‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
…was what one hopeful girl was wishing she could say, though the yelling in the house only fueled her dismay.
“WHERE ARE THEY?!?” Courtney yelled again, searching frantically throughout the drawers and tables.
“Gwen, did you check the kitchen?”
Gwen looked over at Courtney sadly. “I checked every corner, no tickets.”
“ARGH!!! I swear, I left them right by my lamp, I have no clue where they could’ve gone!” Courtney yelled in a mix of frustration, confusion, and sadness.
“Its okay, Court” Gwen attempted to comfort her, “even if we don't find them-”
“WE HAVE TO FIND THEM!! If we don't find them and leave within the next 3 minutes, we’re going to be late for dinner! And if we're late for dinner, we’re late for the show! And if we’re late for the show, THEY WONT LET US IN!”
Courtney’s sadness and confusion shifted into a swelling fury. How could something like this happen? She had everything planned perfectly! She was FOLLOWING THE SCHEDULE! Things weren't supposed to go wrong when you followed a schedule!
“They HAVE to be in here somewhere!”
Honestly, Gwen was starting to get a little frustrated with her girlfriend. They obviously couldn't find the tickets, why not cut their losses and just focus on getting to dinner on time? “Courtney, we’ve looked everywhere.” Gwen sighed. “It’s not the end of the world if we miss the show, there will be plenty others we can go to. If we leave now, we can still make it to our dinner reservation.”
“Just let me-” Courtney was interrupted by a loud BANG! “What the hell was that?!” she cried. Both girls made eye contact before frantically shuffling out the door. “I swear, if some jackass damaged our apartment, I'm gonna make sure he never drives again!”
Gwen took the lead, and began looking for the source of the sound. After not finding anything near the ground, she glanced up.
“Holy SHIT!”
“What, what is… OH MY GOD!”
Right on their very rooftop laid a sleigh, accompanied by nine seemingly disinterested reindeer.
“Oh, this is TOO good.” Gwen chuckled, “it’s a literal Christmas miracle!”
“Yeah right!” Courtney put her hands on her hips in frustration as she marched over to the scene, “it’s probably just some dumb prank or decoration.” Angrily, she kicked the sleigh. “Whoever did this, you’re not funny! And you’re paying for any damages!”
“Courtney, HOW could a decoration have LIVE reindeer? And where and how could someone get nine reindeer for a prank? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Makes more sense than Santa somehow being real!”
“Courtney!” Gwen feigned offense. “Are you saying you don't believe in Santa Claus? Even after he got you that amazing painting?” Courtney let out a small scoff and smiled for the first time that night. “Of course not, because it was you who made me that, silly. Even if you hadn't handed it to me, I know all your signatures you add to your paintings. I can spot your work from a mile away!” She replied pridefully. The two girls giggled together before turning back to the predicament in front of them. “Besides, even if this SOMEHOW was his sleigh, where's the big guy himself? Nowhere around here, that's for sure!”
“Something bad must have happened,” pondered Gwen. Suddenly, she straightened up and gasped. “Courtney! It’s Christmas Eve and Santa’s sleigh is here but he’s nowhere to be found! Do you know what that means??”
“He’s gonna come back here and handle it and we can go back to looking for the tickets?”
“We have to save Christmas!”
—------------------------
“What?!? Are you crazy?? We don't have time for this! And even if we somehow did, we wouldn't get very far because REINDEER CANT FLY!”
Gwen ignored Courtney’s cries and she took her hand and led her to the sleigh. The goth stared wide eyed at all the buttons on Santa’s sleigh. Didn’t the reindeer do all the work? “Court, do you think you could figure out how to run this thing?” Snapped out of her speech about all the things that could go wrong with this, Courtney reluctantly looked over at the controls. “Huh. I think all we have to do is press this button-” And with a WOOSH! They were in the air.
“All right!” Howled Gwen. “I've always wanted to fly in the air like this!”
“Wasn't the jumbo jet enough?” Courtney asked, holding onto the side of the sleigh for dear life.
“With CHEF steering? No way!” Gwen laughed as she charged the reindeer forward. “Can you find the nice list and read out our first stop?”
“I can't believe we’re actually doing this…” Muttered Courtney, looking around for the list. After a few seconds of searching, she spotted it. “Got it! Okay, the first house in the area is…oh you've gotta be kidding me!”
“What's wrong?”
“Just…let me read the address.”
—------------------------
“Man, this movie makes NO sense!” Izzy spoke her thoughts out loud, “Why didn’t the elves just gang up on Santa and eat him?”
Eva nodded in agreement. “Santa was just holding them back anyways. The elves had strength in numbers.”
“Or why couldn’t they just eat some cookies? They're elves, I'm sure they had some Christmas cookies stored somewhere!” Owen whined, wishing he had saved some cookies for the movie.
“I just wonder why someone decided to make this movie in the first place; This is terrible.” Noah voiced, the others agreeing with him. “Why couldn’t you guys just pick a normal movie?”
“Well we WERE just gonna get the same as last year” Izzy began, "until a SQUIRREL grabbed our money and ran away! To get it back we had to-”
“Stop, just stop. I already have the feeling I know where this is going. Eva, can you give me a summary?”
“Squirrel army. High speed golf cart chase. Joined the mafia. Scammed the mafia. Escaped from the mafia. Tamed a herd of moose. Got this movie.” Eva huffed.
“...sounds about right.”
“Aw man, you gotta tell us the whole story later! That sounded AWESOME!” Owen exclaimed cheerfully.
Suddenly, a loud THUMP! Came from the living room. All four of them glanced at the direction of the sound, and then at each other. They scurried from their seats on the couch to the living room.
Looking down, they saw nothing except the usual furniture and decorations. “Meh, must’ve been nothing.” Noah shrugged, making his way back to his seat already.”
“No…” Izzy began, “something is here…I can smell it!”
—------------------
Panicked, Gwen looked at Courtney, who was higher up the chimney, with a look that said “What the fuck do we do.”
Determined not to fail at delivering presents-and to not get caught and have to explain to “team escope” why the two were halfway down their chimney, Courtney held her girlfriend and stayed as still as she could. Whatever Izzy was smelling, it would only bring them trouble. Those four had to get out of there before their cover was blown! Her eyes filled with determination; No way were they gonna get caught!
Gwen however, was feeling the panic set in. Why did she insist on going in the chimney?! The tight, cramped, barely enough space to breathe, chimney?! She can think of a lot of dumb things she’s done in her life, but this has to be pretty damn high on the list! She could feel herself beginning to hyperventilate, and couldn't help but think about all the late nights she spent researching about spelunking disasters and what happens to the body in such a tight space.
“Gwen. Gwen!” Courtney whisper-yelled, as loudly as she could to get Gwen’s attention, but as quietly as possible so the four in the house wouldn’t hear her. Snapped out of her trance, Gwen gazed at Courtney.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan. Just focus on me.”
Hesitantly, Gwen gave Courtney a firm nod.
Blocking out the sound of Izzy and Noah bickering, Courtney began shimmying further up the chimney to the best of her ability, steadily holding Gwen’s hand to help keep her present and lead her out.
Though uncomfortable at first, she got the hang of it after a few seconds. Honestly, it wasn't too different from climbing a rock wall, something she excelled at-having been a CIT and all. The hardest part was balancing the presents so they didn't fall and blow their cover. Staying quiet was difficult as well, but with team escope having gone back to their movie, the two girls had more room to make noise. Still, Courtney remained cautious and moved carefully until she reached the top, and she didn't say a word until she pulled Gwen out.
“Gwen, are you okay?” She asked, concerned after seeing the panicked look on Gwen’s face.
“I'm sorry.”
“What?”
“It was my idea to do all this, and we didn't even deliver any of the presents! And I put both of us in jeopardy when I started to freak out!”
“...why did you choose to go down with me anyway? I know how terrifying tight spaces are to you. It would’ve been fine if you stayed in the sleigh.”
“I was the one who derailed our night, I figured I should at least do my part in delivering the presents! But I screwed up.”
“Gwen, you didn't screw anything up. We didn't get caught and we didn't damage or lose any of the presents, and I'm certainly not gonna expect you to go down any tight spaces, even if this was your idea. That was just… a practice round! Trust me, we’ll figure this out.”
Smiling, Courtney pulled Gwen into a comforting embrace, to which Gwen melted into. The two girls stood intertwined together for a while until Gwen pulled back. “But how ARE we gonna do this? Obviously the traditional method didn't work, and we probably won't be so lucky not getting caught next time.”
“Oh, don't worry.” Courtney grinned. “I've already got that planned out.” The brunette ran to the sleigh and untied one of the long ribbons decorating its side. Next, she grabbed one of the presents. Holding one end of the ribbon from the sleigh, she carefulled looped it through the loop of the bow of one of the presents. Carefully, she grabbed both ends of the ribbon and began to slowly lower the present down the chimney. As it reached the bottom, she let go of one end and pulled the ribbon back up. “It worked!”
Gwen grabbed another ribbon from the sleigh and followed suit; together, they were able to get all the presents down in no time. As Courtney went to grab the last present, Gwen stopped her. “I’ve got an idea.” The goth continued her usual method of lowering the present, but let go a bit earlier, causing the heavier present to fall down with a light BAM. Both girls got as close to the edge of the chimney as they could and listened. Faintly, they heard some shuffling.
“IT’S PRESENTS!!” Izzy yelled.
“We told you guys Santa was real!” Owen yelled after her, and presumably began to grab at some presents.
Looking up, Gwen and Courtney gazed at each other lovingly before sharing an enthusiastic high five. They did it!
Their moment of celebration was cut short when they heard a certain ginger’s voice.
“Wait, if these presents just got here… SANTA MUST BE NEARBY! Quick Eva, get the crossbow! We’re gonna get him this time!”
Sharing a look of panic, the two girls skittered back to the sleigh.
—-------------------
After the first house, they fell into an efficient routine. Stop at a house, lower the presents, and since time allowed it, stay to hear the reactions. Frankly, Gwen was surprised at how few people were left on Santa’s list, but hey, she wasn’t gonna complain. What she was even MORE surprised about however was the fact that almost every person left on the list were their fellow past total drama contestants. Eva, Izzy, Noah, and Owen were already coincidence enough, but this? If it hadn't been for the flying reindeer and seemingly never ending amount of presents, Gwen might have believed Courtney’s initial theory of it being a prank.
Then again, it wasn't all bad. Seeing their fellow castmates and even friends being happy on Christmas gave both the girls a strange sense of belonging, happiness, and best of all, hope. Hope that, despite everything they’ve been through-all the pain, betrayal, and suffering, they could still be happy. Hope that one day, they can all heal, and become better versions of themselves. Take that, McLean!
“Alright, second to last house: Bridgette and Geoff!” Courtney called out.
“Y’know, i'm gonna miss these reindeer. They're a way faster travel method than anything we’ve got. Good for the planet, too!” Gwen chuckled.
“They sure are! A bit smelly for my taste, though.”
Both girls laughed as they landed the sleigh on top of Bridgette and Geoff’s beach house. Unfortunately, neither girl could spot a chimney.
“Great. How are we supposed to do this now?” Courtney complained. She liked the upbeat couple, but their house was proving to be a pain in the ass.
“How about we just put them there?” Gwen pointed to a deck decorated with Christmas lights with a palm tree poorly decorated like a normal Christmas one, topped with a decorative starfish.
“Huh. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they would have something like this.” Muttered Courtney.
Silently, Courtney got off the roof and reached her hands to Gwen, who placed as many of the presents she could fit in her arms. After two trips, the strange Christmas tree was accompanied by several gifts. Satisfied with her work, Courtney got back onto the roof with the help of Gwen.
“Alright, the last house left is…ours?”
“No way,” protested Gwen, “It can't be that easy.”
“Take a look yourself!”
Sure enough, their names were the only ones left.
“Well...I guess we just… deliver them like normal.”
A few minutes of flying later, they landed on the roof where it all began. This time, they carried the gifts into the apartment, not worried about being as sneaky as they were with the other deliveries. After they dropped them all off, they headed back up to the roof.
“So… how do we get the sleigh back to the North Pole?” Asked Gwen.
“I'm sure the reindeer know the way back. After all, they’ve been doing this far longer than we have, haven't you reindeer!” Courtney switched to a baby voice while hugging one of the reindeer.
Gwen smiled, finding the sight of her girlfriend hugging a reindeer absolutely adorable. “Guess they're not that smelly, huh?” She teased.
“I admit, I've grown to like them! We couldn’t have done it without them after all. Unfortunately though, it’s time to say goodbye.”
Each of them took their time saying goodbye to the reindeer, and the reindeer seemed to understand, as after they had finished their goodbyes, they flew off into the night.
After a few seconds of silence, Gwen spoke. “Well, you gotta admit: that was much more exciting than a show!”
“Sure was.” Courtney replied, staring into Gwen’s eyes. “And…thanks, Gwen. For pushing me to do this. It was actually pretty fun.”
Gwen smiled, before leaning in to give her girlfriend a kiss. After a few seconds of bliss, the girls pulled apart and began to walk down to their apartment.
“Y’know, maybe we should get a pet reindeer in the future.”
“What?! Courtney, that’s a terrible idea! Where would we even put it?”
“Hey, I figured out how to keep a raccoon, a reindeer can’t be too much harder!”