It was the week of Christmas and the penultimate week of the year. As such, most schools and colleges were letting the students go home for winter break, if they haven't already. For college students whose campus was considerably far from home, this created a lot of traffic. With everyone in a rush to get home for the holidays, it certainly helped to have friends to give a lift.
Sophie, Roland, JC, and Pauline were waiting for their ride to get here. Arguably, they could have flown to Dinosaur City on their own wings, but they had plenty of luggage that would be too much of a hindrance to let them fly. At least it wasn't as cold in Texas as it was last year. By certain standards, it was actually balmy.
Roland twitched his wings as he waited for their ride to arrive. He was missing home and was looking forward to seeing his family again. He glanced over at Sophie, who was reading an issue of Animalia Magazine. "Is that any good?" asked Roland.
"Oh, it's quite interesting," said Sophie, "I'm kinda glad that went for a two-part issue that covered the December holidays. I mean, I like Thanksgiving as much as the next American, but there's only so much trivia about it that you can talk about."
"Well, Thanksgiving is a rather young holiday compared to some of the others," said Roland, "And there are certainly a large number of Christmas traditions, especially when it's not just limited to America."
"Oh, look, our ride," said JC, pointing. Soon enough, Heather and Jeremy drove up to them.
"Thanks for the lift," said Sophie, "It would have been a pain to fly back and forth with all this stuff."
"Any time," said Heather.
"We need to go to the airport anyways," said Jeremy, "Polly's flight will be arriving soon."
"I bet she's excited to be an aunt," said Pauline as they climbed in.
"Well, I think she's a little confused about it," said Jeremy, "She is pretty young to be an aunt."
"She's not so young anymore," said Sophie.
"She's younger than she looks," said Jeremy, a little crossly, "She's just big for a polar bear of her age."
"Jeremy, I think what she means is that Polly won't be your kid sister forever," said Heather, "She is going to grow up eventually, even without getting double-dosed."
"I know that," said Jeremy, "It's just hard to really visualize."
"Well, she's 11 now," said Heather, "Before long, she'll be starting puberty."
"Heather, please, I'd rather not think about that," said Jeremy.
"You'll have to," said Heather, "It'll be practice for when our kids get to that age."
"Dammit, woman, I will turn around right now!" snapped Jeremy.
"Oh brother," said Sophie before turning to Roland, "Tell me we won't end up like this."
"I don't think so," said Roland, "You're not as much of a tease as Heather."
"I'm not sure if that's a real compliment or not," said Sophie.
"Trust me, it's a compliment," said Heather, "But at least I'm not as bad a tease as Tyra."
"How is she and Rex?" asked JC.
"In need of large amounts of eggnog," said Jeremy dryly.