CHAPTER 35
Things go a bit mad from there on in. Er, madder even. Like things haven’t been mad around here since the moment I met Blizzard and Santa. The police interview us all. Obviously Santa doesn’t tell them he’s the real Santa, and they assume that he’s just a shopping mall Santa and that Anti-Claus is just another shopping mall Santa and that their competition for business got out of hand. It’s not actually that far from the truth, just editing out the part where Santa is really Santa and Anti-Claus is out to ruin Christmas.
Eventually everything dies down, the police cars drive away with Seth and Anti-Claus firmly in the back of them, and thankfully, no one has spotted Santa’s sleigh up on our roof.
Pippa comes running over and gives first me, then Blizzard, then Dad and then Santa a huge hug.
“Glad to see you’re safe, Blizzard,” Mum says quietly as she comes over too. The six of us are standing in a big group in the allotment. It’s almost dusk by now and all of the neighbours have gone in to light their Christmas lights and there’s a bit of sparkle in the night again.
“I think I owe you all an apology,” Mum says. “You all warned me off Seth, you all told me I was in over my head and he could be a maniac or worse, and it turns out that he was.” She gives an insane little giggle. “That’ll teach me to think I know best, won’t it?”
“Don’t blame yourself,” Santa says. “Anti-Claus and Seth would have been here anyway. Whether Seth had been staying with you or somewhere else the same things would have happened today.”
Mum doesn’t look like she believes him. Maybe it’s a horrible thing to admit, but I’m almost glad. So she should feel a little bit of guilt. She made her own children live with a kidnapper, all because she couldn’t see past the googley eyes she had for him.
“I’m just glad to know that you’re safe, Blizzard, and that no one was really hurt. It could have been a lot worse,” Mum says.
“Oh, I think Seth was quite hurt,” Blizzard says almost gleefully. “Kaity gave him a pretty good whack with that half a tree.”
“He totally deserved it,” I say.
“We have a lot to thank Kaity for today,” Santa says. “Without her instincts, her knowledge, and attention to detail, we would never have found you. I think it’s safe to say that Kaity saved Christmas this year.”
I blush from my toes to my forehead.
Pippa pulls on my sleeve. “What about the doll? You know, in the basement?”
“What?” Mum asks.
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that, girls. It is completely harmless now that Anti-Claus has gone. All the toys were controlled by him, so you have nothing to worry about.”
“I don’t want it anymore,” Pippa says.
“Perhaps you could ask your mum to donate it to a charity shop,” Santa suggests.
Mum nods even though she doesn’t yet know that there is a life-size doll tied up in the basement.
“I wish we didn’t have to go,” Blizzard says. “I like it here.”
“Well, we can come back for a visit. If they’ll have us, that is,” Santa jokes.
That’s when it hits me that they’re leaving. In only a month, I’ve gotten so used to Blizzard and Santa being around, gotten so used to Blizzard being my friend that I’ve only just realised that she won’t always be here.
The thought makes uninvited tears prickle my eyelids.
I look over at Blizzard and she looks equally down.
“Don’t look so upset, girls. You can keep in touch,” Dad says. “You can write and email and call. And Blizzard is more than welcome to come down in the school holidays.”
“You know, we could even find room for all of you to come and visit us in the North Pole if you want to,” Santa says.
Blizzard’s eyes light up. “Really?” She asks. “I thought outsiders weren’t allowed in the North Pole?”
“After today, they’re not outsiders, they’re as good as family.”
I go over and hug Santa. And I do not spontaneously hug people. “I can’t think of anything nicer than a trip to the North Pole,” I tell him.
Mum is standing next to Dad now.
“You’re still coming for dinner tomorrow?” She asks him quietly.
“If you’ll still have me, I’d love to,” he says. “As long as Kaity is still up to cooking?”
“Of course,” I say. “I can’t wait.”
Suddenly Pippa’s eyes light up as she spots the sleigh hiding on the roof.
“I want to go in Santa’s sleigh like Kaity did,” Pippa whines.
Santa smiles down at her softly. “Well, we do have to zoom up to the North Pole pretty soon to collect the Christmas presents,” he says. “But I think we have time to take you all for a quick spin. It is Christmas Eve after all.”
He whistles and the reindeer launch themselves from the roof and bring the sleigh to rest directly in front of us. We all climb in—Santa, Blizzard, me, Pippa, Mum and Dad. Pippa screams in delight as the sleigh lifts into the air, and we finally feel like a family again.
Maybe there is something to be said for the magic of Christmas after all.
- ** – The End – ** -
Also by Jaimie Admans:
North Pole Reform School
Mistletoe Bell hates Christmas. So would you if you had a name like hers. Her Christmas-mad parents make the festive season last all year, and with another Christmas looming, Mis doesn’t think she can take any more. After her carelessness causes an accident at school, it seems like things can’t get any worse.
Then she wakes up to find The Ghost of Christmases Ruined in her bedroom.
She is taken to the North Pole, to a reform school run by elves determined to make her love Christmas. Stuck in a misfit group of fellow Christmas-haters with a motley crew of the weird and even weirder, watched over by elves day and night, she doesn’t expect to meet cute and funny Luke, who is hiding a vulnerable side beneath his sarcastic exterior. She doesn’t expect to fall in love with him.
But all is not as it should be at the North Pole. A certain Mr Claus is making the elves’ lives a misery, and pretty soon Mistletoe and Luke are doing more than just learning to like Christmas.
A YA romantic comedy in which Santa is the bad guy, teaching reindeer to fly is on the curriculum, and zombies have a fondness for Christmas music.
-- -- -- --
Suitable for older teens and upwards due to bad language.
Not Pretty Enough
“New Year’s Resolutions:
1. Lloyd Layton will know I exist. He once said three whole words to me, so this is obviously progress. If I don’t get a proper conversation out of him soon, then I’ll take my top off and streak through the cafeteria, because nobody could fail to notice these boobs.
2. I will not get expelled for streaking through the cafeteria.”
Those are the words that begin her mission.
Chessie is fourteen, not pretty enough, and very much in love. Lloyd Layton is hot, popular, and unaware of Chessie’s existence.
Her goal is clear: to get Lloyd to love her as much as she loves him, and she has exactly one year to do it.
As Chessie’s obsession with Lloyd reaches boiling point and she starts to spin a web of lies that spiral out of control, Lloyd turns out to be not quite the prince she thought he was. Can Chessie avoid the gathering storm before things go too far?
-- -- -- -- --
Not Pretty Enough is a contemporary young adult comedy suitable for ages thirteen and over.
Book two in the series will be released early 2014.
After
life Academy
Even being dead isn’t enough to get you out of maths class.
Dying wasn't on sixteen-year-old Riley Richardson's to-do list. And now, not only is she dead, but she's stuck in a perpetual high school nightmare. Worse still, she's stuck there with the geekiest, most annoying boy in the history of the world, ever.
In a school where the geeks are popular and just about everything is wrong, Riley has become an outcast. She begins a desperate quest to get back home, but her once-perfect life starts to unravel into something not nearly as great as she thought it was. And maybe death isn’t really that bad after all...
Welcome to Afterlife Academy, where horns are the norm, the microwave is more intelligent than the teachers, and the pumpkins have a taste for blood.
- - -
Afterlife Academy is a Young Adult paranormal romantic comedy, suitable for approximately ages 14 and up.
Kismetology
Finding the perfect man isn't easy. Especially when it's for your mother...
Mothers. Can't live with them, can't live without them, can't live three doors down the road without them interfering in every aspect of your life.
Mackenzie Atkinson's mother has meddled in her love life once too often and something has to be done. Mackenzie decides to turn the tables and find love for her lonely mother.
Her lonely and very fussy mother.
Surely finding an older gentleman looking for love won't be that hard, right?
Wrong.
If you've ever thought that boys grow up, here's the problem: They don't. Ever.
And Mackenzie is about to learn that the hard way.
Faced with a useless boyfriend, dressed up dogs, men who wear welly boots on dates, men who shouldn't be allowed out in public, and men who make reptiles seem like attractive company - will she ever find the perfect man for her neurotic mother?
About the author:
Jaimie is a 29-year-old English-sounding Welsh girl with an awkward-to-spell name. She lives in South Wales and enjoys writing, gardening, drinking tea and watching horror movies. She hates spiders and cheese & onion crisps.
She has been writing for years but has never before plucked up the courage to tell people.
Creepy Christmas is her second novel and she hopes you enjoyed it. There are plenty more on the way!
Website: https://www.jaimieadmans.com
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/be_the_spark
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jaimieadmansbooks
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jaimieadmans
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/notprettyenough
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