Sorry about freaking out about the whole Miley Cyrus deal. I guess it wasn't real...sorry...

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CHAPTER SIXTEEN: OUT OF THE FRYING PAN, INTO THE FIRE

After that, everything went very quickly. Somehow, a blimp-like vehicle of elves, picked up the bag of toys--with us in it--and lifted us up off the warehouse floor and into the air. We flew over the little houses and could see a bright, shining tree in the distance. The view was absolutely breathtaking.

And, for once, all was right with the world.

So, obviously, something had to ruin it.

That something happened to grab Billy by the leg and try to pull him deeper into the pile of presents.

"Something's got me!" he cried.

Shannon, Dad and I all got ahold of him. He clung to his present, pure fear reflected in his brown eyes. He would have let go of that present, but…you know…I think it was his first present from Santa. And…I understood that.

"On three!" Dad said. "One…two…three!"

We pulled, but whatever had him still hung on.

"It's still got me!" Billy said.

"On three again!" Dad said. "One…two…three!"

We were able to pull Billy, the present, and…who else?

Eddy.

"You!" Dad exclaimed.

"You?!" Eddy answered.

"What are you doing here?" Shannon asked.

"Same as you: I'm checking on my Christmas presents! I wanna make sure I get everything on my list! All I found was one present, and all it had was a bunch of stupid underwear!"

"Serves you right," I mumbled.

"Look!" Dad said, pointing below. We had made it to the big, shining tree.

"Hey," Shannon said, "it's still five-to. I think we're gonna make it!"

"Of course we will!" Eddy put in. "It's been five-to for the last hour! We got plenty of time! We've got nothing but time! We have time to kill!"

"You know what?" Dad asked. "I don't think we're going to make it!"

He was right. We seemed a bit too close to the top of the star on the tree. So some elves jumped off the vehicle and sky-dived to the ground. It was pretty cool. And they were so cute with their little parachutes!

"We're still not going to make it," Dad said to me.

He was right. We knocked that star right off that tree. Luckily, more elves jumped off and saved it before it could do any real damage. And then we landed on the sleigh.

"Thank goodness, we stopped moving!" I breathed a sigh of relief.

But that didn't last very long.

"All right, you stowaways," an elf said, sticking his head over the edge of the sack. "Party's over!"

"I was just following them!" Eddy insisted, trying not to get in trouble.

"We fell in here by mistake!" Dad pleaded.

"Forget about it!" another elf said. "We knew you were in there the whole time!"

They helped us out of the sack and…onto it…I guess.

"So that nobody gets hurt, here's how we're going to get you down…" a third elf started.

"Aw, this is simple," Eddy said, pushing his way to the front of the group. "Why, I know--"

"What do you know?" the elf asked him. "You're not supposed to be here in the first place! But since it's Christmas…I'm going to let you slide."

The elves kicked Eddy's heels, and down he slid. He landed on his feet beside the conductor.

"I've been looking for you," he told Eddy.

Next was Shannon. "Nice to see you again," the conductor said.

Next was Dad. "Cutting it kind of close, don't you think?"

Next came me. "We're just full of surprises, now, aren't we?"

I rolled my eyes and took my place next to my dad. I noticed that poor Billy had to give his present back. But I was sure that he'd get it soon enough.

Then there was a big roar from the crowd of elves. We all turned to the big doors on our left, and I knew what was coming:

It was time for Santa to make his appearance.