#asuevent009

Ben had been blessed in his life to have two sisters who were just as much friends as they were family. After decorating his office with Mal had turned out to be a tense affair, he’d opted to do his next castle decorating project with Len instead. With so much going through his own head lately, it would be good to check in on his baby sister and focus on her for a while, and as he met her in the foyer, he cracked a genuine smile for the first time in what felt like days. “So... I have an extra special project for us,” Ben informed her, holding up a red sack so similar to the ones Santas always carried around with kids presents in them. “We are going to go put Santa hats and various other things on the suits of armor -- brighten up the halls a little bit.”

Ava threw on a apron and tied it tight before throwing her hair our of her face. She couldn’t believe she had to make Christmas cookies of all things. While she didn’t mind baking, she wasn’t exactly thrilled to be making holiday themed cookies. It’s not that Ava was a total grinch when it came to the holidays, she just didn’t get all crazy about it. She wasn’t the type to spend her days binge watching holiday movies or dancing around to Christmas music. The holidays were never some magical movie type Christmas for her growing up. Ava sighed and looked at the recipe card and double checked that she had all the correct ingredients out and ready to use. She looked around trying to spot her sister. Where was she? A sigh filled the room. “Abby come on, I’m not doing these cookies by myself.” she shouted.

Winter’s plan had been to just stop by the frat house and say a quick goodbye to Emmett before heading home for the holiday, but faced with the prospect of spending two weeks without her, Emmett had kind of purposely derailed her plans. He’d poured her an eggnog and patted a spot on his bed for her to sit and tell him all about what her holidays had in store, and right as he was offering to pour her another one, his phone had started vibrating like crazy. A severe weather alert. Winter had groaned when he’d showed her the warnings to stay off the road as a snowstorm rolled in, and even jokingly accused Emmett of rigging the whole thing just to keep her from leaving. But a quick search revealed that it was a real threat, and all Emmett had had to do was pout and say he didn’t want his best friend frozen to death in a ditch somewhere for Christmas to get her to agree to stay and wait the thing out. “May as well have another one, you’re gonna be here a loooooong time,” he told her, scrolling idly through his weather report and showing her how much snow was expected to fall on the house by hour radar before turning to pour her another drink. “Cheers!” Emmett declared, raising his class to clink against Winter’s. “Bet you didn’t know that winning Gamma Chi sweetheart was actually our way of trapping you in this house forever...” 

Mary Kate had a tendency to either to not take things seriously enough, or to take them entirely too seriously, and as she sat working on her ornaments with Len, she was probably more in the latter zone. The ornaments she was working on weren’t for her, after all; she was planning to donate them to people who couldn’t afford their own Christmas decorations this year but who deserved a little Christmas cheer all the same. “Ugh, do you think they’re going to notice that Rudolph’s left eye is way bigger than his right one?” MK asked, holding her ornament up for Len to see and wrinkling her nose at it. “Please tell me I’m just being too picky, I’m afraid if I try to repaint it and fix it I’m only going to make it worse.”

Aileen loved parties all year round, but there was something extra special about parties that had themes behind them. The holidays meant an excuse to wear red and green without anyone being able to complain that red clashed with her hair, and she’d taken full advantage of it tonight, dressed up as a sexy elf. It was a huge hit, too; she’d had two people fight over who got to be her beerpong partner, she’d done a killer kegstand, and she’d been tugged onto the dance floor for a grind/makeout session already. If there was such a thing as too much fun, Aileen might have been hitting that point, but in her books, a good time never ended. After finally losing and being wiped off of the beerpong table, she headed towards the kitchen to grab a bottle of water, then stepped out onto the back porch for a blast of cold winter air to wake herself back up and get back into her party A-game groove. “Hey you!” she said excitedly when she spotted Ajax, punching his arm lightly by way of greeting. “What are you hiding out here for?” she asked her ex-boyfriend, leaning against the porch railing beside him and glancing out at the snowy, almost picturesque night. “Usually you’re almost as awesome at this whole partying thing as I am, but I had no idea you were even here!”

Bash had been strolling through the halls of Zeta Beta Delta saying goodbye to his friends there who were going home for the holidays - he’d been hitting up all the houses on Greek row, really. He wished everyone would stay like he did but he didn’t want to dwell on that as much as he wanted to hug all his buds and promise them a fantastic next year of parties when they returned. It was turning the corner that he saw Sydney Andersen and he raised a hand in greeting, kind of hurrying over to meet her. “Hey, dude! Just making the rounds to say adieu to all the people ditching to go home for the holidays,” he laughed “I hope I’ll see you around more come next year, though. I meant it when I said we should hang.” He was about to ask for her number but then something caught his eye; he looked up and there it was, some mistletoe hanging innocuously. He was equal parts stoked and wary. Sydney was obviously super pretty and cool, but she felt like the kind of girl he could easily scare off and so he tried to act chill as he smiled at her. “Hey, look that that! Just to make sure it doesn’t go over your head, I think it’d be pretty cool if we followed mistletoe law and kissed right now. I bet you’re a good kisser and I’d be so down to find out. But you know, your call,” he shrugged with a grin, hope all over his face.

Evie must have had a dozen or so sketches scattered around her room, which was nowhere near as neat as she ordinarily kept it but for once, it didn’t bother her. It was the new normal by now, even, with how often she stayed up late sketching instead of trying to sleep. She was starting to develop actual bags under her eyes, she was certain of it, but she didn’t mind. It was better to keep herself busy, because the second she stopped was the second unwanted thoughts came flooding in to stay for days. She stifled a yawn as she started shading in the blues and purples on her newest design and her eyes closed for a long second. When they opened again, her sleepy hand had let go of her indigo pencil and it was rolling away from her, halfway to the front door by now. Evie stood, getting to the door as the pencil rolled underneath it and, with a sigh of annoyance, she threw the door open to follow. What she saw instead made her forget her pencil instantly. It had been so long since she’d seen Ben or Mal face to face and now here Ben was, beside her door at what had to be the middle of the night. She was confused and delighted and concerned and scared and excited all at once, the familiar rush of feelings sweeping through her at the sight of his face and leaving her even more unsure of what to do next. “So do you sleepwalk now?” she settled on asking, biting her lip and folding her arms tightly across her chest as her heart soared and broke all at once at the sight of the man she shouldn’t be in love with. 

As much as Freddie had enjoyed Thanksgiving at the Bayou, she wasn’t the type to crash the same party twice. She knew that the invitation had been more as an extension of Cece and less because of Freddie herself, so Christmas she planned to hit the road, stop and visit Jordan and maybe Ally during the holidays, instead of bumming off the Dubois and keeping an eye on whatever was happening with her baby sister and Reggie. Still, she couldn’t resist the urge to stop there for a while when her bus brought her through, asking Cece to come meet her at her favorite jazz bar, Bass Notes and Beignets. Freddie had made herself at home inside of the club, leaning back and enjoying the music as she waited for her baby sister to arrive, when they told her a storm was rolling in and to get home as soon as she could before the roads all closed down. “Aw, hell no,” Freddie grumbled, trudging in the direction of the Dubois house and texting Cece on her way. Looked like she was crashing the Christmas ‘party’ after all...