Beside You

"Maddie," someone whispered and the same someone (probably) gently brushed some hair out of my face. "It's Christmas, you have to get up."

Slowly consciousness seeped into my brain. The comfortable warmth under my covers made me want to stay there forever, while the knowledge that it was Christmas morning and a bunch of gifts were waiting for me downstairs contradicted the sleepiness with excitement. After a few moments the excitement won and I slowly opened my eyes.

Jared gave me a bright smile and ran his fingertips over the back of my hand that was resting next to my chin. I took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, enjoying the quiet moment. It didn't happen that often that one of them took the time to actually give me a nice wake up, instead of pounding on my door and telling me to get my ass out of bed or a bucket of cold water waiting to meet me (they'd done that a few times, so it wasn't an empty threat, unfortunately).

"Merry Christmas, Jare," I said quietly.

"Merry Christmas, Maddie," he replied and straightened up to his full 6'4''. "C'mon, the others are waiting downstairs."

I gave him a pout and slowly peeled myself out of bed. "Ugh, cold!" I complained, quickly sliding my bare feet into my slippers and my arms into my flannel robe that he helped me into.

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"Merry Christmas, sleeping beauty," Marc smiled, when Jared and I came into the living room. I grinned at him and plopped down into my seat between him and Jared, Mom and Dad sitting together on the loveseat.

"Merry Christmas, Marc," I told him leaning over to kiss his cheek. He rolled his eyes, but didn't complain or 'wipe off his cheek'. After I'd wished Mom and Dad a merry Christmas as well, Mom gave us our stockings and just like always my first breakfast consisted of Christmas candy and chocolate.

"Youngest one starts," Dad smiled and handed me a rectangular box that was a little too thick to be a Dvd and too long to be a book. I made quick work of the paper and let out a small cheer.

"Yes! The Mentalist! Thank you so much, that's awesome!" I beamed at my parents holding the first season box of the show in my hands. "We're watching that later, right?" I looked at Jared, who nodded immediately. He and I were mad into crime shows and always watched them together if we could.

Each of us unpacked one gift at a time after the age old order of youngest to oldest. The previous year Parker was up first, the first year I wasn't. This time Eric, Tanya and Parker were having their own little celebration, before they would join us as Gram and Gramps’ place.

After the first round Jared gave me his present next and I absolutely loved it. The little box I unpacked contained a silver necklace with a simple capital 'M' pendant, just the way I liked it. I had him help me put it on immediately and I was pretty sure it wouldn't leave my neck for a long time, I'd always wanted one like that.

Mom and Dad gave me another Dvd box, NCIS, and then Marc shocked me with his gift. It was by far the biggest box, which made me suspicious. It would be so him to put something small into a box like that, but when I opened the lid, I dropped it immediately and launched myself at him, smiling like crazy.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I gushed. "They're so awesome!"

They were a pair of silver pumps I'd seen on my last trip to New York, but didn't buy or ask for, because Marc had already treated me to quite some stuff back then and I didn't want to be a brat. Obviously he'd been paying closer attention that I'd thought, because now he'd given me them for Christmas.

"Oh, wow, you're a suck up," Jared laughed. "Matching shoes and bag?"

"There's a bag, too?" I flung around, feeding Marc my flowing hair, and my already impossibly large beam got a little bit bigger, when I saw the silver clutch in the box with the shoes. "Thank you so much, Marc," I told him and gave him another kiss on the cheek.

"You looked like you liked them, so..." He tried to shrug it off, but I could tell he was very happy I liked his gift so much, especially because we both knew he was going to take a lot of heat for the matching shoes and bag.

"Try 'em on," Mom urged me, so I hopped off the couch and stepped into the pumps, which added about 3'' to my height. I pulled my pajama pants up a little, so you could see the shoes, as I walked up and down the living room.

"I'm going to wear them to Grandma's later," I promised Marc and took my seat again.

"This one's from Jordan for you, Madison," Mom told me handing me a square box that was poorly wrapped, which gave away that it was from Jordan. Gifts from Eric were wrapped by Tanya, gifts from Marc by Mom right now, because he didn't have a girlfriend, and Jared was half-way decent at wrapping gifts.

The box had a little card on the top, which in Jordan's chicken scratch wished me a merry Christmas and told me the contents of the box were for when I was at competitions with Lady. Nothing I could think of that would be useful for riding competitions would fit in a box that size, so I found his message to be pretty cryptic, but when I opened it, it all made sense.

The box contained, next to several bun nets, an assortment of different colored crystal hair pins and little hair combs. For competitions I would have to pull my hair together and I was sick of the usual French braid, but buns just wouldn't stay in my hair, when I wore my helmet. That Jordan had thought of something like this was a little too good for me to believe, it was probably Mom behind that, but nevertheless it was a great gift.

Jared reached over my shoulder and picked up a green flower hairpin to hold it against my reddish tinted blond hair. "Color looks good with your hair," he told me and put the pin back in its place.

The gift giving and receiving was soon over; leaving the living room to look like a tornado had passed through it. There was wrapping paper and boxes everywhere. Mom disappeared into the kitchen to fix breakfast and I quickly followed her, not up to getting buried under the paper, like my brothers loved to do.

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"Madison! Abby's here!" Dad called up the stairs and I jumped up from hanging out with Jared on his bed to thunder down the stairs, eager to see my best friend.

"Hi!" I beamed, falling around her neck in a greeting hug. She laughed and hugged me back. "Wow, this is just not fair!" I complained, seeing how tan she was from a weekend of skiing up north.

"Yes, it is," she smirked and pulled me into the living room. "Oh my God, where'd you get those!" Her eyes immediately found my new shoes.

"New York," I grinned, snatching them before she could. "And no, you cannot borrow them."

"Wow, Marc is a suck up, he's got a matching bag to go with them," she commented dryly.

"Jared said the exact same thing," I laughed and grabbed my present for her from a shelf. "Merry Christmas, Ab," I told her, dumping it into her lap. She grinned and handed me a shoe-box size wrapped something.

"They're perfect, Maddie, thanks," she smiled, holding her new earrings up. Earrings were a pretty lame gift usually, if those hadn't been real silver and wouldn't match the bracelet I got her for her birthday a few weeks ago.

"Oh my God," I said, when I lifted the lid of the box. In the box was the most gorgeous Origami horse I'd ever seen. It had one leg lifted in a very graceful pose and I was completely speechless.

"It's gorgeous," I whispered, feeling as if I spoke loudly or touched the horse it might as well resolve to dust in my hands.

"I knew you'd love it, when I saw it," Abby beamed at me. "You can put it on your desk, you know?" I nodded, knowing exactly which spot she meant.

"Hey, that's a pretty neat horse you have there," Marc commented, peering over my shoulder. "Is that Origami?"

"Yeah," I nodded, giving him a small smile.

"Welllll, I gotta get home, my sister's in town and my mother will tan my ass if I'm late for lunch." With that Abby stood up, gave me a hug and told me she'd see me bright and early at the barn tomorrow for the parade.

Marc sat down next to me and held the paper horse delicately in his huge hands, inspecting it from every angle possible. "No idea how people do this, but it's pretty awesome," he smiled.

"I can do a pig... I think," I grinned and he laughed.
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"Merry Christmas, Grandpa!" I gushed cheerfully, skipping right inside after giving him a hug.

"She's got cold feet," Dad explained with a laugh, greeting his father-in-law as well.

"In those shoes? No wonder," Grandpa chuckled.

"Marc got them for me!" I told him happily and skipped along into the living room after dumping my coat on the pile on the stairs by the coat rack. After a little too much chocolate I was in a pretty good mood, greeting Grandma, Tanya, Eric and Parker almost hyperly. Eric just laughed at me and told me I was insane after Tanya commented on my new shoes.

"I like your top, it looks really good on you. Is it new?" she smiled. I nodded. "Where'd you get it?"

"Uhm, Victoria's Secret," I answered slowly, well aware that my brothers were in ear shot and I was not disappointed by their immediate response.

"Excuse me?!" Eric gave me an incredulous look. Marc's and Jared's heads had snapped towards me and Marc eyed me as if he couldn't decide how to take this, Jared just stared with wide eyes. "Did you just say Victoria's Secret? I think I misheard you."

Tanya laughed at my brothers' more than obvious shock, while I felt the need to defend myself. "They've got clothes, too, you know," I pointed out.

"Mom, did you know this?!" Marc looked at Mom, who was talking to Grandma while Parker played with the necklace she had on and hadn't been listening.

"Know what?"

"That Madison's shopping at Victoria's Secret!" Marc exclaimed as if it were a crime.

"She was there when I bought it," I glared at him. "Just because you send your girlfriends to find skimpy outfits there, doesn't mean I have to have some, too, you know." I let out a huff and plopped into a seat next to Dad, who was following the 'discussion' with an amused smile.

"Don't shop there again, okay?"

I shot Marc a look that told him exactly how much I appreciated his smart comment (not at all) and crossed my arms over my chest. Luckily Tanya had gotten over her laughing fit and came to my rescue.

"Guys, she's almost 17, not a little baby anymore. She's growing up and you're just going to have to deal with it," she said firmly, but also somewhat softly.

Eric glanced at me and put his face in his hands with a deep sigh, obviously frustrated to realize his wife was right, which in turn made me grin smugly. "That's just not right," he mumbled, sounding as if the world was ending. The way he exchanged a look with Jared and Marc afterwards though told me this topic was far from over.

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Grandma of course had gone all out for this year's Christmas late lunch/early dinner (Jared wanted to head over to his girlfriend's place later that evening and Tanya wanted to pay her family a visit as well, so we'd decided on a late lunch together instead of the traditional dinner). Starting off with two different kinds of soup, she fed us the traditional turkey, next to some chicken, rabbit and beef. On top of that she had several different kinds of vegetables to go with the pasta, mashed potatoes and fried potatoes. Dessert consisted of three flavors of ice cream with various sauces, toppings and pieces of fruit and/or Mousse au Chocolat (which I ate the largest part of, seeing as she always made it specifically for me, as it was my favorite dessert).

Moaning and groaning about our full bellies, the grandparents finally sat us down in the living room to hand out the presents. This time Mom was first, because Gram decided we should start at one end of the circle and move down the line then.

"Mom, this is from all five of us," Eric told her, handing her a professionally wrapped rectangular box. We all watched Mom's face closely, when she unpacked it, revealing a white gold bracelet with five different stones in it.

"They're our birthstones," I explained quietly as I sat closest to her on the other side of Dad. Her chin quivered softly as she lifted it up and when she looked up at us she had tears in her eyes.

"It's beautiful," she said softly, blinking a few times. I shared a proud smile with my brothers, happy my suggestion had been a success. Dad helped her put it on her wrist and for the rest of the night she kept twirling it around and glancing at it with an almost sentimental smile.

Dad received something useful from my grandparents, as always, and then it was my turn. Grandpa smiled at me, as he handed me a simple dark blue envelope. I thanked him and Grandma in advance, but I repeated it many times after that, because the envelope contained the confirmation that Madison Grace Staal had been signed up for a weekend trail ride, the same one I knew Abby and Matt were already signed up for as well.

My brothers got the traditional hockey related gifts; Tanya got an awesome patchwork blanket Grandma made just for her. Before I knew it, it was my turn again. Eric carefully handed me a pretty unshapely thing that despite Tanya's obvious efforts didn't quite fit the wrapping paper around it.

"It's antique," Eric told me, when I stared at the snow globe in awe. Within it there was a typical, highly decorated carousel horse complete with decorations and a gold pole, the foot of the globe fitting the theme off-white/pale yellow painting and the rose garland going around it.

I shook it gently and smiled, when the fine silver glitter swept up and around the horse. At a loss of words I gave my brother and my sister-in-law a grateful smile, which they noted happily. Just like Mom played with her bracelet all night, I kept picking up the snow globe to shake it and see the glitter dance.
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"Mom? Dad? We're out!" I yelled through the house, skipping down the stairs to where Marc was waiting for me at the front door.

"Be careful, sweetie, okay?" Mom smiled at me. "You did a good job with the braid," she said afterward, seeing the French braid I'd pulled my hair into. I crinkled my nose and shrugged.

"It's still so loose at the bottom though!"

"Practice makes perfect," she smiled, to which I only gave a frustrated huff. Much like my brothers I was pretty impatient about any kind of improvement and I preferred 'now' over 'later'.

"We won't be too long," Marc told Mom, but he was looking at me. I rolled my eyes and passed him on the way to his truck, mumbling about how he shouldn't have offered to drive me to the barn, if he didn't want to come.

"I wanted to come," he told me, only a step behind me. "I just don't want to be there a couple of hours watching you drool over Matt."

My head snapped towards him. "Eric told you?"

He grinned. "Nope. You just did."

"Ugh!" I huffed and got into the passenger seat. "You'd think I'd be better at this kind of shit after 16 years."

"Oh, well, Eric still gets me sometimes, so..." Marc laughed and nudged my shoulder. "I won't say anything, okay? Promise."

"You won't?" I looked at him in a mix of surprise and hope. I hated when they put me on the spot like this and I was terrified of any of my brothers saying something to Matt and then things were over before they'd even begun. That would be horrible and I wasn't sure if I'd ever talk to them again, if that happened.

"Even if you growing up freaks me out to the point where I want to lock you up, I guess you have a right to like somebody, huh? I don't like it and trust me, if I didn't know that both Dad and Eric sort of approve, I'd take that kid to a dark corner and give him a piece of my mind. But as long as he treats you right and doesn't hurt you, I guess I have nothing to say."

I stared at him. "Who are you and what have you done with my brother?!"

Marc smiled slightly. "Remember when you were in New York the last time?" he asked, seemingly ignoring my exclamation. I nodded. "I don't know what it was, but that weekend it suddenly smacked me in the face that you were growing up to be this gorgeous young woman and there was nothing I could do about it. It kind of frustrated me for a while, but I guess I still get to keep an eye on you, growing up or not, because you'll always be our baby girl."

I looked at my knees for a while, not knowing what to say. What he'd said surprised me, but it also was one of the nicest things he'd told me since a while. To be honest, growing up scared me, too. I liked being the youngest one, the baby, and the only girl. Call me spoiled, but I liked the attention and getting my way. I liked having four older brothers that despite riling me up like no one else, would do anything for me. I liked being watched over and protected by them and the thought of having to grow up and live my life on my own without their constant protection and guidance, well, it terrified me. I was scared that once I was too told, they'd stop and I didn't want that to happen.

It wasn't always easy being the only girl and having four brothers, four older brothers on top of that. I did have the elbow mentality down to T and I also knew how to use tears and a pout to get what I wanted. Many aspects of my life probably would be a little easier to handle without them, not only because of just the fact of having four older brothers, but also because all four of them are really good and famous ice hockey players. Nevertheless I still loved each and every of them to bits and pieces. They were my ultimate heroes, along with my parents, and I was their number 1 fan.

But just because you love your brothers, doesn't mean you get along with all of them perfectly. If I had to make a rating, it would probably be Eric and Jared sharing the first place.

Jared's always been my partner in crime. In the first years that was because we were both the youngest ones, and now it was because we had very similar interests. I doubt there's anyone that knows me as well as Jared, besides Abby, my life-long best friend. Whenever he's home, we watch endless re-runs and marathons of any crime show we can find on TV, we spend a lot of time lounging on our beds just hanging out and we find any type of thing to amuse ourselves with. He's always up for poking some fun at the other three and he's the best at keeping a straight face, when we pranked somebody. He's pretty much a best friend in brother form.

Eric's everything a big brother should and could be. He picks me up and drives me places at nearly any time of day and night. He taught me how to punch, how to ride a bike without training wheels, he showed me how to tape sticks and what pranks were the best ones to get back at everyone. He would bend over backwards to make things happen for me and he's always the first one to try and help me with any kind of stuff. When we had to bring a memory piece to school at the beginning of last semester, he let me borrow his Olympic gold medal and take it to school, after he suggested I take it. He's a good listener, despite being 10 years older than me. The age difference sometimes causes a certain distance between us, but he's good at not letting that stop him from hanging out with me.

I wouldn't say that Jordan is my least favorite one, because that sounds like I hate him, which I don't, but he's easily the brother that annoys me the most. Yelling, door throwing and stomping usually involves the two of us at home, he knows just what to say and do to get me riled up. He likes to pick on me, because I'm the youngest one and the only girl and I usually don't have a lot to shoot back at him. You'd think I'd be better at come-backs and being witty, but unfortunately I'm not. Jordan never knows when to stop, when his teasing has reached the point of no return and he's really hurting me instead of just poking fun at me. The only not-so-secret weapon I have is Mom, but I can't always run to Mom, when he gets on my nerves. He's taken a few beatings from the other guys for stuff he's said and done, but that doesn't even faze him. Jordan and I in the same room is like a ticking time bomb that you lost the timer of, so you don't know when it'll go off.

Marc is somewhere between Jared/Eric and Jordan. He has his moments, like this one in the car, where he surprises me with in-depth thinking and quality time and then there's moments, where he's just like Jordan and picks on me mercilessly. Only that he knows when to stop. He's not a man of many words, but he lets his actions speak louder. Compared to Raleigh, Sudbury and Pittsburgh I always have the most fun in New York, because Marc always has something fun for me to do or see. Being a defenseman and all he's also the go-to guy, if I want to get rid of some annoying boys from school or stuff like that. Nobody has a better I'm-not-amused-don't-mess-with-me face than Marc.

"Don't you dare say you're not gorgeous," Marc cut me off, when I opened my mouth finally. That was the last thing on my mind, obviously, but I took the repeated compliment nevertheless.

"You're biased," I smiled softly. "And that wasn't what I was going to say. I was just going to say I love you."

He smiled at me sideways and reached over to rub the top of my head (why do I ever bother doing my hair, when they're home?!). "I love you, too, Madison."