Yancy's Christmas Carol

~Chapter Eight~
Awkward Date

Time itself seemed to have taken a holiday this holiday as Nate stood in line waiting for his turn to use the restroom. That large root beer he had consumed earlier was really taking its toll on his bladder now, but the single restroom at this place, for some inconceivable reason, only allowed for one occupant at a time. Couldn't they have just installed separate Men's and Women's rooms that each have multiple toilets throughout several individual stalls? —You know; like how literally EVERY other modern building this size does these days?! Realizing he was going to be here awhile yet, the bushy-haired boy heaved a sigh and began to scroll through his Xtransceiver to pass the time and drown out the sounds of the chattering crowds around him—including the sound of that loud voice of some unknown woman with a strong Castelian accent shouting someone down in the background;

"Hey, you! The dweeb in da jacket! —No, no, no! Not YOU; dat other dweeb over there! YOU! Are ya deaf, man?! I'm talkin' to ya!"

Paying no mind to the unfamiliar voice of this noisy weirdo and whomever it was she was calling out, he continued to mind his own business and idly scrolled through his list of contacts to see if one person in particular happened to be online at the moment. 'Looks like Yancy isn't available yet...' he thought to himself as he stared down at the inactive nametag on his Xtransceiver's screen. Thinking back to how his previous conversation with her was abruptly cut short before he could make his intended proposition, he was very much hoping he would still have the chance to speak to her again before this evening was through.

As he closed his list of contacts, the image on his screen was replaced with that of his Xtransceiver's current backdrop wallpaper—a picture of a Keldeo striking a resolute pose—which the boy stared discontentedly at for a moment. Nate then opened up his list of previously-selected wallpapers and gazed with a fond smile at the image that he had previously been using as his backdrop up until Hugh had humiliatingly called him out for it in front of Yancy. Thinking it over for but a moment, he soon decided that he really didn't care about what anyone would say about his wallpaper choice and contently set this treasured image as his backdrop once again as before.

No sooner than he had saved the changes to his device's settings, the boy found himself abruptly seized by the arm. Nearly jumping out of his skin, the startled teen turned around to find himself suddenly standing face-to-face with an abomination so terrifying that his first thought was that this could only be some kind of demon from Hell! Yikes!

—However, before he had the chance to throw holy water on the alleged demon, he realized it was actually just some woman wearing wayyyyyyy too much makeup. "Hey! You listenin' ta me or ain't ya?!" she huffed impatiently in her Castelian accent. "I didn't go through all da trouble of huntin' ya down just to be ignored, so learn to pay an ear when a lady's talkin' to ya! Ya hear, son?!"

Nate stared dumbfounded at the strange lady standing before him with a million questions rushing through his mind; Who IS this weirdo? Why was she talking to him? What did she mean by 'hunting him down'? Is wearing that much makeup even legal? Does she actually think it makes her look ATTRACTIVE somehow? Is a Squirtle without its shell naked or homeless? What does that last question even have to do with anything? —Of course, in the spur of the moment, he could only ask one, and so he went with the most logical question of all to sum up all his thoughts;

"...What?"

The noisy woman (whom, of course, was none other than Ms. Dona) rolled her eyes and crossed her arms with a scoff. "Tsk! Of all da simps dat girl has buzzin' 'round her to choose from, she just HAD to go for a dense one..." she muttered under her breath, though not nearly quiet enough to go unheard.

"Uh... I beg your pardon, ma'am..?" asked a confused Nate, having no clue who or what this lady was talking about.

"You da one who won the lotto-drawin' at da end o' Nancy's carol?" Ms. Dona asked him bluntly, baffling the boy even more.

"Huh? Yeah, that was me...though I gave my winning-ticket away to some kids on the way out."

"—AND WHY DA DIPSY-DOODLIN' COW-PIE WOULD YA DO A DUMB THING LIKE DAT?!" screamed the eccentric woman at an ear-splitting volume, briefly dropping her calm facade and allowing the frustration of having the perfect setup she conducted be thwarted by some spontaneous act of charity to show, before she quickly regained her composure again. "*Ahem* —I mean; dat was a very gentlemanly thing ya did back there. In fact, Nancy was oh-so-touched to hear about your senseless—I mean; selfless—act o' charity dat she sent me to come find ya so she can repay ya proper for bein' so stinkin' nice to those random kiddos you just met!"

Now Nate was even more puzzled, but for a different set of reasons than before. "Huh? But...that was only—what—six or seven minutes ago..? How in the world were you able to hear about that, identify the original ticket-holder, and then track me down in that short of time?!"

"Oh, we gotz our ways..." said Ms. Dona cryptically with a wave of her hand. Of course, she had already seen his photo more than once due to her tendency to constantly pry into Yancy's personal business, so she had no problem recognizing the boy's face to track him down despite this being the first time she ever met him for herself, but as far as Nate was aware, he was completely unbeknownst to Nancy and her staff, so the thought of being so easily traced like this for simply being in possession of a concert ticket left him feeling quite concerned over just how closely monitored the common man in today's digitized society must really be. Before he could say another word, however, the mysterious woman grabbed him by the wrist and, without waiting for any consent, immediately pulled him along through the crowds. "Now then, as a reward for you givin' up your first chance to meet with her, Nancy's invited you to come and have another chance to meet her!"

"What? Wait a minute—!" the baffled boy tried to object but found himself being tugged forward at full sprint.

"—And dis time it's non-transferable, so come on and let's get you up there to her room right away! It's rude to keep a lady waitin', ya know!"

"Can't I at least pee first?! I have been waiting in line for awhile now!"

"Well, of course ya have!" scoffed Ms. Dona as she continued to drag him along, not slowing in the slightest. "Whatja expect when you decided to line up for da Family Restroom instead of the main ones on da other end o' the hall over there? Everyone knows da lines for dat small thing always takes longer!"

"Huh? The main restrooms..?" Nate looked back in the distance and, sure enough, realized that there were indeed two other restrooms, each large enough to offer separate toilet stalls for multiple occupants to be able to use at a time, designated for Men and Women respectively with people freely entering and exiting with no waiting lines.

It was at that moment the boy deduced himself to be an idiot.

Yancy found her time with the little girls to be quite enjoyable. They were at least as thrilled to receive the Swanna pendants offered to them as Yancy was pleased to see these gifts go to someone whom they would actually mean something special to. Although she always did feel a little guilty about not keeping the gifts she constantly received from her fans, she hoped that if those admirers of hers who had sent her those pendants could see the smiles they had put on these girls' faces, they would be pleased too with how their gifts were used and maybe even be inspired to start redirecting their generous donations to people who actually have need of such charity instead of wasting their money on rich celebrities like herself.

She and the girls talked for awhile, took a few photos together (with many involving making silly faces into the camera), rolled on the floor making 'snow angels' in the scattered rose petals Ms. Dona had previously spread about (an idea that Yancy had proposed in order to get out of having to answer their questions as to why she had petals all over her floor in the first place), and crafted flower-wreath tiaras out of the remaining camellias still intact in the vase, which the little girls wore proudly upon their heads on their way out. They could not stick around for more than fifteen minutes, as their mother and father were still waiting outside for them, but both they and Yancy all made a treasured memory in their short time together. There was something almost magical about the innocence of children that was like a refreshing ray of sunshine to the pink-haired teen breaking through that dark storm of concupiscence that seemed to dominate this world so much of the time.

Now if only her own younger siblings could learn to be so sweet and innocent as well...

Yancy waved goodbye to the girls and smiled fondly as they ran excitedly back to their parents, eager to show them their new pendants and flower-wreaths from their favorite singer. 'Maybe I should end all of my concerts with an actual lotto-drawing like this from now on,' she thought to herself as she watched the beaming girls as they began to tell their parents all about their meeting with Nancy before they even had the chance to set foot out the next door. However, she quickly dismissed that idea the instant she thought about the other types of fans she had a tendency to attract; being constantly hit on through fan-mail was irritating enough already, and she certainly had no desire to give such perverts the chance to come out and hit on her in person.

Closing the door to her room behind her, the pink-haired teen lazily plopped herself down upon the sofa, pleased to finally get to unwind after a long and fairly stressful day, and decided she could probably change back into her regular outfit now since it was very unlikely that Ms. Dona would have actually been able to track Nate down before he exited the building. She had but removed her shawl before looking down again at that stupid bow around her bare leg—Thank Heaven the girls never thought to inquire about that while they were here!—that Ms. Dona had made her wear to look more seductive for Nate. Chuckling now in amusement over the whole cringe-worthy scenario that had thankfully never come to pass, she began to try to undo the knot to remove the silly thing but was abruptly startled by a sudden voice in her ear;

"World's-Coolest-Stylist to Fancy-Nancy! World's-Coolest-Stylist to Fancy-Nancy! Over!"

"Wah! What now?!" Yancy looked around in brief shock before realizing she was still wearing her earpiece from the concert, which Ms. Dona was apparently using to page her now. 'Ah, probably just calling in to report that she couldn't find Nate after all...' she thought drowsily to herself as she turned on the mic to reply. "I hear you, Ms. Dona...and it really isn't necessary to use those weird nicknames."

"On dat I'm willin' to agree to disagree," answered the eccentric stylist over the device. "But dat's beside the point; I'ma callin' in to report dat the target is now in range and ready to mingle!"

Yancy yawned sleepily, barely hearing what was said to her. "Ah, don't worry about it. You've already— Wait a minute... WHAT?!"

Meanwhile, in the hall leading up to the teen-celebrity's door, Ms. Dona stood with a tablet between her hands that had all the controls to the girl's dressing room fully installed onto it as she spoke into her headset. "Dat's right; I gotz your man right here at your door as we speak!" she said proudly as she glanced over to Nate, who was currently being frisked by the security guard a few paces away, before looking back into the tablet's screen at the sight of Yancy already seated upon the sofa beneath the mistletoe in her under-dressed state as before. "And I see you already shooed out da kiddos and are still dressed to impress as I left ya, eh? Good girl! I admit I was a lil' worried I'd have to pep-talk ya back into it all over again, but I see your head's still in da game yet!"

All sense of sleepiness had completely vanished from the panicked girl as she looked frantically at herself and then around the room trying to figure out how in the world the crazed stylist already knew the current state of how she was presently dressed. She then noticed the newly-installed camera discretely placed straight across from the sofa where she sat, which somehow didn't even surprise her to see at this point. Of course Ms. Dona would go so far as to have a hidden camera installed just for this... "H-hold on a second here..!" she tried to protest with various objections running through her mind, though one in particular was especially urgent; "Please tell me this isn't going on the internet!"

"Oh, he's comin' in now..!" said Ms. Dona in a hushed tone into the device as she watched the security guard give Nate the okay to enter. "Now you just get your flirty-self into position like I showed ya and leave da mood-fixin' ta me. Don't worry, I'll be here to instruct ya through your earpiece just like your director does when you're on stage so ya don't goof it!"

Before Yancy could object, the lights in her room suddenly dimmed as Ms. Dona turned down the dial on her tablet's control app outside. She swallowed a lump in her throat as a gentle knock rapped at her door. "Come in..." was all she could say now, hoping her nervousness wasn't too obvious in her voice.

The door slowly opened, and the slow jazz music started up on the stereo once more as an unsure Nate stepped awkwardly into the room, still trying to wrap his head around how he ended up here himself. His wide eyes landed in disbelief on the under-dressed girl seated upon the sofa, surrounded by red petals spread across the floor in the romantic lighting, with a bow wrapped suggestively around her leg as if it were a present to be unwrapped. Everything seemed so farfetched and surreal that only one thought filled his mind;

'What in the world is even happening?!'

As he stood frozen like a Deerling caught in the headlights, his face slowly assuming the color of a ripened tomato, a long and an awkward "Uuuuuuhh..." being the only sound he could bring himself to utter as his brain seemed to blow a fuse trying to process weather or not what he was seeing was real, Yancy sat just as stiff in her seat and uncertain how to act in the situation as he. A moment of awkward silence passed between the two of them without either party moving a muscle.

"What'chu think ya doin', girl?!" barked the voice of Ms. Dona through Yancy's earpiece, snapping the girl out of her timid daze. "Dat ain't da way I showed ya! Get your flirt on already!"

Deeming her only option to be to go through with it now—though not entirely certain just what exactly 'it' was that she was even trying to do anymore—the teen-celebrity decided to commit herself to do what was presently expected of her and stifled the many conscientious objections in her heart telling her otherwise. 'Well... Here goes nothing...' Putting on her best effort to conceal any sign of nervousness, and reminding herself that she was no longer 'Yancy' in this moment but only 'Nancy', she positioned herself confidentially in her seat with her bare leg on full display and, giving the boy the most flirtatious look she could muster, greeted him in a seductive tone of voice; "Hey there, good-looking~ Enjoy the show today~?"

If the ceiling were to suddenly collapse on her and strike her dead where she sat, she would have greatly appreciated it right about now.

Thanks for reading! As promised, we have now entered the main climax of this story, which means that, aside from the epilogue, the next chapter will probably be the last—unless, of course, it ends up getting too lengthy and I have to split it up into two different chapters again, which does tend to happen quite a lot when I'm writing. ^_^'