𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 - 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐃𝐮𝐧𝐩𝐡𝐲

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 - 𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐊 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐒

"WHY AM I HERE AGAIN?"Athena asked, standing with Mitch and Cam in the mall while they took Lily to visit 'Santa'.

"You're small, you can push through crowds of children easier," Mitch said. Athena gave him an offended look. "Are you kidding me with this line? I'm gonna ask Santa for the last 45 minutes of my life back.

"Would you cheer up? We're in Santa's Village with our daughter," Cam told him. "Where were we a year ago?"

"We were at the beginning of this line."

"You know what somebody needs to get in the holiday --" Cam cut himself off when he heard singing. "Son of a bitch."

"The holiday son of a bitch?" Athena asked sarcastically.

"Maybe it's not them," Mitch said as they watched the group of singers ride down the escalator.

"Oh, it's them. It's them."

𝐀𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐚

"You're asking me?" Athena asked. "I'm not even sure why I was in that mall. I think Cam had this caroling group and then they kicked him out. He hates them now, so ..." she trailed off, shrugging

Athena groaned when she looked over and saw that Santa had gone on break.

"I'm walking home," Athena mumbled before walking off. She soon realized that was a bad idea so she just told Mitch to text her when they were leaving and went to do some shopping.

☺︎

"Guess it came home after a tough day, lit up a cigarette and burned itself," Athena heard Phil say as she walked into the Dunphy household. "Is that what happened? Because that makes no sense."

"Whats happening?" Athena asked as she set her coat down.

"They found a burn mark from a cigarette on the couch and now we're all getting blamed," Haley summed it up, rolling her eyes.

"It's not yours, is it?" Phil asked the girl.

"How dare you, Phil," She said sarcastically. "I am perfect in every way, I would never do that to myself."

"Well, if whoever is responsible doesn't come forward, your father and I are just gonna have to punish all three of you," Claire told her children

"What?"

"That's not fair."

"I can forgive the smoking, but I can't forgive the lie," Phil said.

"No."

"Or the smoking. No one wants to confess, huh? No? That's fine, cause you know what happens next? We cancel Christmas!"

"What?" Athena asked. "Your Christmas is the only one my grandparents aren't at. Haley just say it was you so I can have Christmas back!"

"What? No!" Haley told her best friend. "He won't go through with it anyways."

"Okay. Guess where I'm headed?" Phil said. "To take down the tree. That's right. This is your last chance."

"Whoever did this, just take responsibility. Don't put the rest of us through this," Claire told her kids. "Luke? No?"

"This is really it. Okay? Here we go. Three, two, one."

Phil told Haley that she was going to get a car, only to reveal he was lying. After a good Phil Dunphy freak out, he grabbed the Christmas tree and dragged it out of the room.