November appeared to be going faster than I ever thought was possible. Before I knew it, we were heading straight for December at full speed ahead, as though someone had attached a turbo booster to the calendar. I didn't like how fast things were moving, but there was nothing I could do to try and stop it, no matter how much I wanted to. December getting closer meant less time to make my mind up and I was no closer to finding an answer then I was when I first started. It felt as though I was constantly moving through a revolving door with no way off.

I thought it was going to be easy, but it was turning into a trial of patience. This was my life, my chance for a fresh start, yet I didn't know if I wanted it. I didn't know what I wanted to do, and it was beginning to mess with my head a little. Despite all that, despite the roller coaster of thoughts going through my head, I pushed on. Returning to school meant I had something else to focus on besides having to make a life-changing decision. That something happened to Mrs Reynolds and the fact that her mean scale had exceeded its capacity, it was more than enough to distract me.

When I returned to school four days after my fainting incident, it was clear that Mrs Reynolds didn't think I was going to be returning anytime soon. My guess is she thought I had been kicked out rather than fainted on the floor in the Drama room, though the look of devastation on her face when I walked in was more than enough to cheer me up. Niska had told me that since I failed to turn up to two lessons in a row, that Mrs Reynolds had transformed from the mean troll we all knew her to be, into some weird version of Jason. That all changed the moment I had entered the room.

"Ah, Miss Claus, how nice of you to grace us with your presence. You missed a test whilst you were away, so you shall have to retake it in today's lesson. Don't make yourself comfortable," Mrs Reynolds said, watching me like a hawk as I took to my normal seat near the back of the room.

"She's lying, we didn't do any sort of test whilst you were gone. We barely did anything, so all the work became homework in the aftermath," Niska muttered, pulling out the stack of work we were given for homework on Friday. I had put all the effort into doing the homework only to discover I needn't have bothered to do the homework in the long run.

"I thought as much," I replied, keeping my voice low as Mrs Reynolds raked her steely eyes across the crowd whilst taking the register. She was one of the few teachers I had met who knew everyone just be a glance, even those she had never taught before, like Joel. It was weird.

"Right, there is work on the board for you to be getting on with whilst I sort out Miss Claus. Miss Claus, with me, if you please," Mrs Reynolds said, glaring at me from above her laptop.

"Save me," I whispered to Niska as I snatched my bag up and followed Mrs Reynolds from the room, reluctantly I might add.

Mrs Reynolds lead me across the hallway and to a separate room off to the side, a room that had no windows, and little to no wall displays. It was like a prison cell, only there was no toilet or bed. Just a singular desk and chair amongst the grey brick wall. I knew she thought I was a witch, but locking me in a cell just felt like a step too far. Then again, we had passed several other teachers on our way to the cell, so they knew I happened to be in there. If she was going to keep my prisoner, she wasn't exactly being subtle about it. Without a word to me, Mrs Reynolds gestured to the seat at the desk and slammed a small, but scary looking test onto it. With a furrowed eyebrow, I took my seat, glancing down at the Maths was glaring back at me from the test.

"You have the entire hour to complete the test. The marks will be going on your report that we will send out at Christmas. Keep that in mind whilst you answer the questions."

Mrs Reynolds left the conversation at that and, instead, left me alone in the cell with nothing but a Maths test to keep myself occupied. Sighing, I fished around my bag for a pencil and glanced at the first question on the paper, but the moment I did, I wanted to be anywhere but with the test. I knew that this was the perfect time to manipulate my way out of the situation, to use Magic to solve all my problems and find my way around failing this test on an epic scale. But I couldn't. I made a promise to Granny that I would no longer use my Magic to solve problems that I could work on myself, and the Maths test was one of those things. I had been working to improve my Maths skills over the passing weeks and this was the first time in a long time I had to prove a point to myself and to everyone around me that I could do it.

Seizing my pencil, I began to answer the questions before, using Joel's weird and bizarre methods to try and solve the problems. He was a remarkably helpful Maths tutor and had great patience when it came to be dealing with me. Within the hour I had been given, I worked my way through the questions I could solve and tried my hardest with the ones I couldn't. My hope was that if I got the answer wrong, then at least I would get some extra marks for my working out. Unless Mrs Reynolds decided to mark it like she hated me, which was more than likely given the circumstances.

Despite that, once I finished the test, I was pleased with myself. Glad that I had done something I never thought would be possible since I started my life in the real world. Finishing the test was one thing, but it was proving a point to Mrs Reynolds that made me more determined to do well in the test. If she was convinced I was a witch, then doing something without Magic, on my own merit, was going to be worth it in the long run. At least I would have been able to do things without Magic if I ultimately decided to stay. If being the important part of that sentence.

"Well, that's times up, Miss Claus. You shall get the results of the test in our next lesson," Mrs Reynolds said, opening the door so abruptly that it slammed against the wall with a loud bang that echoed around the confined space we found ourselves in.

"I can't wait," I muttered, dropping my pencil into my bag and lifting my bag onto my shoulder as I nestled my way out of the room and into the hallway. Mrs Reynolds watched me go with a smug smile on her face, there was no doubt in my mind that she thought I had stuffed up somewhere along the lines. It was my hope that I could prove her wrong.

I met Niska in the hallway outside the classroom and the two of us headed down to the Drama studio to deal with Jason, something that came as a welcome relief to me in the long run. Most of the time, I went from Jason's lessons to Mrs Reynolds which was not a fun experience, but having it happen in reverse order was so much better since Jason had the ability to cheer anyone up just by being himself. Whenever anyone was in a bad mood, he had a way of bringing them up again and not many teachers had the ability to do that. He was one of a kind in more ways than one.

Entering the classroom, Niska and I were stunned into silence by the sight before us. Instead of being in his usual V-neck t-shirt, cardigan and jeans, Jason was dressed as an elf. His jeans had been swapped out for a pair of green, cotton trousers with bells around his ankles. The T-shirt and cardigan combination we were so used to seeing had been swapped out for a dark green shirt with red triangles along the bottom, the top and the sleeves. On his head, he wore one of the classic elf hats, complete with fake pointy ears and everything. It was a little shock to the system, to say the least.

"Erm, Jason? What's going on?" Ant said, looking as confused as the rest of us.

"I'm embracing my inner elf, isn't it obvious?" Jason replied, skipping across the Drama room floor, his bells jingling as he moved.

"Why?"

"Each teacher has been given a character for the Christmas fair that one of you will be performing at, mine is an elf. Mrs Reynolds got the Grinch, rather apt if you ask me."

"Why are you dressed up now? The Christmas fair isn't for another few weeks," Niska asked him, dropping her bag into the coat rack as we always did.

"Thought I would try and get into character before the big day, not too fond of the outfit though, makes me look like a weird Christmas tree."

He wasn't joking. Even without the star and the tinsel and the ornaments, he resembled a Christmas tree as well as one of the stereotypical elves you might find at shopping centres who work with Santa. In reality, elves didn't wear green and red suits like the show in the movies and, to be honest, their ears aren't exactly pointy, just a little miss-shapen. Every film interpretation of an elf was wrong. They wore ordinary clothes like jeans and T-Shirts with the only addition being an apron over the top, so they didn't spill paint or glitter on what they were wearing, though it wouldn't have been that much of a problem. The classic vision of an elf was wrong on so many levels, though they were still relatively short people with icy glares and glasses they enjoyed peering over the top of.

I wanted nothing more than to tell Jason that his own clothes were enough to match the elf gear, just with a pair of half-moon glasses and a paint-covered apron. However, if I did that, if I revealed what elves really looked like, my sanity might have been called into question and I might have accidentally revealed who I was, exposed myself. That was a risk I was unwilling to take, so I took the subtle route. Deciding to point out the lack of practicality in the outfit in an attempt to get him to see sense and not wear the stupid outfit that made him look like a Christmas tree.

"Maybe it's just me, but that outfit appears to lack any sort of practicality. I mean, if elves are spending their time making things then surely they'd wear an apron or something, plus the bells are a huge annoyance," I shrugged.

"You're looking too far into it I think Kenz," Jason said, laughing slightly, though he didn't laugh as though it was a joke, it seemed too fake. As though he might have believed what I was saying, though I suppose only time would tell. If he turned up to the Christmas fair is his normal clothes then it would be a win for me, if not then he looked ridiculous, which was a bonus in my books.

"Perhaps I am," I replied, suppressing the smirk that threatened to show itself the longer I looked at him in the outfit. How he had kept his job this long without someone telling him to dress more professionally was beyond me in more ways than one. No other teacher had turned up in a costume, though I was excited to see Mrs Reynolds shows up in a Grinch outfit.

"Enough about my outfit choice, as glamorous as it may be, I think it's time you all branched out into your groups and started working on your projects. The performance night is fast approaching and if you want to have the opportunity to soak a couple of your teachers at the Christmas fair, I'd make sure they were as good as they could be."

As much as we didn't want to stop mocking Jason for his interesting outfit choices, we knew he had a point. So, we branched out into our individual groups and started to work on the projects we had been rehearsing for such a long time. Since we had been working on them for so long, the pieces were pretty much finished, so we had decided to hone in on set design and tweaking the small bits that didn't add up as well as they should have. It was great to spend a lesson sitting down and talking about the finer details rather than going over the same things to the point that it became dull and repetitive. Doing something different was worth it after having to take that Maths test.

"What are we thinking for the set? We obviously can't go too extreme since we don't have much time, but how are we going to match the environment to the piece?" Leo said. He was all about the extravagance when it came to the performance, much to our annoyance.

"Well, we need it to be childish, to some degree, to suit the theme and develop the creepiness, but how we can do that, I don't know. Kenzie, you're the arty one, any ideas?" Joel asked.

"Off the top of my head? No. If I could get a big sheet of paper I might be able to sketch out some ideas but don't count on it," I said.

Although I couldn't guarantee an idea for a set piece, Leo immediately set to work in finding me a huge sheet of paper, which basically turned out to be several smaller sheets of paper cello-taped together. Whilst everyone bounced ideas around to come up with a coherent set piece, I tried to doodle the ideas onto the sheets of paper, though it was a lot harder then it might have seemed. Of course, we wanted it to be Christmas related but it also had to match the spooky theme we were going for. It was all about getting the balance right between the two of them and that was where we were having the difficulties.

"Okay, I think we've established that combining Christmas with our theme isn't exactly going to work in the way we want it to. So, how about this, we use the acting to give it the theme and the backdrop to hone in on the Christmas aspect. That way we're not overcomplicating it, plus with the time scale a simple fireplace backdrop might be easier than anything else," I suggested.

"Well, since you're the one making the backdrop, I suppose the decision is yours to make. If you think making a fireplace will be easier then that's what we'll go with."

"Alrighty! I can't promise anything, but I'll try my hardest."

Accepting the task of creating the set-piece was a mistake I would eventually live to regret. I might have been good at doing small doodles that didn't really matter to anyone, but a set piece was a pretty big idea, a pretty big piece. And I had been the one charged with putting it together. Which meant everything that happened to be going through my head in regards to what Granny and Grandpa had said the previous week had been completely removed my mind and, instead, I focused on the set piece and how I was going to do it.

My first port of call when I returned home that afternoon was to find one of the sheets of sugar paper Grandpa kept tucked away in his office, just in case he needed it for one of his weird projects. With a word to my Grandparents not to disturb me, I hid away in Granny's sewing room to try and create something on the sugar paper that I could then transfer onto a piece of wood, or cardboard, depending on how much time we had left. The important part for me that afternoon was to get some kind of design drawn on the paper, so we could transfer it if we had the time to do so.

I started with a simple sketched outline of a fireplace, focusing on how big it might be, the possible dimensions of the fireplace itself in comparison to the wall it sat against. Once the general sketch had been made, I began working out to finer details of what would become our set piece. The longer I worked, the more mesmerised I was by the concept itself. We had a fireplace at home that we decorated with tinsel in December, the fire roaring away and keeping us all nice and warm, that was Christmas for me. Decorations were nice, but nothing could beat a roaring fire. Nothing.

With the sketch solidified into a more solid idea, I attacked it with my favourite part of any drawing, the colouring. Not only did we need to know the dimensions of the bigger project, but what colours we were going to paint it so it looked slightly realistic. If we were going to work on this backdrop and make sure it was right otherwise it would take away from the piece.

When I had finished, the fireplace stared back at me as though it was in the living room back home, which to meant that I had done something right for once. The fireplace was coloured a dark brown, almost mahogany colour framed by a pale cream wallpaper covered with small red flowers that wrapped their way up light green stems. The wooden mantle piece was covered in a collection of blue tinsel intertwined with fairy lights, which if we had enough time, we might have been able to work into the backdrop. Below, the fire was roaring, a combination of yellow, red and orange merging together against the black. I must admit, it was some of my finest work.

Looking down at the sheet of paper, I tried to imagine what it would look like drawn on wood or cardboard rather than a giant piece of sugar paper. If all went according to plan, we could have had a pretty decent backing piece, all we needed was someone willing to create something that would look as good in real life as it did on paper. So, I turned to the master, or in other words, my Grandpa, a master craftsman when it came to woodwork, and a lot of other things as well, like eating his weight in pancakes, to say the least.

Snatching the sugar paper from the desk, I practically threw myself down the stairs to the living room, where Grandpa was slouching in his armchair reading his newspaper with the TV playing its usual drivel in the background. He barely even looked up when I almost fell down the stairs into the living room. "Why hello, Grandfather!"

"What do you want, Kenz?" Grandpa said, turning around and folding his newspaper down on his lap.

"We need a backdrop for our Drama project and I was wondering if you'd make it for me? I have the dimensions and plans and everything, I just need the basis for it, so I can paint on it," I said, showing him the sheet of sugar paper.

"I can't promise you anything, Ken, but I have some time tomorrow, so I can give it ago. Like I said, no promises."

"Thanks, Grandpa!" I said before practically throwing myself back up the stairs and towards my room.

After so long, it finally looked like things were starting to look up for me in the real world. I had tried my hardest with that Maths test, trying to beat the system and wind up Mrs Reynolds by doing something right for once. Whilst we were finally getting some kind of set worked out for our Drama project. Despite the cold and the fainting incident, things were starting to return to some sort of normalcy and I was beginning to like it.

 ~~~

A/N - I'm not gonna lie, I didn't think I was going to get this chapter out in time because my laptop crashed and I forgot to save the chapter, but all was good!  I managed to save it. 

Also, if you have time, please head over to the official Wattpad profile, Wattfest and submit Last Christmas for one of their reading lists using the link in their bio!

In other news, CHRISTMAS IS ONLY 17 DAYS AWAY!!!!! You do not understand how happy I am that Christmas is getting closer, unfortunately, the book will not hit Christmas by Christmas but we can dream, right?

What do you think of Kenzie finally deciding to knuckle down in regards to her Maths work? Also, what about the backdrop for the Drama piece? Is everything really running smoothly for Kenzie? If so, how long for?

Dedication - This chapter is dedicated to numbereddays who wrote an amazing book called Accidentally on Purpose (which I love) and is in the process of writing a sequel! Check it out!!!

First Published - December 7th, 2017