Author's Note: In the event anybody is reading this that's checking out my stories for the first time, this chapter takes place at the Christmas that was going on during the events of a story I released last December entitled, The Shooting.
Chapter 5, School Attack Aftermass
Every year, Zack's maternal grandparents would send him presents at the holidays from Wheeling, West Virginia, and while they came to visit back when he was just a baby, the memories of his grandparents were fading away. He longed to have a Christmas with his relatives out in Wheeling, West Virginia. So once Zack started first grade, his aunt decided to take some time off of work at the holidays, and together, they'd take a trip to visit his distant relatives, the ones he never got to see. This would mean though that he'd have to miss that year's Christmas pagent, but they told his teacher Miss Fishtails ahead of time, and she completely understood.
Unfortunately, a few days before they left for their trip, a school shooting had taken place at Zack and Kimi's elementary school, involving the twin brother of a science teacher that was visiting one of the kindergarten classes. While this teacher was visiting, his brother broke into the school with a gun, barged into the classroom, and started shooting at random students. When the principal came to investigate, the shooter turned the gun on himself, and shot himself right in front of the kindergarten students that were still alive, for them to see such a horrible fright, if seeing this mad man shooting at half of their classmates wasn't bad enough. As a result of this incident, the pagent was canceled prior to Zack leaving for his trip, which in a way, he was happy about because he wouldn't be missing it, but it was also saddening, especially to Kimi, who was really looking forward to performing a duet of Oh Come All Ye Faithful in English and Japanese with Lil Deville, who was her best friend by this time.
Zack and his aunt left for their trip as scheduled, and while he tried to put the events of the past week out of his mind, it was really hard. He felt so bad for Kimi and everybody back home. Even Tommy's little brother, who was in the kindergarten class that was attacked, went through the trauma of losing his best friend, who he had only known since the beginning of the year. Once their plane landed and Zack ran into the arms of his maternal grandparents, Liz and Harold, he put the events of the week behind him as best as he could, that is, until he saw something on the news while at a Christmas party being hosted by one of his cousins.
"In national news, a school shooting recently occurred at Doodle Dale Elementary School in Yucaipa, California." Said a news ankeror on the television.
"It was pretty scary. Several young kindergarteners were killed by a mad man who broke into the school with a gun just last Monday." Said Principal Brown to a reporter.
"But while the events of this tragic event have made the holidays a difficult one for many families this year, two young boys who attend the school, along with King Peter Albany of the Confederacy, have found a way to make things just a little bit safer, for when the students return from break." Continued the news ankeror, as they went to another interview with Peter and another reporter.
"Two very good friends of mine, first grader from Miss Fishtail's class, Tommy Pickles, and his younger brother, a student from Miss Lindaberry's kindergarten class, Dil Pickles, helped to arrange a recreation of the Christmas pagent that was suppose to take place at school, at a well known coffee shop in the area run by Chaz Finster and Betty Deville called the Java Lava. Here, people attending the pagent would pay for their tickets, food, and drinks, and the money went towards a security system for the elementary school." Explained Peter to the reporter.
"But by the end of the night, they were still roughly five thousand dollars short of being able to afford the security system." Narrated the ankeror on TV.
"Not anymore. I presented a personal check to Principal Brown myself for the additional five thousand dollars, to which he was very grateful to my generous offer." Said Peter on the television, with a twinkle in his eye.
"And thanks to this generous offering, the students of Doodle Dale Elementary School, will never have to worry about terrorism in their classroom, ever again." Concluded the news ankeror, as the report ended on the television.
As the report was wrapping up, a shot of the pagent appeared on the TV of Kimi and Lil performing. Despite the fact that Kimi must be missing Zack, she was happy, and Zack was glad that despite all that went on that week, Kimi still got to perform her song, as she had been working so hard on it for so long, she was nearly devastated when she received the news that the pagent was canceled, and Zack left town before this rescheduling of events took place.
As soon as the report ended on the television, and a Christmas concert started on the television, Zack's great aunt Vicky came over, and offered him some pumpkin spice eggnog.
"Want some of my pumpkin spice eggnog Zack?" Vicky asked.
"I'd love some please." Zack replied with a smile, as she handed him a mug of the eggnog.
After he finished the first mug though, he asked for seconds.
"May I have another mug of eggnog please?" Zack asked.
"Sure! But you might wanna go easy on that stuff, it's going to be bedtime soon." Said Vicky.
"Oh no Vicky, this one isn't for me, this one is for my friend Kimi." Zack replied.
"Kimi?" Vicky asked, raising an eyebrow.
Just then, Celeste walked up to where they were talking.
"Oh, Kimi is a friend and classmate of Zack's back home. They've known one another since they were babies." Celeste explained, as she took a seat on the couch next to her nephew.
"Oh, how sweet!" Said Vicky, as she refilled Zack's mug.
"And since Kimi can't be with me for the holidays this year, I wanna drink a cup for her." Said Zack.
Vicky just stood there and smiled at the young blond, as she watched him sipping the drink for his friend. She was amazed that this young child at only age five, understood the true meaning of Christmas, and after realizing this fact, she cried tears of joy, as she took a seat in an easy chair off to the right of the couch, and watched the young boy, as the fire started to die down in the fireplace, and the evening hours grew late.
Back in Yucaipa, California, the pagent had concluded, and Kimi was at home, enjoying The Santa Clause Two on DVD with her brother Chuckie, when she got up from the couch, and plucked a candy cane off of the tree.
"Why are you grabbing another candy cane? Haven't you had like, two all ready?" Chuckie asked, as he stared over at his sister to notice her on her third candy cane of the night.
"Oh Chuckie, you're so silly. This one isn't for me, this one's for Zack." Kimi said with a smile, as she bit into the candy cane.
"Hello, earth to Kimi, Zack's away on vacation." Chuckie shouted in her ear, as he waved a hand in front of her face to get her attention.
"I know, and that's why I'm having a candy cane in his honor. He'd wwant me to do that for him. Besides, I'm just so happy about how everything went at the pagent tonight, if only Zack could have been there." Said Kimi with a sigh, as she trailed off, turning her gaze away from Chuckie, as a sad expression came to her face.
Chuckie sat back down on the couch and put a comforting arm on his sister's shoulder.
"Don't worry Kimi, Zack will be back soon, and just hearing about how the pagent went will be enough to make him feel good. Besides, it's not like he won't get to see it. Peter told me that General Frolo video taped it, and Tommy's family also recorded it too, so Zack will get to see your performance no matter what." Said Chuckie.
Kimi just smiled at her brother, as she breathed a sigh of relief and took another bite of her candy cane.
"Merry Christmas Zachary." Said Kimi to herself, as she gazed out the living room window at the night sky at what had to be a twinkling star, before returning her attention to the movie.
Meanwhile, out in Wheeling, West Virginia, as the fire was dying down in the fireplace, and it would soon, be time for Zack to head off to bed, he too, gazed out the window in his cousin's living room at the night sky.
"Merry Christmas Kimi." Said Zack to himself, as he gazed out at the night sky at what he believed to be a twinkling star.
Little did those two young kids know at that moment, that they were telling one another Merry Christmas, through means of gazing at that very same star in the sky. No matter, they both knew in their hearts that they were together on that Christmas eve, and that's all that mattered. Hopefully though, they'd be together physically the following year.
Would they? Find out, in tomorrow's chapter, as this, ends chapter 5.
Author's Note: Just to let you all know, Vicky, Principal Brown, and the teachers mentioned in this chapter, are all OC's owned by me, and General Frolo is owned by TCKing12. Also, I know I said I was going to release a couple of other stories this weekend, like Honey, Angelica Shrunk the Babies, and New York New York, which is the East coast gender bender Rugrats version of A Rugrats Vacation, but looks like some of these other stories are going to have to wait, as I do have a paper to finish up for one of my classes, and while it's not actually due until December 14, yeah, my birthday, I'm going to be quite busy next weekend with birthday celebrations and attending my dad's Christmas concert with the local band he plays flute in, thus, I'd better get it done this weekend while I have some time. Not to worry, if I don't oversleep at all next Saturday and Sunday, getting some extra time to post those day's chapters in Christmas Collage, as well as other stories, I'll make up for not being around much as of late, and I have plans to make up for being so neglectful over the past couple of months, between December 7 and December 24, provided time allows for it. However, I will continue to release chapters in this story, one per day as promised, and I'd like to say before I post this chapter, that to those of you who have followed, favorited, and left reviews on this story thus far, I thank you. It's fans like you that keep me going and motivated to wanna keep releasing stories and such to this site, and I'm sorry if life has made it harder for me to be as active up here as I was around this time last year. I am going to do everything in my power though, to make it up to all of you, before the end of the year. For now, you all take care, and I'll be back tomorrow with another chapter.