And so the eleven teenagers walked through the dark and creepy woods known as the hinterlands. Of course, jonesy led, with the others behind him. However, after walking for a while, the gang began to notice that something wasn't right. There was no sign of jack anywhere, yet they clearly saw him entering these woods. But now it seemed that they were the only living things in the woods at the moment.
Suddenly and very abruptly, jonesy stopped dead in his tracks at a certain tree. Since it was unexpected, the others ran into him.
"Jonesy, what…" Sam was about to say, but jonesy quickly covered his friend's mouth. Sam noticed something different about jonesy's expression. He looked like he had seen a ghost. Or maybe…
That's when Sam saw what had freaked jonesy out, and he and the others became alarmed. There, sitting right in front of the eleven teenagers, asleep with his back against the tree, was jack skellington. Zero was asleep at his side.
Unfortunately, jimmy and Caitlin saw jack, too. "PUMPKIN KING MUST SIGN COMIC BOOK!" jimmy yelled loudly. Caitlin sprouted her cat ears and her fluffy cat tail and her cat paws came on her feet and hands she clapped happily and giggled and began to run with jimmy.
"Jimmy Caitlin!" the gang furiously whispered, the boys jumped on jimmy and the girls jumped on Caitlin. But as the boys were putting their hands over jimmy's mouth and as the girls were putting their hands over Caitlin's mouth, they heard jack stir. Jonesy's face went pale and Sam couldn't stop trembling. But the gang immediately relaxed when jack just shifted his body to a more comfortable position. Miraculously, jimmy and Caitlin's outburst had not woken him up.
"Shut up, stupids!" jonesy hissed at his two friends. "Are you trying to blow our cover?"
"But jonesy…" jimmy was able to make out, though it was still very muffled.
"Ssssh!" said jonesy.
"We gotta get out of here!" whispered Sam.
"Right," said jonesy. "Follow me."
The eleven teenagers very carefully tiptoed past the sleeping skeleton. They all breathed a sigh of relief when they were all safely past him.
"I don't even want to think about what would have happened if he had woken up…" said Sam.
"Yeah," said jonesy. "How are you two holding out, jimmy Caitlin?"
But once again, jimmy and Caitlin weren't there.
"Jimmy Caitlin?" jonesy asked, the panic rising in his voice again. He looked over at jack, but jimmy and Caitlin were no where near there.
"Hey guys, come over here!" to the others relief, jimmy's voice came from the opposite direction of jack.
"Now what are you two doing, monobrow?" jonesy asked as he and the others walked over to their empty-headed friends, who were about ten feet away from jack.
"Look," said jimmy, pointing in front of them.
The others gasped. They were met with quite a sight. In front of them were more trees, and each of them had a door carved into them. There was an Easter egg door, a shamrock door, a heart door, a firecracker door, a turkey door, and a jack o' lantern door (identical to the one back at apple creek school). But the last door was the most amazing sight of all. The last door looked exactly like a large Christmas tree. It even had ornaments and a star on top.
For some reason, the gang were most intrigued by this particular door. It was probably because Christmas was their favorite holiday. However, the gang liked Christmas for different reasons: jimmy and Caitlin liked Christmas because of Santa, Sam and Jen liked Christmas mainly because of the great feelings it gave them, and of course, jonesy liked Christmas because the presents (well, the good presents anyway).
Jonesy looked at his ten comrades. Then he slowly walked up and turned the knob on the Christmas tree door. When they looked inside, the eleven teenagers saw the exact same thing they had seen in the jack o' lantern door: a whole lot of dark.
"Where do you think it leads?" asked jonesy.
"I'm not sure," said Sam. "I feel that we shouldn't take any chances, considering the consequences we may…"
"WHOOHOO!"
The gang quickly turned around, just in time to see jimmy and Caitlin jumping into the tree. Jonesy was standing on the side, getting ready to jump in.
"YAHOO!" yelled jonesy as he and the others disappeared into the tree.
Jen was about to yell, but the she remembered that jack was still asleep a few feet away. She bent over the side door. "Guys!" she said in a loud whisper. "You all get back up here and close this door!"
Just then, Jen sprouted her puppy ears and her puppy tail and her paws came on her feet and hands and she heard a small whimpering sound behind her. She turned around. Jack was still asleep, so it couldn't have been him. Then she heard it again. Jen looked down, then her eyes widened. Floating right in front of her feet was jack's ghost dog, Zero.
"Shoo!" Jen whispered, waving her paws at the dog. "Shoo…shoo!"
But of course, Zero paid no heed to Jen's words. Instead, he opened his mouth and clamped his teeth down on Jen's puppy tail.
"Oh dear, NOT MY TAIL AGAIN!" Jen yelled. Then she immediately clamped her hands over her mouth. Then she took a few steps backward…and fell over her heels into a tree. Luckily, Zero had let go of her tail.
As Jen fell, the Christmas door slammed shut behind her. But the sensation of falling through darkness wasn't why Jen was so freaked out. She was freaked out because right before she fell, she saw jack standing up…
But before Jen could think of anything else, she hit the ground, face-first again. But this time it was different. This time, she landed on something soft. And cold. When she got up, she looked down and saw that the soft, cold thing she had landed in was snow.
"What on earth?" she thought. Then she saw the others. The gang were standing a few feet away, with their backs turned to Jen.
Jen quickly walked up to see what was wrong with his friends. When she got closer, she saw that the gang's eyes were as wide as dinner plates, and their mouths were hanging wide open. But when Jen saw what her friends were looking at, she adopted the same expression her friends had.
The sight below the gang was incredible. They were on top of a hill, and at the bottom, there was a little town. The town was brightly lit with Christmas lights, and there were red and white stripes everywhere.
All eleven of them had a grin on their face. They looked at each other for a few seconds, then they all ran down the hill at top speed toward the town. When they got to the town, they separated and began running all over the place, just taking in all of the sights. Soon, the gang got excited. But what they didn't know was that they could hear a certain skeleton singing…
Jack: what's this? What's this?
There's color everywhere
What's this?
There's white things in the air
What's this?
I can't believe my eyes
I must be dreamingWake up, jack, this isn't fair
What's this?
What's this? What's this?There's something very wrong
What's this?
There's people singing songs
What's this?
The streets are lined with
Little creatures laughing
Everybody seems so happy
Have I possibly gone daffy?
What is this?
What's this?
There's children throwing snowballs
Instead of throwing heads
They're busy building toys
And absolutely no one's dead
There's frost in every windowOh, I can't believe my eyes
And in my bones I feel the warmthThat's coming from inside
Oh, look! What's this?They're hanging mistletoe
They kiss?
Why, that looks so unique inspired!
They're gathering around to hear a story
Roasting chestnuts on a fire
What's this?
What's this?
In here they've got a little tree
How queer
And who would ever think?
And why?
They're covering it with tiny little things
They've got electric lights on strings
And there's a smile on everyone
So, now, correct me if I'm wrong
This looks like fun
This looks like fun
Oh, could it be I got my wish?
What's this?
Oh my, what now?
The children are asleep
But look, there's nothing underneath
No ghouls, no witches here to scream or scare them
Or ensnare them, only little cozy things
Secure inside their dreamland
What's this?
The monsters are all missing
And the nightmares can't be found
And in their place there seems to be
Good feeling all around
Instead of screams, I swear
I can hear music in the air
The smell of cakes and pies
Are absolutely everywhere
The sights, the sounds
They're everywhere and all around
I've never felt so good before
This empty place inside of me is filling up
I simply cannot get enough
I want it, oh, I want it
Oh, I want it for my own
I've got to know, I've got to know
What is this place that I have found?
What is this?
---
Now, it was either pure bliss or pure ignorance, but for some reason, none of the gang seemed to notice the eight-foot skeleton who was also running around this new place, even when one of them would run right next to him. It was the same story for jack. He was so giddy that he didn't see the eleven teenagers running around. He just had to know what this place was called.
Meanwhile, the gang caught up with each other again, and they were gasping for air.
"This place rocks!" jonesy exclaimed between deep breaths.
"I agree," said Sam. "I know the name of this town we've found! Uh, jonesy?"
"What?" asked jonesy.
"Where's jimmy and Caitlin?" asked Wyatt.
The friends looked around. Jimmy and Caitlin were nowhere to be seen.
"Oh, for crying out loud!" said jonesy. He got up and ran to the entrance of the town, the others followed him.
"Jimmy Caitlin!" called Jen.
"Hey, monobrows!" called jonesy.
But somehow, jimmy and Caitlin had just vanished.
"Oh, this is not good," said Sam. "Who knows what kind of mischief jimmy and Caitlin could cause here by themselves? Hmm?"
"What?" asked jonesy. Then he looked up. At the entrance of the town, a big banner was hung overhead.
" 'Christmas town'?" jonesy read. "Hold up. You mean this town is all Christmas?"
"Well, that certainly explains a lot," said Sam. "But right now we have to concentrate on the situation at hand. Where's jimmy and Caitlin?"
"Oh, how should I know?" asked jonesy. "For all we know, they're off looking for Santa, wanting to find out how to be honorary elves!"
But as jonesy talked, jack's eyes spotted Jen's puppy tail. "What's this?" he said, walking behind Jen without making a sound this made jack touch her tail and this made Jen's puppy ears point up and she made a squeak sound then her puppy ears pointed down and she sigh in relief.
The gang turned around to take a good look at Christmas town…but instead, their eyes met black and white stripes. Now the gang stopped dead on their tracks. He they knew where they had seen black and white stripes like that before.
"Greetings, fellow creatures!"
jonesy let out a gasp and jumped in the air, toppling over backwards into the snow. But he quickly sat up again.
"DON'T SNEAK UP ON PEOPLE LIKE THAT!" he yelled, "And touching peoples tails." Added Jen as she was petting her tail.
"Um…actually, I have to. It's my job," said the all-too familiar skeleton standing in front of the gang. "Oh, forgive me! I haven't even introduced myself. I'm…"
"We know," interrupted jonesy, brushing the snow off his shirt. "Jack skellington. The pumpkin king."
"Wow, I'm famous!" said jack. He paused and watched as jonesy stood up.
"What?" asked jonesy.
"Aren't you going to tell me your names?" asked jack.
"Oh right," said jonesy. "I'm jonesy Garcia, and the girl next to me is Jen masterson and the punk lesbian girl right there is Nikki Wong and right here is Jude lizowski oh and that's Wyatt Williams and the boy with the glasses is Sam oh and that's Fred and that's Joe and this girl right here is Samantha." As jonesy introduced the others Sam gave a nervous little wave. "Say, you haven't seen a boy with blond hair with one eyebrow and you also haven't seen a girl with blond hair with a butterfly hair clipping and with cat ears and a tail running around, have you?" jonesy added.
"Uh…no. I think I'd remember something like that," said jack.
"Damn," grumbled jonesy. "Those idiot's are gonna be the death of us."
"Anyway, I was wondering if you all could help me," said jack. "What is the significance of all these strange rituals in this town? I've never seen such wonders!"
jonesy stared at jack for a few minutes. "What's the matter, buddy?" he asked. "Haven't you ever heard of Christmas?"
"Christmas?" repeated jack. "What is this thing, 'Christmas'?"
jonesy said nothing. Instead, he slowly held his arms out in front of him and formed the shape of a cross with his fingers, then pointed it at jack.
"Oh, that's real mature, jonesy," said Sam, speaking for the first time. Then he turned his direction to jack. "Dear jack, surely you've heard of the holiday Christmas?"
"Holiday?" asked jack. "You mean there are other holidays besides Halloween?"
Now even Sam was a little shocked. Jack didn't know about any of the other holidays? But as he thought about it, it began to make sense. Jack's main focus of Halloween. Of course he wasn't going to know about any other holidays.
"Well, jack…gosh, how can I explain this?" said Sam. "Well…Christmas is a time of year where we give thanks to others and give presents as an act of kindness to others."
"Ah, I say it's a big waste of time," said jonesy. "Christmas stinks."
Now it was jack's turn to be shocked. "How can you say that?" he asked jonesy. "This is exactly what I've been missing! I must find a way to bring Christmas to Halloween."
"Christmas to Halloween?" asked Sam. "That's sounds something jimmy would say. Which reminds me…jimmy and Caitlin are still missing."
"Oh, right," said jonesy. "Well, we can't seem to find him here. Maybe they're already at scary-Ville."
"Scary-Ville?" asked jack. "There's no such place."
"Oh yeah?' asked jonesy. "Then what do you call this?" he reached into Sam's pocket and took out the map, then showed it to the pumpkin king.
Jack took the map and got a good look at it. "There's no such place as scary-Ville," he repeated, handing the map back to jonesy. "This is a map of Halloween town."
"Halloween town?" asked jonesy.
"Is that where you live, jack?" asked Sam.
"It sure is," said jack. "But where did you all get a map of Halloween town?"
"Ah, it's no big deal," said jonesy. "It's just my brother's old map. Anyway, you all do whatever you want. I'm going back to scary-Ville."
"Halloween town," corrected Sam.
"Whatever,' said jonesy.
"Wait, jonesy!" said jack. "You all seem to be quite the experts on Christmas."
"Well, I don't like to brag," said jonesy. "But.."
"Hmm…" said jack. He looked at the gang. "Guys…how would you all like to help me with a little…project I'm planning?"