***Boy, it's been a while since I've visited The Nightmare Before Christmas, hasn't it? Well, this is just something that popped into my mind while playing some of the songs on the piano earlier today that I pretty much had to get down. Everything NBC belongs to the great Tim Burton, the story plot belongs to me, and let's get rolling!

Chapter One: On A Cold Winter Day

Lakin, Samantha, and Brayden had been friends for as long as they could remember. Lakin and Samantha, being the only children in their neighborhood, had immediately became friends.

Brayden, who had lost his parents abruptly one evening to a drunk driver, had taken up residence in the treehouse in Lakin's backyard. Since the three had become so close, they had taken to putting their shared love of pranks together. Thus, to their immense enjoyment, they became the most notorious mischief-makers in their school and neighborhood. But, this time, they had taken to enjoying the snow day.

"Come on, slow poke!" Lakin snapped, standing below the treehouse. He was already in his snow clothes. "One second!" Brayden yelled back. A few moments later, he climbed down the ladder, fully dressed. "Alright, let's go," he said. So, they walked to the town park.

"Where's Sam? You called her, didn't you?" Brayden asked, looking around for the one missing from their trio. "Yeah. She's probably just being even more slow than you are," Lakin scoffed.

"Up here, blockheads!"

The boys looked up at the tree they were standing under to see Sam sitting on the branch there. She proceeded to push all of the snow on said branch onto Lakin and Brayden before jumping down and laughing.

"Very funny," Lakin grumbled. Brayden threw a snowball at Sam, which initiated nothing less than a war.

XxX

After a peace treaty of some sort had been verbally made, the three decided to move on to something else. "What's in that bag?" Brayden asked. Sam took her black bag off of her shoulders and opened it. "Skates. Watch this," she said.

Once geared up, she skated onto the ice on a single foot, doing a flawless figure-eight before turning to her friends. "Only a girly-girl knows how to skate like that!" Lakin called. Same gritted her teeth; she hated being referred to as a girly-girl. "You're just saying that because you can't do any better!" she retaliated.

Lakin was always ready for a challenge. "Come on, Brayden," he said. "Where are we going?" Brayden asked. He was dragged by his wrist towards a vendor who had clearly only set up because of the snow day.

"We're gonna skate," Lakin responded.

XxX

"Are you really that set on beating me?" Sam asked after seeing what measures had been taken. "Yes," Lakin said. He was the first to get is newly-rented skates on, so he was the first to attempt to skate for the first time in his young life. He was only able to make it out by gliding on two feet, though.

"I'm still winning. Hey, Brayden, you give it a shot!" Sam called.

So, Brayden flew onto the ice. He slid right past her friends and didn't stop moving until the patch of ice he was on gave way beneath him. Everyone who was also on the ice stopped to look at the sight.

Lakin, determined to save his friend, jumped into the ice hole as well. Sam looked at everyone else. "Call for her, you idiots!" she ordered.

Brayden was struggling to get anywhere at all. His already-heavy snow clothes were only getting heavier. As he ran out of oxygen, his movements slowed. Until he lost the battle for his life against the frozen waters.

Lakin swan back to the surface. "H-he's d-d-dead," he declared, his teeth chattering. He struggled to find the strength to get out of the waters as the cold he'd been exposed to began to make his body shut down.

Sam grabbed him tightly. "Don't you dare die on me too, you idiot!" she screamed. But, her words were in vain. Lakin started coughing and hacking before he went limp and fell into his final rest. Sam didn't have to check for a pulse to know that he was gone. She had lost her only friends in a single night. In silence, she pushed past the people who'd surrounded the scene.

As she walked home, for the first time in her life, she didn't even care that she was crying.

***If you argue with me that Lakin isn't a name, then let me tell you that I actually know a guy named Lakin. Anyways, leave a review on the way out, and I'll see you in the next one! Bye!