It's Freaking Christmas

Chapter 1

"Alright, we have the secret Santa assignments ready!" Carol announced. She was wearing a festive Santa hat and a belt with jingle bells attached to it. She did a holiday dance. After all, Carol had been overzealous about spreading Christmas cheer ever since she was a little girl. Carol passed out cards to everyone. Some people cheered, and some people groaned as they unfolded their papers. But, they had to remember that this activity was totally randomized. And even if they didn't particularly like that person, their gift had to be as beautiful and as special as possible!

But Carol had to admit, she felt kind of sorry for the person who heard someone groaning and then received a present from him the a week later. And even though Carol had been the one to organize the whole "Secret Santa" thing, and had been the one to decide that she wanted it to be totally random, she secretly hoped that Daryl would be her secret Santa. Daryl knew her, and well, too. She was so curious as to what kind of Christmas present a person like Daryl would get for you.

Carol took a deep breath before unfolding her card. Dramatic music played. She closed her eyes, crossed her fingers and quickly unfolded the slip of paper.

Okay...

So she had to find a present for Rick.

"Easy enough," she smiled and said to herself. She went back to her cell block to think about presents she might want to get for Rick. First she considered hanging a mistletoe somewhere. Not because she wanted to kiss Rick, (although she wouldn't have a problem with it) but she knew that Beth had a huge crush on him. So not only would she be providing a gift for Rick, because, well, he'd definitely be getting some action, but also for Beth.

In a way she felt sorry for the awkward young girl, because no one really knew her due to lack of storyline, and whoever her secret Santa was wouldn't be able to get her a gift that truly defined her. Carol probably knew Beth more than anyone else in the group, mainly because they had been spending so much time together taking care of Judith.

Carol didn't feel guilty about the mistletoe idea, although she should because Rick was a married man, but she felt that Lori was not a very committed wife and mother. She had betrayed and lied to Rick, and never kept track of her only son, Carl. Carol honestly believed that Beth deserved Rick more than Lori did, simply because Beth was a sweet, innocent young girl with a long life ahead of her, and she deserved a sexy man to spend it with, even if it was during the zombie apocalypse.

Lori and Carol had been friends for a long time, because they were both wives and mothers when the apocalypse hit, and they enjoyed each other's company. Carol would sometimes think that Lori was gay for her, because Lori was very unpredictable, and she might've thought that Carol was a lesbian because of her haircut. But, of course, Carol wasn't, and of Lori ever tried to make a move on her, she would freak. Who in their right mind would ever want to be in a relationship with Lori?

Carol laughed at the question, and continued to think when Lori appeared in the doorway.

"Can I come in?" she asked.

"Oh, Lori!" Carol exclaimed. "I was just thinking about you!" Carol knew that it wasn't particularly in a positive way, but Lori deserved to know what was on Carol's mind.

Lori sat down on the bed next to Carol.

"So," she said, rubbing her hands together excitedly. "Who's your secret Santa?"

"Rick," Carol told her. Lori smiled.

"Oh, I know the perfect gift!" she exclaimed. "It's too bad Rick's not my secret Santa, huh?"

"Yeah," said Carol. "Hey, who IS your secret Santa?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you," Lori giggled. She looked around to make sure that nobody was listening and then whispered into Carol's ear: "I got Shane!"

Lori squealed, obviously excited about the person she'd be gifting this year. Oh crap, Carol thought to herself. Why the hell did I make this random?!

"Soooo, what do you think I should get for him?" Lori asked, bouncing up and down.

"Well, you know Shane all too well," said Carol. "I think you know what he'd like."

"Wow! Now that you've said that, Carol, I actually DO have something that I can give Shane!" Lori hugged her and skipped away, probably off to tell everyone else the great news.

"Now Lori has an excuse to spend Christmas with that doucheface," Carol muttered. She sighed. She wasn't really that excited about being Rick's secret Santa this year, but she had her hopes up that a present from Daryl would appear under the tree on Christmas morning. Not that they were exactly sure when Christmas was, but it was better than nothing. And Christmas was Carol's favorite holiday! And she was looking forward to spending it with her new family more than ever.

Ah, yes. Her new family! The family that just assumed she was dead and never came looking for her, and pretended to be happy when Daryl found her half-dead in a closet. The family that had let her daughter become a zombie. The family that had let her have so much screen time, but not so many lines.

Carol thought that spending Christmas with them would be amazing, because they just loved her so much. But she was probably wrong. She imagined what it would be like; Lori making out with Shane, T-Dog absent from the room, and Daryl standing there looking smexy...

Oh, Carol! Why are you thinking about Daryl when you SHOULD be helping everyone decorate the Christmas tree?

Carol wondered off and found Beth and Maggie decorating the tree all by themselves.

"Hey, where has everyone gone?" asked a confused Carol. Maggie shrugged.

"I guess they all ran out of Christmas spirt," she said sighing and hanging another ornament on the tree.

"What?!" Carol asked, outraged. "Girls, girls! I don't care how long it takes, but we are going to bring the Christmas cheer right back to the zombie apocalypse!"

"And how are we going to do that?" Beth asked.

"Well," said Carol. "First, we're going to need some duct tape."

TO BE CONTINUED...