Finally, a new chapter! Yus! Hehe, I know it's not Christmas yet but oh well! I've re-written the previous two chapters slightly if you'd like to have a re-read of them ^_^

Enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter Three: Surprise!

"Oh this is lovely, Hollisha," Noël said loudly as she unwrapped a luxurious looking scarf from green paper. "I needed a new scarf since my old one was eaten by that Swinub."

"Any time mum," Twinkle replied happily. Reggie picked up a present and handed it over to Twinkle.

"This is from me," Reggie told his sister. She eyed him carefully but then unwrapped the present, figuring it couldn't be too bad.

"So it's like this every year?" Misty asked Paul as the gang observed the present unwrapping. Paul nodded slowly, toying with a small present in his hands.

"Yeah, we're not allowed to unwrap any presents until we're all together," Paul explained. "It's a pain because it means we don't do anything else on Christmas Day but it's good in its own way."

"I see," Drew said. "That's why you never used to unwrap presents at our parties."

"Yeah," Paul said with a nod. "Dad hated it. He thought it was weird."

"Do you miss your dad?" May asked softly.

"Sometimes," Paul replied honestly. "But since he died life has been so much simpler."

"Harsh," Ash muttered.

"Dad was a control freak after he and mum divorced," Paul snapped at Ash. "He wanted Christmas with his kids even though we wanted to help the old man. We'd go on Gramp's sleigh and help in the workshops but dad didn't want us to. He wanted us for himself despite the fact he got the entire summer with us. He wanted to take Christmas away from the Christmas's."

"My dad used to be the same," Dawn said, more to Paul than anyone else. "He used to bully my mum into letting him spend time with me and then we'd do nothing. I guess he just wanted to fight with mum."

"Oh, Paul," Paul's grandmother, Madge, said suddenly from her comfy looking chair. "Aren't you going to unwrap that present in your hands?"

"I've noticed you've been twiddling it for a while," Nick commented as he turned to look at the young teen. "Let me guess, it's from some girl? Maybe a secret admirer?"

Dawn went beetroot red beside Misty and May as she saw the small present she had given him the night before but Paul seemed to ignore his grandparents. With a nod he began to unwrap the present slowly. His family turned to watch him with curious expressions on their faces like they'd never seen anyone unwrap a present before. Dawn began to feel nervous as Paul continued to unwrap the paper painfully slow. Finally he came to the gift and paused.

"What is it?" Twinkle asked curiously, pushing her way to Paul's side. "Some candy love hearts? A miniature shrine to you? A lock of her hair bronzed and mounted?"

"Remind me to warn your boyfriend how weird you are when you get one," Reggie mumbled. Twinkle shot her brother a dead eye but it was short. She wanted to know what Paul's present was. Slowly Paul smirked and lifted the present out of the wrapping paper.

"That's it?" May asked. "How anti-climatic."

"It's so cute!" Twinkle cheered, sounding rather like a three year old. Paul showed his sister a small handmade Turtwig doll. "It's exactly like the one Reggie destroyed when you were younger."

"Really?" Reggie asked, appearing beside Twinkle looking interested. Paul pulled the Turtwig doll out of Reggie's reach protectively.

"I still have nightmares about the last one," Paul told his brother. "There's no way I'm letting you near this one."

"Stop being a baby, Paul," Reggie laughed attempting to swipe the Turtwig from Paul's hand but Paul moved it out of his grasp.

"That's what you said last time and the next minute it was on fire," Paul snapped.

"Yeah, Reggie," Twinkle teased. "You were grounded for a month after that."

"You set one of Paul's toys on fire?" Misty asked, sniggering. "That's mean."

"Paul was about four," Twinkle explained. "And he absolutely loved his Turtwig toy. Grandma made it for him."

"Thanks," Paul said to Dawn before turning his eyes on Reggie. "Finally, I have a replacement even though somebody promised to make me a new one."

"Hey, you've seen my sowing," Reggie said defensively, holding up his hands.

"You sow like a grandma," Twinkle teased. "And you knit too!"

"Shut up!" Reggie snapped.

"Reggie's a girl, Reggie's a girl," Twinkle sang as she pranced around the room.

"They do say that Twinkle is the second girl in the family," Drew agreed with a nod.

"Take that back, Drewy-Bear," Reggie said sharply, glaring at his younger cousin.

"Right now," Nick said loudly. The family fell into silence instantly. Twinkle even stopped dancing round the room to see what Nick was going to say. The other teens listened too. "I've decided to take a year off with my wonderful wife and my wonderful daughter leaving Paul in charge of the business."

"We've heard, Granddad," Reggie said.

"I think we're going on an around the world cruise," Nick said happily. "Since we couldn't decide where to go."

"That sounds nice," May said. "There's so many nice places I would like to go to."

"See," Madge said, more to her husband than the rest of them. "She gets it."

It sounded like the pair had been arguing over where they should stay for a while but Nick just didn't seem to care anymore. May and Dawn giggled as Madge glared at her husband.

"Any way," Nick went on. "I'm leaving Paul in charge for the year since he's the only one I can count on not to get bullied by Twinkle or get too annoyed with Reggie. He's the only one I can trust not to set the building on fire, either."

"That only happened once," Reggie snapped.

"And that was Mum's fault," Twinkle said, pointing at her mother. Noel giggled loudly.

"Oh he means me, dear," Noel said. "You try to cook one Christmas dinner and you can't live it down."

"So what will I have to do then?" Paul asked.

"Run the business, do the marketing, look after my elves, feed the Stantler and keep those moron Goodman's off my property," Nick listed.

"The Goodman's are our neighbours," Madger explained quickly to the teens who seemed confused. "There's a little bit of tension between the two of us."

"And then you'll have to do delivery," Nick said. "But you'll have no problem doing that."

"If Reggie's not there to push me out of it again, no," Paul agreed. Reggie was just about to object to this but Madge shut up by raising a hand.

"But I think you'll need some help," Madge said. "It's too much to ask just your sister and mother since they've been working non-stop over the last few years, although Twinkle wants to stay with you until you get settled."

"Great," Paul said. He turned to look at his sister who beamed at him.

"Don't worry, I'll behave myself," Twinkle said but her tone suggested otherwise.

"Yeah, right," Paul muttered.

"Now that everything is wrapped up," Noël said. "I think it's time we pack up and leave, don't you?"

"What are we going to do?" Drew asked. He stood up and put his hands behind his head, waiting for the oncoming lecture but Nick merely grinned widely.

"Well, you're coming with us," Nick said brightly. "Once we've packed up here, you'll follow us."

"Where?" Ash asked.

"Really?" Paul snorted. "You're asking Santa where he's going?"

Ash glanced at Paul for a few seconds, a horribly stupid expression on his face. Everyone turned to look at him, surprised that he hadn't guessed their destination quite yet. Dawn smiled at Ash until something dawned on her that wasn't very good. She gave a loud yelp, which made Paul almost jump out of his skin.

"What's wrong?" he snapped at her.

"It's going to be cold," Dawn gasped. "And I don't have any thermals or anything, not even extra thick woolly tights."

"Why would you want tights?" Drew asked.

"I wear them under my trousers," Dawn replied innocently. "It keeps my legs nice and toastie."

"And it stops your boots from rubbing," Twinkle added with a nod.

"Yeah," Dawn agreed. "But if we're really going to the North Pole then I'll need some more jumpers, coats, scarves and tights. Ooo, there was this cute little bobble hat I saw in a shop in Goldenrod. That would be so great for the North Pole."

"Did it have 'I'm with stupid' on it by any chance?" Paul said. He let out a sigh, rubbing his head as he felt the dull throb of a headache. Dawn shook her head wildly.

"No," she told him. "It said 'I'm with grumpy' and had a great big arrow pointing at YOU!"

Paul jumped again at the loudness of her voice, turning to stare at her. She made a snorting noise and turned her back to him so that she could talk to May and Misty instead since they could appreciate how much she liked to shop. As Paul shook his head at the blunette, he felt a fat finger poke him in the ribs. When he turned round, Paul came ear to mouth with his grandfather who whispered: "Marry her."

"Give it a rest gramps," Paul replied, pushing his grandfather away from him.

"Dawn does have a point," Noel said. "It'll be much colder back home than here but all the shops are closed."

Paul let out another large sigh as his grandmother agreed with his mother. May and Misty relayed how they had very little winter clothing that was decent against the snow.

"I've been meaning to get some more gloves," Drew commented. "The one's I have, have holes in them."

"My trainers will alright in the snow, right?" Ash asked.

"This is quite bad," Nick said. "I didn't think of this."

"And didn't you think, either, that at home we have a host of 'magical elves' that would be more than happy to make us clothes?" Paul asked boredly. "Look, Troublesome designs the clothes, the elves make the clothes. Is it really that hard to think about?"

The room fell silent again until Dawn leant into Paul.

"You'll really let me design stuff?" she asked.

"Sure, why not," Paul replied. "So are we done with this, now?"

"He get's that from his father," Noel said. She went bright eyed and clasped her hands together. "Rob was always so good at solving problems like that. How many years did he save the day for us with a simple solution? Oh, he was my hero."

Paul didn't seem too impressed by his mother's outburst but he didn't say anything. He merely looked down at the Turtwig toy in his hands and jiggled it for a second.

"Dad was good at stuff like that," Twinkle agreed. "But Reggie is a lot more like dad than Paul is. I think Paul got all the good bits from Dad and Reggie got all the scraps."

"But I came before Paul," Reggie snapped.

"Well, he obviously saved all the good bits for Paul then, didn't he?" Twinkle teased her brother.

"And you got nothing from dad," Reggie told her.

"I did," Twinkle said. "I got his weird super human strength."

To demonstrate this she walked over to Drew and picked him up by the collar like it was the easiest thing to do. With very little effort Drew was hoisted up, his arms hanging limply by his side as he stared boredly at Reggie.

"Why me," Drew muttered as he was placed back onto the floor.

"Sorry, Drew," Twinkle said. "But you're the only one I don't strangle."

"I know not to struggle," Drew told her. Twinkle giggled loudly before she patted him on the back.

"There's a good lad," she laughed.

"You should do children's parties," Reggie commented.

"Yeah, we could be a double act: Twinkle the Strong Woman and Reggie, the clown," Twinkle said. "I can see it in lights."

"Now you two," Noel said, wagging a warning finger at her oldest two. "Behave."

"And you wonder why Paul's so moody," Nick laughed. "It's the only way he can get any attention."

Paul got to his feet quickly, glaring at his grandfather.

"We've sorted Troublesome's stupid clothes scare-"

"Hey!" Dawn yelled.

"- Now can we go?" Paul asked.

"Alright, alright," Nick grumbled, heaving himself to his feet.

"How exactly are we going to get to the North Pole?" Ash asked. "There are six of us and six of you. We can't just hop in a car and drive."

"If I can fly around the world in a single night then all twelve of us can hop in a car and drive," Nick said, laughing heartily at Ash's confused face. "You just need to know the right car."

"I-if you say so," Ash stuttered, rubbing his head.

Poor Ash. Always getting picked on by the others. I have no idea when I'll be updating this again but I hope it's going to be soon!

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RSx