced before he clicked the button and rushed over to stand next to Barbara and in front of Pat.

I feel an arm awkwardly slide around my waist and I turn, seeing Yolanda turn to me with her cheeks still flushed before we look at the camera.

The flash from the camera goes off, indicating it took the picture which caused Mike to quickly look at the Polaroid picture. "None of us blinked! Nice!"

"Now that we got our picture, it's time to eat! Let's go, chop-chop!" Barbara announced, ushering for everyone to go to the kitchen.

Before I could follow the others, I feel my phone buzz in my pocket which causes me to pause in my steps.

A feeling of discomfort stirs in my stomach but as I look down to the caller ID, a sense of relief replaces as I see Artemis's name flash across the screen.

"I'll cover for you." I look up and see Yolanda wearing a small smile.

"It won't take long." I whisper, showing her the caller ID and she nods before walking to the kitchen.

I click answer and move the phone against my ear. "Hey, everything okay? Look, I know it's been kind of hectic the past couple of weeks without our parents."

"I'll say." A deeper voice that definitely didn't belong to Artemis spoke up which caused my eyes to widen. "I told Jordan that the plan was folly but he didn't listen. I knew your heart would cause the downfall for the Injustice Society but they didn't want to hear it."

"I'm glad it did." I remark harshly. "My heart made me realize everything I did was for the wrong reason."

"It's only a matter of time before you realize it holds burden."

I glance around to make sure the others weren't listening in but saw that they were happily serving themselves as the Christmas music melodically played in the background.

"You know I'm right."

My grip tightens on my phone. "What the hell do you want, Shade?"

He chuckles. "Nothing big. What do you recommend from Richie's diner?" My blood runs cold, realizing that he's already in town. "Talk to you soon, Freya." The line clicks but I kept my phone pressed against my ear.

Just when I thought everything would be better now that I was finally leaving the past behind me, it somehow finds a way to come back.

It was far from over.

.·。.·゜✭·.·✫·゜·。. *✭˚·ﾟ✧*·ﾟ*✭˚·ﾟ✧*·

A/N:

And that's the end of Book 1 of the Freya Nelson series! Thank you so much for the endless support I received! The feedback genuinely helped with the motivation to finish and I'm glad you guys loved the story as much as I did :)

And as a thank you here's a small horrible manip as a gift for y'all hehe.

I'm too lazy to fix it but Freya is supposed to be a little taller than Yolanda LMFAO

By the way, I know at least some of you are lowkey disappointed in Freya not taking advantage to kiss Yolanda but to me, I feel like it wouldn't be realistic.

Like, imagine from her perspective. She's still recovering from the revelation about who her parents were and has to live with the fact that she hurt a lot of people and killed innocent people for the Injustice Society.

I mean, she has her friends but at the same time, she doesn't have a family to run to. She still needs time to heal and so does Yolanda.

I mean, for gods sake she witnessed her ex-boyfriend getting crushed by boulders and killed Brainwave for impersonating him to try to deceive her so I don't think a sudden jump-start into a relationship would be healthy.

Also, I'm assuming you guys saw the trailer for season 2, and from the small clip of Yolanda, she's in a church with tears in her eyes so...my first thought was she was still grieving over Henry.

But if y'all were curious, yes Yolanda and Freya were going to kiss but then I changed it after the trailer was released hehe.

But don't worry! I promise they'll get together in season 2. Freya's just gotta learn a lot about herself and readjust to the new life for her before she can start thinking about relationships. (( it still won't stop the small moments between her and Yolanda tho hehe.))

I hope you all have/had an amazing day aaand I'll see you next week in the next book called Change. :D