Too Good To Be True

"Another day of advent, another day of ridicule" Toby thought as the four made their way up the stairs to the advent calendar. By now Toby had become use to the bullying. Though it still pained him, he'd gotten use to not thinking about it.

As the others chuckled and tried to push each other off the ladder, Toby made his way up the stairs and was the first to reach the chest to make the bridge. Though he knew the others would make fun of his build, but that didn't stop him from extending the bridge out to the door and lining the platform with a fence. He'd like to see them try to push him off now.

The others finally made their ways up to the new level. "Oh, Toby you already made the platform!" Martyn explained.

"Yup." Toby replied. 'What's the critizisim this time?' he almost said, holding his tongue.

"Well thank you very much." Martyn said in a bit of a silly voice as he opened the door of the day's advent. "Come on everyone, you're letting the cold in!"

The four packed inside, not bothering to take a seat as Henry pushed the button to get the stocking filler and passed the book to Lewis. In his best Santa voice Lewis read out, "In these past few days you've been through a lot, but we mussin't forget the beginnings. Your challege is to back to day one and exchange new gifts and remember what Christmas is all about. -Chris Kringle"

"So it's just like the first advent, we have to make new gifts for each other!" Martyn chirped with a smile.

"Just like old times." Henry mused, holding out the stocking stuffer. "And I guess that's why today's stocking stuffer is a present." In Henry's hands was a blue piece of wool wrapped with a ribbon.

"Who's getting who a present?" Lewis asked as they left the room.

"Well, last time me and Lewis gave each other gifts," Martyn said, "so Lewis, come out here." The two of them left the room and went onto the balcony. Toby could imagine it now, Martyn leaning towards Lewis and whispering, "ok, ok you gotta pick between blank and blank." just as they had done on their first day. 'Of course anyone who has to get me a gift will complain' Toby though, feeling grim.

"Ok! Toby, Henry. Choose between cat and dog." Martyn announced, opening the doors again.

Not letting Henry have a chance to answer, Toby called "dog!". He didn't care if they'd complain. He loved dogs.

"Ok, cat then." Henry said.

Martyn smiled. "Ok, Toby. Me and you are exchanging gifts and Lewis and Henry are together."

Lewis' eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean together?"

The group laughed at the joke and even Toby let out a chuckle. Making their way down the hill to Auntie Sandy's, Martyn suggested an idea. "How about this time we all make our gifts for each other, and we'll exchange them all at the same time, instead of just whenever. It'll give us more time to prepare."

The four boys split up to gather the materials needed for the gift they had in mind. As they did they chatted and joked about events from the past few days, as well as random topics and, of course, egg puns. Though Toby was glad that it was turning out to be a nice day, he coudn't help but feel tense, as if an egg would come out of nowhere and splatter on the side of his head, or that he would say something wrong and the three of them would charge at him with their swords raised.

"Hey Toby!" Martyn called, breaking the brunette's train of thought. "Where are you? You still here?"

Toby hadn't realized that he'd been completely quiet for the past half hour. The sun had just started to fall from the center of the sky, hinting that it was nearly one o'clock. "Yeah, I'm looking for a lake." Toby called out.

"Oh. Well-well what do you need at a lake?" Martyn asked, his nosiness showing.

"You'll see soon enough." Toby replyed, smirking. "It's a surprise!"

"Well hurry up. We're gonna build a bunch of snow golems around the christmas tree to protect the presents once everyone has what they need."

Toby perked up at the thought of a dozen snowmen jumping on top of the Christmas presents and throwing snowballs about. Snowmen were amazing mobs. 'They might just replace you with one.' a voice said from Toby's mind. Most likely it was the voice of reason. He could hear it now, all the comments on how a snowman would be a better fighter and a much more useful member to the team. Toby had grown to expect it.

Finally finding a lake, Toby gathered a few chunks of clay and ran back to the house to toss it in the furnace. Then, grabbing a couple of pumpkins from a chest, he darted out of the house toward the christmas tree. As he neared the tree, he heard a voice call out, "Hey Toby!"

Toby instinctly flinched, expecting an egg or chunk of ice to smash into his head. What did hit him was a ball of soft, fluffy snow, not packed to tightly. Shaking the flakes from his hair, Toby looked to see the others near the tree, waving him over.

"Toby, we're gonna have a snowball fight with the golems, hurry up!" Martyn called.

Standing there for a moment, Toby watched as his friends created snowmen and tossed snowballs at each other. Were they planning something? Surely they were planning something. A tripwire TNT trap? A hidden hole beneath the snow? Surely there was a creeper just around the corner. Walking up the hill to the group, Toby waited for the prank, but it never came. No incoming objects, no explosions or falling.

"Come one Toby!" Lewis called, and Toby smiled. Maybe this would be a good day after all.

--

After a couple of hours playing with the golems, the boys left to finish their presents. Toby quickly fetched the bricks from the furnace and dug out some bones from the chest in the old bedroom. After some quick crafting, Toby was called over to sit on the couch infront of the fire.

"Alright, who wants to go first." Lewis asked.

Toby volenteered, placing a clay pot on the coffee table and planting a spruce sapling. Then, using a little bone marrow, the sapling grew into a tiny spruce. "It's a miny Christmas tree." Toby said.

Martyn beamed at the sight. "Oh my God, Toby! This is amazing!" Martyn picked up the tree and looked to Toby. "This is perfect." Martyn slung his arm around Toby's shoulders in a brotherly hug. Toby blushed slightly, hoping the others wouldn't notice.

Lewis and Henry exchanged gifts with each other, and then it was Martyn's turn to give his gift to Toby.

"Ok Toby, you know that time we fought Herobrine and you got that crown?" Martyn started.

'Oh God, don't bring up Princess Toby!' Toby pleaded in his mind.

"Well," Martyn continued, "crowns suit you." Martyn pulled a golden crown from his inventory and placed it on Toby's head. "We've been pretty hard on you lately, and I just wanted to say that I was sorry. You're one of my best and longest lasting friends, and I should treat you as such. Merry Christmas, King Toby."

"King Toby!" Lewis and Henry cheered, raising their mugs of cocoa.

The four of them toasted to Toby, and chatted into the night. Toby felt so uplifted. Finally, he wasn't the scape goat. Finally he wouldn't be the punching bag and the victum. They could just enjoy Christmas as friends should. Things were finally looking up.

--

Toby heard the smack before he felt it, jolting up, completely disoriented. Yolk from the egg seeped into a cut from the shell shattering, burning intensly. As he wiped the egg from his eyes, Toby could hear laughing. "Wake up Toby, we made eggs!" Henry jeered, causing the others to laugh.

"What the hell guys!?" Toby demanded, shaking the yolk from his hands.

Martyn smirked, "We had to wipe that smile off of your face, it was creeping us out. Now let's get going."

The three left their jungle side shack, leaving Toby to clean up on his own. Wiping of his face, he tried to swallow the lump in his throat. "I shouldn't be surprised," he muttered to himself, his voice choking up. "I should have known it was just too good to be true."