"KIARA ...KIARA WAKE UP IT'S CHRISTMAS," Ryder shouts in my ear, effectively waking me up.
I get up so fast that I fall out of my bed with a loud thud, and I groan.
"Ugh, I am up, I am up." I say, rubbing my butt.
When my eyes adjust to the bright light, I see Ryder jumping on my bed shouting, "It's Christmas.",
"I am gonna wake up Reed," he shouts and runs out of my room.
I really don't know where he gets his energy from. That kid's hyperactive even without sugar. I glance at my clock and see it's five minutes past seven. That's early.
I hear a loud 'It's Christmas', which is followed by a loud thud. Looks like Reed fell out of bed too.
I go out to see an energetic Ryder pulling a sleepy Reed, who is rubbing his butt out of the room. I chuckle at the scene. While Ryder wakes everybody up, I quickly brush my teeth and comb my hair.
I go downstairs to see Reed and Ryder sitting around the Christmas tree with presents. I look back to see Raven and Blake enter the room.
"Merry Christmas, guys." Ryder wishes everyone. Greetings are shared and, Ryder goes first to open his present.
"Ok, this is from mom and dad." Ryder informs and opens a lego set. His eyes widen, and he lets out a squeal and hugs his parents.
Next, he opens the one from Reed. He gets a smartwatch and a mug with a picture of his whole family. They look joyful in the picture. Reed is carrying Ryder and, Raven's arm is around the boys while Blake's arm is around everyone, and Ella is sitting in-between Reed's legs. They have huge smiles on their face.
Next, Ryder opens my present. When he sees the new Xbox, his hands go to his mouth. He runs to me and throws himself at me. I lose my balance and fall back with Ryder on top of me. I put my arm around to hug him and laugh at his reaction. He lets me go, and I sit back up.
"Kiara, why did you buy such an expensive gift?" Raven scolds me with a small smile, "now, he is gonna sit in his room all day and play."
"Don't worry, Raven. I will make sure he doesn't spend too much time on it." I say to Raven winking at Ryder.
"I wanted this for a really long time thankyou Kiara." Ryder tells with a smile.
"Don't be too happy buddy, you are so going down when we play." I tell him with a smirk. He chuckles, shaking his head in disagreement.
Next, Reed opens his presents. He gets a new and latest iPhone from his parents. Ryder gifts him a scrapbook filled with happy memories and a tie-dye shirt that he made. Finally, some boy accessories that includes a bracelet with his name. Then, he opens my present. When he sees the gift, he smiles and looks at me. I got him air pods since his one seems to be repaired. And also a G-shock watch.
"How did you know I wanted one of these?" he asks me, surprised.
"I came to your room the other day, and you were struggling with your earphones trying to repair them with duct tape. So I thought they might be broken and got you wireless ones." I chuckle at the memory. Everyone chuckles with me, and Reed goes red with embarrassment.
"Thank you, Kiara." he nods at me with a smile. I smile back.
Next, Raven opens her presents. She gets cruise tickets from Blake for a beautiful new Year's eve dinner, and Ryder gives her a necklace with her name, which is written in his handwriting. Reed gives her two pillows. One, with a picture of her and Blake and another with him, Ryder, and Ella. When Raven opens my present, she finds the dress and takes it in her hand. She sees the extra cloth on the dress, which I altered to fit her size.
"Kiara, how.. but it was not my size... I don't know how you did it." She comes and hugs me, and she tells everyone how much she wanted this dress but could not buy since it was a size smaller.
"Thank you, Kiara. I wanted it so bad." I smile.
Blake opens his presents. Raven gifts him a massage chair and, Ryder gives him a speaker. Reed gives him a Gucci belt. He got a G-shock watch and a Gucci belt from me which he wanted for so long that he wouldn't stop talking about it.
Next, I get an envelope from Blake and Raven. I open it and find the picture of a cute baby Siberian husky. I look up to see them holding a big gift box. I excitedly open it and find the same baby husky inside. Looking at me with her big blue eyes.
"When you first saw Ella, you told me that you loved dogs, but you could not keep one because of your mom's allergies. So we thought, why not get you a dog." Raven smiles.
I hug both of them tightly, whispering "Thank you." over and over again. I take the baby husky in my hands. She is purely white. She licks me, and I pet her behind her ear.
"You can name her Kiara. She is yours, after all."
"What should I name you?" I ask the husky, and she looks at me with her huge blue eyes.
"Aerial, you will be called Aerial." she licks me once again, telling me she likes it.
"It's a beautiful name, Kiara," Blake tells me. I give Aerial to Ryder, who starts playing with her.
Reed, gives me a pair of roller skates since I love to skate and a new helmet. So, I can ride on the motorcycle with him. Ryder gives me a bracelet with my name written in his handwriting, just like Ravens and also a collection of horror movie CDs.
Ella also gets a new dog bed, lots of toys and treats. Aerial refuses to leave Ella alone, following her wherever she goes.
After the gift session, we all get ready to have lunch in a grand restaurant. I wear a light red sleeveless gown that reaches my thigh and pair it with a cute black sweater and stocking since it will be cold. I slightly curl my hair and apply mascara and lip gloss.
We all get ready, and I see Raven wearing a beautiful red satin embroidery dress that reaches her knee.
I see all the boys in similar suits with different colours.
We all have a great lunch and go to church. We pray and reach home just to get a facetime call from Keith.
"Kia, Merry Christmas, baby sister." Keith greets me.
"Merry Christmas, Kei. So, how was your Christmas?" I ask him.
"Nothing special. I went to visit mom and dad, and I got gifts from my friends."
This is our third Christmas without them. I miss them so much. We would wake up early, attend church and come home to a feast. The rest of the day we spend talking. I feel tears pool in my eyes.
"Kia, you there? what happened?" I hear Keith's worried voice.
"Nothing. What were you saying?"
"You look, beautiful baby sis," he tells me with a smile. I smile back
"I miss you, Kei."
"I miss you too, sis. Anyway, I am spending time with your friends today. We are going for dinner." Keith is pretty close to my friends. I met both of them when I was in kindergarten. It was a funny story about how we met. We grew up together.
"Be careful. Those are my friends, no funny business." I threaten him with a smile.
"Don't worry. We are just going for dinner," Kei informs me with a smirk
"Yeah, go enjoy yourself." I tell him and cut the call.
Aerial is sitting on my lap, playing with my squishy. I spend the rest of the day playing with Reed and Ryder on his Xbox and watching Christmas movies.
I suddenly think about Andrew, who is spending Christmas alone today. I am thankful for this family. Even though I lost my parents' I did not feel alone. I was happy. I didn't think much about my parents today, even though I miss them.
For the first time in a long time, I go to bed happy and with a smile on my face. It is one of the best Christmas of my life. A unique one.
It's New Year's eve, and currently, I am on a facetime call with my friends."So guys, how was your Christmas dinner with Keith?" I ask them with a smirk.Anna's cheeks go pink just like I expected. Anna has had a crush on him forever. She thinks that I don't know. But I found out a couple of years ago when Anna acted all shy and strange in his presence. Whenever they are together, you can see a faint tint of pink on her cheeks.I don't think Div has noticed it yet."Why are you blushing, Anna?" Div asks with a smirk..... okay, she knows."What I... I ..am..not blushing ..you..you are." Anna stutters, and I mentally facepalm. Nice save, Anna.Looks like we are gonna talk about my best friend's crush."You like him, Anna.""But I don'..""Don't even think about lying." I cut her off."Yeah, Anna. We know about your crush on Keith, so spill the beans." Divya tells her.She sighs, "Fine. What do you gu
There is only the weekend left before I start school. The near kiss that happened between Reed and I was never spoken. It was just a spur of the movement thing Reed will never go for a girl like me. I really don't know why he tried to kiss me. I am really thankful that things didn't get awkward between Reed and me. I pet aerial for a while and go downstairs to find only Blake and Raven having breakfast. I greet them morning and make myself cereal."I really wish the boys would wake up early as you do and not wake up at noon to eat breakfast as lunch," Raven complains. On that note, Reed comes down looking hot with his bed hair. Wow, I have gotta get these thoughts out of my head. After the near kiss, I can't stop but find Reed beautiful and handsome."Mom, can you please stop comparing us with Kiara. She wakes up early because she has all those makeup stuff to do before breakfast," Reed grumbles."Honey, if you know Kiara at all, you will know that she doesn't l
Today is my first day of school. I am excited, but I am also very nervous. I take a long shower and wear my outfit for the day. It consists of a white sleeveless shirt and a black skirt that reaches my knee and pair it with a jean jacket and a pair of black sandals and French braid my hair. I take a look at myself in the mirror and feel satisfied. I go downstairs and greet Raven, who is making breakfast. "You look amazing, Kiara. You will have boys at your feet." Raven tells me with a grin. I can't help but blush at her words. "Thanks, Raven." I answer her, and then I see Reed come down the stairs. Calling him hot right now would be an understatement. He is dressed in a tight white t-shirt with skinny black jeans and a black jean jacket. He has that whole bad boy look. He sees me, and his eyes take in my outfit, and he gives me a smirk. I realize that I am openly checking him out. Reed sits beside me, and Raven places a plate full of pancakes in front of him.
Oh no, why do I have such a big mouth? The whole room stares at me like I have grown two heads. I don't really think people in this school talk bad about the bad boy. Well looks like I am screwed. The girl previously sitting on Reed's lap approaches me along with two other girls. She comes to our table and stares right at me. "You know, for being the new girl, you have got some guts to blurt out stuff like that to my baby." She smirks, gesturing to Reed, who looks pretty amused at this situation. I mentally gag at that part. "I like you. Would you like to join my group and become popular? Because you are the only girl who had some guts to talk out loud like that." she offers. Can someone explain what is happening right now? Because this is not at all what I expected. I slowly get up
So you are an exchange student right, who are you living with?" Kate questions me. It's lunch now, and we are all sitting at our usual table. Shoot, not the question I was expecting. What do I do, what do I do? "Um.. uh.. so the thing is...you see.." "Hey, guys, whatcha doing?" Noah interrupts. I have never been more happier for the interruption. I could kiss you right now, Noah. "Oh, we were just simply asking Kiara who she is living with." Ava tells Noah. "Well, forget that. Do you know what happened in English class today?" Noah asks them. I roll my eyes at him. Let's just say that our class was interesting due to the class clown that is Noah. "Don't tell me you did one of your famous pranks on the teacher, and you cancelled English class." Ava says with fake enthusiasm while waving her hands. "Uh, how did you know? Are you stalking me? ohhhh don't tell me that Kiara is actually a spy working for you. Do you
It is another day in school. Noah and I are sitting in English class, we are waiting for Mr William to come. Sir comes inside after a few minutes, places a cup of coffee on the table and leaves, telling us that he will be back in five minutes.I turn to Noah and see him looking at the coffee cup with a grin that screams PRANK. Oh no, not again.“Noah, no, whatever you are thinking, don’t do it. You don’t want to add another detention to your record, do you?” I try to persuade him.He looks at me, the grin on his face never leaving. He simply gets up, goes to the table and does a 360-degree check to make sure no one is watching him. He lifts the coffee cup and takes a chewing gum out of his pocket, chews on it for a few seconds, and sticks the chewed gum on the table and places the cup on top of it and presses it firmly. He tries to move the cup, and it doesn’t even budge. I can actually see the steam from the coffee. Mr Willia
It is finally the weekend. I am so happy that the weekend has arrived. I don’t have much homework since it is only the first week of school. I would love to invite my friends over. But they don't know that I live with Reed.“Youngblood say you want itSay you want meSay you want meOut of your lifeAnd I am just a dead man walking tonight.”I was singing youngblood by 5 seconds of summer and dancing in my room with my hairbrush. Then I suddenly see a flash go off. I immediately stop my dancing and look towards my door to see Reed running away.I chase him, my concert forgot, and I hear him laugh while running down the stairs. I am going to kill him. I run down the stairs, and I see him running behind the counter. I thank God because I can run fast. I climb over the counter, and before he escapes, I jump on him to stop his running.Reed
I am on my way to church with Reed driving me. I hope I see Andrew again today.“Text me when it’s over, and I will pick you up,” Reed informs.“Sure, bye,” I say with a smile and head inside. I see Andrew sitting in his usual place at the last bench. I smile.I take my place beside him and say a small word of prayer before smiling at him. He smiles back. Soon the service comes to an end, and I send Reed a text informing him to pick me. I turn to Andrew to talk to him and find him already looking at me.“Umm, I just... um you know want to say thank you for what you did back there.” he thanks me with a shy smile. I raise my eyebrow, clueless on why he is thanking me. Suddenly, everything becomes clear... The backpack. I wonder why it looked familiar. It is the same backpack I got Andrew, for Christmas. So, these people have been bullying Andrew all this time. I feel terrible that I didn’t even recognize Andre