(Fanfiction) Christmas Time

#### Kevin Oviedo

Kevin is the main character, and the story is told in his point of view. He does not celebrate Christmas, as he is Jewish and celebrates Hanukkah. He is social and intelligent, but sometimes capable of being deeply saddened by things other people might not be too affected by. He is an only child.

#### Susan and Jamie Oviedo

Kevin's aunt and cousin (respectively) who are from out of town.

### Kevin's classmates

#### Milo and Ethan Blackbill

Two twin brothers who are two of Kevin's best friends. They are also from out of town and debate about mundane things. Ethan is the older brother by 17 and a half minutes.

#### Misha Gabavics

One of Kevin's old friends who used to be close with him in their toddler years. She moved away when they were in grade 2, but came back to town this year.

#### Mashiro Sugawara

A Japanese classmate who is one of Kevin's other best friends. She has ADHD and is allergic to milk.

## Chapter 1 - Last Day of School

Hi, I'm Kevin; full name Kevin Austin Oviedo. I am 12 years old and in grade 7. Today is my last day of the 2017 school year, since we have a week until Christmas. But here's the catch, I don't actually celebrate Christmas. In fact, I'm Jewish, which means I celebrate Hanukkah, but I do enjoy being taught about Christmas and doing Christmas activities with my class. Hanukkah started on the 12th, and it ends today, which is the 20th of December. My aunt Susan and cousin Jamie will be visiting me and my family for dinner after school.

As I waved to my family before boarding the bus, I walked up the aisle and sat by a girl in my homeroom named Misha. We talked about the White Elephant gift exchange that would be taking place today. I do not know Misha very well, but we used to be best friends until the end of kindergarten. She had to move, but she came back home this year. She does not approve the idea of gift exchanges, because if you do not like the gift you were given, you can't exchange it for something else. While I don't support that rule myself, it is understandable why it would be in place, especially considering you can't trade gifts with other people.

I held my gift, a pack of dreidels, on my lap. It was wrapped in green, red and white wrapping paper and were secured shut in a small black cloth bag I got at the dollar store. When we arrived at school and in math class (our homeroom teacher, Mrs. Marshe is out of town to visit her family for the holidays), we both went to our own friend groups. Misha went over to Jessica and Paulina, and I went over to Milo and Ethan, who were my best friends since grade 2. The two of them are twin brothers and came from out of town. Once everyone came in, our math teacher, Mr. Hand, was dressed in a Santa suit and everyone laughed at him. He was fine with it, because he never gets offended... unless you say something about his father that died during the Korean war. He also refers to us by our first and last names when taking attendance and picking teams for games.

"Okay," he began to speak. "Firstly, I would like you all to come up to this table and put your gifts there." After we put our gifts where he asked, we sat back down. "Good. Now, I will be picking teams with these popsicle sticks," he stated. "I am going to be doing this with my eyes closed, so you guys won't have to worry about me cherry picking."

I did the math in my head. We would be split into groups of 12. That makes 24. There are actually 26 students in class, but the last 2 are special needs students we never get to see. "I have finished picking the groups," he began. "Team 1 is... Paulina Radcliffe, Zachary Rippentrop, Kevin Oviedo, Zenia Song, Joey Trimble, Russel Evans, Evanna Coyle, Ethan Blackbill, Tabby Blymyer, Kody MacAgnano, Jack Reumann and Gene Wabiszewski." Ethan and I began to cheer and high-five eachother because we were on the same team.

Mr. Hand begin to speak again. "As for team 2, Jessica Wabnick, Milo Blackbill, Mashiro Sugawara, Juanita Le Alcala, Levi O'Berski, Lars Zuccar, William MacCaskey, Nathan McDole, Evony McKyle, Ace Nachamkin, Misha Gabavics and Melody Meyer."

Our team was first. We all went around the table in a circle and blindly picked out our gifts. We were given 30 seconds. I picked out the one in plain green wrapping paper with a gold ribbon. It felt a bit flimsy, but I thought nothing of it. When the other team was finished, we all opened our gifts and looked at them. Here's what everyone got:

**Team 1:**Paulina got a hairbrush, Zachary got a teddy bear, Zenia got my present (the bag of dreidels), Joey got an art kit, Russel got a Harry Potter book, Evanna got wires (for some reason, it was probably Milo, since he enjoys pranking and messing with people), Ethan got a set of hockey trading cards, Tabby got three water pistols, Kody got a chocolate bar, Jack got a a bunch of books and Gene got a DVD of The Emoji Movie (probably because the main character's name is Gene as well, I guess).

You're probably wondering what I got. Much to my chagrin, I got a piece of loose leaf paper with my name on it, written in a dull pencil which clearly has never been sharpened. Below my name was a shoddily drawn fire colored with dull crayons. I was immediately confused. It was Levi's present. I asked him what it was after the exchange and he said it was a bookmark.

**Team 2:**Jessica got a headband, Milo got a candy cane, Mashiro got a small box of candies, Juanita got a bottle of hand lotion (because her hands get very chappy and sometimes bleed a lot in the winter; sometimes it gets so bad she will sometimes wear gloves the whole day to cover up the blood), Levi got acne products (he has very bad acne; looks like we have two lucky eggs), Lars got a case for his glasses that looked like a penguin, William got a winter hat, Nathan got two comic books, Evony got a beauty kit, Ace got a pack of mini skateboards, Misha got a cupcake baking kit and Melody got a DVD of the 13th season of Family Guy.

Do keep in mind the presents Juanita and Levi picked out were not their own.

Upset with the gift I have received, I threw it into my backpack and tried to dust off the crayon wax that was on my hands. We went over to our geography class to do some kind of Christmas word search which nobody even did. Then again, Ms. Willis doesn't care what we do anyway; she never takes the time to explain what we do throughout our regular classes. She's possibly never going to be fired because her son also works at the school and is popular among the female grade 10 students.

When we went back to homeroom, no teacher was in sight and nobody ever came in. We occupied ourselves with our phones, books, conversations, laptops, pretty much anything we could get our hands on. When I got a laptop from the crate I noticed that Kody tried to download Minecraft off of a virus site, but I also saw Misha and Mashiro stop him before he could complete the transaction. Mashiro told me not long after that his laptop almost broke during the ordeal. When I sat back down with my laptop, she jumped to an open space beside me and bumped me with her hip, almost slamming my head against the wall.

Now, let me tell you something about Mashiro. I have known Mashiro since grade primary and she has always been insanely rambunctious and hyper, and sometimes has trouble holding herself together. This is because she has ADHD and easily excitable. She is also another one of my close friends and she has been over to my house on numerous occasions. Mashiro is Japanese, and what her people call the Sansei, which means that she is apart of the third generation of immigrants in her family. Her grandparents immigrated here in 1966 and her parents were born in 1975 and 1977, respectively. Mashiro is very cultural and proud of her heritage. She is so confident and prideful, not even the bullies we have encountered can stop her.

As the bell rang at 3:00, Mashiro, Misha, Milo and Ethan and I said our goodbyes and went our seperate ways. Misha and I talked about how we should hang out more often.

## Chapter 2 - The Hospital Visit

As I bolted through the door to greet my family, I noticed that Aunt Susan and Jaime didn't arrive yet. I asked why, and she stated that they had to go out of town because her husband got in a car accident and isn't likely to survive. Deeply saddened, I slumped over to my room upstairs and stared blankly at the ceiling. To fill the void, I played on the computer and texted some friends. My mood was improving thanks to Milo and Ethan. Surprisingly, Mashiro has not been responding to my texts. This was a definite head-scratcher, as she has never done this before.

As I heard the phone ring, I began to listen closely.

"Hello?" my mom spoke.

"Oh, hello Kayoko."

"Okay."

"Okay. We will be there soon."

"No problem. Goodbye."

I felt my heart sink and ascent back up, lodging itself into my throat. "Kevin," my mom called out from the kitchen. "Can you come here? We have to talk." As I crept out of my bed and walked silently to the kitchen, I lifted my head up and sat down in a chair near the dining table. "Kevin, there is something wrong with Mashiro," she said. "She just had an allergic reaction not too long ago. She had some sort of an allergic reaction when drinking milk, and she might end up dying if she is untreated for too long." I felt my heart sink again and began to cry like a small child. "Come on. We're going to the hospital." she said as she nudged her head to the door. I put on my thick, dark blue winter coat and my grey boots and ran into the car.

As we ran into the room that Mashiro, her parents and her siblings were in, I saw her lying in a hospital bed, her eyes puffy and red, unable to open. A puke bucket was nearby. "Oh, Maya! I'm so glad you could come." her mom exclaimed as she ran up and hugged my mom. "Mashiro is in critical health. I am so scared she will end up dead."

I tried greeting her, but she could only raise her hand up for a short amount of time.