CHAPTER FIFTEEN~

It was strange without Dion on Christmas Day. Sydney wasn't used to the feeling. She half expected to wake up to a dozen texts or missed calls from Dion, all begging her to go complete another item on his list.

Sydney got up and didn't bother changing out of her penguin pajamas. She pulled on a hoodie to keep warm and padded downstairs in her fluffy socks. Her whole family was already awake. She joined everyone at the dining table after pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"Morning family," she greeted as she dumped endless amounts of sugar into her cup.

"Why are you adding so much sugar?" her father demanded in horror.

"Because unlike you, I don't like black coffee."

Her father pointedly took a long slurp of his coffee.

"Gross dad," Marian informed him, wrinkling her nose when he ended up with a coffee mustache.

Their mother was bouncing excitedly in her chair while the other three exchanged conversation.

"You okay there mom?" Sydney asked.

"I wanna open gifts!" she chirped, still bouncing in her spot.

Sydney smiled. Her mother was like a sister rather than a mother when she wasn't worrying about her public appearances.

The whole family went to retrieve their gifts for one another. Sydney pulled out her wrapped gifts. Just as she was about to leave her room, her phone lit up with an incoming text. She walked over to check curiously. Of course, it was Dion, wishing her a Merry Christmas in his extravagant way. Meaning, he sent her about twenty pictures of him making the letters of Merry Christmas using his fingers. Then, he sent a couple of pictures where he was making dumb faces with Kaila.

She responded with a brief holiday greeting before pulling her own face and snapping a photo.

"Sydney!" Marian called from downstairs.

"Coming guys!" she shouted back. She sent the message to Dion and collected her gifts, walking downstairs to spend time with her family.

<<∞>>

In the Gallenger household, Dion and Kaila were having an in-depth conversation.

"That picture was stupid! I looked so bad! Why would you send it to Sydney?" Kaila groaned with embarrassment as she punched Dion in the arm.

"Ow! That hurt!"

"That's the point."

"Sydney sent us a stupid picture back so it's okay! It's not like she'll distribute the photo everywhere," Dion explained, showing her Sydney's horrible selfie.

"What if –"

A piercing noise interrupted Kaila.

"What is that?" Dion asked.

"Crap, Dion, did you turn off the stove?"

"No!"

"The water!"

The siblings rushed to their kitchen, where they were trying to make hot chocolate by boiling water using the stove.

"Dion you idiot! You burned the damn water! How the hell did you do that?" Kaila yelled, waving away the clouds of smoke. Dion shook his head, switching off the fire alarm as their parents burst into the kitchen.

"What's going on?"

Kaila pointed to Dion. "He burned the water."

That started another long argument between the two siblings.

Kaila won. She had her parents on her side.

<<∞>>

Sydney was bored. Soon after her family opened their presents, they scattered around the house, each doing their own thing. She glanced over her gifts, which were abandoned around her bed. She had gotten a few new hoodies and several gift cards for her favourite shops. Sydney didn't feel like putting them away even though she was certain she'd lose a few gift cards before she got a chance to use them.

She picked up her phone, wanting to call Dion and Kaila but let it fall to her bed again when she realized they would probably be celebrating with their family. She groaned, muffling the sound with her pillow.

Christmas was usually so much more entertaining! Why was this year being such a drag?

At that moment, Marian yelled at her from downstairs. Sydney flew off her bed, rushing down the steps at Marian's insistent shouting.

"What Marian?" Sydney asked, when she skidding ungracefully into the kitchen.

Marian grinned, holding up the rolling pin and the worn out Christmas recipe book.

"Gingerbread by dearest sister?" Marian suggested, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Have I ever been the one to say no to gingerbread?"

The sisters shared devilish looks and began moving around the kitchen, in perfect synchrony as they whipped up a batch of their notorious cookies.

<<∞>>

Dion hid behind the big, lumpy couch in his living room. He waited silently for Kaila to walk by.

Five minutes passed.

Then ten minutes ticked by.

Half an hour later, Dion wad beginning to get irritated. And his muscles were sore from behind clenched in the same position for so long. He was about to get up when the light tapping of feet caused him to still. He could easily recognize Kaila's footfalls as she padded across the hardwood floor.

"Dion?" Kaila yelled out. "Di? Where are you?"

Dion remained silent, waiting until she got closer. To his delight, Kaila sat down on the couch, right in front of his hiding spot. He could hear her muttering profanities under her breath as she cursed his name.

An evil grin split his face. Mentally, he counted down from three.

And then, he jumped up with a loud roar.

Kaila shrieked loudly, jumping from her spot as she saw the Grinch string back at her.

"Shoot Dion! Why must you always do this?" she yelled, grabbing the nearby pillow to hit him over his head. "You jackass!"

"Thanks Kaila," Dion said, through his laughter as he tried to defend himself from the vicious pillow. What was with girls and hitting him with pillows? Sydney was doing that just a few days earlier! "You can stop now sis. I still need my precious braincells."

"Haha, you have no brain cells so I'm not doing any harm here." But she stopped smacking him anyway.

Instantly, Dion began complaining. "I'm bored Kaila! I'm so bored!" he groaned in mock agony.

"So?"

"Do something about this! I'm so bored!"

"Why should I care?"

"Because you're my sister and you love me!"

"Oh, is that what you've been telling yourself for so long? I knew you had some crazy delusions in your head."

"What? How rude!"

"Like I said, delusional."

"Meanie."

"Denialistic weirdo."

"Denialistic? Really Kaila? That's what you come up with?"

"Yep."

Dion face-palmed. "I'm still bored."

"Go call lover girl."

"Who? Wait –ohhhhh! You mean Sydney?"

"Who else?"

Dion stuck his tongue out at Kaila and pulled out his phone, dialing Sydney's number.

<<∞>>

Sydney was in the midst of icing her gingerbread cookies when her phone rang. She groaned, feeling far too lazy to get up and pick up. But she dragged herself to the phone. Once she saw the name that flickered across the screen, she felt more awake.

"Hello there Dion! Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas Syd!" he greeted with his deep tones. Sydney could hear Kaila's faint voice yelling something in the distance. "And Kaila sends her well-wishes too."

"Merry Christmas Kaila!" Sydney yelled loudly.

"Jeez! Were you trying to deafen me?" Dion complained.

"Well... that wouldn't have been a bad thing right?" Sydney replied slyly.

"I swear, everyone is out to get me. First Kaila attacks me with a pillow then you try to deafen me. What happened to the good cheer of this Christmas season?"

"What cheer?" Sydney deadpanned.

A realization hit Dion like a ton of bricks. His breath caught and he was silent as he digested what he'd just realized.

"Dion?"

"Huh? Oh... uhhh, I rage quit! Bye Syd!"

Dion hung up abruptly and Sydney laughed softly to herself, brushing off his strange behaviour. She wondered what the idiot did for Kaila to hit him with a pillow.

Then she turned back to frosting her cookies with Marian. She deliberately ignored Marian's suggestive gaze.

<<∞>>

It wasn't until New Years that Dion and Sydney saw each other again.

Their sisters had forcibly dragged them to a New Years Celebration the nearby city held.

"It's so cold! And this is so stupid!" Sydney grumbled, shivering from the freezing temperatures. She sipped at her hot chocolate, trying to seek out warmth.

Dion instinctively moved closer to her even though they were in a packed square. "Why did I let Kaila drag me into this again?"

"I don't know! I don't even know why I let Marian drag me into this. I've never been to one of these and I'm not impressed by this either. It's basically loud music, lots of screaming, and half-drunk people staggering around," Sydney complained.

"I can't even make out the song that's being played."

"Some random pop song," Sydney filled in when she finally caught the sounds of a few familiar lyrics.

"Of course," he muttered into her ear when he saw the dirty glares they got from the people around them.

"Can we leave?" Sydney pleaded, feeling her headache worsen with each heavy thump of the music.

"Good idea. Let's go to the edges. Maybe it'll be a little less crowded."

They weaved their way through the thick crowd, trying not to disturb too many people.

Finally, the crowd began thinning out and they reached the edge of the crowd within minutes. Dion quickly sent a text to his sister, who had abandoned him with Sydney the moment she spotted her. Marian had been quick to join Kaila.

"How much longer until midnight?" Sydney asked, lowering her voice to a soft murmur. She winced as she rubbed her temples.

"Five minutes."

"Jeez. Feels like a century," Sydney groaned. Her head was really hurting right now.

"Are you alright?"

"Headache."

Dion nodded understandingly as he quickly guided Sydney over to a bench. From this distance, they could still see the huge countdown clock but the noise level had muted significantly.

For several long minutes, they sat there. Sydney had leaned onto Dion's shoulder as her head throbbed. It felt too heavy for her to hold up anymore.

"So, any resolutions Syd?"

"Yeah, make a resolution next year."

Dion laughed his rich, deep laugh and Sydney cracked a smile as her heart fluttered. She loved his laugh so much.

"How about you Dion?"

"Well," he took a deep breath, glancing down at the girl lying on his shoulder. He watched her reddened lips part with each breath. He had the urge to brush away the stray lock of dark hair that kept flying across her face. "I'm going to make a girl very, very happy. Hopefully."

Sydney's smile dropped as jealousy pulsed through her. "Lucky girl," she commented, surprising herself with the light tone she used.

"She is."

"Do you like her a lot?" Sydney asked, feigning curiosity. She should have known Dion would have a girl whom he liked. She should have known. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes as she stared at the ground. Subconsciously, she drew away from Dion.

"Yeah," Dion grinned softly. "I think I do."

"That's very sweet," Sydney said, looking up to smile at Dion. She struggled to keep a firm smile on her face and to her relief, it didn't waver.

"One more minute until the new year," Dion murmured, loosening his hold on Sydney as he leaned forward excitedly. A brilliant plan formed in his mind.

"Any last words?" Sydney asked as the countdown ticked down to zero. She could hear the steady increase of noise as people grew more and more excited.

"Hmmmm..." Dion hummed as he looked down at her, to see Sydney staring ahead at the clock.

Ten more seconds.

"I liked spending so much time with you this winter break and I hope we'll be able to have far more fun over the next year," Dion rushed out, as the clock hit one.

Screams of Happy New Year rang out and reached their ears but Sydney didn't pay them any heed.

Because sometime within the last second of last year and the first second of this year, Dion had kissed her.

A/N~

Predictable I know. But I don't really like Sydney as a character. She's so... I don't know. I just don't really like her anymore. Let's give this one more chapter. Wanna guess what'll happen?

I should have it up by tomorrow.

Thanks for reading/voting/commenting.

-CB