Christmas Chaos

by Meredith Costain

  I was just picking out a sweet little knitted hat with red pom poms on it which was PERFECT for our Christ mas theme when the door bell tinkled and three girls came into the shop.

  And guess who it was?

  Ka-ching! You win.

  Princess Peach and my ex-SBFFs. They were all wearing matching outfits. Even their hairstyles were matching.

  I immediately went into ninja kammaflarge camouflage mode and squeezed behind a flowery curtain that was EXACTLY the same colour as my outfit.

  From there I sent a series of complicated hand signals to Zoe telling her to duck down behind the rack of assorted men’s pants so Peach and her new best friends couldn’t see her either.

  Then we set our ears to ultrasonic listening-in mode so we could listen in.

  This is what we heard: Peach (rummaging noises): Oooo. Look at this sweet little dress. It would look so aDORable on darling Mitzi.

  Zoe and me (mouthing to each other): Mitzi?????? Jessie and Ana (nodding and speaking together at the same time): aDORable.

  Peach: Oh, but look, it’s pink. Jessie? Go and ask the lady if it comes in red. Or green. Or red and green. Jessie (puzzled): Huh?

  Peach (rolling her eyes): You know, Christmas colours? For the Christmas Eve Fancy Dress Parade for Pets and their Owners? You want us to WIN, don’t you?

  Jessie (even more puzzled): But op shops don’t have—

  I never got to find out what op shops don’t have because right at that very exact same moment the doorbell tinkled AGAIN and even MORE people came in. And they started heading straight for the assorted men’s pants rack.

  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

  I had to get Zoe out of there. Fast.

  I quickly sent a complicated series of advanced hand signals to Zoe to describe what she had to do. Then we got down on the floor on our hands and knees and crept from rack to rack, ninja-style, until we reached the front door and slipped back out into the street.

  I untied Bob and we quickly jogged to a nice safe-looking bench in the park around the corner so we could have an emergency Emergency Meeting.

  This is what we said:

  Me: I am SHOCKED!

  Zoe: Same.

  Me: How come Peach ALWAYS has to copy everything I do? Now she’s going to enter the EXACT SAME competition as us. Just so she can beat me. Again.

  Zoe: It’s so not fair.

  Me: But WHY? WHY is she entering the section for Pets and their Owners?

  Peach doesn’t even have a pet. Especially one called Mitzi.

  Zoe: What are you going to do about it?

  Me: I don’t know yet. SOMEthing. But first we need to collect MORE INFORMATION.

  We sat there on the bench in the summery sun for a while. Then I took out my notebook and pencil which I always keep handy in case I need to jot something down, and started jotting down the extra things we needed to know.

  EXTRA THINGS WE NEED TO KNOW

  Who or what is Mitzi?

  If Mitzi is a dog (most likely), what bread breed is she?

  And where does she come from?

  And how did Peach get her?

  And why does Peach always have to be so mean?

  Sometimes life is extremely complicatifying, Diary. I am amazed anybody ever gets anything done.

  Tuesday evening

  Ho, ho, ho, Diary,

  It is Christmas Eve Eve!*

  * Which, if you only have a VERY tiny brain, means the day BEFORE Christmas Eve.

  Everyone in Moonlight Gardens is starting to get very exciterated.

  There is a giganterous Christmas tree outside the manager’s office with lots of shiny dingly dangly things hanging off it and a sweet little Christmas angle angel on the top.

  And all the holiday people have been decorating their vans and practising their carols for the Carols by Candlelight concert on the beach tonight and inviting their neighbours over for special Christmas drinks and snacks.

  Our family spent practically THE WHOLE DAY wrapping up presents for each other (which is EXTREMELY hard to do when you have NO privercy privacy) so we had to take it in turns.

  Here’s what I got for everyone (using my dog-walking money):

  Mum: Her favourite smelly hand lotion and bath salts

  Dad: A mug that says BEST DAD IN THE WORLD that I made in art class at school

  Olivia: Her very own set of glitter pens (so she doesn’t have to keep borrowing mine all the time)

  Max: A pirate eye-patch

  Bob: A bouncy ball I found on the beach (it was only slightly chewed)

  Nanna Kate: My dinosaur snow dome from Krafty Kids Klub

  Zoe: A secret privet private diary just like mine, where she can write all her own secret private secrets. I hope she likes it!

  Then we decorated our caravan walls with tinsel and plastic holly that Mum got on special at the Moonlight Bay Bargain Mart.

  There was just enough left over for Zoe and me to add to the exceptionally excellent Christmas-themed outfit we’re making for Bob.

  BOB’S CHRISTMAS-THEMED OUTFIT FOR THE CHRISTMAS EVE PARADE

  Max was really worried that Santa won’t be able to find him in our caravan to give him his presents. And also that there will be nowhere for his reindeer to park.

  And then Mum told him everything would be OK because Santa has a special map that shows where EVERYONE in the world is on Christmas Eve, even if it was the bottom bunk of a leaky, creaky caravan in Moonlight Bay.

  And Dad told him he’d made Special Arrangements with the manager of the caravan park to allow the reindeer to park on top of the shower block. Which is why it is always a bit smelly.

  And then Max stopped being worried and we all went to the beach and played beach cricket and I had so much fun I forgot all about mean old Peach Parker and Jessie and Ana and the mysterious Mitzi mystery. (For a little while, anyway.)

  I can’t wait for tomorrow!

  Merry Christmas Eve Eve, Diary.

  Love,

  Ella XOXO

  Wednesday night, very, very late

  Dear Diary,

  There is SO much to tell you! So I’ll just skip the bits like what we ate for lunch and the rude word* Olivia said to me when I accidentally smashed her My Little Bunny mug, and tell you the most interesting, excitering parts, like what happened at the Moonlight Bay Christmas Eve Party and Fancy Dress Parade.

  * It wasn’t even that rude, Diary. Zoe knows MUCH ruder words than that.

  Sunset Park was full of people and their pets wearing matching Christmas outfits, waiting for the contest to start. We even saw a girl with a darling little Christ mas bunny on a lead!

  WHAT ZOE, ME AND BOB WERE WEARING

  Zoe and me and Bob all looked aMAZing, of course, in our matching outfits. I spent HOURS making sure we would be the most super-stylish contestants in the contest.

  We were just rehearsing our winners’ speeches when …

  Da da da … DUM.

  Guess who turned up, parading around in a fancy outfit like a movie star out of a movie?

  Princess Smartyface Peach Parker. With a dog on a sparkly lead. Ha!

  WHAT PRINCESS PEACH AND HER DOG WERE WEARING

  Jessie and Ana were walking right behind Peach and Mitzi, handing out fancy schmancy brochures about a place called the Grande Royale Regal Resort and Spa.

  And guess what?!

  You never will and there’s still lots more to write about so I’ll just tell you.

  The letters on Mitzi’s fur cape matched the name of the resort!

  So now I had the answers to Queries from my list of EXTRA THINGS WE NEED TO KNOW.

  Who or what is Mitzi? A dog

  If Mitzi is a dog (most likely), what bread breed is she? Italian greyhound

  And where does she come from? The big new posh resort where Peach is staying!!!

  And how did Peach get her? Peach must have borrowed her from the owners of the resort so she could go in the contest and beat me and RUIN MY LIFE AGAIN!!!


  And then before I could work out the answer to Query , a big stripy dog ran up and snatched Mitzi’s shiny Christmas baubles in its giganterous teeth and tried to run away with them.

  But Mitzi pulled back really hard so it couldn’t take them.

  And then the stripy dog pulled back even harderer. And they had a giganterous tug of war!

  Then the stripy dog let go all of a sudden and Mitzi fell backwards and crashed into the judges’ table and all the trophies for the Dog Parade contest fell off and smashed.

  And Mitzi got a fright and ran away and no-one could find her.

  Now Peach is in BIG TROUBLE with the dog’s owners AND everyone else in Moonlight Bay because they had to cancel the parade. And so are Jessie and Ana. Ha!

  Good night, Diary. Only one more sleep till Christmas Day!

  PS I do hope they find dear little Mitzi soon. It is extremely tragical to think that she might be curled up under a prickly bush or lying in a deep hole somewhere, lost and lonely and frighterened.

  Wednesday morning, very, very early, so early even Santa hasn’t been yet

  I just had the most terrible dream!

  In my dream I was at the beach, swimming joyfully in a giant rock pool with little fish tickling my toes.

  And then the sky went all black and darkerous. And giganterous waves were bashing and crashing over giganterous rocks. And then I noticed a teeny tiny animal with white fur, shivering shiveringly at the very top of the toppest rock.

  And then …

  OOOOO!

  I THINK I KNOW WHERE MITZI IS!!!

  Have to go now, Diary. Before it’s too late!

  Wednesday, a bit later

  Guess what! I was right!

  You know those rock pools, where Zoe and I did our scientifical research? Well, that’s where Mitzi was, just like in my dream! In a little cave, at the top of all the rocks! That’s where she ran away to last night.

  And then when the tide came in, she got trapped there. And Zoe and I (and Dad and Mum and Zoe’s mum, after I woke them all up) found her and saved her. All because of my dream! I must have secretly known in the deepest part of my brain, because that’s where I’d go too if I was frightened or sad.

  And Fred and Leila (the owners of Mitzi and GRRRS) are going to give me an extra-special special reward for finding her!

  Sorry, Diary, have to go. I just remembered it’s Christmas Day. Which means I have lots of VIPs (Very Important Presents) to open!!!

  Merry Christmas!

  Love,

  Ella xoxoxoxoxox

  PS (one day later)

  Jessie and Ana came over to wish me a Merry Christmas and to say they were really, really sorry for being so mean to me, ESPECIALLY since I’d always been such a good friend to them. And then they said they hoped I was coming back to Moonlight Gardens next year so we could all have fun together again.

  And then we all went for a swim (Zoe came too) and linked pinkies in the waves and made NEW SBFF wishes.

  Bet you’ll NEVER guess what I wished for!

  PPS (two days later)

  Bet you’re dying to find out what my extra-special special reward was!

  Fred and Leila invited Zoe and me to have lunch at

  It was fantabulously fabulous!

  We lounged around the pool on long chairs and ate posh hamburgers and chips and a man brought us drinks on a tray, with little umbrellas in them, just like the ones Jessie and Ana had.

  And guess what! The man said we could have anything we wanted for dessert. ANYTHING!

  Guess what I chose?

  And guess what else? While we were sitting there, Peach and her mum walked past. They were both eating triple-decker ice-creams too.

  Peach was looking the other way, trying her hardest not to notice me.

  So she didn’t see the beach ball come flying out of the pool until it hit her on the arm, Which knocked her ice-cream out of her hand, and ALL OVER her lacy white top and shorts.

  Oopsies!

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  First edition published by Scholastic Australia in 2015.

  This electronic edition published by Scholastic Australia Pty Limited, 2015.

  E-PUB/MOBI eISBN: 978-1-760271-22-0

  Text copyright © Meredith Costain, 2015.

  Illustrations copyright © Danielle McDonald, 2015.

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