A Christmas To Remember
PART III
Shae woke up bright and early the next morning, she felt refreshed after the previous night.
She had the strangest feeling that she forgot something important.
Startled she looked up as her door swung open and Jessie came running in.
"Shae! Shae! Hurry up!" Jessie yelled as she pulled the covers off of Shae's bed.
"Wha? What are you talking about Jessie?" Shae mumbled as she tried to grab her covers.
"We have to go to the airport to pick up Ike's girlfriend." Jessie said in a much calmer manner.
Suddenly Shae realized that was what she had forgotten.
"That's right, what was her name again? Ke..Kel...Kelly?" Shae said as she struggled to remember the name.
"No, her name is Kelea. She's really nice and pretty."
"Oh..." Shae mumbled as she got out of bed and started looking for her brush.
"But you're pretty too. She's Amy's cousin." Jessie told her as she picked up Shae's brush and handed it to her.
"Thanks. For the brush and for saying I'm pretty. I think you're very pretty." Shae said as she began to untangle her hair, "So Kelea's kind of like me huh? A unknown cousin. How do you know her anyway? I mean beside the fact she's Amy's cousin. How did you meet her?"
Jessie thought for a moment as she tried to remember where she had first met Kelea.
"Um...we met her at a concert. Actually, my brothers met her first. Amy had gone to visit her in Hawaii so she brought her to the concert. I didn't meet her until my parents brought everyone back to Kelea's house. Me, Avie, and Mackie were staying there. Then she came to visit Amy for two weeks." Jessie finally finished.
"Wow," Shae said as she finished brushing her hair, "I wonder how Kelea felt about spending so much time with famous people."
"I don't know," Jessie said as she began to leave so Shae could get ready, "You can ask her when we pick her up. I'll tell Mom to toast a bagel for you Ok?"
Once again Shae was touched by the simple that everyone in the family did without even thinking about it.
"Sure. Thank you Jessie."
"No problem."
When Jessie left Shae began to go through her drawers for something to wear. As she glanced out the window she noticed that it was still snowing.
Sighing she reached in and pulled out a dark green sweater with two light green stripes across the front of it.
After she dug a little further she pulled out a pair of black bootleg cords.
Shae quickly got dressed and went into the kitchen where everyone was eating a quick breakfast.
"Morning Shae," Walker said as he got her bagel out of the toaster, "You may want to hurry up and eat."
"Ok, thanks Uncle Walker." Shae replied as she took a seat at the table.
As soon as everyone finished eating they got into the van and left to go pick up Kelea.
On the way to the airport all three of the older Hanson boys pulled their hair into ponytails and put on hats.
"Don't want to be mobbed." Zac explained when he saw Shae looking at them weird.
A moment later Taylor started humming the opening notes of 'Rockin Around The Christmas Tree'.
Soon everyone was singing along as they slowly made their way through traffic.
When they got to the airport Shae pulled her coat closer to herself as the wind began to pick up.
Waiting outside the gates for Kelea's plane to land Jessie and Avie started to get thirsty.
"I'll take them." Shae volunteered.
"Thank you Shae. Here's some money." Diana said as she handed her some dollar bills.
Taking both of their hands Shae began to lead Avie and Jessie to the small restaurant on the other side of the hall.
After waiting in line for almost ten minutes Shae finally handed Avie and Jessie their soda's.
Suddenly she heard someone start calling Jessie and Avie.
Looking up she saw a tall teenage girl walking towards them.
Shae realized that whoever the girl was she must of thought that she was Taylor.
As the girl approached she got a strange look on her face.
Stopping a few feet in front of them she suddenly got an very embarrassed look on her face, "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry, I thought you were my friend Taylor...."
Jessie suddenly let go of Shae's hand and started to walk over to the girl.
"Jessie!"
Shae reached out to stop Jessie.
She felt Avery tugging on her sleeve, so she looked down as she put her hand on Jessie's shoulder to keep her from going any farther.
"It's ok Shae, this is Kelea." Avie explained.
Now it was Shae's turn to be embarrassed, "Oh, I'm sorry."
Kelea walked over to were she was standing and took a hold of Jessie's outstretched hand.
"That's ok, I thought you were Taylor so I didn't bother to say who I was. I know Isaac mentioned that someone else was visiting but I didn't know you'd look so much like Taylor."
"Kelea!"
Suddenly they heard Isaac calling Kelea over the crowd.
Before they could spot them, Isaac, Taylor, and Zac had already made their way across the floor.
Without even saying anything Isaac pulled Kelea over and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.
Ignoring Taylor's warnings not to bother Isaac and Kelea, Zac spoke up, "Kelea! Have you met Shae yet?"
Breaking away from Isaac's embrace Kelea smiled at Zac's enthusiasm, "Yeah, only at first I thought she was Taylor since I was on the other side of the room."
"How did that happen?" Isaac asked as he began to lead the group back to where his parents and Mackie were waiting.
Kelea explained the whole incident as they gathered her luggage and carried it out to the car.
The whole ride home Kelea was bombarded by questions about how she had been.
Isaac was relieved to find out that Kelea had become much more outgoing and had even joined a after school drama class.
When they finally got home Jessie and Avie insisted on helping Kelea unpack her stuff.
After a long debate they decided that Kelea would sleep downstairs in the family room.
Kelea sighed as she put up her last bag, she hadn't gotten much sleep the day before and it didn't look like she would be able to rest any time soon.
With another sigh she walked back upstairs.
When she reached the top she found Taylor lacing up his boots.
"Hey Tay, where ya going?" She asked as she sat down on the couch.
"Shopping. Me an' Amy have few presents to buy still. Shae's coming with us too." Taylor answered as he struggled with a knot in his laces.
"Is Amy here?" Kelea said as she stood back up.
She missed her younger cousin and she wanted to get a chance to talk to her before she left.
"You know what's weird?" Taylor asked as he finally finished tying up his boots.
"What?"
"That even though you're Amy's cousin you're staying with us. I guess that's because her house is really crowded right now. All of their guests don't leave until tomorrow."
"I guess that is kinda weird. Oh well. You never answered my question, is Amy here?" Kelea asked as she playfully pushed him on the arm.
"Not yet. I'll be right back, I have to find Shae. If Amy comes tell her we'll be right there."
"Ok."
Almost right after Taylor left Kelea heard a knocking on the door.
When she answered the door Amy was standing at the edge of the porch with a thoughtful expression on her face.
Noticing that it was Kelea who answered the door Amy stopped looking at the side of the house and greeted her cousin.
"Hi Kelea! I'm glad you could come and visit." Amy said as she stepped into the house.
"Hi Amy. What were you looking at out there?"
"Oh, nothing much. I was just watching Zac and Lucy build a snowman. I guess I just really miss Madeline right now. This is going to be the first Christmas without her."
"I'm sorry Amy. I know how hard it is to lose a family member."
Before she got any further Taylor and Shae walked in.
"Hi Amy, ready to leave?" Taylor asked as he got his coat out of the closet.
"Yeah, I guess so." Amy replied as she stepped out of Shae's way.
Amy secretly wished that Shae wouldn't be coming, but she knew that she was. She didn't have anything against Shae, it was just that she wanted to be alone with Taylor right then. She really needed someone to talk to and she knew that Taylor would listen to her.
With a sigh she followed Taylor out the door.
About fifteen minutes later they made their way through the crowded mall and into the first store.
A little bit after an hour had gone by Taylor left Amy and Shae at the book store so he could go buy their presents real quick.
Since it was really crowded by the front of the store Amy led Shae farther towards the back.
After looking around for a few minutes Shae picked up a book and turned to Amy, "Hey Amy, I would just love to met these people, wouldn't you?"
When Amy turned she saw that Shae was holding to official Hanson book.
Trying not to laugh Amy nodded as she put the book she had been holding back on the shelf.
"Yeah," Amy answered in mock amazement, "I wonder what they're like!"
Shae got a thoughtful expression on her face before she put back the book, "They're pretty nice actually. At least from what I've seen."
Amy smiled as she thought about all the nice things the Hanson family had done for her and her family.
"They are nice. They're not afraid to put others in front of themselves. Back when my sister Madeline died, that was about seven months ago, they canceled a performance so they could stay and help out with everything."
Amy sighed as different memories from that difficult time played in her head, "It was the worst thing that has ever happened to me, losing Madeline, but they were always there for me."
Shae had been watching Amy as she talked and she could tell that the Hanson family really meant alot to her.
"You're lucky Amy. I wish my family was as close as yours. My parents always travel so I don't see them alot."
"Actually Shae, you do have a close family. You're a Hanson."
Shae realized that Amy was talking about Diana, Walker, and everyone else.
Finally Shae smiled, she realized that the whole time she had been there she had been making herself a stranger when she was really family.
"Thanks Amy, you don't know why, it's a long story."
Before Amy had a chance to say anything Taylor walked up to them, "Come on, we have to get home."
A couple minutes later they walked into their house.
"We're back!" Taylor yelled as he hung up his coat.
Soon all three of them were busy helping to clean up.
Smiling Shae realized that it was almost Christmas.
"Only three more days."
PART IV
Those three days passed quickly and soon it was Christmas morning.
Amy, Kelea, and Mr. and Mrs. Sabec had already arrived and Mrs. Sabec was helping Diana make some hot chocolate.
Jessie, Avie, and Mackie were already digging through the presents with Zac, while Walker warned them not to open any of them yet.
Isaac was balancing carefully on a chair as he hung up the last of the Christmas decorations.
Soon Lucy and her parents showed up and got comfortable around the tree.
Taylor offered to put up their coats, after he got all of them he carried them into his room and put them on Isaac's bed.
When he came down Shae was serving the hot chocolate as everyone was talking and laughing.
Finally everyone settled down, Diana and Walker sat on the couch while Jessie, Avie, Mackie, Zac, Taylor, and Shae sat on the floor in front of the tree, Mr. and Mrs. Sabec sat on the other couch, Mr. and Mrs. Cole sat on some extra chairs that had been brought out, and Isaac and Kelea sat in the arm chair.
Walker gave his oldest son a look that told him not to get too comfortable.
A moment later they began to open all of the presents.
Soon the room was filled with 'thank you' and 'I love it!' and all sorts of other comments.
Shae finished opening all of her presents before anyone else so she sorta slid into the background so she could watch everyone else open their presents.
All to soon the gifts were all unwrapped and everyone started to settle down.
Diana watched her children play with their presents before she called Shae over.
"Shae," Diana began as she stood up, "I know you wish your parents could be here and they really wish they could be with you, but since they can't they asked me to tell you something important."
"Tell me what?" Shae asked fearing the worst.
"Your father got a new job. He was asked by John Brown University if he would become a teacher there."
"John Brown?" Taylor asked taking the words right out of Shae's mouth, "Where's that?"
Now it was Walkers turn to speak up, "John Brown is a Christian college in Arkansas, it's about an hour and a half from our house."
"An hour and a half?" Shae asked in amazement, "Will he still be traveling?"
"Sometimes, maybe one a month or so."
"What about my Mom? What's going to happen to her job?"
Diana broke into a smile, "She's transferring. Her company has been asking her to transfer for over a month now. They wanted her to head up the company in Arkansas. She only accepted last week when the job offer for your dad went through."
"You mean they've known all this time?"
"Yes, they wanted it to be a Christmas surprise.'
Isaac shifted in his seat and wrapped his arm around Kelea's waist, "How do you feel about all of this Shae?"
"I'm thrilled, but scared. I mean I'm happy but I'm sad. I'm glad my parents got the new jobs, that we can spend more time together, but I'll still miss all of my friends."
"That's normal Shae. I want you to know that your parents decided to do this for you."
Shae simply just nodded.
Meanwhile the younger kids had been playing with their toys but now Mackie walked over and looked up at his Mom.
"Is Shae leavin'?"
"Why don't you ask her Mackie?"
Mackie turned around and began to tug on Shae's shirts sleeve, "Shae? Are you leavin?"
Shae smiled as she looked down at Mackie, "Yes Mackie, I am leaving. But I'll come and visit. My family is moving so I'll live alot closer."
"Do you want to move?"
Shae laughed at Mackie's question, "Yes, I want to move, so I can be closer to you."
Looking back up Shae directed her next comment to everyone in the Hanson family, "I want to move closer to all of you, because you guys are family. And I love you all."
Zac jumped up from where he was sitting and spoke up, "We love you too Shae! Now who wants to sing?"
While they had to laugh at Zac soon everyone in the room was singing Christmas songs as they celebrated they season to be with family and friends.
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