If you are anything like me, you know that Christmas trees are very dangerous things to have around. That's because they're flammable.
This year I was on my sixth tree in six days. It really wouldn't have been a problem if I had been satisfied with just ornaments. But nooo, I had to light the tree. A terrible idea, given that trees are wood and wood is rather combustible.
Of course, you're probably thinking, "C'mon, Sierra, even you can't mess up lighting a candle." You're perfectly correct. But see, I wasn't using candles. I'd decided to forget the stick of wax and just go with the flame on top. Sounds smart, right?
Well, after I placed the second tiny, colorful fireball on the tree, I realized that like the last five trees, this one had caught aflame. "Ack!" My hair also lit up, which didn't help the situation any.
Lily, sitting in the corner farthest from the conflagration, said, "Really?" and, like she had every night for almost a week, shot a blast of water at the fiery tree. And, like she had every night for almost a week, she missed and hit me instead. I was beginning to think it wasn't an accident.
"Lily!" I spluttered. At least my hair was out.
The naughty naiad smirked. "Oops." She tried again, and this time hit the tree. It sizzled and smoldered, but the flames disappeared.
I opened the door to let the smoke out. "Maybe tomorrow," I said hopefully.
Lily rolled her eyes and was about to say something sarcastic when an ornament fell off the tree and rolled right out the door.
"I'll get it!" I followed the runaway ornament out of the treehouse.
The streets of S'moresville were alive with laughter and snowball fights, even at nine o'clock at night. Below me on the ground I could see bonfires and kids sledding. I heard caroling a few trees over. It was Christmas Eve in Tyro.
The ornament rolled onto the rope-bridge and skittered over the icy boards. I tired to follow it and slipped, skidding on my rear across the bridge in pursuit. The shimmering ball ricocheted off another treehouse and bounced off to the right. I regained my footing and chased it down a different street.
Then I got a brilliant idea: what if I cast a spell on the ornament so it rolled towards me? (Really, given my history with spells, I should've known this wouldn't go well.)
I cast the spell. The ornament didn't catch fire or explode, but it didn't boomerang back in my direction, either. In fact, it kept rolling towards the the intersection of of several bridges.
I had almost caught up with it when suddenly, at the intersection, a bunch more ornaments joined mine! "What the heck?" My ornament now led a dozen others down the street.
At the next junction, nearly twenty more ornaments joined the group. I quickly realized what had gone wrong - instead of drawing my ornament to me, I had drawn all the ornaments in the village to it!
I gulped. Lily would be laughing till New Year's.
After a few more blocks, I decided to try the spell again. By now I was running after a brigade of probably 200 ornaments. This time, the spell worked, but....
But now I was being chased by a couple hundred ornaments. Worse, the old spell was still in effect, and their numbers increased at every intersection we passed.
The treehouse was in sight now as I ran, screaming, my hair again aflame, followed by thousands of ornaments. Just when things seemed as bad as they could, get, Lily stepped out onto the deck. Her eyes widened when she saw the army of holiday decorations behind me. "What the -"
"Aaaah!" I shrieked as I ran past her and through the door. Then she shrieked as she was bowled over half-a-million sparkly glass balls.
When Lily came over for the holidays, the house often got flooded, but usually not with Christmas ornaments. I spotted amidst the myriad glittering globes a familiar silver sphere. I picked it up and smiled apologetically at Lily. "At least I got our ornament," I said.
Lily just shook her head. "Merry Christmas, Charcoal-Brain."
"Merry Christmas, Lily-Pad.
⭐The End⭐