It was another manic day at the Ashdene Ridge. But with Christmas only a few days away, this was expected. The kids had broken up from school the previous day, and Floss, Harry, Billie, Toni, Finn and Mo were making Christmas decorations with treasure from Mo's collection. May-Li helped them. Kazima was busy in the kitchen making mince pies and Tee was busy wrapping presents in her bedroom. Johnny and Bailey were at each other's throats, as usual, arguing over their chores, and Ryan was lurking around mysteriously like normal. Christmas music filled the house, by Floss and Harry's request. Mike was sat at the kitchen table trying to get five minutes of peace, when Carmen walked in.
"Mike, I've got some last minute Christmas shopping to do, can I go to the shopping centre please?" She asked, wrapping a grey and pink plaid scarf around her neck.
"Yeah, but you'll need to get the bus, I'll just grab you some money from the office." Mike said, getting up from his seat and heading in the direction of the office.
"Do you want me to come with you, for some company?" Kazima asked, placing her tray of mice pies in the oven.
"I'd love that, Kaz, but I'm actually getting your present today!" Carmen said, adding a suspicious tone to her voice.
"You're getting me a gift?" Kazima asked in surprise.
"Yeah, of course! You're one of my best friends here." Carmen answered. Kazima smiled.
"Well, thank you." She said, just as Mike returned with some money for Carmen to get the bus.
"Thanks, Mike, I shouldn't be any longer than two hours." Carmen told Mike, entering the hallway and putting on her coat. And then she left the house.


Carmen was just about finished with her Christmas shopping. She was looking at some perfumes to get ideas for May-Li, but decided that none of them were what she was looking for, so left the shop. But as she did, the alarm went off, and one of the women from behind the desk approached her. Carmen was left looking utterly confused as the woman starting looking in all of her bags.
"I haven't taken anything I swear!" Carmen told the women, confusion visible in her face and audible in her voice.


"Then how do you explain this?" The woman rhetorically asked, producing one of the perfumes that Carmen was looking at from inside one of her shopping bags.
"What?" Carmen asked, really confused now.
"I think you'd better come with me." The woman sighed, escorting Carmen towards the back of the shop and taking her into a small room. There was a man inside wearing a suit.
"Russell, I've just caught this girl thieving a perfume." The woman, who Carmen noticed from her name badge was called Helen, said.
"Right, sit down." The man, Russell said, signalling to a chair behind a desk. Once Carmen was sat down, she was sitting opposite Russell. Helen left.
"What's your name?" Russell asked, producing a sheet of paper, which appeared to be an incident form.
"Carmen Howell." Carmen muttered nervously.
"Age?"
"15."
"Date of birth?"
"23rd May."
"So, what was it you stole?"
"I don't know. I didn't steal it." Carmen insisted.
"Well, it was in your bag, unpaid for." Russell said.
"It must've fallen in or something, off the shelf." Carmen explained, but Russell raised his eyebrows in disbelief.
"Listen here, Carmen. Im the manager of this store. I have kids like you in this shop everyday. As the manager, it's my job to prevent things like this. It would be so much easier if you were honest with me, we phone your parents and you go home." Russell told Carmen.
"Phone my parents?" Carmen asked nervously.
"Yes, to take you straight home. Since this is the first time Carmen, we won't press charges." Russell said.
"Well, thank you, I think, it's just, is there any way I can get out of here without you having to phone...home" Carmen stuttered.
"I'm afraid not, so I suppose you should give me a number." Russell said.
"Right." Carmen whispered, her eyes wide in fear.
"So, who am I phoning, your mum?" Russell asked. Carmen gulped.
"No." She said, and it could barely be heard.
"Dad?" He asked. Carmen shook her head.
"Grandparents? Auntie or Uncle? Friend's parent?" Russell suggested. Carmen shook her head.
"Well, I need to call someone to pick you up." Russell told Carmen. "Are you sure your mum's not around?"
"She lives in Spain." Carmen said.
"Right." Russell sounded shocked. "Dad?"
"I don't know who my dad is." Carmen said. Russell frowned.
"So, who exactly do you live with?" He asked.
"I live in a children's home." Carmen said quietly. Russell looked shocked again.
"Right. Err, sorry, so what's the number?"
Carmen told Russell the number to phone to get hold of Mike at Ashdene Ridge. She knew she was going to be in a great deal of trouble, even though she'd done nothing wrong.


Even more chaos was taking place at the DG. Mike had just got the Christmas tree down from the attic, and all of the younger ones were arguing over decorations and who gets to put the fairy on top. May-Li had taken Jody and Tyler out to a shopping centre near where she lived to get the last of their Christmas shopping done, so this got a few other kids out of the way. Kaz had finished making her mince pies, and she was now baking gingerbread men. Tee was trying to help Mike with the younger ones, but so far only Mo was listening, and also trying to calm the others down. Johnny and Bailey were at each other's throats again, but this time over a game of pool. Bailey had lost, so therefore he'd accused Johnny of cheating. So Tee was also trying desperately to calm those two down! Mike was beginning to get a headache, and luckily the phone in the office distracted him from the commotion in the living room.
"Hello, Ashdene Ridge?" He said, holding the phone to his ear.
"Am I talking to the guardian of Carmen Howell?" The voice through the phone asked.
"Yes, why?" Mike asked, confused.
"We've caught her shoplifting at the local beauty store."
Mike sighed, a look of disappointment on his face.
"Right, and I suppose I've got to come and pick her up?" Mike asked.
"Yes please." Russell gave Mike the name of the shop and whereabouts she was, and then Mike ended the phone call. He then entered May-Li's number into the phone, but it went straight to voicemail, and the same happened the second time he tried her number. Mike knew he had to pick up Carmen, but he also knew that he couldn't leave the children by themselves, but it would be an absolute nightmare to try and take them all to the shopping centre. Besides, May-Li had taken the minibus. So Mile made his was to the living room, to explain the current situation to the kids.
"Carmen? Shoplifting?" Johnny asked in disbelief.
"That doesn't sound like something she would do." Tee frowned, confused.
"Well, I need to pick her up, but I can't leave you here by yourself." Mike sighed.
"Johnny will go and get her!" Tee suggested. She was trying to get back at her brother for spending the morning shouting at Bailey over the smallest things!
"What?" Johnny asked.
"That's a good idea. I'll give him a note to explain that I couldn't make it because I couldn't leave all of you here, so I had to send Johnny instead." Mike said, headed into the office to write the note and give Johnny some money for the bus.
"Wait, why me? Can't Ryan or Bailey go?" Johnny complained.
"Because your the eldest, and your more trustworthy than both of them!" Mike said, lowering his voice for the last part, though it didn't go unheard by the two boys!
"Hey, I'm much more trustworthy than that loser." Bailey scowled. Johnny rolled his eyes angrily.
"Enough! Anyway, here you go, Johnny, don't be too long, and try to get some answers out of Carmen please." Mike said, handing Johnny the money for the bus and the note. He also told Johnny the shop Carmen was in and where about in the shop to find her. And then Johnny left for the bus stop.


Carmen was still sat in the small room at the back of the shop. Silence filled the room, as Russell was on his computer and Carmen sat tapping her fingers on the table.
"Look, is there any way you can check the security footage to prove that I'm innocent?" Carmen asked, sighing slightly.
"Oh, well I hadn't thought of that." Russell said, sounding slightly embarrassed. He tapped a few buttons on the computer and then sat back on his chair and watched the footage. Carmen stood up and joined him on the other side of the desk. The security footage showed a perfume bottle falling into one of Carmen's shopping bags just before she left the shop. Russell stopped the footage.
"Well, it appears that we've made a mistake. Sorry for wasting your time Carmen." Russell apologised. Carmen sat back in her original seat.
"I tried to tell you." She said.
"Well, you might as well wait for your guardian, Mike, was it?" Russell said. Carmen nodded. Once Russell wasn't looking, she smiled slightly, at the fact that her innocence had been proven. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Russell stood up and opened it.
"Mike, is it?" He asked, confused.
"No. He had to stay to look after the other kids, I've go a note." Johnny said, handing the note to Russell.
"Fair enough. Carmen, I'm sorry for the inconvenience and I'll be making a phone call to your guardian to make sure they know of the misunderstanding." Russell smiled. Carmen nodded, walking out of the door that Johnny had left open. He had to run to catch her up.
"Carmen, wait!" He called, but Carmen didn't stop walking until she was out of the shop.
"What!" Carmen asked, agitated.
"Mike wants to know why you-"
"I didn't steal anything, stop interrogating me!" Carmen yelled, starting to walk quicker again, leaving Johnny running to catch her up again! But this time Carmen didn't stop walking until she was at the bus stop.
"I just wanna know what it was like." Johnny said quietly. Carmen just looked up at him and then started at the ground.
"Scary." She mumbled. Johnny nodded.
"I bet it was. But, why did you steal the perfume?" He asked.
"I didn't steal the perfume." Carmen answered through gritted teeth.
"I'm confused." Johnny said.
"It fell in my bag if you must know, go and watch the security footage if you don't believe me." Carmen almost shouted.
"No, I believe you." Johnny said.
"God, im going to be in so much trouble when we get back." Carmen said, putting a hand to her forehead. "Well, the man you were with said he was going to phone Mike, presumably telling him you did nothing wrong." Johnny pointed out. Carmen nodded, and the bus showed up, so the two travelled back to Ashdene Ridge. They were greeted by an angry looking Mike.
"Carmen, office, now." He said sternly, and Carmen followed him into the office, looking back at Johnny as she did. Pretty much all of the other children had gathered in the hallway.
"Mike, wait." Johnny called. He turned around, after telling Carmen to wait in the office.
"Yes Johnny?" He said.
"Carmen hasn't done anything wrong. The manager of the shop, I think, played the security footage and the perfume fell into Carmen's bag. He's going to phone you to confirm everything." Johnny explained. Mike relaxed a little bit, and as if on cue, the phone in the office rang.
"Hello, Ashdene Ridge?" Mike said. The phone all was from Russell, cleaning everything up.
"Okay, Carmen, that's sorted, you can go now. But thanks for making this day such chaos!" Mike said sarcastically, as Carmen smiled and left the office and entered the living room, where the younger ones were touching up on the tree.
"Carmen, since you've had a bad day, do you want to do the fairy?" Finn asked. Carmen smiled, where Floss frowned angrily.
"Wait, we played Rock Paper Scissors, I won fair and square, so I'm doing the fairy!" She shouted. Billie and Toni shared a look.
"Why don't I do the fairy?" May-Li asked. She'd just arrived back from shopping with Jody and Tyler.
"Yeah, May-Li can do the fairy." Harry agreed. Soon enough, everyone had agreed, and May-Li completed the Christmas Tree with the fairy. Mike then entered the living room and saw the tree for the first time since the younger ones had finished decorating.
"The tree looks great guys!" He smiled.
"Thanks! Tee helped us." Billie said. Toni nodded.
"I think it's time we informed May-Li of the drama that happened when she was out." Mike said. Jody and Tyler were very keen to listen in too! After that, everyone admired the Christmas decorations around the house. Christmas was definitely coming, and the DG couldn't wait!


Hi everyone! For those of you who don't know me, I'm Fanatic1234. I have already written two stories and a one-shot for TDG. 'Lottery' is still in progress, and is being updated today as well! This is a Christmas fanfiction, since it's only 3 days away! An update for this will hopefully be either tomorrow (wishful thinking with me!) or after Christmas. The next chapter focuses on Christmas Eve and the chapter after that is Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and depending on how long these are, they may come as one. I intend to start writing the next instalment tonight, as well as tomorrow, hopefully being updated tomorrow or Christmas Eve, although I have a pretty full schedule. And then I'll be writing a drama filled final chapter, concluding with New Years Eve, which will ideally be posted on the 1st January 2016! So hopefully, this is rather good news! Bad news is, that 'Lottery' will have to be on a short hiatus for this to happen, but then again, it gets updated rather slowly, and somehow getting slower, but don't give up - it will get finished (eventually)! This said, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, and please leave me a review! Oh, and have you lot been watching the new series of The Dumping Ground? If not, then seriously, do!