#pondedration

[countessofravenclaw]

The 2023 writing Advent calendar: Day 21

21. Bells

This is continuation of the day 24 of lats year, so this is the Christmas day right after S3 ended

“So what is this exactly?” Ambar looked at the two pieces of paper Luna had given her. They, Pedro and Simon were sitting in the mansion’s living room. 

“Oh, this is this game we do on Christmas,” Luna explained excitedly. 

“A game?” Ambar raised an eyebrow. She had not though that games and Christmas went in the same sentence, but here they were. It was Luna, what else had she been expecting? Actually…it sounded kin of fun. Well, funner than the Christmasses with Sharon. 

“Yes,” Luna nodded, “Trust me, it’s gonna be sooooo much fun. We just have to wait… Where’s Matteo.” 

“Yeah, io ci sarò. Non preoccuparti.” Matteo walked into the living room while talking Italian to his phone. “Ho capito, papà. Ho capito, ci sarò.”

“What was that?” Luna asked after Matteo hung up. “Come on Chico Fresa, were about start playing.”

“I can’t.” Matteo shook his head.

“Why not?” Luna scurrowed her eyebrows, “Don’t be a buzzkill.” 

“I’m not being one,” Matteo sighed, “I just can’t play… whatever this is, because I need to go home.”

“Oh,” Luna looked surprised.

“Yeah, I just talked with Dad,” Matteo explained, “Apprently, I am expected for dinner, so… I’ll have to go. I’ll be back in the evening.”

“Okay then.” Luna nodded and Matteo kissed her on the cheek before he walked out. 

“So, no invite for dinner with in-laws for you?” Ambar looked at Luna after Matteo had gone. They got along well now with Luna, but she still couldn’t quite help the small urge to be just a tab bit prickly.

“Nah, it’s fine,” Luna was not phased, “I mean I have not even met them yet and this doesn’t seem like the best occasion.”

“This is a weird thing to say, but does Matteo even have parents?” Pedro piped up, “Uhm, I mean, he always just talked about his dad…”

“Well, he really does only ever mention his dad…” Simon pondered too before looking at Ambar.

“Don’t look at me,” SHe shook her head, “I actually barely know anything about him when it comes to it.”

“I think he has a mom,” Luna pondedred, “I—Now that you mention it, I don’t think he has mentioned it, but… Her name is Sofia and I have even seen her.”

“Where?”

“At the Blake gradution. Like, I didn’t met them, but saw them from the distance.”

“How do you know her name then?” Simon questioned. 

“I’m not sure,” Luna tilted her head, “Wait… Nina told me that.”

“How does she know?” 

“Not sure.”

“She might now through Gastón,” Ambar noted, “Because he surely knows. I know that much that their parents know each other. Well, this should eb enoghon the Matteo mystery. We were supposed to play something.”

“Oh yeah!!” Luna jumped up, “So, you all have the papers?” 

“Yes, but how does this work?” Ambar asked again. 

“Okay, I’ll explain.” Luna sat back down, “So, look at the paper where there are bunch of lines.”

Ambar looked at the paper. It looked almost like a elementary school popquiz. It hard words like verb, adjective and noun. Next to them was an empy line. 

“So, I found this online.” Luna explained, “You put a word down.”

“What word?”

“Any word, random word.” Luna nodded, “Lets do that and then we’ll see.” 

Ambar nodded and looked at the paper again. She still had no idea what those words were for, but she could come up with random ones. 

It took maybe 5 minutes for her to write down all the words. She leane dover and tried to take a peek of what Simon was writing. 

“Hey!” He looked at her playfully and yanked his paper away. “No peeking.”

“Killjoy,” Ambar rolled her eyes at him. 

“Okay!” Luna jumped up again. Ambar had very much lost the track of how many times she had been up and down during this time. “Everyone done?”

“So, what do we do now?” Ambarv looked at the paper. There had to be more to this game.

“So, now take the other paper and write the words on the corresponding number.” Luna explained. 

Ambar turned the other piece of paper around. To her surprise it was… Jingle Bell lyrics? Jingle Bell lyrics with words missing? Wait, you needed to add the words you wrote tpo te other paper here? Thatw as probably it, so she started at it. 

Ambar had a chuckle few times as she kept writing. It sounded so silly, but that was probably the point. 

“Everyone done?” Luna jumped up again. Did her legs never get tired? “Simonm you got the guitar?”

“Yes,” Simon nodded. 

They were gonna sing, weren’t they?”

“So, now were gonna sing!!!” Luna announced. “With our own lyrics. Who wants to go first?”

“How… about you go?” Ambar suggested, because no way she was going first.

“Okay” Luna nodded, “Simon?”

Simon started strumming the chords and Luna started: 

“Skating through chocolate. In one-parrot open river. Over fields we wheel, falling all the way. Ha! Ha! Ha!”

Nothing says Christmas like some Jingle Bells Mad Lib and speculations about Matteo's family

#2023 Writing DCLA+ advent calendar