When it came to Christmas time, only three things can be guaranteed: family sanctioned underage drinking, family time with that underage drinking, and indoctrinating the new and the young to the jolly fat man Santa Claus.
The girls were in the living room of the main house, talking amongst each other while watching one of those TV documentaries Santa. "The Science of Santa Clause" or something stupid like that. Twilight was taking notes in her notepad as if it was an actual lecture, and the rest of them were talking about the guy and the lore behind him. I wasn't worried about it. It was Christmas Eve, and the only thing I wanted to be concerned about that night was the eggnog.
Sweet, sweet, intoxicating eggnog.
Overlooking the girls at the dinning room table was the six of us: Myself, my older sister Jenna, our best friend Nassir, Jenna's friend/pseudo-boyfriend Joshua, My mother, and my step-dad Richard. We were a hour past the massive Christmas Eve dinner that had everyone in attendance feeling bloated and groggy, with the obvious answer to that was a drink that contains alcohol: which makes you drowsy as well. Our conversation was loud and festive, minus the occasion playful jabs from one of the younger members to the other, myself included. While that was going on, I kept my eyes on the girls because they had the look: They were up to something, conspiring, planning, coming up with ideas, which in my experience with them always led to trouble .
Oh, for those who are not keeping score at home: My name is You'll never know ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) , and for the last five months or so I have been sheltering the girls here in my home as we try to find the portal to lead them home. So far they have learned to adjust to their new bodies, new situation, new friends, new... Everything. Since they arrived on that fateful day, my life has been nothing but misadventures, awkward moments, and accidental full frontal nudity. They are a complete handful, but I love them each dearly as if they were my children... With the exception of Rainbow Dash, but that's a different story for a different day.
With the eggnog in my hand, I decided to go sit with them and see what they were up to. "Hey girls, what'cha all up to?"
"We are trying to figure out who this 'Santa Claus' is, he defines any of the science that has been established in your world," Twilight explained.
I tried to give them an answer. "Well, all I know is that he comes by Christmas Eve and hands out toys to good kids and gives lumps of coal to bad kids all over the world."
"Wait a second, partner. How can he go so fast n'e'way?" Applejack asked.
"Reindeer," I answered.
"Reindeer? The textbooks at school said never said they can fly!" Fluttershy pointed out.
"These are magic reindeer, even one of them has a red nose."
"A red nose? does it have a cold? Santa is making reindeer work while they are sick? That's not nice of him," Fluttershy continued.
"Well no. 'Rudolf' was born with it. He used to be made fun of for it, but he became popular with the rest of the Reindeer because he had it and it ended up saved Christmas one year."
"Oh, that explains things, I think," Fluttershy finally said.
"Wait a minute. You said that he gives children toys if their good and coal if their bad. But how can he tell?" Pinkie asked.
"He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake. He knows when you've been bad or good. So yea."
"So he is watching us right now? Even when we shower? Wow he must be a giant perv-"
"WELL I'M OUT OF EGGNOG! TIME TO REFILL! YEA!" I screamed as I got off the couch and went back to the dinning table, but not before hearing the three words from Twilight that always broke me into a cold sweat from experience: 'here's the plan..'
I was asked how the girls were doing by my mother as I made my way to my old seat and told everyone in the table their plan.
Everyone couldn't stop laughing.
"Those girls are a hoot, son. I don't know how you found them but I'm glad you did," Mom said as she took another drink of her nog. "You will make me a proud mother and future grandmother if you take all of them to Utah or whatever and marry every one of them."
Nas cleared his throat in clear displeasure.
My blond, 5'5 mother looked at the 6'3 black kid with shoulder length cornrows sitting at the table with a mischievous smile.
"So which one, Nassir?"
Nas took a deep breath and sighed. "AJ."
"My best friend from college married a black man. They had really cute children tougher. Go for it Nassir!"
Nassir smiled, the same smile that was able to make an entire room light up. He called it his 'Prime-time'. To him, it was a blessing from the woman who was considered like a mother to the girls, especially Applejack. As the night continued, and from the certain clips of conversation I was picking up from the other room, Twilight's opinion turned from "we need to find out everything we can about him" to "he was made by parents to make kids behave! What a scam!"
*Tips le fedora*
At the time, I was getting a bit tipsy off the eggnog, so I turned to my friends when something it me.
"Hey guys, I got a really bad idea."
***
It was probably around midnight, and maybe in the high 30's temperature wise. Our part California in the wintertime does not get any snow whatsoever, in fact even having rain was a godsend, but I digress.. The girls were supposed to be in bed, which they were, but we all assumed that they were faking it and were waiting for the big guy.
And he was minutes away from showing up... for them.
The tree from my neighbors yard was a perfect way to get on the roof of the 2 bed room, 2 bath, 2 floor guest house which was more like a single family home in the back of my parents more luxurious establishment.
I was in position on a branch, with sleigh bells in hand.
In the bushes below was Jenna, Nassir, and Joshua. When the time came, they threw good sized rocks on the roof, making it sound like hooved animals just landed on the roof.
"He's here!" Twilight screamed. She was loud enough that her scream that was muffled by the insulated window can still be heard from where I was.
I leaped from the branch to the roof with a loud thud, stomping loud enough to emulate a heavyset person walking around, while mildly jerking the sleigh bells around as I did for added measure.
"Quick! Lets go outside and see him!" The muffled cries of Rarity rang out.
Shit.
I looked down. My friends heard what the girls were going to do and were motioning from behind the bushes to get out and hide. I had a choice right then: either be found out, or risk my life to perpetuate a lie. I threw my hands up in defeat and awaited the fate before me, which having six young girls mad at you for lying to them is not a good way to spend Christmas Eve.
As I did, visions of the 6 began racing in my mind. They were saddened, disappointed. Asking me why would I lie to them in tears on a black background. Why would I get their hopes up. It finally hit home when the vision ended with Rainbow Dash in tears telling me how much she hated me and that she never wanted to see me again.
I looked to the tree branch that get me on the roof in the first place.
I love you girls, but you're gonna be the death of me.
I made a full sprint to the branch, which considering the angle of the roof, I was lucky I didn't stumble and fall off the roof altogether. I was about to jump, then the gutter tripped me up, and sent me flying off the roof. With luck, one of my arms hooked on the branch, which prevented me from falling two stories to the cold, hard ground. My heart was racing, and the feeling of relief was surging all over my body.
That was until...
*Crack*
I never had time to react to the branch giving way under my weight. I never even had a chance to scream on the way down. Or, maybe I still wanted to believe that I could of saved Christmas if I didn't scream took the pain. Either way, I learned a very important lesson that night...
...Falling hurts.
***
I didn't cry, at least I had that to keep my head up high.
Still, being thrown by Joshua and Nas onto the couch like a sack of potatoes after falling 2 stories did not feel good, but at least the girls were legitimate worried, and not angry at me... at least over the lying about Santa.
"What were you thinking, egghead?!" Rainbow asked as I was still feeling the aches and pains from my upper to lower back.
"I didn't want to disappoint you girls. I wanted to show you the Christmas spirit. I know you wanted to believe in Santa, like how I believed in him as a kid. I'm sorry."
"It's fine," Twilight said. "The more we talked about it, the more we began to think that maybe Santa exists in our hearts and not as a real person."
"That was corny. But cute," I commented.
"You did all that just for us? Why?" Rarity asked.
"Of course! and why I did it? Because I love every single one of you, and I really wanted you all to smile." I said with a smile.
The all dawwed and went for a group hug while I was still laying down. Their warm bodies all over mine, and it felt great considering what I just went to.
"I can't believe ya did that just fo' us sugarcube, but ya didn't have to give us more presents," Applejack commented.
"Wait, what?"
The girls broke their collective hug and pointed towards the tree: it had gifts from everyone from the family, Nas, and Joshua to the girls, and to each other. But, there was something under there that we never seen before: 10 new gifts, in gold wrapping paper and gold lace. It was for every one of us. From "Santa".
Outside, we heard sleigh bells ringing, and a muffed laughter of a jolly old man. . They looked at me, thinking this was probably another trick, and I looked at the coffee table which was the resting spot for the sleigh bells I took up to the roof.
Everyone made a mad dash for the door and out in the cold, even the pain that I was feeling went away so that I wouldn't miss what was probably happening . We looked up, and under the shadow of the moonlight we saw what looked like the famous sleigh, the flying deer looking things, even the glowing light from the front of the sleigh was a dead ringer.
"What?!" I screamed out loud.
We heard the iconic laugh echo through the night as he circled around us, beams of golden glitter flew from the sleigh to the chimneys and through the windows of the homes in the neighborhood. Santa just kept circling around, allowing the beams to reach their destination. The old guy even waived, at us, which we waived back with not much enthusiasm, which was more or less because of the fact we still could not believe that what was happening.
As we all stood there and watched, I saw Joshua put his arms around Jenna's shoulders."Feliz Navidad."
"Y-you too," Jenna said as she wrapped self around his side.
Nassir used the time to stand next to Applejack and dangle a mistletoe above her.
"Y'a know what this means, right beau?"
"Ah, ya want some sugar, sugar cube? well close ya eyes."
He closed his eyes and puckered his lips, waiting for the one thing he wanted from her the moment he laid eyes on her. Instead, he got a kiss on the cheeks from Applejack with a face that said both 'playing hard to get, but I'm enjoying it' and 'eat shit'.
"Merry Christmas, Nas!"
Twilight, Fluttershy,Pinkie and Rarity were all huddled with each other and shivering, trying to keep cold long enough to look at the man, the myth, the legend that was Santa.
Rainbow dash was wrapped around me for warmth, so it was effortless to give her a peck on the forehead.
"Merry Christmas, Dashie."
"Same to you, egghead."
Author's Note
For the ones who have been following this story, I hope you enjoyed this little side story to it.
I'm starting a skype group for fans, pre-readers, proofreaders, editors and people who can help me and everyone else in the chat become better in writing. If you want to join this group (and skype is free to get and register btw) add me (louisros1990 is my skype) and tell me you want to join the group.
