Ivan stared in shock at the present his Secret Santa had given him. A stuffed white bear in a cheesy Santa hat holding a candy cane and a plush heart that read 'Merry Christmas' in loopy script. This would have been embarrassing and weird regardless, but the fact that his Secret Santa had been revealed only moments before made it all the more bewildering.

His presents for the week had all been the same style-blue and red pencils one day, some candy the next. He had been given a nice bookmark that had a picture of St. Basil's Cathedral on it, and he realized that whoever had drawn his name for the annual Secret Santa must've known him pretty well.

And she did. Amelia knew Ivan very well, mostly because she hated his guts. That was probably because in kindergarten he had picked on her sister Madeleine and her friend Toris and had labeled him as Enemy Number One after he had kicked her sandcastle over the first week of school.

Ever since then, their petty feud had escalated until it was just a well known fact that Ivan and Amelia did not get along. And as the saying goes, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Even at that age, Amelia nine and Ivan having just turned nine himself, they knew the phrase.

That explained why the presents just seemed to make sense to him. But this last one, the white fluffy teddy bear…

He could feel an angry aura emanating around him after the class burst out laughing at the sight of the ridiculous stuffed doll. He could hear Gilbert and his stupid friends, Francis and Antonio, making kissy noises nearby. Furiously, Ivan looked around and met Amelia's eyes.

She looked downright floored. She had stood up from where she had been sitting-the class had been engaged in "circle time" where they all sat on the floor with their legs crossed-and stared with wide eyes at the bear in Ivan's hands.

"That wasn't for him!" she cried suddenly, her voice loud enough to easily carry over the cacophony of taunts and laughter. Already, people were chanting 'Ivan and Amelia, sitting in a tree…'

Ivan stood up and a few people fell silent. Despite the hilarity of the situation, everyone knew that you did not upset Ivan. Ever.

Ivan was quick to tear the heart off the teddy bear and then begin his assault on it, halfway through ripping an ear off after smashing the candy cane to the ground when the teacher managed to stop him and sit him in time out.

He sat there until recess after the teacher had a little talk with him. Amelia spent the majority of the day sulking, as far as Ivan could tell, and threatening to punch people-specifically Gilbert and his friends-every time they tried to tease her. Once recess came, the class filed outside, though Amelia was noticeably absent from the front of the line where she usually proudly took her spot. Ivan looked around and saw that she stood in the back, her arms crossed tightly over her chest, pouting at her shoes.

Once they were all properly in the winter clothes and shoved outside to play, Ivan, as usual, walked alone far from the playground equipment. He began to silently build a snowman, fuming over the day's events.

He heard snow crunching as someone approached and didn't even have to look up to know who it was. "Go away, Amelia."

"No." She glared at him as he began to work on rolling the base of the snowman. "That bear wasn't for you. It was for Arthur."

"Oh." Ivan didn't care who it was for, though. He just wanted her to leave.

"It was for Arthur and you ruined it," she went on, her voice rising a bit, like she was afraid he couldn't hear her even though they were in the only two standing out in the field. "You always ruin everything."

Ivan glanced up at her, frowning. She didn't even flinch under his glare and instead stuck her tongue out at him, her little hands balling into fists at her sides.

"I came out here to give you your real stupid gift," she snapped. He suddenly saw that she was carrying a gift that looked suspiciously similar to the one that had the bear earlier. "Like I said, I got them mixed up, but I figured you'd want this one."

Without another word, she stepped forward and roughly shoved the present at Ivan. He reflexively grabbed it and blinked as Amelia stuck her tongue out at him again.

"I hate you," she snapped, turning around and stomping off. "You ruin everything!"

Ivan paused and looked down at the wrapped present in his hands. The wrapping paper wasn't even minorly Christmas-themed. In fact, it was Wonder Woman themed. He frowned and carefully unwrapped the present, his eyebrows raising when he saw what was in there. He couldn't believe it. How did she…?

It was a pin shaped to look like a sunflower. He gaped at it, wondering how she could have possibly known that he loved sunflowers so much. He never talked about it for fear of being made fun of.

Picking it up, he shoved the wrapping paper into his pocket and then, after some contemplation, he attached the pin to the end of his scarf. He then returned to building his snowman in peaceful silence, no longer upset about what had happened earlier. A small smile lit up his features as he drew a face for his new snowy friend and stepped back.

"Shut up, Francis! He's not my boyfriend!"

Ah, that was distinctly Amelia's screech. Ivan turned and squinted, managing to look just in time to see Amelia smash a huge wad of snow into Francis's face. The boy burst into tears, sobbing and smoothing down his hair as he raced off to tattle.

They were all called back inside after another few minutes, though Amelia had been made to go in sooner for "bullying" Francis. Ivan pulled off his coat, but as usual he kept his scarf on. He sat down in his seat and was unperturbed for the remainder of the day.

Once the bell rang and class was released, Ivan was pulling his backpack out of his cubby when Amelia once more appeared at his side. She didn't look quite so angry as before, though her mouth was still twisted in a tiny grimace.

"You're wearing the pin," she said. He nodded in response. "I thought you would."

"How did you know I like sunflowers?"

She shrugged. "Lucky guess." After a pause, she sighed. "Actually, I asked your sister, Katyusha, about it. She mentioned that you like sunflowers, so I took a leap of faith and got that pin."

"Da, it is nice."

They fell into awkward silence until Gilbert spied them on his way out.

"You talking to your girlfriend, Ivan?" Gilbert chortled. Amelia's cheeks turned bright red and Ivan moved his gaze from her to the dimwitted loudmouth.

"You be quiet now, Gilbert, da? Or I will make you be quiet." Once more, that dark aura pooled out of Ivan, causing Gilbert to flinch a little. He practically ran out of the school.

When Ivan looked back at Amelia, she was back to scowling at him.

A sense of comforting familiarity washed over Ivan at that look, but there was a new warmth in his stomach, too. It had been there ever since she'd given him the sunflower pin. And in the back of his mind, Ivan could hear a little voice whispering that Amelia didn't hate him or anything. He wasn't sure if she liked him, per say, but he knew she didn't hate him.

"Mia!" Both of them turned to look at Arthur and Madeleine, both of them eyeing the two. Maddie motioned for her sister to come over. "Mommy's here."

Amelia gave Ivan one last distasteful parting glance and then hoisted her blue backpack a little higher on her shoulder, following her sister and friend out.

Before leaving, though, Amelia cast Ivan another look. "I still don't like you at all, Ivan."

Ivan smiled in as nasty a manner as he could manage. "Good."

As the door swung shut behind her, Ivan reached up and played with the sunflower pin on his scarf absent-mindedly, a small smile trying to twitch it's way on his lips. He spun it around and around, the motion comforting as he grabbed his backpack and went to find Katyusha. He had to thank her for giving Amelia such good advice.

Sidenotes

-St. Basil's Cathedral is this big, pretty castle-looking building in Moscow. It has this really pretty, whimsical look, like something out of a Disney movie. It's super pretty. I don't know if I've mentioned this, but it's really pretty. Seriously, go look it up and marvel at it's prettiness. Isn't it pretty? It is. It's pretty.