It's
beginning to look a lot like Christmas, in the story at least. For anyone wondering, the song at the beginning
is a parody of we're going to get our Christmas tree by Tom Paxton if you want
to look it up and get it stuck in your head. As always don't forget to
donate to Nifty https://donate.nifty.org and
feel free to send any messages to sithspawn78@yahoo.co.uk
Chapter 19
\\\ Nick ///
"We're gonna get a Christmas tree
My boyfriend, his cousin, my sister
& me
Come on everyone let's go see
Come on Ben & Sammie
Cold December days are here
Ringing the warmth of Christmas cheer
We'll find the perfect tree this year
The loveliest tree in the forest"
"What the
fuck are you singing?" I asked while
laughing at Lucas' song.
"It's a song
called we're going to get our Christmas tree, I thought it was pretty apt for
this." He replied with a huge smile as
he carried on bounding up the path.
There was a strange nervousness to him today, like he was excited about
something but trying to show he wasn't worried at the same time. The only way I can describe it is like the
nervous excitement you get before you go on a scary ride. I had no idea why though, as far as I knew we
were just going to get a Christmas tree from the forest behind the farm.
He'd been
acting strange since he left my house the previous weekend. I told Ben about him being a bit distant when
I'd mentioned working out with him and he just said he'd talk to him about
it. When I met up with Lucas again in
school he seemed back to normal like nothing had been off at the weekend. He just told me how his family had a
tradition about getting a Christmas tree and asked me if I wanted to come
along. Every year in early December,
they'd go up to the forest behind the farm where they had an area just
dedicated to fir trees, pick a tree to take back to the house, and then plant a
new one so it could grow for a few years until it was needed. Normally it would be Lucas, Sammie and their
dads doing it but this year it was just us kids fetching the tree as all our
parents stayed back at the house talking about who knows what.
I was
actually really excited to do this as we'd never had a real Christmas tree when
I was growing up. Usually we just had a
cheap plastic piece of crap wrapped in tinsel from one of the local budget
shops. Brandon never really gave a shit
about this time of year, but now I can see that it's because most people are
nice to the ones they care about. This
year was going to be different though.
We were going to have the big day at the farm with all of our families
together, and even our grandparents coming along to make it even bigger.
Lucas had
led us to a path behind the farm that I'd never been up before. Even though I'd seen the main house and the
studio quite a few times I'd never been further back on their property. We first went past another building that
Lucas told me stored all their farm machinery, and then there was another big
barn behind it that he just said he'd show me later. I was curious about it but Ben just told me
it was their rec room, which I though was strange as it was a big building and
most of their time was spent either in the studio or in the house. As the path carried on it became more densely
forested, with all the trees that had shed their leaves coming into winter,
until we finally came to a more evergreen area.
"Ok, here we
are. Now who wants to do the honours of
picking the tree?" Lucas asked looking
from Ben to me and back again.
"I think
Nick should do it as an official welcome."
Ben replied. I was a little
confused by that as I assumed I had already been welcomed to the families, or
did it only become official at Christmas time?
"Um...ok...how
about..." I scanned the trees to see if
any looked right. Alex had shown us
where the tree would go in the house so we would know what size to get and as I
looked around I saw a few that looked big enough but not too big. "How about that one?" I asked, pointing to a nice sized one a few
yards away.
"Ah,
excellent choice." Lucas replied and
then looked like he recognised something about it. "Hey Sammie, isn't this the one we planted
the last time Ben came for Christmas?"
Sammie just smiled and nodded.
Before Lucas
spoke again he seemed to take a deep breath, like he was readying himself for
something. "Alright then, before we get
the tree out of here I have to confess something." He started and then looked straight at me
like what he was about to say was only directed at me. "I actually wanted you to come up here with
us today as we've got something huge to tell you. Now it's going to be a little...strange, but
it's something we feel you need to know."
"Oh my god!
We're not breaking up are we?" I asked.
"I hope
not." Lucas replied grimly. What the fuck did that mean? Was he testing our relationship? "Ok, so what I want you to do now is bring
that tree back over here." He was right,
this was getting strange. I looked over
at the tree and then realised that we didn't have an axe or a saw to chop it
down. Ben had just brought a shovel and
Sammie was carrying the baby tree we were going to plant afterwards.
"You want me
to dig it out?" I asked.
"Nope, no
tools." He replied and I just looked at
him sceptically. There must be something
about this tree I didn't understand so I walked over and stood in front of it,
trying to figure everything out. The
trunk looked like it would be about big enough to wrap both hands around, but
my fingers would probably only just about touch if I did. I gave it a tentative push and the top of the
tree swayed a little but not much. I
tried pushing harder, making it sway again, but it still seemed firmly anchored
to the ground. I tried wrapping my hands
as far around as I could to lift it but I couldn't move it at all. After I tried a few more ideas I was
completely stumped. There was no way to
get this tree back to the house without digging it up or chopping it down.
I looked back
at Lucas, feeling defeated and expecting them to be laughing at me, but their
smiles were just warm and not mocking.
"I dunno what to do. Is there
some knack to it I don't know about?" I
asked.
"No, I just
wanted you to be sure it was a genuine tree with no trickery." He replied with a smile. "Come here, let me do it." He walked over to the tree as I backed away
and I was curious to see how he would do it.
This obviously wasn't his first time so there must be a technique I
didn't know about. He casually gripped
the trunk with one hand and I noticed his fingers seemed to be pressing into
the trunk itself a little. Before I
could say anything he started to lift the tree straight upwards as the roots
below started to appear on the surface.
After a couple of seconds he placed his other hand lower down the trunk
and lifted it up further until there was daylight between the tree and the
ground beneath it.
"Wait
but...that tree was...I mean...how the fuck..."
I couldn't believe it. I looked
over to Ben and Sammie but they just shrugged like it was normal. "There's gotta be something dodgy here."
"No trick,
here, take it." Lucas said, holding the
tree out for me to take as little chunks of earth dropped off the roots. I tentatively reached out and held onto the
trunk, which felt like a solid tree trunk, and when I had a good grip Lucas let
go. The tree instantly dropped like a
stone and caught me off-guard, but before it went too far Lucas grabbed hold of
it again with one hand to support the weight.
"That's
impossible!" I backed away and stood
looking at Lucas holding that tree like it was the first time I was seeing
him. I know Amber had told me he was
stronger than he looked but this was unreal.
"Not for
their family." Ben said. "I know I was kinda shocked by it when I
first found out but you must admit, it's pretty incredible." Lucas lay the tree down gently, brushing his
hands together to get any dirt off them and then came over to me.
"So you're
telling me you're super strong?" I
asked.
"Yeah, basically." Lucas replied sheepishly.
"Wait I need
to get my head around this." I replied
turning towards Sammie to see her reaction but she was busying herself planting
the new sapling and I suddenly realised something. Ben said it wasn't impossible for their
family, did that mean they could all do these things? This was crazy. I couldn't have a super strong boyfriend,
that's impossible!! But what if it was
true? It would be kinda cool wouldn't
it? The more I thought about it, the
more I wanted to be freaked out; but that didn't happen. I was actually excited about it and wanted to
see more. I turned back to Lucas and
could see him looking anxious. I
couldn't blame him though, I mean, he'd just shared a massive secret with the
guy who'd hated him for years.
"Are you
ok?" Ben asked but I didn't reply. I took a couple of steps towards Lucas and I
could see the tears threatening to leak from his eyes.
"This
is..." I suddenly threw my arms around
Lucas and gave him the biggest kiss on the lips as his eyes went wide. I pulled back with my hands on his shoulders
to look him in the eyes with the biggest smile on my face. "THIS IS AWESOME!! How strong are you? Have you got any other powers? Can you fly?
What about..." Lucas pulled me into
a hug again and I could feel him sobbing by the way his shoulders were moving
up and down. I held him tight and
stroked the back of his head as he let it all out. Ben came over and draped his hand over my
shoulder as Lucas relaxed a little.
"Welcome to
the family secret." Ben said. "He's been so worried about telling you but
we told him it was the right time." I
could see why they waited, I mean, how would I have felt if I found out the
very first time I met Lucas?
"I dunno if
any time would be the right time but I don't care, this is fucking
brilliant!" I beamed.
"Wanna see
some more?" Lucas asked shyly.
"FUCK
YEAH!!" I yelled, causing them all to
laugh at my enthusiasm. "Pull another
tree out, a bigger one!!"
Lucas just
laughed. "Nah, It'd be a shame to mess up
the forest, but there's plenty more stuff I can show you back home."
"We'll take
the tree back and leave you guys to have fun for a bit." Ben said.
Sammie came over to give me a hug and apologised for keeping me in the
dark but I told her I didn't mind. She
then slammed the shovel through the tree's trunk to cut off the roots and then
handed the shovel off to Ben, who gave me a lopsided smile as he shrugged his
shoulder. I stood there with my mouth
wide open as she effortlessly lifted the tree I couldn't even move, slinging it
over her shoulder, and then gave me a cute smile as she set off down the path
back to the house with Ben. Lucas and I
hung back but followed them along the path as I kept bombarding Lucas with
questions. I wanted to know if he had
always been strong, how his dads worked out to get their bodies as amazing as
they were, how he was working out to bulk himself up and loads more things like
that. He managed to answer most of them
but a few he evaded by giving me the `wait and see' answer. As long as I got to see it though I didn't
care. I didn't think I could be happier
than the first time we kissed but things just kept getting better.
Further down
the path Lucas came to a stop outside one of the buildings we passed on the way
up to the forest.
"Is this
like, your home gym?" I asked. "Ben said it was your rec room."
"This is
where we come to let off a little steam sometimes. Welcome to the wreck room." He pulled one of the large, metal doors open
and I couldn't believe my eyes. "And
it's wreck room, spelt with a W."
\\\ Ben ///
When I saw
Lucas the week before I told him what Nick had said to me and asked what he
wanted to do about it. If Nick was going
to spend Christmas with us all then he needed to know the secret otherwise it
would make the whole day really awkward as everyone except him and his mum
would know. We sat down with his dads
and worked out a few scenarios for how we could tell him and came to the
conclusion that to tell somebody outright wouldn't really work as they wouldn't
believe it until they saw proof. The
best way we could think of was for Lucas to demonstrate something and then see
how Nick took it from there, and as they hadn't got their Christmas tree yet it
made sense for us to go and get it with Nick.
"Was that
what you expected?" I asked Sammie on
the walk back to the house.
"Honestly? No. I
was expecting one of us to go running after him through the forest with him
freaking out, but I guess you never really know what to expect when people find
out. Hopefully his mum's taking the news
just as well."
It was a
good thing the farm was so secluded as the sight of a teenage girl with an
eight foot tree draped over her shoulder would've definitely raised a few
eyebrows, especially with a slightly taller and, if I may say, pretty strong
looking guy next to her just carrying a shovel.
We reached the house and Sammie propped the tree up against a wall near
the front door before we made our way around to the kitchen. When we walked in our parents were all
sitting around the table laughing at a story that Uncle Luke was telling about
Alex and Josh from when they were younger.
There was a warped chunk of metal in the middle of the table and I could
see the shape of fingers etched into is, as if someone had just haphazardly
crushed it in their hands; almost like someone had taken a piece of Play-doh
and just closed their hand around it so it just oozed out between their
fingers.
"Hey guys,
how did it go down here?" I asked.
"No problems
here." Uncle Luke replied, smiling over
to Summer.
"How did
Nick take it?" She asked.
"Better than
I thought he would, I haven't seen him so excited." I replied.
"They're up in the wreck room so I don't think they'll be back for a
while."
Alex let out
a little chuckle. "That's not a bad
thing. Lucas has been on edge all week
so it'll be good for him to just let loose for a while. Did you get the tree ok?"
"Yeah it's
outside." Sammie said.
"Cool, let's
get it in and decorate it then." Alex
started standing but I had to cut him off.
"Actually
there's something else I needed to ask you guys about." Alex sat back down and I suddenly had seven
pairs of eyes looking curiously at me.
"Remember how we said about the showcase that the school do at the end
of every year?" Everybody nodded but
kept quiet. "Well Danny's had an idea
for an act but it will mean the rest of our crew knowing about you guys."
They all
looked a little uncomfortable but as I started to tell them about Danny's plan
I could see the cogs going round in Alex's head and he was smiling quite a few
times as I went into more detail. We
kept bouncing ideas around the table about the logistics of his plan and how we
could pull it off but it was definitely doable.
It seemed like both Alex and Josh had been missing their days of
dressing up so they definitely seemed up for it.
"Are you
sure they'll all be ok with our secret though?"
Josh asked anxiously.
"I think
they should be ok. Tom might be a bit of
a dick about it but he should be able to keep quiet." I replied.
"If we can
get them to rehearse here as much as possible then that'll normalise things for
them a lot quicker." Alex added.
"Maybe. I think we'll just get Christmas out of the
way first and deal with that in the New Year."
Josh said.
We spent the
next few hours getting the tree set up in the living room and when it was done
I thought back to the previous times I'd been here for Christmas. Sure I'd been jealous of Lucas when he'd been
showing off his strength or bragging about the things he'd done, but I always
liked having such a big gathering on the day.
This year was going to be even better though as it now felt like my
family was complete, and with Nick and his mum now in on the secret it meant
nobody would have to watch what they do or say when we're all together. I checked my watch and was surprised to see
the time. Lucas and Nick still hadn't
come back yet so I wondered what they'd been up to.