Yay! Next Chapter! I thought it would be cool to update on the Epiphany.

After this there are two more chapters.

Errr…I hope it's good. The ending's a little choppy to me.

Chapter 2: We Need a Little Christmas

Heather fled towards the resort and then burst into it, startling several of the other teens.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!" She yelled, flailing her arms in the air.

Everyone stared at her in surprised shock.

"Uh, Heather, are you okay?" LeShawna asked.

"What's it to ya?" Heather sneered.

Everyone blinked at her and then shrugged. Maybe they had just imagined her bursting into the room and yelling a season's greeting.

"Teehee! Just playin!" said Heather. "I'M OKEY DOKEY KARAOKE!"

Heather danced around like an idiot singing "We Need a Little Christmas."

Okay, so maybe they didn't just imagine it…

"Uh…did she just say 'Teehee'?" said Bridgette.

"Tee hee nothing!" said Duncan. "Did she just say 'Okey dokey Karaoke.'?"

"Forget that! She's singing!" said Gwen. "A Christmas song!"

"Well, what do you know?" Noah snerked. "Looks like the Grinch really does find Christmas after all. This truly is a season of miracles."

Heather stopped and stared around the resort lobby. The tree was only half decorated, several indoor and outdoor decorations were still in their boxes, and a smell of burning cookies was coming from the kitchen, but all the teens were simply sitting around with bummed or angry looks on their faces.

"What's going on here?" said Heather. "The tree needs decorating, the holly needs hanging, the cookies need taking out of oven…ing…"

Heather gasped as she looked at the TV.

"And what's this? You're watching a horror movie!" Heather exclaimed. "You should be watching something Christmassy like It's a Wonderful Life or Elf!"

"We kinda lost the Christmas mood…" said Katie, glaring at Heather accusingly.

Heather gasped.

"This can not be! Lose the Christmas mood?" Heather said in shock. "The Christmas mood is not to be lost."

Heather put on a Santa Hat and struck a pose.

"Never fear! Santa's Little Helper Is Here!"

Everyone stared at Heather. Noah finally broke the silence.

"I thought Santa didn't exist," he said with a smirk.

"Oh, poor sweet little Noah," said Heather patting him on the head. "Don't listen to what those nonbelievers tell you. Shun the nonbelievers! Shuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!"

"Oh…kay."

"Now everyone just follow me!" said Heather. "I know what to do to get you in the Christmas mood!"

Everyone stared at her…again.

"Okay, what is wrong with her?" said Courtney. "She just stomped out of the door with her Anti-Christmas campaign and now she's Miss Yule Tide Cheer."

"Yeah, she's scaring me," DJ whimpered.

"Come on guys! Let's get Christmassing!" Heather said enthusiastically.

Some crickets chirped. Everyone stared at Heather as she stood there grinning.

About a minute later Gwen blinked.

"Oh, what the heck?" said the goth. "Let's just go with it. It's better than her normal mood."

"Yeah…alright…" a few people muttered while others shrugged.

"HURRAY!" Heather shouted, throwing her hands in the air. She began to assign everyone tasks.

"Geoff, Duncan, Owen, and Trent you guys hang up the Christmas lights outside," said Heather.

"But it's freezing out there!" Duncan whined.

Heather blinked at him.

"Now who's being a grumpy gus? Is Duncan being a grumpy gus?" asked Heather.

"Yeah, is Dunkie-poopoo a gwumpy gus?" Geoff teased.

Duncan glared at him.

"What? Dude, shut up! I'm not a gwumpy gus—I mean, grumpy gus!"

"No, you're just a whiney little girl," Geoff said with a laugh.

"What the?" said Duncan. "If you hadn't noticed she said you have to go out there too!"

"Oh…" said Geoff.

"So, are you girls going out there or what?" said Bridgette.

"You of all people should know that girls are just as tough as guys," said Geoff. "Why don't you go out there?"

"This is one battle I'll let the male chauvinists win," said Bridgette mischievously. "It's freezing out there!"

"Yeah, so why don't you girly grumpy gusses get out there and start hanging up those lights!" said Courtney.

Geoff and Duncan grumbled as they followed Trent and Owen out the door.

"Girls may be just as tough as boys…but we happen to be smarter," said Courtney.

"Exactly!" said Bridgette. "Boys and their silly male egos."

The two girls high-fived.

"That's exactly why I handed that task to the boys!" said Heather throwing an arm each around Courtney and Bridgette.

They gave her weird looks.

"We girls gotta stick together like sisters, aint that right?" said Heather with an overly cheerful smile on her face.

"Uh…yeah…" said Courtney as she picked Heather's arm off of her shoulders.

"You two can trim the tree, along with Gwen and Cody!" Heather chirped.

"Yes!!!" Cody exclaimed, happy to be working with his crush and two other girls.

"Great…" Gwen muttered.

"DJ—you and bunny are on cookie duty!" Heather said.

DJ smiled.

"Alright!" he said happily. He scooped up his rabbit. "Come on, Bunny!"

"There better be no chocolate chips in my cookies!" LeShawna exclaimed. She looked down in surprise as a remote control was thrust in front of her.

"LeShawna, you're in charge of finding something more 'Holiday Appropriate' on TV," said Heather. "Then you can help DJ in the kitchen!"

"Good, I want to monitor the sanitation that goes on in there," she said, snatching the remote from Heather.

"Oh, don't worry!" said Heather with glee. "I think everyone's sane here!"

LeShawna raised an eyebrow at Heather who had a huge, creepy grin plastered on her face.

Heather's eye twitched.

"CHRISTMAS!" Heather yelled randomly, spazzing.

She pranced away.

"Okay, we need to get this girl some help," said LeShawna. "I think she has a head injury."

"Who cares?" said Gwen. "At least she's being nice for once."

LeShawna stared at Gwen incredulously.

"Good point," she said.

"Alright, everyone else! Let's get to decorating the inside of the house!" Heather exclaimed.

Everyone set about their work. Heather inhaled proudly as she looked around the room with a smile. Gwen, Courtney, Bridgette, and Cody were decorating the tree; LeShawna had just flipped to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and was heading towards the kitchen to help DJ; Izzy, Katie, Sadie, Justin, and Harold were putting up decorations around the house; Ezekiel was taking dreidels out of a box; and Trent was hanging upside down by a string of lights right outside the window while Owen, Geoff, and Duncan were trying to help him down.

It was the perfect picture of Christmas.

Heather wasn't quite sure where Eva, Tyler, Lindsay, and Beth were but she was sure they'd join right in once they made an appearance.

Heather smiled and hummed happily as she galloped over to a box of decorations.

Then she spotted…him.

There he was just sitting by the fireplace reading. He wasn't doing anything Christmassy at all. Unless…

Heather skipped over to Noah.

"Hey Noah, watcha reading?" she said cheerfully, thrusting her head between his face and the book.

Noah pulled back, shocked by the close proximity.

"Uh…a book?"

Heather giggled and stood up straight.

"I know that silly, I mean what book is it?"

"A Tale of Two Cities," he muttered, flipping the page.

"Ooh, is it Christmassy?" she asked, snatching the book and fingering through it.

"Hey, you just lost my place!" Noah said, snatching it back from her. "And no, it's not about Christmas."

Heather gasped.

"Well, you should read something Christmassy," said Heather. "It is Christmas, after all. There's lots to choose from: 'The Night Before Christmas', the Gospel of Luke, and…what's it called…oh yeah! A Christmas Carol! That's a good one! For some reason I can always identify with that book."

"No kidding," Noah muttered, trying to find his place.

"It's by Charles Dickens. He's a famous author, ya know."

Noah gave her a "you're an idiot" look.

"Yeah, I do know. The book I'm reading happens to be by him."

"Oh! That is sooooo funny!" said Heather.

She laughed obnoxiously. Noah twitched.

"Well, if you're not going to read anything Christmassy than you should help us decorate the house."

"Yeah, I don't think so…" Noah said in boredom.

"Awww, why not?

"Gee, I dunno, decorating an entire resort doesn't really appeal to me for some reason."

"Awww, come on!" Heather said, sticking her head in front of his face.

"Please go away..."

"Come on Noah!" Heather said in annoying cheerful voice.

"No."

"Pweeeeeeeeeeeese!" Heather begged. She started to whimper.

"Heather, I don't want to decorate!" Noah snapped at her.

Heather pulled away with a shocked look on her face. Then she giggled.

"Ya know, you really should read 'A Christmas Carol'. You remind me of a certain character."

"Yeah, like I'm the Scrooge," Noah muttered under his breath.

"Well, anyway, I know you'll come around," said Heather. "It's Christmas and no one can resist Christmas."

Heather grabbed Noah by the shoulders violently.

"YOU CAN'T RESIST THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS!" she screamed in his face.

She let go, stood up, and giggled. Then she skipped away.

"Jingle Fricken' Bells, what the?" Noah said in disturbance as he watched the retreating psychopath.

Just then a loud slap was heard across the room.

"Leave me alone, Cody!" Gwen exclaimed.

Cody walked away from her, rubbing his cheek with a sheepish grin on his face. He was wearing a baseball cap that had something green and leafy dangling on the front of it. He looked over in one direction and saw Heather hanging garland on the stair railing and singing obnoxiously.

"Hmmm…if anyone is cool with Christmas traditions it would be Heather, miraculously enough," he said with goofy grin. "At least for now, anyway. Might as well get her while I still can!"

He walked over to her.

"Heeeeey, pretty lady," he tried to say smoothly. He leaned against the railing but slipped and fell over.

"Oh, heya Codemeister!" Heather said as Cody stood up and brushed himself off. He blushed and gave a huge grin.

"Did you notice what's on my hat?" he asked slyly.

Heather looked up to see the green, leafy crap hanging on Cody's head.

"Why Cody! You sly thing!" she said pinching his blushing cheek. "Is that mistletoe I see?"

"Heh heh," Cody "heh'ed" and nodded.

Heather giggled.

"Well, you do know I have to kiss you now?" Heather said.

Cody grinned and nodded. Heather leaned towards him with her lips puckered. Cody puckered his lips in eager expectation. Everyone stared with their jaws to the floor.

"Somethin' ain't right with that girl!" LeShawna said from the kitchen doorway.

Heather suddenly looked up at Cody's hat. She pulled back.

"Cody, you silly boy!" Heather said with a giggle. "That's not mistletoe, that's holly!"

"Oh," Cody said, crossing his eyes upward to peer at the green crap on his cap. He frowned. "Well, that's okay. We can still…"

But Heather had already skipped away to do something else.

"Awww, so close!" Cody exclaimed in frustration.

And so they continued to set about decorating. And everyone couldn't help feeling cheerier than they had before. Heather had truly helped to bring back the Christmas spirit she had previously taken away.

Giving credit where credit is due:

"This truly is a season of miracles." – a line suggested by StarReader86…I just used it differently than (s)he suggested.

"Shun the nonbelievers! Shuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!" - Slightly adapted line from Charlie the Unicorn Goes to Candy Mountain