It's a wonderful life Jack! (George)

[Jack McCarthy]

Christmas…Bah-hum bug

If you were to ask anyone else besides Jack Mccarthy what memories the magical time of year brought them, you would have heard countless stories about beloved family memories. Beautiful Christmas dinners, Fun with friends ETC ETC.

In Jack’s case, his memories weren’t exactly pleasant. All Christmas day reminded him of, was raised voices, bruises, discarded booze bottles and endless hours waiting for his daddy to stagger home from the bar.

That’s not to say Jack was TOTALLY against the idea of Christmas. He was sure he would have loved it…if it wasn’t for the people he had to spend it with, it was hard to be in a very festive mood when you were dragging your passed out dad off the sofa for the sixth year running, when ever Christmas was brought up Jack couldn’t help but roll his eyes “here we go again…” Fuck it seemed to get earlier every year. Last year was a new low for Jack, he was low on moment she he choose to be a santa clause for a local supermarket, boy was that a nightmare. The amount of little brats screaming in his ear, or peeing on him…on charismas eve he got fired unfairly. I mean so what if he vomited in the face of a little kid how did they know that isn’t what he wanted for Christmas.

But this year was looking hopeful, about 90% of the students were sent home for the holidays, meaning he didn’t have to interact with anyone, or be totally smothered in the holiday festive antics. So for once he may manage to have a merry Christmas. His plan was for him to spend the day here before he went to the local bars and maybe take advantage of a girl infused with the holiday sprit.

But on Christmas he was greeted with quite a surprising sight. Once his eyes had acclimatized to the light, his eyes spied a surprising sight. Christmas lights. Honest to god Christmas lights….he had never been so close to some before, Jack’s family never really had time for decoration and jack always wondered what they looked liked. Jack turned his head just a little to notice a tiny tree beside his head, lovingly placed beside a card and a gift, and jack’s head began to fill with questions. He had never got any REAL gifts for Christmas. No body had ever cared enough about him to even consider giving him some, why the hell would that change now? Curious, Jack swung pit of bed resting his feet on the floor rubbing his tired eyes and yawning just a little he snatched up the note and read;

Hey Irish,

So, it's Christmas, bitch! And because you seem like the definition of a Christmas grinch, I wanted to do a little something for you! I hope you like fairy lights and candy canes, if you don't... stop being a grinch and enjoy Christmas!

If you feel like returning some Christmas cheer, I'll be hiding out at training rooms at midday today! (It'll be obvious which one I'll be in, you'll see)

I would be in England right now, but parents had to work today, and I'm probably gonna video chat my sister and brother to say Merry Christmas at some point in the near future.

Hopefully seeing you later,

Hat Lady x

Of course, who else would be so full of Christmas cheer like the manic pixie known as George? Can’t see just sit back and let Jack be miserable for one day? Jack was seriously confused by this. He wasn’t used to someone doing something nice just because. He wasn’t even used to people doing good things for him. He didn’t really know how to process this, but he did feel a rush of positive emotion towards George, he put down the emotionally confusing card and quickly opened his gift.



A thing of beauty. She knew that Jack was a fan of hats but how did she knew that he was like a Mick Jagger fan? A combination of the two was pure magic. Once the time came to meet George, Jack quickly put the shirt on and made his way to the training room, it wasn’t that hard to find. He just had to find the one with the Christmas lights….did she just have an endless amount of them? Jack quickly opened the door and walked in.

“What? No x-box?”

[Georgina Speer]

Wowzah, George really had to pull up her Christmas stockings on that annual festive day of the year. She had kind of guessed that Jack wasn't a fan of Christmas, he seemed to completely ignore the fact that the festive season was upon us. She had worked extremely hard and done minutes of planning to make sure that day would be practically perfect, which was rare for someone like George, who usually wasn't the most motivated person.

So, she had been up at some ridiculous hour in the morning putting fairy lights around Jack's room. His dorm doors were unlocked, so she didn't have to pull the whole 'James Bond' stunt to get in. (It was a shame, she had been looking forward to that martini...) She'd left him the note, and the gift, and her very own mini tree, which hopefully, he had discovered in good spirits.

After that, she had scurried off to the training rooms with her supplies. The rooms were practically abandoned, as she had guessed would be the case, seeing as most staff and students were with their family, or too lazy to bother training on a holiday. She began putting up even more fairy lights; her parents had given her a buttload of Christmas decorations the first Christmas she had had since going to Hammel, because they knew how much she loved the holiday, so there were fairy lights hung in her room, in Jack's room, and now there would be even more in the training room, just because she could. She found some sockets and plugged in her gear, along with some gaming consoles, like her Xbox and Playstation, and her laptop, which she had rigged up to act like a TV. She was looking forward to this meeting very much. She hadn't had the chance to talk to her siblings yet, but her Skype (crazyhatwoman) was loaded and ready for when they called. She wasn't particularly certain Jack would be comfortable talking to them, but she cared about them. She wasn't gonna ignore them.

She was on her knees, just finishing her set-up when she heard the door click. She quickly checcked her phone and, sure enough, it was midday. She looked up and saw the t-shirt that she had bought Jack; she smiled, glad to see it. Her... scars were covered up again, she didn't want that problem to become the center of the conversation at any point.

How ironic, a comment about an Xbox! She smirked cheekily, "Actually..." she shuffled back a bit and did some jazz hands in the direction of her gaming treasure trove. There were a couple of shopping bags filled with random assorted games, and her laptop was connected to Steam, so there was quite a few games on there too.

She hoped Jack liked her festive gesture, she thought he deserved it.

...

...well, not for being especially good, but for being there for her. She was glad he was around, and she wanted to show it.

[Jack McCarthy]

Ok, Jack was willing to admit; George’s set up was quite impressive…..REALLY impressive actually. Even thought Jack was quite confused, as to George’s reasons doing this. Why him of all people? Why the hell would someone go though all this time and effort just to make him feel comfortable? The simple fact of it was that people weren’t nice to Jack. His entire life was utterly devoid of kindness, yet here George was more then happy to hang out with him….well Jack didn’t know how to respond.

Of course Jack, didn’t really suspect that George had an x-box with her, I mean who would?1 That would be nothing short of pushing George’s generosity...but as always it seemed like Jack luck was in. As his face exploding in awe and George’s beautiful set up. Jack spread his arms wide in wonder of the whole thing “I know, Santa forgot to double check that list, I think he’s getting a little nutty in his old age.”

Jack was pleased to see that the scars had died down on George’s face and she seemed to have returned to her old self, Jack still hot white hot pangs when ever he thought about Kodi, but now was not the time to talk about that ugly incident, there would be plenty of time to murder Kodi when he got back from the holiday, He probably missed his family at the dog pound..

But for now Jack happily sat beside her and took a controller,“Alright! Now this is a Christmas! It already beats the crap out of last year. I got a job as santa, but got fired when I vomited in a kids face. How unfair is that?! It’s all political…

[Georgina Speer]

George was extremely pleased with his reaction, it had been exactly what she had been aiming for. In a selfish way, the whole set-up was also for herself. Making other people in turn made her happy, and... this was her first Christmas away from her family. They'd usually play board games, watch Christmas TV and meet up with the rest of her relatives to catch up and socialize, but the polar opposite was the case this year. She was left practically stranded in America, away from her loved ones. It was... more difficult than usual. She was alright with going to and fro during the holidays, but they were the only times she could actually be with her family. And that had been taken away from her. She needed to be in the presence of someone she cared for... she was addicted to the happiness of the festive season like it was a drug.

She held her hands up in defense of her actions, "I'm pretty certain he got it right this year, no doubts."

It was nice to feel regular again, even if it was all an illusion. She still acted cautiously around everyone else, and in a weird way, George was glad that she wasn't going back to England this year. Her grandparents weren't fans of makeup, so she wouldn't wear any when they were around, which would mean... them seeing her bruise. Of course, she could make up an excuse; when anyone had noticed some of the makeup had faded and they saw the bruise and asked, she just said she got it falling up the stairs. It was believable enough, it only had to last until the bruise had gone completely. It would've disappeared by New Year's, with luck.

When Jack grabbed the Xbox controller, she leaned over to look in her carrier bags, and then passed one to him, filled with about 15 Xbox games. She turned on the console and listened to his mini anecdote, waking her laptop up and setting it to TV mode, so the Xbox loading screen appeared, "It would've been fine, if you were a mother bird. And you're not. But I agree, as the saying goes, 'Never look a gift horse in the mouth, or it might spill it's guts on you.'" She opened the disc tray of the Xbox, "You can choose whatever you want." There was a variety in that bag, probably something from every genre of gaming.

She was just settling into her seat, when she had a mini epiphany. She crawled a short way, grabbed her backpack and came back. Out from it, she pulled two cushions and another bag. She showed him the array of cute cushions, "You can sit on the face of one of these things," She placed the bag between them, "And in there are three bags of thingies. I think one has cookies, one has cinnamon swirls and the other has doughnuts. Take what you want!"

This was very similar to her usual Christmas situation, she liked playing her new video games with her brother or sister (or both), and their parents would always buy them baked goods from the local bakery. The only thing missing was the chocolate crunchie that she adored... it was probably the best tasting cake in the world, but it was local to her area of living in England, and they didn't have any here in America. It was a darn shame.

[Jack McCarthy]

Jack situation couldn’t be more different from George’s. His Christmas was already looking up purely become he was always from Ireland and his dad. There was no Christmas lights, or Christmas tree or even presents. Why would there be? That would cut into his father’s busy drinking schedule. The only fun thing about x-mas day were the all too short hours when his dad went to the local bar, leaving Jack only to watch whatever he wanted on TV. A treat in it of itself as Mr.Mcarthy was a notorious remote hog, and he would just sit there and let the magical works of Disney and TV specials, that let Jack pretend he was somewhere else.

…until his father came bounding in, drunk as a stunk, causing Jack to race up the stairs to his bed, as Jack’s father was quite unpredictable when drunk. “ Yeah, do I seem like I belong on the nice list?” Jack said while crossing his eyes, making a fart sound with his mouth and raising two fingers in the air in a mock salute.

“See, exactly! If it’s good enough for tiny birds it’s good enough for kids, but for SOME reason, the boss was VERY rude when he kicked me out…”

and the gifts kept coming and coming…Little cushions with faces on them? Cookies and donuts? Jack was in heaven. “George, you make creepily sneaking into someone’s room and rearranging shit while they sleep, slightly less creepy” Jack was thankful George showcased the flaws in his security, after what he’s been doing in Oriels room, he doubted that he would be so kind.

Jack picked up one of the cushions and examined it with interest before turning back to george with a bemused expression. “Is it just me or does this cute panda look WAY to happy for someone that gets sat on all day…I think it might turn him on…pervert Panda. If I was him I would be making this face.” Jack paused and opened his mouth wide and bugged out his eyes in a expression of pure horror before returning to normal “But that’s just me…”

The more George talked the more…well…awesome it sounded…but there had to be something! People don’t do this type of thing for nothing. People didn’t work that way!

“Ok, What’s the catch?..There has to be a catch so what is it? Do I owe you like money or is this you trying to get off being my genie.” Jack suddenly clicked his fingers as inspiration struck “Oh I get it! Very clever…So you lure me into a false sense of security yeah? And the moment my guard is down, Ortiz comes out of nowhere and kicks me in the nuts! That’s totally it yeah?”

[Georgina Speer]

George had never been drunk. She was pretty clean, in that sense. She'd never dome drugs, never been drunk and never had sex. If that was all you knew about her, you'd probably think she was the picture of innocence! ...which was partially true. She hadn't even kissed anyone, and she'd only every held hands with somebody for a game, not for... pleasure, or whatever. But, she had drunken alcohol before, just not enough to get her tipsy. And she had tried smoking once... she was never gonna turn back on the desicion to never pick up a cigarette ever again. That situation was not to be repeated, done, deceased, end of.

She pulled some of her possessions towards herself, "Delightful, and if you don't want to use any of this, I can just take it back up to my room." She quirked an eyebrow cheekily and smirked at him, "Do you want that?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "Tiny birds are smaller than kids and less picky. If anything, they'd be less trouble." Don't get her wrong, George loved children! She adored sharing her optimism (what optimism she had now) with them, as they were always so happy-go-lucky and willing to.make new friends. They acted the way everyone should, not caring about appearances but who you were as a person, and that was very respectable.

When he talked about creepiness, she did feel a bit guilty and she became a little sheepish. She shied away ever so slightly, and thought about what she'd done. It was a tad strange to just go into someone's room without their permission and do something to it, but it wasn't like she had molested him! She had a decent reason. "That's what I do!"

George noted Jack's observations and picked up the bear cushion as he talked. She looked up and caught the look on his face and mirrored it, showing him the front of the cushion, "It's fucking pedo-bear! I don't wanna sit on fucking pedo-bear!" She threw the cushion at him and picked up the bunny rabbit one. She wasn't a huge fan of pink, but that didn't mean she wouldn't sit on it. "And to answer your... statement, I would have to agree, this cushion creatures are way too happy."

Her face contorted in confusion. Jack seemed absolutely positive that the whole event was rigged, but why? In reply to his guesses, she shook her head, "No catch, no Ortiz, no ball kicking. I promise. I just..." she paused a moment, she wanted to make sure this came out right, "I just wanted to say thank you... for helping me. So..." she smiled and signalled wildly around her, "Thank you!" She made a mock-serious expression. "Now pick a game before we play something crappy!!"

[Jack McCarthy]

Once again Jack was the polar opposite to George, His dad was quite careless where he stored beer bottles, and that lead him to drinking in his youth, just to seem cooler and more grown up to the other kids, ditto with the smoking, he did it just so he could be more popular then what he was. and those traits just followed him from the rest of his life, if anything with each passing year he drunk and smoke more and more, from time to time he even partook in recreational drugs, even though he had yet to find a good seller around hammel…but he was still looking for a dealer.

Hey, well lets not be to hasty….I like stuff, especially the cool kind.”

Jack nodded in agreement with every word that she said “Right? Right? Exactly! I mean what is the world coming to when a young ragamuffin can’t vomit in a kids face and open mouth? You should have been there to protect me from the kids mom. She was NOT a happy bunny let me tell you.”

When George pointed out the similarities between the brown pillow and a certain cyber space paedophile, he couldn’t help but admire George for rolling nicely with the bit. Once George threw the offending item at Jack, he put on a face like he was horrified, and juggled it ungainly like it was a hot potato “Ahhh, don’t throw it at me! I don’t want to get diddled by an overenthusiastic cushion! That would be more embarrassing then sad…” Thinking on his feet he suddenly turned around and punted the cushion all the way to the other side of the room. “No need to thank me, Just totally spared our collective anuses…”

At first Jack was confused by George’s explanation, and for a brief moment his mask came off revealing quite a confused face “…You mean, you did this just become? Like out the goodess of your heart and all that shit? The concept was quite foreign to Jack and he scratched the bank of his head and shuffled his feet back and forward quite befuddled by the situation “No one has ever…you know…done this kind of thing for me” Jack momentary frowned “Thanking me?! What do you have to thank me for?” Jack quickly recovered and started fishing though the bag; “Oh cool! GTA! Let’s go beat the crap out of some hookers!”

[Georgina Speer]

"Exactly, so stop complaining, you big baby!" She half smirked and her jaw twinged. She didn't show a reaction to the pain, she'd been getting used to it. It was healing after all, not something to worry about. But it did bring her down a little. It was like as soon as she was distracted, her problems would bounce back and hit her in the face. It was something she had been trying to avoid today, by covering her bruise and putting on a smile (which wasn't difficult when Jack was around), but outside of the room, as soon as he left, she'd just feel cold again. And she hated it. Which was why she needed Jack there.

She also hadn't played video games against someone in WEEKS.

She just shook her head and chuckled a little at the rest of his story, it was a strange story, not one to easily believe, but it was definitely funny all the same. And she kept laughing as he juggled about the pillow, she had really needed this. Just to have some fun and relax. The cushion went flying and she nodded knowingly. They were now safe from the inanimate pedo cushion, brilliant. She relaxed onto the bunny's face, these cushion, however creepy, were actually very comfortable.

She faced him and mirrored his facial expression of confusion, "Well, yeah. Why would someone..." She trailed off, uncertain of her words. And his next comment shocked her a little. "No-one? Man..." She seemed extremely stuck for words, she didn't want this to become sad, but his question just made her go down a darker path. She frowned and sighed, not wanting to bring up anything relating to Kodi in that room. She smiled brightly, "For making me your genie, my life has totally improved thanks to your cheating!" It was clear how sarcastic she was being, but she wanted to drive the conversation away from the depressing and into the world of pixels and controllers.

She smiled at his choice, "I approve. Let us do that chiz!" It was one of her Christmas presents from her brother. Her parents weren't gonna buy it for her, no matter how much she begged. It was an 18, and her parents were very strict when it came to that, but DK didn't care, she wasn't a kid anyway. She took the game out of it's plastic sheet and put it into the console, letting it load, and then pressing play. After that, she couldn't do much else. Jack did have the Player 1 controller after all.

[Jack McCarthy]

To be honest, Jack’s mind was still reeling from the whole “Someone doing a nice thing for Jack” It felt like Jack was having an out of body experience like he wasn’t really there. This was just surreal. George gone through so much effort. Just to make pretty cool set up….Surely there was something better she could have been going with her charismas day? Why was she wasting it on Jack? Where was her family?

Jack didn’t really want to bring up want was most likely a painful subject for George he haad just got her smiling again the last thing he would want to do was to wipe the smile off her face. If he did, how exactly would he be any better then Kodi?

Besides, he hadn’t played video games for awhile either.

AND she was laughing too, God, when was the last time she laughed? When was the last time, she even looked like laughing? With a genuine smile painted on his face. He took a running leap right into one of the faces of the cute cushions right beside George, which was quite comfy indeed. “All I need is some sweets and I’ll be a happy man”

Jack was confused by George’s words….Jack improved her life? That’s not how Jack operated…he was a constant irritation to everyone he met, and Jack took great pride in that, so to hear some ones life….was actually improved by knowing him…felt go-

Oh wait, she was being sarcastic wasn’t she? Never mind. Still the irritating ass Jack always was. He wouldn’t have any other way.

“Of course, it’s better! I’m like a constant ray of sunshine, I mean do you have any clue, how many people would cut off their left arm off, just for the honour of basking in my never ending glow? Not a bad way to spend Christmas.” Jack winked at her before pressing start and leaning forward in concentration “Ok, so first things first; Cheat codes. “Jack said while seemingly pushing a whole lot of buttons at random “Confession time; I don’t actually know the cheats but that won’t stop me…hmm how about Invincibllty? Then all the guns,…full ammo…Riot mode, just for the hell of it, super rich…and we’ll throw in a tank just for the hell of it”

As he spoke, he continued pressing buttons at complete random and only stopped after the game indicated that all the cheats Jack just described was now enabled.

“Damn, I’m good”

[Georgina Speer]

George shook the bag of pastries, "This is the closest you're getting to sweets." She'd left her sweet stash in her room; he was lucky that she had given him sweets from there in the first place. That bag was her's... it was precious to her. She rarely gave out sweets from there, even though she had done so quite a few times recently... she'd given Jack some sweets when he used one of his damn wishes, and when she'd met Phen and he was upset, she let him eat some of the sugary goodness... and Dawn, she'd taken all of her chocolate the day she bought it which sucked immensely. The bag was about a quarter full now, if her memory served her correctly. That meant a restock soon... mhm, Christmas sweets...

The corner of her mouth quirked up as her sarcasm spread onto his words. "Yeah, like spending Christmas with the fucking Teletubbies sun. Amazing."

George watched his fingers danced randomly over the controller's buttons, and surprisingly, as the cheats all became enabled. She shook her head in disbelief, amusement and slight annoyance. Yes, he had the power to manipulate probabilities, that didn't mean it was alright for him to go around, using it all the time.

"Damn, I'm good."

"No, you're not, you're a cheater, you buggeration." She teased him, mucking around. She went all pouty and did the best puppy dog eyes she could muster, "I don't like cheating." The chances of it working (especially seeing as 1) Jack usually didn't care and 2) She was terrible at doing puppy dog eyes) was practically zero, but it would be good for a laugh, at the very least.

[Jack McCarthy]

Jack Mccarthy was a great many things, but chief among them, he was a man that quite enjoyed a good handful of sweets, but a handful of pastries came at a very uncomfortable close second, when he was eight years old, he would bet his friend nidge, that he could eat nothing for Pastries for a week

He got sick by the fifth day.

“Ok, that makes it official, this is the best Christmas ever!” Jack announced in a oh so grand voice

Jack paused for a moment shuddered a little in horror before speaking once more “…God that was a creepy, creepy sun, I think I repressed that somewhere in my memory. What was that weird baby-sun laughing at? It was all like “ahaha, I laugh at you weak mortals! Bow before the might of the sun! That was a strange show.”

Jack had to be honest, he was expected George to be suitably impressed by another example Jack’s luck, but instead she seemed to disapprove of using cheat codes. Oh, come on! Was she really that innocent! Did she really have that strong a moral compass! Jack could totally see her rescuing kittens from trees and drinking nothing but milk.

“So just so I understand…you have no problems with playing a game where you shoot people in the face…but you do have a problem with cheating? Come on, it’s survival of the fittest! Law of the jungle! Eat or be eaten! Why would just-“

What was surely going to be a signature Jack McCarthy rant, was cut off, when George’s laptop began to come to life

[Georgina Speer]

George grinned widely; to make someone's day that much made her feel extremely happy. She was glad that he really appreciated her hard work, but she was mainly happy because he was too.

She laughed loudly, "Pretty certain a kid's show like that isn't going to star a sun with the motives of Hitler." It was a baby for God's sake! When have you last heard a baby call you a weak mortal? ...and when was the last time you ran into a baby who could speak already? But putting a baby in charge of the Sun probably wasn't a great idea. Actually, who did own the Sun? I mean, no-one's claimed possession of it really. Not that you could do much with it, its too fucking hot to do shit too except make some very char-grilled sausages... her mind was out of the window.

She didn't like cheeeeeaaaaating! The point of a game was to work together and use you head, not laugh at how many cheat codes you knew! And the aim of the game had nothing to do with it - you could be trying to destroy the Teletubbies' Sun and it- oh!

She made sure the game was paused before pulling her laptop onto her lap; it was her brother, DK, calling over Skype. She grinned and clicked 'Answer.' and beamed at the screen as both him and her little sister, Louise, appeared. She slid the computer onto her lap and readjusted the screen before waving, minorly oblivious that Jack was still there. Her family was a very important part of her life, and Georgina didn't want to ignore them for a moment. "Hi!" she greeted them. Two slightly blurry images of her siblings waved back, "Hey G!" That was DK, he preferred to shorten people's names like that. "Merry Christmas~!" Louise was bouncing up and down like a bouncy ball.

"You guys had a good Christmas?" she asked, "Yeah, I got-" "-I GOT MY OWN PLAYSTATION!" Jesus Christ, what were her parents thinking? Probably that Louise like gaming as much as George did, which was true, but a playstation? Fuuuuck. "Geez, Louise, no need to shout about it." She chuckled and DK laughed as well, whereas her younger sister got in a it of a strop, but she knew the girl would be alright. She loved her family.