Jacqueline turned her face from side to side. She leaned forward. She pulled back. She then stuck out her tongue and said, "Aaaaaah!"
Kim looked around nervously. She couldn't tell whether she was imagining it, or if mall patrons were actually walking around them to avoid being near the crazy person studying her reflection in the glass ornaments so closely. She swore she heard one father say to his toddler, "Avoid those weirdos, honey."
Kim finally looked at her watch: the tanuki's long arm was on the 11, her short arm on the 3. When they entered the Death 42nd Avenue department store in the mall, the short arm was on the 2. It had been more than an hour.
"Great," she groaned. "Just lost my bet to Clarence."
If Jacqueline heard, she was not paying attention: she had now removed the glass ornament from the tree display-to the consternation of nearby salespersons staring at the duo. Kim saw their look and frowned back at them before holding up her arms, folding her hands at her wrists, as if to ask, "You got a problem?" The salespersons grimaced and turned around with false smiles to other customers, asking whether they were finding what they needed or would like to sample the latest fragrance straight from Paris.
Having defended her oblivious weapon from the perils of pissy salespersons, Kim leaned back against one of the plastic trees-noticeably firm for being able to hold up her weight-crossed her arms, and looked at Jackie. Kim had already removed her hoodie, now tied around her waist, and was wearing a t-shirt underneath. She felt the plastic needles of the fake pine poking at her skin. She took one of the branches between her fingers and rubbed it, while Jacqueline had put the glass ornament away from her face, now stroking a nail over it to make sure the paint wouldn't chip off.
Kim rolled her eyes and finally spoke up with a smirk. "See? This fine establishment uses plastic trees instead of killing some unsuspecting real tree."
Jacqueline kept studying the ornament. "You also complained all the way through this store that they sell overpriced perfumes that give you a headache."
Kim scoffed, flipping her hand dismissively. "Details, details. At least they get the trees right."
"Because they keep the same tree every year. It's a constant for the store's holiday decorations, so they don't need to buy a tree."
"You proved my point!" Kim said, patting Jackie on her shoulder-causing Jacqueline to lose her grip on the ornament.
Jacqueline's eyes widened as she saw the ornament falling down. She was paralyzed, unable to bend down quickly enough to pick it up before it would shatter into the floor. Rather than try to move, all she could think was about the aftermath: the sound of the shattering echoing throughout the department store, customers and salespersons stopping to look at the embarrassed weapon, her bare legs now covered with small cuts from the glass (she really should have worn jeans rather than her skirt today), and, worst of all, the screams of agony from Kim as she would look at her and her bloody legs and scream, "Now we're going to have to pay for that!"
But that didn't happen. Jacqueline instead saw a hand attached to a sleeveless arm scoop the ornament just before it hit the floor. Kim was now practically lying on the cold store floor, heaving and panting from her quick movement. It took a few seconds before Kim's arm moved to lift the glass ornament from the floor. Jacqueline finally exhaled.
"Phew!" Kim said loudly, as she sat up on the floor, cross-legged. Then she laughed. "That was a good catch, right?"
Her answer came in the form of a hand extended to her. "Yes," Jacqueline said. Then she hurriedly added, "I'm sorry!"
Kim returned the smile and accepted the hand. "Not a problem," she said with a bit of a grunt as Jackie got her back on her feet. "At least it didn't shatter." As Kim returned the ornament to the tree, her smile faded. Her eyes narrowed. Her hand then darted out to another ornament-a gaudy plastic one of a purple penguin in vomit-yellow swimtrunks-and ripped it off the tree and shoved it into Jackie's hands. "Here, buy this one."
Jacqueline stared at it. "But it's not glass. My parents used to decorate the tree with glass ornaments, and I haven't had a chance to-"
Jacqueline was interrupted when she looked to see Kim's unamused face.
"Then I end up walking barefoot over them and cut myself? What're you trying to do, kill me?"
Jacqueline blushed, looked down, and studied her feet. "I just...thought that the glass ones would look-"
"Here's what we need!"
Jacqueline looked up-and had ornament in her hand. Jacqueline felt sick looking at it: it was another plastic one, this time of a reindeer, its face in some exaggerated cartoony pose as it clutched a candy cane.
"Is that supposed to be a reindeer?"
"Who cares? It's not breakable." Kim then tapped the ornament against a pillar nearby, the ornament making a BONK, BONK, BONK sound with each tap. Meanwhile, the salespersons were calling security to see whether they could kick the two out.
"That's the ugliest reindeer I've ever seen," Jacqueline responded.
"Maybe it's a dog?" Kim offered.
"A raccoon dog?"
Kim frowned. "Watch it. Just...Could we do something other than glass, please? Just some animal ornaments?"
"Animals?"
"Yeah! They got penguins, polar bears, dinosaurs-"
"What do dinosaurs have to do with Christmas?!"
"You got something against dinosaurs?"
Jacqueline felt her heart sinking. She had waited months for Christmas, she had really hoped to make a tree like the one she used to have growing up, but Kim was having none of it.
"Because the dinosaur witches I knew were some of the nicest witches you'd ever meet."