#2022 Writing DCLA+ advent calendar

[putonmyfavoriteshow]

putonmyfavoriteshow's master fic writing post on-going ~ Violetta the heart of pretending (future franletta/leonetta reverse fake-dating au dramedy; my passion project) Soy Luna ...and they were roommates (post show jazmilia/delfma; self-indulgent rom-com chaos for side-characters who deserved more) BIA the celestial goat & her cosmic fish (platonic-for-now chiarleste's great astrology debate; a dynamic exploration between my favorite kind of bickering sidekicks) finished multi-chaps ~ Violetta a perfectly perfect gift (luty ft. franletta - my first official dcla multi-chap!) luty month (daily prompts from @iristhedeadflower) franletta month (daily prompts from @weirdthoughtsandideas) finished one-shots/two-shots ~ Violetta no boys, no problems (right?) (franletta s2 alternate ending to italy arc) an unexpected evening (jadangie fix-it fic - dcla gift exchange 2022 + bonus dcla pride month chap) midnights (a ludmila pov luty fic + bonus luty month chap) playing murder (and all that jazz) (violetta gang halloween fic - canon pairings) go figure (a naty pov luty fic) the mistletoe experiment (a natila story based on a dcla advent calendar prompt from @countessofravenclaw) welcome to new york (christmas version) (violetta gang xmas fic - canon pairings) it is what it is (luty - angsty ficlet) the deadfast club (violetta gang horror two-shot - luty focus ft leonetta/camcesca)

Soy Luna elevator goes up, elevator come down (simbar s3 missing scene - tumblr soy luna fic week 2021) unlock my heart (when lutteo got locked in the dressing room, except it's jazmilia aka the best non-canon ship ever made by a random wheel) there's a great big beautiful tomorrow (lutteo/gastina tomorrowland adventure - dcla gift exchange 2023) BIA losin' sleep (thiana s2 missing scene inspired by @assim-eu-sou) dream date (romantic chiarleste debut to ao3) non dcla ~ my sorta friend's sister's funeral (victorious - jori - angst/fluff one-shot) even crows have wings (six of crows - kanej - sl/roller skating au one-shot) page 55 (the villains of valley view - hartmy - missing scene drabble) if we were a horror movie (the villains of valley view - hartmy - hartmy watch jennifer's body)

other fan content: my tumblr edits tag my tumblr gifs tag

[countessofravenclaw]

I made this for myself:

So this is the Writing advent calendar for 2022:

I am putting this out here now, because I hope people will join me

My plan is to write like maybe 200 words about each, probably about DCLA. So mainly Soy Luna and maybe so Violetta and if I get inspired, who knows maybe about HSMTMTS as well

Thanks for @weirdthoughtsandideas for helping me with some of the prompts

I will also be writing that Gastina centric SLxVioletta holiday fic

[countessofravenclaw]

The 2022 writing Advent calendar: Day 2

2. Christmas concert/competition

“I am so excited!” Francesca said to Diego who was sitting on the driver’s seat. It was early march and they were driving towards the studio to a super secret meeting that Pablo had called their whole class for. “What do you think this will be about?”

“I don’t know,” Diego answered, “Must be something important since I hear that the guys canceled an interview for this.”

Not that getting called to the studio for a meeting would have been that odd, if it would have been the past three years… but it was not. They had all graduated now, so even if the Studio was always gonna be their home, it was not their school anymore. SO this meeting had come out from little bit out of the blue. 

“I guess we will find out ince we get there.” Fran continued. 

***

“Fran!” Vilu ran up to hug her best friend as she and Diego appeared at the studio. She had been singing with Leon on the piano just a moment before with Ludmila and Federico.

“Vilu! It is so great to see you! Do you know what this is about?”

“No I don’t.” Vilu lamented, “I think Angie does, but she refuses to tell me anything. But it is so nice to be here again with everyone.”

Maybe ten minutes later everyone had gathered on the stage of the studio after Maxi and Naty had arrived with Camila as the last ones.

“Where is Pablo?” Diego questioned after greetings had died down. 

“I hope this was not a joke,” Leon remarked before getting a smack on the arm from Violetta. 

“I heard that!” Pablo suddenly emerged through the sliding doors with Angie. “No, this was not a jokeeeee…” he continued saying as everyone swarmed them into a huge group hug. “...Well guys, I am glad to see you too.”

“Pablo, why did you ask us here today?” Violetta asked after the commotion had died down. 

“Well, we have a proposal to run past you,” Pablo started explaining, “You as the class of 2015 are undoubtedly the most-known class that has graduated from Studio OnBeat in ten years, and we are so proud of you.”

“And, we have been talking with our students about this year’s end-of-the-year showcase,” Angie took over the explaining, “And we actually are going to do a big Christmas sing-along. After YouMix, Pablo was originally bit hesitant about finding new partners, but now we have partnered with a new streaming company called Vidia, and they have agreed to sponsor the concert.”

“Angie that sounds amazing!” Francesca gasped

“And super good opportunity for the students,” Camila agreed.

“As long as they won’t go around putting cameras everywhere, like when during the talent thing Gregorio did.” Ludmila remarked sarcastically.

“No, they won’t do that.” Angie laughed. “But they will stream the concert, and with their sponsorship, we have been able to secure Gran Rex as our venue.”

“Why, what do you need us for?” Andres piped up. “Will we be the lightning assistants or waiters?”

“No Andres,” Pablo laughed, “We were just getting to that. You know that even with all of your big efforts last year, we are still working on getting our attendance back to what they were in Antonio’s time. So all the faculty have agreed that we should have guest performers. It would help with the promotion and recruitment next year. The students actually suggested that it would be you guys.”

“So, would you be willing to perform and host our Christmas showcase?” Angie completed the proposal.

“WHAT? Of course!” Violetta was the first one to react, “You agree guys, right?”

“Of course!” Federico answered

“Anything for the studio,” Ludmila nodded. 

“So what kind of thing are we supposed to perform?” Naty had already her notebook open?

“Yes, we already talked about it with Pablo,” Angie continued. “The concert will be a full-length performance with an intermission. At least three hours long. We would want all of you to do about six numbers, a classic group number, then a solo by someone, and the students especially asked that All Four You would do a number and Leon and Violetta duet. We are also working on an original song in my class that will be the closing number and we want you to perform that with the students. All the songs are supposed to be Christmas songs, but you don’t need to start working on the originals, especially since we gave you so little time. Does anyone have any ideas?”

“There is this song that I remember my mother used to sing: White Christmas.” Vilu started speaking, “That could be our duet with Leon.”

“Good,” Pablo wrote something down in his notepad. 

“We have been working on a new version of an old Italian Christmas song with Diego,” Fran piped up next.

“That can be the solo,” Pablo responded.

“It is actually going to be on my next album,” Fran continued, “but I am sure my label won’t mind this being a preview.”

“I actually have been working on a new Christmas song as well,” Naty said, changing a page in her notebook. “It can be worked into a tercet. We can do it with Ludmila and Camila.”

“I love that idea!” Cami jumped to hug Naty. 

“I can work a new arrangement for the group song,” Maxi said.

“And the band is of course on board!” Leon nodded.

“I can take care of the choreo,” Broduey said jumping to his feet.

“You all know I’ll be in charge of the costumes,” Ludmila crossed her arms, “Otherwise half of you are going to end up on that stage looking like an absolute mess.”

“The students will be so happy to hear that you are on board.”

“Of course!” Vilu exclaimed. “For On Beat”

“On Beat!” Everyone yelled

[countessofravenclaw]

The 2022 writing Advent calendar: Day 20

20. Christmas proposal

“Diego, what is with you?” Francesca asked from the vanity where she had been doing her makeup. They were in the backstage area of the concert venue in Rome. It was march 25 and this was the first leg of Francesca’s 2021 holiday tour. 

Diego was joining her for the first few concerts before going off to England for a couple of production meetings of his own and then they’d finish the tour together at Argentina right before Christmas.

“Yeah,” Diego looked up at her, “What makes you ask?”

“You have been trying that tie for almost ten minutes now.”

“Oh right…” Diego looked at his hands and noticed that he had pretty much tied his fingers in a knot with his tie. “...didn’t notice that.”

“You are not nervous, are you? You have performed thousands of times.” Fran noted while attaching her earrings.

“Of course, I am not.” He scoffed, “Have you ever seen me be nervous?”

“Well, when we were lost in Caizz you looked pretty nervous.”

“Mostly, because I was afraid that you’d kill me.”

I was about to.” Fran smirked, “But it was in the end… a fun trip. Probably because we were together, and it taught me to carry a credit card.”

“Always good that romantic trip gone wrong can teach a lesson,” Diego smiled from the couch, “But no, I am not freaking out… at all, just forgot to how to tie a tie… for a second there.”

“Fran, we’re on in five,” the stage manager came backstage. 

“Okay.”

“Break a leg.” Diego got up from the sofa and kissed her on the cheek. 

Diego was not needed for the first half of the concert so Francesca headed to the stage by herself as Diego stayed behind. 

“Hey, Diego,” Francesca’s guitarist walked past and nudged him, “Good luck.”

Diego just nodded. As he heard the first song playing, he sat back down on the couch and pulled his phone out. He hesitated for a moment before clicking several times. 

“Hey, Diego!” Leon was the first to speak after he had put him, Maxi, Federico, Broduey, and Andres on a video call. “How is it going?”

“HOW IS IT GOING?”

“Guessing…” Federico started speaking, “...not so well. What got you so freaked out?”

“FREAKED OUT? I am not freaking out.”

“Then what is this?”

“Are you having stage fright?” Andres asked.

“No!” Diego scoffed.

“You mind telling us what is going on?” Leon continued, “Or will you just keep yelling at us?”

“Okay, okay… so,” Diego started pacing around backstage, “I had this plan, but now I am not really sure if It is such a good idea… ”’

“Plan to do what?”

“Well,” Diego reached into his pocket and pulled out a box, “I was kind of planning on giving this to her at the end of the show.” He opened the box and showed the diamond ring to the guys behind the screen.

“Proposal at a Christmas concert. Real classy.” Maxi nodded after the commotion amongst the guys died down. 

“That's what I thought,” Diego nodded, “I got her band on board and everything … but then her concert sold out and now they are thousand people watching this…”

“The venue you are in only holds up to 700 people,” Fede pointed out.

“Well, it feels like a million.”

“We are all behind you,” Leon started speaking, “And we know she is going to say yes… so I would say just do it.”

*

“So, let's all give a huge standing ovation to my boyfriend Diego Hernandez!”

There was a huge Christmas tree on the stage that was glittering also most like a disco ball. Diego noticed that right away as he walked up to the stage after Francesca had introduced him.

“Thank you! It is an honor to be here today!”

*

As they finished singing the last song, Diego gave a couple of hand signals to the guitarist over the applauses. Fran looked like, she was ready to wrap the concert up. 

Diego took a deep breath and waited as the band suddenly started playing a new song. 

Fran looked utterly confused and that facial expression had not worn off as Diego finished the song.

“Francesca Caviglia!” He started speaking, “You are the most wonderful girl I have ever met in my life. I love you and in front of all of these witnesses, as we are in this magical season, will you be my wife? Will you marry me?”

Most of you probably know that I have an entire other fic for DCLA proposals focusing on SL and specifically about the Holy Trinity of the ships. I am not gonna even pretend that this is on par with those, nor did I put as much effort into this one… since I didn't. These are drapples after all, and If I ever write a full-fledged Diecesca proposal I don't know how much it will remind this one.

[countessofravenclaw]

So, yesterday I finished the writing advent calendar. It was absolutely exhausting, but also super fun and maybe taught me a thing or two.

As I wrote there kind of formed these different storylines so here is a master list if someone who wants to read a specific storyline.

Studio Gang puts on a Christmas concert

Day 2 Day 10 Day 12 Day 18 Day 22

Lutteo, Gastina and Simbar visit Santa's Village

Day 3 Day 9 Day 13

Luna vs the Christmas kitchen + Christmas of 2024

Day 6 Day 21 + Day 17 Day 19

Christmas between Soy Luna seasons 1 and 2

Day 4 Day 23

Christmas at Oxford

Day 7 Day 16

[countessofravenclaw]

The 2022 writing Advent calendar: Day 25

24. A past Christmas taking place in someone's childhood

WE ARE HERE! We made it! The last day! Merry Christmas!!

“I honestly can’t believe that we still need to be here three years more. One year was more than enough. So. are you going back to Italy for Christmas?” Gastón asked Matteo as they were walking on the hallways of Bake South College until the summer vacation was going to start. 

“I wish,” Matteo shook his head, “But apparently Dad has some kind of meeting in Berlin on the 23rd so it’ll be Christmas on the road again. I do not even get why I need to be there.”

“You know, you don’t need to be there,” Gastón pondered out loud, “You could stay here.”

“Yeah, I know that… but Dad doesn’t,” Matteo remarked, “I am seriously 15, not a baby, I can be home by myself … even if it's Christmas.”

“You could come with us,” Gastón started speaking as they stopped in front of their next class. There was a group of girls who quickly straightened as they arrived, but Gastón and Matteo did not pay them any mind. “I think Mom and Dad were talking that we would be going to the Villa bosque de Rosas.”

“I would love that, but Dad for sure won’t let me.” Matteo frowned.

“Don’t be so sure of that,” Gastón grinned, “Let me talk to Mom and she’ll have Sofia talk Alexander into it. I mean is he really going to defy his new wife?”

“Honestly, I do know, but I don’t think he would wanna get on her bad side. Even I don’t want to do that.” Matteo leaned onto the wall, “But I honestly really would wanna stay, so doesn’t hurt to try.”

“And you know who also would be happy if you stay,” Gastón’s impression changed, “Ambar.”

“I know,” a smug smile grew on Matteo’s face. 

“So you are actually into that?” Gastón questioned.

“Well, why not? She is a catch. But it doesn’t hurt to play hard to get.”

“Okay, you do you with that, but be careful. I have known her since the third grade. She always gets what she wants.”

“And you’re the one to speak,” Matteo countered, “I am expected to believe that you are absolutely blind to all the girls goggling at you?”

“No… I just don’t fancy tying myself down,” Gastón responded. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t have any fun. Maybe there will be some cute freshman girls next year.”

“I am sure you’ll just crash into your soulmate,” Matteo joked, “I can already picture it. She’ll drop her books and you are madly in love.”

“You are terrible,” Gastón laughed, “But honestly, wild to even imagine that in ten years we might already be married.”

“Don’t scare me about the future like that.” Matteo joined in, “I pity that girl who marries you.”

“I could say the same thing.”

*

“Hey Mom,” Gastón said as he got home from school. “Blake gave us the preliminary report cards today, and I got full marks on almost everything.” He figure that if he wanted to get his idea about Matteo through, he could start with that. Good grades were more often than not, the best way to get through to his parents

“Well that is Amazing,” Isla came from the kitchen and ruffled his hair as she passed by. “If you keep that up, you could even get straight into Oxford.”

“Oxford?”

“You know Alexander got his degrees from there. Sofia told me that he is planning on sending Matteo there once you finish upper secondary. Wouldn’t it be fun if you two went together, it is an amazing school, unless you want to go to an Ivy league of course?”

“Yeah, sure,” Gastón didn’t really pay attention that what his mom was saying, “I’ll think about that in three years. But speaking of Matteo…” he swiftly got into the subject. “... we were talking today and what if he came to spend Christmas with us.”

“Won’t he want to spend it with his parents?”

“Well, yeah, but apparently they are going to Berlin and he really doesn’t want to go with them.” Gastón continued.

“Well, that is up to Alexander.”

“But, what if you spoke with Sofia,” Gastón suggested, “and she can convince Alexander. Come on Mom, wouldn’t it be fun if Matteo was with us? And that would allow Alexander and Sofia spend their Christmas alone. They would probably like that. And You always talk about how you wish we’d have more people to spend Christmas with, since we are not going to Cordoba…again. It is always just three of us, and you and Dad always loved spending time with your sister and brother. Matteo is basically the closest thing I’ll ever have to a brother.”

“Well, you do have a point,” it seemed that Gastón was striking the right spot, even if that was just slightly a lower blow, given the reason he did not have siblings.

“So…?”

“I can talk with your father about it,” Isla started speaking, “But I won’t make any promises.”

“Great, thanks, Mom!” Gastón said and dashed to his room to call Matteo. 

“Did it work?” Matteo asked from another side of the line.

“Not sure, but Mom is willing to try. I used to heave guilt-trip on her.”

“Proud of you already,” Matteo laughed. “I just hope my dad will be convinced.”

“Mom is an expert at convincing people that she knows the best course of action. That is literally her job.” Gastón flobbed onto his bed, “Her and Sofia together have always been an unstoppable force.”

The easy choice would be to write about Luna with this, but I thought about what I could write instead and I realized that I have not written any Gastteo yet on this calendar. And I really enjoyed writing some Blake Freshmen Gastteo antics.

I gotta say that this calendar was absolutely exhausting, but also so fun to do. I got to write bit more different styles than I usually do.

I hope everyone enjoyed this during this month and have a happy new year,

[countessofravenclaw]

The 2022 writing Advent calendar: Day 24

Merry Christmas Eve! Here in Finland we actually celebrate on the Even instead of the day, but I will bring a last story on the 24th… but enjoy today's!

“Merry Christmas!!!!” An overly cheery voice woke Ambar up. 

“EVERYONE!!! IT IS CHRISTMAS!!”

“For goodness sake,” Ambar grumbled running her hands over her face. She shoudl have guessed Luna would be up and about on Christmas like an excited child. She had not gotten to experience it before as this was their first Christmas on good terms and she was looking forward to spending Christmas with the people she loved. How early was it even?

“Ambar! Wake up!” Now Luna was banging on her door. 

“Ugh … Where’s the war?” Simon’s groggy voice came from next to her. 

“No war, just a monster called Lunita on Christmas morning.” Ambar sat up on the bed. “But you must be used to it.”

“Not really, we have never lived in the same house together.” Simon said, still with an extremely sleepy voice, “but yeah, she has always loved Christmas. I mean she loves all holidays and reasons to party.”

“Well, that sounds like her.”

“Ambar? Are you awake? Come on, we can't waste a second on Christmas!”

“Well, I better answer the door, before she breaks in.” Ambar threw the blanket off of her. 

“Sure… you do that…” Simon said and turned on his side, “I’ll just sleep five more minutes…” and he was already out cold. Ambar just rolled her eyes and walked to the door. 

“Ambar! It is Christmas!” Luna was dancing around in a red-green outfit as Ambar opened the door. 

“Yeah, I know,” Ambar just looked at Luna. “You pretty much announced it to the whole world. I am sure the entirety of Buenos Aires heard you.”

“Uuups, I didn’t realize I yelled so loud,” Luna remarked while still jumping around, “Anyways, get dressed NOW! Mom is making rice porridge and then we’ll have gifts!”

“Okay, just let me get a shower first.”

“This is gonna be so awesome. I need to teach you all of our Christmas traditions. We are gonna sing carols with changed lyrics and play charades…”

Ambar just let Luna ramble and watched her dance around the hallway. She could not help but smile. Her Christmasses this far had been such stony and cold affairs with a just dinner in silence and then pretending to like the one gift she gave her. Usually Sharon never even opened the one Ambar had gotten for her. 

“...and I can’t wait to see what you thought of the gift I got for you!” Luna finished while jumping around. It was a good thing she was not doing cartwheels.

“Should I be alarmed?”

“Nope, not at all. I am the best at gifts. Simon can vouch for that.I am just gonna go wake up the guys at the warehouse.”

“That is going to be a task.” 

“Yeah. Maybe I could jump on top of Simon so he wakes up… actually, I think I am gonna do that to Matteo as well,” Luna laughed and actually did a cartwheel. “Uuuu, actually, I have a better idea!”

“Luna, Simon is not…” Ambar started to say, but Luna had already bounced down the stairs. “Never mind.”

A little while later Ambar was just putting touches of makeup on her face, Simon had left for the warehouse to get a change of clothes. All of a sudden she heard a series of screams and yelling that seemed to come to form outside. Luna must have succeeded in waking up the guys…

“What happened to you?” As Ambar walked downstairs, she saw Simon, Matteo, and Pedro staying in the hall, dripping wet.

“Luna woke us up.” Pedro deadpanned. Ambar turned her head towards Luna who was just hiding her laughter. 

“Chica Delivery, how did you even get three buckets of ice water to the warehouse,” Matteo shook his head. He especially looked just like a wet dog who had accidentally fallen into a lake. 

“I have my ways.” Luna just grinned.

“Well, I guess, merry Christmas to us,” Simon just said.

[countessofravenclaw]

The 2022 writing Advent calendar: Day 23

23. A night before Christmas

One of the weirdest things about me as a DCLA and a professional Gastina writer is that I barely have written them at all between S1 and 2. I mean that is the golden fluff period when there was no Oxford, and they were just getting to really know each other. I will definitely start writing them more during this time

“Nina, I’ll have to run to the store really quick,” Ricardo said glancing at his watch. 

“Sure, no problem,” Nina responded and she watched her dad head out of the door. The time was nearing nine pm so some stores must have been open, even on Christmas eve. She thought she had no idea what dad had forgotten, plus he almost never went grocery shopping, so this was probably some kind of Christmas miracle. 

Miracle alongside her even being allowed to even be at his place for the eve and the morning, Mom had always fought it. She sighed and leaned back on the couch picking up her phone. 

There was an unanswered text from Luna, she had sent her a picture of the small Christmas tree she and her parents had their place in Cancun. The tree was decorated with a bunch of traditional Mexican Christmas ornaments. Another message that had been sent from Luna to the Roller group chat was a picture of her and other people from Mexico that Nina did not recognize. They looked like a family, but it was not Luna’s because according to her, Monica nor Miguel did not have any family in Cancun. The family must have been Simon’s, Nina realized pretty quickly. 

She switched the chat to one she had with Gastón. the last message had been sent about an hour ago. She smiled as she read the conversation they had had back.

Nina: Mom says that I can’t. I am supposed to spend Christmas with my family and all rest of the preaching she always does. I’d much rather be with you

Gastón: Me too. But I understand, your parents were to have you there

Nina: Only to fight over me like a Christmas present. Happens every year, probably never going to stop

Gastón: Just so you know, Mom and Dad would have loved to have you, they already have completely fallen in love with you, which is not a surprise… who wouldn’t

Nina: You don’t mean that

Gastón: Every word of it. You are amazing.

The conversation had gotten flirtier as it had gone on until Nina had been interrupted by a phone call from her mother, who had just wanted to list all the rules needed to spend the Christmas morning with Ricardo. This had definitely not been the first time Nina had thought about running away (not seriously, obviously, but still thought about it), and granted, now she actually had a place to go. It was still super crazy to think about, she was Gastón Perida’s girlfriend and it was not just some kind of dream, that thought still made her slightly dizzy.

Nina, thought she should probably call him when she heard the apartment door’s buzzer ring. Nina rolled her eyes and got up from the sofa. Dad must have forgotten his keys. She pressed the buzzer's unlock button and walked over to open the door.

“Did you forget your keys agai… What are you doing here?” It was not her dad behind the door… it was Gastón. 

“Well, I was sitting home alone and just thought that I don’t want to be there when I could be with you,” He said as he reached out to take her hands, still standing in the doorway, “Is your dad here?”

“He’s not,” Nina responded, “he left to buy something, I don’t even know what.”

“Well, then this doesn’t have to wait.” Gastón grinned and swooped down to kiss her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her tightly against him. Being kissed like that, or just being kissed at all, was something Nina was still getting used to, but it was a feeling she hoped would never end. It was almost intoxicating. 

“Any chance I won’t get killed if I steal you for a while?” Gastón asked after he loosened his grip on her, just a little bit.

“You chose the right place to show up, dad won’t care.” Nina smiled at him. “But for what do you need to steal me for?”

“I thought we could go for a ride,” Gastón took her hand and pulled her through the door, “We can’t be together on Christmas, so we can have the night before.”

They walked out of the building and Nina was about to turn to the walkway that turned left from the exit, but Gastón pulled her to the right… where the parking lot was. 

He had said that they were going for a ride … it finally clicked with Nina as they stopped in front of a black nice looking car. This should have not been a surprise at all, she should have realized it. She had met his parents once, but it was clear that they were extremely well off and Gastón’s house was not that close to her dad’s place. She had just automatically assumed that he had just walked.

“I know what you are thinking,” Gastón started speaking, “My parents must be out of their minds letting me drive that, but I can assure you I have never once crashed, or scraped it, or even run a red light or gotten a speeding ticket. Passed the test on the first try. This is also quite old, even if it is a Ferrari.”

“Oh no, it is not that,” Nina shook her head, “I don’t know anything about cars, but… I just didn’t realize that you drove. I don’t know why.”

“You can get the license at 17 with parental approval.” Gastón laughed, “But I get it. I don’t drive to Roller, it is close enough to home, and I only really started driving to Blake in the second semester. Come on.” He opened the right-side front door for her and Nina got in the car. If it actually was old, she could not tell, it was almost in better condition than her mother’s car was, and that was saying something.

“So, you said you were alone. Are you parents somewhere?”

“They had some Christmas eve dinner with some people,” Gastón explained. “So I was left by myself.”

“Does that happen a lot?” Nina asked. She was genuinely curious about everything that had to do with Gastón, especially his family. He was from Cordoba and an only child, but there were so many thing she did not yet know. 

“They are always here on Christmas, that's a promise they have never broken, even if that means they fly out literally on the morning of the 26th.” Gastón parked the car in an empty parking lot of some park and turned towards Nina. 

“So they work a lot?”

“They both work on a lot of international stuff. Mom sometimes has sales all the way in the USA and well Dad is one of the administrators of an airline plus a lot of other stuff. I can’t keep track of it all. It changes a lot. Sometimes they are home for months at a time, and sometimes only a couple of days between three two-week trips. I am used to it and I am quite an independent person. That doesn’t mean I want to be alone, though.” He reached to take Nina’s hand and leaned closet to her, “But it is fine, I have Matteo. We have been in and out of each other's houses since we met. And now I have you.”

Nina smiled and leaned closer too, kissing him.

*

“I almost don’t want to let you go,” Gastón said as he drove the car back to Nina’s dad’s building. “But someone would call the cops after me so I better return you.”

“No, they would not.” Nina laughed, “surprisingly even Mom trusts you. She could easily not let me have a boyfriend at all.”

“Well, I am glad I filled the requirements.”

“Call me tomorrow, I wanna hear the rest about how your Christmas goes.”

“I know already that it’ll go well. Since I am pretty sure I already got what I wanted,” he leaned to kiss her again. “I— I adore you. You do know that?”

[countessofravenclaw]

The 2022 writing Advent calendar: Day 22

22. What is the story behind Christmas?

It is time for the grand finale of the Ib Beat Christmas sing along

“How are we feeling here?! Hasn’t this been magical this far?” Francesca got up on the stage with Diego. Diego went to pick up the acoustic guitar while she addressed the crowd.

Their performance was the second to last performance from the alumni. The last number was going to be that huge group number for the finale. 

The crowd cheered as a responded. 

“I see well,” Francesca smiled, “The next song is a song that is near and dear to my heart. It is a song that we always played with my family during Christmas and now as I have grown and traveled around the world, thanks to the studio, I still listen to this song and It always makes me feel closer to my family. It is called Ave Maria and this is a new version me and Diego have been working on. How many do you know what this song is about?”

A lot of the audience started yelling or raising their hand. 

“Well, know it or not, I’ll tell you anyway.” Francesca continued, “Ave Maria is based a prayer to the Virgin Mary, you know, from the Christmas story. She gave birth to a child in the stables, surrounded by animals, and swaddled the child and put him in the manger. Then a new bright star rose to the sky announcing the birth of the savior of Israel.”

Fran finished her sentence and Diego started strumming his guitar and Fran started singing the song. This version was a new arrangement with mixed Italian and Spanish lyrics

*

“Fran” That was breathtaking!” Violetta hugged Francesca as soon as she came off stage. 

“Pheww. That was so scary. First time I ever sang it live in front of an audience.”

“She was amazing,” Diego who also just had come off stage, “But how was I?”

“Oh yeah you were heart too,” Violetta said dismissively before turning back to Francesca, “but that high note…”

“All right, are we ready for this?” Leon and the rest of the band guys came backstage, “The big finale!”

“Absolutely!” Cami exclaimed from the corner she had been at. “After this, we have saved the studio for the umpteenth time.”

“Hopefully this time it will actually stick.” Ludmila joked.

“Whatever happened, we did it together,” Violetta said and took the hands of the people next to her. The group formed a circle. “On Beat?”

“ON BEAT!”

I tried to keep this from being too preachy, but I am still a Christian. Actually, if we look a statistics, it would be fair to assume that the DCLA characters, especially the Italian, would be catholic.

And lets just keep our fingers crossed that Studio won't keep annually becoming bankrupt after this

[countessofravenclaw]

The 2022 writing Advent calendar: Day 21

21. Someone trying to prepare a perfect Christmas dinner

This is really short, but that is because I was super busy today and I also went to see the Nutcracker today.

“No.”

“But why not?” Luna whined as she and Matteo were walking across the grocery store.

“I said NO,” Matteo shook his head once more, “You are not cooking Christmas dinner.”

“But you let me do the baking. And I didn’t burn anything down.” Luna tried to counter. 

“Did you forget the part where the structure fell down on our kitchen and you, Jim, and Yam spent the whole night cleaning?”

“Noooooo,” Luna rolled her eyes, “but we won’t be piling things on top of each other. Come on Matteo! I wanna cook the turkey!”

“Have you ever even eaten turkey?”

“No, but it looks like so yummy.” Luna pointed to the freezer isle that was full of frozen turkeys.

“Look, how about we ask your mom to teach us… after Christmas.” Matteo shook his head laughing, “Then we can see again next year. That sound okay, or do I need to bribe you with chocolate?”

“Okay then!” Luna finally whined, “But next year I am holding you ot that.”

“Plus we honestly do not need Christmas dinner ourselves,” Matteo pointed out, “Dad has a new cook, so the dinner in the evening will be more than enough, and we will be the morning at Gastón and Nina’s.”

“I can’t wait until they see our gift!” Luna started skipping ahead excited… and had apparently already completely forgotten the turkey and her dreams about cooking Christmas dinner. 

But what Matteo did not know was that she absolutely had not forgotten… because Luna Valente had a plan. 

“Why did we have to come here so early?” Matteo groaned on Boxing day as he and Luna arrived at the mansion at 6:30 pm.

“Because Ambar asked me to come and help decorate,” Luna just shrugged hoe shoulder. She looked like she should have been arrested for all the energy she had, given it was super early morning.  

“She did?” Matteo looked around and the Mansion already looked quite decorated.

“Of course I did!” Matteo saw Ambar and similarly sleepy-looking Simón coming down the stairs. 

“Okay then,” Matteo just nodded. He was way too sleepy to question anything right now. “Knock yourself out… I’ll be at Luna’s room and you can wake me up when normal people are awake.”

“I am gonna do the same. See ya,” Simon yawned and climbed back upstairs. 

***

“Idiots.” Ambar laughed after the guys had vanished to catch the rest of their missing Zs and then smiled mysteriously at Luna. “Lets go. Monica has probably been up since three am.”

“Come on let's go!” Luna took Ambar’s hand and they ran to the kitchen where Monica was already cooking u a storm.

“Hey girls!” She looked up to see Luna and Ambar, “I see my assistant chefs have arrived.”

“Well, we gotta cook for our men.” Ambar joked, “Except that Simon is more hopeless in the kitchen than I am so he really gets no say.”

“So you ladies can make the Pozole Rojo,” Monica gave both of the girls an apron. Luna took a minute to figure out how it was supposed to be worn. Ambar ended up tying it for her.

“Matteo is going to freak out when he sees what we have cooked!” Luna squealed excitedly as she picked up the recipe, “So, how do we start?”

[countessofravenclaw]

The 2022 writing Advent calendar: Day 19

19. Tree decorating

“Wow! Is that real?” Luna was jumping like an excited puppy as Gastón and Matteo carried the tree inside the house.

“Yes,” Nina responded as the guys were propping the three up on its stand. “Apparently some kind of Perida traditions… soooo, who was I to say no.”

“I did give her the heads up about what it actually meant to be part of my family.” Gastón laughed as he and Matteo did their handshake after setting the tree, “That's what you get for marrying me.”

“Plus the plastic trees are very ugly.”

“Where do you get these?” Luna came closer to the tree touching the branches. 

“There is this spruce gardener about an hour from the central. Mom and Dad always got a tree from there ever since we moved here. It has been running for over 50 years now.” Gastón explained, “We have always gotten a tree from there together, every year Mom and Dad made time for it, no matter how busy they were. It is something really important to them since in their childhood they often didn’t have much, but they always had a tree for Christmas.”

“I wish Isla and Marco had instilled that mindset in my Dad,” Matteo rolled his eyes. “I can count all the Christmases I spent at different hotels… even before Mom died.”

“They still can,” Gastón patted Matteo on his shoulder, “Mom can just slightly hint that to Sofia. She’ll do the rest.”

“You mean they don’t have a tree?” Luna asked.

“Oh, they do.” Matteo answered shaking his head, “But just a really fancy-looking plastic one. Dad is not really that into Christmas… Sofia is trying to change his mind and maybe she’ll actually manage it someday when she has the grandkid guilt-trip leverage. Or that's what she keeps telling me. Well, it doesn’t really matter, he will always be the grumpy grandfather anyway.”

“I bet she has been waiting to pull that one out ever since you got engaged,” Gastón remarked, “I have known her for years. Would be so on-brand for her, that's why Mom and her and best friends. I do not even know when Mom will start nagging us with the grandchildren,” He looked at Nina, “It is incoming… I just know.”

“So, are we decorating this tree or not?” Luna was jumping impatiently in the place. “We can talk about our parents some other time.”

“Sure,” Nina shook her head laughing. “Guys can you get the boxes.”

Gastón and Nina had lived in their house for a year, but they had moved from England almost with no furniture so they had had t get everything for their house new. So they had gone shopping for a full day for just to get Christmas decorations. So they had three different boxes of brand new tree ornaments to addition of a lot of other things.

“I am kind of starting to envy you for your in-laws,” Luna nudged Nina after the guys had vanished to get the boxes from upstairs.

“You shouldn’t,” Nina laughed, “That didn’t sound right… did it? What I meant was that Isla and Marco are wonderful, and raised amazing people. But that doesn’t mean your future ones won’t be as amazing.”

“Well, one thing I can say is that they are scary,” Luna cringed. “Matteo often talks about Gastón’s parent much warmer than his own.”

“Well, you know about their rocky relationship. Matteo and Gastón pretty much grew up together from their tweens. But Sofia and Alexander are really nice people.”

“I seriously can’t believe that you have known them longer than I have.” Luna laughed in disbelief, “I am the freaking fiancee of Matteo.”

“You know it was a pretty big coincidence.”

“Okay, here.” Matteo and Gastón came back downstairs carrying the boxes. “What were you talking about?”

“About our in-laws.”

“That can pretty much mean almost anything.” Matteo laughed. “Especially if it was about my parents.”

“Nothing bad was said. I assure you.”

“UUuuuuuu, these are so pretty!” Luna had already dug into one of the boxes and was pulling some glittering stars from it. “I love Christmas decorations! In Mexico we often had more handmade ornament. Some of them were really pretty and I and Simon even tried to make ones ourselves, but those ended up being super ugly. I am pretty sure Ambar banned those from their house this year. Anyway, these are much prettier. Where did you get these?”

“We got some from England before we moved, but most of them we bought just recently.” Nina explained, “If we wanna have some family heirloom ornaments, we have to start from somewhere.”

“Where does this go?” Luna was holding up a big gold star in her hand.

“On the top of the tree,” Gastón took it from her.

“Why does it go there?” Luna asked confused.

“It symbolizes the star the shepherds and the three wise old men followed to the stables,” Gastón explained, “You know, from the bible.”

“Oh, right.”

“The tree is really tall,” Matteo looked up at the tree, “How are we getting it up there?”

“That is a good question,” Gastón agreed with him.

“Hey! What if I just climb over your shoulders?” Matteo suggested, “Then we’d be tall enough.”

“Absolutely not.” Nina crossed her arms as she shut the guys’ idea down. 

“Why not?”

“Because I doubt that Luna wants to lose her groom, and frankly, I don’t wanna become a widow.”

[countessofravenclaw]

The 2022 writing Advent calendar: Day 16

16. Mistletoe

The academic student association always went above and beyond for the holidays at Oxford. It had been a bit of a culture shock for Nina as a freshman since it was so different from Blake. Blake had celebrated any holidays, it was a good thing it even gave vacation off for the since it was not educational. But now as she had been living in England for one and a half years. It did not face her anymore.

But it was not like she still was not going to appreciate the beauty of the London Christmas lights as Gastón drove then through the streets of London from their apartment to the Campus. Thei both had the lectures start at 8:15 am, so it was still absolutely dark, and the lights were still on. 

“I have that employment and business seminar today,” Gastón said as he parked in the parking lot reserved for students. “When was your last lecture ending?”

“At 15.” Nina answered, “But why do you ask? You probably know my schedule better than I do.”

“The seminar will probably run late so you need to wait for me.”

“That's fine. I can work on the draft at the library.”

“I wish you’d let me read it,” Gastón complained as they started towards the door into the building.

“I told you, it is not really polished,” Nina countered, “I don’t really know what I am doing with it.”

“And you know that I doubt that,” Gastón shot back a took her hand in his. “You are an amazing writer. If someone can write that book, it is you.”

“We’ll see about that,” Nina shook her head and opened her phone. She suddenly saw a text from Luna she had apparently missed the previous night... to be fair, not surprising given what they had gotten up to… “Look at this.” She showed the text to Gastón.

“Luna does not know what a snowman is?”

“Apparently she, Matteo, Simon, and Ambar had full-on debate about the topic. She wants our opinions and so-called experts.” Nina said, looking at the text. Unfortunately, all the snow that had rained in London the previous week had already fully melted. 

“I shudder to think who won that debate.” Gastón laughed, “My money is on Ambar. She and law school will be a deathly match made in heaven.”

“That is a good point but you know Luna won’t stop until she gets her point across…” she could not finish her sentence as she suddenly felt herself being pulled backward by her arm. Gastón has stopped in his tracks. 

“What?” Nina asked as she found her balance.

“Don’t look up,” Gastón said in a low voice. Nina turned her head towards the ceiling. The hallways they had been walking had been lined with a string of garland. Her eyes followed the vine until she saw the reason why they had stopped. There clearly was a mistletoe hanging right above them. 

Right as she realized it, she felt arms sliding around her waist, and Gastón brought her closer.

“I don’t think I saw any of these last year.”

“Well, I did.” Gastón responded, “Do you know hard it was last year when the only thing I wanted to do was to kiss you? Matteo suggested I just trap you under the mistletoe.”

“You should have done it,” Nina slid her hand around his neck and he started pounding faster, like every time they were close. She was sure it was never going to stop being like that. “Would have saved us some time.”

“Well, I can fix that now,” Gastón smiled and smoothly captured her lips with his own.

“Oh, great, we really should not leave those two alone,” They separate once they heard an annoyed English voice. They turned to see Jacob and James standing in the hallway

“Anyways…” Jacob continued as Gastón appeared to throw quite seriously murderous glare at his former roommate, “I am off to class, see you at lunch.”

“I finally found you,” James started talking after Jacob had gone, “I need to talk to you about that last problem in yesterday’s exercise packet. You didn’t respond anything when I texted you about it.”

“Oh, I don’t think I saw that message, because...” Gastón responded.

“You don’t what, I do not need to know why.” James came to grab him by the shoulders. “We need to go to the class. Nina, you won’t mind if I steal him?”

“Not a bit,” Nina laughed, “I need to go myself. Te Amo.” She placed on kiss on Gastón’s cheek and turned to wars the staircase that led to her lecture hall.

“Yo tambien”

“With you two, I am not sure If I am annoyed or glad that I don’t understand Spanish.” Nina heard James say as she started climbing the stairs.

Did you notice the call back all the way to Day 1? I had to add that in here.

[countessofravenclaw]

The 2022 writing Advent calendar: Day 14

14. What is a snowman

“Hm hm hm, frosty the snowman 🎵…” Matteo hummed and strummed his guitar at Rollers. In front of him was a Christmas songs book and he had been just lightly playing some Christmas songs to pass the time as he and Luna were waiting for Simon and Ambar. 

Ambar had a law school exam at her university UCA and Luna was helping run a junior Rollers group today. The whole group had been her idea. So they had agreed to meet at Roller afterward. Matteo glanced at the clock. 

Simon and Ambar were going to be late soon. It was not that odd from Simon, but from Ambar a little bit more… but Matteo was not going to question that since the most probable answer was that Ambar had taken over time with the exam. Luna’s skating lessons always ran late too.

“What are you doing Chico Fresa?” Matteo was just about to turn the page in the book when Luna’s voice startled him. 

“Oh, your class is already over?” Matteo asked after picking up the guitar pick he had dropped, “How did it go?”

“Oh, you know… those kids are the cutest things in the world.” Luna started explaining at the rapid pace she always did. “I taught them the double pirouette today and Juliana says that we could possibly even sign them up for a junior showcase next year,”

“A competition?” Matteo questioned. The Junior Rollers had only been a thing for six months and most of the kids were only ages eight to ten. “Already?”

“Not a competition, just a small showcase.” Luna laughed, “I mean these kids have potential. Maybe they will be the next team of Jam & Roller.”

“Hopefully just in the name, and with the drama,” Matteo laughed too.

“So you did not answer me yet.” Luna changed the subject, “What were you doing?”

“Just strumming on some Christmas songs,” Matteo explained and nodded toward the book. “I thought that maybe I did a video on my Instagram with one of them or something. To open up the holiday season for my fans and stuff.”

“Frost the Snow Man?” Luna read from the book, “What kind of song is that?”

“Well it goes something like this,” Matteo played the chord progression on his guitar.

“Well, that's not what I meant,” Luna continued to stare at the book turning it upside down, “I meant like, what is a Snow Man?”

“You don’t know?” Matteo asked confused.

“I mean it is a man made of snow… or it the man just really loves the snow?” Luna rambled. Matteo just shook his head. How was he surprised? 

“Luna, Snow Man is a thing people make of snow that kind of looks like a man,” Matteo explained and pointed to a picture in the sog book. 

“Oh,” Luna looked at the picture, “It looks so much fun! Can we make one?”

“We don’t have snow here,” Matteo pointed out.

“Oh, right,” Luna tilted her head, “You know I have never actually seen snow.”

“What have you never seen?” Simon and Ambar walked into Roller at that second. “Sorry that we are late, but I got stuck with the last question.”

“No problem,” Matteo responded, “I was just explaining to Luna what a snowman is, since she did not know.”

“I don’t know either,” Simon piped up. “There is no snow in Cancun. I always just imagined it was just really white sand.

“You have never been skiing?” Matto questioned after glancing Ambar a bit skeptically.

“Nope.”

“I have been to the alp couple of times,” Ambar said. “I had to ski by myself since Sharon didn’t want to do that. Simon, darling, snow is frozen water. It is really cold.”

“Uuf, then I do not wanna know.” Simon shivered and Matteo tried his hardest not to laugh. “I hate the cold.”

“They did have snow at UK right now, right?” Luna asked. “You all saw that picture Nina and Gastón sent.”

“Of course we did.” Ambar smiled, “You’d think they both are majoring in photography.”

“I’m really sad they are not coming here for Christmas this year.” Luna lamented

“Well, they must be busy, even with the vacation.” Ambar noted, “Gastón is finishing his bachelor's after all now.”

“And maybe they just wanna spend it just two of them. I am sure they can keep themselves occupied.” Matteo smirked. “I am just super happy they worked it out, because I cannot take another Christmas like last year.”

[countessofravenclaw]

The 2022 writing Advent calendar: Day 13

13. Can reindeer really fly

We are once again continuing our adventure at te north pole with the Holy trinity. Go read days 3 & 9 if you have not already!

“I can’t believe Santa Claus let Luna sit on her lap,” Simon laughed after they were walking out of Santa Claus’s office.  “He probably thought she was still a child.” Gastón joined him in the laughter. Nina and Ambar, who were walking behind them, just rolled their eyes at them.  “That was so much fun!!!!” Luna was still jumping up and down as she and Matteo excited last from the building. “Santa was so nice. And I got finally to present my Christmas wishes in person.” “Luna, Christmas was a week ago,” Nina noted to Luna as she and Matteo caught up with the rest of them.  “Yeah, I know that,” Luna just shrugged, “I meant for like next year.” “You mean this year.” “Yeah, sure. Earlier the better! Maybe now I will actually get that banjo.” Luna threw some pretend dagger eyes at her friends. “You want a banjo?” Ambar asked dryly in complete disbelief. “YES! I have been asking one for years.” Luna nodded, “No one has gotten me one.” “And maybe that is a blessing…” Ambar whispered to Simon. “What?” “Ah, nothing.” Ambar shook her head, “How much time do we have left?” “The bus leaves here at 12:15, but I have no idea how punctual the Finnish busses are in this region.” Gastón answered looking at his phone, “The weather is probably quite a big component in that. But today’s is not that bad. Can’t imagine what would happen in a snowstorm. To answer your question, we still have about an hour.” “We should probably go eat at some point.” Matteo pointed out. “I read that there was this restaurant that was completely built out of the snow here,” Nina explained. “No way!” Simon exclaimed, “How is that even possible?” “I guess the same way they built those huge sand castles. Apparently, that is another tourist thing in Finland. Somewhere called Lappeenranta they built one every year.” “OMG!!!!” Luna suddenly exclaimed. Matteo quickly grabbed her arm so she was not able to run away. “Look at them! They are real?” “What are real?” Everyone turned to look where Luna was pointing.  She was pointing towards the reindeer yard.  “Hold up a second?” Gastón asked, “You did not know that reindeer were real?” Matteo exchanges a skeptical look with Matteo.  “Well, I thought they were just fairytale creatures.” Luna started speaking, “Just like dragons and unicorns. I mean Santa Claus is not real, I know that, so I thought his reindeer were not too.” “Luna, quiet down,” Simon hushed her, forgetting that it was pretty unlikely that any of the people around the understood what Luna had been saying in Spanish, “You can’t just shout something like that out loud. There are children around. You’ll end up in the notty list for good.”  “Uuuups.” “Well, anyways. Reindeer are mostly native to arctic areas like Northern Europe and I think there are some in Canada.” Nina explained. “The whole their affiliation with Santa Claus comes from a lot of legends.” “Well, can we go see them?” Luna asked jumping up and down once again.  “Well, why not.” Ambar nodded. “They are cute, you are right.” “Hey! Can these reindeer really fly?” Luna asked the reindeer keeper, who was also dressed as an elf.  “Ööööö, Anteeksi?” The keeper asked bit confused.  “Luna.” Matteo reminded her. “Sorry about that.” He started speaking English. “We are tourists from Argentina. She was just asking you if these reindeer can actually fly.” “Oh noh,” the keeper laughed, “These ones don’t. Santa has a lot of different reindeer for different purposes. These guys right here don’t fly with him on Christmas Eve, but still are very important to our small village.” “Can we meet Rudolf?” Luna asked. “What?” She said once she saw all the others staring at her. “I wanna see his red nose.” “I wish you could see him,” The keeper responded, “But Rudolf and the other Flying Forces are resting. They had a long journey on Christmas Eve flying all around the world, even with the earth’s rotational speed regulator. But if you really wanna meet him, keep your eye open next Christmas Eve and you might catch a glimpse of him.”  

[countessofravenclaw]

The 2022 writing Advent calendar: Day 11

11. A Santa's Elf AU

Okay, so I was so excited to write this one. I definitely went bit overboard with creating some of my own Santa Elf lore and everything

“Matteo! Come on, we are going to be late!” Matteo was pulling his hat on as he rushed out of the cottage as his roommate Gastón kept urging him. 

“You need to start waking up on time,” Gastón continued as they walked through the snow towards the cafeteria. The apprentice elf’s cottages were located at the outskirts of Santa’s village. “If we ever want to be ascended into Maisteri Elfs, we can’t always be late.”

“Well, sorry, but I got an idea for this chord progression—”

“Matteo, look I have nothing against that,” Gastón sighed, “but you work in the sports division. Transferring department is not easy.”

“I am not looking to do that,” Matteo countered, “but you can’t help the gift North Star has given you.”

“Hey! Matteo! Gastón!” They were just passing the reindeer yard when two reindeer caretakers Pedro and Nico came up to them to the fence. “How’s it going?”

“Well, trying not to be late.” Gastón gave Matteo a side-eye. “How are the boys?”

“Ready for Christmas,” Pedro says while patience one of the reindeer’s, Twinkles, head. “How are things in the workshops?”

“As you could probably imagine. Hectic.” Matteo responded. “Somehow, rollerskates are this year's hot item.”

“I sometimes wish I would have ended up as a reindeer caregiver.” Gastón scratched Twinkle’s ear. “The literature department has been slammed. Love for storied never dies.”

“Well, you are welcome to come and help any time,” Nico rolled his eyes, “Contrary to popular belief, this is not just lounging. We are in charge of the thing boss relies on so Christmas night goes smoothly. Delfi and Jazmin were just over last week, you know, from the media department. They did a feature on as apparently, some kid has wished for a video of Santa’s reindeer.”

“Anyways, it was nice to chat, but we need to go to eat.” 

Gastón and Matteo finally made their way to the cafeteria and sat down with their bowls of rice porridge. 

“You know—” Matteo was just about to say something as he was interrupted by a cling of a sleigh bell as a folded paper appeared in front of Gastón with a white glitter poof. 

Matteo watched as Gastón picked it up and read the note and then turned his absolute heart-shaped eyes towards another table on the other side of the hall. Matteo did not need to guess who he was looking at. It was this certain brown-haired and short apprentice whole worked with him at the literature department and wore glasses. 

“And I thought it was bad when she was sending you those anonymous messages and you were desperate to figure out who you were.” Matteo groaned. “Why are you and Nina still hiding?”

“I told you, she is really shy,” Gastón answered after putting the note in his pocket. “Why do you think she has the gift to make text appear from thin air?”

Matteo just nodded. All the elves had a magical gifts given to them by the North Star when they had entered the academy. Gastón had the gift of generating images from his mind while Matteo was able to create a soundtrack to any scenario he saw. 

“Plus there is no rush,” Gastón continued, “North Star can only bind you together after a year, you know that.”

“Of course, I know that,” Matteo snarked.

“When are you putting yourself out there again?”

“Who’s that next to Nina?” Matteo ignored Gastón’s question as his eyes focused on another small brunette who had wavy long hair and she looked like talking animately to Jim and Yam, two elves from the music department. 

“I don’t know,” Gastón said. “She could be new.”

“A new apprentice ten days before Christmas?” Matteo laughed, “I pity that poor elf who gets settled with her. What elder has allowed that?”

“Lot of departments are understaffed. We did hit the two million Christmases mark last year and a lot of the maisteris took that milestone year to retire.” Gastón shook his head. “I mean it is really just me and Nina at the literature department, and we are still apprentices, but we might as be maisteris already. I hope we get more people next year. But don’t change the subject, how about you ask that new girl out?”

“Really?” Matteo cringed at Gastón, “You know that thing between me and Ambar didn’t end on the best of terms.”

Ambar had been an apprentice at the sports division with Matteo and they had been all but set to get bonded before the North Star this year until… well until things had gone sideways. Ambar had transferred to the dreams and wishes division and was now from the sound of it together with a post-elf called Simon. Matteo was happy for her, really. In the end, they were better off this way. 

Gling! The big bell on the ceiling of the dining hall rang, signifying that it was time to go to work. 

***

Gastón opened the door that led to the literature division in the workshop of arts. He smiled as he saw Nina already sitting on the table, already working. He had been working in the literature for two years now, and it had been just two of them since the maisteris had retired after last Christmas.

“Hey.” He sneaked a kiss on her cheek, startling her completely. 

“Oh, it was you.” She turned toward him.

“Who else would it have been?” He chuckled and pulled her up from her chair and kissed her properly. 

“Someone could come in.”

“No one ever comes in here,” Gastón said as he let her go. “Anyway, what are we working with today?”

“Nothing that different from yesterday,” Nina said as she took the list from the table. “Couple of princess stories, one space adventure, and then three wizarding stories. Actually, I heard from Dreams and Wishes that we only have a couple of shifts left. We are ahead of schedule.”

“Well, we make a pretty good team.” He ran his finger on her braid. “How about, after we are done today, meet me behind the reindeer stables?”

“I promised I’d show my roommate around today.”

“You have a new roommate?”

“Yes,” Nina answered as she sat back down on the desk and pulled an empty book from the shelf, and used her magic so words started appearing on its pages. “She is actually really nice. Really excitable and energetic.”

“Well, how about I come with you?" Gastón suggested as he produced an image that he transferred under the paragraph Nina had just finished writing. “I mean, we should probably let her know if you think we can trust her. Matteo does.”

***

“Okay, I would have not predicted that roller skates would be this year's hit gift,” Matteo remarked to Ramiro, another apprentice elf in the sports department at the action workshop. “I thought it would have been there again.” He gestured to a hockey stick he had just finished.

“Matteo.” As Matteo had just dropped off the hockey stick to the hatch where they got transported into Dreams and Wishes, where it would be assigned to a child and wrapped, so it was ready to go for Santa on Christmas eve when the action workshop elder Juliana called for him. 

“What?”

“Matteo, a new apprentice is starting at the sports department, and we want you to show her the ropes.”

“Okay.” Matteo nodded. In reality, the last thing he wanted to deal with was a newbie. Why could not some maisteri do it? Also, the new apprentice appeared to be late.

Matteo returned to his station and picked up another hockey stick… when Bang!

…someone ran straight into him. 

“Can’t you look where you are going?” He looked at the person who had almost crushed him. It was the new girl he and Gastón had seen with Nina and she was wearing pair of roller skates.

“Oh I am so sorry,” she jumped back onto her feet at once, “but I got lost and then saw these and decided to try the out.”

“I am guessing, you are the new apprentice.” Matteo just stared at her. 

“Yes, I am: I used to work at the post…as a messenger but I kept dropping the sack all the time… so I kind of got kicked out.” The girl laughed, “So I had to go back to the academy and here I am. I am Luna by the way.”

“Matteo. The elder asked me to take care of you.”

[countessofravenclaw]

The 2022 writing Advent calendar: Day 10

10. "All I want for Christmas..."

So today, we are continuing from DAY 2 and see how the studio gang is doing with the Christmas Concert

“So, we need to make decision’s now,” Leon said as he and the guys entered their rehearsal studio. 

“Decision’s about what?” Andres asked while picking up the drumsticks. “We aren’t going on a tour aren’t we?”

“No Andres…” Leon rolled his eyes. “The Christmas concert … for the studio.”

“Leon is right,” Federico said as he sat down on an amp. “But what are we supposed to play.”

“A Christmas song?” Broduey noted.

“Thank you,” Maxi laughed, “We could have never figured it out by ourselves.”

“We can’t half-ass this,” Leon started speaking and picked up a couple of music sheets, “Studio and all the students depend on it. It can’t be just any Christmas song.”

“But there are like million Christmas songs,” Fede continued, “How do we pick one?”

“We need something lively, and going,” Broduey pondered.

“We can’t let the student’s down,” Leon agreed, “They especially asked for the band. The song needs to reflect us.”

“If only we had more time…” Maxi lamented as he opened his computer, “We could write something original, but we can’t get anything polished out in a month. Plus, the label won’t give us the license clearances that fast.”

The guys and All FOUR you had found a new label after the disaster that had happened with the label in 2015 and their first record being produced by the studio. This new label had been much more liberal and easier to work with but still, the guys were not exactly allowed to do everything they wanted. Participating in the studio’s concert had required a couple of meeting and balancing the pros and cons.

“Heyyy! How is it going?” Suddenly Violetta and Ludmila appeared in the door of the rehearsal studio.

“We heard you were going to work on the Sing Along today so we brought coffee.” Vilu noted as she and Ludmila put the coffee cup trays down on a table. “So what do you got, we want to hear it.”

“Absolutely nothing,” Leon noted dryly.

“How is that so?” Ludmila crossed her arms across her chest, “You never have nothing. What is going on? We are doing amazingly well with our tercet, and Fran and Diego are killing with her song.”

“We also need to start rehearsing for the group numbers soon, so you better hurry up and figure yourselves out,” Vilu agreed with Ludmila, “We are running out of time.”

“I guess we just wanna perform something that distinctly represents us,” Federico explained, “Christmas songs don’t really feel oike our style.”

“At least the ones that exist,” Andres piped up, “We can’t of course know about the ones that don’t exist yet.”

“What if you make a Christmas song your style?” Violetta suggested.

“We don’t have time to make a new song.”

“No. That's not what I meant,” Vilu huffed, “Remember the group arrangement et project we did in my second year?”

“Yes.”

“Do that. Pick a song and make a new arrangement for it so it reflects your style,” Ludmila continued Vilu’s train of thought. “Seriously… All I want for Christmas in that you to figure this out. If you don’t know what you are playing, we can’t even start with what you are wearing.”

“Hold up a second.” Maxi suddenly straightened up, “All I want for Christmas! That's a song right?” He started typing on his computer and soon the poppy Christmas song was playing in the room from the speakers.

“Hmm, You could get a hard rock version of this,” Leon pondered and picked up a guitar. He started playing alongside with the music. Soon enough all the guys were playing with the song. 

“I think we figured it out,” Broduey started dancing. 

“Now we just need to create the full arrangement,” Maxi sighed. “This will be a long night. We are gonna need that coffee.”

A little bit shorter, but I was madly busy today