Hey, y'all! Izzy here with Chapter number four! Please enjoy!
Disclaimer: As much as I wish I did, I don't own Harvest Moon. WAA!
"Santa, Santa, SAN-TA!" squealed Claire, walking around in an imaginary conga line, with the 'Santa's in the rhythm of the 'cha-cha's. She kicked her right leg into the air, and then her left, all the while beaming.
Now, there was only one thing wrong with this picture. It was not that there was a dog behind the girl who was chanting, doing the conga in his own doggie way. It was not that the girl was doing the conga by herself, and pretending that there were others with her. It was not even the never-ending repetition of "SANTA", for children tend to do this near to Winter 25th. No, it was just the fact that this girl was not a child; she was a grown woman of over twenty years of age.
"SANTA! SANTA! SANTA! Yeah!" screamed the twenty – three -year-old, "I LOVE YOU, SANTA!!"
Just then, however, her raptures were cut short when a bell began to chime 'seven o'clock'. This meant that Claire was now more than fashionably late, as she always loved to be. She was too late, and would most likely be in a rather lot of trouble. She froze, stared down at her pajamas (which were covered with red lips) and winced. She didn't have time to change, so Carter would just have to deal with them.
She stepped into whichever pair of shoes were nearest to her feet (it turned out to be a large pair of wellington boots) and bolted out the door, leaving the little dog quite unsure of what had just happened. He sniffed the air, shrugged, and walked out the open door, into his mistress' hard-worked crop circle. There stood two very small men, wearing outfits worthy of the cry "SOMEONE CALL THE FASHION POLICE". Their ears were pointed and they were each wearing a teeny jump-suit in a different shade of neon. Butch barked and proceeded to chase them round and round the farm.
Claire arrived at the church a full half hour late. She threw open the heavy doors and struck a pose.
"I'm HERE, roaring and ready to go! RAWR!" she said.
Carter, Gray, Karen, May and Stu all turned around, they un-folded their hands and Carter calmly addressed the newcomer, as the others stared open mouthed at her sleepwear.
"Claire, you are tardy by-" he paused to look at his watch, "over half of an hour." he gave her a stern glance. "We are praying for Karen right now. Please come and join us while I think of your penance. And next time, do refrain from wearing such… inappropriate garments."
"Wait, why're we prayin' fer Karen?" She asked, not attempting to hide a large yawn.
"Because Karen was going back to some old habits and she--" Carter began before Karen interrupted.
"I got wasted yesterday… again." Karen said, giving a meek smile.
"Well, let's wander away from that for a minute." said Carter, "I have another matter that I would like to discuss with you. I have decided to hold the annual nativity!" Gray nudged Claire with his elbow.
"Told you." he whispered.
"Does everyone know what a nativity is?" He asked.
"Yeah," said May, "Isn't it, like, when you dress up as shepherds and do a dance routine or something?"
"No!" cried Carter, aghast, "It's when you do a play around the Holdiays, celebrating the Harvest Goddess in all her glory! I've had to re-work it a bit so we can do it with only you five."
"Wait, why are there only five of us?"
"Because… no one else volunteered. My nativities aren't exactly too popular."
"Will we have an audience?" asked Claire, "'Cuz I only use my amazing acting talents where there is a sufficient audience to watch me."
"There'll be an audience."
"Oh, okay, I'm in!"
"Right," continued Carter, "I'm figuring out parts tight now. Karen, you can be the Harvest Goddess--"
"WHAT? I wanna be the Goddess! I'm the only one that can do it right!!" screamed Claire "YOU MUST LET ME BE THE GODDESS!"
"Okay, okay. Claire – Goddess. Karen… Goddess' mother. Gray – Goddess' father. Stu – what can I put you in? – Farmer. May – cow."
"Will you explain what the deal with this is?" Claire said, confused, "I don't get it."
"Well, the Goddess' mother (that's you, Karen) is about to give birth – right? Yes, so she and the father (Gray) are walking along the road, and they end up at the Goddess Pond. Now, there's a prophecy with this baby, that it'll do great things. So, the mother has her child – who is a girl (we'll use a baby doll for this). Suddenly, there are big fireworks above the pond, and the farmer (Stu) sees them. He goes, along with his cow (that's May). They arrive and bring flowers and strawberries for the Goddess as gifts and that's why the Goddess likes them.
I'm not done yet. She grows up (this is when you come in, Claire).The Goddess is very beautiful – she has long green hair and lovely eyes and porcelain skin. All of the boys are afraid of her, though, so she is terribly alone. She does magic, which scares the townspeople, so one day when she is about twenty, and she is sitting by the lake, someone pushes her in (I'll do that) and she drowns. This is when she turns immortal because of the good of her soul."
He looked up, only to find Claire drooling on Gray's shoulder, Gray snoring with his head in his lap, Karen in the store-room chugging wine used for services and May and Stu writing "M and S 4 Ever" in a heart on the altar. Claire was still in her lip PJs and Gray's UMA cap was obscuring his face. Karen had spilled wine all down her front and when Carter looked back at her, he could see that she had slumped into a corner. He put a hand to his forehead.
"Oh, Goddess, please help me." he said.
For the next few days, the five delinquents practiced for the nativity without fail. They were getting quite good, and for the first time, Carter said that he was proud of them. Claire was ever so excited with her costume; she thought that she looked especially hot in it. Gray and Karen agreed with her, while May and Stu were unavailable for comment (they were behind a horse).
Finally, on the night of the performance, everything was set. Gray's plan was about to be put into action; the nativity would be hell for Carter.
It all started off fine, apart from the fact that Karen was stumbling a little, and Gray wouldn't take off his hat. But then it all started to get out of hand; Claire replaced the baby doll with a fish, and Karen shrieked that her baby had fins and that she would disown it. Then Gray took the fish (which was dead) and threw it out into the audience, laughing. It landed on Popuri, whose eyes widened and pink hair stood on end.
"Oh my goddess, oh my goddess, oh my goddess! SOMEONE GET THIS OFF ME!!!" She chucked it at the Mayor and it broke his glasses. He took them off, commanded silence and said that whoever didn't sit back and enjoy the show might just not get any presents from Santa.
Claire began to cry.
"Santa will so give me presents!" she wailed. "He loves me!" Once Gray had calmed her down (this involves a great deal of shouting), the show went on.
There were no fireworks, so they had all decided on confetti as a replacement. Carter pressed the button to make it fall onto the Gray and Karen , but instead, a bucket of water splashed onto their heads. Gray yelled and Karen slapped him. This provoked a kick until they were both wrestling. Rick took one look at Gray and jumped out of his seat.
"LET HER GO, YOU ^&%()$#!~" he bellowed.
Claire interpreted this as her queue. She ran out in her Goddess bikini and tossed flower petals onto Karen, Rick and Gray, who were punching each other in the middle. She blew kisses to Cliff and Kai.
"I love you, I love you all!" She said.
May and Stu climbed up onto the altar and gave each other a kiss. Sasha, Lillia and the other women sighed.
"Ah! Young love!" said Elli.
At this point, Carter could take it no longer. He emerged, red faced and teary-eyed.
"YOU RUINED IT! I LOVE MY NATIVITY AND YOU RUINED IT!" he wailed and sobbed, "I SPEND SO MUCH TIME ON THIS AND YOU GO AND RUIN IT!"
People got up and filed out the doors, until no one was sitting in the oak pews.
"We're truly sorry, Carter. We didn't mean for all that to happen. Bad luck, huh?" said Claire, "but we'll be back bright and early tomorrow to play!" Carter groaned and Claire could guess that he was wondering why he had even bothered.
Please R & R! I love you all! (Oh, and check out my other, new story, My Mary Sue! I need some more reviews!) XoXo Izzy