Saturday: December 11th, 2015

"There's something about the holidays that keeps us from growing apart," Jasper read as we walked through Hyde Park towards the underground. We had already collected the scroll—this time adorned in a white ribbon speckled with silver snowflakes—and were ready to get the task over with. "... you might just find your third entry slip in the hands of the guard."

"Miss Elf's riddle game is horrible today," I muttered in response.

"Huh?"

Shaking my head, I smiled at Jasper before saying, "The elf we picked our first entry ticket up from is the person who wrote these. This one isn't as great as the others..."

"Oh... What do you think it means?" He held the scroll out to me, and I took it, rereading it several times.

"Fairy tales... is there anything in London with fairy tales?"

"I mean... heaps, I guess. They mention a prince. Could it be something to do with the royals?"

I stopped in my tracks before turning to face him. "In the hands of the guard. That's where we have to start with our thinking. It has to be somewhere with guards."

"Well that could be any of the palaces..."

I narrowed my eyes as I skimmed the riddle again. "Rapunzel's tower... why mention..." But then it hit me. And it seemed to hit Jasper at the same time too.

Turning to face each other, we both exclaimed, "Tower of London!"

∘◦ ❈ ◦∘

Miss Elf was dressed in her usual green outfit out the front of the Tower of London. Its brick, dungeon-like aesthetic was certainly outshone by Tower Bridge right next to it, which sported two large towers that lifted and lowered the suspension bridge over the Thames.  

But this time, instead of her green pointy hat, Miss Elf adorned a bearskin hat.

"You look ridiculous," I said to her as we approached.

"Lovely to see you too! And you brought your boyfriend this time!"

I rolled my eyes and held my hand out for the ticket.

"How do you always get them so fast?" she gushed as she handed it over.

"You just don't make them hard enough."

"I definitely do! Everyone else takes ages."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Zara's just too good," Jasper interrupted our squabble, wrapping an arm around my shoulders as he said it.

My stomach did that weird flipping thing again and I cleared my throat. "Anyway, we have some... couple stuff to do today before the competition. So thanks Elf."

"All the best today, love birds!" Then she saluted us as we turned around and headed back to the station.

"What's the challenge?" Jasper asked on the way.

Glancing over the card, I sighed. "Do you know Christmas carols?"

"Christmas carols?" he yanked the card from my hand and grimaced. "I actually don't."

Pressing my lips together, I said, "Me neither."

"Guess we might actually have to prepare for this one."

"Want to come back to my dad's again?"

"Will your family mind?"

Shrugging, I said, "He will be home this time... just don't mention you visited before. Besides, they wanted me to do this competition."

"I thought you needed the money?"

"I do..." I trailed off, but as the silence grew as we continued, Jasper seemed to realise I wasn't ready to tell him why.

"Okay. Well, let's go to yours then."

∘◦ ❈ ◦∘

When we walked into the door, dad's jaw dropped as he took in Jasper. He was probably thinking the same thing I did when I first saw him again: where did dumpling boy go? But that surprise immediately turned into suspicion, especially when I said we were going to my room.

"Door must stay open!" dad gruffly instructed while I rolled my eyes, grabbing Jasper by the arm and leading him up towards my room.

As expected, once we walked in, Jasper immediately gravitated towards my picture wall. "Did you put these all up?"

Shaking my head, I replied, "Clare did. She decorated the room."

"Not your dad?"

"Nope," I replied, popping on the 'p' as I took a seat on the floor. Grabbing my laptop, I opened a browser and began searching popular Christmas carols. "Do you think it will be just carols or that they will hit us with songs too?"

"What's the difference?" he asked as he seemed to be studying a selfie of me, Jojo, and Ria very intently.

"Carols are like Silent Night while songs are like... Last Christmas."

Stepping back from the photos, he turned to me with a small smile on his face. "Better go for both to be safe." 

Then he sat down on the floor next to me, his knee almost brushing against mine. As discreetly as I could, I shimmied away from him to be sure he wouldn't make contact with me. 

"Are those your best friends?" he asked, head nodding back to my photo wall.

Glancing his way, I couldn't stop the grin slipping onto my face as I thought of Ria and Jojo. "Yeah. They're amazing. They're both dating."

"Dating? Oh that's cool."

I shrugged as I began typing up a list of songs and carols we should memorise. 

"Did you... ever date anyone back in Australia?"

Eyebrow cocked, I glanced his way again. "Yeah..."

"What happened?"

I shook my head. "Not going there."

A silence echoed around my room, with the tapping of my fingers on the computer keyboard seeming ridiculously loud suddenly. Then Jasper broke the stillness of the air as he said, "When you left... Penny and her friends started picking on me."

I stopped typing, looking up at him with my full attention now. But he was staring at the ground, unable to meet my gaze.

"After two and a half years of relentless name calling, I decided enough was enough. I threw away all my manga. All the action figures. I began running... working out... I begged my mum for money to get a new wardrobe. I changed myself so much until I had moulded into one of the perfect popular boys that hung out with her crew that no one ever picked on. And sure enough, it worked. But my... glow up, I suppose, intrigued her... and many others it seemed. She hated that all the girls were suddenly asking me out. Until one day she decided to take me for her own. When Penny asked me to date her... I couldn't help myself and said yes, figuring it would be the ultimate way to ensure I'm never picked on. We dated for three months, and of course, there were many fake aspects to being Penny's boyfriend. Whenever anyone was around, we both had to act in a certain way. Never smile too much. Only talk about specific topics. Laugh at her jokes. Go to the places she wants to go to... But when it was just us, she let those walls disappear. Removed from her friends, she's a great person behind it all, and I think that's why I stuck around."

"So... what happened?" I asked softly, unable to believe that there was ever a nice side to Penny, but also unable to question the sincerity behind the look in Jasper's eye and the tone in his voice.

"One day we were hanging out at lunch with her friends when she brought you up."

"Me?"

"She made fun of you all over again and I... I couldn't listen to it. I spoke my own thoughts in front of her friends, and she just fake smiled at me and tossed her hair over her shoulder like she wasn't mad... but the moment we were alone, she screamed at me. Accused me of all sorts of things like currently having feelings for you and—" He shook his head. "You had been gone for so long and she was jealous? It was ridiculous. Anyway, I said some pretty horrible things to her after that, leading us to a point of no return whereby she decided to end it. She just couldn't deal with things I felt for you all those years ago."

Felt for me? I wanted to press more, but decided that it wasn't right. "I'm sorry she hurt you, Jasper."

Shrugging, he said, "She didn't know you. She didn't have the right to say such horrible things. Nor can I change the past about what you meant to me back then."

"But you resented me all this time. Why not join the tirade?"

"While I was mad at you, it didn't change the fact that you were my friend when you were here. She wanted me to denounce my past with you and I just couldn't do that. She wanted me to call you all sorts of things... If she hated someone, everyone around her had to. I didn't want to be that person."

"So when I suddenly turned up not long after you two broke up... You were trying to get back at me for being the cause of your fight with Penny?" I asked.

Meeting my gaze, his eyes softened. "No, Zara. That's not why I did it."

"Why did you do it?"

But as Jasper opened his mouth to speak, Amelia came barging into my room. "Zara! Play with me!" she screamed, jumping into my lap. But as she cuddled into my chest, her eyes found Jasper. "Who is he?" she whispered.

"This is an old school friend, Jasper. Jas, this is Amelia."

Before he turned to my step-sister, his eyes twinkled with delight at me as a small smile slipped onto his face. At first I was confused for the reaction, but then I realised what had caused it... I used his nickname again.

The two made pleasant exchanges about her ponies, and Jasper told her about his action figures he used to have, then finally Clare found Amelia in with us and dragged her away. Conscious about the time ticking on, I pushed aside the question that came to my mind before Amelia interrupted and focussed on our task of memorising the lyrics.

∘◦ ❈ ◦∘

"Oh the weather outside is frightful," I sang.

"But the fire is so delightful," Jasper added.

"And since we have no place to go," I then sang.

Then together, we cheered, "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."

The inner me who hated Christmas was choking herself with tinsel at the lyrics coming out of my mouth. But I did my best to not think about how moritifying it was as Jasper and I wrapped presents and did our best to sing along to the songs. 

The elves were playing the music through the speakers and we had to sing along to whichever one they put on.

While we hadn't memorised every song, between us we were able to chip in with the words we didn't know, or mumble some incoherent nonsense that sounded close enough to the words that the elves or fake Santa didn't notice.

Then finally the timer ran out. The bell sounded. And the elves counted all the presents we wrapped.

Everyone having survived the carol competition part, it came down to how presentable the presents were and how many we had wrapped.

Ours were... pretty dodgy compared to others. As teenagers, Jasper and I clearly relied on our parents to do a lot of our present wrapping. Meanwhile the other contestants—all of them now older than us—had at least some experience it seemed.

In the end it came down to us and one other couple for comparison. But considering our present-wrapping standards were on par, Jasper and I, having wrapped two additional presents than them, scraped through into the next round.

"That was close," Jasper mumbled as we exited Winter Wonderland, entry passes for tomorrow in hand.

"Right?" I replied, shaking my head. "Anyway... I'll see you tomorrow." I turned to head off towards my station, but Jasper calling my name stopped me.

"Hey Zara?"

"Mmm?" I asked, turning to look at him.

"Thanks for giving me the chance to explain about Penny. I'm sorry I disappointed you about my choice in people to date. Believe me, it's not one of my finer—"

I cut him off before he could go further. "It's fine, Jasper. I get it. I hated her then, but I don't know who she is now. I don't know who you are now. And how can I be mad when you two broke up because you defended me?" I shrugged. "It's water under the bridge, okay?"

"I'm not too far from the person you used to know," he whispered, eyes boring into mine.

"I suppose. But you have changed. I just have to figure out who this new Jasper is." I smiled up at him, to show I wasn't trying to insult him or push him away again. And he grinned back.

"See you tomorrow, Zar."

"See you, Jas."

Then we both turned around and went our separate ways. On the eleventh day of Christmas, it felt like I was getting my old friend back.

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Tomorrow's Riddle