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» CHAPTER ELEVEN «

It's Christmas Eve, and the group is getting things organized for the next day. They needed to decide what to do with the presents, since there were so many, and no one wanted to bring all of the presents in one room, early in the morning. They are all seated in the boys main room, between bedrooms, and talking.

"Why not bring one present in, one at a time?" A.J. asks.

"I don't think anyone would want to go back from one room to the next for everyone. It would take too much time." Kevin states.

"I got it!! Whenever Jenny and I,....and my parents,....had Christmas time,.... we would put all of the presents under the tree, on Christmas Eve, and then in the morning, we would go in a round and open presents. Usually, it's me or Jenny's turn first, but since there are so many of us, we can go in some sort of order. How about it?" Kelly states.

"One problem, Kelly. We don't have a tree." Nick says.

"We can put them on the couch, or the chairs, or something. In fact, we can all have individual piles. You know...we put all of our presents for that person in one pile, and etc." Kelly smiles.

"Good idea, Kelly. Let's do it that way." Jenny states, looking at everyone.

They all nod, and get the presents from their rooms. They go around the room, putting presents for one person, on the couch, and another person's presents, on a chair, and so on. After they put all of the presents around the room, it was real late at night. Kelly and Jenny went back to their rooms, and got ready for bed. But before Kelly went to her room, Howie tapped her on the shoulder, and motioned for her to follow him. Jenny was in the bathroom,  getting ready for bed. They went to his room, and talked.

The next day, it was Christmas morning! Kelly was the first one up, and she went to the bathroom to freshen up. After she was done, Jenny was still sleeping. Kelly got a sly smile on her face, she grabbed a spray bottle filled with water, that Jenny uses for her hair, and walked over to Jenny's bed. She sat on the bed, and sprayed Jenny in the face. Jenny moaned and woke up.

"Kelly! Stop it, let me sleep." she yelled.

"Jenny, it's Christmas. Get up! You want to open presents, or not?"

"Personally, I would rather sleep right now. Thank you very much." and rolled over.

Kelly shakes her head, and sprays Jenny again in the face. Jenny moans, and grabs the bottle. She throws it on the floor, and goes back to sleep. Kelly picks it up, and sprays her one more time, and Jenny, defeated, gets up. Kelly, satisfied gets dressed and throws her covers back on the bed.

Kelly nods, and waits for Jenny to get dressed and then goes to the guys suite, across the hall. They knock on the door, and Kevin answers the door.

"Kevin! I didn't expect you up...I thought you would be dead to the world, right now." Jenny teased, smiling.

"Yeah well, I would be...if the guys hadn't woke me up." he smiled.

He lets the girls in, and sits down at the table.

The guys are all sitting around the room, where their presents are, and the girls laugh.

"Everyone ready?" Jenny teases.

They sit down where their presents are, and they all opened their presents and talked and laughed. After all the presents were opened, and wrapping paper around the room, Jenny gets up to grab a garbage bag, to throw the paper away. While Jenny was gone, Howie looks at Kelly, and she nods. He gets up, and walks out of the room. The guys notice. When Jenny walks back
to the room, with the bag, Howie walks in with a giant box. He puts it down, in front of Jenny's pile, and sits back down. He speaks up.

"Hey Jenny, it looks like you missed one." he smiles.

Jenny turns around and looks at her pile. She sees the box. She looks at him and smiles. The guys take notice, and gathers around to see what it was. Jenny kneels down to open it, when she hears whining in the box. She gasps, and rips the box open, and sees a Shih Tzu puppy with a red ribbon on it. She picks it up, and looks at Howie confused, but happy.

"Oh great, another dog in the group?" Brian laughs. "How did you get it?" she asks.

Howie smiles and explains what he did, " I got it a couple days ago. Kelly told me that you love Shih Tzus and I figured that it would be a perfect present for you. I kept it in my room. Do you like it?"

"Like it? I love it! Thank you so much!" She puts the puppy down and hugs him tightly, and hugs Kelly too. After she hugs them, she starts to pick up paper around the room. After she was done, she went to the puppy and plays with it.

"What are you going to name it?" Kelly asks.

Jenny looks at the dog and smiles, "How about I name him, "Sweetie?"

Kelly laughs, "Sweetie? I guess it's a good name. Let me guess, after Howie...Sweet D?"

Jenny nods, "Not just because of him, but also it seems like a sweetie, and it seems to fit him perfectly."

She plays with the dog on the couch, and notices something around the ribbon. She gasps. Howie notices what she found, and walks towards her with a smile. He motions for everyone to follow. The guys follow, and stand around the room. They all smile. Jenny picks at the ribbon and picks up a ring through the ribbon. She looks at Howie in shock. Howie kneels down in
front of her, and takes the ring. He sighs.

"Jenny, the puppy's not the only thing for you. I would like to give you something else too. On this Christmas day, in front of your family and our friends, I would like it if you would make me the happiest man in the world. I love you very much, and would be honored, if you would be my wife. Will you marry me?"

Jenny starts to tear up, she whispers, "Yes"

Howie sighs and smiles. He puts the ring on her finger and kisses her passionately. He pulls her up off the couch, and hugs her tightly, and kisses her again. The guys and Kelly claps for them. Kelly smiles at Jenny, and walks towards her. Jenny is laughing.

"You knew about this, didn't you? Don't lie to me, now." Jenny smiles.

Kelly nods, "Yeah, I did. Howie asked me last night if he could ask you. He didn't want to do it, without me saying that it was okay. I told him he could."

Jenny smiles and hugs her. Howie hugs her too. After the occasion, the group gets breakfast, and talks about the holidays. In a few weeks, the group will go to their families and celebrate New Year's, and then they go back on the road the next day. Howie convinces Jenny and Kelly to go with him, to spend New Year's with his family. They agree to go along.

¤ Chapter 12 ¤
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