NANO Challenge #6: Midterm Leaving home for Sonora seemed like ages ago, and Victor found the idea of going back home so strange. He’d got used to being at Sonora. It hadn’t taken him long to settle in, make friends, and find his place, and to then wake up one morning with his trunk all packed didn’t really make sense.
He jumped down from the wagon, and hadn’t taken more than three steps before he was attacked by a flying lump of Jehan, all beaming smiles and curly hair and tight constricting hug. Grinning, Victor wrapped his arms around his younger brother and hugged him back, lifting him off the ground and spinning him around wildly before remembering that he was still in public. Going slightly red, he put Jehan down and tried to look a little more dignified as he turned to greet his parents. He shook his father’s hand and gave his mother a kiss, slightly hindered by the little hand that had crept into his as soon as the exuberant hug had ended. Not that Victor really minded. After all, this was Jehan, and there was little Jehan could do to really annoy him.
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Sébastien frowned, rather annoyed by his younger sister. It was his first evening back home and he had expected to be the person of importance at the dinner table, telling his parents everything that had happened so far at Sonora and how Madeleine Dautin preferred him to anyone else. But instead he was forced to sit there silently whilst Aurélie went on and on about her first term at Beauxbatons. It wasn’t fair, and Bastien was most definitely not sulking as he glared at his salmon. Why did Aurélie get to go to Beauxbatons, whilst he got sent abroad to an inferior school? Enough was enough, and he knew just the tactic – even if he did have to come up with a potentially incorrect theory.
“Louis Valois has broken up with his Wolseithcrafte girl,” said Bastien, and the conversation went quiet. And then, finally, the attention was back on him.
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“So, I hear you and Ingrid Wolseithcrafte are having problems,” commented Mme Valois, whilst taking tea with her only son.
Louis looked up, startled, and winced. How on earth did his mother hear about that?
“You really should be more like Sébastien Évreux, Louis,” his mother chided. “Well, not too much like him – he is only an Évreux, after all. But he tells his parents everything, whilst you evidently keep us in the dark.”
Recovering from his surprise, Louis smoothed his expression back into a smile. “But really, Maman, there is nothing to tell,” he assured her. “I don’t know what Sébastien thinks is happening, but we are still friends, just as we always were.” That was maybe a little far removed from the truth, but he definitely did not want his mother asking him lots of questions about the exact nature of his and Ingrid’s relationship, especially as he wasn’t sure he understood it himself.
“If you say so,” replied Mme Valois, not entirely convinced but preferring to believe Louis over gossip from the Évreux boy. “But Louis, I hope you’ll remember that she is from a good family. I trust that you will do what’s best.”
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The Whittaker family had decided that the best thing to do over Christmas was just to forget all their problems and be glad that all five of them were together once more. This was Emma’s first Christmas, and they were determined that it would be a happy one. And so on Christmas Eve they decorated the tree, and then Tess and her father decorated the rest of the house whilst Henry and their mother baked mince pies and assorted cakes and biscuits, as was tradition every year. Emma was, of course, too young to properly help yet, but they managed to involve her in putting the star on the top of the tree, and she sat and gurgled happily as she watched all the other goings-on. Tess made sure to take lots of photos, planning to use them to decorate her room when she went back to Sonora.
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Finn was looking forward to going back to Sonora, but as the wind whipped past his face he knew he wouldn’t wish himself to be anywhere else at that precise moment. Rihana’s laugh came from ahead of him and, after checking over his shoulder to make sure Roxana was keeping pace, he urged his horse faster, into a gallop. There was no way he was letting his younger cousin race off without him!
The forest was a magical place to be, at this time of year, with the evergreens adding colour to the otherwise white landscape. A good blanket of snow had fallen just before Christmas, adding the perfect touch to what was always one of the best parts of the year. Finn loved Christmas. Spending time with his family was, for him, the ideal holiday, and the celebrations and parties that the Scotts held and attended were always small but elite – the best kind of gathering.