ᎾN ᎢᎻᎬ FᏆᎡᏚᎢ ᎠᎪY ᎾF ᏟᎻᎡᏆᏚᎢᎷᎪᏚ ᎢᎻᏆᏚ ᎪᏌᎢᎻᎾᎡ ᏩᏆᏙᎬᏚ ᎢᎾ ᎢᎻᎬᎬ, Ꭺ ᏚᎢᎾᎡY ᎪᏴᎾᏌᎢ Ꭺ ᏟᎻᎡᏆᏚᎢᎷᎪᏚ ᎢᎡᎬᎬ

***

"Can't you turn the heat up any more?" Albert grumbled from the passenger seat of the car. He rubbed his hands together, trying to warm them up, then buried them in the pockets of his coat.

"It's warm enough," Race said, shaking his head.

"I'm freezing!"

"Not my fault you decided to take a dive in the snow," Race smirked. It was obvious that he was referring t Albert slipping on the sidewalk and into a drift of snow when Race and the others picked him up from his house.

Albert scowled and crossed his arms, his teeth chattering. Race grinned at him but reached over to turn the heat up anyway.

"Are we almost there?" Romeo whined from the backseat.

"I don't know,' Race shrugged.

Romeo looked to Specs hopefully.

"How am I supposed to know? I've never been there before!"

Romeo groaned and slouched down in his seat, the seat belt slipping right under his chin. He remained quiet for a minute before letting out another dramatic sigh as he crossed his arms across his chest. "I'm getting bored! Don't you have a radio or something?"

"You're not playing Christmas music!" Albert said. He threw his hand over the button for the radio when Romeo reached towards it.

"Why not? There's only three weeks left!"

"I've heard enough 'Merry Christmas', mistletoey, reindeer carols to last me the next five years," Albert complained.

"Why do you have to ruin everything all the time? Get in the Christmas spirit! Don't be such a Scrooge!" Romeo's eyes crinkled as he waited for Albert's response, fully knowing that his friend wouldn't appreciate the reference.

"Yeah, stop acting like a Grinch," Specs added.

"That's enough! I don't want to hear one more Christmas-related anything for the rest of the day!"

"That's going to be hard since we're buying a Christmas tree," Romeo laughed.

Albert opened his mouth to respond, but Race stopped him.

"You guys are distracting me! You're going to cause an accident. You've got two options. One, you shut up."

"I don't like that option, let's hear the other one," Romeo said quickly.

"Okay. Option two is you get out of my car."

"Are you serious?" Romeo's eyes widened as Race slowed down and began moving towards the side of the road. "I'll stop talking! I'm done! I promise I am. I'll be quiet now, no more talking for Romeo! My lips are zipped. See? I'm throwing away the key! I'll-"

Specs pushed his hand over Romeo's mouth. "Stop talking!"

"Thank you!" Race muttered.

Romeo turned to the window to distract himself. In all of their arguing they'd arrived at the Christmas tree farm and it appeared that Race hadn't noticed because he wasn't slowing down.

"You're going to miss it!"

"What?"

"Turn!" Romeo exclaimed. He lunged towards the front seat and grabbed the wheel, turning it as quickly as he could.

The car slid into the parking lot, slipping on the ice. Race narrowly avoided hitting a car and managed to stop without causing an accident.

Specs, whose eyes had clenched shut while preparing for impact, carefully opened one eye. Then, seeing that they were safe, the other inched open as well. "Nice save," he breathed.

Race's knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel. "Thanks," he whispered, his face white.

"What were you thinking?" Albert asked. He spun around in his seat to glare at Romeo.

"I didn't want t miss the drive," Romeo shrugged. "Look! There's Jack! And there's a spot open next to him!"

Race pulled into the spot. He was still shaking when he parked the car and the boys began getting out. Specs gave his shoulder a small squeeze before getting out.

"Hey, we saw you guys pull in. What happened?" Jack asked.

"Race is a bad driver," Romeo said easily. "Don't know how he got his license."

"Remind me to never get in a car with you," Jack grinned.

"What? I, but-" Race sputtered.

"Alright, who's ready to find Medda a Christmas tree?"

Jack was nervous about finding this tree. It was for Medda and Jack knew that it needed to be absolutely perfect. Medda had fostered he and Crutchie for about a year and a half when he was twelve. Afterwards, Jack been reunited with his father for a year before being removed from his care again. He was placed with Medda once more and he'd been staying with her for the past two years.

Jack and Crutchie had both recently become free for adoption and Medda had immediately started the paperwork. This would be their first Christmas as a real family and Jack and Crutchie had decided to celebrate it with a real Christmas tree. Medda loved Christmas, but real trees were too expensive. This year the two boys were planning to ignore expenses and buy her the biggest, most beautiful tree they could find and their friends had agreed to help them choose one.

"How about this one?" Romeo suggested, motioning to a towering Fraser fir.

"That's way too tall for their house," Davey observed.

"They can keep it outside," Romeo shrugged.

"You're stupid, you know that?" Albert rolled his eyes.

"Maybe find something just a little bit smaller," Crutchie suggested.

"Fine," Romeo groaned. "You guys are gonna suck all the fun out of this!"

Romeo grabbed Specs's arm and the two of them followed Race as he disappeared, looking for a different tree.

"Can I help?" Les asked eagerly.

"I don't know Les," Davey said. "Finding a tree is hard work, you can't just look at a tree and call it good. You have to think about it."

"Of course you can help!" Jack said, completely ignoring Davey.

Les beamed and took off into the farm.

"Les! Slow down! Wait for me!" Davey called before chasing after him.

***

Half an hour had passed and still no tree had been found. Even Crutchie was starting to lose hope that they would find the tree. Every tree they looked at had something that Jack didn't like about it.

Too short, too sparse, too full, not green enough, didn't smell like a Christmas tree... Jack was about to call it quits for the day and head home when Les reappeared and tugged excitedly on his coat.

"Jack! Jack! Look at this one!" Les grabbed Jack's hand and dragged him further into the maze of Christmas trees.

"Slow down, kid! We're not in any hurry!" Jack laughed.

"Yes we are! It's perfect! We have to get there before someone else gets to it!" Eventually Les stopped in front of the tree and watched Jack carefully for his reaction.

It was a beautiful tree, a deep green and the perfect size for their home. It was absolutely perfect, almost too perfect, and Jack could feel the smile stretching across his face as he did a quick inspection of the branches.

"It's perfect Les! Great job!"

Les shot Davey, who had joined the rest of the guys in following Les and Jack, a smug grin. "Told you I'd be good at it!"

"It looks really nice," Race said, ruffling Les's hair. "Nice job, kid!"

Crutchie's face lit up when he saw it and even Albert grudgingly admitted that he liked it.

"So what do you think, Crutch? Is this Medda's tree?" Jack asked.

Crutchie nodded, his eyes shining. "She's going to love it!"

"I think so too."

"C'mon! Let's find someone so we can take it home and surprise her with it!"

"Alright," Jack smiled. Just the thought of his new mother's excitement when she saw the tree left him grinning. "Merry Christmas, Medda."

***

Okay, not my best, but alright. And it's getting in the Christmas spirit, so...

Merry Christmas Break!!!!