I don't own the Home Alone characters. But I own Calissa and Grandma Betty.

Home Alone: Very Far From Home

Chapter 1

It was Christmas time again in Chicago. For many people, Christmas was a peaceful time, filled with joy and thankfulness. For others, it was just a crazy pain in the neck.

It was one of those Christmas's for the McCallisters again.

Children and adults raced around the house frantically, searching for the last minute things to stuff inside their suitcases. This year, Mrs. McCallister and Mr. McCallister had decided that it would be nice for the family to go to Hawaii. Everybody was thrilled with the decision.

Everybody but Kevin McCallister.

"I still don't see why we can't stay here this year." he protested to his mother in her bedroom. She was folding her bathing suit and shoving it inside along with sunscreen, flip-flops, and an inflatable plastic beach ball.

She sighed tiredly. "For the millionth time Kevin, we can not stay because it's too cold. Nobody in this family likes the snow and the below freezing temperature."

"I like it." Kevin argued defiantly. "Does that make me not a member of this family?"

Mrs. McCallister froze. She turned around slowly and stared sadly at her son. "You know what I mean."

Kevin stared back at his mom just as intently. "You didn't answer my question."

Time passed slowly, but Kevin waited patiently for his mother's answer. This was something he wanted to hear. For some reason, he was kind of expecting her to say, "No Kevin, you are not part of this family." He would have agreed. He was very different from the other members of his family. Even though he was the youngest, he thought of himself as the smartest and the most responsible. Anybody who knew the amazing things he'd accomplished probably would have agreed. Unfortunately, his family had no clue of the things he'd done.

Finally Mrs. McCallister spoke again. "No Kevin, I don't think that you are not part of this family."

Kevin nodded up and down once slowly, then spoke. "Good."

Then he turned to go to his room and start packing. They were leaving the next day.

As he walked down the hallway, his older and ruder brother Buzz bumped into him. "Hey!" he protested, and Buzz smirked rudely. "Hey doofus. Why don't you watch where you're going?"

"But you bumped into me!" Kevin accused, pointing a finger at Buzz. Even though he knew it was a lost cause, he always spoke up in a feeble attempt to try making people realize what they'd done was wrong.

This time was like every other time. Buzz just smirked and started walking away. "Whatever, doorknob."

At this moment, a few of Kevin's older sisters walked past. Hearing Buzz's comment, they snickered and giggled. "Doorknob." One of them chuckled, looking mischievously at Kevin.

That made him snap. He let out a battle cry, and jumped onto Buzz's back, making him fall onto the floor on his face. In retaliation, he rolled over, squishing Kevin. This fight went on for three minutes, children coming up to watch and chant, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" Finally Mr. McCalllister came up and separated the boys. "What's going on here?" he demanded.

"Buzz called me a doorknob and a doofus!" Kevin proclaimed, frowning furiously at his older brother. Buzz simply looked up at his father and said, "No I didn't. Kevin just jumped on top of me."

"That's not true, and you know it!" Kevin yelled, lunging towards him. Luckily his father was there to hold him back. "That's enough Kevin. Now apologize at once."

"What? No!" Kevin cried out furiously. "That's not fair! Buzz made me angry! He should apologize to me!"

"Don't make me ground you Kevin." His father said threateningly. Kevin knew that he meant what he said, but he didn't think it was fair. It was never fair. He was always accused of being bad. He was always the one punished. Nothing ever happened to the other kids.

Like when his cousin Heather had told him that the tooth fairy didn't exist. Or when Megan had 'accidentally' forgotten to order cheese pizza on his birthday. He ended up forcing down a slice of bacon cheeseburger pizza that looked as artificial as plastic surgery. Or when Uncle Frank had told him that he was going to end up as a janitor cleaning the town if he got a C+ on one of his Grade Three spelling tests. Or…The list just kept going on. All of those times Kevin retaliated. And every time, he was the only one that got in trouble. It wasn't just.

Defiantly, Kevin shrugged out of his father's grip. "I'm not going to apologize to Buzz even if you ground me for the rest of my life! I don't want a family this Christmas. I hope that this year I'm all by myself. All alone."

With that, he stomped off to his bedroom.

Several minutes later, his mother came up to find her son lying in his bed, an angry expression on his face. "Kevin, we go through this every year." she sighed sadly. "Why don't you learn anything?"

"Why don't you guys learn anything?" snapped back Kevin sitting up abruptly. "Why don't my brothers and sisters get in trouble when they get me angry?"

His mother had no comment. There was complete silence until she sucked on her teeth, then spoke. "I don't know. But please don't say you don't want us on Christmas."

Kevin stared at her. "I'm sorry. But it's too late for that." He continued to stare at her, and he started to feel like he was in a soap opera. "After what just happened, I don't want a family on Christmas."

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the United States in Oregon, a little girl the same age as Kevin was thinking the exact opposite thing.

Her best friend, an elderly woman whom she called Grandma Betty, was sitting in a rocking chair holding a picture book. "Come on over here and sit on my lap dear. I'm ready to read you Two Front Teeth." she invited her over comfortingly.

But the girl instead chose to sit on the window seat and watch the people and cars driving by outside. "I don't want to listen to that dumb baby book."

Grandma Betty immediately knew that something was wrong. She stood up and put the book down on her chair. Then she walked over to the distressed girl and placed a wrinkled and warm hand on her shoulder. "Calissa, this is your favourite book. The only time you don't want to listen to it is when something's bothering you. So what's the matter?"

Calissa looked up at Grandma Betty with her turquoise eyes. There was a trace of light green eye shadow over top of them, and just a little bit of mascara, plumping up her eyelashes. She had borrowed it from another girl living in the little building.

"It's just that…" Calissa began. "This is my ninth Christmas alone. And I'm ten."

Calissa, like all the other children in the building, were orphans. In Calissa's case, nobody knew what happened to her parents. She had been dropped off on the steps when she was one year old. Nobody had heard from them since.

"Every year is the same. The only thing that changes is the kids I spend Christmas with. They come and go like the seasons. And every time, I'm left here." She adjusted her bandanna on the top of her head, which was red with white dots. On one side the end was tied up in a bow. It was on top of her long blond hair, which was bobbed. Her bangs were long enough to blend in with the rest of the hair, and were parted equally on either side of her head. It was a style that she liked because it was easy to take care of.

Grandma Betty smiled kindly at her. "Calissa, I'm going to tell you what I tell you every year. I believe that one day you will get a family. I'm not a psychic, so I don't know when. But you are a beautiful, kind, caring, smart young girl, and so much more. If I kept on going, I wouldn't stop until I died, and by then I still wouldn't be halfway done explaining all that you are. Anybody who thinks otherwise is a complete nut-bar."

Calissa smiled up at Grandma Betty. She turned around, stood up, and wrapped her arms tightly around her, squeezing as hard as she could. Grandma Betty returned the hug just as lovingly.

Suddenly a rough woman's voice rang into the room. "Calissa! Get your butt down here this instant or you won't get any supper." It was Mrs. Mackerel, the horrible woman who ran the orphanage. Calissa didn't like her. But then again, nobody in the orphanage liked her.

Calissa stood up higher on her tippy-toes to whisper in Grandma Betty's ear. "Is Mrs. Mackerel a nut-bar?"

Grandma Betty chuckled and laughed out loud. "The biggest one in the whole wide world." she answered, giving Calissa a kiss.

Calissa giggled too, then kissed Grandma Betty before racing out the door. Then she stopped and raced back to ask Grandma Betty, "When I get back, can you read Two Front Teeth to me?"

Grandma Betty nodded. "Of course dear. Of course."

That's the end of Chapter One. Please read and review. I hope you enjoyed it.