Hey guys! Sorry this took so long, but I had my laptop confiscated, and i'm gonna have it confiscated until Monday as well...Sometimes parents can be so stupid..:P. Anyways, here's the first part of the Christmas special, my holiday present to you, so, as always, enjoy!


Chapter 29 Christmas Eve

Odd woke up to the smell of croissants and hot chocolate. He smiled. The last few days had gone by quickly, and it was now Christmas Eve. The others were at the table already and deep in conversation about what was better; a snowboard or a pair of skis. As Odd joined them, Aelita gave him a brilliant smile.

"Why good morning! And how did you sleep?"

Odd grinned. "I slept like a rock. So," he said, turning to the others. "Since we've already covered the entirety of the front side, how about we head over to the back side today?" Five heads nodded in agreement.

"Then it's settled. Dad, do you want to come with us today, or wait til tomorrow?" Odd asked.

"No, I think I'll let you young 'uns have your space today, but be ready for a solid race tomorrow Ulrich!" Mr. Della Robbia grinned.

"You're on!"

"Ok then…We leave after breakfast!" Odd declared, brandishing a croissant in the air.


After breakfast, the gang decked out in their snow gear, and Mr. Della Robbia headed off to the slopes, since he owned his own skis, giving Odd some money for the gang's lunch on the way out.

"Just be back by 5!"

"We will Dad!" Odd called after him then turned to his friends. "Ok, let's go."

As they were walking through the snow towards the ski rental shop, Odd took some time to look at the others' gear for the millionth time. They just looked so…different than usual.

Jeremy was wearing a full-body ski suit colored green and blue, and cradling a yellow helmet in his arms.

Emily was dressed similarly in a pink outfit and helmet.

Yumi was wearing a dark purple suit with a black helmet, and Ulrich was spouting the trousers of a French army uniform, and the top of a winter German army sweater. He didn't carry a helmet, but had goggles like the others.

Aelita, however, for some reason, had not come in her usual pink. She wore a white two-piece suit that had a patch of neon pink flowers on the back of one shoulder. She had shown her helmet to Odd before they set out the first day, and it was really cool. It had built-in speakers and matched her suit. How she had this was a mystery to the others, but Aelita said she found it in the Hermitage alongside her mother's stuff, so it rightfully belonged to Aelita now.

And, of course, there was the matter of Odd. He wore a black outfit that had neon stripes running down each arm and leg and swirled together in the center. He stood out to say the least, but that was what he wanted anyway.

When they got to the shop, they got their boards and skis one by one from the lockers. Jeremy and Emily had requested skis, but Yumi and Aelita requested boards, as well as Odd who owned his own. Ulrich went over to the counter though and exchanged a few quick words with the owner. As he passed over a set of weird, who-knows-which-way-they-go skis over the counter to Ulrich, Aelita's curiosity was perked.

"What are those, Ulrich?"

"These are twin tips. They let me ski backwards. I thought I'd try them out today."

"Ya right…So you're telling me that you can spin your skis around and keep going like my board here…Am I right?"

Ulrich winked at her with a knowing look. "Just wait and see…"


Once the gang strapped in, they were headed up the mountain on the 6-person chair lift.

"So what runs are we doing first?" Ulrich asked, leaning forward.

Odd scratched his helmetless head with one of his gloves. "Well, I was thinking of taking you guys down through Animas City, through Angel's Tread, and down Demon, then a tree trail over to the backside. Look…You'll just see when we get there, ok?"

The others murmured their agreements as they got off the lift. Soon they were off down the mountain, and having a really good time. Odd lead the way, showing both the easy ways as well as where the best jumps could be found, and keeping a grin on everyone's' faces the entire time.

In no time at all, they were down the mountain and back up again, and Odd showed them another route that wove through the trees, and came out at the bottom of the mountain. The gang went down time and time again, and before they knew it, it was lunch time.

"Wow, Odd, you're a really good snowboarder," Yumi remarked over their shared pizza. They had stopped at a place halfway down the mountain called, The Powderhouse, and Odd had bought them a pizza to share.

"Well…It's just practice. I've been boarding since I was eight, so I naturally would…" Odd replied grinning. "You weren't too bad yourself Yumi."

"Thanks."

"But did anyone see Ulrich?" Emily laughed. "He was going as fast as you all...And he was going backwards…Most of the time. Turns out you were wrong after all, Aelita!"

Aelita blushed in humiliation but said nothing. Ulrich had not only proved her wrong, he didn't fall over once; something that Aelita had not been able to achieve as of yet.

Odd punched Ulrich good-mannerly on the arm. "As that may be, we all still know Ulrich to be the biggest klutz in the world at ice skating…Whereas Aelita will show us all up at that."

Aelita smiled at Odd as he did a demonstration of what he thought Ulrich would look like on skates, making everyone laugh.

"Alright, so are we ready to head over to the back side now?" Emily asked Odd.

"I think. Just be careful though, it has a notorious history of being icy even on the warmest days."

"Ok."


Once the gang had strapped in, they followed Odd through a tree trail down to the bottom of the back side's major chairlift.

At the top, the others followed Odd down a trail named Sally's Run, which was a blue. It had rolling slopes and some good mini jumps. After they had gone down that a couple times, it was getting late, and the boys wanted to try one more before the lift closed and they were stuck on the back side for the night. Yumi was in disagreement.

"Come on, it's just a tree trail!"

"It's a freaking double black!"

"That's just cause it's a tree trail…and steep."

"…And icy and it's got moguls, and frozen stream…"

"Those are just rumors."

"And the guy who died?"

"He jumped off a cliff way to the east of here!"

"And the girl?"

"She wasn't paying attention and ran into a tree. Come on, it'll be fun!"

"Ugh…Aelita, Emily, what do you think?"

"I want to try it."

"Same."

"Fine, we'll do it…" Yumi relented.

"YES!"

"Don't gloat Ulrich…" Yumi said, but couldn't help grinning.

Odd started off with the others following towards the new run they had decided on; McCormick's Maze.

To make a long story short, it was the best run they had done that day, and even chanced another run down it.

Odd was bringing up the rear that run, and halfway down spotted something disturbing. A dark snowboarder had crossed her path, no doubt another fellow snowboarder, who they had passed endlessly, but Aelita got confused and followed him instead of Ulrich.

"Hey, Ulrich!" Odd yelled, but he was too far ahead to hear. Shaking his head and muttering, "idiot…" under his breath, Odd followed Aelita. The route they were taking was heading in an unmistakably eastern direction. And then it hit Odd.

'Oh no…The cliff! He must be one of those adventure-seeking cliff jumpers! I've got to stop him before he leads Aelita off the cliff!'

Just then, Odd came to the end of the tree line and the edge of the cliff. An unwelcoming sight greeted his eyes. 'This is bad, this is very bad…' Odd thought, hiding behind a tree.

There, on the edge of the cliff, was William. And above his head, he held Aelita, board-less and suspended in a halo of energy. William turned towards Odd, grinned and threw Aelita off the edge, dissipating into smoke before Odd could reach him.

Before William had even thrown Aelita off though, Odd was barreling towards them on his snowboard, not even caring that William got away. All he cared about was saving Aelita. Mere milliseconds after she was falling, Odd was off the cliff and after her. As he drew breadth with her, he maneuvered his board under her, like on Lyoko, and hit the slope at the bottom of the cliff perfectly, making an explosion of powder and sending them off at a terrific speed down towards the chair lift.

They were just in time to catch the last chairlift going up.


Once Odd and Aelita reached the bottom of the front side slopes, Odd stashed his board in the lockers.

"Look," Aelita said, pointing out through the wooden awning. It had begun to snow. She and Odd smiled. The ski town emitted a warm glow; Christmas decorations, the trees, the firelight dancing inside the houses, reflecting on the curtains and blinds. It was perfect.

As Odd started off down the cobbled street, Aelita reached out and grabbed his hand. Surprised, Odd turned around to feel Aelita's lips against his own. Suspended in their own world, Odd and Aelita paid no attention to passerby's, who smiled at the couple.

Finally pulling away, Aelita whispered, "Merry Christmas, Odd…"


The others were chilling in the hot tub, for Ulrich literally since he was doing a dare in the snow with only his swim trunks, when Aelita and Odd joined them, arms around each other.

Yumi raised her eyebrows. "What happened to you two? We waited ages for you."

When Ulrich saw Odd and Aelita, he made a running dive into the hot tub, sighing as his frozen limbs warmed up.

"What the heck!" exclaimed Odd.

"…Dare…" murmured Ulrich.

"Alright then…Room for us?"

"Sure. But we'll have to throw Ulrich back out again," Emily grinned.

Ulrich backed into a corner of the hot tub and sank below the water, disappearing from their sight.

"I have a better idea…" Aelita said once Ulrich ran out of air.

"What?' all the others said.

"Let's just go over to the mountain club hot tub. It's big enough for all of us, and we can do stuff in the club room afterwards."

The others looked at each other and grinned.

"Good idea," Yumi said. "And since it's Christmas Eve, not many people will be there."

"Then what are we waiting for?"


After the gang was done in the club hot tub, in which a violent game of dares ensured, the girls put on shirts over their bikinis and, well, the boys were dared not to wear anything but their swim trunks all night, so they stayed in only their trunks.

The game of dares continued throughout the gang's pool games, in which Odd won easily, their wii sports matches, in which Yumi usually won, and Modern Warfare 3, where Aelita and Odd dominated as the best team, even getting up to wave 43 on survival before Aelita was taken down and Odd surrounded on all sides.

And then the ultimate dare came in, as it usually does at some point during a game of dares.

"I double dare you and Aelita to run naked to the top of that snowdrift, make a snow angel on your stomach, and jump in the pool," Yumi grinned at Odd and Aelita, sure that they would back down and she would win. Ulrich had previously refused to jump off the overlooking balcony into the pool, and Jeremy and Emily had refused to do 20 pushups each. Not surprising.

"What the hell!" yelled Aelita. "You can't dare us this!"

"Ya!" yelled Odd, blushing at the thought.

"Then I'm the winner!" Yumi grinned, "And you all have to do whatever I say tomorrow!"

Odd scowled. "I'm not doing anything for you."

"You do unless you do my dare."

"She's right…" Aelita said darkly. "So, I accept your dare. Odd, will you too?"

"God…As long as she knows she's gonna pay BIG time for this, fine. Besides, tomorrow's Christmas, I don't want to be doing any work!"

Yumi paled. She didn't really want to embarrass her friends, she just made the stupid dare so that she would win.

"Yumi…Maybe you should change the dare if they're gonna do it anyways…" Ulrich suggested.

"Ya, I think I will."

Odd and Aelita visibly sighed in relief. "Thanks Yumi. But I guess we win!"

Yumi grinned too. "I guess you did. Merry Christmas everyone!"

"Merry Christmas!"


So how was it? PLEASE let me know so I can make the story better! I value all of your opinions, it you wanna hate on me, go ahead, as long as you tell me what you want me to change. And I now made an email so people without accounts can tell me what they think as well! it's .

Dedication! This chapter is dedicated to my fans, once again, and my family. Thanks for all the support these last few months writing this!

Song of the day! It's 'Last Christmas', bye Cascada.

Quote of the day! 'Santa ran over my Grandma last Christmas. They should never have given a license to a man who works one day a year and plays with elves...' For more like this and better, go to my homepage! :D