Before y'all start reading there's 2 things I wanna say:

The first 2 chapters are gonna be a bit boring. I'm sorry about that. I did my best to make them a bit more interesting and different so they wouldn't sound like every other Santa Clasue fic out there but I'm not entirely sure I succeeded. I promise things will become a bit more interesting starting at chapter 3 so please stick with me!

Some of the dialogue in this chapter I shifted from one scene to another because of my writing style. I thought it fit better when I moved a bit around. So if you get confused because some dialogue is in an entirely different place than it is in the movie, that's why. It should only happen in this chapter.

That's all for now! Happy reading!

"Ow!"

Cassidy groaned, her cellphone having fallen off the arm of the couch right onto her face where she had previously been napping. Hearing her familiar ringtone of jingle bells, she groaned again.

"I just want to take a nap in peace is that really too much to ask."

Squinting at the phone screen, she saw that it was her dad calling.

"Apparently yes." She answered her own question, picking up the phone. "Hey dad. What'd you call me for?"

"Hi sweetie. I wanted to let you know that I'm gonna be a bit late home. There was an accident so I had to take a different road." Her father, Scott Calvin, said. He sounded quite disappointed in himself. "I already called Laura to let her know. She's a bit mad of course, you know how she is, but she should be around to drop charlie off in a couple minutes. I assume that your friends already dropped you off at the house?"

Cassie let out a chuckle. "Yeah dad. They dropped me off a few hours ago."

That was when she heard the sound of a key being jiggled into the lock on the front door.

"I gotta go dad, I think Mom and Charlie just got here."

"Alright sweetie. I'll be home in a couple minutes. Love you!"

"Love you too dad." She said, hanging up the phone and walking into the front hall.

The door swung open to show her mother, Laura, who quickly walked in to hug her daughter.

"Hi mom." Cassie said, peering around over her mothers shoulder. She couldn't see her step-father, Neil, anywhere, which she was honestly a bit relieved about. She couldn't stand the guy.

"What no boy-toy with you this time, mom?" She asked, pulling away from the hug.

Her mom let out a sigh.

"He's outside in the car. Listen, honey, I know you don't really like him but you could at least-"

"CASSIE!" Laura was cut off as Charlie, Cassie's favorite and only little brother, running into the room to go hug his sister.

Cassie let out a giggle. "Hiya sport! Did you miss me that much when I was away last night?"

"Of course I did! It's so much more fun when you're around."

"Well then I guess it's a good thing that it was only for one night." Cassie said with a smile. "We can't have you missing me too much. C'mon, dad said that he'll be here in a couple minutes so let's go put your bags away."

As the two were walking back from Charlie's room, they heard a couple voices coming from around the corner.

"Oh, Charlie came home from school the other day in tears, because some big kid told him there was no such thing as Santa. And, you know Neal. Well, he sat him down and-"

"He told him that there was a Santa Claus."

"Well, all he said was that Santa was more like a feeling. You know, more like a state of mind than a person."

"Kind of like Neal. And who gave you permission to tell Charlie there's no Santa Claus?

I think if we're gonna destroy our son's illusions, I should be a part of it."

"Yeah, but you're never around, are you, Scott?"

"Oh, oh, please."

Charlie turned to look up at his sister from where they had both paused to listen to the argument.

"Why do they always have to fight with each other, Cassie?"

She let out a sad sigh and crouched down to look her brother in the eyes.

"Sometimes sport, relationships don't work out. And when that happens, it makes people upset. Some people are able to get over it and be friends again, but other people, like Mom and Dad, aren't able to get over it. Maybe one day they will, but it'll take time."

"So they're mad at each other because they broke up?"

"Something like that. It'll make more sense once you're older."

Charlie pouted at that "People always say that."

Cassidy giggled. "I know it's annoying, but I promise you that it's true. Now c'mon," She said, standing up again. "No more of that face, it's Christmas Eve after all! We're gonna have lots of fun with dad tonight and then tomorrow we get to celebrate Christmas!"

Charlie smiled a bit more, but still seemed a bit sad. "But dad isn't nearly as fun as mom. He's always doing work stuff. And he can't cook."

"He may work a lot, but it doesn't mean he doesn't care about you. He loves you a lot Charlie, and I'll be sure to help him out with the food this year so it doesn't end in disaster like last year."

They both slightly shuddered at the memory. The whole kitchen had nearly burned down because their dad accidentally dropped a towel into the oven which caught fire and would have spread very fast if it weren't for Cassidy throwing the pot of water that the potatoes were cooking in onto it. Needless to say, neither of them really trusted their dad with the cooking anymore.

"I promise you sport, this is gonna be the best Christmas eve you're ever gonna have. Now let's go say hi to dad."

Dinner turned out to be a bust.

Despite her best efforts, Cassidy couldn't get her dad to hand over the reins to her while cooking dinner, which, of course, led to the turkey catching on fire. The rest of the food came out quite good, but nobody was really in the mood to eat at home after that, so they stuck all the food in the fridge and got in the car to find a good restaurant to where they could eat.

Which was why they were now all sitting at a small table in the back of Denny's.

"Coffee?" The waitress, who's name was Judy according to her name tag, asked. She seemed tired, like she very obviously didn't want to be there.

"No, thank you, Judy. What do you say we start out with cold glasses…" Scott paused to look at the menu in front of them. "of delicious seasonal favorite eggnog?"

"I don't like eggnog." Charlie said, making a face.

"We're out." Judy deadpanned.

"Coffee. Decaf." Scott said

"Mm-hmm."

"I'll just have water." Cassidy stated, eyes glued to the menu trying to find anything that sounded even somewhat appetizing. She wasn't succeeding.

"I'll have chocolate milk, please." Charlie piped.

"We're out."

"Plain milk's fine."

"Okay."

Scott, noticing that his kids didn't seem to be having too much fun, tried to find something that would make them cheer up. That was when his eyes landed on the flyer in the middle of the table advertising homemade apple pie.

"At least we know they got hot apple pie." He said. Cassidy and Charlie both seemed to perk up a bit at that. It was short lived however as they soon heard the monotone voice of Judy call out from behind them.

"We did."

Charlie sighed and slumped down into his seat.

"You know, Neal's a real good cook."

"Yeah, and you should see him walk on water." Scott scoffed.

"You don't like him very much, do ya, Dad?"

"I can see why. The man's obnoxious." Cassidy stated, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, sweetie don't say that sort of stuff. Charlie, yeah- I was joking, okay? I'm sorry. I was just kiddin' around. I like him a lo- Yeah, sure, I like him. You know, there- There's just something about him that makes me wanna-"

Charlie cut him off before he could finish.

"Lash out irrationally?"

"Woah that's a big word there sport, where did you hear that one?" Cassie asked, facing her little brother with a look of surprise on her face.

"From Neal."

"Well I guess you have learned something from him. Huh."

"I learn a lot from him. He listens to me."

Scott scoffed before he broke in again.

"Yeah. Then he charges ya for it."

Charlie seemed to visibly deflate. "So much for the best Christmas Eve ever."

Cassidy frowned at her brother. She truly did feel bad that he wasn't enjoying himself. Christmas was supposed to be a happy time of year when families could spend time together. It still was for her, but it seemed like for Charlie it was quickly becoming exactly the opposite.

"And Mama in her kerchief and I in my cap…"

Cassidy and Charlie were both on Charlie's bed in his room, listening to their dad read them the Night Before Christmas. Charlie was tucked in, right on the verge of falling asleep, while Cassidy was sitting on the end of his bed

Noticing how close Charlie was to being fully asleep, their dad quickly skipped through to the last page of the book. Cassidy gave him an eye roll. She had a particular fondness for that book. She was the one who insisted that their dad read it to them in the first place.

Cassidy had always loved Christmas. She wasn't quite sure why, her parents certainly weren't Christmas people, but it was always her favorite time of year. She felt happier around all the lights, the carols and songs never got old, and the cold weather was arguably her favorite thing about the whole season. The most unusual thing however, was that even at seventeen she still believed in Santa Claus. It didn't matter how many times people would say he wasn't real. She just had a gut feeling that he existed. After all, you can't have a proper Christmas without Santa Claus.

Just as Scott was getting up to leave the room, Charlie sat up in bed.

"What's that?"

Scott had to roll his eyes.

"What's what?"

"A Rose Suchak ladder?"

Cassie laughed.

"It's not a ladder Charlie. The line is "arose such a clatter."

"Oh. Well what does that mean?"

"Well arose means came, and clatter is a big noise. So the whole line just means "A big noise came."

"None of this makes sense though. The stuff about Santa. And the reindeer. It just doesn't exist."

"Doesn't exist?" Cassie looked at her brother, shock spread across her features. "Whoever told you that this stuff doesn't exist."

"Mom and Neil did. They told me that Santa's just a feeling and the kids at school all say that it's just a story they tell babies."

"Well all of them are wrong, sport. Santa does exist. He's very, very real."

Cassie shot a look a look to their dad as he was trying to sneak out of the room. One that screamed "back me up here". He sent a look right back that said "Seriously?". With a small glare from Cassie he sighed and walked back into the room as he spoke to Charlie.

"The trouble is, Neal and your mom, they don't believe in Santa because they were real naughty. Which is why they'll probably get lumps of coal in their stockings."

Charlie just sighed.

"I don't know. It seems kind of babyish to believe in that kind of stuff."

Cassie gasped again.

"What? It's not babyish at all! I still believe in Santa Claus and I'm certainly not a baby!"

"But how do reindeer fly? They don't have any wings."

Scott, obviously wanting the conversation to be over so he could go to sleep, ran a hand down his face as he was slowly creeping closer to the doorway.

"Fairy dust?" He said it like it was an obvious fact. It was evident though that he was just annoyed.

"That's from Peter Pan, Dad."

"Horns."

"Antlers." Cassidy corrected him.

"Whatever. Their, uh, antlers give them- You know, ther- ther- there's a slipstream effect- The air go- T-They move fa-"

Cassie, seeing that this conversation was going to get nowhere, cut in before her dad made any more random statements.

"It's because they get fed magical grain that makes them practically weightless and gives them the ability to fly."

"But if Santa's so fat, how did he get down the chimneys? And what about people who don't have fireplaces? How does he get into their house?"

"Listen, Charlie, sometimes believing in something means you know that it's there even if you've never seen it or don't understand it. Think of it this way. Have you ever seen a million dollars?"

"No."

"But does that mean that there's no such thing as a million dollars?"

"No."

"Exactly. Seeing isn't believing Charlie. If you believe in something, it doesn't matter if you've seen it or not."

"Okay. I think I get it now." He said, slightly smiling at his sister before turning back to his dad.

"You do believe in Santa, right, dad?"

"Of course I believe in Santa. Now, please, go to sleep."

Finally able to escape, Scott walked out the door to head to sleep. As much as he loved his kids, he was just glad that the conversation was finally over. Cassidy made to leave soon after, ruffling Charlie's hair as she stood up.

Just after she shut off the light and was about to walk out the door, she heard Charlie pipe up again.

"Cassie?"

"Yeah sport?"

"Maybe you better leave some cookies and milk out, just in case, okay?"

Cassidy smiled.

"Of course I will. Good night, Charlie."

"Good night Cassie."

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any of the Santa Clause movies or characters. I only own my OC and her story. Any similarities to anyone's life or any other fanfictions is purely coincidental.

Please feel free to let me know your thoughts! This is my first Santa Clause fic as well as my first multi-chapter story so I would love to hear any thoughts or suggestions y'all may have!