A young boy hopped down the stairs, ready to take on the morning. He had just cleaned up his glasses, and braided his brown hair to his usual side. Walking into the lobby, he almost slipped — he would’ve fallen had he not caught himself by his palm strings. Picking himself up, he saw a small group of people conversing with each other, obviously sharing something important. The boy was about to leave them to their business, until he noticed his mint-green dormmate laughing along with his friends in the foyer. Curiosity piqued, he went to investigate.
“Heya Leaf, how’s it hangin’?”
The fox turned with surprise, the look on his face obviously having had enough surprises today.
“H-Hugo? What are you doing here?”
“Just came to say hello. Hello!” he waved, laughing at his own joke. Leaf smiled.
Another boy with black, stylish hair came over. “Hey, who’s this guy?”
“Oh, this is my new roommate, Hugo. Hugo, this is Saki.”
“Pleasure to meet ya!” Hugo reached his hand out to shake. “That’s a big group you guys gathered.”
Saki took the handshake, pointing out the door with his other hand. “Trust me, there’s a lot more where that came from.”
Another group walked through the door, carrying a few plastic bags in each hand, some empty and some full of items. They looked half-frozen to death. One of the group members seemed to be a teacher, holding back her annoyance in front of a much younger girl who looked just like her. The people converged, a boy in a striped shirt and Saki bro-hugging being the first thing Hugo saw.
A third group followed shortly after, a humanoid being with multicolored hair and wings leading the charge. A strange mummy-man with a white lab coat went straight to a much shorter man in a blue lab coat, beginning his endless discussion about some spirit.
Hugo had never seen this many Electi in one room before. He didn’t know any of their names, but he knew everyone else already knew each other.
“Yeah, I’m just gonna assume you’re the new kid and need to be filled in,” a young man with a sweet green denim jacket came to greet him. “I’m Lucas. Over there in that big ol’ pile of family and friend reunions is Skyber, Pearl, Nova, Deg, Splats, Dr. Ernst, James, Brown, Xander, Abigail, Jesse, and you’ve already met Leaf and Saki. Try your best to remember all that.”
“Woah, how did you-” Hugo began.
“Hey look, two more just joined the party. Guess Hikari’s staying behind to run her library. That’s Charlie, he’s the officer guy that saved us last night in the snowstorm. Man, does he look pissed. And that girl in the squid mask being hauled by him is Carrie. She’s kinda the scapegoat for everything bad that happens, like, every 16 pages or so.”
“I’m already so confused,” Hugo said, his eyes spinning. “It’s like I entered the wrong class on the first day of high school!”
“Don’t do that with your eyes, that’s weird. Just sit down for a bit, get yourself acquainted.”
He did as he was told, gazing around the room at everyone splitting themselves up into their own little conversations. He only heard a little bit of each:
“You won’t believe the shit I just went through!” Brown, Saki, and Xander all said at the same time, then diverging into their own experiences throughout the night in a triad of jumbled word vomit.
“Walker.”
“Abigail.”
“I reckon you’ve been busy t’night?”
“Would’ve been a shorter shift if you hadn’t trapped yourself and your students in a bus.”
“They ain’t my students, and you still ain’t the boss of me. Just get yer delinquent to the office and hike it outta Dodge.”
“Gladly. Just making sure nobody else here causes any trouble first. Like some people.”
“Silence, fools! Krampus will rise once more! I can feel his rage grace this very room!” Carrie tried to squirm her way out of Charlie’s custody.
“Can it, Squidface,” the officer and teacher said in unison.
“What happened to the ornaments?” Pearl asked.
“Um, let’s just say they got chucked out a winder!” Nova gave her friend the last remaining orb still in one piece. It shattered the instant it touched Pearl’s hand. They frowned.
“And the refreshments?” Skyber added.
“We ate most of ‘em,” Jesse said. “Don’t blame us, blame our stomachs. Presents are doin’ fine, though.”
“And zen, ze ice sphere with ze ornament inside hit my metal safety cap, and through ze pain I could feel my brain loze so many cells on impact! HAHAHA!”
“That’s nice Ernst, but you wanna just take it easy today?” James said. “We can watch K-Pop stan cringe compilations on YouTube.”
The doctor didn’t know what half those words meant. “UGH, K-POP?! More like, K-POOP!”
Splats came across Deg after trying to butt into others’ discussions to no avail. “Jeez, it’s like I’m getting shunned for saving Brown’s life. At least you don’t suck, right Deg?”
Deg barked.
“Uhh…? Sorry, I don’t speak Dog.”
Deg barked.
“Can’t Skyber and Nova, like, translate for you? Can you at least get of them?”
Deg barked.
“C’monnn, gimme something to work with here!”
Deg woofed.
Splats pouted. “You’re no fun to talk to!”
Lucas quipped to himself, heading back up the stairs to sleep on the hallway floor. “Well, that was something. Felt like the night took a whole month long, I mean seriously. This is why I like Hanukkah better. Or Kwanza. Christmas is overrated anyways.”
Hugo sat in amazement. There was so much to this school that he never even realized, including the fact that all this happened in one night! He couldn’t imagine what else this campus had in store for him. Pearl came over to greet him.
“Hi there! You look new. I’m Pearl, Pearl Reedquist!”
“Oh, yeah! That’s where I heard your name before, it was on the flyer for the holiday party today! Is that still going on?”
“You tell me,” Skyber walked by. “Now that our food, our ornaments, and our lights are gone, I’d say this event didn’t go exactly to plan.”
“Yeah,” Pearl agreed with disappointment, “I guess whatever could possibly go wrong tonight, went really, really wrong.”
“Talk about Murphy’s Law!” Hugo joked, then saw the look on Pearl’s face. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine. Really. I guess we weren’t cut out for hosting a big event like this. If you don’t mind, Hugo, can you help spread the word that the party’s cancelled this year?”
“Oh, really? That sucks. But yeah, sure. Anything to help out new friends!”
“Perhaps next year. You always have another chance,” the lady assured.
Hugo beamed. Despite the news, he felt Pearl and her friends were just glad to all be together again, especially after what sounded like a ridiculously hectic night. He supposed that’s what Christmas was all about in the end. And he was certain that this would be a Christmas he would never forget.
Happy Holidays.