Author's Warning: Like everything else, this takes place in my series, set up by the events in my first story "More Than My Friend" where the big event is that Frankie adopts Mac and becomes his guardian after a sudden turn of events. If you haven't read that story yet, I strongly suggest you do so now, or else you might get terribly confused.

"…Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg…the Batmobile broke its wheel and the Joker got away, hey! Jingle bells, jingle bells…"

The little azure blob belted out joyously and badly off-key as he lazed near the back of the small bus, singing his little heart out until the redheaded driver could bear it no longer. Scowling, she glanced up into the rearview mirror and snarled ferociously, "For the thousandth time, knock it off!"

Promptly Bloo went as silent as a stone for about three seconds before he hastily forgot that he had been rebuked and broke out singing once more, "Tis the season for a trolley, Fa la la la la, la la la la! La, la la la la la la la, fa la la la…"

Frances "Frankie" Foster grumbled darkly under her breath, but before she could crane her neck around and scold the figment again, she felt a small hand gently pat her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down.

"Frankie, c'mon, it's just Christmas carols." Mac reminded dutifully from directly behind her. The young woman sighed heavily as she merged into another lane.

"I know, but Christmas was five days ago, and he just won't knock it off with the…" Once she realized she was making a mountain out of a molehill, Frankie swiftly cut herself off in mid-sentence, sighed yet again, and grimaced apologetically.

"I'm sorry, pal, it's just…I'm still pretty ticked off that the dump didn't let us leave this off." She confessed as she pointed to what appeared to be a top of a large pine tree snaking out over the top of the roof and a little over the front of the bus, where is dangled slightly in front of the windshield. "I mean, we got up extra early to take care of it, tied the stupid think to the top and everything, and then we lug it across town only to find out they don't accept used Christmas trees anymore, and-"

"I know, I know." Mac conceded. "Still, you don't need to get so frazzled over it."

The redhead paused to let own a gaping yawn. "Sorry. I think that I'm just a bit too cranky to deal with all the aggravation. I guess this just means I made us get up too early to take care of this, and…"

"…And what?" the little boy inquired curiously as something suddenly nabbed total hold of her attention. Once she spotted the sigh bearing a familiar logo not very far down the street, immediately Frankie broke out into a weak smile as her forune suddenly seemed to take a turn for the better.

"But it's probably nothing that a cup of coffee can't fix!" she said excitedly as she switched on the turn signal. As her mood promptly started brightening considerably, she craned her neck around and asked, "You guys want some cocoa?"

"…If we wanted Coco, wouldn't we have just brought her along?" Bloo asked confusedly, while his creator rolled his eyes and ignored the response while he protested politely.

"Well, you don't have to go out of your way to-"

"No, it's fine, see? There's a Starbrucks right up ahead." She explained just as she pulled off the road and into a small parking lot, taking care not to turn very roughly for the sake of the loosely secured tree atop the bus roof. Once she maneuvered the bulky vehicle into several open parking spaces, she turned off the ignition and promptly exited outside into the chilly air.

"C'mon, let's go!" she encouraged with a deft gesture. Obediently the boy and his imaginary friend followed in her wake, and together they all scrambled in out of the biting cold.

"Yesss!" Frankie whooped softly once they entered the trendy coffee shop and saw that there wasn't a single soul waiting in line at the counter. Enormously pleased with this short string of good luck, and eager for a warm cup of coffee to warm her from the inside out, she made a beeline for the counter, where a young man in matching green apron and hat droned in one breath,

"Welcome to Starbrucks what can I get for you today?"

"Yeah, I just want one medium coffee, and two small hot chocolates, please." Frankie requested as she dug her wallet out of her jacket. To her surprise though, when she looked back up the young man hadn't budged an inch to tend to their order. If anything, he looked as if he was still waiting for something, as if she had only given him an unfinished order.

"So, you want…" he murmured and promptly trailed off, staring expectantly at her as if she was supposed to finish the sentence for him.

Unfortunately, the genuinely befuddled redhead honestly didn't know what he wanted to hear, so after a tentative pause, she repeated bewilderedly, "Uh…two small hot chocolates, and one medium coffee, please."

"So, one coffee frapplecino, then?" the anonymous employee asked.

"Um…no, just one medium coffee…with extra milk, please…" Frankie repeated, taking care to speak a little and slower to make extra sure that he understood her order. To her profound confusion though, the young man just gawked at her blankly as if she had just sprouted a third eye before he sighed and rolled his eyes, looking almost annoyed.

"We don't have medium-sized drinks here." He clarified bluntly. Frankie just stared straight back confusedly, unsure of what to make of this puzzling revelation.

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"At Starbrucks we offer three sizes; Tall, Grande, and Venti." He droned, as if he were reading it right out of the employee manual. As plain and concise as his explanation was, the redhead and the others still appeared just as befuddled as before.

"...What's Venti? Some kind of pasta?" Bloo leaned over and asked his creator. Mac just shrugged wordlessly as Frankie tried to clarify her order.

"But I don't want a 'Tall' I just want a medium-sized-"

"Ma'am, we have three sizes." The increasingly annoyed employee started to repeat himself rather huffily. "Tall, Grande, and V-"

"Okay, okay, okay!" Frankie acquiesced as she gestured for him to calm down. "All right! Just give me one tall coffee, and two small…uh, tall hot chocolates, and-"

"So one coffee frapplecino then?" the young man asked.

"No!" Frankie sputtered as this began to spiral into quite the ordeal. "No, just a coffee, please."

Unfortunately, again the fellow just shot her a puzzled look, as if it was almost incomprehensible that someone would actually walk in to simply order nothing more than regular coffee. "Wait…so, you want a lattecino, then?"

"Huh?" she grunted. "No, no, I only want-"

"What kind? Caramel, toffee, mint, cinnamon, chai-"

"No, I told you, I just want a-"

"A mocha, then? Or a decaf double mochapresso? Or do you want…"

As he went on, naming coffee drink after coffee drink, each one with a name longer and more difficult to pronounce than the one preceding it, the three standing before him just gawked as if he were reciting Latin poetry.

"Ow…" Bloo suddenly whined and starting clutching his head while the torture continued relentlessly.

"…There's also the spiced apple-mint chai double-mochapressocino, and for a limited time only we have-"

"Coffee!" Frankie begged, unable to endure this trendy nightmare any longer. "Just a regular-"

"But what kind of-" the employee inquired yet again.

"I told you already!" Frankie snapped as she rapidly spiraled towards wit's end. "All I want is a-"

Before Frankie was forced to explain for the umpteenth time, she was suddenly interrupted by a long, overdramatic sigh coming from behind her, followed by a shrill exasperated cry. "Will you hurry just it up already? God!"

The redhead turned around, and for a moment had the strongest impulse to shut her eyes tightly. After all, the young woman standing behind her was coated in a spray-on tan so orange, it was near blinding as she lowered her sunglasses a little to give the caretaker a nasty glower.

"Well?" she snapped impatiently. "Haven't you made up your mind? I've been waiting for like, ever and I-"

"I'm sorry." Frankie groaned in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, it's just that I don't come here often at all, and-"

At this point, the other woman's eyes grew as wide as saucers in genuine shock. "What? Wait, you mean you actually-"

"Uh….yeah." The redhead answered, taken slightly off guard by the blonde's authentic surprise. "I don't-"

"But why wouldn't you?" the other woman demanded, as if nothing else on the face of the planet could be so appalling. "I mean, I'd just die if I didn't get my chai mochalattecino every morning-"

"A what?" Frankie asked. "Wait, is that even an actual…wait…wait, a what-now?"

"Omigod, you mean you've never heard of it? I can't get start my day without one!" exclaimed the "tan" woman. "Well, that does it, then! You're so totally going to order one! Honestly, you have no idea what you've been missing out on-"

"But…but…" Frankie stammered, temporarily overwhelmed by the aggressive store patron until Mac spoke up defensively.

"But we don't care what we're been missing out on!" the boy protested. "We just want some cocoa, and a cup of coffee too!"

As soon as the others started nodding in agreement, the spray-tan girl immediately narrowed her eyes and curled her lips into a scornful scowl, as if she were face to face with nothing more than a mere clan of unsophisticated barbarians.

"Oh…I see." She remarked scornfully, while meanwhile at the counter the young man waved his hand and grumbled impatiently.

"Hello? Ma'am? So are you getting the spiced apple-mint double-mochapressocino, or not? Hello? Excuse me!"

By this point, the besieged caretaker had finally remembered why she seldom ever came here. As far as she saw it, she and the little ones were nothing more unwanted aliens to this hostile land of overpriced drinks with ultra-complicated names and the trendy caffeine addicts who indulged in them. Mac and Bloo were already so intimidated by it all, they were nearly overwhelmed as they huddled close to the redhead for safety.

As her patience reached breaking point, Frankie snapped, "All right! All right! Never mind! Just…just forget about it, okay? Forget it!"

Not wasting a single moment, Frankie hastily herded the little ones towards the door, and after pausing to give everyone a look that could kill, in a second she had stormed outside and out of sight. Meanwhile, simply thankful that the uncultured redhead had vacated the premises, the other woman flicked back her long black hair and gasped thankfully, "Finally!"

Without further ado, she placed her order, and just a minute later she was strolling towards the exit, with her ten-dollar drink in one hand and cell phone in the other.

"Omigod, you're so not gonna believe what just happened to me." She yapped dramatically. "I was just getting my…huh? Yeah, the usual. Omigod, aren't they soooo yummy? Yeah? Okay, anyway, this redhead was all like, 'I want a coffee, gimme a coffee, no, regular coffee, blah, blah, and…I know, can you believe it? Omigod, like who honestly goes to Starbrucks and just gets a-"

THUD.

Maybe had she been paying attention, she would've safely avoided catastrophe. Alas, her gossip took top priority, and even though she held out her arm to open the door, it nevertheless remained obstinately shut, and thus she walked right into it. Once she had smacked into the thick glass, in a heartbeat she was utterly drenched from the front in her overpriced drink. As soon as she saw the fresh but hideously ugly stain marring her designer jacket, instantly she started squealing shrilly in dismay, so distraught she had yet to notice the large pine tree someone had deposited right outside, which was effectively blocking the door shut.

Meanwhile, not very far off a trio calmly watched the entire spectacle unfold. As Mac seemed a bit nervous about getting in trouble, his guardian just ruffled his hair reassuringly and happily enjoyed the sight for all it was worth, as did the little blob standing at her feet.

"Oooh! Oooh! Think we can make this into a new holiday tradition? Please Pretty Please?" Bloo begged shamelessly between his giggling fits.

Smiling toothily from ear to ear, the caretaker laughed, "I know a good idea when I hear one…"

The End