Hey I'm back!! Quick thanks to everyone to reviewed my 1st story! *hugs*

Sorry this title's kinda stupid:P whatevs

This first part is in the POV of Joe. You'll find out their ages as the story goes along.

Now on with the story!!!

Christmas Catastrophe

Part 1

Joe:

Parents ruin everything.

Just when you think they can't get any stupider, they prove you wrong. I thought my parents were weird before, but I never thought they were cold-blooded enough to suck the Christmas joy out of a little kid!

Okay, that was a little harsh. Let me rephrase that.

They are self-centered enough to not care that they are totally ruining my life just so they can see some old friends of theirs who I've never met! I could say more things about this, but that's as far as my third grade level vocabulary takes me.

They've basically taken away my Christmas! How rude is that?

Maybe I should explain. My name is Joe Hardy. I'm in third grade, and go to Bayport Elementary school with my brother, Frank, who's in fourth grade. I'm only eight years old, but I'll be nine on June 3rd.

Frank thinks he's so special because he's older than me. But he's only older by about a year, no biggie. Bayport is in New York, near a town called Syracuse. Just because we live in Bayport, doesn't mean we only like their sports teams. Those Buffalo Sabres are good, scary good!

Now, where was I? Oh, right; my parents ruining Christmas.

It all started a couple days ago while we were eating dinner. It was chicken, mashed potatoes in gravy, and blueberry muffins. I accidentally got gravy on my blueberry muffin.

It actually tasted pretty good.

Anyway, suddenly my parents tell us that we'll be going to River Heights, right outside of Chicago, for a short vacation to see some friends of theirs, and that we would miss a day or two of school.

That missing school part had gotten me to like this trip for about two seconds, before my parents dropped the bomb. "We'll be spending Christmas there."

"What!" I can yell really loud, especially when I find out that my Christmas is down the drain. "What do you mean we'll be spending Christmas there?!"

My mom looked at me calmly, as if I had just asked 'What is two plus two?' How can she possibly be so calm about this?! This is a life-threatening situation here!

"Sweetie, it's not like Christmas will disappear." She said calmly, "It will just be in River Heights. Nothing will change."

"Yeah it will! Santa Claus won't be able to find us in Riv- Riv- whatever, so we won't get any presents!" I wailed. My dad looked at me sternly. "Joe, Christmas isn't all about getting presents, you know." I rolled my eyes. Parents are so clueless.

"Yeah, I know," I answered, exasperated, "but what's a baby and a shiny star got to do with me not getting presents?" My dad groaned and rubbed his head like he had a bad headache.

People seem to do that a lot when they talk to me. I don't get it.

The days after past by quickly. On the morning of December 24th, Christmas Eve, we went to the airport. On the plane, Frank and I sat down together with our parents across the aisle.

The plane was really big. I mean HUGE big! It was as big as... well, a plane.

I'd never been on a plane before, so I was a little scared. Frank had been on a plane once, and had been telling me the basics the night before. "Now remember," Frank had said, "there are barf bags for a reason…"

The list of dos and don'ts of a plane never seemed to end. And when they finally did, I was too nauseous and scared to remember them all.

Finally, it was time for take-off. We had just been cruising down the runway for what seemed like hours, gaining more and more speed. My eyes were closed tight, and I was gripping the armrests so tight that my hands hurt. I held my breath and my stomach did a flip-flop as I felt the plane leave the safe earth.

After a minute, I opened my eyes and turned to look at Frank. He was staring at something out the window next to me. I turned and my eyes widened in shock. There were millions of fluffy white clouds everywhere! They looked like floating cotton balls, or a never ending white quilt.

I wanted more than anything to reach out and touch one. Would it feel like sticky cotton candy, or a fluffy pillow, or cold vanilla ice cream?

Who knew? The possibilities were endless!

Frank and I were busy finding shapes in the clouds when the pilot told us to buckle up because we'd be landing momentarily. Pilots ruin all the fun!

A minute later we started descending to the ground. Sometimes the drops would be smooth and slow, but other times they would hurtle down so fast that I thought I'd lose my breakfast. Soon I felt the plane hit the runway with a sudden jolt.

After we came to a complete stop, I unbuckled my seatbelt, clutched my stomach, and stifled a groan.

I hate planes.

A second later a brown paper bag was placed in my lap. I looked up and saw Frank. As if reading my thoughts, he said, "If you're going to hurl, use the barf bag."

I rolled my eyes at my slightly-older brother. "I'm not going to throw-up. Come on, I'm too awesome!" I stood up to start flexing my muscles, but I smacked my head on the top of the plane in the process.

Frank laughed.

I threw the barf bag at him.

Don't listen to anything he tells you, no matter what. I'm telling you, HE broke Mom's favorite vase! HE did! Oops, did I just say that? Pay no attention to that little outburst...

A couple minutes later we walked out of the gate and into the sea of people. Everyone was pushing and shoving, and a few people ran over my feet with their rolling suitcases.

I hate airports.

Soon we made our way the baggage claim, where the suitcases were put on the turning things they have at supermarkets, except these are 20 bazillion times bigger, and people just grab the suitcases off and walk away. My mom had said we were meeting her and dad's friends here.

This was going to be so boring. I could feel it in my stomach, or maybe that was just a left-over sick feeling from the plane. I don't know, but I did know that this was going to be a LONG, BORING vacation and a LONG, BORING Christmas.

Did I mention that my parents ruin EVERYTHING?!

If you've ever been on a plane ride with really bad turbulance, you know that it is definitly NOT fun :P

Please please review me!!!