Indigo’s Odds and Ends

Across the room, Utah arrived with a stack of wrapped presents that were each the shape of almost flat squares. Colorado came behind him with a second stack. The former cheerfully yelled over them all, “Who is ready for the regional gift?”

The two states passed them around to everyone besides Hawaii on Alaska’s phone who had gotten hers through the mail just the day before. Snickering, she shook the wrapped board next to her ear. “Wonder what’s inside, brah.”

“Yeah, I wonder.” Alaska deadpanned back to her.

“It’s not like we picked it out ourselves or anything,” Washington tacked on from his spot on the other bean bag.

“Okay, now open!” Utah clapped his hands, smiling. Everyone unwrapped the gifts with various levels of excitement to find a custom calendar. The cover of each had a picture of the respective state’s favorite national park and each month was a different western state’s favorite national park with a hand written note from that state. Utah flipped through the months until he got to July. He was met with a red picturesque landscape from the Valley of Fire and a not-so-picturesque drawing in silver sharpe from Nevada. Utah balked at the crude doodle. “Nevada! Did you draw this on everyone’s calendar?!”

Said state winked at him from the chair hammock, unashamed. “Of course I did.”

Hawaii squinted at them through the phone screen while Alaska showed her what was on everyone else’s calendar. “Ah, I got something a little different.”

“Me too.” California glared down at his calendar. “Nevada just wrote ‘get out’. Actually, that’s what everyone wrote besides Colorado. I can’t read what he wrote.”

Colorado leaned over to read it since he completely forgot what he wrote too. “Oh! I also said ‘get out’.”

“Why’d you write ‘RIP’ on my calendar?” Arizona called over to Oregon.

“Because my month was June for you.” Oregon leaned back with a shrug. “I thought I would just give my condolences in advance.”

Sensing that the room was getting away from him, Utah tried to get everyone’s attention again. “Uh, what if we just switched to Secret Santa?”

“Secret Snowflake,” California corrected him.

“Oh who cares?” Arizona groaned. “We already took the star off the top of the tree for you and replaced it with West Virginia’s creepy stuffed rat.”

“Don’t insult Mothman!” West Virginia’s voice came from down the hall, making half the region jump.

“Okay! Okay! Okay!” Utah desperately clapped his hands together. “Alphabetical order! Alaska, you’re up!”

Alaska just looked at Utah for a solid thirty second before getting up with a grunt. He carefully stepped across multiple states before handing a gift bag to Washington. He just nodded to the smaller state before wandering back to his seat.

“Wait, how is this secret if we know who the gifts are from?” California piped up.

“Shut up, California!” Everyone else yelled back.

“It was an honest question!” He complained, slouching against the wall.

Ignoring him, Washington opened the bag and pulled out an unmarked bag full of coffee beans. “Oh, thanks. I was just about to get more of these from the store.”

“Yeah. I heard you complaining.” Alaska shoved his hands in his shorts pockets.

“Alright, I guess it’s my turn now.” Arizona stretched his arms and then pulled out a present from behind his chair. “Heads up Montana!”

Montana was barely able to catch the package before it crashed into his chest. Rolling his eyes, he quickly began unwrapping the box and pulled out a wooden sign with flowers on it for everyone to see. “It says ‘Live, Laugh, Leave me alone’.”

“It’s for your door!” Arizona grinned.

“It still wouldn’t stop you,” He muttered under his breath.

Next, California awkwardly wandered over to where Wyoming was leaning against the opposite wall. He practically shoved the present into his chest. “Uh, here. I wasn’t really sure what to get you so I just?”

Wyoming hesitantly unwrapped the ribbon securing the box and lifted off the lid like it was a bomb about to blow. Nothing happened, of course. Instead, he just pulled out what looked like a simple wooden board. “Oh.”

“It’s a boot jack,” California rushed to explain. “You’re supposed to use it to help take off your boots without having to—”

“I know what a boot jack is,” He interrupted him. “And thanks.”

“And then it’s Colorado’s turn.” Utah looked at him over his shoulder. “You had California, right?”

“Uhhh… I did?” Colorado squinted, rubbing at the back of his neck. “But Oregon paid me to switch with him.”

“Oh please no.” California ducked his face into his hands.

“Well, then who do you have now?”

Colorado looked down at the present and read the name. “Utah? I think it’s for you.”

“Oh, thanks!” Utah took the box from him and happily unwrapped it. Flipping open the cardboard flaps to see a helmet, rope, and a bunch of clips and other tools. “What’s this for?”

“It’s for us to go mountain climbing sometime.” Colorado giggled to himself. “You’ll need more stuff, but I have it at my place.”

While he wasn’t usually the daredevil type, some quality time sounded nice. Utah pulled Colorado into a hug, squeezing another giggle out of him. “Thanks so much!”

Utah didn’t even notice Hawaii motioning for Alaska to do something. The biggest state pulled out a shipping box and passed it to Nevada. He put a hand to his chest. “Aw, for me?”

His nails went to try and rip the packing tape, but they weren’t sharp enough to get the job done. Nevada scanned around the room. “Who has the scissors?”

All of the states patted down the area, but nothing came up. Eventually, New Mexico took pity on them and handed Nevada his utility knife. “Just use this.”

Nevada blew him a kiss and flipped open the blade to cut through the tape. With that out of the way, Nevada flicked out a couple of packing peanuts with his nail and retrieved a set of earrings. He held them up to the light, the dangling pieces of silver shining. It looked like a miniature animal skeleton with the bones attached through clear wire. Nevada’s eyes widened. “Are these?”

“Ichthyosaurs? Mhm.” Hawaii nodded with a grin. “Had to do some research, so better appreciate them.”

“I love them.” Nevada put his hand over his heart, honest.

While Nevada put his earrings in and admired the way they jingled in his ear, Idaho passed a bag to Colorado across the coffee table. “You don’t need to show everyone.”

“What is it? I—” Colorado froze, looking into the bag. He then met Idaho’s gaze, wide-eyed. “Where’d you get this? You don’t seem like you would…you know.”

“I can’t say.” Idaho hunched in on himself, giving Oregon a mean look as he laughed at him. “Montana, it’s your turn now!”

“I had Hawaii so she should have already gotten hers.” Montana nodded to Alaska’s phone screen.

“Oh, yes! My turn!” Hawaii grabbed a nondescript box from offscreen and briefly disappeared only to return with a pair of scissors. She cut through the tape and opened her box only to laugh. Hawaii pulled out multiple sets of eyeshadow. “Ha! How’d you know?”

“I asked Alaska and he said your niece used up all of your eyeshadow.” Montana shrugged.

She continued snickering to herself. “She wanted to experiment, yeah. Thanks, Santa!”

Montana nodded with a smile.

“Guess it’s me now…” New Mexico stood up and went to give Idaho his gift. “Feliz Navidad, Idaho.”

Idaho nodded his thanks and opened the small gift bag. He then pulled a small yellow-green rock that had been yet to be smoothed out. It was still oddly-shaped with cracks reaching toward the center and dirt clinging to the uneven outer ridges of the rock. “What’s this?”

“Olivine—for your collection.” New Mexico nodded to Idaho’s room. “Straight from Four Corners.”

“Hang on, let me go put this with the others.” Idaho jumped up from his bean bag, causing Oregon to fall inward as he scampered off to his room.

Oregon huffed out a breath, disturbing his hair. “While he’s off doing that, I guess I should get my gift out. California?”

“Oh no.” Said state closed his eyes and blindly accepted the small wrapped object from Oregon. “Do I have to open this?”

“Órale, just open it already!” New Mexico groaned.

“Yeah, just open it Cali.” Oregon crossed his arms, leaning against Washington’s should with a matching grin.

Reluctantly, California pulled back the wrapping to reveal a paper back book. It seemed innocent enough, but California’s face darkened in horror. “[Technical Glitch] you!”

Oregon shrieked as California chucked the book at him. Utah balked at the scene. “California! You can’t just throw things because you didn’t like your gift!”

“You CANNOT make me keep that!” California shouted, pointing an angry finger at a still laughing Oregon.

“I’m sure it can’t be that ba—” Utah kneeled down to pick up the book and glanced over the cover. It was a picture of a shirtless man wearing a cowboy hat and swinging around a lasso with the title ‘Her Texas Destiny’ written at the bottom. Utah instantly dropped the book like it burned him. “Ew.”

“See!” California pointed to him now.

“Okay, who’s next?” Utah looked around desperately. “Let’s just move on, please.”

“That’s you.” Arizona nudged his knee.

“Already?” Utah reached underneath the couch for his present and passed it down to Arizona on the floor.

Arizona shook the box and then stopped. “It’s not fragile, right?”

“It’s not.”

“Good.” Arizona mimed wiping some sweat off his face and removed the lid. Inside were different glass bottles of salsa, each individually wrapped with newspaper so they wouldn’t break. “Awesome! I’ll have to cook with these sometime. Thanks, Utah!”

Just then, Idaho wandered back into the room. He sat down on the bean bag with Oregon, forcing the other state to adjust again. “What’d I miss?”

“California assaulted me with his present.” Oregon whispered back, getting a shocked look out of the other.

While everyone else talked, Wyoming got up and silently handed Alaska his gift before going back to his spot on the side of the room. With nobody bothering him, Alaska opened his gift and pulled out a set of flip flops. He chuckled to himself and put them away before anyone could bother him about his gift.

“Wyoming! Your turn,” Utah called.

“Already went,” He shook his head.

“What? When?” Utah glanced around and noticed the present that had appeared by Alaska’s feet. “Uhm, Washington?”

“I had New Mexico.” Washington passed him the gift he got. “It isn’t wrapped because of the environment and all that.”

“You were just lazy.” Oregon flicked him on the arm, which earned him a light shove.

New Mexico grabbed his gift and just stared down at it. “These are name tags?”

“So Gov can remember who you are.” Washington smiled at him.

He rolled his eyes. “You must think you’re so funny.”

“Of course I do.” Washington crossed his arms and leaned back, face smug.

Sensing another round of bickering—or worse, fighting—Utah grabbed everyone’s attention. “Well, I think that’s everyone! Merry Christmas and happy—”

“Uh, [Technical Glitch] you? You just skipped over me?” Nevada glared at him. “How? I’m literally the most interesting person here.”

Utah froze. “Nevada! I’m so sorry! You can go.”

“Thanks.” He rolled his eyes before carefully sliding his present to Oregon. “Be gentle or you’ll ruin it. Don’t even tip it over.”

Confused, Oregon ripped off the wrapping paper to see a donut box with ‘Master Donuts’ written across the top. “It’s just donuts?”

“And I had to get up early for just donuts, so you better enjoy them.” Nevada rolled his eyes as Oregon opened the box. “Besides, there’s croissants and cinnamon rolls in there too.”

Oregon took out a blueberry croissant, taking an experimental bite out of it. “Thanks, Nevada.”

“If that’s everything, then I’m gonna leave.” Arizona jumped up from the floor and stretched out his cramped legs. Murmurs of agreement sounded out across the room as others got up to leave.

“WAIT!” Utah shouted. “We’re not done yet!”

“What could we possibly have left to do?” Washington sank back down with a tired sigh.

“We still need to watch the Charlie Brown special!”

Even other teachers at the school start noticing that something is wrong after the tutoring stops. At first, Gov is happy that there aren’t any more complaints about the two of them “fighting”, but then new complaints come in about Texas being spacey in class or California grading assignments late. Oklahoma is upset because Texas is ignoring him when he insults him during practice while New York goes so far as to bring food from home for them. Gov stops Austin in the hall one day and tries asking him what’s up with his brother, but he genuinely doesn’t know.

After the big confrontation, Texas is definitely still confused. He just assumed they would keep contact either through social media or plan some time to meet up on the weekends/after school. In a way he’s also a bit hurt that California thought Texas was the kind of person to just ditch him like that. Though he’s way more concerned at the moment with California crying on him and rushes to reassure him despite his own feelings.

Still cooling down from the argument, they make a tentative plan to drive over to each other at least once a week as soon as college starts. They’re both still feel extremely raw from the fight, but now they at least have something to look forward to instead of dread. Meanwhile, Florida (who was 100% eavesdropping on the whole thing) runs off to tell everyone everything he just heard.