KP All Grown Up in Scrooged
AN: This is based on my "Yes there is a Santa Ronnie" story. You can blame CajunBear 73 for particular this plot bunny's birth. Lol! Oh, and I apologize in advance for how LONG this story is.
(Christmas Eve)
There was a little girl with her brown unkempt hair was much like that of a photo in a yearbook of some girl she saw once and loved it so much that she copied it.
She was getting ready for bed and though it was the night before Christmas, she just couldn't get excited about Christmas because she saw it as a 'humbug' kind of tradition. Nothing to get excited about as it was just another day to her; sure one that got her presents but then so did her birthday.
She had gotten quite the lecture about her attitude from her parents about her attitude and her refusal to join in on any of the Christmas activities. They had been particularly unhappy when she shouted, "Humbug! Humbug I say!"
She had the last laugh though as even though they'd sent her to her bedroom before her usual bedtime. She knew that she had stayed up long past when even her parents were awake. She glances at the time on her little clock that read "11:00 pm" and smirks as she thinks, "I'll go down and rip open everyone's presents and steal the cards telling who they're for. That will teach them to send me to bed without supper and trying to make me join in on phony holiday."
She slips on the soft plush slippers and tests them out for noise and once she was satisfied that they were quiet enough, she heads towards the door to her bedroom.
However, before she can even cross halfway to the door a strange light starts to appear before her until it coalesces into the shape of a ghost! Then it seems to solidify into the shape of someone not much older much older than her and dressed in strange clothes!
She says, "Wh-Who are you? What do you want ghost?"
The glowing girl just floats in the air for a moment before she says, "I am the ghost of Christmas Past and I have come here for you!"
She steps back and says, "What? Haven't you heard? Christmas is one big fake! Santa is just another overdone thing created by the greeting card people!"
The floating, glowing girl just shakes her head sadly and says, "You are wrong. Even your history books will speak of a man who went around spreading joy to everyone and was so loved that he was given the title of a saint."
She did not like what she was hearing and says, "I don't believe you! Leave me alone ghost, I am busy!"
The young ghost girl shakes her head and says, "I am afraid I can not do that. We are going to show you the error of your ways."
She says, "We? Who else is going to show up?"
The young ghost girl softly smiles at her as she says, "Why… the ghosts of Christmas Present and Christmas Future as well."
She sarcastically says, "Great… just what I need. MORE junk from ghosts." She starts to walk forward, "Leave me alone, I was just on my way out of here."
The young ghost flies towards her and enters her body! There is a flash of light for a moment and when she opens her eyes, she sees the annoying ghost girl holding onto her arm and they were flying through the air!
She screams loudly and grabs onto the ghost girl as she sees them flying and says, "What are you doing? How are you doing this?"
The ghost girl just smiles and says, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
The flight is a short one before the ghost girl starts to make their descent and she says, "We're here…"
Happy to once again be on solid ground she roughly lets go and says, "What were you thinking, flying around like that? You could have killed me!"
The ghost girl just smiles and says, "Do you know where we are?"
The girl looks around and says, "It looks like we're outside of some loser's home."
The smile on the ghost girl just grows and she says, "We're outside your old home before you moved to Middleton."
The eyes on the girl went wide and she says, "No way!"
The ghost girl nods and says, "Yes way, observe…" She points at a window and unable to resist her curiosity she walks up and leans against the window, peering inside to see… herself as a much younger age. She was perhaps half her age that she was now and walking around, following her parents everywhere they went with a bright-eyed, happy look on her face.
The girl thinks, "No way… Is that really me? I can't remember the last time I ever felt so happy like that."
As if reading her thoughts, the ghost girl says, "She looks pretty happy like that doesn't she? When was the last time you had such innocent joy in your heart?"
She spins towards the ghost girl and says, "I don't know what you're playing at but there is no way that she could possibly be me!" She points at the little girl who giggles and laughs, as she walks from her mother to her father back and forth like in a game.
The ghost girl of Christmas Past says, "I assure you, not only is that girl you but we'll see when you lost your joyful heart to have it replaced with the lump of coal that you now have."
Her eyes go wide and she says, "No… No, you wouldn't!"
The ghost girl says, "I have and we will watch it." Then they both appear inside the house and it is Christmas Eve. A lot of time has passed in the blink of an eye and all she can do is tremble as she watches how she woke up early in hopes of catching Santa Claus as he put the presents under her tree.
She feels rooted to the spot as she watches the younger version of herself come down the stairs as quietly as she can until she catches her parents in their pajamas still, not only stuffing presents under the tree but talking about her as if she was the most foolish person in the world.
She could hear the words of her own father echoing in her ears even now, "Aren't you tired of lying to our daughter? Promoting this illusion of Santa Claus?" She clenches her fists as she knew how the younger one would be thinking, "There's no Santa Claus? They lied to me?"
She knew what would happen next and found the memory unbearable even at the age she was at. The mother says, "Look on the bright side, we only have to do it once a year and it will only be for a few more years until she grows out of this phase." It was only then that the mother would look up and spot your young daughter staring at her with horror and sadness now etched onto face. The innocence was lost.
She watches how the young version of herself runs back up the stairs, seeing for the first time the horror of what her mother had said on her face. She hears her mother say, "What have we done?"
She remembers all that happens next with clarity as her mother tries to console her as she cries through the door while her father lets her do the work as he felt really awkward about the whole situation and bad about what he had complained about.
The ghost girl says, "Look at your mother's face. Do you hear her voice? You couldn't see how she was in just as much anguish as you were about the whole situation."
She looks at her mother for the first time and sees the pain within her mother's eyes that she still saw in the present whenever she would strike out against Christmas. She watches how her mother flinches as the young version of her shouts out, "I HATE CHRISTMAS! I HATE YOU BOTH!" and knew that she had hurt her mother deeply with those words. Something she had never known or how she little she cared for so long.
She looks away and says in misery, "Take me away from here ghost girl, I have seen enough…"
Without a single word other than a slight smile, the ghost girl reaches out and takes them back to her home.
The ghost girl says, "You will be visited by two other spirits tonight. So be ready for them."
She groans and says, "Grrreeeeaaaaat, I'll be sure to do that." She makes a mental plan to make a run for it as soon as the ghost girl leaves.
As if reading her mind, the ghost girl says, "Oh, and running won't help. Remember two remaining ones are from present and future, so that means you can't outrun them because they will always know exactly where and when you are going to be."
She sighs and says, "Spoilsport."
The ghost girl just giggles and waves her hand as she says, "I like to do what I can…" before disappearing the same way she had appeared in.
She goes back towards her bed and falls backwards onto her bed, glancing at the clock to see that it read 11:29 pm. She groans and reaches out to her stuffed teddy bear, holding it out at arm's length before she says, "What am I supposed to do when the Present person shows up, Freckles?" She knew the bear wouldn't answer as it was usually the silent partner in the conversations between them so her reaction to a voice seemingly coming from Freckles was one that scared the daylights out of her, especially as it said, "Maybe you could try treating the next one nicer than the first one?"
She cries out loudly and tosses the teddy away from her where it flies across the room and lands with a 'Thud' in the corner of the room.
She takes a couple of deep breaths and thinks, "What was that??" before she hears the same female voice as before saying, "That was not a nice way to treat your teddy bear."
She turns and sees her next spirit, an older Japanese-looking woman dressed in a kind of Mrs. Santa Claus way. She blinks and says as she grows very angry, "You! You're the one that I heard! You scared me so bad that I tossed Freckles away from me!"
The spirit seemed genuinely apologetic as she bows in the traditional way and says, "Please accept my apologies. It had not been my attention to scare you like that. I merely saw a chance to answer your question when I arrived at precisely 11:30. Oh, and it may interest you to know that your clock is off by a few seconds."
She sarcastically says through pursed lips, "Great… I'll look into fixing that." She then stares at the older ghost girl and says, "Why are you dresses like that and Japanese of all things?"
The ghost of Present did not appear to be offended before she says, "Because I just came from Japan."
She says, "What were you doing there?"
The ghost of Present says, "Surely, you are not so vain as to think you're the only person that I would be visiting tonight?"
Feeling foolish she says, "Well… I guess not…" Though in truth she had been under the impression that she was the only one getting this kind of special torment. It actually soured things for her to know that she was not unique. A thought comes to her and she says, "Why didn't you change for me when you appeared then?"
The ghost of Present merely smiles and says, "I like this form for now, and if you want I could put on the form of someone you know but it could be someone who you like or someone who scares you."
Her eyes go wide at that and she quickly says, "No! No! No! Just stay in that form if you like."
The ghost of Present continues to smile and says, "As the ghost of Past is so fond of saying, "I thought you might see it my way."
She turns away from the ghost so that her back is to it and says, "Just so you know, I am telling my parents about all this when this is over. Then you'll all be in big trouble!"
She does see the flash of great anger that briefly touched the ghost of Present's face before a smile returns just in time for her to turn back and say to the ghost, "Well, let's get this over with. The sooner whatever you do whatever you're here to do, the sooner I get go to bed."
The ghost of Present says, "Of course… but I think it is only fair to warn you. The ghost of Future is a most scary one as the future isn't always what one expects and that can make it scary."
She just rolls her eyes and says, "Yeah… ah-huh… scary ghost. I get it."
The ghost of Present says in a slightly strained voice, "I would not mock what you don't know if I were you. The ghost of Future can even scare me at times and I am already a ghost."
She just crosses her arms in defiance and says, "I get it already! Can we be done with this already?"
The ghost of Present just sighs and dives into the girl just as the ghost of Past had and a moment later when the girl opens her eyes, she sees… the outside of a stranger's house.
She says, "What's this? Where are we?"
The ghost of Present says, "Do you remember that poor boy you told that Santa doesn't exist?"
She says, "That loser? What about him? Did he finally learn his lesson?"
The ghost of Present merely smirks a little and says, "He did indeed learn a valuable lesson but it isn't his lesson we're here to learn but yours."
She says, "Huh? What is that supposed to mean?"
The ghost of Present merely says, "Look and you will come to see." Before gesturing to the house before them.
She looks at the house and starts to walk towards it, seeing that there were a LOT of light decorations all over and says, "Strange, it must be about the time when they turn on the li-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! MY EYES!" She covers her ghostly eyes as all of the lights come on almost blindingly bright.
The ghost of Present says, "Here, a present from me." She hands her a pair of ghost sunglasses, which immediately help with the blinding.
She blinks a few times before turning to the ghost and shouts, "You COULD have warned me what I was walking into! I nearly got blinded!"
The ghost of Present says, "I didn't get a chance. You walked off before I give you the shades and besides you wouldn't have believed me anyway. Am I right?"
She softly growls and hated how right the ghost of Present was. She mutters, "This place had better be worth seeing…"
The ghost of Present says, "Look through the window and tell me what you see…"
She looks through the window and seeing just another lame family that seemed to believe in Christmas a bit too much for her liking when she spotted him. It was the loser boy and his twin sister from before.
She snorts as she thinks, "Stoppables! What kind of stupid last name is that? It practically invited teasing." She turns to the ghost and says, "Ok, so what are we doing here other than me being grossed out by the sight of the Christmas-loving boy."
The ghost of Present says, "Ah, but you're here to see him specifically. Look at him. Don't you see how absolutely miserable he looks even among all his family who are enjoying themselves?"
She just rolls her eyes and says, "And that matters how to me?"
The ghost of Present says, "Well if that doesn't impress you, then you don't mind sticking around a bit do you until the really impressive moment happens?"
She just stares at the ghost and says, "Whatever! Do we have to do it outside?"
The ghost shakes her head and says, "We can go inside if you feel the least bit of pity for the boy, otherwise… no."
She growls in annoyance before turning her attention back to the boy, Ronnie and watches him just kind of float through things. As much as she had wanted to slap him with a cold dose of reality that Christmas was just another holiday like Valentine's Day, a big over-commercialized fake. She still couldn't believe how much he was being affected. So much so that after watching him for what seemed like an hour, she wanted to rush right in and slap in the face and tell him to snap out of it!
She says, "AAARGH! I can't take it anymore! I feel like Luke Skywalker in that final movie trying to resist the Emperor! Fine! You want me to say I feel sorry for him? FINE!! If I have to watch him like that any longer I am going to go nuts with worry and pity for him ok?"
The ghost smiles and says, "Ok… now let's skip ahead." She takes her hand and they step through the wall and into a different environment and time altogether!
She looks in surprise as she notices how warm and Christmasy the room seemed and even though the she was existing as some kind of invisible spirit, she could have felt the actual warmth of the room too even though she wasn't cold.
The ghost of Present seems to notice her attention and says, "What you're feeling… yeah, that's the warmth of a house filled with Christmas spirit and lots of love."
She says, "Huh? What? Are you kidding me?"
The ghost of Present shakes her head and says, "No, I'm not. Now get ready for the big surprise that I promised you."
She turns her attention back to the room as Jesse quickly dashes across the room and grabs some boots by the door and returns back to the fireplace, missing that there was some ashes still falling.
She watches him and hears him say quickly, "And then it seemed that all too soon, a pair of black boots landed" He places the boots quickly onto the ashes and says, "Don't ask me how for I never blinked but like magic Santa appeared in the living room, all clean as a whistle with his red and white suit shining as if it were brand new!
She couldn't believe it that Jesse completely misses the fact that a pair black boots had just arrived at the fireplace as he continues to say, "He then says, "HO! HO! HO! What do we have here? Three little children waiting up for me?"
She couldn't even take her eyes off of Santa as she says to the ghost of Present, "Tell me that I'm just seeing things and that is NOT the real Santa. It is one of their relatives dressed up as Santa… Right?"
The ghost of Present says with joy in her voice, "Sorry, but that is not a relative or an actor, it is really him. The one, the only, genuine article visiting the home of the boy who you tried to convince didn't exist."
She spins to the ghost and says, "Why does loser boy get a personal visit from Santa? I was a good little girl. Why did my parents have to pretend to be Santa and ruin it for me?"
The ghost of Present says, "Well, I probably shouldn't tell you this but… believe it or not, that night where your parents were stuffing the tree. You had been a good enough girl with a strong enough belief that Santa was going to make a personal visit to your home again. If you'd woken up a bit later, you might have caught the real Santa putting presents under your tree."
That last bit was enough to cause her to remember a time when she had caught a glimpse of Santa in her chimney as he headed up and that had been why she couldn't take her eyes off of the chimney as soon as the ashes started to fall. Somewhere deep inside her heart the coal starts to heat up and grow red, warming up the place where she kept little girl innocence.
She starts to cry without knowing why even though she had not cried since she… she… had discovered Santa was a fake but now that she saw with her own eyes that he was not. A part of her brain says, "Remember how Santa often had parents help out on the busy holiday?"
She screams loudly, "GET ME OUT OF HERE! NOW!!" Totally missing the way Santa reacted in surprise for a moment even though no one else in the house did.
The ghost of Present says, "I hope now that you see the kind of hurt you almost spread onto another…" She then takes the crying girl back home.
She opens her eyes and sees that she is back in her home sees the ghost of Present before she says, "Yes! I'm home! Thank you!"
The ghost of Present says, "Now don't get too excited yet, you still have one more visit due…"
She leaps off the bed and kneels before the ghost of Present as she begs, "No! Please! Please! Anything but that!"
The ghost of Present shakes her head and says, "Sorry… but that's the rules."
She says, "But… but…"
The ghost of Present says, "Don't worry… I will ask the last one to go easy on you. Ta-ta for now." She then disappears the same way as the ghost of past had disappeared.
She sighs as she can see that she is back in her body and not a spirit anymore. She glances at her clock and is surprised at how little time had actually passed considering how long she felt that she had spent at that kid's house.
She begins to think about all that she had been shown that night and says, "I wonder when the next spirit will arrive. What will she show me next?"
She looks around the room, thinking about all that has happened to her in such a short time. She saw the reason she lost her innocence and faith only to have it revealed that it was all for real. The shock of it all was *almost enough to bring back her faith in Christmas despite seeing and hearing the real Santa and yet she had a feeling that the three ghosts knew all this and had some plan to finish the job.
She glances at the clock and is surprised to see that the timeline had passed and no annoying, talking ghost had yet to appear and that's when she becomes aware of something hovering just behind her head.
She spins and gasps loudly as she sees a very old, floating black cape and hood that was extremely ratted and torn up in such a way that she would have thrown away the thing long before it reached that point.
Still something about the eerie way it glowed in a blue light made her extremely nervous and she gulps audibly and just stares at it as a kind of inaudible but eerie and ominous music seems to play in the background. She gulps again and says in barely a squeak of a voice, "Y-Y-You… wouldn't h-happen t-t-to be the… t-th-third spirit… would you?"
The hood just very slowly nods up and down without making any sound. Even the normal rustling of the clothes was absent and that just made it all the more scary for her.
She says, "Uh… I think I've learned my lesson. Yep! I don't need you to show me anything so you can… um… just head back to wherever you came from."
The black hooded, blue glowing ghost just shakes its head and pulls out from somewhere what looked like a Japanese sword of some kind before it suddenly transforms into a very scary looking scythe.
The ghost of Future held out the long wooden end towards her as if silently expecting her to take it.
She thinks, "I g-g-guess that ghost was right… the f-future IS scary!"
She very reluctantly and slowly raises her hand out to the bottom and says nervously, "You want me to hold onto this… right?" She hopes for a no but instead gets that silent nod and thinks, "I guess I ha-have no choice."
She takes a grip onto it and a moment later she is flying again higher than ever before. It would have been an impressive sight alone but the fact that she was holding onto some super scary ghost's weapon. It did little to relax her.
She is led downward after a bit of flying and lands outside of what appeared to be a school. She says, "A school? Hey wait a second… I recognize here. This is my dream school."
She starts to walk forward when the scythe suddenly appears in front of her with the curved blade revealing in a mirror fashion her wide, scared eyes. It drops after a moment so she could see past it. She looks at the scary ghost and sees it point with no hand from one of the black arm sleeves and her eyes follow to where it is pointing.
She spots an older girl with glasses that kind of how she might look if she was grown up but it couldn't be. She says, "Is… is that supposed to be me?" She looks back at the scary ghost who simply and slowly nods.
She looks back at the girl and thinks, " She kind of looks nerdy…" before she says, "I bet if that's me, she is popular and cool." However, no sooner than those words were out of her mouth a baseball bonks the head of the older her, knocking her down hard.
A guy comes up with a baseball mitt and says, "I found the ball!" before picking it up and running off, not even caring that she was hurt.
She turns to the scary ghost and in her anger, she shouts, "What the deal was that? Wasn't he going to at LEAST apologize or check on her? I mean me?"
The scary ghost of Christmas Future shakes its head and then points again.
She turns back and sees herself picking up the many papers that she'd been carrying and hears the girl say, "It is ok. I wasn't hurt." She then sighs and says to herself, "Face it girl, no one is going to care after what you did to Christmas."
She turns and says, "What did I do to Christmas?"
The scary ghost points to a large banner that read "K-Day Celebration: December 25"
She turns back and says, "What is K-Day?" Her question is answered as her future self says, "Just because you do a little thing like kill a holiday that you didn't think was any good. You end up the most famous woman of all time in a world that has lost its heart because of it."
She turns back to the scary ghost and says, "What? I kill Christmas? Why is it called K-Day then?"
The scary ghost seems to tilt the hood to a side as if to say, "Are you KIDDING me?"
She shakes her head and says, "Whatever! So what is so bad about a world without Christmas?" She hears another cry of pain and turns to see herself collided into by a football player who had been diving to catch a football and knocked her down.
The player gets up and stands on her back as he shouts, "I got the ball! YEAH!" and runs off without so much as a look or apology.
The ghost of Christmas future suddenly grabs her by the shoulder and she screams at both the sudden grab and at how icy cold the hand is!
The scene suddenly changes to a small dorm room and she sees herself walking in, a bit bruised but otherwise ok. She pulls away from the icy cold hand and yells, "Don't DO that! Your hand is so cold that I felt the chill go through my whole body!"
The scary ghost of Christmas future points to the TV that she turns to see herself turn on and almost immediately the news come on.
The reporter was not a happy one as she says, "Hello, I am Patricia Okawana and I am reporting to you on the Anniversary of the day that Santa Claus fell dead from the skies along with the Stoppable family when a young woman who was angry at the farce of Christmas decided to fire an ancient, mystical weapon that she had acquired while working at her museum job."
She says, "What? The Stoppable family was with Santa Claus? What were they doing with him??"
The reporter says, "Ever since then, Christmas has never been a day of celebration for it became the day we lost our world's light of hope with the Stoppable family. Villains came out of the woodworks and have many times taken over the world, destroying the remaining heroes and further ruining any spirit and heart people had. So now, I take you to over the current ruler of the world."
The scene shifts to a large green woman in purple and she says, "Warmonga has conquered your puny world from that Dementor guy, and now you all belong to me!" She holds up the head of Dementor with half his mask broken off.
The reporter reappears and solemnly says, "Another day of rule under tyranny for the world, big surprise. Well, there is one thing that just about all the citizens of the world have agreed upon. We do not have the heart to continue this way so she is going to be surprised."
Warmonga grabs the reporter and picks her up off her feet as she shouts, "Tell Warmonga what you mean by that! Are you staging a revolt?"
The reporter looks unafraid as she says, "No, we all decided to leave nothing for anyone to fight over. Even if we were to overthrow you, it would only be a matter of time before it happened again by someone else."
Warmonga shakes her hard back and forth as she says, "You are all sheep! There is no fight left in you, so what could you possible do?"
She hears her older self say, "I wish I hadn't destroyed everything… It was a nice world at one point…" and turns as she sees herself cry with her looking down at the floor and only then when she hears both the reporter and her older self say at the same time does she realize what was about to happen, "Goodbye cruel world…"
She cries out, "no! No! NO!" moments before everything starts to explode around her. The ground cracked violently beneath her feet and see watches helplessly as her older self falls without a scream into lava. She spins around to the TV which was still working somehow and even there Warmonga is shouting, "What are you doing! You'll destroy the world!"
The reporter says, "That is exactly what we are doing. No more world, no more tyranny."
Warmonga screams and skewers the reporter before running off with the camera man just watching wordlessly until a mountain of lava erupts from the ground and destroys Warmonga on the spot.
The camera man turns the camera around and says, "This was Patricia Okawana and Ben Thompson reporting on the final day of Earth. Any world that receives this last transmission, learn from our mistakes and do not let…" His words were cut off as the ground collapses and he falls into a river of lava with the screen instantly going to static.
She turns to the scary ghost and screams, "You can't! No! I don't want to be responsible for destroying the world! I believe in Christmas and all that is good about it! Please! Give me a chance to change things! I know I can!"
She watches as the ground trembles below her and gives way, causing her to fall as she screams, "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" with her eyes closing tightly as she didn't want to die.
She waits for the impact but nothing ever happens and that's when she wakes up and sees that she is back in her room and says, "What? What happened? I am alive? Could it all have been a dream?"
She then realizes that it was midnight and the fact that she was on top of her covers rather than under it, which she would be under if she'd been planning to sleep was another thing. She leaps up and runs to the stairs to see the Christmas tree was there but there were so few decorations because she usually gave her parents such grief for putting up anything.
She says, "Time to change things around here." She turns and runs off to the garage where a lot of decorations were still in the boxes and fortunately they were all low enough for her to get without any problem.
She starts to decorate the living room the best as she can, feeling strangely more revitalized and better than she had in many years! She felt re-energized with the more she did for the house and family in the spirit of Christmas.
Time flies and before she knows it, the rays of the sun are beginning to peak through the window into the living room. She hears footsteps approaching and thinks, "Oh no! I gotta hide!" and quickly hides behind the couch.
Her parents walk into the living room and she can hear her mother gasp loudly before she says, "What the… How did all this happen? Who put up all the decorations?"
Her father says, "I don't know! Do you suppose someone broke in?"
Her mother says, "But who would break into our home simply to put up so many Christmas decorations?"
Her father is silent for a long moment before he says, "Could it have been Santa?"
More silence before her mother says, "Well at any rate, we better bring them all down or we'll get an earful from her."
She suddenly jumps up from behind the couch and loudly says, "Wait!"
Her mother cries out, "AH! Belladonna you scared me!"
Her father says, "What's going on here? Did you do all this?"
Belladonna smiles and says, "I did… you know, last night I had every intention of coming down here and doing what I could to ruin Christmas for the two of you." She can see the look of horror and sadness on her parent's faces before she quickly adds, "But then I thought about how bad of a thing that would be…"
She walks over to her mother and says, "I realize now that you weren't trying to ruin my Christmas all those years ago by putting presents under the tree but to help Santa and… me to have the best Christmas I possibly could." She then wraps her arms lovingly around her mother's waist in a tight hug and says, "I love you… the both of you."
Her mother just could NOT believe the huge change in her little girl! She had once been like this and then after that one Christmas… her heart had gone so cold and cruel. It was a Christmas miracle, one that she had been praying for that would happen and now it looked like she got her wish!
Her father says, "Ok… who are you and what have you done with our daughter?"
Belladonna smiles and says, "I was always here. I just… was so hurt and angry for the longest time that I didn't realize I was also hurting everything and everyone I cared about as well."
Her mother says, "I have to admit that after you hurt that poor boy's feelings at school, you were beyond hope of ever returning to being my sweet girl that I've been praying for to return to me."
Belladonna gasps loudly and says, "The boy!" She looks at the clock and says, "Excuse me! I have to do something and runs over to the kitchen where there was a phone."
Her father says, "Now what do you suppose all that was about?"
Her mother had a feeling in her gut and couldn't help but smile as she says, "I am not sure but if she's going to do what I think… I am very proud of her."
(Kitchen)
Belladonna says into the phone's microphone, "Come on… Come on… pick up already!"
Suddenly as if on cue, the phone picks up and a female voice says, "This is the Stoppable home. If you're calling about a mission, we're on break."
Belladonna says, "No wait! I am not calling about a mission, I want to talk to Ronnie."
There was surprised silence on the line before she says, "You want to talk to Ronnie? Who is this?"
Belladonna squirms and says, "I am a someone from his school who really, really needs to talk to him. It is important. Please?"
More silence and then the sound of shuffling about before a voice that she knew as the boy, Ronnie says, "Hello? Who's this?"
Belladonna freezes up for a second as she didn't know what to say or how to say it until she hears him repeat his question. She quickly says, "I know you don't have any reason to believe me or but I am that girl who told you Santa wasn't real and I am calling just to apologize for all the mean stuff I said and did to you at the school." She pauses to take a breath and then loudly says, "I am sorry! Please forgive me for trying to ruin your Christmas!"
Silence follows but she could still hear him breathing softly before he hears Ronnie say, "I forgive you and thank you for saying you're sorry. I really am glad to hear you say that."
Belladonna lets out a breath of relief and says, "Thank you. I wasn't sure if you were going to hang up on me for all the terrible stuff I did."
She hears Ronnie say, "Hey, it is Christmas and besides… I uh…" He trails off until Belladonna says, "You met Santa didn't you?" A touch of sadness is unavoidable in her voice but she continues to go on and says, "Well maybe next year I can get to meet him. If you can, tell Santa… I am sorry for the way I have been acting up until now. It took the three ghosts of Christmas to make me see things clearly and I don't want to be the one who is responsible for the end of Christmas and the world."
Ronnie on the other end of the phone had no idea what she was talking about but he could see that she had truly changed and says, "I promise to pass on the message to Santa. Just be nicer and who knows? Maybe he'll come by next time?"
Belladonna smiles and says, "Great! Well I better let you go so you can spend time with your family and me with mine. Merry Christmas Ronnie!"
Ronnie says back over the phone with a big smile that she couldn't possibly see but she felt that she could hear it, "Merry Christmas to you and your family too!"
With the good wishes out of the way, they both hang up at the same time and run to rejoin their respective families.
Her mother says, "Did you finish her phone call honey?"
Belladonna nods up at her and says, "Yes, and he forgave me." She hops onto the couch where her parents were sitting and says, "Everything is all right now."
Her father says, "Come on, let's see what is under the tree shall we?"
Belladonna cries out, "Sure!" She gets up and runs over to the tree and there were three presents as in the past she had barely tolerated having presents but she would accept one like a birthday. She pauses and thinks, "Wait a second, three? Who's the third from?"
Belladonna picks up the third one and reads the card on it, "To Bell, From Santa"
Belladonna rips open the package quickly and gasps loudly, seeing before her very eyes as she exactly what she had wanted for Christmas. It had been the doll she had been wanting but never told anyone for she had planned to buy it herself rather than rely on her parents to buy it and spread the lie of Christmas further. As she realized that Santa had truly visited her house even though she had not done anything to deserve it. Tears begin to flow down her cheeks in joy.
Her mother says, "Merry Christmas honey." With her father joining in as he says, "Merry Christmas my little bell of joy."
She turns and says with tears, "Merry Christmas!"
(Stoppable Home)
Kim says, "Who was that? What did she want Ronnie?"
Ronnie smiles up at his mother and says, "That was the girl who had shaken my faith in Christmas." He sees his mother start to look a bit angry before he says, "She was calling to say she was sorry for everything and to wish me Merry Christmas! She said three spirits of Christmas came by and showed her the way."
Ron smiles and says, "What do you know? Miracles can happen!"
Ronnie says, "Yeah, now let's see what Santa brought us under the tree!" He runs off to see what presents were the tree.
Kim says, "Three spirits of Christmas…?" Her eyes going wide as she remembers the classic story with Ebenezer Scrooge and her eyes then move to look at Ronnie.
Ron takes Kim's hand and flashes a smile at her as he says, "Come on Kim, before the kids open all the presents before us!"
Kim is jolted out of her thoughts and smiles at him, thinking that it didn't matter anymore. All was right with her family and from the sound of things, the other family as well.
AN: Well everyone, here is my own personal spin on the classic story, "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. I know it is a bit long compared to my usual stories but I think a story like this deserves it. Did you like the development of Belladonna in this story from cold-hearted girl to happy, loving girl? What did you think of Christmas Past and the showing of why she became the way she was? Did you like the actions of Christmas Present? Did you recognize the part from my other Christmas story? What did you think of Christmas Future and what had happened in the future? Kind of sad and scary wasn't it? Did you like what happened to her once she came back from it? Would you say that the real Christmas gift this year was for her mother?
As usual all reviews, votes, ideas, suggestions, Merry Wishes, and more are always welcome. May this story bring you joy this holiday.