Part of this next chapter takes on a more serious holiday matter. This Christmas is my best friend's first Christmas without her grandma, and I know for a fact that she's not the only one going through that.

To those who are experiencing their first Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or any other winter holiday after losing a loved one, my prayers go out to you.

Holly went on patrol again, this time heading to Pantora, where she blended in by posing as a shopper in a local market. She could see folks young and old passing through, getting some shopping done, no doubt getting ready for holiday dinners and completing some last-minute gift shopping.

Among the people in the market was young Lee Ali Hartem, who was shopping with her father, Chet Hartem. The Hartems were spending the holidays on Pantora this year, the home of Mr. Hartem's late mother. This was their first Life Day without Grandma Hartem, and it was hard on the girls.

Lee Ali looked at her necklace. A rose gold watch that belonged to her grandmother; and Grandma Hartem gifted that necklace to Lee Ali before passing away. It had come as a huge shock to the rest of the family when they learned she'd been horribly sick and only had a few months left to live, and she'd kept it secret so her family wouldn't spend their last moments worrying about her. It did seem to explain why she called more than usual and spent almost an entire two months staying with the family just before she passed.

In her will, Grandma Hartem left almost everything to her granddaughters, with a few conditions to earn their inheritances. For now, though, Naya and Lee Ali's parents had their portion of the inheritance, and they all traveled to Pantora to spend the holidays at Grandma Hartem's house.

"Will Life Day ever be like it was before, Daddy?" Lee Ali asked her father as he was picking out fruit.

"I don't know, Lee." Mr. Hartem said. "Nothing has been the same since your grandmother passed. But… we are all doing our best to make sure her presence is still known this Life Day. And that starts with prepping one of her famous Life Day dinners."

"Will we get to have Grandma's cinnamon shurra pie?"

"Don't worry, Pixie. I grew up watching my mother cook that pie, and I intend on keeping that tradition alive."

Holly saw Lee Ali helping her dad out with the shopping.

"Open, please." Holly whispered to the book.

The book opened and it showed Lee Ali was definitely on the Nice List, but she was also on a smaller scale, yet serious-to-follow, type of list. Lee Ali was on a list of kids who needed an extra special gift this year because they were feeling sad during the holidays, the most common reason being the death of a loved one, and then having their first holiday without the deceased one.

Holly couldn't help feeling sad to think of all those kids and kids at heart missing someone for the holidays. She never knew her grandparents, but she grew up with many of the elves young and old, and she dreaded losing any of them or her siblings. She was relieved that her sisters managed to stay hidden last year when the North Pole was attacked, but the elves were still recovering from the trauma.

Lee Ali started to get bored with the shopping though. This was why she didn't like it when her mom made her go help with the shopping instead of letting her stay at her grandma's house to help clean up. At Grandma's house, Lee Ali and Naya each had their own rooms for when they visited, which was one thing they loved about staying with their grandma in the summer and at the holidays.

While her father did some more searching for ingredients, Lee Ali sat on a bench and moped for a bit. Holly took a seat at the opposite side of the bench.

"Why so blue, little one?" Holly asked.

"I'm Pantoran. I'm supposed to be blue."

Holly chuckled and said, "What I mean is why do you look so sad?"

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

"Smart girl. Playing safe. In that case, My name's Holly. You don't have to tell me your name if you don't want to, but will you at least tell me why you're sad?"

Lee Ali looked down and told Holly about how she was sad because this was her first Life Day without her grandmother, who passed away shortly after New Year's Day, and the Hartem Family missed her terribly.

"Every year, we'd come to stay with her, and she always put together this amazing dinner and she made cinnamon shurra pie. That was my favorite. We'd light candles and make wishes on them like birthday candles, make popcorn candy necklaces to eat while we watched holiday specials, and we'd make the biggest pillow fort ever to sleep in while we waited for Santa."

"Sounds like you have some fun holiday traditions," said Holly. "My father always saves the best gifts for my siblings and I. I guess you could say he knows how to be Santa."

"Some big kids say he's not real, but I don't want to believe that."

"And you don't have to stop believing if you don't want to. But, I can tell you for certain, I can't say how I know, but Santa, he's real alright, and I know he may not be able to bring back your grandma, but he can still bring you something that'll give you new memories to cherish."

But that wasn't the only thing on Lee Ali's mind.

"Everything's changing. I don't know if I can be happy this Life Day. My grandma's gone, my sister's getting ready to go to college, and my parents don't know I know, but they've been talking about us maybe moving into Grandma's house, which means I'd have to leave my best friend behind. I'm not ready for everything to change."

Holly saw that Lee Ali was also scared. She decided to show her something.

"You know, I've faced some scary changes too. When I was little, my parents told me I was going to be a big sister for the very first time, and around the same time, my uncle got engaged, and I was scared. I was worried how everything would change. But… on the other side of that fear came good changes."

Holly showed Lee Ali some pictures she had. One of Krampus and Grayla on their wedding day and another of the day Joy was born.

"Our family grew with those changes. I got an aunt and a new baby sister that same year. A few years later, I got another little sister, and earlier this year, I got a new baby brother. Like my father always says, there's no greater gift than family. And keeping that tradition is one gift you can give your grandma even after she's gone."

Lee Ali's father soon called her over.

"My daddy's calling. Thanks for listening, Holly."

"No problem. Now, don't keep your father waiting, and Merry Life Day, Lee Ali."

But Lee Ali froze for a moment.

"Wait, how'd you know my-"

But when she turned around, Holly was gone. Something seemed odd about that girl, but Lee Ali couldn't put her finger on it.

Lee Ali went to patrol across a few more worlds, checking off the names of lots of nice and occasional naughty kids. Eventually, she had one more stop to make, and that was checking in the Jedi Temple.

Of course, not all the Jedi knew about Santa's daughter; when she was let in, Myra just told people she was a foreign exchange student visiting for the holidays.

"So, how's patrol going?" Myra asked.

"It's going pretty well. Lots of nice children this year."

"That's a good thing, right?"

"You bet."

"Hold still, Comedia." said another voice. That turned out to belong to Master Mundi.

Ki-Adi was having Comedia stand still in her costume for the play as he was helping her fix her mane so her crown wouldn't fall off.

"What's going on?"

"The holiday play is tonight." Myra said. "We're doing a Life Day Carol. Hey, if you're not too busy tonight, Teatra still has an extra ticket. She is the director."

"I'd love to, but I still have a lot of names to check. I don't know how Dad does this every year and still manages to have the energy to make gingerbread houses with us on Life Day morning."

"Well, he's been Santa longer than you have."

"True."

Everyone was super excited for the play. Comedia had been practicing tap dancing all month to prepare for her role as the Ghost of Life Day Present.

"You said you were in the play too, right? You and Vince are playing a married couple I see." Holly teased.

"Don't get any ideas, we've only been dating for five months."

"Still. He's been on the Nice List more than that other dude you used to date. What was his name? Cayden?"

"Probably. I've forgotten about him mostly at this point. But yeah. And our families are gonna meet for the first time this Life Day."

Myra felt a lot of butterflies in her stomach from that thought. She knew almost nothing about Vince's family, and he was pretty much in the dark about his relatives too since he hadn't seen them since he was eight. Neither of them were sure if their families would get along, but they really wanted things to work out. If, dare they dream, they were meant to be together forever, Vince and Myra wanted their families to get along, especially knowing the history of bad marriages in their families.

"You have it easy. Part of my patrol and inspecting the naughty and nice lists involves searching among the guys to see if any of them would be a good suitor."

"How does your dad feel about that?"

"Like pretty much any dad feels about his daughters dating."

Myra knew that feeling. Mace sometimes gave Vince a bit of a hard time, warning him he'd better be good to his daughter, and remember that he was packing a lightsaber.

"Anyone tickle your fancy so far?" Myra asked.

"Not really. Maybe looking among mortals isn't really my thing where dating is concerned. It worked for my dad, but… I don't know how much he knows, but I kinda found someone I think I like back home."

"Who's the lucky guy?"

According to Holly, she liked this elf named Noel Clark who worked in the toy department. He and Holly grew up together. Every elf in the workshop had his or her specialty, and Noel's was playsets. Dollhouses, model castles, mini block models, stuff like that. When elves in training turned thirteen, they were old enough to start officially working in the workshop, and Noel was a skilled toymaker; his first day on the job, he built a lovely little birdhouse feeder. That was just the tip of the iceberg though. That same year, a little girl named Wendy asked Santa for a Darbie Winter Dream Ice Castle set with light-up towers, and Noel volunteered to make it, and succeeded. Holly had seen elves eager to get to work loads of times before (When you're Santa's kid, it's pretty much Bring Your Kids to Work Day any day of the year), but Noel for some reason seemed particularly enthusiastic in Holly's eyes.

"Most of my life, I've only thought of him as a friend, but now that we've grown… I see him a little differently."

"Different how?"

"I don't know… different like… suddenly I'm noticing how he makes me laugh easier than anyone can, and I look at mistletoe and hope he'll be underneath with me."

Myra thought it sounded kinda corny, but sweet nonetheless.

"Has he asked you out, or have you asked him?"

"Not really. Believe it or not, no Santa has ever courted an elf. Every one of them before me, they found their wives outside the North Pole somewhere. I don't even know how it would work out. I'm literally a princess, and the elves are my dad's staff, and how many princesses do you know who marry their family's staff members?"

"Can't say I know a lot. But if you really do like this guy, I think you oughta talk to him and tell him how you feel. And if he feels the same way, it's gotta be a team effort if you decide to have a relationship."

Holly really appreciated Myra's advice. Romance wasn't her highest focus right now, but she was open to the idea someday. For now, she was determined to be a great Santa-in-training.

The crowds applauded as the cast for Teatra's production of "A Life Day Carol" came out and took a bow. Everyone's family and friends looked so proud of them for a job well done in this big show.

"On behalf of the cast and crew of this production," said Teatra. "We'd like to thank everyone who came and gave donations to help needy folks across the galaxy to have a Merry Life Day. We wish all of you the best in this most festive season, and once again thank you for being here tonight."

The crowd cheered once more, and it was time for everyone to head home.

Teatra couldn't believe the amount of toys, clothes and money the production raised tonight. There were plushies, toy soldiers, winter coats, hats, and scarves, pretty dolls, and plenty of balls for those in need. And the money that was donated would help fund lots of soup kitchens and homeless shelters.

"I've never seen so many toys in one place before," said Benni, stacking another box so the toys could be delivered.

"You should see the number of toys in my dad's workshop." A familiar voice said.

"Holly, you made it!" Omega smiled.

"Yup. You guys were awesome tonight."

"Move it, losers!" another familiar voice bellowed.

And someone pushed through Omega and Holly, knocking both of them to the floor, prompting two other teens to help them up. The one who pushed them turned out to be Brittney, who started dumping the boxes Teatra and the others had put together.

"Brittney! What the heck?!" Boba said. "Stop that!"

"Those are donation boxes!" Teatra said, using her magic to stop Brittney.

"Who cares?! My cashmere sweater is in one of those boxes, and I want it back!"

"Look, Brittney. We can't give anything back. Everything's been packed, and the donations were all a ticket into the show." Teatra said. "But look on the bright side, it'll help someone in need."

"I am someone in need."

Brittney ripped another box open, and Holly jumped in and stopped her.

"That's enough! Look, Brittney. There are people in this galaxy and many others who can't afford clothes or to have a roof over their heads. I'm sorry you lost your sweater, but those things can be replaced."

"If they need money, why don't they just get jobs or marry someone rich like everyone else?" Brittney said. "Besides, lazy homeless people like that don't deserve nice things."

Holly grunted in disgust at Brittney's attitude. She started to think maybe a lump of coal was more than she deserved.

"Listen to me, Brit. It's spoiled, rotten brats like you who don't deserve nice things." Holly said. "I may not be Santa, but I know enough about you to say you brought every bad thing that's happened to you on yourself. You can try to hide your bad deeds from your parents, your teachers, even the media. But there are higher forces who will make sure you face justice you can't talk or buy your way out of."

"And your point is…?"

Holly rolled her eyes and took it upon herself to drag Brittney out of there and out of the theater to find her parents.

Constance and Octavius Parisia were outside the theater, calling for Brittney as it was time to head home for dinner.

"Mr. and Mrs. Parisia? I believe this girl belongs to you?" Holly said.

"Brittney, there you are!" Mrs. Parisia scolded. "What have we told you about running off?"

Brittney rolled her eyes and pushed Holly off her arm.

"I was looking for my cashmere sweater, which Dad threw in the box!"

"Brittney, you said you didn't want to wear last year's sweater anymore." Mr. Parisia said.

"Yeah, I said I didn't wanna wear it. I didn't say I didn't wanna keep it."

Holly had a huge look of disbelief when she looked at Brittney. She wished the Parisias a Merry Life Day before returning to the inside to help her friends with cleaning up.

"Come on, Sweetheart. It's time to go home." Mr. Parisia said.

But before she could walk off with her parents, Brittney spotted something on the ground. It was a red book. She realized Holly must've dropped it, and she picked it up. What do you think she did with it next?

Brittney sat in her room, looking at Holly's notebook. She thought it might've been a diary of some kind, so she tried to open it, only to find that the cover wouldn't budge. She tried pulling harder, prying it open with a credit card, even throwing it against the wall. The book still remained closed as if all of the pages were glued together.

"What a piece of junk. All that work looking for my sweater and this is what I find? Please."

Suddenly, that was when the book moved, sending Brittney falling onto her bed in a freak out. The book flipped its pages until stopped on a page with Brittney's full name and her picture on it.

"What the-?"

Brittney looked in the book and saw something she couldn't believe. Underneath her name were her address, her wish list to Santa, and a list of deeds she'd committed throughout the year. Among the deeds were as follows: Disrespecting her parents, acting snobby, talking back to her teachers, verbally attacking other students, cheating on tests, the list went on. Three pages of naughty deeds later, Brittney spotted a box marked Confirmation, with a big red NAUGHTY stamped at the bottom of the page.

"What is this?!" Brittney shook her head. "Oh, this is probably a prank by Comedia Ever-Mundi."

The book suddenly flipped its pages again, and this time it stopped on a page with Comedia's name on it and her picture. Similar to Brittney, there were pages of deeds Comedia had committed over the course of this year.

"This oughta be good."

Brittney looked, hoping to dig dirt on her former horse, but she did not find anything remotely dirty. Here's some of what she did find, though: Making a beautiful present for her father for Valentine's day, traveling to the planet Cerea to pick a beautiful flower as a Father's Day gift, attempting to help her father find a girlfriend, making people laugh, rescuing her cousin from enslavement, showing her sister kindness and rekindling her friendship with her, returning a lost journal, the list went on. And the stamp Comedia had at the end of her page was a big green NICE.

"You've gotta be kidding me." Brittney said.

Then, Brittney decided to state a few other names. Myranda Dawson-Windu. Vincent Hall. Boba and Omega Skywalker. Brittney saw all of their names and pictures in the book, all of them marked with a NICE stamp. It was then Brittney started to piece things together.

Last Life Day…

Brittney Parisia made a long, LONG list of gifts she wanted for Life Day on her computer. She asked for thirty different designer bags, a new tablet, forty new pairs of designer pants, twenty new pairs of shoes, a speeder of her own, a pony, the list went on.

But when she woke up on Life Day Morning….

"What is this?!" Brittney cried when she reached into her stocking to find a huge lump of coal in there. She reached in again, thinking it had to be a joke and something good was underneath it, but she only found more coal.

Brittney ripped open the boxes she found under the tree, and each one was filled with nothing but lumps of coal.

"What kind of sick joke are you guys playing here?!" Brittney yelled accusingly at her parents.

"Brittney, we didn't give you that." Mr. Parisia had said.

"Who else could've done it? Santa?"

Brittney refused to believe she did anything to deserve coal for Life Day, but with her attitude, her parents wouldn't buy her the entire list, or even a quarter of it, no matter how much she whined.

Present Day…

Now Brittney was angry.

"Santa's got some serious explaining to do. He thinks he can deny me Life Day and get away with it? Well, he's gonna get a Life Day he'll never forget."

Brittney slammed the book shut and decided she needed to pay a visit to someone she knew faced a similar fate last Life Day.

Meanwhile, everyone was relieved to be done cleaning up the mess Brittney left, and they were ready to head out to go home with their families for the holidays. Holly was also ready to be done with patrol. Except, when she reached into her bag…

"Oh no! My notebook!" Holly dumped out her entire bag. The book wasn't in there!

"What book?" Benni said.

"My special book! The red one with the two N's."

"The one with the lists in it?" Boba said.

"Yes, that one! Oh no, oh no! Dad's gonna kill me for losing it!" Holly panicked.

"Don't worry, Holly. We'll help you find it."
"Where did you have it last?" Myra asked.

Holly thought back. She remembered that she'd looked at her notebook when she was in line at the ladies' room earlier, and she put it into her bag before heading to her seat to watch the show. And then she took Brittney outside. Luckily, books weren't something that was collected at the show, so the group was sure it wouldn't have been placed in any donation boxes, but Teatra decided to check just to be sure.

Myra decided to take charge on this matter.

"Holly, you and I will check in the bathroom. Vince, you and Benni check the seats, Omega, check the Lost & Found, and Comedia, you and Boba check outside."

So, everyone split up to look for Holly's book. They checked in the bathroom stalls, under the seats, in the Lost & Found boxes, in the lobby, they even checked the trash cans. But no book.

"Reindeer bites! What am I gonna do?!" Holly panicked, tears coming to her eyes. She plopped into a seat with her head in her hands. "Dad's gonna be furious with me. Some Santa-in-training I turned out to be."

"Holly, don't panic." Myra said. "We'll find your book. Maybe you didn't lose it here like you thought. Maybe you just left it at the Jedi Temple."

"Maybe… I better go home though and tell Dad. He'll know what to do."

"We'll keep looking for it." Comedia said.

"Okay. If any of you find it…" Holly made some circular motions with her hands that made some golden sparkles appear which she made surround her friends' necks, and around each of their necks appeared a necklace with a golden sleigh bell on it. "Ring one of these bells to summon any member of the Kringle family. Just say the name of whichever member you want to summon, and ring it three times."

So, Holly did what she usually did to get home. Hit the heels of her boots three times and sing, "There's no place like home for the holidays."

Holly made it back to the North Pole and went straight to her father to explain to him what happened with her book.

"I know it was important and it was my responsibility to watch over it. I'm really sorry, Daddy." Holly cried. "I'm a terrible Santa."

"Don't cry, Holly. It was an accident." Santa said, wiping away his daughter's tears. "Now, not to worry. That book cannot be opened without the password. As long as no naughty children gain access to it, we will be okay until we find it. This is why we keep copies of the lists."

That was a slight relief to Holly, but she was still worried. The holidays were nearly ruined last year; she didn't want that to happen again and this time have it ruined.

"Well, I asked my friends to help look for it. I gave them golden summoning bells to ring if they find it so I can get it back."

"Very good, Holly. For now, why don't you go help your mother with little Kris."

"I lost a magic book and now you want me to watch a baby?"

"You're very experienced watching babies, Holly. Kris will be in very capable hands."

So, Holly went to watch her baby brother again.

Holly sat in a rocking chair with Kris, gently rocking back and forth, the baby sleeping soundly, sucking on his pacifier. Gently stroking the baby's cheek, Holly felt tears come to her eyes again.

"I may have lost a book, but I will never ever let anything happen to you, Kris. I promise."

Kris got a little fussy after a while, but Holly knew a surefire way to calm him down.

Holly:

Silent night! Holy night!

All is calm, all is bright

'round yon virgin mother and child!

Holy infant, so tender and mild,

sleep in heavenly peace,

sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent Night was Baby Kris's favorite song; he especially loved when his big sister Holly sang it to him.

Brittney decided to take the book over to her Tholothian friend Mandi Colverez's house, and Mandi couldn't believe it when Brittney showed her what it could do.

"What kind of witchcraft is this?" Mandi said.

"Call me crazy, but I think that's Santa's list." Brittney said.

Mandi laughed and said, "Santa's list. As in he's makin' a list. Checkin' in twice. Gonna find out who's naughty or nice. That mumbo jumbo?"

"Yeah. Didn't you find coal in your stocking last year?"

"Yeah."

"So did I. I checked this book, and it also had my wish list in it, and yours too. Look!"

Brittney tried to open the book, but it wouldn't budge.

"Oh great. It's stuck again." Brittney groaned.

Just then, Mandi's mother called from downstairs.

"Mandi, remember to put your clothes away, please."

Suddenly, the book opened, and this time it stopped on a page with Mandi's name and picture on it.

Mandi looked in the book, and sure enough, it had her past letters to Santa, including the one she'd sent this year, asking Santa for the gold diamond necklace and hoop earring set she never got last year. But the end of her chapter, like Brittney, had a big red NAUGHTY stamped on it. She couldn't believe it. This was really for real?

"So, Santa really is real?" Mandi said. "It's not just our parents?"

"I'm as surprised as you, but it's true. Santa's denied us gifts all these years. It's not fair."

"I know. But what can we do?"

"I'll tell you what we can do. Go give Santa a piece of our minds!"

"How? Go to his house? No one's ever gone to Santa's workshop. Even if we knew how to get there, we're just two teen girls, and my dad's revoking my driving privileges just because I got a speeding ticket. I had to drive fast before they sold the last platinum sequin purse."

Brittney and Mandi both agreed that they didn't think it wasn't fair that they were denied gifts. But the former was smart enough to know that getting to Santa's workshop would be difficult. It was then Brittney had an idea. If she and Mandi were on the Naughty List, chances were there were plenty of others on it too. If they played their cards right, they could get to the North Pole and demand Santa grant their holiday wishes.

Brittney tried to open the book again, only to find it wouldn't open.

"Dammit! This thing closed again!" Brittney groaned. "Now how are we gonna find a team?"

And then, Mandi had a trick up her sleeve. She got out her phone and started to text someone.

"I think I may know someone who can help us."

In an apartment a few blocks across the city lived a green Twi'lek boy from Mandi's computer class at school named Morris Decorum.

"Let me get this straight, you found the list. The really for real Nice and Naughty List Santa checks twice every year for Life Day?"

"It's true." Brittney said. "I can't open it now, though, because apparently once you close it, it stays shut for a random time. But, we can use it to get everything we deserve, but only with a team and if we can find Santa's workshop"

"Then you ladies have come to the right place," said Morris. "I've been researching this very topic for years."

Morris opened an algorithm on his computer, and just like he said, he'd been looking for definitive proof of Santa's existence since he was seven. He'd placed cameras, sound devices, even booby traps in his house, but never caught anything credible. But Morris opened a file he saved from last Life Day.

"Now, most Life Days, I've gotten nothing that would play out as real evidence if tried in a court of law… until last year when I caught this on camera."

Morris showed the girls a video from last Life Day. One moment, nothing was under the tree, the next, there was something that sped by the tree and left gifts. Or in this case, gifts for Morris's siblings, and coal for him. His offense that got him on the Naughty List? Hacking into Walker Prep's grading system and forging his report card, and selling his service to several other students.

"I couldn't see anything." Mandi said.

"Wait." Morris slowed down the video and hit Pause. "And, voila!"

The video stopped to show someone had come into his house to deliver gifts. But it wasn't the Santa they would've expected to see. Morris enhanced the video to show the person delivering his family's gifts. It was Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi!

"What's the duke of Mandalore, much less a Jedi, doing delivering gifts?" Brittney asked.

"I wondered the same thing, and then I found these."

Morris showed some more files he had, those of various articles, pictures, and videos people took last Life Day, all of them marked as Krampus sightings, but Morris knew for a fact that Krampus was a goat man, not an alicorn. And then, he was able to hack into some security cameras from an apartment complex on Naboo, where it showed Scare Mare being declavatized.

"That's right. A clavatized villain. The Jedi know where Santa lives."

"How does this help us?" Brittney said.

Morris typed in a few lines of code and opened another algorithm, one that had many names and pictures on it, all of them kids and teenagers who did not get anything for Life Day last year because they were on the Naughty List.

"We know the Jedi were involved last year, and we know they probably know a few folks on the list too. They helped Santa deny us gifts… we can deny them their wishes too. But if we wanna do that, we're gonna need to assemble a team, and a few of them will have to be magical creatures."

So, Morris looked through the algorithm to search for the best candidates to plan the ultimate heist.

T'was five days before Life Day, and Morris Decorum, Brittney Parisia, and Mandi Colverez began their mission to break into Santa's workshop and steal not the lists, but the presents. Morris was the tech genius, Mandi was an expert at picking locks, and Brittney was willing to stomp on anyone to get her way. For this mission, they needed someone athletic, someone to make disguises, a natural born actor, and of course a getaway driver, and some of the team needed to be magical creatures.

Using Morris's algorithm, the naughty teens found seven other Naughty kids to help with their plan. All of them came from different places.

Mandalore:

Nia Mistique

Age 14

Species: Human

On the Naughty List for: lying to her parents and teachers. She was her school's drama star, the lead in nearly every school play, and could improvise on the spot.

Shili:

Shavra Zalasko

Species: Togruta

Age 11

On the Naughty List for: disorderly conduct, blatant disregard for cleanliness, reckless parkour, and serial curfew breaking.

Shavra was a very athletic child. She could parkour on a rocky mountain and escape the slide unscathed. Plus, she was flexible enough to squeeze through some tight spaces.

Coruscant:

Geneva Williams

Species: human

Age 15

On the Naughty List for: sabotaging a school play and framing Comedia Evermare-Mundi. She was an expert costume designer

Naboo:

Numo Honduras

Age 10

Species: Rodian

On the Naughty List for: reading his sister's diary and posting it across school, stealing his mother's credit card to buy concert tickets, and copying off another student's test answers. He was very sneaky and could steal pretty much anything without getting caught.

That was just the list of recruits from their own Galaxy. They really needed to branch out to find Enchanteds on the Naughty List. They all came from different places too.

From the Kingdom of Lefintiscia:

Harrison "Harry" Memoris

Species: human wizard

Age 13

On the Naughty List for: picking on a new kid in school, casting dangerous weather spells to rain out a party he wasn't invited to, and to get out of a test in school.

Kingdom of Plumalas:

Galilea Talons

Species: hippogriff

Age 14

On the Naughty List for: abusing her might and being a showoff type of flyer

Finally, the last recruit was from Equinaro.

His name was Comico Hooflequin, a yellow teenage alicorn stallion with a scruffy blue and purple mane and spots all over his body that looked like confetti. He was a silly-corn like Comedia, and he was on the naughty list for taking his pranks too far and downright humiliating his victims on purpose, much worse than Comedia used to do to Emeraldi.

Morris sent a quick message to every single one of these recruits, explaining to them the urgency of this mission and asking all of them to meet him and the girls tomorrow at a secret location.

T'was four days before Life Day. The ten naughty kids all met in a Coruscant park. Initially, the eight other recruits laughed when Brittney, Morris, and Mandi told them about the lists, but then at one moment, the book opened, and everyone saw their letters to Santa and their names with their records for the year, all of them marked with a big red NAUGHTY, which had ever single one of them in shock.

"All of you wrote a letter or waited in some mall to tell Santa what you wanted for Life Day," said Mandi. "And you got stiffed. For some of us, last year wasn't the first time either."

"And…" Morris took out some pictures of proof he had of last Life Day. "I have proof the Jedi helped Santa last year, and I'll bet they all got presents."

"That's just wrong." said Galilea. It really ruffled her gray feathers to hear that. "So, what? You want me to teach that big red suited jerk a lesson?"

"Not yet." Brittney said. "We're gonna take what's ours. Santa denied us gifts last year and many years before."

Brittney reached into her purse to grab something, only to feel something that felt…

"Eww!" Brittney removed her hand from her purse, and found it to be filled with chunky red goop.

Comico laughed at Brittney's expense. "Gotcha!"

"This purse was brand new!" Brittney said angrily. "Are we sure we want this guy on our team?"

"His profile fits great. His jokes may provide a great diversion, and more importantly, he's got magic and wings to assist Galilea in pulling our getaway ride."

"What exactly is the plan?" Nia asked.

"We're gonna break into Santa's workshop and get our gifts, plus everyone else's as interest." Brittney said.

"I know that, but how do we do that if we don't know anything about that place?"

"Nia's got a point," said Geneva. "When I set up the pranks, I knew my environment."

"We'll be fine." Morris said. "Part one of our mission, we scout the perimeter and get to know all the ropes of the workshop, where Santa keeps the gifts, and how the elves dress. Part two, we make the costumes and act our way in. Part three, we get the gifts and have ourselves the best Life Day ever! Each of us has got skills to do this mission, and together, we'll be known as Santa's Twelve."

"Only one problem with that," said Shavra. "There's only ten of us."

"That's because number eleven couldn't make it." Morris pulled up a picture of the last recruit. "Jacob Hall. His big brother used to be captain of the football team at our school, and he's got a record for doing some damage himself by throwing things."

"And the twelfth recruit?" said Numo.

"If we're gonna pull this off, we're gonna need an expert on matters like this. Someone willing to do anything for a big score. We need a professional outlaw."

"Wait, are you saying we break someone out of jail?!" Comico said. "Even I'm not crazy enough to do that."

"Not someone in jail. If my research is correct, and it always is, there's someone in the who as far as we know, has not been caught. Only thing is… we gotta go to the Outer Rim to find him."

I think this is the longest chapter I've written in a long time. Anyway, I hope you guys are enjoying this story so far. Starting next chapter, things will get more exciting.