Here is the first chapter of my fanfic! I hope everyone likes it!

It was around four o'clock in the afternoon and Mandie and Celia were getting the rest of their things to go to the train station. It was one week until Christmas, and Mandie was going home for the holidays and Celia's mother had let her spend time with Mandie's family. Mandie hurriedly shoved a few more dresses into a suit case, not bothering to be neat for the first time in a long while as she could barely contain the excitement that was enveloping her.

"I can't wait to see everyone!" Mandie exclaimed. "It feels like ages since I've seen them all, Sallie, Dimer, Uncle Ned, Morningstar, Uncle John, Mother, Grandmother, Dr. Woodard, Mrs. Woodard, Joe..." Mandie sighed with a far off look in her eyes, one that Celia felt like she hadn't seen in a while. Mandie no longer talked of Joe much and Celia suspected that it was because Mandie had feelings for another boy named George.

Celia was silent for a moment before smirking ever so slightly and looking over at her friend with a teasing twinkle in her eye. "I bet you want to see Joe the most don't you?" the auburn haired girl teased slyly.

Mandie's cheeks suddenly turned very red and she looked down at her dress. She wasn't entirely sure why she had blushed, she was used to Celia teasing her but somehow at the moment it felt different. "I do not! I want to see everyone else just as much as him! And maybe even more!" Mandie insisted with a huff. Celia giggled at her friend and shook her head gently.

"Ok, ok, don't get so offended! I was only teasing," Celia answered with a shrug of her shoulders. She bent down to pick up a dress that was lying on the floor, her hair falling in her face as she did so.

Mandie sent a worried glance in her best friend direction. "I'm sorry Celia. I guess I'm just a little over excited about going home. When I get over excited, I get jumpy," Mandie apologized. "I just feel the need to get out of college. It's too stressful." She sighed longingly.

"It's alright Mandie. I understand why your so excited and overly hyper. Christmas is a wonderful time of year, yet it can be very stressful," Celia pointed out with a slight not of her head. She paused for a moment as a thought came to her mind. "Jonathan won't be here this time with he?"

"No, he won't. He visiting relatives," Mandie answered with a shake of her head, her blonde hair flying out of place. "But perhaps Robert will be there," she said casually, pretending to not tease Celia.

Celia blushed and smiled slightly. "Alright you got me back!" She suddenly happened to look up at the clock. "Oh my goodness! Look at the time! We have to leave for the train station in fifteen minutes. Better hurry!" Mandie nodded her head quickly and began stuffing the last of her clothes into her suitcase.
They continued to pack their clothes, and belongings. Mandie was packing the last of her clothes, when suddenly she stopped. "Celia," she began. "We don't have any ball gowns!"

"Hmmm...Um, why don't we pick our fanciest dresses and use those," Celia answered. Mandie glanced at her nicest dress, one that her grandmother had gotten for her.
"Okay. Um, there is one down side though; Polly is going to be there!" Mandie said. "And she always has the best dresses!" Mandie crossed her arms and began to pout like a little child, which on the inside, she truthfully still was even though she believed herself to be more grown up than she had ever been.
"Mandie, are you always going to be in competition with Polly? Why don't we just have fun at the Christmas Ball and not worry about Polly," Celia suggested. Celia turned over to her friend with a kind look sparkling in her green eyes. Mandie sighed and shook her head gently.
"But it's not me! She always wants competition," Mandie protested. She giggled quietly and shook her head once more. " Alright, you're right. I'm not acting very mature right now. I am nineteen after all. I'm sorry. And who knows? Maybe Polly will have changed," Mandie said with a shrug. She glanced through her clothes and pulled out a lavender dress with white rose buds lining the bottom rim and white lace lining the collar and the rims of the sleaves.

"That one is very pretty! I'm going to take this one," Celia said. Her dress was light green with spring pink rosebuds across the collar and a white ribbon went across the middle. Mandie smiled and nodded at her friend aprrovingy."Alright, now that we're done packing let's go down stairs and wait for my Uncle John," Mandie answered. They ran down the stairs to the waiting room waited for Mandie's uncle. Then they heard the sound of horses outside, and Mandie looked out the window. Her Uncle John was getting out of the rig. "He's here!" Mandie exclaimed, as she jumped up. Celia followed her out of the room.

"Amanda! How have you been?" Uncle John asked, and they embraced.

"I am fine. How is Mother, and the twins?" she asked.

" They are doing fine," he answered. "It feels like it has been forever since I last saw you! It feels like, it was, last summer."

"I think that it was last summer," Mandie giggled.

"Oh, I forgot," he laughed.

Celia was standing behind them unnoticed until she came and taped Mandie on the shoulder. "Um, Mandie, I think that it would be best if saved the talking for later and got to the train station," she said quietly.

"Alright come on girls, we don't want to miss our train," Uncle John said, and hurried them out the door.

When they got into the rig Mandie asked, "Is everyone already at the house?"

"Yes everyone except Sallie, and Dimer they will be arriving in a few days," he answered.

As they drove Mandie was admiring the beautiful Christmas decorations. She could see Christmas trees through the windows of houses and beautiful ornaments. There was one house that they passed by that had a wreath on the door almost as tall as half of Mandie's body! In some places she saw small patches of snow. The sky was getting dark and snowflakes were beginning to fall. As it got darker, Mandie watched as people lit little candles in their windows. This was Mandie's favorite time of year. It always made her so happy. When they arrived at the train station even it was decorated for Christmas, and since the train itself was red and green it almost seemed to be decorated for Christmas!

Right as they were about to get on the train, Mandie saw George Stuart coming her way. She waited a minute for him to reach her. "Mandie!" he called. "I wanted to say good-bye to you before you left. I'm going to miss you," he said. Mandie blushed.

"Well, I'll be back after the holidays," Mandie said. "I'll miss you to though. Now I have to go!" she said quickly turning and jumping on the train. As the train started, George yelled something after her. But she couldn't hear everything that he said over the noise of the train. What she heard was, "I...will...your house!" But that was all she heard. "Hmm. I wonder what that was about," Mandie thought.

Later on the train they had their supper in a beautiful dinning car. It had red carpet on the floor and beautiful, sparkling chandeliers with electric lights. Inside the dinning car there was a Christmas tree. Mandie couldn't wait until they set up their tree. The ride though was rough and it was hard to get to sleep, but they finally managed to drift off. As Mandie was nearly asleep she asked in a sleepy tone, "Uncle John what time are we going to be in Franklin?"

"We will be there by 9:00am tomorrow," he answered.

"Okay," Mandie said yawning, and soon, she fell asleep.

She awoke hours later to Celia shaking her saying, "Mandie wake up! Wake up sleepy-head, we're here!"

Okay! Okay! I'm awake!" she said pushing Celia away. "Come on Celia let's get our bags and get off this train before it leaves with us in it!" Mandie said grabbing her bags.

"Your Uncle John and Abraham have a rig out there waiting for us. Come on! This train is leaving in one minute," Celis said. She ran to the front of the train, Mandie following behind. They got off of the train just in time too, the train left twenty seconds after they got off.

"What took you two so long? I was about to come in there and get you!" Uncle John said.

"Sorry, it took a little while to wake Mandie up," Cellia explained.

"Oh I see, little-miss-sleepy-head didn't want to wake up, is that right?" he teased. Mandie crossed her arms.

"Well why don't stop talking about me being a sleepy-head and change the subject," Mandie said, pretending to be offended.

"Okay, um... Ah! So Abraham, how are you and Jenny doing?" Celia asked.

"We be doin' just fine. How you and Miss Mandie be doin'?" Abraham answered.

"We're doing good," Mandie answered. "I'm glad that everything has been going good. I just wish we were at home right now."

As they went on Mandie noticed that there wasn't any snow on the ground. There usually was snow this time of year. Mandie started thinking of the Christmas ball so that she could pass the time until they got home. She began to say something about the Christmas ball.

"I am excited for the.. Oh Celia! There is everyone waiting for us on the veranda!" Mandie exclaimed pointing. As soon as she spotted Joe, she jumped out of the rig, almost before it had stopped.

"Joe!" Mandie called. He turned and ran to her.

"I've missed you so much Mandie! Have you caused any trouble at college?" he asked, with a sly grin.

"I've missed you too. And, no I haven't caused much trouble at college," she answered. "Have you found any knew mysteries to solve?"

"No, remember you're the one that finds all the mysteries, I just help solve them," Joe answered.

"I don't find them, they find me!" Mandie insisted. Suddenly a strong gust of wind blew past all of them.

"Brrr! It's getting cold out here!" Celia shivered.

"Yeah, it is pretty cold out here," Mandie replied, wrapping her arms around herself.

"And it looks like it is going to snow. Look at the sky," Joe said pointing up. Mandie nodded.

"Let's go inside and say hi to everybody else," Mandie said walking up the steps.

Mandie saw her mother and how pretty she looked. "She always looks beautiful,"Mandie thought. "But this time she looks exceedingly beautiful!" Her mother had a white dress on with red ribbon, and her blond hair pulled-back hair glistened brightly.

"Amanda! How are you? I've missed you so!" her mother said embracing her.

"I'm doing good. Where is Snowball?" Mandie asked looking behind her mother.

"He is inside. Come on in. It's quite chilly out here," Elizabeth said.

Once they got inside, Mandie noticed that something was not right. "Mother, where are Carl and Carol? I don't see them."

"Oh they are at a neighbors house, and they will be back in a few days," her mother answered.

As they walked in, Uncle John told them, "Tomorrow we are going to get a Christmas tree. How does that sound?" Mandie was very happy to hear that. Getting the Christmas tree was probably one of her favorite things to do on Christmas. Oh how wonderful it was to be home!

After a chorus of hoorays, they went into the parlor and sat down. Mandie was surprised to see that Tommy and Robert were there, and Celia was equally surprised. Mandie tried not to laugh when she saw Celia blushing red as an apple. But she couldn't really laugh at Celia, because she felt slightly uncomfortable herself. Everyone was there except, Sallie, Dimer, and Jonathan. And Jonathan wasn't going to be there that week.

"I wish that Jonathan was going to be here," Mandie thought out loud. Joe glared at her. Just then Tommy stood up and walked over to Mandie.

"Hello Mandie," Tommy greeted her. "How are you this fine winter day?"

"I am fine. How are you Tommy? I wasn't expecting you to be here," Mandie answered, thinking just how well him and Joe were going to get along. Mandie turned as she saw Robert walk over to Celia.

"Hi Celia. I am glad to see you here. You are looking quite lovely today." Celia blushed.

"Thank you," she answered shyly. Mandie watched as Robert sat down next to Celia. They started talking to each other and then Mandie noticed that they didn't look nervous around each other anymore.

As they were talking, Snowball walked into the room, and as soon as he saw his mistress he jumped onto her lap and purred.

"Hello Snowball," Mandie said softly. "Did you miss me while I was gone?" she asked petting his soft white fur. The cat meowed in reply.

While they were all in the middle of conversations, Elizabeth stood up. "May I have your attention please?" she asked. Everyone looked up. "Tomorrow, we are going to start the preparations for the Christmas ball. I have invited Mrs. Cornwallis and her daughter Polly Cornwallis to come and help." Joe, Mandie, and Celia frowned.

Mandie was talking to Celia about the Christmas ball, when Liza came in and announced the noon meal. As Mandie was walking out of the parlor Liza asked, "How come yo didn't come visit in de kitchen?"

"I am sorry Liza, I didn't really get a chance. As soon as we came in I had to go into the parlor" Mandie apologized.

"It's ok missy. But yo better watch out. That miss sweet thang is gonna get your Joe," Liza warned.

"Don't worry Liza, I will. But I am not really worried about her," Mandie said. Liza nodded. She followed them out and immediately began helping with the meal.

When they had filled their plates, they all sat down. Mandie was seated in between Celia and Joe. When she looked over at Joe, she noticed that he was glaring at Tommy. "Oh no! Here we go!" Mandie thought. She wouldn't worry about it. If Joe didn't stop then she knew that he wouldn't make a the right husband for her. And anyway, she wasn't even married to him yet. Of course he'd have some reason to act like this if they were married. She just shook her head and began eating. There was a lot of conversations going on at the table and Mandie was happy to be a part of them.

Once they had finished eating, Mandie, Celia, Joe, Tommy, and Robert decided to go outside. They started asking each other what would be the best thing to do. It was pretty cold so they would have to do something that would keep them warm.

"We could build a fort," Joe suggested. They shook there heads. It would take to long and there wasn't enough material.

"Or we could explore the woods," Celia said. They thought about that but Mandie suggested they think of at least on more thing.

"Well, how bout we have a competition to see who can find the most interesting and mysterious things!" Mandie exclaimed.

"But how are we going to show each other what we found if it is too big to carry back?" Tommy asked. Mandie thought about it for a moment.

"We won't carry it back. We can draw a picture of it and show that to the judge." Mandie told them. "Can one of you get paper and pencils?" she asked.

"I will!" Joe and Tommy chorused.

"Okay. Joe you get the paper, Tommy you get the pencils." Mandie instructed, and the two ran off to the house.

"All right one of us is going to have to be judge. Do either of you want to be judge?" Mandie asked.

"I'll be judge." Celia offered.

"Ok, then we just have to wait for Tommy and Joe." Mandie said.