The Workshop: A "The Santa Clause" Fanfiction. (Bernard x Female OC)

Santa Baby

I sang as first soprano, and another thing I noticed, while I wasn't sure if it was related or not, was that I had a much easier time hitting the higher notes than I had before. Unfortunately, I also noticed that I was having a harder time hitting anything under a middle C without a decent amount of struggle. My choral director commented after we warmed up some of our songs, that she noticed that my voice was clearer... almost "bell like" today.

Coincidence? I think not.

Once people began to show up in the audience seats, we were ushered to the side stage. It sounded like there were a lot of people out there, as the acoustic hall was quickly filled with echoing voices. Part of me was nervous, Dad hasn't made it to one of my concerts since I was a kid, and his devout attention was a rare thing to have. In addition, not only was my dad going to be watching me but so was Charlie and so was Bernard. The fact that Bernard has probably lived to hear every single Christmas song in the universe was not a comforting feeling, as I felt as if his judgy nature would only make him pick apart my performance.

To make things even worse, I had a solo. A whole solo song, and the last song I would want to sing in front of the only three people in all of Lakeside who knew about this whole Santa thing.

My heart pounded harder than it ever had before as we all walked in lines to our spots on the large stage. I hadn't been this scared to sing in front of people since I was a little girl. I could feel my legs and hands actually shaking, and I had to fight the urge to lock my knees to keep them still.

Why did it have to be a stupid "late Christmas" thing? The last thing I currently wanted was any more Christmas in my life.

Out in the sea of people and orange chairs, I saw Bernard, Dad, and Charlie all sitting next to eachother. They were right in the middle, so they were easy to catch. Much easier to catch, as Bernard took off Charlie's winter coat and was now wearing bright red and gold stripes which were very noticeable from where I was standing on stage, even with the stage lights practically blinding me. He was staring directly at me, or at least it felt like it. Of course, from stage, it often felt like everyone was staring directly at you.

Even so, the concert was going well. After each song, we had a modest size of applause. I'd watch for Dad's reaction the most. He had a proud smile, which made me feel good. After every song, I swear I could hear his clapping louder than everyone else in the room. Bernard was very focused. He was leaning forwards in his seat, his elbows rested on his knees, and his chin rested on his hands. He never clapped but would nod with a satisfied-looking expression occasionally, which I assumed was a good thing. Charlie, most of all looked very excited. He had the biggest grin, and I could hear his little voice distinctly cheering for me.

But then the solos came up. At this point, it was well enough confirmed in my own mind that the three of them were enjoying themselves. But when the basses started the iconic "ba-bum, ba-bum-" Of Santa Baby, I could not stop myself from turning a little red on stage. I stepped out into the middle as I was supposed to, and tried my best to sing loud and proud.

It was something that I did not think about during my practices, as I had so much else on my mind, but I really did not want to sing this song with my dad in the room. Suddenly this song, which I always thought was fun to sing, had some very different undertones that I did not feel comfortable unpacking.

My dad, "The Santa", me calling him "baby"... ew please no.

Part of performing was also delivering the message, giving emphasis to phrases and words. I had to be bold, or else everyone else in the audience would think that I was shy. I swallowed my pride and gave my best delivery ever.

"Been an awful good girl-"

I avoided looking at Dad or Bernard. Charlie was a little too young to understand the implications of this song, so I knew he wouldn't mind, but when I did occasionally catch a glimpse of the other two... pure horror. I would quickly glance away, and stare literally anywhere else.