by R. J. Ross
“Ah, Toodles, my dear…” he says when he can’t stare the entire room down, “may we ask what the problem is?”
“We have a visitor coming,” she says in a slightly panicked voice. “What will she think if she comes up here and sees the place a mess like this?”
“A visitor,” he repeats. “May I ask who?”
“My new sister!” she tells him, throwing her hands up in the air. “I have to make a good impression!”
“I see, I see,” he says, nodding and going back to his work. That lasts for all of a second before he realizes, “Aren’t you a bit old to be getting a brand new sister?”
She glares at him before doing that breathing technique of hers. “I’m adopting Malina, yes?”
“Well, yes, of course we—you are,” he says.
“And that makes her super family MY family,” Toodles explains, as if speaking to a child. “That means her unofficial aunt is now my unofficial sister. That’s how it works for the Superiors, as well. Tatiana explained all of that to me.”
“I… see,” Santa says. “So who is this new sister of yours?”
“Her name is Ariel,” Toodles says proudly. “She’s absolutely beautiful! She’s part of the South Branch, I think, but I still haven’t found out what her super name is. I really should have asked Malina…”
“Ariel,” Santa repeats, only to stop and stare at her in shock. “You’re now sisters with Ariel?!”
“And what is that tone supposed to mean?” she demands. “Do you have something against Ariel?”
“Well, no, my dear, but have you told Century this? I’ve been led to believe he’s extremely possessive—“
“Possessive?” she repeats, her eyes narrowing.
“Protective,” he corrects himself, because unleashing Toodles on his brother is not a Santa-like thing to do. “He’s extremely protective of Ariel and her partners.”
“It has nothing to do with Century,” Toodles declares. She stops, her face lighting up. “She’s here! I’m going to go greet her. You! Bring a tray of hot chocolate and cookies!” she orders a random elf before racing for the stairs. “Oh, I hope she isn’t freezing!”
Santa stands, and follows behind, not about to miss this.
***
Of course, she planned to bring Skye and Doris along, but she’d found out that Skye had wrecked the place not too long ago, so it was probably best if she goes alone the first time. That’s why she’s floating over the North Pole, her arms waving this way and that as the snow swirls at her command. There are pretty little snowflakes showing through her skin, and she smiles at the sight.
“Oh, I like this place,” she says happily as her hair changes into icy dreadlocks. “It’s so pretty!”
“Ariel!” Toodles yells up at her. She looks down at the elf waving up at her. “Come in! You look like you’re freezing!”
“Oh, just a little bit,” Ariel says as she lands. “Isn’t it pretty? Look at my hand!” She holds it up to show the snowflakes. “I’m like a living snow globe!”
“You’re literally freezing!” Toodles says, grabbing her hand. “Come in! Come in! It’s too cold for you out here!”
“Oh, I don’t mind being frozen,” Ariel says, but she lets herself be tugged along. “I can control what form I am! And snowflakes are so pretty that I just couldn’t help myself.”
“I’ve got your hot chocolate, Toodles,” a large man says as they enter the workshop. “Is that your new sister? She’s pretty.”
“Thank you!” Ariel says with a smile, pushing her hair over her shoulder and taking a cup off the tray.
“Thank you,” Toodles says, taking the tray. “I have some cookies, too, if you want!”
“We’ve eaten SO MANY cookies lately,” Ariel says, only to take one. “First there was the loot from the ice cream store, and then Skye brought home Santa cookies from her mommy’s. And now I get Santa cookies from Santa! Yay!”
“Loot?” Toodles asks.
“Oh, sure, from when we robbed the ice cream store,” Ariel says, waving a hand to say it wasn’t anything special. “We’re in a commercial thanks to that!”
“Commercial?”
“Hello, Raindance,” Santa says, standing in their way and holding out a hand. “I’ve had the pleasure of meeting your leader, but not you or Jersey Devil.”
“Wait… you mean you’re a villain?” Toodles asks, still two steps behind.
“I’m a Deadly Darlin’!” Ariel says, turning with a beautiful smile. The entire workshop goes quiet for a second before half of them rush over.
“How’s Dollface doing?”
“Can I get your signature?”
“You’re my favorite of the Darlin’s!”
Toodles quickly loses sight of her new sister as she just stands there, soaking in the shocking fact. She, the head of the magical animal department of the North Pole, is now sisters with a super villain.
***
Toodles can’t bring herself to find her way through the elves that are STILL swarming around Ariel. Instead, she’s trying to figure out what to do. She can’t be family with a villain! It goes against everything she believes in! She has to tell her. She has to tell Malina, too, which terrifies her, because—
“Toodles,” Santa says, making her look up.
“Santa,” she says, “what do I do?”
“Well, you could save your new sister from her would-be suitors. If Century found out that some of my elves were trying to court one of his darlin’s, I’m not sure it would go well for us.”
“Shouldn’t he be happy? He’d be getting rid of one of his most dangerous villains!” she whispers, seeing the woman in question float up to the ceiling to ring a bell. The group cheers, since that’s the signal that a game has been won.
“I think you need to spend some time with her before you jump to conclusions, my dear,” he says with a hint of disappointment. “Why don’t you ask her to show you some of their jobs?”
“Toodles!” Ariel says, flying over and hugging her. “I won the game! It’s a good thing Skye isn’t here, though, because she’s crazy good at DDR. I’ve never won before because of that!”
“I see how that could be a problem,” Toodles says.
“Raindance, Toodles was just saying how she’d like to see you and the girls working,” Santa says. “Do you think you could show her?”
“I want to! I want to!” Ariel says. “Ummm… I have to do this, right? Nico? Hiiii, can you do me a favor?” she says, tapping repeatedly on her watch.
“Sure,” Nico’s voice comes from the watch. “What’s the problem?”
“I want access to our security videos, okay? I’m going to show my new sister what all we do!”
“All of it?” Nico asks.
“ALL of it,” she says. “Wait, no, you can leave out the bikini of shame videos. Doris would kill me.”
“Got it.”
“Can we go somewhere private?” Ariel asks Toodles. Toodles looks at Santa, suddenly worried, but he just smiles slightly and nods.
“We can go to Santa’s office, he never uses it except for naps,” Toodles says, leading the way.
The entire workshop watches them go, and then moves closer to try and hear what they’re watching.
***
Five minutes pass, and all they hear is Toodles say, “What on earth are you three—oh.”
Another few minutes pass before they hear Toodles start to laugh. Soon all they can hear is the two females roaring with laughter, interspaced with, “I can’t believe you DID that!” and “Wait, wait, it gets better!” And then, “Oh my gosh, you three are CRAZY! Can I come, next time?” and “Of course you can!”
“I really want to see what they’re watching,” the elf standing next to Santa says.
“You aren’t the only one,” he says, now worried. Maybe he shouldn’t have encouraged her to be so open-minded. He wasn’t sure he could handle losing his Tood--er, his magical animal controller. Before he can figure o
ut a way to bring her back to the North Pole, the door opens, almost hitting the group.
“So? Did you two have fun?” Santa asks, reappearing several feet away.
“We’re going to go ride the reindeer, now!” Ariel says happily. “I call Vixen!”
“She’s actually her great, great, great granddaughter,” Toodles says, grabbing her hand and tugging her along, “she’ll love you!”
“Yay! And then you can come and meet my chupacabby baby!” Ariel says. “He’s an AI, but we don’t tell him, we don’t want him to know he’s adopted,” she stage whispers.
“I’ll make sure not to say a word about it,” Toodles says solemnly. “Don’t wait up!” she calls over her shoulder, waving goodbye. The door closes and all the elves turn and look at Santa.
“She’ll come back,” he says, “eventually.”
A cold wind blows through the workshop.
Pegasisters
“You absolutely can’t fly while we’re doing this,” I say, standing in front of Skye and Ariel. Don’t get me wrong, I invited Doris, but she said that she had to walk their chupacabra… all the way to Mexico. I think she’s planning on buying authentic tacos, or something? I didn’t ask. I hope she takes pictures! It’ll be interesting to see how they react to a chupacabra!
“Why can’t we fly?” Skye asks. She’s wearing a princess t-shirt that I’m almost positive she stole from Liz.
“Because then we’ll get mobbed by little kids and we might miss the beginning of the movie!” I say. “That would be HORRIBLE!”
“Oooh, okay! No flying!” Ariel says, tugging Skye to the ground. “We can’t miss the beginning! It might have a song!”
“Okay, but why are we still just standing here?” Skye asks, looking at the trees that surround us. “Shouldn’t we be heading to the theater?”
“We’re waiting for someone,” I explain. Almost as if called by that statement, a familiar “poof” sounds and I turn, ready to squeal. The squeal dies. Oh, sure, Malina and Toodles are here, like I expected, but… so is Santa.
“TOODLES!” Ariel squeals, much to Malina’s shock, and throws herself at Toodles, hugging her happily.
Toodles starts giggling, rubbing cheeks with Ariel as they hug. “We’ve come to watch the movie with you, Ariel!” Toodles says only to yelp in surprise as Ariel pulls her up into the air.
“Skye! Skye! Come meet Toodles! She’s the best big sister in the world!” Ariel calls over Skye. “Toodles, this is Skye! She’s the best super villain leader in the world!”
Malina, on the other hand, is just looking at the two with shock. I don’t think she expected that. I move to her side, hugging her. “They met a few days ago,” I explain. “Ariel didn’t come back until the day after. They seem to get along REALLY well!”
“I… can see that,” Malina says, still staring at them in shock. “But she just… no, it’s fine.”
“Why did you bring…” I ask as silently as possible, nodding my head towards Santa slightly.
“I need to know the trends, Carla, my dear!” Santa says, adding his trademark, “Ho ho ho!”
I turn and look at him, since the gig is up, “But you coming is worse than the girls flying! Even if you’re wearing civvies, it’s obvious who you are! We’ll have a line-up of little kids holding us up at the door! We’ll NEVER get in!”
“I’m sure it won’t be that bad!” he says. His eyes go back to the trio of females, and I could almost swear he’s frowning. I wonder why…
“Oh crud,” Skye says, stopping her chat with Toodles and looking up, much like a rabbit sensing a wolf coming. “Time to go, everyone!”
“I’m hurt, Skye,” Century says, appearing over our heads. He’s wearing jeans and a t-shirt, along with his mask. He drops down, deliberately standing between Santa and the still-hugging females. “Kris,” he addresses his brother.
“Charles!” Santa says, smiling in earnest, now. “I didn’t realize you were coming!”
“We’ll just sneak out, now,” Skye stage whispers, grabbing Ariel and Toodles and starting to tip toe on air, “Carla, Malina!” she adds, waving us over.
“Skye,” Century says, “do you really think that’ll work, Sugar?”
“RUN!” Skye says. I grab Malina’s hand and make a break for it, chasing after Skye, who’s pulling Ariel and Toodles along.
“Bye, Santa! Bye, Century!” I call over my shoulder before speeding up. I don’t think we can beat them, if they chase us, but… I’m pretty sure they can’t beat each other, either.
Nobody is going to muck up me getting to see the Pony Movie! Not even Santa Claus, himself!
***
“They just ran off,” Century says, turning to watch the fleeing females.
“Well, my brother, you don’t get between a woman and her ponies,” Santa says, seriously. “How about we go to lunch? You and I need to have a talk.”
“You can’t have Ariel,” Century says, going straight to the point.
“And you can’t have Toodles,” Santa says, giving up on pleasantries. “I’m perfectly fine with them being sisters, but if she asks for a transfer, I would have to refuse.”
“Why haven’t you asked the lady out, Kris?” Charles asks. “She’s got a good head on her shoulders, and is sweet enough to get along with my Darlin’s. Rumor has it, she’s lined up to be a mother, soon, as well.”
“She’s adopting Malina,” Santa says, “but she’s made it abundantly clear that it has nothing to do with me.”
Century stares at him. “Mmhmm,” he says. “Why don’t we go out for that meal, after all?”
“Are you taking pity on me?” Santa asks. “Why haven’t you asked your Skystep out, yet, brother? Don’t bother lying; I have my ways of knowing.”
“I have a very professional relationship with Skystep, just so you know, but if there was something going on… I can only say that unlike your Toodles, one mistake and my darlin’s would leave me high and dry… literally,” Century says. “Also, have you met her parents?”
“They’re my next door neighbors,” Santa says, patting Century on the back. “You poor, poor man.”
“You’re telling me,” Century says. They turn and start for town, giving up on the movie to find a place to eat. For the first time in years, they finally see eye-to-eye (if only for a moment.)
***
I tug Skye down, fighting the urge to squirm as we stand in line. There are little girls EVERYWHERE, all wearing pony shirts. “They’re just… so… cute!” I whisper, almost dancing in excitement. “I can’t wait to see it!”
“Hello, I’d like to get…” Toodles says, looking back and counting all of us, “five tickets to the Pony Movie, please!”
“Aww, you didn’t have to buy all of them, Toodles!” Ariel says, floating as she leans down to hug her sister. “You’re the best!”
“Floating, Ariel,” I whisper.
“You two seem to get along well,” Malina says.
“Ariel is quite a charmer,” Toodles says with a smile as she hands out the tickets and we head for the theater. “She had a few of the el—er, the boys back home quite in love with her by the time she went home!”
“I did?” Ariel asks, looking confused. “I didn’t notice!”
“You!” Skye says, pointing at her, “Did you at least rob them afterwards?”
“I didn’t know they liked me, so I forgot to!” Ariel says.
“Rob them?” Toodles asks, looking at me.
“Their motto is ‘Go out, meet boys, and rob them,’” I explain, only to reach out and tug Skye back to the ground as discreetly as possible.
“But how will you ever get a date?” Toodles asks.
“Oh, I’m not looking for a date,” Ariel says, waving it off. “I’m perfectly happy with how things are, and now my family is even bigger! We should plan out a family vacation!”
“I want to go! Pop said that he and Mom are building a resort up on some island,” Skye offers.
“T
hat does sound like fun,” Toodles admits. “Malina, would you like to come?”
“Do you need me to?” she asks, only to stop. “Sorry, yes, I’d like to.”
I look at her, shake my head, and decide that we’re going to have to have a talk about jealousy in the future. Usually I’m the one getting all the talks, but this is one I know very, very well. I have five siblings.
“Is there something wrong, Malina?” Toodles asks, only to hold up a hand, “Oh, we can talk about it later, the first song has already started!” She races in, with Ariel and Skye right behind her.
I look at Malina, shrug, and run into the theater as quickly as I can without actually going fast. Jealousy is not nearly as big a problem as missing the movie!
***
*A tiny Mexican Restaurant in Texas*
Century looks at the line of little kids behind his brother’s chair. They haven’t even gotten to order their meal, yet, he thinks, shaking his head.
“She wasn’t joking, was she?” he says silently as an adorable four-year-old crawls into Santa’s lap. He sees the girl’s mother groan, covering her face with her hands.
“Ah… well, hello, Kristi,” Santa says with a silent sigh. “Have you been a good little girl this year?”
She grins at him.
Bad Luck Brothers
“Shhhh,” Jimmi says as Whitney sees her sitting in the hallway next to Carla’s door. Whitney pauses, looking confused, and then sits down next to the other girl when she motions her over. It’s only then that she realizes there are people in Carla’s room.
“You dragged me all the way down here,” an unfamiliar voice says dryly, “just to do this? Isn’t she moving back in a couple of days?”
“Yeah, which is why I should have brought you down sooner,” Rocco says. “But hey, a small painting isn’t going to hurt you, right?”
“One word, man, glitter,” the other guy says.
“That’s Dragon,” Jimmi whispers, cupping her hands around Whitney’s ear to do so. Whitney blinks in surprise.
