"Merry Christmas!" 8 am. Christmas morning.

"Merry Christmas, mom and dad," I take a seat at the kitchen island.

"We have a big breakfast, since we're going to have a light lunch, and big dinner," my mom put some pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, and a biscuit on a plate, then slid it over to me.

"Thank you."

"No problem honey." I took my plate and went to sit at the table with dad.

"Good morning sweetheart," he look up at me over his paper.

I gave him a kiss on the cheek before sitting down, "morning daddy."

My mom came to sit down with her plate and placed a glass of orange juice in front of me.

"I hope you slept well." My mom makes conversation.

"Yes ma'am."

"Good. It's going to be a long day."

We hear the front door opening, "the parties here!" Auntie Mel. I smile as my mother sighs, "ouu breakfast!" Mel grabs a plate of food before coming over and sitting next to me, "when do we open presents?"

My mom rolls her eyes, "we'll open presents at noon. We have traditions."

"Traditions of course. What first on the list?" She stuffs some eggs in her mouth and I do the same.

Mom sips on her coffee, "well first we have to go drop of all the toys in my car at the orphanage, then we'll come back, bake some sugar cookies and decorate the gingerbread house, then we'll pass out cookies to the neighborhoods."

"We only have four hours how are we going to all that before noon?" Mel looks at my mother as if she's crazy.

My mother shrugs, "I guess you better hurry up and finish breakfast."

My dad chuckles, "don't worry you'll have time."

Mel looks at my father, "your coming with us to right?"

"Yes, both of our cars are filled with toys for the children."

Mel nods, "okay good."

I smile over at her, "we have a busy day ahead of us." I tease.

After finishing breakfast I ran up back to my room and got dressed. My Christmas outfit is great. It consists of a maroon long sleeve velvety top and a long cream skirt. I curled my hair a bit, and added a necklace to complete the look.

Doing a natural look, I add some mascara to my eyelashes, and some red lipstick.

"Brooke! We're about to leave!" Mom yells up the stairs.

I take one last look at myself in the mirror, then run down stairs, "I'm ready!"

"They're already in the car. I'm riding with your dad, and your riding with your mother," Mel stands at the front door to deliver the message.

I nod my head, "of course."

Laughing we walk outside and I hop in my moms car.

"You look beautiful sweetheart!" She smiles at me, "I'm going to have to take a picture of you when we get back."

"Ok mom."

🎁🎁🤶🏽🤶🏽🍪🍪

"Well that was fun!" Mom expresses her enjoyment as we all through the threshold of our house.

"It actually wasn't that bad," aunt Mel follows behind us.

"No one said it wasn't going to be fun Melody," my dad answers her using her full name.

"Well shit, what's next? We have two hours before presents."

"Language, Mel!" My mom scolds her, "cookies are next though."

Everyone except for my dad makes their way to the kitchen. Mom puts all the ingredients on the kitchen island.

"Wait, cookies from scratch?"

"Yes Mel, from scratch. Everyone makes their own batch. Then we'll take them to the neighbors. While they cook Brooke can decor the gingerbread house."

That's exactly what we did. When we were all done cutting out our cookies we put them on a cookie sheet and they went into the oven.

While they cooked I went to the table and began putting together the gingerbread house. Aunt Mel offered to help, but she just kept on eating the ingredients. My house still came out good though.

At last the cookies were done and cool enough for us to decorate them. I made all my trees green with star sprinkles, my stars were yellow with purple circular sprinkles, and my gingerbread man had all kinds of colored pants.

Everything was finally ready. We put cookies in decorated baggies, and my mom had a few pies already covered.

"Here Brooke, you and Mel can takes these to the Everheart's." Mom handed me a pie and gave Mel some cookies.

"We gotta make these trips snappy. It's already noon."

I ignored Mel and my mother and stood quietly. I didn't think my mom would want to give the Everheart's anything after the fiasco, but I guess the holidays change everyone.

"So who are the Everheart's, and why did you get so quiet when your mother mentioned them?" Mel asked me as we walked outside.

"They live straight in front of us. I left to New York with them. The whole reason I'm grounded."

"You don't blame the, for you getting grounded right? It was your choice on going. No one forced you."

I shook my head, "I don't blame anyone but myself. It's just-" I stopped mid sentence, "nothing."

Walking up to the door I pressed the door bell. It rang for second, before a man answered the door.

"Hello, could I help you?"

"Yes, are you Mr.Everheart?" Mel took over and stepped forward.

The man laughed, "oh no. Trace!" He yelled from behind him, "this isn't even my house. It's quite cold out come in come in!" He moved to the side and let us in.

Mel gladly went inside while I lingered first a second before walking in. The house smelled like baked goods of all kinds.

"Brooklyn! It's so good to see you again!" Trace came around the corner probably from the kitchen.

"I've missed you all so much!" I gave her a hug.

"What a surprise to see you here though."

I nod my head, "we baked a pie and cookies. We're just out delivering them. This is my aunt Melody." I introduced Mel.

"Oh, nice to meet you! I'm Trace, Grace's mom." Trace and Mel shook hands.

"Nice to meet you to, you can call me Mel though."

Trace nodded her head, "right, well you can set those in the kitchen for me. I have two gifts for your mom and dad. Didn't think y'all would be coming over till after dinner so I hadn't gotten them out from under the tree yet. I'll grab them while y'all set that down."

I nod my head and cautiously walk inside the kitchen. No one was in the living from what I could tell, so of course casually, everyone was in the kitchen.

"Brooke!" Callie spotted me from her place at the kitchen island.

"Hey little duck!"

She got up and attacked my legs in a hug, "where have you been? I've missed you!" She looked up at me with big eyes.

"Awe, I'm sorry. I've missed you to," I put the pie on the island and picked her up. A few eyes starred at me as I did so, "aunt Mel this is Callie, Grace's little sister." I turned towards my aunt.

"She's adorable. Who is this Grace I keep on hearing about though?"

"That would be me," Grace stood up from her spot and made her way over to shake aunt Mel's hand.

"Tyler and Brooke are here! All my favorite people in one room! This is the best Christmas ever!" Callie jumped out my arms and twirled around.

Of course he was here. Where Grace seemed to be he was there to.

"This is my Bestfriend Tyler," Grace pulled him up just as we digging into the bag of cookies. She pushed him towards my aunt, "ignore him he has no manners."

"Oh it's quite alright." My aunt shook his hand.

"I would just like to state that these cookies are delicious, and I have manners, just not when it comes to food." He laughed.

"Of course," Grace rolled her eyes.

"I found them!" Trace walks into the kitchen with three perfectly wrapped presents.

"Thank you!" I take them and look my aunt, "ready to go?"

She nods her head, "it was nice meeting you all!"

Trace escorted us out.