MSS: Merry Christmas everyone! (passes out plates of cookies to readers)
Raine: (finishing reading story) …I don't like it.
MSS: Why not?
Raine: It's fairly obvious you didn't check grammar and such. You put no effort into it.
MSS: Yes I did! It took a whole twenty minutes to write!
Raine: Exactly.
MSS: Raine, please do the disclaimer for this very short Christmas story which is my present to everyone, along with the cookies.
Lloyd: Cookies? Where?
MSS: Uh… he has them! (points to Genis)
Genis: Aaaahhhh! (runs away from Lloyd)
Raine: Master Summoner Sheena doesn't own Tales of Symphonia. And she doesn't own the caroling idea. Or a brief quote from Naruto.
MSS: This is based on what my Girl Scout Troop did for a fundraiser.
Raine: Did this actually happen?
MSS: Thankfully, no. We actually received a ton of reguests.
Raine: Enjoy!
Ooooo
"Lloyd, what are you doing?" asked Kratos, staring at Lloyd as he cut red fabric then passed it to Colette.
"We're making Santa hats!" grinned Lloyd. He held one up. It was very badly made, and was round instead of pointy. As Kratos stared at it, the cotton ball glued to the end fell off.
Colette looked up from the hat she was sewing shut. "It's for when we go Christmas caroling!"
"…What?" asked Kratos.
"Oh, sorry, I must have forgotten to tell you," apologized Lloyd, "We're kinda low on gald, so I decided we would do singing Christmas cards!"
"Singing Christmas cards," Kratos repeated, not sure what to think.
"Yeah! People pay us to go caroling at other people's houses!" squealed Colette, "It's going to be so much fun!"
"I see…" mused Kratos.
"We need to rehearse first, and decide who gets the solo. Rehearsal starts in 2 hours. Don't be late, okay?" said Lloyd.
"Very well," replied Kratos.
Ooooo
"Where is he?" wondered Sheena. Everyone except Kratos was gathered at Zelos's mansion.
"Maybe he got lost?" suggested Colette.
"I don't think he would," pondered Raine.
"Well, wherever he is, we need to rehearse," reminded Genis. Everyone else nodded in agreement.
Ooooo
"Dad! Where were you today?" asked Lloyd. Kratos had just walked into the kitchen, where Colette was baking sugar cookies. Lloyd was hovering nearby, wanting to be the first to eat one. He was disappointed when Kratos plucked the first cookie of the baking sheet as Colette pulled it out of the oven. "Hey! I called it first!"
Kratos took a bite out of the cookie. "To answer your question," he said with his mouth full of cookie, "I got lost wandering the path of life."
Lloyd managed to control his annoyance at Kratos as he passed the jar of sprinkles to Colette.
"So, how many people have paid for us to sing?" asked Kratos casually, sounding cool as usual.
Why can't I ever sound that cool? "Um, well, about that… there's been a change in plans…"
"Oh?" said Kratos conversationally.
"I wonder why no one wants a singing Christmas card?" wondered Colette.
"So what are we doing then?" questioned Kratos.
Lloyd grinned. "We're going to go to random people's houses. Then, when they answer the door, we refuse to stop singing until they pay us to leave!" Lloyd and Colette high-fived each other, obviously having come up with the idea together. Kratos sighed.
"Oh yeah! Before I forget, Kratos you get the solo," announced Lloyd.
"Why?" asked Kratos.
"You never showed up at practice, so you'll sound the worst. The worse we sound, the sooner everyone will pay us to leave!" Lloyd seemed proud of his idea.
"Thanks." Kratos obviously didn't take that as a compliment, but of course Colette chirped, "You're welcome!"
Ooooo
Ding-dong!
"Yes?" a young woman answered the door. Zelos waved to her, and she grinned.
Sheena came forward. She was wearing a sign that said: 'You have to pay us to leave'.
"What's this all about?..." she said uncertainly.
"One… two… three… begin!" shouted Lloyd. Everyone started singing, each completely different. Genis's voice was high and squeaky, Presea in monotone, Regal extremely low, Raine was an alto, Sheena a lilting soprano, Colette also a soprano, Zelos was shockingly an alto one, and Lloyd was pretty close to normal. Kratos had his mouth shut, and was refusing to sing. All in all, they sounded horrible.
"…Rudolf the red nosed reindeer, you'll go down in history!" the group screeched. They began the next song as the woman reached into her purse, "Dashing through the snow, in a one-horse open sleigh, o'er fields we go…" they continued singing as Lloyd nodded to Kratos, signaling him to get ready for his solo. Sheena held out a container for the woman to put her money in. "…what fun it is to ride and sing a sleighing song tonight!"
They woman was about to drop the gald into the container when Kratos began his solo. The second she heard it, she forgot all about paying them to leave.
"…oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh, hey! Jingle…" Kratos sang. Everyone froze in shock at how good he was. Kratos finished the song and started another. Pretty soon a huge crowd had gathered.
Ooooo
A couple hours later, Kratos stopped singing. Everyone broke into applause, then walked away. Lloyd gave a small sob as he realized no one had given them any gald.
An old lady approached. "Young man," she started, only to be interrupted by a muffled laugh from Lloyd, Genis, and Zelos. She glared at them before continuing. "You have a wonderful voice. I haven't heard such a voice since back in the good old days. Ah yes, I remember when I was just a little girl-" Lloyd cleared his throat, receiving another glare. "As I was saying, I think you deserve a little something." Sheena came forward hopefully, and held out the container. The woman dropped in some gald. "When I was your age, carolers were paid. Ah yes, I remember the good old days when…"
Lloyd and the other walked away, leaving the old lady talking to herself. Except for Colette, who said a quick "Thank you!" before skipping back to everyone. They all gathered around Genis as he counted the money.
Genis looked up in shock as he said, "She gave us 500,000 gald!"
Everyone cheered as Lloyd passed it out. "We'll split it equally! Enjoy, everyone!"
Sheena turned to Kratos, "Wow, you're great at singing. How did you get so good?"
Kratos gave a small smile as he answered, "It's amazing how good you can get at singing after spending 4000 years taking lessons."
Lloyd offered Kratos some of the gald, but he pushed him away, "It's okay, I don't need any."
"All right then. More for me!" cheered Lloyd as he, Genis, and Colette ran off.
Ooooo
The next morning Kratos was shaken awake. Opening his eyes, the first thing he heard was, "Uh, Kratos? We kinda spent all the gald again…"
Kratos knew it was going to be a long day.
Ooooo
MSS: Sorry about Kratos being really out of character. But anyways, I want to hear what you think. Love it? Hate it? Don't care? I don't mind if you give me a one or two word review…
Raine: Think of it as your Christmas present to MSS.
MSS: Merry Christmas!