“Phew! We’re finally done!” Mike threw his huge bio book in the air. It did an ungraceful spin in the air before promptly landing in a mud puddle.
“Hm… Mike?” Ariel snickered.
“What?”
“You need that book next term.”
“Aw Shit!” Mike quickly retrieved the book, but it was almost fully soaked through.
Laughing at Mike’s attempts at drying off his book, Joe and Ariel yelled a quick good-bye to him before heading off to Joe’s house. The accounting final was tomorrow, and Ariel had pleaded with Joe for some last minute reviews.
“You know everything already Ari, so why are we doing more reviews?”
“I just need a little more help with section 3B. The prof says it’s going to be at least 30% of the exam.”
“But we went over that section at least 5 times. You know it forward and backward.”
“I just don’t want to take any chances. If I don’t get a B in this class, Prof McArthur says I won’t be able to enrol in her class next semester.”
“You didn’t tell me that earlier!”
“I know, but she only told me two days ago. Now you see what I need that review?”
———————————-
“Here you go.” Joe handed a bag of roasted chestnuts to Ariel.
“Thanks.” Ariel smiled. Who knew Joe was so considerate.
“Eat them while they’re hot, they taste better.” He said, “but not too fast, or you’ll burn yourself.”
“I know how to eat chestnuts Joe.” Ariel said wryly.
“I know that, I’m just…” He decided to be quiet. Why am blabbering like a fool? Come on Joe, show her you’re not an idiot!
“You want to walk around?” Ariel asked. Joe had insisted they get roasted chestnuts before they looked at the light displays.
“Sure.” He grabbed Ariel’s hand and led her to the nearest set of light. It was of Santa and his reindeers, and Rudolf’s nose glowed brightly.
Ariel blushed a little. No one has ever held her hand in public before, and instead of being embarrassed like she normally would be, she found she liked it.
For the next half an hour, Joe and Ariel walked around and looked at all the displays. Joe continued to hold Ariel’s hand and he was surprised she let him. It was 10 o’clock by the time they were done seeing the displays and Joe really wanted to ride the Christmas Train after. Even though she was starting to get worried about Mira at home alone, Ariel couldn’t refuse Joe’s puppy dog look. In the end, she agreed. Since it was near Christmas, the line-up was long.
Looking at all the families in the line-up, Ariel felt a little bit teary. She missed her family. A lot.
“You ok Ariel?” Joe asked, concerned.
“Yes.” Ariel gave a shaky smile. “Just thinking about my family, especially my parents.”
“Where you close to them?” Joe asked.
Ariel frowned at him, “yeah, I mean, they were my parents.”
“Oh.” Joe felt the need to defend his last comment. “It’s just that I’m not particularly close to my father. He’s off in Taiwan somewhere doing business related stuff and I haven’t seen him in at least half a year. He’s never really been there fore me, his business always came first.”
“That’s too bad.” Ariel looked pensive. “Kind of ironic. I’d do anything to talk to my dad again.”
Joe hugged her lightly. Ariel stiffened, then relaxed. “What’s that for?.”
“I don’t know.” Joe grinned. “seemed like you could use a hug.”
Ariel smiled back at him, his grin was infectious, “Thanks.”
“I’m so glad it’s almost Christmas.”
“Yes, me too. Especially since all the exams are done.”
Joe nodded, “You thought you did well on the exam, right?”
“I think so. I mean, I got answers for all the questions. I just hope I didn’t make a stupid mistake somewhere.”
“I’m sure you did fine.”
Ariel just nodded.
“Do you want to come over to my house on Christmas Day?” Joe quickly continued when Ariel looked at him questioningly. “It’s just both Mike’s and my Dad are not home on Christmas, so Mike and his Mom always come over to my house. I was just wandering if you want to come too.”
“Thanks for the offer Joe, but I don’t think so.” She elaborated when he looked disappointed. “Mira and I have been alone for years, so we developed all these weird traditions for ourselves around Christmas. One of them is that we must both stay at home.
“Besides, Mike would probably spend Christmas with Rainie.” Ariel continued him.
“Fine, I’ll just spend Christmas alone then.” Joe sighed melodramatically.
Ariel pinched him lightly before running onto the Christmas train – it was finally their turn.
On the train, they oh-ed and ah-ed like little kids at the various light exhibits. Joe put his arm around Ariel’s shoulder and she leaned on him. All too soon, it was time to go home. Joe looked increasingly uncomfortable as he drove near her basement. Although Ariel noticed, she pretended she didn’t.
“Ariel!” Joe called just before she was about to open her door.
“Yes?” She turned around.
“Do you,” He said extremely fast. “Doyouwanttogooutagainsometime?”
“What?”
Joe took a deep breath, “Do you want to go out again sometime?”
“Sure.” Ariel smiled, “but please stop sounding so nervous, it makes me nervous.”
Joe chuckled quietly, looked at her for a moment, and then leaned down and gave her a quick kiss on the lips before dashing away to his car.
Ariel stood there, rooted by the door for a long minute as she recovered from shock. That was my first kiss.
————————–
“I want all the gory details.” Rainie exclaimed excitedly.
“I told you Rainie, there aren’t any.” Ariel rolled her eyes as she was brewing coffee. Luckily, she wasn’t facing the counter, so Rainie didn’t see it. “And stop sounding like Mira. She grilled me for details when I got home last night too.”
“How can there not be any details. There’s got to be more to it than what you told me.”
“How do you know?”
“Because there is no way the only thing you did on your date was walk around Stanley Park while eating chestnuts!” Rainie sounded frustrated.
“That is all we did!” Ariel didn’t want to tell Rainie about the kiss. If she did, Rainie would probably get so excited that she would blurt it out so everyone in the Lotus could hear.
“I give up!” Rainie glared at Ariel. “You are hopeless.”
Ariel finally turned around and handed Rainie her coffee, “Jeez, what tipped you off?”
——————————-
“So you ran off? Just like that?” Mike asked incredulously.
“Yup.” Joe leaned back on the couch.
“You never cease to amaze me with the weird stuff you do around her.”
“I never cease to amaze myself.” Joe chugged down his eggnog.
“Why are you drinking eggnog?”
“My mom is making me, something about getting into the festive spirit. and if you don’t get out of here soon, she’s going to make you drink it too.”
“I’m outta here man.” Mike bolted for the door.
—————————-
“Nothing sir.” Arron reported to Ge. “We still don’t know why Ariel is hiding from him.”
Ge rubbed his temples, “why am I not surprised?”
“Our agents are concerned about James’ latest business transaction. It seems that he’s purchasing some land down in South America. The only reason we know about it is because the land he’s buying belongs to an orphanage. Since he doesn’t seem the charitable type, or San Salvador Office flagged him.”
“That is odd. Find out why he’s buying it. It’s definitely illegal, whatever it is,” Ge looked at the paperwork infront of him. “but he’s good. All his documents and paper works are perfect and his stories and alibis air tight. We can’t get any proof on him. All these cover-ups are professionally done. We need to find out who’s doing them.”
“What do we do once we find out?”
“We need to take him out. His company is making a tone of profit – far too much to be gained through legal means and he’s rapidly becoming powerful.” Ge took a close look at the piece of paper in his hands. “He’s dangerous.”
“If you say so, Sir.”
Ge frowned at Arron, “Just spit it out.”
“He is Ariel and Miranda’s stepfather. Wouldn’t they be upset if you arrest him.”
“Judging by the way they’re running from him, I don’t think so.”
“But what if they’ve only got a small quarrel with him and were merely being stubborn and wilful by running away? Wouldn’t they be upset then.”
“Ariel’s not like that. You know that. It doesn’t matter anyways. If what he’s doing is illegal, we take him down.”
————————–
“Joe, dude! Come hang out with us.” Jason yelled loudly into the receiver.
“I don’t-“ Joe started saying.
“Don’t tell me you don’t have time,” Jason slurred, he was definitely drunk. “You haven’t hanged out with us since you started going out with your new girlfriend.”
“We’ve only been going out for a few days you idiot, and stop drinking so much!”
“You’re such a pansy Joe.” Jason swore, “Maria honey, I’ll be with you in a second.”
“Where are you?”
“We’re at Jessica’s.”
“Jessica. Your blond and blue eyed ex-girl friend who swore never to talk to you again?” Joe asked in disbelief.
“Yeah, she couldn’t get enough of me.”
“And yet you’re with another girl right now?”
“So What? Jess and I are hardly exclusive.”
“You’re an ass.”
“Hey, she’s in a room with Brian. I bet you don’t need to me tell you what they’re doing.” Jason chortled as if he told a funny joke. “Oh, that feels good Janice… Oh yes Chelsea.”
“Look, I got stuff to do, I’ll see you later.”
“That lame excuse won’t work… ah… today. If you’re ah not ah here in 30 minutes, I’m going to go over to your house. We all ah know how much your mother loves me.”
Joe didn’t even want to think about what Jason was doing and felt annoyed. Mrs. Cheng hated Jason. She hated his spiky hair, multiple body piercings, and oversized clothing, and he knows it. Anytime he wanted Joe to do something, he threatened to come over. Joe didn’t like Jason much either, but since that one time Jason got him out of trouble in grade 9, it seemed like he was always doing what Jason wanted.
“Stop shitting me man.”
“I’m not fucking kidding you. Get here or I’ll go there.” Jason hung up the phone.
Joe slammed down his phone, grabbed his coat, and started driving to Jessica’s house. Jason is annoying, immature, and a slob, but he never goes back on his words. If Joe didn’t show up in the next 30 minutes, Jason will make good of his promise and come to Joe’s house, and that could be disastrous. Why the hell am I friends with him?
——————-
Hi Guys! Thanks for reading. Sorry for the long gap between the updates. I was going to update around New Years, but I got a bacterial infections and couldn’t. Then school started, and well… Anyways, enjoy this update and please comment!
Happy Chinese New Year!
Next chapter will be longer!