Chapter 118: Christmas Arc: Three
Salmona, Samantha, and Adama were outside building a snowman. The three Alphas! Lacy drunk her hot cocoa looking out the window at her two mates and young daughter. She smiled, shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders.
Aurora came running down the stairs in her house clothes with some socks on. She said hi to her mother and went to the kitchen to open some cabinets. She jumped up and grabbed the open box of hot cocoa. She pulled out the packet and got her a mug.
"We’re running out of hot cocoa," Aurora said putting the mug into the microwave.
"Don’t worry, hun, we’re going to the store later this afternoon," Lacy told her Omega daughter.
Aurora came to stand by her mother with her own cup of hot cocoa. She watched her sister and sires build the snow man outside.
The Omega stood there beside her mother. She stared out the large bay window at her family outside.
Her eyes tracked Salmona’s movements as she rolled a large snowball for the base. Samantha packed snow into the middle section with gloved hands. Adama laughed silently as she lifted the snow man’s head on its body.
Aurora chewed her bottom lip. She clutched her warm mug tighter. The ceramic felt rough against her palms. The sweet scent of chocolate mixed with the sharp tang of cold air seeping through the window frame.
"I am so happy to be on break!" Aurora groaned. She finished her drink and washed her mug out.
"Hey Aurora," Lacy said. "You got something on the table addressed to you. Two envelopes."
"Really? Really!" Aurora quickly ran to the living room and fell onto the couch. Her body bounced as she reached for the envelopes.
Lacy came around the corner. "Should I bring the Alphas in?"
Aurora looked at her mother. She wasn’t sure. If she didn’t make it then what? She would be embarrassed.
Aurora stared at the envelopes. Her fingers trembled as they brushed over thick, creamy paper. The first envelope bore the embossed crest of the Northern University’s Omega Studies Program, the first school she applied for. She traced the raised insignia, feeling the expensive weight of potential beneath her fingertips.
The second was thinner, simpler, stamped with the insignia of the local community college she applied for after the universities. The contrast felt like a physical blow. Her stomach tightened. The muffled laughter from outside seemed distant now, drowned by her own heartbeat drumming in her ears. She inhaled sharply, catching the faint scent of woodsmoke clinging to her mother’s sweater.
Lacy watched her daughter begin to tear open the first envelope. She walked to Aurora and wrapped a hand around her shoulder, kissed her on the cheek.
...
Aurora opened the community college letter, and she wasn’t surprised by the acceptance letter. Not to be rude but it was a community college. Everyone gets accepted to a community college.
She placed the envelope down and went to the next one. She exchanged looks with her mother and opened it after she did a inhale. She felt her mother rubbing her back, soothing her.
Aurora opened the letter and to her surprised she got accepted. She smiled and hugged her mother, but Lacy was expecting more from Aurora.
"You’re not jumping up and down," Lacy wondered.
"I mean, I’m happy but I want the University of Ashley or the Hinami University. Those were my main ones," Aurora exclaimed.
Lacy laughed and hugged her daughter. "Let’s bring the Alphas in." Lacy went to the front door and stepped outside, covering herself because of the cold win.
"MOM, LOOK!" Adama yelled out, pointing to the snow man.
"That’s nice, dear. Come inside. We got good news!"
The Alphas ran inside, taking their snow clothes off and getting warmed up. They walked into the living room, sitting on the couch. They looked at Aurora.
Aurora took a deep breath. "I got accepted into both colleges!"
"YEAHHH!!"
The Alphas jumped up and hollared, Samantha and Salmona running to Aurora and hugging her, kissing her.
"But-"
"But what?" Salmona said, pulling back from the hug.
"I am waiting for the other universities: University of Ashley and Hinami University. I want one of those two," Aurora explained to them.
The Omega sat down on the couch, her fingers still clutching the Northern University acceptance letter, exhausted. The thick paper crinkled softly as she paced toward the bay window. Outside, the snowman stood crookedly under leaden skies, its coal eyes staring blankly back at her.
Adama’s muffled footsteps retreated toward the kitchen, the clink of mugs being pulled from cabinets, the rush of water filling the kettle. Samantha leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching Aurora with quiet intensity while Salmona lingered near the fireplace, rubbing warmth back into her hands. Lacy remained seated, her gaze fixed on the opened mail scattered across the coffee table.
Lacy looked at Aurora; so proud of her eldest daughter. So proud. Aurora looked at Lacy; so loved by her mother. So loved.
The Omega’s knuckles tighten against her own hands. Outside, snow began falling again, fat, wet flakes that blurred the crooked snowman into a ghostly shape. Inside, the silence thickened like cooling cocoa.
Aurora traced a droplet’s path down the glass on the coffee table with her fingertip, the chill seeping deep. Her reflection wavered: wide eyes, lips pressed thin, the Northern University crest visible like a brand on the crumpled letter in her other hand. A log cracked sharply in the fireplace, making Salmona flinch.
They were growing up so fast.
...
Aurora laid in bed that night, her eyes locked in on the darkness. She had her arms around her head with a content smirk upon her face. Getting accepted into two colleges, not just one made her feel that things weren’t as bad as she originally thought.
She turned on her side and sighed. She just had to wait on two more envelopes, two more letters.
Tap, tap!
Adama peeked her head into the room and whispered. "Aurora, you awake?"
"Yeah, whats up?"
Adama got into bed with Aurora; she got under the covers, making Aurora remember when they were younger and Adama would sneak into her room when she was afraid. Afraid of a storm or a lightning, or even if she just saw a scary movie.
"Imma miss you when you go to college," she said to the Omega.
"I’ll come back and visit during the holidays and summer," Aurora said to Adama. Adam nodded her head and turned on her side. Soon Aurora saw her breathing slowly rise and fall.
Aurora turned off the lamp on her nightstand. She laid down on her pillow and stared at the ceiling as the moonlight danced on the white surface.
Her fingers traced invisible patterns on the duvet cover, slow circles that mimicked snowflakes spiraling outside. The silence pressed in, thick and velvet, broken only by Adama’s soft breaths beside her. Aurora’s gaze drifted to the dresser where the Northern University letter lay folded beside a framed childhood photo. Coal eyes from the snowman seemed to watch her from the memory, accusatory and knowing. She swallowed, throat tight. The scent of Adama’s lavender shampoo mingled with the chill seeping under the doorframe, a fragile bubble of warmth in the winter-dark room.
Downstairs, a floorboard creaked, Salmona pacing, perhaps, or Samantha checking the locks. Aurora closed her eyes. *Two more envelopes*, she repeated silently. *Two more chances.*
The moonlight shifted, painting bars of silver across the ceiling. Shadows deepened in the corners, swallowing familiar shapes, the bookshelf, the old rocking chair, transforming them into looming, indistinct forms.
Adama murmured softly in her sleep, curling tighter against Aurora’s side, seeking warmth. Aurora felt the slight tremor in her own fingers resting against the cool cotton sheet.
Each breath she drew tasted faintly of woodsmoke and the lingering sweetness of cocoa, a scent woven into the very fabric of their home. Outside, the wind sighed against the windowpane, a low, mournful sound that seemed to echo the restless churn in her stomach.
Morning light crept across Aurora’s eyelids like spilled milk, thin, cold, insistent. Her limbs felt stiff, weighted by the long night’s vigil and Adama’s warm, trusting form still curled against her side. She disentangled herself slowly, careful not to disturb her sleeping sister, feeling the mattress sigh beneath her shifting weight. The room held a brittle silence, broken only by the soft rasp of her bare feet on the wooden floorboards as she crossed to the window.
She crept down stairs as if it was Christmas morning. She just wanted to have the kitchen to herself. To fix herself a cup of hot cocoa and to drink it, with no moms, no sires, no sisters-just her.
Aurora sighed and yawned. It was going to be a good day. She would text one of her friends to see if they could hang out. Brie wanted to talk about Shatwa and Aurora wasn’t sure about that. She would...she would think about that.