Part 2 = Santa's Helpers?

Outside, things were proceeding much as expected. The more mischievous students and X-men were having violent snowball fights. Others were making snow mutants and other things out of snow. A few kids were making a sledding run down a haphazardly crafted snow hill.

Only a few people remained inside, and they were mainly discussing Christmas plans for the kids and the adults. "Now," Storm began, "who is going to be Santa Claus this year?"

"I don't want to sound too old-fashioned, but it will probably have to be one of the men," said the professor. "Three years ago, we tried having a female Santa...remember?"

Rogue nodded. "I managed to survive it, but I wouldn't recommend that someone else try it. My hair eventually turned back to its normal color, though."

"Did anyone volunteer? Other than Kurt?" Scott asked.

Storm sighed and shook her head no. "Isn't there anyone else? I hate having to rely on just one person every year."

"How about Beast?" Rogue stretched out her neck.

"He can't. He's going to be cooking, or in his words, 'performing a different kind of chemistry than my usual experiments.'"

"Then why not just go with Kurt?" Scott moved his hand to Rogue's neck, massaging it gently.

Storm scratched off an item from her list. "Fine. That leaves us with guard duty to sort out for the 24th and 25th, and then we're done."