“Ruby, why wake me up so quickly?” Sam grumbled.
“It’s Christmas, and unless you want me to steal your presents, you better get up! Besides, I couldn't go back to sleep because of the... noise.” Ruby threw me a disgruntled look. Sam sat up, yawning. He didn’t acknowledge my presence.
“Remember when we all used to open presents together? What happened to that?” I blurted out.
Both Ruby and Sam glanced at me like I was a boring artifact not worth looking at.
Sam rolled his eyes. “For the sake of tradition, then,” he said sarcastically. “Let’s get this over with.”
My rage took over me. “Look, are you seriously going to keep a grudge against me because of a fight over a pencil?”
That’s when Sam exploded. “I’ve been trying to be as nice to you as I can, Cory- but you make that impossible!” I wasn’t talking to him, though. My eyes were on Ruby. She sighed. “Let’s get this over with,” she said, echoing Sam- it was as if I hadn’t said anything.
We started with all of us opening Sam’s gift. Ruby’s present was a shirt that read ‘The Anti Finch Program.’ I couldn’t resist the snort that came out of my mouth. When they both looked at me, I pretended I was laughing over Sam’s present to me- a book that said ‘A Guide to Rulebreaking For Nerds’ that Sam had written himself.
Sam rolled his eyes. “Now let’s see if Cory’s present is any better.” He ripped apart the expensive wrapping paper I had used on his present, and for a moment he was speechless. It was a toy rabbit that was enchanted to move and talk and respond rudely to everything. As a joke, I had added puffy hair that looked exactly like Sam’s.
Ruby burst out laughing as the rabbit said in a perfect imitation of Sam’s voice, “I am better than everyone!” It spun in circles, singing “Finch is a loser, Finch is a loser!”
“Remind you of anyone, Sam?” I said innocently. He threw me a dirty look and started opening the rest of his presents, ignoring us.
Ruby teared open her gift from me, and gasped. It was a huge set of clothes, complete with accessories, and the colors varied from dark to bright. “Th-th-this is-” Ruby spluttered. “You’re welcome,” I said with a grin. Ruby flipped around, her red hair flying, and gave me a quick hug, and continued opening the rest of her presents.
Well, that was better than nothing.
I opened my present from Ruby and sighed halfheartedly. “Of course. Thanks a lot, Ruby.” She gave me an innocent smile. “Your welcome.”
It was a huge makeup set. Ruby was obsessed with trying to “erase those small flaws.” To her, I look like a princess. Ruby couldn’t resist giving me a lecture on my “beautiful looks.”
“Your dark auburn hair would look so pretty with your skin if you added a little foundation to your face. Oh, and your gorgeous blue eyes could do with some dark eyeliner and light brown or bronze eyeshadow. And if you could-”
“We get it, Ruby. Why don’t you try on the high heels Cory got you?” Sam called from across the room with a smirk. We all laughed.
Ruby would put on makeup a lot, and it suited her perfectly. She was never the fancy type- she would probably never wear a single pair of the flats I got for her. She was more into making others wear makeup. The day we met, she took one look at me and nearly fainted. She exclaimed, “I need to know what brand of foundation you use. What type of curler did you use on your hair? Your eyes, omigosh, are those blue contacts or just natural?” Her plain adoration for my apparently good looks made us instantly become friends. It was strange, though- she always tied her hair into a hasty ponytail every day, not bothering to check her own appearance because she was so excited for the adventure of looking for her next victim- I mean, her next person to obsess over.
Ruby and Sam had finished opening their presents. I just had one gift left. The wrapping paper, strangely, was random letters. I tossed the wrapper aside and inside was a cardboard box.
And then the box moved.
I jumped away. Something alive was in there. “C’mon, open it up, Cory!” Sam called. My fingers trembled and I opened the top.
Out leapt a cat, and it bounded away from the box as it headed for Sam’s face.