Chapter 4 – Shop 'til You Drop

A/N: In response to the trivia question from the last chapter, the answer is True.  There is a real Mt. Baldy ski resort and it is within an easy drive of the Los Angeles area, so it is realistic that the Rockets seem to go there quite frequently.

Anyway, all the references to stores and stuff are real and do exist.  I know that Ocean Shores is a copy of the real Santa Monica, but let's assume that they're two separate cities, both with boardwalks and piers.

I gave the Rocket family a new car—don't worry, though.  They still have the Woody wagon. It just got harder to transport 4 tall teenagers and all their sports gear in that car.

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            "I still can't believe that you still haven't figured out who's giving you all that stuff!" Otto commented to his sister, who was behind the wheel of the family's 2003 Honda Pilot.

            "I told you I've gone through the list of suspects and nobody seems to match!" Reggie yelled.  She was trying to pay attention to the road as she was traveling up the Pacific Coast Highway towards Santa Monica.  It was crazy enough normally, but with all the pre-holiday traffic, everybody was in a hurry and it showed.  Reggie didn't want to wreck her dad's new SUV or injure her brother or Twister or Sam, who were sitting in the second row seats.  They were all headed to Santa Monica Place, a large, upscale shopping mall located right along the Third Street Promenade.  With only 7 shopping days left until the big holiday, Reggie wanted to get out and buy all her gifts.  Of course, she invited her brother, Sam, and Twister to come along so they could shop in secrecy (without their parents around).  Besides, Ray had let her borrow the car that day—he said he had "other things to do", whatever that meant.

It had been two weeks since the letters and gifts had started to trickle in.  She had received a whole range of gifts.  In addition to the traditional boxes of locally-made chocolates and salt-water taffy, she received a dozen roses hand-delivered by the local florist, gift certificates, and even a new desktop-publishing software program for her laptop.  Sure, she felt special with all the merchandise she had been receiving in the mail, on her doorstep, and even in her hockey bag, but what really tugged at her heart strings were the letters.  They contained the same amount of emotion as before, but they began to become more and more creative.  One day, she received a note that had been carefully inserted through a vent hole in her locker.  After opening up the card, she found a CD lying below where the card had been.  On her walk home, she popped it in to her Walkman and played it through.  The first few songs were from her favorite groups: Good Charlotte, Bon Jovi, Avril Lavigne.  However, the final song touched her so much that she almost cried in public.  The song was "If You're Not the One" by Daniel Bettingfield.  She knew that this boy was dearly in love with him.  It just bugged her that nobody in school recognized the handwriting, so the mystery boy remained at-large.  That same day, she found another card and CD on her doorstep.  However, this time, it was from her second "Secret Santa" and the music was a little different.  Although Reggie had grown out of N*SYNC, the songs that were on this CD were very appropriate.  The first song again almost brought Reggie to tears as she smiled and listened to "God Must Have Spent A Little More Time on You."  The other song that caught her attention was Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You." 

"Fascinating," Reggie thought as she finished listening to the second CD.  "These guys must have known me for quite a while if they have such strong emotions and know my tastes in music."  Although part of her had hoped that Trent was one of the elusive boys, she knew that it was very unlikely.  The handwriting was nowhere close to his.  Besides, she would have expected at least one gift from New Zealand or maybe a song from a New Zealand artist.  Initially, she hadn't ruled anybody out, but the list was getting shorter and shorter.  She knew she needed some help so she enlisted the help of Trish and Sherry, who were going to meet Reggie back home after they had returned from shopping.

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            Finally, the gang arrived at Santa Monica Place.  To make sure they could conquer all three floors of the immense complex and hide their gifts from each other, the gang split up, agreeing to meet up in a few hours.  Otto went straight to Pacific Sunwear to check out their latest extreme-sport-themed clothing.  He had bought Twister a Best Buy gift card so he could buy more camcorder tapes and stuff.  As for Reggie, Raymundo was taking care of her present and he would chip in a small amount for it.  He needed to find something for Sam, but he figured he had some time left to think.

            Sam's first stop was Zales.  He knew he had to somehow top what the other kid had given Reggie.  Realizing the competition that was in place, he knew he had to reveal himself sometime soon, especially since Oliver Van Rossom was charging him $10 every time Sam used his handwriting-replication software to print his love messages.  His goal was to tell Reggie on Christmas Eve around Midnight.  He would ask her aside and they would stop in the right spot—right underneath a piece of mistletoe he had cleverly and secretly placed in the Shack while they were decorating.  He would admit his love for her, give her something extra special, and then (he was very excited about this part) kiss her.  The question was: what to get her?  He saw a $99, 14K gold necklace at Zales, but before he consented to the purchase, he stopped and thought.  This whole "Secret Santa" thing had been costing him a ton of money and somehow, he thought, all the work he was doing at the local computer shop would not be able to support this forever.  A better idea then surfaced.  Since Reggie had asked Sam to the upcoming Sadie Hawkins dance (they are in the same grade, after all), he decided to go down to Salon Vivace.  There, he ordered a gift certificate for a haircut and manicure.  "There, that was expensive enough," he thought as he handed over his debit card to pay for the gift.

            Sam, upon exiting the jewelry store, did not notice Twister walking in the store two seconds later.  Twister had the same thoughts as Sam regarding the necessity for him to admit his crush.  He didn't have a plan like Sammy's, but he did plan on putting a note in with her gift explaining everything, especially how he had convinced his Aunt Cleotilda to write his love letters for her as a "favor".  The prize money he had won recently for his top-notch movies, however, was enough to purchase the necklace, but he decided to be a little more creative.  He walked down to Brookstone. Initially, he had his eye set on a personal electronic massager, but he thought the better of it. Instead, he bought Reggie a Slim Profile CD player, which was slightly more expensive.  She could definitely use that for college, he thought.

Reggie, on the other hand, was spending her time and money at Things Remembered. Since Twister was going to take his road test two days after Christmas, she ordered him an engraved keychain since he would be receiving an Acura RSX for Christmas (at least that's what Mr. Rodriguez had said). Just before walking in there, she had purchased a pair of clip-on mirrored sunglasses for Sam. She thought he would look cool in those.

When it was time for them to meet up and head to the car, the four of them passed the classic Christmas sight at any American mall-Santa Claus.

"Hey, look. There's Santa Claus!" Twister pointed out.

"Funny. I thought Santa had a grudge against you, remember?" Otto questioned back.

"Oh yeah," Twister thought. His thoughts flashed back to when he was 6 years old. His big brother, Lars, being the bully he used to be, convinced Twister that Santa Claus was not a jolly old man who carried a sack of toys to give out, but was instead a diabolical criminal who stole childrens' toys and took the kids with him. The toys and kids (who he would "freeze") were supposedly in his bag. When Sandy and Raul told their young son that Santa was coming to visit on Christmas Eve (they had hired an actor to come to the house), Twister was very frightened. That night, he waited in the closet for Santa to arrive, holding a baseball bat in his hand. When he heard "Ho ho ho" by the closet, he jumped out and swung the bat. The bat hit Santa right between the legs, causing him to shriek in a high-pitched voice, double up, and fall to the ground. Lars fell to the floor laughing and Sandy fainted. Christmas at the Rodriguezes had never been the same since.

"Haha. Bust!" the two guys and girl yelled as they began to chuckle.

"Yeah, yeah. Very funny," Twister replied.

"Reggie, what do you think about Santa?" Sam asked.

"Well, while I don't believe that there really is a Santa Claus, I think his spirit lies within all of us. It's the spirit of giving that makes this time of year so fun. Why did you ask, Sammy?"

"Oh, just curious," Sam innocently replied.

"OK guys. Everybody done? I have to get back home to meet up with Trish & Sherry," Reggie explained.

"Why? What are you girls gonna do?" Otto inquired.

"We're going to solve this Secret Santa mystery once and for all!" Reggie exclaimed excitedly.

"Oh great. Hope she doesn't find out yet," thought Twister and Sam almost simultaneously as they headed towards the parking garage.    

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Meanwhile, Ray had walked down to the local Mazda dealer. He was very proud of his daughter. She had had a tough 18 years. Despite the death of her mother and having to deal with her sometimes pompous brother, she rarely showed any emotional distress. Her talents and personality had brought her far. Not only was she the only girl on the previously all-male street hockey team, but had also had a 3.95 GPA, had won a scholarship to University of California at Berkeley for Journalism, and had won many awards both for her surfing skills and character, including a guaranteed college internship from the California Press Association and "Young Achiever of the Year" from the Ocean Shores Gazette.

As a reward, Ray decided to invest the extra college money he didn't have to spend in a car for Reggie. He wanted something safe, but something she could use and enjoy driving. His search had led him to the Mazda 6. He had negotiated a price on the 220-horsepower sports sedan with a 5-speed manual transmission. The only thing left to do was to pick the color, pick up the car in 5 days, and somehow surprise Reggie.

"So, Mr. Rocket. What color will it be?" the salesman asked.

Ray knew the answer. He had consulted Otto, Sam, and Twister. They had a hard time deciding until they realized that the perfect answer was right in front of them. They decided to match the car color to the red color of Reggie's favorite "rocket" shirt.

"Redfire Metallic," Ray answered.

After signing a few papers, Ray left the dealership and walked down to the jewelry store. He had another surprise up his sleeve. Reggie didn't know about this one either and neither did Otto. As he conducted business and made his purchase inside, Ray knew that he would be spending a lot of money in the near future, but he knew it would be well worth it.

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A/N: Just a note, I may refer to a lot of "boy band" songs from the past 5 years. The only reason I am doing that is that their holiday songs seem to fit this story well.

I'm also sure that some people will recognize who I am after seeing the reference to the Mazda :)

As for the jewelry store and Ray, that's another twist I am going to add to the story. Bet you can't guess what it is.

By the way, hoped you liked the "Twister moment" I added.

More to come soon. These 4 chapters were easy because I had the idea in my head and I was bored, that's why they came out so quickly.