Event Finished Christmas Wishes

The courtyard was a nice neutral place for a meeting, which is why Valli had picked it for their meetup. As a teacher meeting a student, Valli would have considered it inappropriate to have met him off school property. Sometimes he questioned having a gift exchange between students and teachers, but he supposed, if nothing else, it could be seen as a good deed. Teachers would have much larger budgets when it came to answering requests, and Valli was no different.

While he wasn't nearly as good as he'd once been, Valli had still splurged on the gift. He'd bought a very nice keyboard, recommended by the store owner, and had it all wrapped up. It sat on his lap--looking rather obvious and hard to miss--as he waited for his secret santa partner to arrive.

By comparison, Valli's wrapping--really, the stores wrapping--was a bit understated. It was just plain red, with a nice little tag and no card. He was bad at cards, and since it was a random matching, he wouldn't have known what to write anyway.

Considering the present, it was hard not to figure out who the girl was, and Valli got to his feet, carefully handling his own rather large box.

"Miss..." Valli paused. He'd been about to call her miss last name, only she didn't have one. It was just 'Sapphire' on the form, and 'Miss Sapphire' didn't have quite the same ring to it.

He supposed it was better than suddenly being on a first name basis, at least.

"Miss Sapphire," he said, carefully placing his package down. "It's nice to meet you, and a merry Christmas. Hopefully I got the right thing."

He'd almost said because I'm about as musical as a box of rocks, but decided that would give it away... if the size of the gift didn't already.

"Would you like to go first?"

It was almost painfully obvious. If nothing else, it gave Valli a good idea for next year: Wrapping something so that it looked obvious what it is (a rocking horse!) but actually was something much smaller hidden inside the wrapping. That would be a fun treat for whoever opened it, rather than the size and shape ruining the surprise.

"I'm glad you did. Do you already play, or are you just hoping to learn?" That was his real question. Was it a flight of fancy, or had she been practicing on someone elses and hoping for her own?

Valli wasn't really sure what she meant when she said I couldn't take any with me, but having been on the island as long as he had, he could guess. Sapphire would be far from the only person to come to the island as a veritable refugee, fleeing some amount of persecution that meant they had to abandon all their worldly possessions.

She was obviously excited to see him open, so Valli didn't drag it out, carefully unwrapping the present to see what was inside. He didn't even notice the gift card right away, only the books, and skimmed across the titles before his face lit up.

"Lord of the Rings!" Valli said, inspecting her choice of edition. He'd read them before, and while they weren't his favorite books or anything, he'd enjoyed them. While it might have been a bit rude, his first thought was actually regifting them. Gask needed a library of his own, and why not start than with the classics?

"Thank you, it's an excellent gift."

She looked ready to bolt at any moment, and Valli wasn't quite willing to hold her back when she was clearly so eager to play with her gift. That was what christmas gifts were about, after all, and Valli gave her a smile, waving her off.

"I think we're done," Valli said. "I'll take these home and get to reading, and I think you might want to try out your keyboard."

Which was the understatement of the century, wasn't it?

Valli collected up the presents, giving Sapphire a quick nod as he straightened up, ready to go.

"I hope you enjoy it," Valli said. "And it was very nice meeting you. I'm sure we'll run into each other again."

He'd wait for her to say her own goodbyes, and then he'd head off on his own, only discovering the gift card once he'd gotten home to unpack.