S'Agapo

I jumped out of bed, and ran screaming down the stairs. I collapsed in front of the Christmas tree and flicked on the Disney parade. As bands marched, I grabbed my first present (from myself) to myself and ripped it open.

"Yay! I finally get to play my very own Guitar heroes! Sure it cost me 100 sweat-soaked dog-walking dollars, but I still love it! Yay hard work!" I hugged the red guitar and threw it on the couch. Then Apollo came downstairs.

"Why are you so loud? I'm going to need some coffee."

I turned around and said, "Make it yourself, you lazy ass. It's Christmas-my day off." I continued ripping open presents that I'd given myself. Apollo collapsed on the couch and yawned. I stop ripping open the new wii I had bought for myself. I looked at him. "Aren't you going to open your presents?"

"What presents?" He blearily looked at me. It reminded me of when I was little, how my parents would collapse on the couch and watch me squirm in delight.

"These ones," I pointed to a pile of gifts next to me, "All of your friends came over last night while you were at Cathy's and gave me all of these presents for you. It was funny, they looked kind of scared of me. One girl threw the present in my general direction and ran."

Apollo slid off the couch and landed next to me, "You can be scary sometimes for a mortal." He slowly opened the presents, looking at every name tag and trying his hardest not to rip the wrapping paper. It was almost OCD.

I couldn't stand it any longer. "You do this so slowly! Come on get into it! Rip it apart, show some enthusiasm!" He ignored me and continued to slowly open everything. I sighed and got up onto the couch and start reading a book I'd bought for myself. Suddenly, I stopped hearing the careful tearing of wrapping paper. I glanced down to see a large amount of presents waiting patiently for Apollo. "Why'd you stop?"

I looked at Apollo. He was staring fixedly at a tag. After a few moments, he turned to look at me. "You...you got me a present?"

"Yeah," I thought nothing of it and went back to my book, "It's really nothing. Everyone gets presents, so it's not like it matters."

"But..."

I turned to look at Apollo. He looked like a guilty little child. He looked up at me with sad eyes and said, "I didn't get you anything. All of your presents you bought yourself, right?"

I nodded. "Of course. I didn't expect you to get me anything, so it's all right. I'm not mad. Besides, it was best that I got myself presents, because then I got exactly what I wanted!" I grinned. But he didn't look all that convinced. I stuck out my tongue at him. "Oh, when did you start caring about me anyways? It's not that big of a deal, I'm not crying or yelling or angry, am I? So what's the matter? Now hurry up and finish opening your presents so I can play my video games!" After a moment he went back to the present and opened it.

Suddenly I was in some sort of death grip. I shoved him off. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

He was clutching my present to him close to his heart. "I can't believe you actually got me this...I feel even worse for not getting you anything now!"

"I don't care! I don't want a present!" I was basically screaming it at him now. 'What a thick skull!'

Apollo continued to stare at his present. "Thank you."

"Your welcome." I sighed. "You're really weird. Cathy's never felt guilty for not getting me a return gift! Why should you?"

At around noon, Tom came to our house. I was busy rocking out on guitar hero so Apollo got the door. Pretty soon, Tom had his guitar plugged in and we were challenging each other.

Jake followed soon after, and took over my side of the game. Him and Tom played the Co-op game, and when I came out of the kitchen (I was making lunch) they were standing back-to-back. It was rather cute. I clapped my hands together. "Okay, guys! Christmas lunch is served! Where's uncle Jake?"

Tom shut off the PS2 and stretched. "He went to his boyfriend's house because I was coming here. I told him he could come, but he said that it was a party that didn't need supervision. He's really weird."

I laughed. "That's so him."

Apollo stood up and said, "I'm going out. I'll be back later." He was holding Cathy's present in his hands. It looked like a coupon.

Jake collapsed on the couch. "I'm not eating."

"What? Why, are you starving yourself?" I teased.

"No, I just ate a huge breakfast. Mom went insane with the pancakes, not to mention she makes them so thick; eating one is like eating five." His cheeks tinged green so I decided not to force it on him.

"All right, then. Tom, come eat these sausages with me. I think I made too many. We're two people short."

At around three, Jake and I were playing 'Singstar'. We knew it was pretty bad since my voice was so screechy and he sounded like a toad with indigestion. The door opened and I turned to see a guy. A guy that looked awfully familiar, but really different. Tom, who had been sitting on the back of the couch, fell over onto the floor. Jake dropped his mike, and I stared speechlessly. Apollo scratched his head. "Well, what do you think?"

I stared. "You look great, dude!" Tom exclaimed. He stood up and started touching Apollo's hair. "You look totally different with your hair all straight! Holy crap it's so soft!"

Jake frowned. "Don't touch his hair, Tom. It's rude," Jake touched his hair,. "Although, it is rather soft..."

I resisted the urge to slap my head. "Guys, stop touching each other."

"Oh, erotic."

I shook my head. "My friends are all idiots," They all stared at me, "What?"

Tom blinked slowly, and Jake stopped stroking Apollo's new hair. Apollo grinned. "You just called us your friends. That's the first time you've ever said that to us."

"Don't take it personally." I muttered, switching to my new Wii console.

Tom screamed, "Group hug!" And I was tackled to the ground.

I wiggled out of it, hair in my face. "Okay, one, a group hug is not a tackle to the floor, and two, I don't hug."

"Aw, she's shy!" Jake lunged at me and narrowly missed the Christmas tree.

"Get away from me!" I stood up and ran for the stairs, the three guys in hot pursuit. I ran into the spare guest room and jumped into the closet. Just as I shut the door, I heard the slam of someone running straight into the door. I cringed. That was going to leave a mark.

'I hope he didn't break my door.' The door knob turned. I felt the handle of something and grasped it. As soon as the door opened I swung out with a rather heavy suitcase and hit something hard. Whatever it was, I thought I'd killed it.

I jumped out of the wardrobe and stared at Tom, knocked out on the floor. Next to him was Jake, rubbing his head. Apparently, he was the one that slammed into the door. The suitcase I had used to cause brain damage had opened and all of the clothes inside had flown into the air. Something fell on Apollo's head. He pulled it off. "...Laurel, I want you to wear this."

I stared at what he was holding in his hands. It was a Grecian robe. I stared. "No."

"Yes."

Apollo tried to pull it over my head. I punched him in the face. It didn't really do anything to hurt him, but it did make him stop trying to make me wear the robe. At least for the day. We all went downstairs and I said goodbye to Tom and Jake.

The next day, I woke up early because I couldn't sleep. I was wandering around the house aimlessly until about ten. Then, Apollo came downstairs.

He was about to say something when Uncle Joey called. "We have customers!"

Back to work.