"You're not serious?" Calvin looked hopelessly at them and Lisette laughed then said, "As long as we have our seat belts on, we're good! Let's vroom away before they block off our way out."
She started the car and looked back at us with a wide grin.
"Enjoy the ride and remember to generously tip. I'm saving up for a special date with my girlfriend," she drawled out and looked at Calvin.
He groaned and reached into his pocket for his wallet, pulling out a hundred-dollar bill and placing it on the drop box. "There."
"Why, thank you for the generous donation to the Lisette Love Foundation. Your contribution is well received."
"The what foundation?"
"It's one of my other side hustles," she acknowledged and took the bill happily. "By the way. You don't tip drivers with cash anymore. It's through the app."
He stared at her blankly as she added, "Something to do with the potential of bacteria harvesting on the bill and triggering a pandemic or something along those lines. Got to be safe. We don't want to be plagued with wearing masks everywhere we go. Gotta protect one another before it even happens."
She gave him a wink and looked at Jade. "Don't worry, Jade. No need to tip."
I giggled and pulled my phone out and tipped one hundred bucks.
"There we go," I said with a flirtatious wink. "So, steak for our date?"
"Steak, garlic bread, mash potatoes, and the best bottle of wine," she purred.
"Perfect." I was actually excited about the idea and Calvin pinched his noise in pure irritation.
"I wanna go home."
"Coming right up!" Lisette cheered.
She turned around and began to signal so the authorities would know of our desire to depart. I looked at Calvin as he relaxed in the seat and looked over to my hand. He reached out for my hand and wrapped his fingers in mine.
I looked back to see he was looking out the window, but his hand held mine tightly, which only brightened my mood even more.
Deciding to relax and look out my side of the window, I noticed the little white silhouette girl sitting on the wall where Calvin and I had been making out. She was kicking her legs up and down, her head bobbing from side to side as her hollow eyes glowed brightly and her lips displayed a happy smile.
Light Jade?
We merely stared at one another before she lifted her hand up to happily wave at me.
Then she was gone.
I wasn't sure why she'd suddenly appeared, but I felt even if I tried to ask within my mind, I wouldn't get an answer. All I could do was feel extra happy as we began to move out of the parking spot and head home.
I guess she's trying to confirm that I'm happier. A lot happier.
Christmas With All Those I Love
"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" We clinked our wine glasses and enjoyed the chilled Moscato.
"Present time!" Shadow Jade cheered and went diving into the stack of wrapped gifts, which had all of us laughing.
Thank goodness for soundproof functions, or the whole condo would hear us as we partied and celebrated our progress and survival before the stroke of midnight.
It's officially Christmas Day.
We were enjoying our little private celebration as Alaric, Bianca, and Tanner left half an hour ago to have their own shenanigans, which I had a feeling would get a little frisky and R-rated for our eyes.
That left me, Calvin, Lisette, Shadow Jade, Ciel, and the Trouble Four for the night, and we were taking every moment to simply enjoy the moment of being free from school and tracker responsibilities.
We decided to stay up and celebrate Christmas a little early, which meant we could start opening our gifts.
Shadow Jade was up first simply because she wouldn't be patient enough to wait for anyone else to take the lead. We were sitting around the white Christmas tree with various colors of ornaments while the gifts were all wrapped with shiny white wrapping paper with holographic snowflakes.
Bianca had helped wrap mostly everyone's gifts, which was beyond nice of her. She was also the reason why we were stuffed, since she’d cooked up a storm while Alaric and Tanner went for an alcohol haul on our behalf
To be able to spend a relaxing evening with everyone was enlightening; it was a true celebration after everything we'd gone through both individually and as a whole.
This was our moment of tranquility as we allowed ourselves this moment's grace before the New Year came along and greeted us with Semester Four.
"Plushies!" Shadow Jade beamed as she opened the big box that was filled with tons of unicorn plushies. Instead of getting her individualized gifts, we worked together to contact the creator of a classic brand, Tokidoki, and they created fifty limited-edition, one-of-a-kind unicorns just for Shadow Jade.
It really was thanks to Lisette for having connections with the CEO, which honestly surprised me and the rest of the crew. I'd come to realize in the short period of time she not only was versatile in terms of her "side hustles" as she liked to call them, but she also had an array of connections with people you'd never expect.
How she’d created these bonds while in captivity was a mystery I hoped to solve in due time. Either way, she was the reason Shadow Jade was living her best Christmas life.
"Thank you!" she said to all of us, happily cradling as many as she could in her hold, while a few of them fell out of her grasp. "Organize!"
"That's going to take you some time," I acknowledged.
"Not long!" She shook her head while still maintaining her smile. "Have help! Kill!"
As if we all thought the same thing, we looked to Ceil, who was quietly standing next to Lisette. He merely blinked and stood there for five seconds before he silently walked over to where Jade was and picked the remaining unicorns up off the floor and helped return them to the gift box.
All they needed to do was share a look between themselves, then Shadow Jade returned her gaze to me.
"Organize! Ten minutes. Bye, bye. KILL!" With a double poof, the two of them were gone, leaving us in awe.
"Oh man," Zackery commented and wiped his eyes. "Shadow Jade is growing up."
"Are you actually crying?" Zeus looked at him in disgust.
"Zackery gets emotional about everything nowadays. You forget he was shedding tears when Minx jumped through his snow throne he made for Jade to sit on," Zion revealed.
"It took me five hours!" Zackery defended, leaving Zeke to shake his head.
"You're the commander of ice and spent five hours, when you could have asked Zion to go pull enough water from the earth to finish in ten minutes."
He was silent as he stared at his brother with confused eyes.
"I...didn't think that far."
The three of them shook their heads while Lisette giggled and Calvin sighed.
"Somehow I question how the four of you are a quad," Calvin concluded.
"They're so cute," Lisette praised. "About time you guys open your gifts! Or we'll be up until five in the morning."
"Whoever finds and opens their gift the fastest gets to kiss Jad-" Zackery didn't finish before Zeke was already at the tree and literally shredding his present right open.
"W-W-WHO?!" Zackery complained as he dramatically fell to his knees, leaving the rest of us to laugh while Zeke held his unwrapped box.