The glimmering snow glided gently over Amity Park giving it a serene atmosphere. It was finally Christmas day and with it came two weeks off of school. Danny was happy for the well needed break in ghost hunting and the extra time to spend with his friends and family. That morning a few ghosts had even stopped by to wish him a "merry Christmas" and a promise to be back in action the next day. He didn't mind the threats, though. After a little less than a year of ghost hunting, he had gotten used to them.
For now, he could ignore them and enjoy some hot chocolate and opening the presents that had been sitting under the tree for the past week, mocking him. Even as teenagers, Jazz and Danny acted like little kids when it came to present time. It never took more than 5 minutes for the floor to be littered in torn paper and ribbon. Even Jack took pleasure tearing his presents open.
Not long after present time, Sam and Tucker would venture over to exchange presents with their second family. They, of course, would be forced to stay for a huge lunch with turkey, mashed potatoes, and mountains of gravy (not that Tucker was complaining).
This year was no exception to the normal traditions and Danny found himself laughing with Sam and Tucker on the couch in the festively decorated living room. A few minutes ago, Maddie and Jazz had slipped away to the upstairs. The others couldn't help but to hope that there were more presents on their way.
When he heard footsteps coming back down, Danny saw his mom with a video camera in her hands, first. Jazz followed moments later with a dozen helium filled balloons that reflected the lights of the Christmas tree. Confusion filled the faces of the other teenagers of the room. It grew even more when Jack pulled out a radio and placed a CD inside. The whole time, the elder members of the family had Cheshire-like grins across their faces.
Jazz strolled over to the three friends and handed each one a balloon. "Untie them, but don't let the helium out, okay?" Sam, Danny, and Tucker nodded to the genius girl and did as she said, hoping it might be part of some mystery present. Behind her, Maddie pressed the record button on the camera and pointed it their way. She had a feeling this would be one of the most memorable Christmas's they had ever had.
"Uh, what are you guys doing?" asked Danny.
"Creating Christmas memories, little brother," replied Jazz with an almost evil grin. The three friends exchanged nervous glances with each other before turning their attention back to the older girl. In return, she rolled her eyes, "all you have to do is sing a little, guys." Tucker eyed the balloon held in his hand.
"Uh-uh, you are not going to get me to sing and there is no way we're letting Tucker sing ever again," said Sam. In resistance, the boy in question took a deep breath from the balloon.
"Hey! I am a perfectly good singer," protested the techno geek in a high, squeaky voice.
"Yeah, compared to a dying cat, maybe," added Danny, snickering.
"It won't be as bad as you guys think; besides, your voices will be really high pitch anyways. Plus, you don't get a choice in the matter. It's either this or facing the turkey that may or may not have come to life," said Jazz. The teens' eyes grew wide.
With that final thought, Jack pressed play on the stereo and the music began. "Alright, you chipmunks," he said playfully, "Ready to play your song?"
Not wanting to be attacked by a turkey so soon into the day, they nervously looked at each other then to the balloons. Together they breathed in deep and prepared to start.
Christmas, Christmas time is near
Time for toys and time for cheer
We've been good, but we can't last
Hurry Christmas, hurry fast
Jazz had a hand over her mouth to keep herself from laughing and Jack was snickering into his black glove. Halfway through each verse, the teens had to take another breath from their balloons so that their voices stayed nice and high. That just pushed the family closer to cracking up.
Want a plane that loops the loop
Me, I want a hoola hoop
We can hardly stand the wait
Please Christmas don't be late
Danny sang out the second line and smiles finally started to grow on Sam and Tucker's faces. It was turning out to be a lot more fun than they thought it would be. Jazz was right when she said that the squeaky voices would help.
When the break in the lyrics was almost over, Jack piped in. "Okay kids, get ready. That was very good Sam-"
Naturally
"Very good, Tucker-"
The boy giggled in response. Jazz couldn't hold it in any longer and burst into uncontrollable laughter.
"Danny, you were a little flat, watch it. Danny?" The halfa could only stare at Tucker with an unbelieving smile. He couldn't believe they were singing this in the first place, but to hear that noise come out of Tucker? He just didn't know how to respond.
"DANNY!" He snapped out of it and took a breath from a new balloon.
Okay!
Want a plane that loops the loop
I still want a hoola hoop
We can hardly stand the wait
Please Christmas don't be late
We can hardly stand the wait
Please Christmas don't be late
"Very good kids," said Maddie with some giggles. By now, Jazz was getting herself back together, wiping some tears from her face from laughing so hard.
Let's sing it again!
Yeah, let's sing it again!
Tucker, who was sitting in the middle, jumped up in excitement, accidentally hitting Sam in the face with what was left of his balloon. In annoyance, the goth jabbed him in the side. In turn, he fell into Danny on his other side who pushed him away. Before the meat-lover could fall on her, Sam put her hands up to push him back to Danny.
Tucker flailed his arms trying to balance himself, but only managed to thwap Danny in the face. He was thrown off balance and fell onto the strings of the balloons, taking them to the ground with him. The colorful, stretched out rubber came into contact with the sharp needles of the Christmas tree and exploded on impact. Maddie and Jack yelled in panic, jumping to making sure the now off balance tree didn't fall on Danny.
The released helium spread and soon the house was filled with yells of varying pitches. Sam and Tucker were swatting at each other, Danny was yelling at Tucker and Sam for pushing him, Jack and Maddie were trying to ask Danny if he was okay, and Jazz was on the floor clutching her sides with tears of laughter running down her cheeks.
All the while, the camera that Maddie had set down on top of the TV in her panic was getting it all on tape. Every change in pitch, every panicked look, every shouted word, and especially the Chipmunk Song playing happily in the background. But, if you were to listen very carefully, you could hear echoing laughter beyond the music and fighting; laughter that didn't belong to anyone onscreen.
Later that night, before midnight, but after his family had all gone to bed, Danny set off into the Ghost Zone to the annual Christmas Truce party. Everywhere he flew there were Christmas decorations floating about along with the occasional ghost heading to different parties held throughout the Zone.
As he neared the prison where his enemies would all be at, he could hear music with a happy tune to it and sudden bursts of laughter. It sounded like this year was going to be really crazy. Maybe he'd even get to see a Vlad get drunk enough to dance on top of a table. Getting closer and closer, he could almost make out some of the words of the song. It sounded really familiar as if he had just heard it earlier in the day.
Want a plane that loops the loop
He paused right outside the door, his eyes widening. Of course they would play that song. It's just his luck that that would be the song that would be playing when he arrived. With a sigh, he opened the prison gate and traveled the decorated corridors into the meal hall.
The room was glittering with lights and trees and the entire place was packed full of ghosts whose attention was locked on a large screen on the far side of the room. To Danny's disbelief, a video was playing with three teenagers all holding balloons in their hands and singing the Chipmunk Song. One of them was him and the other two were his two best friends.
Let's sing it again!
Yeah, let's sing it again!
His jaw fell to the ground as Video Tucker got himself in a pushing war between Video Danny and Video Sam. His eyes followed when Video him fell into the balloons and the tree tipped and popping filled his ears. He listened while everyone's voices went higher and higher in pitch. Finally, the screen faded to black and every ghost burst into even greater laughter than before.
From the front of the meal hall, Ember spotted him and her acid green eyes met his emerald. She smirked evilly at him, then winked.
"And our star has just arrived!" announced the popstar.
Danny glared and ran a hand over his face as every evilly grinning face turned to his direction. One thing was for sure; he was never going to live this one down.
This one has been ready for a while now, but I wanted to wait until after Thanksgiving to post it. Happy Holidays to you all and I hope you enjoyed this little present. R&R please.
Humming:I am close to posting chapters for this again, I just want to get a few more chapters written so that you guys can have a steady stream of them. I don't want to make you all have to wait months at a time for me to update.