Page 102 of Knox Academy Omnibus
F*ck Off
Chapter One
Amelie
Christmas day is one of the very few days of the year that I love; my favourite holiday. A small part of me was looking forward to spending it in the UK. It would have been my first cold Christmas, with hot chocolate and a fire.
Here it's a thousand degrees and there is no way we could wear ugly sweaters. Elsie was obsessed with them, she had already bought several before I left. I feel a pang thinking of her, but push it down.
Our family goes all out for Christmas. Dad and Chelsea invite anyone that has nowhere else to go over for lunch. She goes completely over the top: snags, chops, seafood...anything that Dad can cook on the BBQ. All surrounded by family and friends.
Aadi and I have our own small tradition, which is why it is safer to be the first awake on Christmas morning. I made sure to get him wasted last night and waited until he passed out to set up my prank.
“AHHHHH!” he screams, right on time. He wakes up like clockwork at seven each morning. “Milly, I’m going to kill you!”
“Over my dead body!” Smalls booms from his room.
I smile at how protective he is, right before a pang of guilt hits me hard. I haven’t told Smalls about the guys – not that there's much to tell – but for a brief moment, I felt like I had moved on from the way I felt about him. Being home changes things though.
“I will take you, man! I have a mouse trap stuck to my toe...someone help me.”
I laugh at the pathetic ending to his arrogant brag and push my covers back. I cross the hall and find my brother lying on the floor. A massive smile hits his lips.
“It’s nice to have you back. Shitty pranks and all. Even if we only have another couple of weeks with you.”
I force another smile out; I haven't told them I won’t be going back. I may have said I missed them so much that I was granted an extended holiday. They haven't questioned it, and no one from the school has called my father to tell him otherwise.
I help him remove the mouse trap from his toe, and laugh again. We both look so incredibly stupid. Because I have this fantasy of a cold wintery Christmas, Chelsea bought us all matching Xmas onesies and blasted the air conditioning for the night and morning. I love her so much for the effort she puts in to make it special.
Smalls comes out of his room grumbling about his onesie giving him a camel toe, and Aadi and I lose it; he looks so much more ridiculous than we do. At six foot seven and a hundred and fifty kilograms he’s a monster of a guy. Completely and utterly terrifying. When he’s not dressed in a fleecy reindeer onesie that is.
“Let’s go open gifts,” I say, unable to contain my excitement. The guys follow me downstairs, where Dad and Chelsea are already up and waiting.
“It’s about time you all woke up, I was going to start unwrapping gifts without you.” She gets as excited as I do, but we all have a one-gift each rule. We are allowed to buy everyone only one present; you can spend as little or as much as you like on the gift, but only one.
I count the gifts under the tree and notice that someone has not listened to the rule this year. Chelsea is still beaming like the Cheshire Cat.
“What’s wrong with your face?” Smalls asks her.
“I can’t keep it in anymore! I got a delivery this week and when I opened it, it was full of gifts for Amelie, with a letter asking me to hide the gifts until today!” She pulls out four boxes from under the tree.
“Throw them away,” I snap.
“Why, I thought they were from your friends? It's Christmas, open them.”
“Fine,” I huff. The gifts are all wrapped to perfection, except one. I smile and open it first because I know it’s from Kalen and I miss him. The parcel is hard enough that I know he hasn’t sent me lingerie – thank god – but a moment too late I worry that I’m about to open a sex toy in front of my family. My cheeks flame but I needn't have worried; it’s a framed picture of himself in his speedo. I shake my head, snorting. I still hate him, but this is so him. Ugh, I hate him and I miss him. I need to sort my head out.
“Who is that?” Chelsea asks with girlish interest. “Your boyfriend?”
“No, that is Kalen. He’s one of the biggest jerks at Knox Academy, and also my future stepbrother...or I should say, our future stepbrother, Aadi? The incubator just announced her engagement.” I watch my brother's face screw up and the vein in his neck protrude; he’s trying to rein in his temper. My father’s face is impassive.
Next, I open a smaller box, which contains a charm bracelet. It doesn't have many charms, but I know it’s from Sawyer: it has a pink cocktail; a classic car; and a running shoe. I quickly move on to make work of opening the other two gifts which are from the twins. A homemade mix CD that I know is from Slate, and from Onyx a Fitbit. He’s obsessed about his fitness, and to many it wouldn’t seem like a sweet gift, but I know it is an exact match to his, just a little more feminine.
“What thoughtful gifts! It seems like you all get along really well,” Chelsea says. She’s always looking at the positive side of life.
“Until we didn’t,” I say quietly, and thank God Smalls knows me so well because he sidetracks Chelsea with the gift he bought for her.
After we all exchange gifts,
