I have to admit, I was excited for Christmas Day. Not as excited as usual, because I was going to have to share my day with Emma, but Christmas was always my favourite day of the year and Granny was coming over, so it would be great to see her.
Mummy woke me up at seven, which was a bit strange because I would usually have to go into her room to wake her up.
"Grandma's here," she announced, which was equally strange, since she usually came over at ten. "Are you going to come with me to wake Emma up?"
"No." Why would I want to do that? "I'm going to see Granny."
"Okay, Emma and I will be down in a minute." She ruffled my hair, and then left my room for Emma's.
As she went, I rushed downstairs with great speed, so I could get to Granny before Emma. She was sitting in the armchair by the window, chatting with Daddy who was perched on the edge of the sofa.
"Back in a mo', Luke," he said whilst standing. "I'm just off upstairs."
It was only then that I took a moment to study the presents scattered across the carpet, noting that half were wrapped in red paper and half in blue; half for me and half for Emma. Why did I have to share everything with her? It was so frustrating!
"Excited, deary?" Granny asked, interrupting my thoughts.
I stood thoughtfully still for a moment before replying, "yes, I am."
"Come sit on your old Granny's knee," she commanded, patting her legs. "I've brought your presents early this year, so you can open them first for a change!"
I felt truly excited, before approaching footsteps informed me that Emma would be joining us in just a few seconds, ruining the moment. My body tensed.
"We'll just wait for you Dad and then we can open the presents," Mummy said as she entered the room, Emma by her side.
"Hiya Lukey," she called, flashing me a grin. I smiled back reluctantly, unsure if she was actually being nice or just pretending.
Over the past weeks, I had tried my best to avoid Emma as much as possible, dreading another event like the one at Hallowe'en. Unfortunately, it was very difficult, as Mummy kept making me sit with her and I couldn't avoid us walking into school together. I knew I could never fully trust my sister again, no matter how hard she tried to make up for what had happened between us.
Sometimes, when we were alone together, she would mumble "I'm sorry," in my ear. She was nice to me at every opportunity, but the memory of her shoving me against the bathroom wall would always haunt me.
"It was Tod," she told me last week, in a desperate attempt to get me back on her side.
"No, Emma," I snapped back. "It was you, not stupid "Tod". He doesn't exist. He's in your head!"
"You don't understand what it's like," she grumbled. "It's not easy to control him."
"You're crazy," I said. "I know you're crazy, even if no-one else does!" Then I left the room, unable to stand being near her any longer.
But today felt different, so I decided to give her a chance for once. After all, it was Christmas. I wouldn't let her ruin that for me, so I slid off Granny's lap and slid down next to her on the carpet, a safe distance away, but the nearest I'd willingly been to her in the past two months.
"I'm back again!" Daddy announced as he re-entered the room, his arms spread out dramatically. "Who's ready to open presents?!"
Emma and I looked at each other, just for a second, suddenly understanding each other again, both with a "he's so silly!" expression on our faces. In that moment, I knew I had my normal, non-threatening sister back, so I let out a long-awaited laugh. It felt so good.
Almost as soon as the noise had left my mouth, Emma began to join in, her laughter high-pitched and giggly. Then Granny let out a huge, cackling laugh, Daddy joining her almost immediately with his low chuckle. Mummy, being the sensible one, took a while to give in, but she eventually allowed a quiet noise escape her lips, which sounded a lot like a laugh. Eventually, tears were rolling down her cheeks and the house was filled with giddy laughter, all for absolutely no reason. It was a truly brilliant moment.
Present opening is always the highlight of Christmas for me. Of course it is! This year, Emma and I had a competition to see who could open their presents the slowest and she won by a mile. Granny said she "has the patience of a saint." I don't know what that means.
Some of the presents I received included: a set of books, a DVD and some chocolates from Granny, a craft kit, soft toy, board games and much more from Mummy and Daddy. Emma was given very similar presents; however, she also received some fruity lip balms, a pink hairbrush and hair clips.
Each time she opened a present, I thought she was going to burst from excitement. I've never seen somebody so thrilled to get a hairbrush. And there was nothing she disliked - not even some boring hair bobbles!
"Looks like it's breakfast time now," Daddy announced when all presents were opened, and with that, the pancake making began!
In our family, it was a Christmas tradition to have pancakes for breakfast.
"What's a pancake?" Emma had asked.
At this, Daddy pretended to gasp in horror. "You'll find out in a minute, Em. Come on - to the kitchen now you two!"
A few minutes later, we were eating our delicious breakfast drizzled with honey, our fingers sticky with the drippy syrup.
"Do I get a pancake?" Granny poked her head around the doorway.
"Only if you make your own!" Daddy joked, then added "I'll put you one on now, mum," when she glared at him.
My parents disappeared upstairs again when breakfast was over, so I occupied myself by taking apart the packaging of some of my presents and flicking through my new books. Emma tested out her new lip balms.
"Lukey, Em, come upstairs!" Daddy suddenly called out - probably from his bedroom. "We've got one more joint present for you both!"
My day was getting better and better!
"Keep your eyes closed - we'll guide you in," he instructed as Emma and I nearly entered the room. We covered our eyes with our palms, as if playing a game of hide-and-seek, then carefully edged our way across the floor. I had to release my arms to hold them out before my body, as if pretending to be a zombie. A hand on my shoulder guided me.
"You both ready?" Mummy called softly, her voice barely reaching me.
"Yeah!" we cried.
"Can I peek yet?" Emma was beginning to giggle. I opened my eyes a crack to try see what she was doing, catching a flash of black hair in the corner of my vision.
"'Right," Daddy began. "Three, two, one-"
I opened my eyes fully.
"Omygosh!" Emma was the first to see our present.
I scanned the room quickly, not wanting to miss out. I laid eyes on our present and gasped. It was the cutest little puppy I had ever seen - a brown and white patchy spaniel puppy.
"Mummy!" I cried out, knowing it was her idea more than Daddy's as she was always the one who bought most of the presents. "Oh, mummy, he's adorable!"
"She," she corrected. "She's a girl."
"Can we name her?" Emma squealed, then knelt down onto her knees so she was a similar height to the puppy. She slowly reached her hand out to stroke her head and our new dog let out a little yap, wagging her shaggy tail excitedly.
"What shall we call her, Luke?" Emma turned to face me.
"I don't know," I shrugged.
"Come on, you two, she needs a name," Daddy said, leaning over to scratch her behind the ears. "And if you don't come up with one quickly, I think I've got one."
"What is it?"
"Bella."
"I think that's a nice name!" Emma grinned. "How would you like to be called Bella?" she asked the dog.
"I'd love that!" Daddy replied for her, using a squeaky, silly voice. "Are you alright with that, Luke?" he then asked using his normal tone.
"Yes."
And, just like that, on Christmas Day Bella joined our family. She was so cute and so playful, but I knew she could never replace Barney. Still, I loved her very much.
But I would always wonder what had happened to Barney.
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