A/N

Hola! Here it is! The first part of the moviefic section of this story! Oooh...it's so exciting...

P.S. I had no clue what the name of the store in the movie is, so I changed it to Macy's (idk...it seems like a Christmasy-type of store...). Oh, and the whole Know-It-All Kid babble about the train...he talks so fast, I could only pick up half of what he was saying! So I just made the last part up, I guess...

Enjoy!

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CHAPTER FOUR: MEETING DAD

I made it to the passenger car where all the other kids were. And, man, did I almost start laughing. These kids were dressed like total dorks! They had old-looking nightgowns and footy pajamas and everything.

I thought they were SOOO weird…

Apparently, they thought I was kinda weird, too, because they immediately stared at me like I had gills or something. I quickly sat down in a random seat, hoping no one would talk to me.

For some reason, this girl across the aisle kept staring at me. I took a sidelong glance at her a few minutes later and she was STILL looking at me. Wow…she is super creepy, I thought a bit rudely.

"Hey!" the kid sitting in front of me said. I turned to see a boy with nerdy glasses, looking me in the eye. "Why do you look so strange?"

"I don't know," I said. "Maybe I don't. Maybe you do."

"Yeah, right," the kid said. "I'm the normalest person you'll meet on here."

"Yep," I said. I looked to see that girl staring at me.

Oh, what had I gotten myself into?

"So, where are you from?" the nerdy kid asked me.

"Um…I'm from…Michigan," I said.

"Oh. Do you know where I'm from?"

"Crazy Town?" I muttered under my breath.

"Oh, no. I'm not from Crazy Town! That's on the other side of the river! I'm actually from Chicago! It's so windy there! Windier than you'd think! In fact, it's--"

And this continued for another few minutes. I tried to tune it out, but between Talkative Boy and the Eye-Eye Girl, I was about to explode.

The train slowed down all of a sudden. "Why did we stop?" I asked.

"We're picking up another kid," the nerdy kid said.

I looked out the window. I couldn't really see who we were picking up because of all the train smoke. However, whoever it was wasn't getting on the train. The conductor hopped back on and motioned for the train to start moving.

"Hold up!" I said, running to the back. "Why are we moving?" I stopped myself. "Wait, why do I even care?"

"Go sit down, miss," the conductor said. "I have matters under control." I had no choice but to do as I was told.

About a minute later, a boy around my age got on the train and started walking down the aisle. He had yellow pajamas and a blue bathrobe. His hair was brown, just like mine. And he also had freckles on both sides of his face, like me, too…

He seemed really familiar, somehow. From where, I didn't know. But then I saw a pocket of his bathrobe was ripped. And the hole was just big enough for a certain silver bell to slip through.

I gasped. "Dad?"

He stopped at the seat I sat in and looked at me. "Huh?"

I quickly turned away, embarrassed. What was wrong with me? I was acting like someone I didn't know.

And, man, was it scaring me.

My dad sat down next to me, and I saw out of the corner of my eye that the weird girl was now staring at him. Okay, if she stole my dad, I was never going to forgive her--

"Hey, you!" the nerdy kid said. We both looked up. "Yeah, you! Do you know what kind of train this is?"

My dad looked from side to side. "Huh?"

"Train. Do you know what kind of train this is? Well, do ya?"

"Uh…how am I supposed to know?" my dad asked.

I just had to giggle at that. He looked at me and I immediately stopped. "Sorry," I said.

"It's a magic train," the girl across the aisle said. "We're going to the North Pole."

"Aw, I know it's a magic train," the nerdy kid continued. "Actually, it's a Baldwin-284-S3-Class-First-Steam Locomotive…"

And he kept going on and on! Goodness, this kid was weird!

"Are we really going to the North Pole?" my dad asked the girl.

"Mmm-hmm," she said, excited. "Isn't that wonderful?"

My dad turned away. "Yeah…if you believe in that kind of stuff."

"I hear you," I said.

He turned to me. "Huh?"

I gave him a look. "What, you actually think I believe we're going to the North Pole? Heck no! I don't even know why I got on this stupid train."

My dad nodded. "I know what you mean." He stuck out his hand. "I'm Chris."

I shook his hand. "Lucy."

"Lucy?" he asked.

"Uh…yeah. Something wrong?"

"No. It's just…that name seems familiar somehow…"

"Oh, I hope it does," I said to myself.

"Hey, everyone!" the nerdy kid shouted. "Look! Look out the window! We're passing Macy's!"

Everyone raced to the windows to see the local Macy's all lit up with presents in the window. It was part of their Christmas display.

"Wow! Look at all those presents! I want all of them!" the nerdy kid said more to himself than anyone else. I rolled my eyes. This kid was getting on my nerves.

"It's so beautiful," the girl said, her eyes taking on a dreamy look.

I looked at my dad. He was watching the mechanical Santa in the window. The mechanical wheel attached to the robot's back was all it took for my father to shake his head and turn away.

And for some reason…that bugged me.

A lot.

As the kids continued to watch the window, I came to a realization. I was beginning to care about Christmas.

And all I could think was the following:

HELP ME!!!!!!!!!