Christmas morning finally arrived. It felt soo weird for Karine, for it to be christmas and have hot weather, and no snow. Karine woke up and looked out of her window, looking at the christmas decorations in the hot sun. It was quite a warm day for Christmas, and Karine was thinking about maybe swimming later, thinking it was pretty weird to be swimming during winter. Karine didnt want to go downstairs until the others were awake, so she got back into bed and waited for someone else to wake up.
AJ was sound asleep in his bed, and hasnt had such a great nights sleep in a long time. At around 10am, Denise's alarm went off, and she woke up. AJ got out of bed, and went into Karines room.
"Hey" Karine said, looking at AJ.
"HOw long have you been up for?" AJ asked.
"Awhile.. since about 9:15" Karine said "it feels weird to have such hot weather for christmas" Karine joked.
"Oh yeah, I forgot, you're soo used to snow" AJ laughed. Karine grabbed her robe and put it ontop of her nightgown. AJ and Karine walked downstairs, and saw their christmas tree with tons of presents underneath it.
"wow!! My mom went all out this year!" AJ said, looking at all the presents, trying to find all the ones with his name on it.
"Hes still the same!!!" Denise said laughing, looking at AJ's search for his presents.
Karine laughed lightly and sat down on the couch.
Denise had boughten presents for Karine also, which surprised Karine, who wasnt expecting anything!
After opening their presents, Denise went upstairs and had a shower. AJ and Karine sat down on the couch, talking.
"Thank you soo much for the lovely gift" Karine said, looking at the necklace AJ had told his mom to buy, while he was in the hospital.
"Your welcome, Im glad that you like it" AJ said "I told my mom which one I wanted to get you, since I couldnt go get it myself" AJ explained. Karine asked AJ to put the necklace on her, and so he did. AJ turned on the TV to see the christmas parade, which was starring N SYNC in it.
"Figures" AJ said, then turned the station.
After finding a channel with a good Christmas program, Karine and AJ sat on the couch, quietly. During commercial break, AJ stood up and got a glass of orange juice. When he returned to the couch, he sat beside Karine, this time, closer to her. AJ put his glass down on the table, after finishing it. When the program started back up again, AJ slowly lifted his arm, and wrapped it around Karines shoulder, pulling her back to him. Karine smiled to herself, and leaned back, resting her head on the top of his chest.
Over at the Carter household, Angel and Aaron were the first ones up. Being the youngest, they were the most excited and loudest in the morning. Aaron and Angel ran down the hallway to wake their parents up to go open presents. Aaron ran back into his room. Nick was in bed asleep, wearing just his boxers. Aaron ran over to Nick and yelled at him to wake up. Nick opened his eyes and covered himself in his blankets, and Aaron uncovered him, dragging him out of bed.
Angel ran into BJ's room, waking up BJ and Tara. As BJ and Tara were leaving her room, Nick was walking down the hall in just his boxers, he was half asleep and totally forgot that Tara had spent the night there.
Tara looked up to see Nick in just his boxers and blushed a little bit. She hardly ever sees him without a shirt on, and the sight of him without a shirt just made her turn red. Nick looked up and saw Tara looking at him, blushing.
"Good morning" Nick said, remembering she had spent the night. He was soo tired!
"Good morning!" Tara said. Nick went over to Tara and gave her a hug, Tara giving him a HUGE hug back, rubbing his shirtless back. Nick grinned, the feel of her hands on his back made him happy.
Nick went into his room and grabbed a shirt, and re-caught up with Tara and went downstairs.
Tons and tons and tons of presents filled the floor and underneath the huge Carter Christmas tree. Aaron, Angel and Lesley were diving through all the presents to find theirs.
"Dont open any yet, Aaron, hand everybody one" Jane said. Aaron found a present for each person, and everyone started unwrapping. Tons of presents later, Toys, clothes, entertainment systems and much more filled the floor.
Everyone left the room, except for Tara, Nick, and Mr Carter, who was cleaning up the wrapping paper pieces from all over the floor, and trying to make piles of everyones stuff. After Mr Carter left the room, Nick and Tara sat infront of the christmas tree.
"You know, I havent given you your present from ME yet" Nick said, smiling at Tara.
"ME too!!" Tara said, grinning back. Tara pulled a wrapped box that was hidden behind one of the chairs.
"here you go!" Tara said, handing Nick the nicely wrapped box. Nick unwrapped the box, and opened it to find another smaller, wrapped box inside. When he opened that, he saw a littler box, really small. Nick pulled the littlest box out, and opened that up to reveal a small golden ring inside.
"wow!" Nick said in amazement, admiring the ring. Nick looked closely at it, and noticed that his and her name was inscribed on the ring. Nick leaned over and gave Tara a romantic, soft kiss, and then put the ring on his right hand, on the finger next to his baby finger.
"you'll have to follow me for your present.." Nick said. Tara smiled at him, and followed Nick upstairs to his room.
"So your present to me is in YOUR room eh?" Tara smiled at Nick.
"yeah, but its not what you think..." Nick grinned. Nick pulled out an envelope from his desk drawer and passed it to Tara. Tara opened up the envelope, which was a christmas card. Tara read the beautiful verse, which Nick wrote himself, and then Nick passed her another envelope.
"Now THIS present, is for you and I!" Nick said. Tara opened the envelope, and pulled out two airplane tickets. Tara looked at Nick in shock, and Nick opened the tickets for her, to reveal two firstclass tickets to the bahamas. Tara screamed when she seen the tickets, she was soo surprised, and soo shocked! Nick was excited that Tara loved the present.
"So you really want to go with me?!?" Nick asked "Its for spring break!"
"OH Nick, Id LOVE to go with you!!!" Tara said, and then she hugged Nick soo hard that it made them both fall back on his bed, which they were sitting on.
"I love you, Tara" Nick said. It was the first time Nick had ever said this to Tara, and didnt know exactly what she would say back.
"I love you too, Nick!" Tara said. Nick leaned up and gave her a kiss, which lasted about two minutes.
That evening, after everyone was finished their turkey dinners, AJ recieved a note to come to the old Backstreet Market. The note was anonymous, so he brought Karine with him incase it was some kind of joke. When he got there, he met up with Nick and Tara, Kevin, Brian, and Howie.
"Whats going on?" AJ asked.
"Well, I thought we'd go visit the childrens hospital, and maybe sing a song or two for them, if you were feeling up to it" Kevin said.
"Yeah! That sounds great" AJ said. Everyone else agreed, even though they werent together as a band. The group drove off to the hospital.
"isnt this kind of weird?" Howie asked, looking at the others.
"I mean, we broke up, but we're still singing together on special occasions?" he added.
No one replied to Howie, cuz deep inside, they all felt kind of happy to be singing together again, even if it was for just this one time. When they got to the hospital, there was a little stage set up, since Kevin had told his hospital his idea, and the Boys went up and sang some christmas songs to the children. Afterwards, they signed a few autographs, and then headed back home.
"It felt really good to be singing with them again" AJ said to Karine, as he grabbed her hand. Karine looked down at her hand in his.
"It was really nice to hear you guys sing together again" Karine said. Karine laced her fingers with AJ's.
"You know, Karine, everything thats happened lately has been making me think, about the important things in life" AJ said.
"its been making me think about my future, career, what I want" he added.
"What is it that you want?" Karine asked.
"Well, I want to have a singing career again, either solo, or in a band, and I want to have a relationship, with you" AJ said.
"I'd like that too, Alex" Karine smiled at AJ. AJ leaned in and gave Karine a kiss.
Back at the Carter house, Tara and Nick stayed up again, for most of the night. Bob and Jane had to kick them off the couch again, making them both go to their own rooms for the night.