December 16, 2013…

Carly opened her tired eyes to see Michael looking back at her with a look on his face that meant one thing… finishing the De Santa's Christmas shopping.

"We got into a brawl on Black Friday, is it just gonna be you, me and Blake or will the rest of our dysfunctional family join us?" Carly responded, Michael knowing that she hadn't seen Christmas the same way since she was 8 and Amanda smacked her across the face in a rage.

"Just us… come on, up, kiddo. We'll head out later." Michael replied, helping Carly stand up.

Carly tied her shoulder length light brown and blonde hair into a messy high bun and headed to the bathroom to shave and shower… after that, she got ready for the day and headed downstairs, buffing her emerald green painted nails for a few seconds. She normally had them painted grey but decided to go with a holiday like color.

Although now she was thinking of something else for the party next week.

Carly and Michael headed out… it was frighteningly chilly in the city.

Some weather people were calling for snow... Carly hoped that was true...

Present time, December 24th 2013…

Blake walked into the room she shared with her half sister Carly, who had A Holly Jolly Christmas by Burl Ives playing as she painted Essie's Smokin Hot on her nails… and Blake looked at her and at the other nail colors nearby.

"Trevor bought the bright red one for me if you're wondering." Carly explained after closing the bottle.

"Carly Jade, are you sure that you want to go to this party? Remember the last few times we went and it ended up in a complete disaster for us and our friends?" Blake questioned.

"I'm sure Selena locked up the liquor this time." Carly responded as she readjusted her plum velvet backless skater mini dress and Blake grabbed the red nail polish, which was Essie's Forever Yummy and also grabbed Essie's Fill The Gap.

"Why would he buy red for you? He knows you don't wear it." Blake replied as she started painting her nails.

"He says the greyish purple looks like whore paint." Carly explained, making sure her makeup didn't look overdone.

"Now this is just my opinion but whore paint is closer to stripper nails, Carly." Blake explained.

"Now not all strippers are whores. But that old man doesn't listen to me anyway." Carly responded as she put her wine colored stiletto heels on.

"He has Lunch as his... so called daughter and doesn't even complain about her hair. I mean, she's running an illegal salon in her bedroom and the police in Strawberry don't do anything about it." Blake explained.

"Police are corrupt." Carly responded as she stood up and put her coat on at the same time Ethan walked in, dressed in a red button down shirt, black slacks and black wing tipped shoes.

"Hey, uh, girls let me talk to you both for a second… Somehow my pops decided to invited our damn coaches to this party. You know Coach Balor and Mandy? You know the crazy lovers?" Ethan explained.

"It's their life, Ethan." Carly responded.

"Jadey's right." Blake replied before switching the music off as the girls put the nail polish back and grabbed what they needed before leaving.

Across town at the house, Mandy was in a black lace dress and sat down to readjust her stiletto heels on when Balor covered her eyes.

"I know that's you." Mandy said with a smile before Balor helped her stand up and they kissed. "I'm tempted to skip the party…" She responded.

"Those kids are gonna get suspicious, lovely." Balor replied.

"They're already suspicious… doesn't help that Lynette caught us kissing in your office and Chloe threw a fit when she found that out." Mandy responded before they kissed again.

"Do you see that?! I told you, Maxie, those two are dating!" Lunch whispered as she and Max were outside of their house to spy on them.

"So? They're adults, Lunchables." Max responded quietly, dragging Lunch to the alleyway to hide before they saw them again as the young couple got into the Infernus and drove away.

Lunch looked at her phone, seeing a text from Carly.

'Are you and Maxie J here yet?'

'We'll be there soon, I had the munchies.' Lunch repiled.

At the party a while later, Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms played as Carly had been talked into dancing with Lamar… but both were smiling and laughing.

"I have to admit, you're a good dancer, Lamar." Carly responded as Lamar spun her around, making her laugh… and Trevor hearing that and looking at them.

"T, calm down. They're just having fun." Michael responded.

"Alright, I'll chill. She does look happy." Trevor replied.

Carter turned to the door and opened it, letting Mandy and Balor in.

"Hey, Carter, how's Charlie doing?" Mandy asked after Carter closed the door.

"She's doing good, reminds me of Blake when she was that little." Carter responded after closing the door.

It was through the crowd of party goers that Carly was sneaking a drink of vodka… and turned around, seeing Johnny.

"Hey, I didn't think I'd see you here." Carly responded before the two friends hugged for a few seconds.

"Lunch sort of invited the whole gang." Johnny explained as Carly saw Terry drinking from the keg… and then attempting to sweet talk one of the strippers from the Vanilla Unicorn.

'Strippers from Trevor's club, biker friends, gangs, bank robbers, housewives of bank robbers, teachers and underage party goers… this is gonna be a hell of a party.' Carly thought as Blue Christmas by Elvis Presley played on the radio.

It would be Christmas soon… then New Year's.

And then everyone would try to start over.

But as Carly knew, starting over wasn't always easy.