Exchange

We were a week and a bit out from Christmas and school was starting to wind up, we still had a few days of school left but then had two weeks off and would be back right after new years. That also meant I only had a few weeks left before I had to go back home which I felt uneasy about whenever I thought about it. It had been a while since Pat had held that thing over my head in homeroom and I’ve been mischievously scheming since, knowing that he’ll probably say it at some point thinking that he’s got one over me… except that he doesn’t know that well… everyone already knows, but I made sure he doesn’t know what everyone knows.

On our way home from school Kayleigh insisted Sebastien take us by the mall on the way home so we could finish our Christmas shopping.
"so who have you got left to buy for?" Sebastien asked as we waited for our hot chocolates from the Tim Hortons in the mall food court. It had gotten absolutely freezing here since the start of winter, I mean I'd been to the snow before but right now Montreal was like living in an Australian winter, in the snow, at the top of Mt Kosiosko... Only about 15 degrees colder... All the time. Most of the time we were in doors but once the snow had started to set in around the city there was no chance of going out to the park or anything.

"just Kayleigh, my sister and... You!" I said
"me? Now what would I like?" he said being a smart ass,
"then how about we split up and meet back here in 2 hours? Or is that too long?" kayleigh asked looking down at her list of things she needed to get.

We got our hot chocolates and all headed off into separate directions. I first stopped off at a jewelry store to find something small for my sister, settling on a ring that had the word "Montreal, QC, CA" engraved on the band. It was very pretty it had a small clear stone in the middle surrounded by silver leaves making a small flower atop of the band. I was glad I found that, and I had a few nick nack things for her that I had bought over the last few months, do she was done. Now for Kayleigh, little miss fashion, I think she's been the most difficult person on my list but I can't escape it anymore. I walked by a few stores and I was considering even a gift card since she was so difficult, but as I walked past one store, a really nice cardigan caught my eye. It had a very vintage look to it, yet could easily be matched with anything as it was a soft golden-brown colour with royal blue along the cuffs and collar of the cardigan. As I searched for the right size, I felt how soft the cardigan was, knowing that she would absolutely love it. I found a scarf in the same store that matched the cardigan and bought it also. Before starting my hunt for Sebastien's present, I had really left the two most difficult to last, I stopped by a $2 store and purchased a gift box, some craft supplies and a bunch of cheap items that would all end up inside the box. Once I had everything I needed for Kayleigh I started hunting for Sebastien.

Since Sebastien had rarely let me pay for anything while I was here, I had saved a lot for him. My first stop was the music store, I had actually been in here last time we were at the mall getting presents and just had to pick up what I had ordered along with a few CDs I knew Seb would appreciate. "hi i'm picking up something for Jessica Sullivan" I told the guy at the counter, once I had collected the few CDs I needed. "custom guitar picks, yes?" the guy asked taking one out of the box and showing it to me, "yes that would be them" I said excitedly before paying the balance on the order plus the CDs. Once I had those all ready to go, I headed to the toy store knowing exactly what I needed to get, honestly this idea was probably by far one of my best. I headed for the Lego section knowing Sebastien is probably the biggest Lego nerd I have ever had the pleasure of coming across. But this wasn't any Lego, it was the new star wars Lego, so I knew for a fact that he didn't have it, and this one had little storm troopers and a little R2D2 which I knew he didn't have; he had all his Lego in one corner of his room.

I found the Lego I was looking for and headed to the nearest counter.
"Star Wars Lego, nice choice" the guy, who was probably around my age, commended, "thank you" I said with a reassuring smile. "a gift or for yourself?" he asked as he put the purchase through the system, "a gift for my boyfriend, I wish it was for me though" I responded chuckling at the last part. "well he must be lucky, his girlfriend has the right taste in Lego" he said chuckling along with me. I left the store and headed back to the food court where we first separated. When the other two showed up we all kept our presents hidden from one another until we got home to wrap them and put them under the Christmas tree.

"can't you just tell me what you got me?" asked Kayleigh while we headed to the ice rink to meet everyone. "man you're impatient!" I said teasingly, "Kay, Christmas is in 4 days I think you can wait. Besides all your other presents from everyone else are there, you can wait" I told her and she just sat there pouting. We got to the Ice rink and found everyone, they all thought I was weird because I'd never been to an outdoor ice rink, but the reality of it was that they don't exist back in Australia, it's really just not cold enough for the ice to hold. We only had indoor ones. "can you skate at all then?" asked David confused by what I had attempted to explain, "I've done it a few times but I wouldnt call myself good at it" I said pulling on my skates.

At first I didn't want to leave the edge of the rink; it was a lot bigger than any rink I had ever skated in before, but since everyone had lapped me a few times I figured it was time to give it a shot away from the edge... Until I fell. "take my hand" insisted Sebastien holding it out to help me up, "but I'll probably make you fall, what use are you then?" I replied, "I've been skating since I could walk, trust me and just take my hand" he pushed getting closer to me. I figured the only other way up was to make my way through all these people back to the edge so I took his hand, he helped me up and then kept his arm around me keeping me stable as we skated around the rink. I eventually got really confident and we started all chasing each other... Until Pierre and Chuck; the ultimate hockey and ice nerds decided to start doing little tricks and jumps... Such show offs. I had gotten to the point where I was starting to freeze, even inside the big Parker and all the layers I was wearing and thought it best to get off the ice; before I fall again and get even colder, and grab some hot chocolate to keep me warm. Clearly I was the trend setter because as I was waiting for my hot chocolate the rest of the group came running over for the same reason before a few people standing around the rink started to think it was also time to warm up. It was starting to get late, and the later it got the colder it got. It was already cold during the day with the ruthless whiplashing wind, but once the sun set, Montreal became an icicle; even worse if it snowed. We all ended up grabbing some brownies and extra hot chocolate before running to our cars and getting in with the heat on as high as it would go.
"see ice skating wasn't so bad" Kayleigh grinned, "yeah were you the one sitting on your butt freezing?" I asked laughing at myself making her and Sebastien laugh with me.

*last day of school*

"Jess how you feeling?" asked belle, sitting there picking at her food
"fine, why wouldn't I be?" I asked
"plenty of reasons" shrugged Pat and I shot him a stare that told him to shut up, "you stacked it a fair few times the other night" belle clarified. "yeah I'm fine, just a few bruises, nothing I can't handle" I assured her, "I've handled worse" I joked looking at Sebastien who just cracked a smile at my stupidity since he knew exactly what I was referring to. I had been waiting for the right moment for the last few weeks, I knew that out group of friends all knew Seb and I had splet together but that Pat hadn't said anything so that he really had nothing over me. I had been sussing out the situation from Pats point of view and knew what had to be done. Pat was waiting for me to say something that would piss him off BADLY, not just a little thing, and would remind me that if I said what I was going to say he'd spill it. He liked a bit of gossip I guess, I swear that boy is going to grow up to be a great journalist, or well gossipist, one day.

The only thing that would make decent gossip around here though would be anything to do with the popular kids. Don't get me wrong our groups social status at this school was slowly increasing because of the band, but in general we were still those kids that sit in the back corner with that band. Or even worse; Kayleigh's brother and co.

I had been scheming these last few weeks and the best I could come up with when it came to gossip was dragging Pat into something in the middle of the girls, that used to be Kayleigh's friends, we're involved in but really it hadn't been going too well... So I turned to pranks.

Later that night we were all hanging out at Pierre's place watching Christmas movies; Pierre and I insisted that we watch 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation' which as it turns out is one of Pierre's favourite movies. I have to admit, Chevy Chase is a complete idiot but this movie is hilarious and has to be my favourite Christmas movie. Since everyone was getting busy over the holiday period I wouldn't get to see them all that much before I left so we all stayed up as long as we could watching movie after movie until everyone was asleep, well excluding Pierre and myself. Sebastien asked to stay out of my pranks tonight, he said he loved me and that he didn't mind me pulling pranks (so long as they weren't on him) but that he'd rather not be in on this one with Pat... Not just yet. Pierre on the other hand? Pierre was always up for a prank no matter what, so he stayed up with me. We figured we would go typical prankster on him.

Pierre disappeared off to the kitchen, returning with a jar of berry jam, whipped cream, tomato sauce and some utensils. Lucky for us Patrick slept pretty heavily so really we could probably get away with this so long as everyone else was asleep. I took the tomato sauce and thined it out with a little bit of water so that it was easier to apply, then grabbed an old make-up brush I had and softly brushed some of the mix on his forehead just under his hairline and then on the tips of his left hand, and smeared some on the palm of his hand, to look like blood. I moved out of the way and Pierre had a glass of warm water which he placed next to Patrick and placed his hand in... making him piss his pants. We weren't THAT mean.... Pierre had a clean pair of boxers and pants that Pat could wear when he woke up. Pierre then got the whipped cream and squirted enough in the palm of the his hand before tickling him on his cheek with a feather making him put whipped cream all over his face.

"Pierre, go to sleep, I'll pack this all away so he doesn't get mad at you" I whispered, "you sure?" he asked "I mean I can take him" he joked. He was right, Pierre could take him any day, but I’d just rather him not get the blame because I really only knew what Patrick had on me and would rather no one else get dragged into this “mess”.

At about 8am the next morning I woke up to a panicking kind of whimper/scream coming from the bathroom making me smile to myself satisfactorily. Sebastien was sleeping behind me, and I felt him immediately tense up and check that I was lying in front of him; making sure I wasn’t the one screaming.

“JESSICA!” I heard Pat mumble angrily as he came marching back into the lounge room as I pretended to be asleep trying to suppress my laughter. I gave it a moment before jumping up a little startled by Pat’s yelling from earlier as he paced around the lounge room and his eyes just fell on me. “YOU!” he yelled glaring at me as everyone else woke up, “Me?” I asked playing dumb as if I had no knowledge of the situation. “yes you!” “couldn’t be? Then who stole the cookies from the cookie jar” I sang being a completely smart ass, “you have too much sass for this time of the morning” mumbled Chuck from across the room rubbing his eyes.

“well it wasn’t me” I said shrugging innocently, “yes it was” bit back Patrick making me and Pierre laugh. Kayleigh woke up and realised what was so funny and sat there in fits of laughter. There was smudged red all over Pat’s forehead and hand, as well as whipped cream on his face, not to mention his wet pants and the jam that was in his hair. I thought Pierre and I had done pretty well. “Bulshit it wasn’t you” he glared, “oh wait, I guess this means…” he said looking at me; his eyes lighting up. “means what?” asked David naively , “nevermind” I grumbled acting as if it was a big deal, “oh no one knows?” he asked inquisitively, “what you think I share everything with the world?” I asked, “but maybe I will” he responded and I looked at him shocked. “well what do you expect, YOU did this to me” he spat back and I just sat there laughing, because really I had him real good.

“then I guess we get to share” Patrick said with a smile on his face, “share what exactly?” asked Kailyn curiously, “Jess and Seb got a little busy a few weeks back” Pat said straight out. “busy like school work?” asked Belle mucking around, “no no, I think he means like they got BUSY” David said wiggling his eyebrows up and down, “THAT’S what I meant!” Pat clarified. At first everyone looked shocked, but then I burst into laughter because honestly, I couldn’t hold it in any longer, and everyone joined in… except Pat who was still standing there covered in food and condiments exceptionally confused. Then he realised what had just happened.

“Are you telling me?” he started angrily, looking at me and I couldn’t help but just continue to laugh at him. He really thought no one knew. “looks like its 2 Jess, 1 Pat” I said through laughter, as he stood there shocked and sulking, just about ready to walk out the door. “Hey, calm down I asked Pierre for some spare clothes, I wasn’t going to be THAT mean, go have a shower” I explained pointing to the pile of clothes that were at the edge of the room. “Merry Christmas Pat” I whispered handing him the clothes before heading to the kitchen to help make some breakfast for us all.