“So for this year’s class charity project you’re all going to get jobs, work until the week before Christmas, and we’ll donate whatever you’ve earned to the charity that the school has chosen for this year. Not only do you get to help out people in need, but you learn good work ethic!” Storm smiled at them, while they all groaned.

Skylar’s arm shot up into the air. “Do we get graded on anything?”

Storm nodded. “Yes, if you fail to get a job you get an F for the project. All of you must get a job for the project.”

“Yes! Finally!”

“Oh, sorry Mellissa, you Stevie and Angela are exempt from this project since the three of you are too young to get a job.”

“Dammit! Sure, the one project that I wanna do you go and cut me out of!”

“That’s a dollar Mellissa.”

She grumbled her way to the front of the classroom and threw a handful of quarters in Storm’s general direction. “Fine! There’s my stinkin’ contribution to the project then!” She stomped back to her seat as Craig’s hand went up.

“Uh, I’ve already got a job; remember I work at Pizza Hut.”

“You’ll have to see if you can get leave from there for the duration of the project and get another job for the assignment.”

“What? Why? That’s not fair the idea of the project is to get a job. I’ve already got one!” he complained.

“Because, you already having a job gives you an unfair advantage. That’s why. Now talk to your boss, if you need a note then I’ll give you one. Any other questions? No. Good. Dismissed.”

Skylar fairly skipped out of the room. “I’m going to the mall right now to look for a job! Who’s coming with me?” Death of course volunteered.

“I’ll go too if we can stop at the Pizza Hut on the way so I can talk to my boss,” Craig said morosely.

“Hey, I’ll come too. Might as well get this over with,” Stone put in with a deep sigh. Mellissa, Angela, and Stevie elected to join them, after all who wanted to miss a mall excursion.

After a quick discussion, they headed for the garage. Skylar stopped and turned to Ziva and A’Cadia with a frown. “Aren’t you guys coming too?”

A’Cadia snorted. “We’ve got an entire week to look, why rush out?”

“Because it isn’t easy to just get a job, A’Cadia. Do you even have a résumé? Any job experience at all?”

Ziva giggled. “She’ll just show ’em the claws and threaten to shish kabob them if they don’t hire her.”

“Shove it Sparky.” A’Cadia flashed only one claw at her, the middle one. “Why aren’t you following Suzy Sunshine then, Sparky?”

Ziva shrugged. “I have job experience, I’m good to go.”

Skylar shook her head at them in what appeared to be disappointment. “You’re both going to regret not going with us!”

“Whatever Skylar, just go, I want to take a nap.” A’Cadia headed for the living room. Ziva trailed behind her, deciding that a nap sounded like a pretty good plan.

***

Ziva woke to someone poking her insistently in the cheek. She cracked open her right eye and attempted to focus. “You poke me one more time Mellissa and I’ll zap you with enough electricity to put down an elephant.”

Mellissa looked over her shoulder, shouted to someone, before scurrying from the room. “I think she’s awake!”

“Of course I am you were poking me!”

Skylar came breezing into the room. “You’ll never guess what job I got!”

A’Cadia rolled over and peeked out from under the blanket she’d been hiding under in an attempt to ignore everyone and continue sleeping. “We don’t caaare!”

Skylar made a pouty face in her direction before focusing on Ziva again. “Go ahead, guess!”

“Do we have to?” Ziva asked her.

“Oh poo, you’re no fun! Fine, I’ll tell you. I’m going to be Mrs. Claus! Isn’t that delightful?”

“Oh yeah, simply delightful. Please tell me that Death is not going to be Santa?” Ziva pushed her body upright as she asked.

“He is! It will be so much fun working together. And guess what else?”

“Don’t wanna guess, remember?” Ziva reminded her.

Skylar rolled her eyes. “They gave Mellissa and Angela jobs too! They’re going to be Santa’s elves! The lady who hired me thought they were simply too cute to resist and would be perfect little elves!”

“That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. I think maybe Storm should reconsider this so called project,” A’Cadia said before pulling the blanket back up over her head.

“Wait, if Mellissa and Angela got jobs, what about Stevie?” Ziva asked with a slight frown.

“Well, he noticed some problems with the security system …” Skylar started, but Ziva cut her off before she could finish.

“What did Mellissa try to swipe and are we going to have to tell Storm about it?”

“Nothing! She was a perfect angel! It’s Stevie, you know he just notices these things,” she finished with a shrug.

“Yeah, I guess that does explain it all. So what about the security system?”

“Oh he offered to fix it for them. You know for a small fee,” Skylar told them with a smile.

“Right. Small fee. Sure.” A’Cadia’s voice came from beneath the blanket.

Mellissa came running back into the room. “Hey Skylar? Can you make me an elf costume so I don’t look like a dork when we start tomorrow?”

“Not a problem Mellissa, don’t you worry you’ll be the cutest elf around! Well, both you and Angela will be. Does she need a costume as well?”

“No, she said she had some elf costume from some stupid Christmas ballet her mom made be participate in.” Mellissa shrugged as if to say a ballerina elf wasn’t so cool.

“All right, I’ll go work on your costume right now! I need to make Death his Santa costume too!”

Ziva shook her head at them as they left the room. With a sigh, she curled back up on the couch. “Great the kids are sure to love Santa Death, Mrs. Happy Claus, and their two weird little elves.”

A’Cadia began laughing and threw off the blanket so she could breathe better. “I can see it now: Death in a black leather Santa outfit, Skylar in the traditional Mrs. Claus outfit, Angela in her ballerina elf costume, and Mellissa the elf pick pocketing all the parents while their kids are asking Santa for gifts!”

Ziva snorted out a laugh at the image. “No, Mellissa would be over charging them and not ringing it into the register, and then she’d pocket the extra money. She’s too smart for pick pocketing.”

They both dissolved into fits of laughter.

“What are you two laughing about?” Stone asked them as he and Craig came into the room. Both carried what appeared to be clothes on wire hangers in those stupid plastic bags from a dry cleaner.

“Don’t tell me you two got jobs too?” Ziva asked.

“Please oh please tell me that you’re not two of Santa’s reindeer?” A’Cadia begged.

“Jeez, no! We’re security guards,” Stone answered her.

“Security Officers!” Craig corrected him.

“Right. They don’t like it when you call them guards.”

“How about if we call them mall cops?” A’Cadia grinned at them both.

“No.” Stone scowled at her and shook his head.

“Come on man let’s go put our uniforms away. I can see we’ll get no respect here,” Craig told Stone as he turned and headed for the door.

“You’ll get plenty of respect as soon as soon as you admit you’re security guards,” Ziva told him.

They left without another word.

Thursday afternoon A’Cadia strolled into the kitchen to find Ziva with her head in the fridge. “Hey, you think we should actually like look for a job since tomorrow is Friday?”

Ziva looked around the door at her. “Yeah, I guess. You wanna drive?”

A’Cadia shrugged. “I suppose. Let’s go.”

When they arrived home later, they both looked beat. Skylar looked up from the employee handbook she was reading and frowned at them. “What happened to you two?”

“We were at the mall looking for jobs,” Ziva answered her.

“Please don’t tell me you waited until today to start looking!”

“Okay, we won’t tell you then.” A’Cadia turned away to get a soda from the fridge.

“Why are you reading the employee handbook? Didn’t you start Tuesday?” Ziva asked her.

“I want to be certain I know all the rules by heart!”

“You have a photographic memory, Skylar. You only have to read it once,” she reminded her.

“So? Anyway, did you two find jobs?”

Ziva avoided eye contact. Skylar narrowed her eyes at them and put her hands on her hips. A’Cadia chugged her soda to avoid answering. Ziva finally looked at Skylar. “Yeah we did.”

“And?”

“And what?” Ziva asked her defensively.

“Where did you get jobs?”

“Nowhere important. At the mall!”

Skylar tapped a foot and crossed her arms over her chest, staring and waiting them out. It creeped them both out how much she resembled Storm when she did that.

“Fine! I got a job at Hallmark and A’Cadia is working at the Disney store! Happy?” Ziva screamed at her.

“Oooooh I LOVE the Hallmark store! I collect the Christmas musical plushies they have every year!” Skylar gushed.

“Goody gumdrops for you then. The place makes me want to puke,” Ziva grouched and made for the door.

“At least it’s not the Hickory Farms kiosk,” A’Cadia reminded her.

“True,” Ziva agreed without pausing in her quest to escape the kitchen and Skylar. A’Cadia was hot on her tail.

Skylar jumped up from her seat and followed them. “Wait! When do you start?”

“Tomorrow,” they answered in unison.

“Awesome! We can all drive together and car pool!” Skylar was skipping beside them down the hallway.

“Yippee skippee!” A’Cadia answered her sarcastically.

They all stopped dead as they entered the foyer. Mellissa and Logan were apparently having an argument of some sort.

“Dad, what’s going on?”

Logan looked over at A’Cadia. “The munchkin is under the mistaken impression that I need a bodyguard for some reason.”

“And what, she wants to be your bodyguard?” she asked with a snicker.

Mellissa stomped a foot and shouted at them, “Why do you people doubt my mad skills?”

Craig and Stone appeared from the opposite hallway in response to Mellissa’s shouting. “What’s going on?” Craig asked them.

“Mellissa thinks Logan needs a bodyguard and she wants the job,” Ziva informed them.

“Seriously?”

“Stop making fun of me! I have skills people! I’m like a ninja! A ninja I tell you!” she yelled.

Logan snorted. “I do not need a bodyguard. I’m the Wolverine.”

“He has a point,” Craig pointed out.

Mellissa elbowed him in the stomach, spun around and snatched something from his belt, in her hand she held his Taser from his security uniform. Which, for some reason, he was carrying. “Oh yeah, take that American Pie!” She promptly tased him and Craig went down twitching madly.

Ziva screamed and ran to Craig’s side. “Mellissa, how could you do that?”

She tossed aside the Taser and grinned at them. “Okay so who doubts me now? Am I your bodyguard Logan?”

He backed away a couple of steps. “Frankly now I’m a little frightened.”

“I’ll take that as a yes!” She rubbed her hands together. “I have plenty of plans for your safety! Let’s talk over pizza! You’re buying!” She dragged him from the room. Logan sent them a look of sheer terror.

“I almost feel sorry for him. Almost,” A’Cadia told them.

“A’Cadia, he’s your father!” Skylar said sounding scandalized. A’Cadia shrugged.

Ziva was helping poor Craig up. He looked around in confusion. “What happened?”

“Mellissa tasered you, with your own Taser I might add. Nice job there American Pie. Can I call you security guard now?” A’Cadia smirked at him.

He groaned and squeezed his eyes shut. “How humiliating.”

“Yes, very.” A’Cadia chuckled at him as Ziva helped him stand and led him toward the stairs.