A Christmas Tale

Chapter 2: Intermission

Tet gets the script back as she crumples it up, quickly tossing it into the fire before anyone has time to react. "Why'd you throw it away?" Kie jogs over to watch it burn, a saddened look plastered all over her face as the paper slowly disintegrates to ash. Mischief catches all the commotion and walks over "Guys, stop throwing random things into the fire, it's not good for the environment." She says in a displeased way "Okay mum..." Ol calls over as she growls before storming over to him. Luke joins the conversation while he grabs Mischief's shoulder, stopping her from punching Ol's head in. "Seriously though, why burn it?" Tet looks up at Luke as he speaks "Because Aliza's coming and she's insane with her stories; she talks down to anyone who has worse English than her." She gives an almost completely straight face as she leans back on the log before lying completely vertically along it. "Plus, fire is cool and I want to fuel it!" She smiles, pushing the character sheets in with it as they imitate the first, all crumpling up and burning from existence. "Awww..." tears form in Kie's eyes "...Those beautiful pictures had to die with them huh?" Tet springs up quickly, raising her fist to the sky "There must be no evidence!" She howls as Luke gives a blank expression "What's that other pile over there?" He says pointing towards a perfect stack of paper that was just crushed by Tet as she lay down. She panics "Into the flames you go!" she tosses them but Cb dashes past, creating a gust of wind that drags the papers to safety. He turns as Tet tries to get up, throwing a marshmallow to her mouth as she is temporarily stunned. He sifts through them, folding one up and throwing it over Tet's head and into Kie's hands. She unfolds to the improvised aeroplane, seeing the beautiful maid that she'd played before "Yay" she lets out a small yelp as she hugs it, Tet's arm reaching out as if to grab it before she sees her overall happiness. "Fine, you can have it... Just don't show them once the others get here." She puffs her cheeks out before sighing again, snatching the rest of the papers from Cb's hands. She takes a page from the middle and tosses it in as Luke finally lets go of Mischief's shoulder "What was that one?" She points at the fading white in the fire as Tet looks up from the burning ball "They last script. You can't pull one past me Cb." She smirks as he awkwardly laughs. "Ok, I won't show Liz" Tet snickers. "If you call her that, she will kill you." Cb nods his head "I'd love to see her try." He sticks out his tongue in a challenging manner as Tet burst into laughter.

Ol calls across the campfire again, still huddled in his blanket as he speaks "Should we do another? We have enough time." His face is illuminated by a blue light of his phone that read the time in clear bold lettering '21:22' "Alright! new writer, who wants it..." "Cb?" Luke claps his hands together before he's cut off my Tet "Why me?" He asks frantically "Because you didn't let me burn my pictures and this is my revenge!" She looks at him with a deadly smile as he sighs "I want to be a character though..." "I don't see why you can't do both? Is there a rule against it?" Mischief pokes her head up from behind the box, holding the rule pamphlet in her hand as Cb's eyes begin to glow with devilish thinking. "No, that's not allowed. Look in the far back left corner." Tet points at the pamphlet as Cb jumps over the log with something in his mitts. He whispers something into her ear as she hands it over as he quickly raises it to Tet's face. "Objection! I present the rule pamphlet to the witness stand!" Tet places her hands on the paper, pulling it away as she looks at where the rule should be '...12. no profanity, 14. The board should be used to show which characters are present in what scenes...' A huge gap between the rules can be seen as Cb places the TipEx back into his pocket "You tampered with the evidence! That surely invalidities it...!" "Overruled! This is my game and I allow this testimony to be taken as fact!" Luke interrupts Tet as he hits his stick against the log next to him. "I pronounce the verdict as a viable rule change as long as the story is one of Christmas relevance! This meeting will now be adjourned!" Luke slams down his stick one final time as Tet rolls her eyes. "You win this round." she scowls as Mischief walk towards her and takes her pen and pencil before handing it to Cb. "Go nuts." He begins scribbling quickly as everyone looks away once again to let the story be a surprise to them.

Everyone begins to move away to plan what else they're going to do with the tree once the others get here but they're interrupted sooner than originally thought. Cb stops writing quickly before clearing his throat and calling everyone back. They all arrive, slightly confused at how little time it took for him to finish up. "Alright, we all ready?" Everyone nods, suspicion still riding their faces as he hands out character sheets, this time there were not any pictures but there was a small potato printed onto the corner of each page with pristine accuracy in each detail. He opens his mouth for one final breath as everyone finishes going through their characters as he begins his Christmas tale.