Jingle Bells and Parallels

11. Orchid

Chapter 11

~Orchid~

       Ryder, Jerome, and I decided to go to the mall while Alan had his shift at the North Pole. He claimed he was going to do some inside work, trying to find out more information about Santa's suspicious behaviour.

       I was now seeing why Dad was so confused whenever he heard us talking about it. It didn't seem like a normal thing to say.

       While we were waiting for Alan to get some information, the three of us just decided to spend some time wandering around the shops. There was one shop Jerome wanted to go to; a pop-up shop that had a bunch of Christmas decorations and other things in there. Apparently, Nolan wasn't satisfied with the amount of Christmas decorations in his room but he also didn't have enough money to buy more since he was saving his money for Christmas presents, so Jerome was going to pick up some stuff for Nolan.

       As soon as we walked into that shop, I couldn't help but feel something odd in the store. I couldn't quite place the feeling but something was off.

       I started looking around the shop too, my eyes landing on a star for a Christmas tree. It looked kind of... horrible. Well, to me it did. It seemed to be made of really cheap quality, despite being marked at a high price.

       I continued looking around the shop, finding a lot more products that were very cheaply made yet it was marked at a high price.

       I didn't get it. This shop popped up every single year and this was where my family normally got our Christmas shop. He had been coming here for years and all the products were always of high quality. 

       I found Jerome and Ryder in another aisle. "I wouldn't buy anything in here if I were you," I said to Jerome.

       "And face Nolan's wrath when I don't come back with a lot of decorations?" Jerome asked. "No thanks."

       "Seriously, something's up here," I said, lowering my voice so nobody passing by would hear. "A lot of things here are so cheaply made."

       "So...?" Ryder asked.

       "So  I can tell when something is a knock off and trust me, everything here is a knock off," I said. "I won't be surprised if they fall apart when you poke them. And we come here every year to buy things. They would never sell horribly made things."

       "You think it has to do with that evil Santa?" Jerome asked.

       "What would knock off products have to do with Santa?" Ryder asked. "Why did I get involved with this? I'm starting to regret it because I'm just confused this whole time."

       "I'm just saying we should consider this store part of the suspicious thing going on," I said. "We just have to wait for Alan to figure out more information. We could go there now."

       Jerome sighed heavily. "I guess I'm going to have to find another store to buy Christmas decorations before Nolan has a meltdown because the house isn't fully in Christmas spirit."

       "Oh, good luck with that," Ryder said. "Remember last year when he started crying just because we forgot to put the Christmas lights up outside?"

       "Of course I remember that," Jerome said. "I had to drop everything and help your dad put up the lights so Nolan would stop crying."

       Even when Jerome and Nolan weren't dating, they were still relationship goals. Jerome would have dropped everything for Nolan. He still would.