Chapter Ten
“A Fenton Family Tradition”

Several miles in the country outside of Amity Park laid a large tree farm that sold Christmas trees.  The Fenton family journeyed there to get their tree before the season ended.  They were all walking through the farm as they tried to find the perfect tree for them to decorate.

“Ah,” Jack said as he walked around a tree that was roughly his size, “this looks like the perfect tree that would make Santa Claus blush with envy.”

Saying the word ‘Santa Claus’ within earshot of Maddie Fenton would be one of the last things you would want to do.

“There is no Santa Claus!” Maddie snarled.

“How can you say that?!”

“A man of his size would be killed just by reaching the speed of light!”

“That’s what Christmas magic is for!”

“There is no such thing as magic!”

The two continued to have their overlapping argument as the Fenton children looked on.  Several bystanders looked at them while those with small children shielded their ears and left the area.

Danielle left out of anger since she couldn’t take their arguing anymore.  Danny followed suit, just in case Danielle would do something rash, while Jazz stayed behind to see if she can defuse the situation before things get any worse.  He finally caught up with her just as his parents’ arguing started to fade.

“Danielle, slow down!” Danny called out just as he caught her shoulder.

“I’m fine, Danny!” she snapped as she turned around to face him knowing what he was going to ask.  “I can’t see why they can’t have this argument every year!”

“Hey,” Danny chuckled, “I had to listen to them for the majority of my life, and it still bugs me when they argue.  I already learned my lesson last year.”

Danielle let out a small snort when Danny had said this.  He already told her what had happened last year with the Ghost Writer, and she still had to find the right gift to give to Danny and time was running out.  Soon their Ghost Sense went off and it led them into a nearby clearing where they saw four ghosts.  Two of them dressed in a winter coat with a St. Nicholas hat on their heads covering their ears they had recognized as the Terrible Two Twins, one of them was a small green dog that Danny had met just before Valerie turned into a ghost huntress named Cujo, and the last was unfamiliar to them.

The last looked like a seven or eight year old who was completely blue as if he had been in subzero temperatures for an extended period of time.  He was dressed in a blue winter coat that seemed to have icicles hanging off of it.  He wore long sleeved pants that had a river of icicles hanging off of them and he wore elfish shoes.  The ghost had elfish-like ears and the face of an imp.  He was playing with the young twins and their dog when a small gust of wind danced around him causing him to momentarily stop his actions.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the infamous Twins who are the toast of the town of Amity Park,” he spoke in the Phantoms’ direction catching them off guard.

The Phantoms stayed put for a while until they slow approached the ghosts while keeping their wits about them.  They knew that the Terrible Two Twins were harmless and that Cujo was just a big puppy, but this new ghost might prove different.

“Jack Frost is the name,” he began introducing himself, “and bringing winter cheer is my game.”

“Okay Jack,” Danny slowly began, “what is a ghost like you up to.”

“I consider myself a spirit rather than a ghost, and I just bring the season of winter where it’s needed.  I only come down to your neck of the woods for the season of winter before leave to prepare for winter in the Southern Hemisphere.”

“What about that blizzard that decimated New York?” Dani asked angrily even though that her and Danny’s history was not the best.

“Oh that,” Jack Frost said as he guiltily hung his head.  “That would be my ‘other’ half.”

“What ‘other’ half?” Danny asked as he shared a confused look with Dani.

“My ‘other’ half calls itself Old Man Winter and I have no control over him when he decides to take over.  I only bring winter weather when the time’s right, and I don’t mean to cause that much damage.  I‘m able to keep him trapped up inside of me, but there are times when he takes over me.  If you‘re wondering if I can regain control,” he continued before they could ask him the question, “it takes time or a drastic change in weather before I can retake control of my body, but the latter of the two hasn’t happened yet.”

Before the Phantoms could answer, loud arguing voices could be heard and they were coming their way.

“Great!” Jack Frost said exasperatedly.  “Those ingrates again!”  This statement catches the attention of the Phantoms.  “Must they argue at this time of year!”

“Watch it!” Danny snarled since nobody insults his parents no matter how idiotic people see them while he and Dani held ecto-blast at the ready.

“Sorry,” Jack Frost shrugged, “but hate it when people argue at this time of year.”

“If you harm them,” Dani snarled as she pointed towards Jack Frost, “that will be the last thing you would do before we ship you back into the Ghost Zone!”

“Fine,” Jack Frost said as he shrugged again, “I was just going to knock some snow on their heads from a branch.  If you would excuse me, I’m going to head down south to see if I can bring snow as far south as I did a few years ago in Laredo, Texas.”

He pivots and spins vanishing in the wind as he is carried away to destination unknown.  The Terrible Two Twins and Cujo ran off into the evergreen trees disappearing from view.  The Phantoms returned back to their human forms and made their way towards Jack and Maddie’s arguing.

Jazz had finally found a way to defuse their arguing but only temporarily.

“Why must you two constantly argue like this every year?!  I’ve taken enough of your arguing, and you don’t know how you’ve effected Danny’s well-being when he was growing up?!”  Jazz yelled at her parents unknown by her that Danny and Danielle had returned.

“But, Jazzy-pants, she started it,” Jack whined as he pointed a finger at Maddie while he argued like a child.

“Why don’t you grown up and act your age?!” Maddie snapped back.  “There is no such thing as--”

She was cut off when a chunk of snow fell on her head from the branch they were standing under.  Jack began to laugh at Maddie, but she had thrown a snowball in his face from the snow that had fallen on her.  He then stops laughing and wipes his face clean from the snow.

“Nobody attacks Jack Fenton when he’s not looking!” Jack snarled as he launched a snowball at Maddie nailing her in the face.

Thus, a snowball fight started between the two while they laugh like they were kids having their first snowball fight in the fresh fallen powder.  Danny and Danielle had rejoined Jazz, who looked on in disbelief at what she was witnessing.  Nothing that she had compiled over the years could explain her parents’ actions.

“This isn’t right!” Jazz yelled in disbelief over her parents’ yells.

“Don’t worry, Jazz,” Danny said as he comforted his sister.  “People can change, and let them have their fun for once.”

“But that doesn’t explain how my hypothesis is flawed!” Jazz countered still trying to find out the flaws in her theories.  “Dad doesn’t apologize to Mom that easily!”

“Let them have their fun,” Danielle added.  “I would like to enjoy Christmas without their arguing,” as she added the last bit in a whisper.

Jazz calmed down from her rant just as Jack and Maddie had tired themselves out from their laughing.  They soon found the perfect tree that was round at its base and full of evergreen needles.  Jack carried the tree, which was unheard of for a man of his size in relation to the tree, back to the Fenton RV where he loaded it up into the back of it.

They returned home safely despite Jack’s erratic driving on the slick roads while encountering little traffic.  Jack also carried the tree into Fenton Words, and set it into the stand in a corner while Maddie tightened the knobs on the stand to hold the tree in place.

“Now,” Jack announced as he dug his hand into a box of decorations, “lets commence decorating!”

He pulls out a big orb of Christmas lights, and his face fell when he saw it just as Maddie had left to make some hot coco.  Apparently, they were just waded up when they took down the lights last year.  Jack tried to untangle them, but ended up making it worse by getting his hands handcuffed together.

“I’ll get that for you, Dad,” Jazz offered while Danny and Danielle took off their winter coats.

“I got it, Jazzy-pants,” Jack replied as he struggled to free his hand but only made it much more worse.

“We go through this every year, Dad,” Jazz said as she effectively freed Jack’s hands.  “Why don’t you let us decorate the tree this year since you tend to be a bit clumsy with the ornaments?”

“Nonsense, Jazz,” he replied as if he hadn’t understood her, “I’m not the bit clumsy!”

“You cracked one of Mom’s favorite ornaments, and she hasn’t forgiven you for it.”

Jack opened his mouth to speak but shut it as some of the color from his face drain.  He remembered what happened when he cracked Maddie’s favorite ornament.  That ornament was a gift from her great grandmother, and she didn’t trust anyone,
especially her own children, with it except for herself.

“Maybe you’re right, Jazz,” he said with defeat as he removes his winter cap from his head.  “It’s just,” he pauses momentarily and takes a deep breath, “that I feel like a kid again at this time of year, and I can’t conceal my excitement for this holiday.”

The three Fenton children just stared at him since they were lost at what to say.  Jack was sounding sincere and this was unusual for him to be this way since he’s usually excited over just about anything.

“That doesn’t mean that you can help us, but just be a little more careful this year,” Jazz said and this brought a slight smile on Jack’s face.  “Why don’t you let us untangle the lights, and then you can help put them on?”

“Excellent idea, Jazzy-pants!  But first,” he replied with his usual enthusiasm, “a trip to the Little Ghost Hunter’s Room.”

He runs up the stairs and Danielle snorts before breaking out in a giggle just as he disappeared through a side door.

“I don’t think I can get used to him, and I’ve been living here for the past, um, four months.”

“You’ll get used to it, Danielle,” Danny said putting a hand on her shoulder.  “I’m already used to the idea of having someone that looks like me around.”

“I’m just glad that I have someone like you around, Danny, to help me out when I need it,” she replies as she faces Danny while removing a stray hair from her face.

“Lets get started you two,” Jazz said interrupting them since she was getting torn in two with sadness when they talked like that.  “Half the fun of Christmas, Danielle, is decorating the tree.”

The three spent about ten minutes before they were able to separate the strand of lights from each other, and another ten minutes until they were able to completely untangle the lights from each other.  Maddie had returned with the hot coco while they were untangling the lights and Jack had returned about the same time as he waited as patiently as he could until the lights were untangled.

After they had untangled the lights, Jack eagerly started to put them on the tree whilst humming carols while Jazz and Danielle kept the lights from getting tangled again.  The lights were put on in record time and they started to hang to ornaments on the tree.  Danielle could see a wide variety of ornaments and most of them for some reason pertained to ghosts.  She then heard Jack hum a song while adding a few words into the song that she was rather familiar with.  Out of all the songs she had heard, Humpty Dumpty being the most familiar, during this time of year, she had started to understand this time of year more and more.  It could be those latent feelings that she shares with Danny, but she tries to distance herself from those feelings which proves close to impossible.  However, the song that Jack was singing was starting to infuriate Maddie once again.

“You’re not singing that song, Jack?” it wasn’t a question that Maddie was asking as she angrily said it.

“It’s true, Maddie!” he replied with his usual enthusiasm.  “It’s true that--”

“Santa Claus does not exist!”

Once again they started arguing again causing them get distracted from decorating the tree.  Some of ornaments they were hanging fell onto the ground where they remained intact and their arguing had reached the pointed that they left the room.  Jack had taken refuge in the basement while Maddie had retreated into the Ops Center.  The Fenton children remained still and only flinched when two doors slammed in two different locations of the household.

“Okay,” Danielle said as she broke the uneasy silence, “tell me that this isn’t the worst one they had.”

“They had worse,” Jazz replied as she rubbed the temples of her head, “but this one could be the worst.”

“Lets just hope that they can keep it together,” Danny said as he picked up some of the ornaments that had fell, “but it would take something more than that to break them up.”

“Like the fruit loop getting to Aunt Maddie,” Danielle joked making them all laugh as they continued to decorate the tree.

The three continued to decorate the tree in high spirits despite what had just happened earlier.  They could hear loud music coming from the basement, and apparently it was Jack listening to the Fenton Radio (a radio with the name Fenton on it) with the volume blaring that the hinges on of the door was violently vibrating.  Jazz just shakes her head at the music being played from the basement since her father would probably never outgrow liking Christmas as much as it.

Danielle went to get some more ornaments to hang up and she found an old box in one of the storage boxes.  It seemed like an aged box which had seen better days and the drawings of the box had faded due to time.

“I believe this is what Uncle Jack broke that one year,” she said as she held up the box.

“Yes, that is what Dad had broke that one year,” Jazz replied.

Danielle carefully opens the aged box and pulls out the ornament.  She lets out a gasp at the beauty of it.  It seem to be made of glass since it felt heavy, and it was as clear as snow.  The ornament seemed to have a snowflake pattern to it and the lights refracted in the ornament like they would do in a prism revealing the colors of a rainbow.  She could also see a slight hairline crack running vertical from tip to stern of the ornament.  Jazz carefully takes the ornament from her and hangs it on a sturdy branch before she steps back to admire the beauty of the tree.

“I guess that’s it,” Danielle sadly said, “and I was hoping that it would last longer.”

“Don’t worry, Danielle, we’re not finished yet,” Danny replied.

“What do you mean?” she asked him but he was busy rummaging in a box and her question was about to be answered.

“We have one more ornament to hang up,” he pulls out a golden star with lights on it and he walks towards Danielle,” and I think it’s your turn to hang it up this year.”

“Danny!” she replied shocked as he was offering her the star.  “I don’t know what to say!”

“It’s just a little tradition that we have every year.”

“A tradition,” Jazz continued for Danny, “in which someone in the family puts the star on top of the tree.  Everyone in the family has their chance each year, and I believe that Danny is willing giving up his chance this year just for you.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Danielle repeated in barely a whisper.

“Just say that you’ll do it since I just want to make you happy so that you can easily fit in more easily,” Danny replied putting a hand on her shoulder.

She reluctantly takes the star and uses a nearby stepladder to reach the treetop since it was roughly a foot taller than her.  She places the star on top of the tree and plugs in the cord of the light into the strand of lights on the tree where it lights up like a beacon to ships out to sea.  Danielle climbs down from the stepladder where she places it where she found it and rejoins Danny and Jazz.

“There is one more thing I want to do before you two leave,” Jazz said as she pulls out a digital camera from her pocket.

“You want to take some pictures?” Danielle asked slightly confused.

“Yes, Danielle,” she nodded, “it’s another tradition that we have that Mom decided to start and Dad hates it.”

“After we finish decorating the tree,” Danny continued for her, “we take a picture and Mom wants it somewhat formal while Dad tends to want to act goofy in the picture.  You will have to go through with it anyways, and there are many more holidays that you will have to go through with too.”

Danielle thinks for a moment since she knew that Danny was right that she will have to endure many more holidays in the future.  So she sucks up her tears and takes the picture with Danny.  Jazz soon sets the camera on a timer and joins them in the picture to make it seem like they were all siblings since many consider Danny and Danielle twins.  Danielle was sure glad that the day was almost over since she needed to be alone for the rest of the day.

She retreats to her room and closes the door locking it to add a little for privacy.  She silently breaks out into tears since her limit had just been reached.  Danny is the only person that she knew of that could calm her down when she was on the verge of tears, and there were times in which that would fail too.  Danielle picks up her diary, a gift from Jazz a few days after she joined the family, and begins to write in it.  Her diary started the day after she had left Amity Park and Danny.  No one has every laid eyes on it except for her and she tends to keep it like that.  Before she acquired the diary, she had kept a personal journal written on paper during her solo journey before all of her problems started.  Danielle makes a personal vow to keep her emotions under control, and to experience her “new” life in her own personal way.