Rane:

I woke up to the light and tinkling music that came from my $5,000 alarm clock. It was the day after Thanksgiving which meant that all the channels would be playing Christmas Carols, even though the holiday was still over a month away.

Groaning, I slammed my fist on the off button and rolled over to the other side of my king sized bed. Really, I didn't get why my father insisted I got up at 8 in the morning when there wasn't even school!

Sure enough, like always, Macey-my personal maid-came barging in my room, shortly after.

"Come on!" she cried, clapping her hands together, once. "it's time to get up!"

I grunted softly and peeked an eye open to look at my clock. Yupp. 8:05. Right on time. As usual.

Sighing, I sat up, and after blinking the sleep out of my eyes, I finally got a good look at my maid. Macey had curly brown hair that fell to her mid back and sharp brown eyes. She was one of those overly-hyper cheerleader girls that always got up at six, no matter what. And I had to suffer for it.

Macey smiled, when she'd seen that I was fully awake. "Good." she nodded her head, before turning back towards the door. "I expect you downstairs in ten minutes for breakfast."

She left briskly, the door slamming behind her. I shook my head, before reaching for the clothes that she must've laid on the foot of my bed before waking me up. I managed to get dressed, fix my hair, brush my teeth, and make it down to the dining room-where my friend, Trevor and a about a dozen servants were waiting for me-in ten minutes.

"Took you long enough." Trevor smirked, picking up his fork as I sat down.

Trevor always came over to my house for breakfast, seeing as his cook-Shantelle-always put odd stuff in her food, then smacked you with a towel if you didn't eat every last bite.

"How can you be up so early?" I asked, laying my napkin in my lap."

"I run on the right schedule." Trevor took a bite of his eggs and swallowed before continuing. "Plus, there's something I would like to ask of you.

I blinked. Trevor never asked for help with anything. He was the type of person who would rather fail by himself, than pass with any kind of help.

"What is it?" I asked, curiosity trickling into my voice.

Trevor smiled, obviously pleased with himself for being able to peak my interest. "I have this cousin.-Next week her parent are going away for a few months to take care of her father's sister who's in the last stage of her pregnancy. So, she's coming to stay with me. Unfortunately-" he took a sip of his coffee as if he was trying to make me snap from my curiosity. "-Unfortunatly, I am having some friends over for a few weeks, and I don't think she would appreciate sleeping in the same house as a bunch of boys, so…"

"You want her to stay with me." I raised an eyebrow, as I finished the sentence. It wasn't that odd that he would come for me to take her-seeing as I am a boy, too, after all.

Trevor nodded.

I thought about it for a second, chewing my food while I did. "Is it your poor cousin?" I asked, eventually.

"She isn't poor, and yes, she-"

"No."

Trevor blinked and stared at me. "What?"

"No."

He narrowed his eyes. "Why not?"

"I refuse to have any poor-" I caught myself, before Trevor could butt in. "-Any commoner set one filthy foot in my house."

"But you let the servants in." Trevor pointed out.

"They're different."

Trevor rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Rane! It's only for a few weeks!"

"No."

"You'll hardly even notice she's here!"

"No."

"Master Rane." Macey cut in. "If I may-" she whispered something in my ear.

A smile broke out across my face. I turned back to Trevor and nodded. "Alright, she can stay."

Misty:

I woke up to the smell of pancakes and the sound of my mom and brother singing Christmas Carols upstairs. Light was flooding through my window, signaling that it was late enough to get up.

Smiling to myself, I hopped out of bed and made my way upstairs, where-sure enough-my dad was making breakfast and my mom and brother were dancing.

"Did you put any chocolate chips in them?" I asked, peaking over my dad's shoulder.

"Would you forgive me if I didn't?" my dad chuckled, bopping me on the nose with the batter covered spoon.

I crossed my eyes so I could see thee runny uncooked pancake mix that now covered my nose before grabbing an actual cooked pancake. Sure enough, there was chocolate chips in them.

"Yay!" I laughed, before taking a huge bite out of it. Then, I wiped the pancake mix off my nose and smeared it across my dad's cheek. "No wasting food." I teased.

My dad rolled his eyes before tossing the bottle of chocolate syrup at me. "Tell your mother and your brother that if they want pancakes, they'd better get in here."

I glanced ou into the living room to see Mom and Jerry laugh as Weird Al Yankovik's "Christmas at Ground Zero" came on. All of a sudden I felt guilty about breaking them up. My parents were leaving for Hawaii next week, to help my aunt Shelley who was ill and really needed them.

"I don't think they're done, yet." I chuckled, piling pancakes onto a plate.

"Probably not." my dad shook his head, "Don't put too much chocolate syrup on those."

I scoffed, before squirting even more on my pancakes. "That's not even possible."

My dad sighed, before shutting off the stove and sitting down next to me at the table. "Trevor called a while ago."

I glanced up at him. "And?" I asked. My mouth was full, so inded up spitting pancake all over him."

My dad grimaced before wiping his face off. "He's having some friends stay over, next week, so he's having you stay over at his friend's house for a few weeks."

I shrugged. "Okay-wait, what about Jerry?"

"He'll still be staying with trevor. We just though you may not be comfortable staying in a house with a bunch of boys."

I nodded, "Thank you for the concern-tell him that." then, I shuttered as I realized something. "Wait, is it one of his stuck up rich friends?"

My dad sighed, before looking up at me with apology in his eyes.

"Oh no!" I gasped, pushing myself away from the table, "Dad, you can't let me stay with one of them!"

"Oh, come on, Misty. There's no where else for you to go."

"I can go with you and mom to Hawaii!" I half cried, half whispered "I have $2,000 dollars in my checking account and $3,000 dollars in my savings!"

"Jerry needs you here, Misty. He'll need help with his homework."

"He'll have Trevor!"

"Misty, you haven't even met the guy yet." my dad pointed out. "Besides, it'll only be until New Years, so it won't be that long."

"What?" I gasped, "I don't even get to spend Christmas with any of my family?-But with some stuck up stranger?

"Misty, please." my dad groaned. "You don't know how bad your mother and I already feel for leaving you guys. But Aunt Shelley needs us-so please don't make doing this any harder than it already is."

I sighed, before shaking my head. "Alright." I said, grudgingly. "I'll stay with the snotty rich guy.

Big mistake.

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