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"Anyway, Mom's dad passed away before I was born, and her mom's an alcoholic," Cassie continued as she leaned against the counter, setting a timer on her phone. "At least, that's what I've pieced together."
"Yeah, that can be rough," Alex muttered, glancing away.
"Guess so. I've never actually met Mom’s mom," she told him with a shrug. "Though there was this one time… They tried, she didn't, and eating at a Carolina Fried Chicken place at ten p.m. makes about the saddest Christmas dinner experience you can imagine, the end. I think that was when they decided to always do Christmases here. Together. Even after the divorce."
"And Reed? I mean… he's famous, he's got to have, like, a bajillion holiday parties he gets invited to, right?"
"He'sinternetfamous," Cassie corrected. "Don't let the social media feed fool you — when he's not in front of a microphone, he kinda sucks at peopling."
"He seemed fine when I talked to him last night, though."
"Well, first off, he says family doesn't count as peopling — not the kind of family we've got here, I mean. Papa Reed… He's an only child of only children. I think he got used to having some quiet spaces in his life, before he learned to fill them. But you can't keep up that kind of energy without needing a recharge once in a while, right? I think he likes the annual break from the 'always going, always on' day-to-day of his regular life. Maybe that's the part of my Dad he said 'I do' to, back in the day."
"And second?"
"Did he talk about 'the state of pop music' and hot takes on trending topics the whole time? Or did you manage to crack his shell and get him to nerd out on old radio dramas?"
"Old radio dramas?" Alex echoed, confused. "I mean… the first, I guess — he was going on about Taylor Swift and… Why old radio dramas?"
"Because that's what got him interested in audio, and eventually music. He wanted to be a foley artist."
"A what?" Alex asked just as the muffin timer went off.
Cassie tossed him a pair of mismatched oven mitts; one with a jolly snowman and a second, slightly more battered mitt covered in line-dancing reindeer.
"You know," she told him as he fetched the muffin tray from the oven. "Back when they did radio plays and they'd use coconut halves to make the clipclop of horse hooves, or shake a baking pan for thunder? That."
"Oh," Alex said, tilting his head as he watched her poke a muffin with a toothpick. "Um… How do you get into something like that?"
"No idea," she laughed over the screeching of Alex loading the second tray into the oven. "The funny thing is, neither did he. I mean, movies obviously need sound effects, and now there are podcasts and video games too. But he still wasn't sure how to break into something like that, though; so he just began making music with his sounds instead and put them online. Somehow he found an audience, and… I think all the rest kind of surprised him."
Alex shifted out of the way as she leaned over to grab one of the steaming muffins from the tray on the counter beside him. Bouncing it between her hands as she tried to peel the paper cup off without burning herself, Cassie looked a bit like a cartoon character. Her expression turned rapturous as she took a small bite — for about five seconds before frantically fanning her mouth and reaching for a nearby glass of water.
Studiously keeping his face diplomatically neutral, Alex tore off pieces of his own muffin so it would cool faster before he took a bite. Hedidn'taccount for the pockets of melted chocolate still being so hot, however, huffing and swearing until a cold glass was pressed into his hand.
"Thanks," Alex wheezed at a smirking Cassie after he'd drained it dry.
"No worries," she told him, already peeling the paper off her second — still steaming — muffin. "Anyway, Papa Reed says he likes being able to celebrate something honest and real with people he cares ab— "
They glanced up as one at the sound of Jakob's door cracking open, footsteps faintly padding towards them down the hall, heralding Mr. Hillsman's arrival. He was still in sleep pants and a T-shirt, his hair looking like a hedgehog's nest.
Rubbing his bleary-eyed face, he blinked at them both for a moment before huffing. "Nothing in the world as loud as a teenager trying to be quiet," before heading back in the direction of the bedroom. There came the sound of a door closing softly shut behind him, and then the bolt of a lock sliding firmly home.
"So, uh…" Alex glanced up to check Cassie's expression. "What do you think they're — "
"Nope," she said, shaking her head. "Nopenopenope, not going there. Just shut up and eat your muffin."
"Si, tía," Alex grinned, doing just that.
Nervously, Alex watched as Cassie carefully sorted through the tiny presents, handing them out one by one as she spotted the names written on the side.
"They aren't much," he muttered as he felt his ears flush, now furiously sure he shouldn't have bothered. "I, um… didn't know what everyone might like, so…"
Cassie squealed as suddenly Alex found himself with a face full of copper hair as he was pulled into a massive hug.
"You got Shadow perfectly right!" she marveled, turning the little miniature around to show Jakob. "Look Dad — he's painted her back left stocking and the crook in her blaze!"
"Careful," Alex murmured. "Had to change the base figure a bit; the ponytail and cowboy hat are a bit of an after-market job…"
