What A Tree

Spencer dug around in the old cardboard box, pushing through ornaments and garland and lots and lots of glitter. He had to find that ornament!

"Would you just bring the box downstairs so we can decorate the tree already? I'm getting hungry," Sam complained.

"There's this one ornament I wanna find – "

But he was cut off when Sam grabbed the box and tore it away from him, then marched into the elevator and headed downstairs. Spencer still sat on his knees on the floor, surprised. He quickly got up and jogged down the stairs in time to meet Sam in the front room.

"But I wanna find that ornament! It was the coolest ornament ever!" he complained as she set the box down on the floor and started pulling items out of it and examining them.

"Whatever," she mumbled, not caring. She walked over to the tree – a real tree… well, a fake tree, but at least it wasn't made of metal – and started placing ornaments on the branches.

Sam didn't particularly like Christmas, and she hated decorating the tree. Her mom never put up a tree, but she'd had to help her grandma a couple of times, and then she'd always end up at the Shay loft when they were decorating for Christmas. It was just too much work.

"Why are you going so fast? Why don't we slow down and enjoy it? We only get to do this once a year," Spencer said, reaching into the box and pulling out the garland, watching as more and more came from the depths of the box dusty box.

"I told you, I'm hungry. And I hate decorating for Christmas. I only like the holiday for the ham and the free stuff," Sam explained, not looking up, but focusing on the decorations in front of her. She pulled out 2 pieces of a broken ornament and tried fitting them together again.

"Hey!" Spencer exclaimed, dropping the garland to the floor and squatting down, grabbing the pieces from Sam's hands. "That's the ornament I was looking for! It's broken…"

His face fell, and Sam watched as he sadly tried to put the ornament back together, but knew it was hopeless. There was still a piece of it missing.

"What's so special about that one anyway?" she asked, standing up and bushing off her knees.

He sighed. "My mom gave it to me when I moved out. It was my first ornament for the tree in my own apartment…"

Sam frowned, watching as he sadly gave up trying to fix it. He set it down on the kitchen counter carefully, then turned and went back to the box, pulling more decorations out, but with much less enthusiasm. She didn't like seeing him like this. He looked so sad.

So, she joined him at the box and pulled out a couple of half-empty bottles of glitter, opening one carefully. When an idea came to her, she smirked mischievously. She backed up and stood behind Spencer, watching the back of his head as he sadly ruffled around in the box. Then, she took the open bottle of glitter and shook half of what was left of it onto Spencer's back. It fell over his head and his shoulders, covering his back and falling to the floor below him. He jumped up, quickly trying to brush it off.

"Sam!" he cried. "Glitter?!"

She laughed loudly. "Much better. You look happier now!" she laughed, still watching him trying to brush it off, but failing. It was stuck to his red and green sweater now, as well as his hair and most of his neck and face. He looked up, seeing her doubled over laughing. He couldn't help but smile at how much enjoyment she was getting out of watching him get drenched in glitter, the one thing that would take weeks to completely rid himself of.

While she was laughing, doubled over with her eyes closed, he reached down and grabbed up the mostly full bottle of glitter sitting at the top of the items in the box and carefully opened it. He then shook it in Sam's direction, covering her in glitter even worse than he was.

"Hey!" she cried out, her laughter cutting off quickly. She straightened up quickly, looking down at the glitter falling from her blonde hair onto her shirt and part of her pants. She reached up and tried to dust it off of her head, but it only stuck stubbornly to her blonde curls. Glitter sparkled on the sides of her face, as well as her shirt and nearly all of her.

"That's better. You're ready to be hung by the fireplace," Spencer joked, grinning. He had completely forgotten about his disappointment in the broken ornament by now.

Sam scowled, then spotted the garland lying at Spencer's feet. She bent over and snatched it up quickly, then started wrapping it around him, using all 10 feet of the red and green rope-like decoration. She wrapped it around his shoulders and his torso, then wrapped his legs together and went back around it all a few times before letting the end fall from her hand and rest over his left shoulder. She smiled, eyeing him up and down.

"Way prettier than rope," she commented, laughing. Spencer had only stood there, watching her in awe. Now he was all wrapped up in the shiny garland, feeling it itch against his neck.

"Are you kidding me?" he said. But then he started laughing, unable to help himself. Sam laughed with him, both of them covered in glitter and grinning, gasping for breath in between laughs.

Still laughing, Sam bent down and picked up 2 ornaments from the box, then hung them on the garland wrapped around Spencer's body. He laughed harder, as did she, and they just stared at how ridiculous he looked.

Sam laughed. "We should take that tree back, 'cause you're way better to put presents underneath!"

end.