Cape High Christmas: A Side Story (Cape High Series) by R.J. Ross Page A

like Christmas.
     

Advent Calendar - Day Fourteen
    "This is Sunny's day, right?" Trent asks Zoe as they head down the steps of the campus, looking around. "What's he going to do? I offered to help--"
    "He took Mom," Zoe says, shrugging. "He can only have one adult helper, remember? I think they barred off the back half of the canyon." She looks around, seeing most of the school coming out of the dorms and heading for them. "What's up, guys?" she asks.
    "We don't know," Morgan says, "we were going to ask you."
    "I can go find out!" Carla volunteers.
    "We'll all go find out," Zoe says, heading past the school with the rest of the group following her. They stop as they get to the other side of the canyon, staring in wonder at the massive... building? Can you call that a building? Zoe stares at it for a long moment. It's a wall of trees and vines, effectively mimicking a building. The trees seem to be protecting whatever's inside, because the branches gently bend so they form a roof.
    Flowers shoot out of the ground, forming two lines to show a path. "Wow," Max says, stepping up behind her. Zoe jerks, looking at him in surprise. "This is what you get when you put two elementalists together," he says in an admiring tone.
    "Well come on, everyone," Zoe says instead of replying, "they've rolled out the red carpet, it'd be rude not to go in," she says, heading down the path. "But don't step on the flowers," she adds over her shoulder. Mentally she's plotting out the greenhouse schematics, because winter is going to shock the crap out of all these poor plants. It'll have to be HUGE.
    The world inside the trees is green, lush, and TOWERING over even the tallest of the kids. A huge plant twitches as they walk past it, and they stop, watching as the leaves open. Sunny is sound asleep at the heart of the plant, wearing his green and brown uniform.
    "Sunny," Zoe says as the group crowds around. "Sunny WAKE UP!"
    Sunny jerks awake, looking stunned for a second before giving them a sheepish grin. "It was just so warm and peaceful," he says as an excuse. "Gimme a second, I have some lines... Hello, ladies and gentlemen," he says, lowering his voice and rolling over on the leaf so he's looking at them upside down. "Welcome to the garden."
    The leaf holding him slowly raises him up to his feet and he turns, stepping onto it with a graceful bow to the audience. "We have a few rules in the garden," he says, "any time you see a red flower," he waves a hand and a red flower blossoms on the ground in front of them, "you must give something to someone on your left--compliments do count. Any time you see a blue flower," a blue flower blossoms to the right, "you must sing the teapot song!"
    "The teapot song," Max says dryly.
    Sunny gives him a brilliant smile. "The teapot song!" he agrees. "And any time you see a white flower--"
    "We have to do a dance?" Max offers with a hint of incredulousness.
    "No, that's where you'll find a treat, so search very carefully." The plant closes up, hiding Sunny from them again.
    Jack walks up to the plant, knocking on the leaf twice. It opens slowly--but Sunny is gone. "Huh," he says. "Looks like we follow the path," he says to the others. "Unless someone wants to go up and see what the end is?"
    "That's cheating," Zoe says. "No cheating on my brother's day, got it?"
    "Okay, okay," Jack grumbles. "Lead on."
    They slowly start walking through the massive garden, staring in wonder at the various plants. "Hey, hey, those are grapes!" Carla says, pointing to a wall covered with bunches of grapes. She heads for it, grabbing one. "They're HUGE!" she says, showing it to the others. It's large enough to almost cover her palm. They all grab a few of them (or a bunch, in the Liberty boys' cases) and move on, munching on grapes as they enjoy the trip.
    "White flower!" Vinny says, pointing. The group spread out, searching the plants. Malina is the one to find it.
    "It's a little flower ornament," she says, holding up a tiny