"This whole situation is just a complete mess, Lucy," Alison said as she walked around from behind the counter with a small tray of Christmas cookies. She sat the tray down at the small table and joined her. "I just don't know what to do. At first, I figured maybe if we could meet this guy, we could at least reason with him; convince him that tearing down a place that kids love is a terrible thing to do. But apparently this guy doesn't have an ounce of compassion in his heart."
"He certainly sounds a jerk."
"That's putting it nicely. He made her cry, Lucy." Alison looked over at the table against the wall, watching Katrina and Christina having cookies and milk as they played some kind of card game. "I don't like to see my baby upset."
The bell on the door jingled, and Alison and Lucy looked up.
Lucy smiled. "Hey, Pumpkin head! Did you have a good day at school?"
Serena rolled her eyes. Mothers. Here she was, sixteen years old, and her mother was still calling her by her childhood nickname. "Mom."
"I'm sorry. I forget sometimes. Serena, how was your day?"
Serena threw her purse down on the table and pulled up a chair. "It was awesome! The fire alarm kept going off at the end of third period and we completely missed our geometry quiz!"
"Well then you'll probably take it tomorrow. So you better study," Lucy said.
Serena turned to Alison. "Can I have a cookie?"
"Oh please." Alison pushed the tray over to Serena. "I'm going to have to throw out these cookies anyway unless we eat them."
"So what are we chatting about?" Serena asked, taking a bite out of a green sprinkled sugar cookie shaped like a tree.
"We're trying to figure out what to do about the youth center," Lucy explained.
"Alison, I'm really sorry to hear it's being closed down. That really sucks."
"Thank you. Yes, it does suck."
"And I was really looking forward to being a lifeguard at the pool next summer."
"Sorry, Serena. You would have made a great one."
Suddenly, Serena lit up. "Hey! I know what you could do!"
"What?" Alison asked, smiling.
"You could do a petition! Yeah! We did one at school. Last month, they tried to take away all of the pep rallies and said we could only have them after school hours, but before, we always had them at the last class period of the day. So we all signed a petition, and they decided to keep them! Maybe if you did a petition, it would work."
"Well that's a good idea, Serena, but I'm not so sure it work. The guy who plans to take over the building isn't so sympathetic and I don't think a few hundred signatures on a piece of paper would change his mind."
"Wait a minute," Lucy said, smiling widely, as a sudden thought came to her mind. "I think Serena is on to something. You're right, a few hundred signatures might not change his mind, but what if it was a few thousand?"
"What do you mean, Lucy?"
"I mean I think Serena has the right idea of getting the community involved. If the public was aware of what was going on, if they knew that some big drug company was moving in and taking away a place where children like to play, well they might just start a protest!"
Alison lit up, suddenly thinking Lucy was now on to something. "Well how exactly would we go about letting the community know of the problem?"
Lucy and Alison looked at each other. "Marissa!" they said in unison.
"I can't believe we didn't think of this before!" Alison rose from her chair and walked behind the counter. She picked up the phone and dialed a number. Alison twisted the phone cord between her fingers, waiting for an answer.
"Port Charles Herald," the voice on the other end said.
"Hi, is Marissa there? Yes I'll hold. Marissa? Hey, it's Alison."
"Alison, hey! How are you?"
"Actually, not so good right now. Listen, I need your help with something."
"Anything. What is it?"
"Well, I really don't want to get into this over the phone. But I need to talk to you. I have a news story for you. Is there any good time where we can get together and talk?"
Marissa did need to catch up on a little paperwork, but she could always make time for a news story, especially for a friend. "Can you meet me here? Say in a half hour or so?"
"Yeah, definitely. I'm closing up the bakery in ten minutes."
"Okay, I'll see you then."
"Thanks, Marissa."
"What did she say?" Lucy asked.
"She said to meet her at the Herald in a half hour and we could talk about it."
"Oh wonderful! I can see it already. As soon as her story hits the print, there will be no one who'll want to see that youth center closed!"
"I really hope so." Alison looked at her watch. "Well I gotta get ready to close up and meet Marissa. Oh shoot, Rafe just called and said he was running errands, so I can't drop Katrina off at the center. I guess I'll just have to takeher with me."
"Alison, if you want, I could take Katrina home and watch her for a bit while you do that," Serena offered.
"Oh could you, Serena? That would be really great!"
"No problem. Mom, I'm going over to Samantha's house for a little while afterwards. Is that alright?"
"Sure, that's fine. But don't stay out too late."
"I won't."
"And you study for that geometry quiz, you hear me?"
Serena laughed. "I will."
"Well I better get Christina home and get dinner started. Come on, sweet pea."
"Bye, Katrina!" Christina got up for her chair and followed Lucy out the door.
"Mommy. I wanna go home now."
"Well you're in luck. Serena's going to take you." Alison grabbed her daughter's coat and kneeled down, helping her put it on. "Listen, I have to go do some things but I won't be gone long. You listen to Serena and be a good girl, okay?"
"Okay."
"Thank you, Serena."
"You're welcome. Come on, kiddo."
"Hey, Serena! Are we gonna ride in your new car?"
"Yep. See? It's outside."
"Ooo! Can we ride with the top down?!"
"Are you crazy? It's cold!"
"But we're wearing coats!"
"Yeah but you don't ride with the top down in a convertible when it's winter!"
Alison smiled, watching Katrina walk out the door with Serena. But her smiled quickly faded as she thought once again of the situation they were in. She hoped talking to Marissa could help.
Alison walked into the Herald, seeing a flurry of people running around, looking very busy as they worked on getting the newspaper ready.
"Alison, over here," Marissa called to her.
Alison walked over to her desk, taking a seat. "Marissa, thanks so much for taking the time to meet me."
"Anytime. So what's this story you wanted to tell me about?"
"It's about the youth center that Rafe runs. It's being shut down."
"What? Why!?"
"Because of two things. One, the grant money that funds the program has run out. And two, someone's already bought the building and plans to tear it down and use it for some pharmaceutical company. You know, it'd be one thing if they had to shut it down due to funding, because I'm sure they could always find another way to keep it open. But then someone takes advantage of the situation."
Marissa scribbled notes down as she wrote. "You have a name for this company?"
"Yeah. Landon. Landon Pharmaceuticals."
"Let me make a call." Marissa picked up her phone and pressed a button. "Hey, Marty? I need you to look up the number and address for a Landon Pharmaceuticals…Thanks." Marissa put down the phone with a smile. "We'll get down to the bottom of this. Tell me everything else you know."
Katrina was easy to watch. Most of the time, she'd just lie on the floor watching her movies over and over.
Serena reclined on the couch, her feet propped up on a cushion, the cordless phone at her ear. "I can't believe they broke up either…I know! They were so close! I really thought they would make it."
Katrina got up from the floor and grabbed the remote. She turned the movie off.
"Have you seen that new guy Brandon yet? Oh my god, he's so hot!…He's in my English class! I sit right next to him!"
Katrina climbed over the arm of the chair. "Serena?"
"No, I haven't really talked to him yet. But the other day, I dropped my pencil and he picked it up for me. He smiled at me!"
"Serena?"
"Oh, Samantha, I gotta go. I'll be there soon, okay?…Bye." Serena hung the phone up and sat up. "What's wrong, Katrina? You don't want to watch your movie anymore?"
Katrina shook her head. "No."
"Do you want to play one of your games? You always beat me at Candyland."
"I don't want to play a game." Katrina moved closer to Serena, laying her head against her arm.
"Hey, what's the matter?"
"I'm sad."
"Why are you sad?"
"Because of the grinch who's ruining Christmas."
"That's just a movie, Katrina. In the end, the Grinch learns his lesson and feels sorry for what he did. Then everyone is happy again."
"No, I'm not talking about the movie. I mean the man who's gonna tear down Daddy's youth center."
"Oh, I see. Yeah, he is a real grinch isn't he?"
"I hate him. He's mean. Do you think he'll learn his lesson and not tear it down?"
"I don't know. I certainly hope so."
"I wish we could make him leave us alone. He's a big fat bully!"
"Well hey, you should do what my mom says. She says to have faith."
"What does that mean?"
"It means you have hope. It means that even when you think things are impossible, miracles happen. I've seen it happen before. Maybe we'll get a miracle this Christmas too, who knows!"
Katrina's eyes widened. She suddenly had a GREAT idea! She knew of someone who could make miracles happen. "Yeah!" Katrina suddenly jumped off the couch and ran to her room.
Serena smiled,pickingupherSeventeen magazineand putting her headphones on.
A few minutes later, Katrina ran back into the living room. She was dressed in her coat, hat, and gloves.
"Going outside?" Serena asked.
Katrina walked over to her and took her hand. "Can you take me to the mall?"
"The mall?"
"Yeah! I need to see Santa!"
"Didn't you already see Santa?"
"Yeah. But I need to see him again. Please, Serena!"
"No, I can't take you, kiddo."
"Yes you can. You can drive." Katrina grabbed her purse and keys from the table and handed them to her. "Come on, let's go."
Serena put her keys and purse down. "Katrina, your mom is going to be home in like, ten minutes. And as soon as she gets home, I've got to go. So maybe she can take you, okay? Why don't you go outside and play, alright?"
"Alright," Katrina said unenthusiastically.
Katrina walked outside to the back porch, kicking the snow off the steps.
Maybe Serena wouldn't take her, but she knew that somehow, she HAD to see Santa. And soon.
Alison had just finished cleaning the kitchen when she heard the knock on the door. Alison quickly dried her hands on the dishtowel, then raced to the living room door.
She was surprised to see who it was.
"Nana." Alison rolled her eyes, not in the mood for this again. "What do you want?"
"Are you going to invite me in?"
"I suppose so," Alison said, moving aside as her grandmother walked into the house. "What kind of granddaughter would I be making my grandmother stand out in the cold?"
"I don't intend to stay long, Alison. I just came here to apologize."
"Well it's about time."
"Oh, Alison! Really. You don't have to make this difficult."
Amanda walked over to the couch and took a seat. Alison joined her.
"Alison, I wanted to apologize for the remarks I made the other day. I realize now how insensitive and callous they were. It wasn't my intention to insult Rafe or the youth center. It simply came out all wrong. I hope you will forgive me."
"I'm sure it took a lot of guts for you to come all the way over here just to say that."
"Well I mean it. I truly am sorry. So do you forgive me?"
"Okay. I forgive you. But under one condition."
"A condition?"
"Yes. That you realize that the kids are not future thieves and drug dealers. I promise you, they're not!"
"Of course, darling. I understand that."
"I mean, if anything, the kids that don't attend the center, well, they probably are the future drug dealers. But not these kids. They're really special."
"Well they must be. I can see how important this youth center is to you. I'm sorry things have turned out the way they have."
"Thank you."
Amanda smiled. "So does this mean we can continue on with our lives again? Are we back on speaking terms at least?"
"Of course. I love you, Nana."
"I love you, too, darling."
Alison smiled, giving her grandmother a hug. True, her grandmother had her strange ways, and they didn't always get along, but she was the only grandmother she had, and she did love her.
"Nana!" Katrina ran into the room, throwing her crayons and coloring book on the floor as she ran over to her, giving her a hug.
"Hello, Katrina!"
"I didn't hear you come in."
"Well I just came here, darling. And actually, I'm about to leave."
"No, Nana! Stay for a little bit!"
"Well, I suppose I could stay for a little while…"
"Mommy can make some hot chocolate! Can't you, Mommy?"
"Okay, I guess I've been appointed to go make some hot chocolate," Alison said with a smile as she rose to her feet, heading to the kitchen to go make some.
Even though Katrina had been the one to invite Nana to stay, she became bored once she and her mother began chatting.
Katrina sprawled out on the floor in front of the fire, content with her Christmas coloring book. She was very proud of herself, because she was almost finished. Katrina picked up the coloring book to look at the big picture of Santa she had just colored.
"I have to find a way to see you," she whispered softly to herself.
"Well, I had better get going," Amanda suddenly announced as she rose to her feet. "I need to run over to Wyndham's to do some Christmas shopping."
Katrina perked up, overhearing her great-grandmother. She ran over to her. "Nana! Can I go with you?!"
"Well, it's getting late, darling."
"Oh please, Nana! I'll be really good, I promise! Please?"
Amanda smiled. "Well, I tell you what. If it's okay with your mother, than it's okay with me."
Katrina turned to her mother. "Please, Mommy?"
"Okay, you can go. It'll give me some time to get some things around here done. Thank you, Nana."
"Oh no need to thank me. I shall enjoy spending some time with my great-granddaughter. I'll bring her back in a few hours. Have a good evening, darling."
"You too, Nana. See you later, sweetie."
"Bye, Mommy!" Katrina had already slipped on her shoes and was putting on her coat.
"Don't forget your hat," Alison reminded.
Katrina grabbed her hat and followed Amanda out to the limo waiting in the driveway.
"I love riding in the limo!" Katrina said, hopping into the back as the driver held the door open for her.
Alison closed the door and sighed. The house was quiet now.
She looked at the Christmas tree, beautifully decorated and all lit up. From the outside, everything looked perfect. But Alison could already tell that this Christmas, things wouldn't be as happy as before.
"Oh look at these beautiful scarves," Amanda said, picking up a few and touching the soft, cottony fabric. "Your mother would love these. Would you like to get this for her?"
"Uh huh."
"Which one do you like the best?" Amanda held up her two favorites.
"Um…the red one!"
Amanda smiled. "The red one it is. I'll buy this so you can give it to your mother. Now let's see, I shall buy one for Clarice too. She would love a new scarf."
As Amanda was distracted, browsing through the selection of scarves, Katrina walked a few feet away from her.
Looking in the distance, she saw him. Santa! Oh if she could just talk to Santa one more time, she was positive he could make things right again! Santa always made children happy. He could make grownups happy too, right?
Katrina ran back over to Amanda. "Nana, can I go see Santa?"
"Alright. In a few minutes, darling."
Katrina frowned. She hoped Nana wouldn't be too long. It looked like Santa was about to leave soon, and the line was getting much shorter. Katrina tugged on Amanda's coat. "But Nana, if we don't go now, Santa might leave soon!"
Amanda looked down at Katrina, seeing the look on her face. She looked so much like her mother at that age.
It was then that Amanda began to feel guilty. She had made a lot of mistakes in the past when it came to Alison. She hadn't always been there for her as much as she should have been when she was growing up. She was determined to not make those same mistakes with her great-granddaughter.
Amanda then smiled. "All right, dear, let's go."
"Thanks, Nana!" Katrina took Amanda's hand and led her over to where Santa was.
The line was winding down, so fortunately, Katrina didn't have to wait so long this time.
"Who's next?" Santa asked, his voice still just as jolly as it had been before.
One of Santa's helpers smiled at Katrina and picked her up, putting her into Santa's lap.
"Ho, ho, ho! Hello, pretty little girl!"
"Hi, Santa, do you remember me?"
Santa looked down at her. He had seen thousands of children over the past few weeks, and he rarely remembered them individually. But for some reason, he couldn't forget this little girl. There was just something very special about her.
"Ho, ho, ho! Of course I remember you! Santa knows all of the little boys and girls! You are the one who wants a pony!"
Katrina looked up at Santa with sadness in her eyes. "Not anymore, Santa."
"Oh? Well would you like something else for Christmas?"
Katrina shook her head. "I came to tell you that you don't have to get me anything for Christmas this year."
"Well surely you must want something."
"My Daddy's really sad. I want him to be happy again. That's all I want for Christmas, Santa."
"Oh, I see."
"Can you make him happy again, Santa?"
"Well why is your daddy so sad?"
"Because the mean grinch is trying to steal from him! And now Daddy's not going to have a job. I heard my Mommy say it."
"Well I'm sorry to hear that. I will certainly be sending well wishes your way for you and your family to have a Merry Christmas, alright?"
"Thank you, Santa."
"And you know what? You're a good little girl for wanting your daddy to be happy. I'm sure you'll still have a good Christmas. Santa always makes sure good little boys and girls get what they want. Merry Christmas!"
Katrina smiled. "Merry Christmas." She climbed off his lap and walked back over to her great-grandmother.
Amanda smiled. "I'm very proud of you, Katrina. What you did was completely unselfish and kind. I see your mother has taught you well."
"Nana, do you think Santa will keep his promise? And Daddy will be happy again?"
"I not only think it. I know it. Keep your chin up. This will be a wonderful Christmas."
Amanda gave her a wink, then took her hand. The scene just moments ago touched her heart in so many ways. She suddenly had the perfect idea. She just hoped it would work.
