Raegen was rudely woken by her brother jumping on her bed shouting for her to wake up. She groaned and buried her face deeper into her pillows hoping her brother would give up and go away.

“Rae! Wake up! We’ve got presents!” He shouted.

Raegen sighed and slowly sat up, her hair was a mess and dried drool graced the side of her face. She wiped it away and rubbed her eyes, Charlie was quick to grab her sleeve and began pulling her downstairs.

“Charlie, give me a minute to wake up!” Raegen exclaimed as her foot slipped on the last step on the stairs.

“Come on!” Charlie urged. 

Raegen was surprised to see presents under the tree, they hadn’t put any under their tree and the last Santa fell off the roof before he had the chance to. Raegen shook her head and told herself it was just a dream. Charlie passed her a present before going upstairs to wake up their dad, she opened it to find a plain box. When she opened the box to find the same music box from her dream with a slip of paper folded at the bottom of the box.

You almost forgot this and I forgot to give you the matching necklace. 

B

Raegen didn’t see a necklace in the box but opened the music box to find the necklace placed carefully inside. Raegen was careful as she took it out and set the music down beside her as it played the same song from last night. It had seven jewels that formed a flower, the six green jewels were the petals with a small red one in the center. 

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t a dream and they had actually gone to the North Pole. Raegen rubbed her forehead, stressed as she looked down at the necklace trying to wrap her head around it. She was going to spend the next year getting ready to leave for the North Pole and she was going to have to lie to her family and friends by saying she’s going to college in another country or something.

Raegen was startled out of her thoughts when her father came running down the stairs and dashing out the front door with Charlie not far behind him walking down the stairs. Raegen and Charlie shared a confused look before shrugging their shoulders and doing their own thing. Charlie was opening more presents and Raegen was clipping the necklace around her neck when their dad came back in and plopped down on the couch.

“Are you okay, Dad?” Raegen asked the man.

“Yeah. Just fine, just fine.” 

“Are you having a heart attack? I know CPR.” Charlie told him as he walked over and stood by his father.

“No, I was just. . .” Their dad trailed off and glanced down at his pajamas. “‘S.C’”

“Yeah, Santa Claus.” That’s when Raegen realized that he was wearing the pajamas that Judy had given to him. “Hey. Same initials as your name, Dad. Scott Calvin.”

“What?”

“I’m going to go run a brush through my hair before Mom gets here.” Raegen says as she grabs the music box and begins to make her way upstairs.

As she brushes her hair she can hear her mother downstairs greeting her brother and asking where she was. Raegen tossed the brush onto the bed and grabbed her bag; she had already put the music box in her bag. She jogged down stairs and greeted her mom with a hug.

“Hey, Rae, you ready to go?” 

“Yeah, let me just grab some of my presents from the living room.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, your dad already brought some to the car.” Her mom said, Raegen glanced out the open door to see her dad handing Neal Charlie’s new scooter and talking to Charlie.

Raegen and her mom closed the front door behind them, making sure to leave it unlocked, and made their way to the car.

“Scott. Nice jammies.” Neal gave Scott an amused smile.

“Hi, Dad.” Charlie said as he began to climb into the backseat.

“About what you said in the house.” Her dad began as he leaned on the door. “Who showed you the workshop?”

“The elf.” 

“How’d I get the pajamas?”

“I told you. Judy.”

“Oh, wait, wait. Judy was the name of the waitress at the restaurant last night.” Her dad realized.

“Some waitress gave you pajamas?” Raegen’s mother scoffed.

“What’s this all about?” Neal asked, glancing between the woman and her ex husband.

“Dad took me and Raegen to the North Pole, and Larry showed me the workshop.” Charlie said matter of factly.

“The North Pole.” Neal repeated, staring at Scott.

“Yeah. Dad’s the new Santa and Raegen’s his helper.” Neal and Raegen’s mother turned to her. “The regular Santa fell off the roof and Dad put on the suit. Raegen put on the hat that she found in the sleigh, she helped Dad deliver the presents on Christmas Eve.”

“Charlie, we’ll discuss this at home. Raegen, get in the car, please.” Neal gave a strained chuckle before he moved to the driver's seat.

“Bye, Dad.” Raegen hugged her dad goodbye and climbed into the car on the other side.

“It’s just a dream.” He insisted to Charlie as they began to drive away. “Stuff like that doesn’t happen. It was a dream.”

Their dad grew smaller as they moved farther away and he became harder to hear. Raegen leaned back against her seat and rested her head as the car ride was silent on the way home.

~~~

Raegen sat on the bench lacing up her skates, she could hear her younger class arriving. She stood and slid onto the ice gracefully with a wide smile, the class greeting her excitedly.

“Miss Calvin! Miss Calvin, guess where we went for Christmas!” A boy called out.

“No, Miss Calvin! Guess what I got for Christmas!” 

The class began to talk over each other as they tried to tell Raegen all about their Christmas. Raegen smiled as she tried to decipher what they were all saying but quickly quieted them down so that she could speak.

“Okay, okay. Let’s quiet down.” She chuckled, “You guys can tell me all about your Christmas after class, alright?”

“Yes, Miss Calvin.” The class chorused. 

“Okay, now let’s get started.”

Raegen taught ice skating for beginners and her class was almost ready to move up a level. They’d be leaving her and she’d get a whole new class, it made her a little sad to think about it so she didn’t dwell on it. 

The class lasted two hours and after listening to them talk about their Christmas break before their parents picked them up. Raegen waited in the lobby with her last student, both waiting for her parents to pick her up. The student, Sofia, sat quietly on the floor playing with the sleeves of her winter jacket with a somewhat sad look on her face.

“Hey, you okay, honey?” Raegen crouched in front of the small girl.

“Some girls at school said Santa wasn’t real and that it was just my parents leaving the presents under the tree.” Sofia told her with a sad sigh.

“Of course Santa’s real!” Raegen exclaimed, moving to sit next to her. “They just don’t know what they’re talking about. If they don’t believe in Santa then that’s their business, but if you believe in Santa then don’t let anyone try to tell you differently.” 

“Do you believe in Santa?”

“Yes, I do.” Raegen nodded. “And I want you to ignore those girls because they probably just didn’t get something on their Christmas list.”

“You’re probably right.”

“Hey, sorry I’m late. Time got away from me.” Sofia’s mother, Mrs. Warren, apologized as she ran in. 

“It’s okay. Sofia and I were just talking about how our Christmas’ were.” Raegen assured the woman as they stood up.

Raegen walked them to the door and waved goodbye as they drove away. The teen made sure to say goodbye to the staff before making her way to her mom’s car. Raegen was saving money for her own car but if she really was moving to the North Pole saving sort of just seemed pointless.

When Raegen walked into the house her mother and step dad were quick to pull her aside. 

“Honey, your brother has been going on about your father being Santa, and you being Santa’s Helper, is there any way you could convince him that it was just a dream?” Her mother almost begged.

“He’s eight.” Raegen deadpanned, “Just let him believe in Santa Claus.”

Raegen didn’t waste time heading straight for her room and she could hear Christmas coming from Charlie’s room as she passed causing her to pause. She opened the door a bit to find Charlie using the dining room chairs as reindeers all tied together with strings, he wore rain boots, a backwards baseball hat and a scarf. She stifled her laughter and quietly closed the door, she knew that it was going to drive her mom nuts when she saw that.

A/N: Sorry it's a short chapter <3 the picture below is the necklace