House Of Night Chosen | Page 5

pulled
out…

Oh, jeesh.

"A snow globe," I said, trying to sound happy. "With a
snowman inside it." Okay, a snowman snow globe is not a birthday
present. It's a Christmas decoration. A cheesy Christmas decoration
at that.

"Yeah! Yeah! And listen to what it plays!" Jack said,
practically hopping up and down in excitement as he took the globe
from me and wound a knob in its base so that "Frosty the
Snowman" started tinkling out around us in painfully cheap and off-
key notes.

"Thank you, Jack. It's really pretty," I lied.

"Glad you like it," Jack said. "It's kinda a theme for your
birthday." Then he shot his eyes over to Erik and Damien. The three
of them grinned at each other like bad little boys.

I planted a smile on my face. "Oh, well, good. Then I'd
better open the next present."
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"Mine's next!" Damien handed me a long, soft box.

Smile wedged in place, I started to open the box, though I
couldn't help wishing I could turn into a cat and hiss and run from
the room.


CHAPTER TWO

"Oooh, it's beautiful!" I stroked my hand over the folded
material of the scarf, thoroughly shocked that I'd actually gotten a
cool gift.

"It's cashmere," Damien said smugly.

I lifted it from the box, thrilled that it was a chic, shimmery
cream color instead of the red or green birthmas presents I usually
get. Then I froze, realizing I'd been thrilled too soon.

"See the snowmen embroidered on the ends?" Damien said.
"Aren't they adorable?"

"Yep, adorable," I said. Sure—for Christmas they're
adorable. For a birthday present, uh, not so much.

"Okay, we're next," Shaunee said, passing me a big box
haphazardly wrapped in green Christmas-tree foil.

"And we didn't follow the snowman theme," Erin said,
frowning at Damien.

"Yeah, no one told us," Shaunee frowned at Damien, too.

"That's okay!" I said a little too quickly and enthusiastically,
and then tore into their package. Inside was a pair of black leather
stiletto boots that would have been utterly cool and chic and
fabulous … had it not been for the Christmas trees, complete with
red and gold ornaments, that were stitched in full color on the side
of each boot. This. Can. Only. Be. Worn. At. Christmas. Which
makes it definitely a lame birthmas present.

"Oh, thanks." I tried to gush. "They're really cute."

"Took us forever to find them," Erin said.

"Yeah, plain boots would not do for Ms. Born-on-the-
Twenty-Fourth," Shaunee said.

"No indeedy. Plain old black leather stiletto boots would
never do," I said, feeling like crying.

"Hey, there's another present left."

Erik's voice pulled me out of the black hole of my birthmaspresent depression. "Oh, something else?" I Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com)

hoped it was only to my
ears that my tone said, "Oh, yet another tragic non-present present?"

"Yeah, one more something else." Almost shyly, he handed
me a very small rectangular shaped box. "I really hope you like it."

I glanced down at the box before I took it and almost squeed
in happy surprise. Erik was holding a silver and gold wrapped
present with a Moody's Fine Jewelry sticker plastered classify in the
middle of it. (I swear I heard the "Hallelujah Chorus" crescendo
somewhere in the background.)

"It's from Moody's!" I sounded breathless, but I couldn't
help myself.

"I hope you like it," Erik repeated, lifting his hand and
offering the little silver and gold box like a shining treasure.

I ripped through the lovely wrapping to expose a black

velvet box. Velvet. I swear. Real velvet. I bit my lip to keep from
giggling, held my breath, and opened it.

The first thing I saw was the gleaming platinum chain.
Speechless with happiness my eyes followed the chain down to the
beautiful pearls that were nestled into the plush velvet. Velvet!
Platinum! Pearls! I sucked in air so that I could begin my gushing
ohmygodthankyouErikyou'rethebestboyfriendever when I realized
that the pearls were oddly shaped. Were they defective? Had the
fabulously exclusive and amazingly expensive