Exchange

Even though it had only been a few days since the end of school, Christmas came around quicker than I could ever have thought possible. Christmas eve we had a well family dinner and Mrs Lefebvre made a roast and vegetables, which was absolutely delicious. We had spent the rest of the night just all watching movies in the lounge room, the scent of the Christmas tree and the gingerbread cookies which Kayleigh and I had baked during the day, intertwined; filling the room.

“Can I just peak at like ONE of my presents?” Kayleigh pleaded for the 5th time that night looking around the room at everyone, “NO!” we all yelled back at her once again. “Can I pick them up and shake them and guess and stuff?” she asked looking around pulling a slightly sad face. “does she do this every year?” I chuckled, “yep” Sebastien replied popping the ‘p’, “NO I DON’T!” she insisted, “KayKay admit it, you do. Every year.” Natalia stated looking at Kayleigh as she went quiet and just looked down knowing Natalia was right.

She SOMEHOW managed to last until midnight when we finished watching movies and wished each other ‘Merry Christmas’. “you can each open ONE gift” Mrs Lefebvre said in French motioning towards the Christmas tree, “but then straight to bed!” Mr Lefebvre insisted looking warningly at Kayleigh and she nodded understandingly as she stood there jumping up and down with excitement. Seriously, she had ZERO patience!

We each grabbed one of the smaller gifts from Mr and Mrs Lefebvre, figuring that we would leave all the other gifts till later, and started to unwrap the packaging. I opened a little box to find a small Christmas tree charm to go on my charm bracelet I had gotten for my birthday from Sebastien. Kayleigh had opened her small package to a ring, Natalia’s contained a bracelet and Sebastien found some CDs. We quickly packed up the mess and headed off to bed.

The next morning Kayleigh was literally DRAGGING me out of bed. “YOU are too eager for this time of the morning” I said rubbing my eyes as my bottom hit the floor next to my bed. “BUT ITS CHRISTMAS!” she yelled excitedly, “trust me, I am aware, its just too much excited for 8am” I retorted slowly getting my footing, before grabbing something to change into. “COME ON COME ON COME ONNN” Kayleigh persisted as I got changed slowly just to annoy her before Sebastien walked in covering Kayleigh’s mouth so that she would be quiet. “THANK YOU!” I yelled at him, while Kayleigh struggled to get herself out of his grip.

“Is she always like this?” I asked curiously as we were both dragged down the stairs and he just nodded in acknowledgement. “Merry Christmas” I said with a smile, as we both sat down on the floor near the Christmas tree, resulting in a soft sweet kiss from Sebastien, “Merry Christmas” he said with a smile as we broke apart. “Guys come on its Christmas can you not do that!” Kayleigh insisted as we both laughed making Sebastien pull me back in for a more passionate kiss… until his dad cleared his throat making Sebastien grin and me sit there unsure of what to do.
Kayleigh, joined by her trusty; also overly excited, assistant Natalia, wasn’t going to wait another second and started distributing everyone’s presents so that we could make a start. “what’s all this?” Sebastien queried looking down at his gifts from me, “You’ll see” I grinned, “but which bundle do I start with first?” “that one, then that one, and that one last” I said pointing to each on individually. I had been a pain in the butt and wrapped each CD individually and then tied them all together with some ribbon. He saw the new Green Day album along with all the other ones I’d gotten him making him really excited before he started opening the next present. He shook it, listening carefully trying to guess what was inside, before unwrapping it and throwing the box in the air when he realised what it was. “YOU GOT ME LEGO?!” he said excitedly, “not ANY lego” I said pointing back to the box, making everyone laugh when they noticed it was Star Wars. “I’m so going to build this later” he smirked, “the last one, pretty pleasee” I begged pointing to his last unopened gift from me. he tried to work out what it was but was honestly stumped and had no clue. He unwrapped the last box to find a white box, he opened the box, “guitar picks?” he asked a little confused, assuming that they were regular guitar picks. “you might want to look at them more carefully” I instructed, “THAT’S MY NAME!” he yelled excitedly, “HOW and WHERE did you get these done?!” he asked in shock, “my little secret” I said winking.

Kayleigh had gotten through all her presents and left mine till last. She opened the cardigan and scarf as I turned to face her, “these are beautiful” she said in awe, letting go of the items and pulling me into a hug. “there’s that box too” I said as she released me, she picked it up and opened it. “but what’s all this?” she said looking at the seemingly junk like items but then sifting through them to realise they were all little keepsakes and things that represented our memories from the entire time I’d been here. “aww you’re goig to make me cry!” she insisted picking up some of the photos, keychain that had a mini drink on it and the paper snowflakes I had made. “no no no crying okay?!” I insisted.

I got Natalia some movies and CDs that she had been going on about every time Sebastien and I would choose what movie we watched or CD we listened to, Mrs Lefebvre a brand new creamy pink tea pot and a tea box (along with some small homely items) and Mr Lefebvre had only wanted a some tools and car related things so I went with the safe option of a gift card from the local place he usually goes. Me? well I’d ended up with some more charms for my bracelet from everyone, some keepsakes from Sebastien and a new jumper and voucher from Kayleigh and Mrs Lefebvre (they insisted that I use the voucher for new boots which I wasn’t against) and some souvenirs which I didn’t yet have.

We really spent the day just hanging around inside watching movies at first before we decided to get changed into some snow gear while Mrs Lefebvre finished cooking lunch for us and whoever in their family was going to be joining us later. I beat everyone outside, you would think the people that have to put the snow gear on daily would be quicker than me but clearly not, and I started building a wall of snow in the area which I had claimed. “What are you doing?” asked Natalia innocently, and I waved her over, “you on my team or Sebastien’s?” I asked her and she shook her head running over to Sebastien leaving Kayleigh to come over to me, as I began stock piling the snow balls. We were throwing snowballs at each other, ducking under my fort which I had strategically built when Sebastien decided to make a run for it. Our snowball fights generally turned into a basic game of capture the flag… but you had to make it past the snowballs and potential tackling (there’d been a few times when we’d played with our friends that the boys had ended up tackling each other into the snow)

I stood up with a hand full of snowballs trying to hit Sebastien as he ran towards us but he kept dodging the bullet, metaphorically speaking of course. Eventually he got to me and instead of trying to go around me, he picked me up and put me on his shoulder as he ran back to his fort with Natalia. “HEY NO FAIR!” I yelled at him startling him and making him trip as we got back to his base leaving him face down in the snow… me on top of him laughing at his stupidity. “Get off meee” he whined, “NOPE!” I yelled as Kayleigh crept forward, snowballs in hand at the ready, towards Natalia while her attention wasn’t focused on the game but instead on me and Sebastien. “Please?” he asked, “NOPE!” I said confidently once again, “pretty please?” he asked again making me laugh as he began tickling me, “OKAY OKAY!” I surrended as Kayleigh crept behind all three of us and won the game. “I WINNNN!” she yelled before Natalie threw a whole heap of snowballs right at her, leaving her unimpressed. “No I think I win because I still have this beautiful girl” Sebastien said cheesily before kissing me, “GUYS STOP IT!” Kayleigh and Natalia groaned, as we were called back inside for lunch.

Later that night once everyone had left the Lefebvre’s I left Kayleigh on the phone to Pierre wishing him a Merry Christmas and crept into Sebastien’s room, quietly, slipping onto his bed before he even realised I was in there. “Hey its my super cute, absolutely adorable, sexy girlfriend” he joked as he pulled me into a hug, “if you’re being sarcastic that’s not very nice, I might just have to break up with you” I joked back, “you know I meant every single word in that sentence because I love you and you really are super cute, and adorable and you are definitely sexy” he said with a wink kissing my forehead. “no you’re sexy” I said playfully earning me a hungry kiss as his hand supported my back pulling me on top of him. “okay you win” I said out of breathe.

“so did you like the guitar picks?” I asked as we sat there listening to his new CDs, “did I like them?! I LOVE THEM!” he exclaimed, “I especially love the ‘who the f@!k is Sebastien?’ ones! They’re awesome! How did you think of that?!” “well I kind of thought back to the day I landed here and when I met you, and some things people had said to me about you while I was here and well yeah” I said trying to remember how I had decided what to put on them. “well they’re awesome, hold on I have one more present for you” he said getting up off his bed and over to his desk, “for you” he said with a smile handing me one of each of the picks which I had given him as well as his original plain guitar picks.

“Why?” I questioned, “to remember me” he put simply. “I could never forget you, even if I wanted to” I reasoned with him looking into his sad eyes. Christmas wasn’t meant to be sad, it was meant to be happy. But with just over a week left here how could it not be sad? “well there’s probably a next to nothing chance of you catching one of these at the show on new years, so they’re yours” he instructed. “Sebastien what are we going to do?” I asked sadly trying not to let tears fall, the question we had both been avoiding for weeks.

“We’ll figure it out. I promise.”