twelve

                                    

                                          



The girl held her hand up to the door and dropped it again, she didn't know why she wouldn't just knock on the damn door. There wasn't anything to be afraid of she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She felt as the snow hit her raised hand, finally, she knocked on the door.
She waited there for a few seconds and after no one answered she turned around to leave. When she walked down a step the door suddenly opened behind her "Zarah." She stopped and turned around, Alex wore a bright smile on his face  "You weren't going to leave were you?"
She looked around "Do you want me to be honest?"
He laughed holding open the door wider for her "You came at just the right time, come in."
As she walked past him she noticed the sweater he was wearing, it was bright red and green and a lot of colors... She looked at him weirdly but didn't say.
"You can set the presents under the tree." He told her as he walked into the kitchen.
She set the presents under the multicolored tree. There were lots of lights, tinsel, and ornaments, she flicked an ornament, it swung back and forth, it was homemade and had Alex's name on the back.
That was her first time seeing a Christmas tree up close, at the agency they didn't celebrate holidays, she didn't even know when her birthday was. It didn't make her sad, it didn't make her feel anything, it's just the way it was. And she had more things to worry about than Christmas.
She heard Alex walk back into the living room and she turned around, "What the hell is that?"
Alex was holding another sweater in front of himself toward her "Do you like it?" He asked.
"I-." She stopped midway through her sentence, her mouth agape, it was the most horrendous thing she had even laid her eyes upon. 
"You didn't think you were going to be the only one not wearing an ugly Christmas sweater, did you?"
"I was hoping so." She muttered, "Do I really have to wear... that?" the disgust evident in her voice.
Alex tossed the sweater to her and she caught it with her right hand "Yes you do, and you going to enjoy it. You can change upstairs, my room is to the right or the bathroom is to the left, whichever you prefer." 
The girl grumbled and dragged her feet up the stairs, once she got to the second floor she paused, her eyes locked in on his uncle's office. She could go in there, if someone caught her she could just say she got lost, they would probably believe her, but she didn't, instead, she turned and went into the bathroom.
She pulled off her sweatshirt and put on the sweater, it was a bit big on her, but that wasn't the worst thing about it. She looked into the mirror, her hair was in a bun rather than in braids, a few curls were sticking out of her bun and she tried to flatten them down. 
When she was done she folded her sweatshirt neatly and went back down the stairs. When she went to the kitchen, she saw Alex, Tom, and who she assumed to be jack surrounding the kitchen counter, they all wore correlating ugly Christmas sweaters that matched her own. 
She walked over to them and Jack smiled "You must be Zarah, I've heard so much about you from these two."
The girl mustered up as much of a smile as she could, though she knew it still looked awkward "It's nice to meet you."
Jack clapped her hands together "That right there, that's an accent I haven't heard in a while."
The girl looked at Alex "So what's this?" On the counter were four different boxes each with a picture of a house.