“I call dibs on the first room!” Nick exclaimed as he dragged his luggage into the lodge.

“Dude, what are you, like, 12? Nobody calls dibs on rooms anymore.” AJ retorted as he followed in behind Nick with his luggage. “Lord, someone tell me why I decided to pack away my whole life with me.”

Howie smiled and rolled his eyes, “So, how is this gonna go? With the rooms and whatnot?”

“Well, this lodge has seven rooms total, one downstairs and six upstairs. I have already claimed the downstairs one, leaving the remaining six open.” Brian explained, “Here’s the catch though… only one of those rooms are a master bedroom, with it’s own bathroom and access to a balcony that overlooks everything.”

Both Nick and AJ glanced over towards each other. “Nobody calls dibs on rooms anymore.” Nick mocked.

“Whatever dude, I’m not calling dibs on that room… I’m taking it!”

“That’s not fair man! Okay, look… we’re gonna handle this the manly way.”

“Oh yeah? How’s that?”

Nick positioned himself in a stance, “Rock, paper, scissor.”

“What the fuck dude? Okay Rok, who do you think should get the room, me or Nick?”

“Howie.” Brian simply replied.

Both Nick and AJ’s mouths fell agape. “What?” AJ shrieked, “What about Team Arok dude?”

“What about Team Arok?” Nick mimicked, “Wait… you guys have teams?”

“Yeah, this year it’s all about teams man… Team Edward, Team Jacob, Team Arok…”

Nick rolled his eyes, “You would come up with something like that, Twilight lover. And for your information, before there was ever a Team Arok, there was Team Frick and Frack!”

AJ and Nick continued to grumble with each other as they began hauling their luggage upstairs. Howie glanced over in Brian’s direction, “You set out to plan this trip for us, in hopes that we can get it touch with the good ole days. Going based off the way AJ and Nick are acting, I think it’s already beginning to work.”

“The bad thing is their behavior isn’t even apart of the good ole days,” Brian chuckled, “I’m gonna go ahead and make those two fools drinks while ya’ll settle in. If you could be so kind as to hurry the two boneheads up so we can all do our gift exchange.”

“You’re gonna make them hot cocoa to drink, even with the way their acting now?” Howie asked with a small laugh, as he began to ascend up the flight of stairs with his luggage, “Please tell me you’ll spike it with some form of sedatives.”

Brian laughed and shook his head as he watched his friend make his way up the stairs. Sighing heavily, he took a glimpse at his watch, noticing it was a quarter to five. “I hope my gift for them gets here real soon.” he said to himself as he walked off into the kitchen.

Moments later, Brian cued in on the sound of two pairs of feet bounding down the flight of stairs together. A small smirk crept up on his face when he heard the voices, “You guys would leave Howie upstairs by himself.” he said as he garnished the two cups of hot cocoa with cool whip, looking up to see both Nick and AJ stroll into the kitchen.

“You said settle in, as in place our luggage in the room we select.” Nick pointed out, “Princess is up there primping.”

“I was not primping Nick.” Howie voiced out as he too walked into the kitchen. “Unlike you two, I don’t like to just throw my suitcase on the bed and leave it there.

Brian chuckled, “Some things will never change I suppose.” he said as he handed both AJ and Nick their cups of hot cocoa. “Are you ready for another one D.?”

“Well, seeing as how someone decided that I should wear my hot drink,” Howie said as he glanced in AJ’s direction, “I guess I’ll take another one.”

Brian nodded as he got two saucers and cups out and began to fix both he and Howie a cup of hot cocoa. “You guys can go get settled in the parlor… oh wait, before you do that, you guys got your gifts, right?”

“Why would you tell us that now and not before when we had gone to our cars?” AJ asked.

“I did, you guys weren’t paying attention.”

AJ fished out his keys from his pocket and placed it on the counter, sliding it over to Nick, “You can grab it.”

“What?” Nick shrieked, “Why the hell do I have to go grab it?”

“Because I picked you up and drove all the way here, dipshit.”

“Look, why don’t we handle this the manly way?”

“For the love of GOD Nick, we are NOT doing rock, paper, scissor!” AJ exclaimed as he grabbed his keys off the counter, “C’mon dipweed, we’ll BOTH go grab the presents from the car.”

“What’s with the name calling? You know, I really don’t appreciate it because it hurts my feelings.”

AJ playfully pushed Nick out of the kitchen, “Shutup dude.”

Howie rolled his eyes, “I’ll go make sure the kids behave nicely.” he said as he followed Nick and AJ out.

Brian shook his head as he grabbed AJ and Nick’s cups of hot cocoa and brought it out to the parlor. He then walked back into the kitchen to retrieve his and Howie’s drinks. As he returned to the parlor, he was greeted by AJ, Nick and Howie walking back into the lodge with their gifts.

“Now, before we sit down, is there anything else we need to do?” AJ asked as he placed the bag with gifts underneath the tree.

Brian laughed, “No Jay, you guys can finally sit, relax and enjoy the hot cocoa.”

Both Nick and AJ flopped down on the couch while Howie sat on the large leather chair situated next to Brian. “So, how did your guys’ trip up here go? Or dare I ask?” Brian questioned as he grabbed his drink and took a small sip.

Both Nick and AJ looked at Howie, as if to tell him to answer first, “Well, it went rather well, luckily it wasn’t snowing on the drive up here. Unfortunately, I wasn’t graced with extra company.” as he said this, he glanced over towards AJ and Nick’s direction.

AJ nearly choked on his hot cocoa as he took a sip and wanted to give an answer to Howie’s statement. “No dude, you were FORTUNATE to have not been graced with the extra company. Queen Carter here decided to hit me up and ask if he could catch a ride because he didn’t want to drive.”

Brian looked over at Nick, “So, you decided to catch ride with the worst driver out of all of us?”

AJ flipped him off, “I’m a good driver, we got here alive, right?”

“That’s reassuring.” Howie sniggered.

“Look, I did not see any one of ya’ll offer to pick him up, so you guys have no room to be talking about my driving.”

“I was okay with your driving.” Nick said with a shrug.

AJ looked at both Howie and Brian, “You see? Thank you Nick.”

“Seeing as how you turned a two hour trip into thirty minutes.” Nick stated quickly as he took a sip of his hot cocoa.

AJ shot a look over at Nick as both Howie and Brian laughed. “Okay shithead, I got your ass the next time you call me to pick you up for something. And I don’t know why the hell you two are laughing over there because I hope ya’ll know he’s got your asses on speed dial.”

Howie brought his laughter to a cease, “Completely random, but I forgot to tell you AJ… you are the only man that’ll wear black clothing and skulls during this season.”

“A season of festive colors, joy and… happy things.” Brian added.

AJ glanced around the room to take notice to what they were all wearing. Nick was still in a simple pair of faded jeans and a black screen t-shirt that had an arrow that pointed up to him and read “As Seen On TV”. He was wearing a coat earlier, but had taken it off and left it in the car when he had to follow through with the bet he lost. Howie was wearing a pair of faded jeans as well with a dark grey screened collared shirt. AJ chuckled when he looked Brian over, noticing that he wore a dark pair of jeans and a blue and white short sleeved plaid shirt, very cowboyish of him, except for the fact that he wore a black knitted beanie hat and not a cowboy hat. Finally, he looked down at what he was wearing, which was a pair of black jeans, black and dark gray long sleeved flannel shirt and a scarf.

“This is my style, thank you very much. And before you guys go any further, I’ll show you that I keep in touch with the season and festiveness.” he kicked off his black and white Converse shoes, revealing his socks to them. “My scarf and socks are matching with the skulls, but if look closer, you’ll notice that the skulls are wearing red Santa hats. What do you guys got to say now? I don’t see you guys wearing anything festive.”

“Oooh, you guys got served.” Nick snickered.

AJ cocked an eyebrow as he looked over at Nick, “You too Carter.”

“But I didn’t say shit about what you’re wearing.”

“Anyway,” Brian voiced out, rolling his eyes, “are we ready to open our gifts?”

“Isn’t it bad to open gifts way before Christmas?” Nick asked no one in particular.

“No Nick, and you volunteered yourself to be the first person to find your gift and open it.” Brian replied.

Nick shrugged as he pushed himself up from the couch. He walked over to the Christmas tree, looking at the gifts that were under them. “I thought you said this was gonna be Secret Santa Rok.”

“It is, why?”

Nick lifted his gift up, “Because some asshole made sure to write a big ass note that says ‘I got you this gift Nick, don’t say I never got you anything, sincerely AJ.’”

They all looked over at AJ. “What?” AJ asked, sounding innocent, “Is it such a crime that I wanted him to know that I got him a gift?”

Brian sighed heavily, “That’s the whole point of doing Secret Santa AJ, we’re not supposed to know who got us what.”

Nick sat down beside AJ again and began to unwrap the gift. When he finally unwrapped it, he busted out laughing as he held the box up for everyone to see, “AJ got me…” he couldn’t even finish his sentence because he was laughing so hard.

“The Shake Weight?” Howie asked, noticing AJ was laughing hard as well while Brian looked equally as confused as him.

“Oh dude, you’re a fucking ass.” Nick laughed as he playfully shoved AJ. “It’s an inside joke.”

AJ tried to stop laughing so he could explain, “I had posted this video on Nick’s facebook of this guy that does parodies on infomercials, he’s even done parodies on us and *NSYNC. Anyway, he did a parody on the infomercial of this product, Shake Weight, and he called it the… what did he call it Nick?”

“The Strokemeister, or some shit like that.”

“Yeah, he called it the Strokemeister and it was the funniest shit ever… you guys just gotta watch the video to get it.”

“What… does it do?” Howie asked, sounding nervous to even hear their answer.

“It’s just this dumbell looking thing that shakes while you hold it, and it’s supposed to work out your muscles.”

“Ooookaaayyy…” Brian said in a drawn out voice, “Howie, you wanna go next?”

Howie slowly got up, “I don’t know if I wanna find out what I got, and from whom.”

“Well, I don’t think you have to worry too much, because at least you know the gift to you isn’t from me.” AJ said.

As soon as Howie found his gift, he grabbed it and walked back to his seat. He noticed on the tags of the gifts, even the tag on the gift he brought, the handwriting was different so they couldn’t tell who it came from. Well, with the exception of AJ’s gift. He took his time with opening the gift, revealing a black box. When he opened the box, a small smirk tugged on the corner of his lips.

“Well… what is it D.?” AJ questioned, impatient to see what he had got.

Howie took the diamond incrusted watch out of the box and held it up for them all to see, “A Rolex watch.”

AJ’s mouth fell agape, “Holy shit! Who in the hell was your Secret Santa?”

Before Howie could remind him that it was to remain a secret who got him the gift, Nick spoke out. “I had it custom made by my jeweler.”

With a heavy sigh, Brian shook his head and began to rub his temples, “So much for it being Secret Santa.”

AJ chuckled, “See, like I said, who does Secret Santa with just four people?”

Brian stood up, “I guess I’ll go ahead next since I know who gave me my gift?”

“Why do I have to be last?” AJ asked with a pout.

“Because your gift is from me and I want you to open it last.” Brian stated matter-of-factly as he grabbed his gift from under the tree.

It was a medium sized box, but the weight of it felt like it had nothing inside at all. He unwrapped the paper and took off the lid of the box, being greeted by what looked to be a small jewelry box, nestled in a pile of stripped paper. He lifted the smaller box out of the bigger box and took off the lid, seeing nothing but a card inside.

He took a while to read the card, but then smiled. “Thanks D.” he said as he looked up at Howie, holding the card up. “Can’t wait to test those babies out.”

Nick leaned over towards AJ, “What’d he get?” he questioned in a whisper.

“I’m assuming golf clubs.”

Howie smiled and nodded, “Glad you like it. I was gonna bring it in here, but it’s not quite an inconspicuous gift, so I just left it in my car and decided to wrap up that card that explains what was purchased.”

Brian placed his gift down on the floor and glanced at his watch, “Alright Jay, last but not least.”

“Saving the best for last, huh?” AJ joked as he got up from where he sat and made his way over to the tree to grab his gift.

“Of course sweetheart.” Brian sighed in a feminine tone, causing the other two to giggle.

AJ grabbed his gift bag from under the tree and made his way back to his seat. He observed the gift bag for a while before he finally opened it, “Did you have Leighanne wrap my gift?”

“Whatever dude. I know how to wrap gifts, thank you very much.”

A smile still plastered to his face, AJ began to take his gift, or rather gifts from out of the bag. His smile grew even bigger when he realized that it was articles of clothing, decorated in skulls. “You know me oh-so well.” when he got down to the bottom of the bag, his smile fell a bit, as he grabbed the last item and held it up.

The three of them busted out in laughter, “I had to man.” Brian said, as he continued laughing.

“This isn’t a laughing matter.” AJ grumbled, placing the eyeliner pencil back in the bag. “The least you could’ve done was made sure it was MAC liner.”

After hearing that, the three immediately brought their laughter to a cease, staring at AJ in disbelief. “I’m just playing man!” AJ laughed as he grabbed the small couch pillow that was beside him and hurled it in Brian’s direction, “You’re a fucking asshole man, you guys need to leave me alone with my style.”

Brian caught the flying pillow, “You know you love me!”

“Whatever m-” AJ was cut off by the sound of the doorbell.

Both Howie and Nick’s face twisted in puzzlement, “Who the hell is that Rok?”

Brian smiled and shrugged, “I don’t know. AJ, why don’t you go answer the door.”

“The fuck I am! Enough for it to be some psycho killer or some shit.”

Brian rolled his eyes, “It’s the other part of your gift, just go get the damn door.”

AJ stood up slowly, “You don’t know that for a fact. If it is some psycho killer and he kills me, can you guys make sure the morticians apply MAC liner on my eyes and not that shit Brian bought?”

They all busted out laughing as they watched AJ slowly make his way to the door, obviously nervous on seeing who was behind it. Sighing heavily, he reached out for the doorknob and began to twist it slowly, cautiously opening it. When he finally had the door all the way opened, he lightly gasped upon seeing who was on the other side of the door, now standing before him.