The Christmas Crusade [NaNoWriMo 2015]

❄ Chapter Seven ❄

          Moose felt like this was a well deserved rest. AKA, they were waiting for Candy to call them back, so playing in the snow was a great way to waste time.

          They just finished their cliche snowball fight and were starting on their snowman. Marcus had dropped by just as their snowball fight was ending, which was a good thing according to him because he didn't really like snowball fights.

          Of course, because Babs loved cliches, she decided that they were going to have a contest to see who could build a better snowman. Of course, she decided that she would hum Frozen songs the entire time.

          "I'm going to go crazy," Moose growled, dropping her head on the part of the snowman she was building. Elliot poked his head from the other side of the snowman to grin at her.

          "I dunno, she's pretty funny." He turned to look at Babs who was skipping around the snowman, trying to get Marcus to sing 'Love is an Open Door' with her.

          Moose shook her head. "Crazy is what she is."

          Elliot shrugged. "Sure. But I think you like her like that."

          Moose shrugged and nodded, looking at Babs. "Yeah. True." She looked at Elliot. "Thanks for the chocolate ball and the cookies, by the way."

          He smiled. "Sure. So...what'd you think of the chocolate?"

          She made a face. "They were the worst sellers for a reason."

          He gasped. "How dare you! C'mere!"

          Moose shrieked and ran away, trying to avoid Elliot. She ran into Marcus, then tried turning around to bump into Babs, but Elliot was just standing there, grinning like a mad man. A shriek rang through the park as Moose ran away, headed towards the other side.

          But she was being chased by a varsity soccer player and she gets tired at the thought of running.

          Elliot yanked her up and held her by her waist. She kicked and squirmed, but he had a very, very strong grip. He just held her there and finally she just stopped. She tried to angle herself to look at him.

          "You just gonna keep me up here a few feet off the ground?" she asked.

          He exaggeratedly pouted his lips. "I dunno. I never really know what happens after I catch you."

          Moose gasped excitedly. "I know! Okay, I've been thinking about this thing for so long, or rather my cousin brought it up and then I started thinking about it. So. We think that the whole chase thing has to do with a primal instinct that was sort of like, if not exactly like, the fight or flight mechanism we have in our brains. It's that if we feel threatened and we can't fight back, we will run as a way of self-preservation. Now, unlike the fight or flight, we don't know why we're running, only that we are scared and are running because it's been ingrained 'run, you're being attacked', even if you're not. And we chase, not knowing what we're going to do because it's been ingrained 'chase, you need to survive', kind of like hunting. We go through the motions, but we don't know why! It's super cool!"

          Elliot blinked. "Okay. Wow, um, you and your cousin think the exact same thing?"

          Moose nodded, grinning. "Yup! We've explained this to so many people that our explanations are identical. It's so cool!"

          Elliot smiled as he put her down and led her back to the other two. "That's cool." He wanted to mention how excited she was over a psychological theory, but he knew that if he did, she'd never be excited over it again.

          Babs and Marcus were waiting for them with Candy and Nicole behind them. Moose groaned, muttering behind Elliot. What was Nicole doing there?

          "Yeah?" Moose said, crossing her arms. Candy opened her mouth, but Nicole cut her off.

          "Do you know what day it is?!" she screamed, getting really close to Moose's face. The other girl carefully pushed her away.

          "Snow day."

          Nicole exploded. "No! No, are you crazy? You only have a week to finish up all of your gifts! And you're just standing there making snow people?!"

          Moose raised her hand. "M'kay, we were not in fact just standing, I was sprinting. Second off-"

          "I don't care!"

          "Well, that's rude."

           Candy stepped between the two girls. "Listen. We need you to hurry and get the finishing touches done with everything because we have to work overtime. The weather said it's going to be snowing for the rest of the week, so you need to take advantage of that and work. Here are the colors their daughter wants for their race track. What else do you still need to do?"

          The three looked at each other while Marcus scooted away. They fidgeted uncomfortably, Babs twirling her hair, Moose wringing her hands, and Elliot biting his nails. Candy raised an eyebrow ("she can do it too?!") and they all sighed.

          They all nudged each other until Moose shoved Elliot forward, pulling Babs with her behind Marcus. The sacrifice-er, Elliot stopped biting his nails and put his hands in his jacket pockets.

          "Well...you see...wehavetobreakintothemayorshousemakeatrainandkidnaptwocelebrities." He put his spare gloves on to keep from biting his nails; he stuffed his gloved fingers into his mouth.

          "What?" Nicole demanded. He shrugged. She sighed. "No, really, what you were way too fast."

          "Darcy talks like that all the time," Moose piped up.

          Babs patted her shoulder. "No one cares, honey."

          Elliot took a deep breath and started over. "We have to break into Mayor Gannet's house to sneak in a pony, we have to remake the Polar Express, you know, from the movie? And...we have to kidnap Daniel Radcliffe and Dylan O'Brien."

          Nicole's eye twitched.

          Candy pursed her lips. "Well, it looks like you have a lot of work ahead of you."

          Moose made a random sound ("she does that a lot"). "Seriously? That's impossible and you know it, we can't do that!"

          Candy shrugged. "I don't know, why don't you go and talk to the parents to see what their kids want. I suggest going to the Polar Express kid first." She and Nicole walked away backwards for dramatic effect.

          Moose dropped her arms. "Well, isn't that fan-fucking-tastic, what the hell were we supposed to get from that?"

          Babs scoffed. "Easy, we're going to talk to the Polar Express family disguised as elves." Elliot slapped his face and massaged his temples.

          Marcus jerked his thumb in the other direction. "I'm just gonna-"

          Babs grabbed his arm. "Oh no, you're not!"

          He sighed. "Great. Okay, let's get going now."

          Moose took one look at Elliot before falling on her back and waved her arms and legs. "Snow angels, then family."

          When she stood up, her jacket was soaking wet and she caught a cold that night. (But that's not until later on)