Christmas Cookies

"Wait... Wait. Ten bucks!" He looks around at the shocked faces staring at him; sure that they're mirroring his expression, but for different reasons. "You're saying that the price limit is ten dollars! How do you expect this to be fair at all? It should be at least fifty!"

"J, calm down. This is just for us, a little holiday fun. This doesn't count as your ‘real' gift to them." Lance tries to placate him but all he does is glare right back.

"Lance is right man. It's no big deal. Just use that brain that we all know you have and get creative. That's the point of this anyway." Chris shares a look with the occupants of the bus, before looking back at him. "The one to come up with the best, most creative gift for only ten dollars wins."

"Oh, yeah? And just who is judging? And what is the prize then? Hmm?" He glares each one down before settling on his best friend, whom he is to compete with in this little gift exchange.

"Well, me, Chris, and Lance are the judges. As for the prize, well we're not sure yet, but if we were, we still wouldn't tell you as it's meant to be a surprise." Joey smiles big at him, mockingly almost.

"And just why is it just me and Jace doing this then? And who came up with this stupid idea in the first place?" Finally calm enough, he collapses into the couch and slumps down, beginning his trademark pouting position.

"Because you and Jace are the only ones with girlfriends right now, and besides someone has to judge you and an odd number is always best in case a tie breaker is needed. As for the idea, well, I believe that it was you who brought it up, if I remember correctly." He slumps further into the couch as Lance calls him out. "So, you in or out guys?"

"Sure, why not. It'll be fun." JC readily answers, speaking up for the first time. Leaving it all on him; and he can't very well back out now, he'll look like a wuss and they'll never let him live it down. So, grudgingly, he nods before standing and walking off the bus without another look.

~<.C.C.>~

Two weeks.

It's been two weeks since they started this insane competition and he's no closer to knowing what to get his girlfriend for only ten dollars. And time is seriously running out.

Five days.

That's all the time he has left to figure this out. Five flipping days! And it's seriously starting to stress him out and cause worry lines! Not good for the money maker, not at all.

With a sigh and heave, he stands up off the couch and decides to go walk around somewhere, hoping for some sort of inspiration to strike him soon.

Later that evening, being ‘trailed' by Lonnie, he meaninglessly wonders into some random grocery store. Grabbing a cart, he heads towards the snacks aisles to go ahead and stock up the bus to last them till they head out for their respective homes for the holidays.

They'd all been counting down and looking forward to this time for months. This tour has been truly grueling on them and they need the break. Not just off work, but seriously from each other too.

Sure they may love each other like family and truly act like brothers, but that doesn't mean that they don't fight, tensions don't get high, and they don't just need a break from it all and each other from time to time. And they have needed that break for a long while now.

Thankfully it'll be coming soon, in five days soon. He's not sure how much more he could take at the moment. And right now, with the added stress of the gift exchange, he couldn't be more ready to just get home to his family and Grandma's cooking.

Too lost in his thoughts to pay too much attention to what all he puts in the cart or where he's going even, he nearly runs into a young mom. Jerking to full attention, he apologizes and continues on his way.

Sometime later, while making his way towards the check out, he sees something that lights the match in his mind. Maybe this will throw them through a loop. Grabbing the bag and quickly seeing what all he needs, he turns around to make his way to the correct aisles with a smirk coming to his face.

~<.C.C.>~

"Let's do this!" Joey yells as they all burst into his room. Rolling his eyes, Justin continues packing.

"J you ready? Or do you need to wimp out now and finally admit you've got nothin'?" Chris laughs and plops down on the bed, nearly knocking off all of his folded clothes that he still has to pack. Justin glares at him but otherwise ignores his taunts, the same ones he's been throwing at him the last couple days.

"Let's move this along; I have to be at the airport to catch my flight in just under an hour." Lance states as he too takes a seat.

"Well, Jace can go first; I need to finish this real quick." He keeps his back to them and stays focused on the task at hand since he has just less than two hours to be checked in at the airport himself.

"Um, ok, well. Here you go." There's some rustling about but Justin doesn't turn towards them until the others have had their say; having planned this all out and with a certain ‘script', if you will, that he wants to follow.

"Oh, wow, JC. This is cool." Joey says before he passes it off to someone else.

"Yea, man, this is really thoughtful." Lance states before he too passes it.

"Ok, are you sure this was under ten bucks?" Chris laughs and then continues. "No really dude, this is sweet." Chris taps Justin on the shoulder with the gift before pushing him slightly with his hand as well. "Come on J, you have to look too."

He turns and sees Chris holding out a frame and small snow globe for him to take. Taking them gently and looking them over, he feels his brow furrow slightly. In both the snow globe and frame is the same picture of JC and Bobbie, taken at Thanksgiving and he can understand Chris' price comment, as well as the others'. This is a very sweet, cute, and thoughtful gift. Even if he did go over the price limit some.

He nods, handing them back to Jace, and turns back to his packing. He watches them exchange looks from his peripheral and smiles a little at their combined silence and confusion. But he continues to pack and just wait for one of them to say something first and it unsurprisingly doesn't take long.

"J, come on man! Quit stalling and show us what you got!" Chris whines loudly before flopping back on the bed.  He shakes his head, but goes ahead to reach under the remainder of the pile of neatly folded clothes.

Without turning around, he reaches out and drops the bag softly in Chris' lap, then continues his packing. Now that his gift has been revealed, so to speak, he quits stalling in his packing process and has it done before Chris has even fully registered what he's now holding in his hands.

He faces his friends and bandmates fully for the first time since they entered his room and takes in their reactions before all their gazes fall on him.

"Um, Justin, I'm not sure store bought cookies count." Joey scratches his head looking between the cellophane wrapped cookies and his face.

"Not store bought, homemade man. And why wouldn't it count? People give baked goods as gifts all the time, especially around the holidays."

"Homemade? Really, dude? I'm not buying that. You baking? And you expect us to believe that?" Chris laughs, placing the cookies back in the gift bag and setting it aside.

Justin sighs, he was expecting this. He pulls out the receipt; he even paid for the cookie items separately so they could see that all the items were within the ten dollar limit, and tosses in to Chris. He made sure to cover all his bases.

No one needs to know that he messed up the first two batches and had to make additional trips to the store for more items to try again to make them right.

"Ok, so when did you manage to have time, hell even a kitchen, to make these then?" Joey asks picking up the bag and looking inside.

"Yesterday, at the venue, before the meet-n-greet." He answers smoothly, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Wait, that's where you disappeared to for close to four hours?" JC looks at him skeptically.

"Four hours? Why would it take you that long to bake a few cookies?" Lance asks, speaking up for the first time.

"Um, try three different batches of cookies." Justin answers calmly.

"I knew it! He messed them up!" Justin rolls his eyes at Chris.

"No, I made three different kinds of cookies." He stands and walks to his bag, pulling out separate zip-lock bags filled with the extra cookies. Tuning back to them, he tosses a bag each to Chris, Joey, and Lance. "There. Merry Christmas, enjoy." He grabs the gift bag from Joey and carefully puts it into his carry on and zips it up.

Each of the guys takes one of each cookie before trying them all and then nodding as the smooth sweetness coats their tongues.

"Ok, so they're good. Well, are you ready to judge then?" Lance asks Joey and Chris. They nod at each other and gather in a huddle.

Continuing about his business, he knows he doesn't stand a chance at winning but at least he did come up with something and didn't ‘wimp out' as Chris kept putting it.

A minute later, they all turn back around, each holding two gifts and with huge smiles gracing their faces. Noticing the gifts, he begins to think maybe he should have been watching them more closely because he never saw any of them carrying or holding anything.

"Ok, so we had decided after starting this, that the prize would be that you'd get our gifts now, instead of waiting to open them on Christmas." Lance starts.

"But then we decided that while this was fun, especially watching J squirm about what he could come up with," Chris gets cut off by Joey.

"We decided that we wouldn't take it seriously and just go ahead and play it out before we give you both your gifts anyway." Joey's smile widens as he sees Justin glaring at them all in turn. "Great job with the cookies though J."

JC laughs as they hand out the gifts and just shakes it off. "You know, it would have been nice if you could have just told us though, could have saved Curly losing some years off his life."