Chloe stared at her personal communicator and raised an eyebrow. It was eight AM on Christmas Eve and she was already having mixed feelings about the day. Her family was in full swing downstairs making breakfast, planning last-minute trips to the store, and talking about how they slept the night before. Chloe was in bed messaging Nathan. =/\=Okay are you lying to me? Are you really going to your Aunt’s? I am not sure I believe you that you are actually taking leave. Seriously Nathan what are you doing for Christmas=/\=.

“I am coming,” Chloe yelled down from her room. As much as she loved her family, at times she wished she was an only child with a quiet family.

=/\=I gotta go. Message me when you can and tell me what you are doing. No, take a picture. I want proof you are on a couch somewhere and not the couch at the hospital.=/\=. Chloe tossed the phone on the bed and got up to get a shower. It was going to be a long day. It was better to start it now than wait for her mom an grandmother to come up and find her.

Ensign Chloe Kendrick