"Hey, Isaac," said Zac. "I do believe your hair is thinning."
Isaac looked a little uncomfortable.
"Is it that obvious?"
"Only because I haven't seen you for a while," then he smirked and sang: "Isaac's going ba-ald! Isaac's going ba-ald!"
"I am not!"
"No, wait, I got it, I got it!" Zac interrupted himself. "Now, how does that line from MMMBop go again? Oh yeah: When you get old and start losing your hair."
Isaac gave him a dark look.
"Uh oh," grinned Babsie. "This is about to get ugly. Quick, change the subject!"
They ate and then, during the chatter that followed, Mystique stood up on the kiddie table and said:
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I am proud to present, the Mutant Girls!"
Everyone looked over as Storm and Rogue, playing a guitar and bongos respectively, sang some Christmas Carols, followed by some songs they had written themselves.
"I didn't know they were into music - well, at least, not this serious," Rita whispered questioningly to Babsie.
"Neither did I," she whispered back.
After the twins were finished, there was much applause and Isaac suggested that, if the girls were serious about their music and pursuing it as a career, there may be a signing in the bag for them.
Then Isaac and Zac got up and declared they had an audio Christmas present for Taylor.
"We've been trying to find opportunity to play this song for a while," Zac said. "I had hoped the debut would be on my show, but that hasn't worked out."
"Well, we can still have a full-band debut on the show," Isaac grinned. "This is the acoustic debut."
And the two sang a song they had written some time ago. A song they called 'Miss' about a man who wrote romance novels. Taylor groaned and buried his face in his hands.
"You know it had to happen," Isaac grinned. "I have Black Eye. Zac has Hungover. Now you have Miss."
"And the only reason why it wasn't called 'Miss Jordan' Miss Jordan, is because we are such nice brothers that we decided that we would be nice and not help the public put two and two together like I did."
Taylor simply continued to be embarrassed.
Presents were given out then. A lengthy task which resulted in much noise, thank yous, and wrapping paper strewn around the room.
**********
That night Zac and Taylor 'kidnapped' Isaac. They snuck up behind him and Taylor blindfolded him while the ever-strong Zac stopped him from escaping. They tied up his hands and legs and took him into the library, with a detour into a car, a quick drive around the neighbourhood and back, all the while trying to stop their own laughter and not talking to each other. Oh how Isaac resisted!
All night Isaac stayed in the library, trying to undo the ropes. But, he couldn't. The sleeping tablet Zac slipped into his food might have something to do with that. That night, although uncomfortable, Isaac slept.
In the morning, when Isaac woke, he wondered briefly why he was so sore, and then he remembered! For a moment, he panicked and in his panic, he bumped against something and something fell. With the blindfold on, he couldn't see what it was but it had... and interesting fall sound to it, and he wriggled over to where he heard it.
"It's a book!" he said to himself softly as he felt the object with his body.
Slowly, he rolled back and felt... a bookshelf behind him? A glimmer of an idea appeared and he rolled in the other direction and hit another bookshelf.
"If I could only get this blindfold off..." he muttered.
Isaac tried rubbing his head on the floor in an effort to get it off. Then he realised that if he scrunched up his legs to his chest as much as he could, he might be able to move his tied hands from behind him to in front. It took effort, but he managed to do it. With his hands now in front, he was able to push the blindfold off.
"The library," he muttered to himself. "Zac, when I get out of here..."
In the end, Isaac managed to roll to one of the secret passages, used the bookshelf to help him stand up to pull the fake book that opened the door. He jumped for a little way into the passage, then ended up lying back down and rolling to the other end of the passage, struggled to get the door open and finally entered the dining room where most everyone was having breakfast.
"Hey," Zac objected with a laugh as Babsie walked over to help Isaac out of the rope. "You were much quicker than I expected! That's not fair! Take all the fun out of it!"