“Home for the Holidays”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

“Toby! Hurry up, we’re going to be late!”

“Coming!” I shout back, yanking on my pants and doing up the zipper. I grab my EMARC before bolting out the door.

Hanna’s standing outside, foot tapping impatiently as she looks at something on her phone.

“Sorry, sorry,” I huff as I skid to a stop beside her. “I’m here.”

“Don’t apologize to me,” she says with a smirk. “Apologize to your mom.”

She turns her phone screen to show me Mom’s impatient face staring back at me.

“Hi Mom,” I say sheepishly. “Sorry it took me so long.”

Mom rolls her eyes with exasperation. “I guess it’s a good thing I told you to be ready fifteen minutes early so you wouldn’t miss your bus.”

“You’re the best, Mom,” I grin. “We’ll see you soon.”

“See you, honey,” she says, giving me a small wave before hanging up.

Hanna slides her phone into her pocket before looping her arm through mine. “So,” she says as we begin walking toward the bus stop, “are we doing muffins today or tomorrow?”

“Depends. Do you have all the ingredients?”

She pauses, her nose scrunching up like it always does when she’s thinking. “Good question,” she finally replies. “I’ll get back to you on that.”

“So probably tomorrow then.”

“Probably.”

As we round the corner, we practically crash directly into Ellie.

“Oh, hey,” I say.

“Hi,” she says with a small smile. “Where are you guys going?”

“Home,” I say before frowning. “Are you not going home too?”

“Why would I be going home?”

“Because it’s a holiday!”

Ellie pauses for a moment before she nods. “Oh right.”

My frown deepens. She must’ve known that this weekend is a holiday, right?

“So you’re not going home?” Hanna picks up for me.

Ellie shakes her head. “My family doesn’t really celebrate holidays, so I’m just going to stay here.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.”

Final Comments: As soon as I finished this, I realized that I wanted more people to be going over to Toby’s house so that he invited Ellie to go too…

Overall Rating: 🤦‍♀️