Making our way toward the living room, which had been rearranged to accommodate a large Christmas tree, we were greeted by Abuela, Paola, and Dad, wearing ugly Christmas sweaters and a wide variety of breakfast foods on the kitchen table.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS KIDS!" Paola shouted gleefully as she ran over and kissed everyone on the cheek, a sneaky distraction ploy that allowed her to put an elf hat on everyone’s head.
Of course, as Evolvers, we saw it coming a mile away, but all of us had been living the good life because of this lady, so we allowed it, yes…even me, much to everyone’s joy.
"Pffft, heh, hehehehe, techehehe, HAHHAHAHAHAH YOU LOOK REDICULOUS!" Unable to contain himself for longer than 10 seconds, Brenden burst out, pointing and laughing at me with my bright green elf hat and all-black outfit.
"You Look like the Elf who Killed Christmas HAHAHAH!~" Falling onto the ground and rolling around, my idiot brother had tears streaming down his cheeks from laughing so hard, and soon enough, the entire family had joined in, well, everyone but sweet Abuela, who came over and patted my shoulder several times for comfort while whispering,
"Esta bien Mijo, Lo hacemos por ellos, no por nosotros mismos." **It’s ok darling, we do it for them, not ourselves.**
To which I responded with…
"Lo se Abuela, lo se." **I know Abuela, I know.**
With a smile, she kissed me on the cheek, followed up with a Feliz Navidad, and handed me a piping hot cup of black coffee.
After that, it was a fairly typical family Christmas. All of us were sitting around the tree while Dad walked around and picked out the presents to hand out. I mean, there was a pecking order based on age, so of course, Brenden was always last to get a gift, but soon enough, all of us were surrounded by small hills of wrapped gifts.
From Abuela, everyone got socks and other articles of clothing, which, as technical adults, we all appreciated greatly. It was something that always made the older lady feel over the moon as she had expected grumpy children who didn’t like clothing.
Paola got us all little trinket items like necklaces or bracelets for Xilia, watches, shoes, and such for Brenden and me.
And then came the big presents, Dads.
Since we never had much money growing up in the Origin timeline, our Christmases were relatively small; however, Dad always went out of the way to get us one big present with a higher sticker price and followed up with a few smaller ones.
Although we were filthy rich now, thanks to all my scheming and planning, that didn’t mean that our father was keen on living frivolously; he stuck to his old pattern, and each of us had a single large package from Dad and four smaller ones.
However, what do you get the people who can buy anything they want for themselves? This was the dilemma Dad faced; still, as we opened everything up, each of us had to admit he did fairly well.
For Xilia, she got an expensive Makeup Vanity, along with several top brand lotions and other items to fill it up with, which made her happy as hell as she launched herself at Dad like a good daughter.
Brenden probably made the best out of all three of us because before he could even open up his big package, our father forced him to open a smaller one first, and in it were a pair of keys.
"The Charger is all your son," was all Dad said, and before you guys flip out, no, it wasn’t a brand new car; Dad had handed down his Hellcat and unknown to Brenden and Xilia, but in my purview, purchased a new truck for himself.
As for the big present, well it was upgrade parts for the car, which sent my brother over the moon.
"Heh, Baby will still smoke it, no matter how much you upgrade it." With a smirk, I poked at Brenden with a verbal jab…as for Baby…welllllll, let’s just say my impulsive nature got the better of me.
"How in the fucking hell is a car made in 1967 going to outspeed a 2007 Hellcat?" Striking a defensive posture, with his keys cradled to his chest, Brenden was instantly ready to put his money where his mouth was, but he had ZERO clue about how much work I’d done on my beloved Meme Car.
"I don’t recommend you challenge him, Bren….just warning you."
"OF COURSE YOU TAKE HIS SIDE AGAIN!"
Updat𝓮d from freewēbnoveℓ.com.
"I’m with Renni; you haven’t seen the excessive amount of work your brother’s done on his "Baby" that’s no normal car now."
"I’ll have you know, Baby isn’t just a car; she is the most important vehicle on the face of the planet," puffing out my chest, my eyes drifted toward the garage, where my pitch black, hard-topped, 1967 Chevy Impala was resting.
That’s right…I bought the supernatural car…listen, I told you the impulsive thoughts won, alright! Mind you, Baby wasn’t a street car. Hell, she barely left the garage, and for good reason; she was a monster of a vehicle.
From the ground up, I had tweaked every inch of her, turning the aging meme from a famous TV show into probably one of the fastest vehicles on Earth.
It also didn’t hurt that I installed a wide array of tech and weapons onto Baby, but that’s neither here nor there; she was a WAR machine, not a cruising vehicle.
In a battle against Fighter Jets and Tanks, Baby wins 10/10 times, and if im being totally honest, I could drive her inside of an instance and mow down anything Under Beta-Rank with Ease.
Then again, I did it for the meme.
As for my daily use vehicle, well, I had two: a sports bike, my Suzuki GSX-R 600, and my other impulse buy…. My 09 ZR1 Corvette…Was it necessary to drive a super expensive sports car…nah, did I do it anyway…well duh.
I mean, why have all the money in the world if you aren’t gunna spend it on shiny things? I tell you what, it beats the shit out of my first car in the Origin Timeline, a beat-to-hell 2001 Kia Sephia… least the vett got heads turning.
Regardless, Brenden’s little Hellcat was a kitten next to ANY of my vehicles. Unless I went under that hood to personally modify its components, there was ZERO chance of him beating me in a race any time soon with his stock Charger.