𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍𝐒 | 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐌𝐀𝐒 𝐂𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄𝐒

𝟎𝟎𝟓-𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬

     THERE ZIGGY STRONG LAY in the snow along with the slight growing bruises on her shivering legs. And there lay Teddy, about three feet away from her, and Kate, diagonal from Ziggy is Kate who was the first one to wake up; she panting and panicked. "Teddy?" He isn't moving. She looks over towards Ziggy. She isn't moving either. "Ziggy?" No response. "Teddy?" She shouts louder. "Teddy!" He suddenly gasps awake as if he had a horrible nightmare. "Are you okay?" Kate asks. No response. Reasonable. Kate looks around. "Where's the camera?" Teddy points over the right, still gasping for air. He turns over to see Ziggy still laying on the floor. The Pierce boy crawls over to her in a hurry, propping her up on his knees.
     "Zig? Oh god, Ziggy!" He shakes her, panicking while his mind races. Kate sighs in relief, playing with her camera.
     "Still works." Kate smiles.
     "Ziggy!" Teddy screams. The brunette girl gasps awake before quickly grabbing Teddy into a hug; her eyes wide and her eyebrows furrowed in confusion the whole time. The two clutched onto each other, not planning to let go anytime soon. "Where are we?" Teddy panics.
"Teddy..." Kate says. A shadow grows, walking towards the two teens.
"I could have sworn I saw Paris!" Teddy stares with wide eyes at the shocked girl he was holding.
"Uh, Zig?" Kate warns.
"That plane almost killed us!" Ziggy yells, placing Teddy's warm hands off of her head of hair that he has been holding onto.
"Ziggy!"
"I was in the sky!" Teddy announces, still panting.
"Teddy!" Kate finally gains the teen's attention.
"What?" The two shout, whipping their heads to the auburn-haired sister. Kate points shakily. The two look behind them to see a tall wide figure standing before them. The two gasp, screaming and stumbling over each other for support. They stop and slowly stand up next to Kate. They can't believe it. No way. Is this real?
     "Santa Claus?" Kate calls out. He stands with a hero stance, glaring at the sky.
     "Live and in person. One night only. You three okay?" They pause, nodding in silence; their throats are clogged.
     "You look so...different." Kate fumbles.
     "Why? Because I'm not a big fat slob?" Santa asks, sounding very offended. Kate's eyes widen.
     "No, no. I—I didn't mean it that way." Kate excuses.
     "Ah, that's okay, Kate. I guess it's understandable. I mean, who can eat millions of cookies in one night and not get fat, right? Well, I can." Santa points to himself, sounding aggravated. This is not the Santa Ziggy ever envisioned.
     "Can you go, Ho ho ho?" Ziggy blurts out. It's something she was always so desperate to hear. All the mall Santa's never did it right.
     "I don't go, Ho ho ho. That's a myth," Santa points. "Fake news." Santa confirms as he walked towards his disheveled sleigh.
     "Sorry." Ziggy mumbles walking forward with the Pierce's at her side. Santa scoffs, looking at his sleigh.
     "Oh. No," he sighed. "oh...You three have really messed things up." Santa grumbles. "You were supposed to be asleep." Before Ziggy could chime in, Teddy has another plans.
     "It was all her idea!" Teddy accuses. The two girls whip their heads towards him.
     "Ted-"
     "Hey!" Kate hits Teddy as Ziggy tries to break them up.
     "It was!"
     "Guys—"
     "Wait," Santa interrupts. "What did you do with my sack of presents?" Santa mutters in horror.
     "It flew off the sleigh." Kate informs begrudgingly. His eyes widen with his fingers pointed up.
     "Oh, not good. Not good at all." Santa leans towards his device on the sleigh. It sizzles and whirs weakly. It's no use. Santa sighs. He then points towards the sky, calculating out loud. The three follow his finger, still trying to process what is going on. "First star's there...Second star's there." He points again, slowly bringing his fingers together. "We came back over Moscow and...over Paris." He continues to walk with the kids following. "New York, Boston...oh!" Santa shouts. Reindeer must've broken off somewhere over Lakeshore Drive." Santa figures out.
     "Lakeshore Drive?" Kate questions.
     "We're in Chicago, young lady." Ziggy's eyes widen even more than they already are.
     "Chicago?" She shouts, holding her head.
     "That means we traveled thousands of miles in, like, thirty seconds." Teddy said.
     "Epic!" Kate exclaims. Santa chuckles, checking his watch.
     "You mean epic disaster." His watch ticks and ticks. It's only getting lower.
     "If I'm not up and running in the next couple of hours, half the continent's not gonna get presents, and that, well, that can never happen."
     "So a few brats don't get presents. It's not the end of the world." Teddy scoffs. Ziggy raises her eyebrow at the boy. Is he for real? Santa turns around, pausing. He walks up to Teddy slowly. Very, very slowly.
     "That's just the kinda lame garbage I'd expect from a Lost Believer." Santa leers at Teddy. Then taking a look at Ziggy. "You listen to me, Teddy Pierce," he then points at Ziggy, looking less stern. "Ziggy Strong. Tonight, young boys and girls all over the globe are waiting, hoping, expecting Santa Claus to arrive. And if I don't...Well, you don't wanna know what happened the last time I couldn't make my rounds." Kate whips out her camera, waiting her whole life for this moment.
     "Yes, we do. Tell us." Kate said excitingly. Santa stares at the camera, taking a deep breath in and out.
     "You've heard of the Dark Ages? Read about all those wars in school?" Teddy and Ziggy look at each other, confused.
     "Yeah, sure, but...wait, those happened because you missed the deadline?" Ziggy asks, leaning in closer.
     "Christmas spirit is more powerful than you could ever imagine." Santa says very sternly. "People need Christmas to remind themselves of how good they can be! Without it, well, Christmas simply...must endure!" Santa stops blabbing. He has to get to work. He pushes through the three, yelling aloud all the tasks he needs to do as he storms away to his sleigh in a fuss. "All right, I need to round up the reindeer, find my sack of presents, call the elves and maybe, just maybe I can still save Christmas." He dug through it, grabbing something out of it. It beeps slowly, glowing a cyan kind of color.
"What's that?" Ziggy questions.
"Tracking device for the sack," Santa quickly answers. "The closer you get, the faster it chimes," he plays with the device before looking up at the three. "It's pretty cool."
"Yeah, it is." Kate smiles.
"That's good," Santa says putting the device in his pocket. "At least it's not that far away," the man sighs looking up at the three. He gestures for them to move away. He clears his throat and clicks his tongue. "Well...bye." The jolly man throws himself in the air only to fall right back down. "Ow!" A muffled voice yells.
"Santa, are you okay?" Kate asks. Santa sits up, taking a moment of realization, and it does not look good.
"Oh no! Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no! My hat! My hats gone!" Santa yells, holding onto his luscious silver hair.
"Do you want mine?" Kate offers.
"Oh, that—that won't help. Your hat's not magic." Santa whines.
"Magic?" Kate started.
"Well, how do you think I can turn into coal dust and leap from rooftop to rooftop?" Kate thinks.
"Pilates?"
"My hat!" Santa grunts as he gets up, rambling to himself in a panic. "I can't believe this! She told me, you should always bring a spare, Nick!" He groans, running his fingers through his hair. "Well... I guess I'm gonna have to do this the old fashion way. On foot."
"Santa, just let us help you!" Kate begs.
"Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I think you've done quite enough damage already, don't you? No, you just go back to your house and get some sleep. No need to wake up early. There won't be any presents." Kate gasps under her breath. Ziggy can't help but feel guilty. She didn't know he was actually real. But now, Kate is gonna wake up with nothing underneath the tree after doing nothing but trying to be sweet. Ziggy rubs her red nose, bringing her hand up to her forehead, she has the most raging headache. "You three are on the naughty list for life." Santa scoffs. He walks away officially. Leaving Kate with nothing but a broken heart. The three regroup with worried looks.
"We can't just stay here! Santa needs us!" Kate shouts.
"I don't know. He seems pretty mad." Teddy shivers. "We should just head home."
     Ziggy scoffs with an angry smile. "Home? Home! We're, like, a thousand miles away!" Ziggy yells; she walks away, containing her anger tight, trying her best not to scream.
"Teddy, you heard him. We're on the naughty list for life! We've ruined Christmas!" Kate shouts louder. Ziggy stands next to Teddy, collecting herself from strangling the older Pierce. "I mean, that's, like, the worst possible thing a kid could ever do! Do you really wanna tell your," Kate points at the two, swinging it left and right. "kids that you were those kids? The two teens responsible for the Christmas Meltdown of 2023?"
"Okay, fine!" Teddy grunts, angrily. They have no other choice. The three run as fast as they can shouting for the not-so-jolly man.
"Wait, Santa! We just wanna help!"
"Ah, well, I can't do anything to stop you." Santa sighs in defeat. "You better watch out, you better not pout, and you better not cry. I don't have time for any more of your shenanigans." Ziggy takes a deep breath in and out, grabbing Teddy's hand and squeezing it tight. Teddy looks up at a red nosed, fuming Ziggy. He smiles, finding peace in her angry gaze, squeezing her hand back.