“Pass the salt Lance.” Joey told him, he was making some potatoes for lunch.

Lance passed the salt to him, and just then, the back door flew open, Justin who was nipped from the cold.

“Justin!” Joey and Lance cried in unison.

His mom heard the door and she came running to him, “Justin, do you know how cold it is outside? Do you want to sick before Christmas? What was going through your head, you know that whatever its bothering you, you can tell me about it, you don’t have to run off from your problems.” Lynn argued.

“Well, gee mom; you should already know what my problem is.” Justin snapped.

“Don’t you get an attitude with me, all I’m doing is trying to look out for you.”

Justin just scoffed and headed upstairs to his room.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Joey called out to him.

He didn’t get an answer, he just heard the door slam shut behind something.

This time, it was Joey that was starting to lose his patience, he placed the pans down the counter and headed upstairs to Justin’s guest room. He didn’t bother to knock, and just let himself in.

He saw Justin staring out the window, his expression hard, like he was thinking about something.

“Joey, how many times have I told to knock before entering?”

“Oh I’m sorry, I must’ve lost my manners.” Joey replied in a sarcastic tone.

Justin stayed quiet for a moment and turned his direction back to the window.

“Justin, you know you weren’t supposed to speak to your mom like that, its almost Christmas, it’s a time of-

“Perpetual hope and forgiveness Joey I know.” Justin continued the sentence for him.

“Why are you so angry? I know you are worried about the guys, but what Lance told you before that tomorrow is Christmas Eve, anything can happen, maybe the cops would find them, maybe-

“Yeah Joey, maybe they will, maybe they won’t.” Justin muttered.

Joey remained quiet for a bit.

“You know?” Justin said, “When I was at the park near the pond, you know the woods that are across from it?”

“Yeah?” Joey replied, taking a seat on the bed.

“I had a strange feeling all of sudden, like something was telling me to go there, isn’t that weird?”

“Have the cops checked that side?” Joey asked him.

“I don’t know, maybe they did, but-

“Do you think Chris and JC are there?” Joey said

“Maybe.” Justin hesitated. “But we can’t go ourselves, cause we don’t wanna get lost either.”

“Yeah you’re right, maybe we can go check this afternoon?” Justin beamed.

“I heard that we were getting a blizzard warning again.” Joey replied, a hint of sadness in his voice. “It was supposed to last all day until tomorrow morning or something.

“Seriously?” Justin let out an aggravated sigh.

“That’s what the weatherman said.”

“But what if he’s wrong, tell you what Joey, we are going to those woods, in fact, we should go right now, before the snow comes, no blizzard is gonna stop me.” Justin argued.

Chris and JC were just finishing up their lunch at the lunchroom, Toby and Pepper showed them where the lunchroom was, of course, Laurie was their usual chef, she was busy slicing up some carrots and placing them in a pot of soup.

“Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, I am so excited!” She smiled.

“Is there gonna be a Christmas Eve party?” Chris asked.

“Oh yes, lots of festivities, we are just about done, Santa’s sleigh is almost packed with gifts, the naughty and nice list is checked, twice that is.” She gave a wink to Chris and JC.

“Yeah I also heard that we were going home tomorrow or someone is gonna find us.” JC told her.

“Yes they are, they can either come tomorrow morning or the evening, we have a blizzard coming up, but a lot of things can happen.”

“But if we have a blizzard, how can they find us?” Chris asked.

“Oh they will.”

Chris turned to JC and said, “Maybe they will find us Jace, and we can go home to see our friends and families, maybe they’ll get a slow plow or something.”

“Yeah maybe.” JC said, taking a sip of water from the cup he was drinking.

After they helped Laurie clean up, she led them out of the lunchroom, in fact the whole room was divided into three parts, the breakfast room, the lunchroom, and the dinner room. JC liked how organized this was, and sometimes she had some help from the elves to do her cooking.

“Thanks Laurie.” JC told her.

“Yeah thanks.”

“Anytime sweetums, you come back here for dinner now you hear?” Laurie told them.

“Will do.” The guys nodded and walked out of the lunchroom and ran into Sparkle, who had a bunch of ribbons in her hand.

“Oh I’m sorry; I didn’t see where I was going.” She chuckled.

“Where are you going with those ribbons?” Chris asked.

“To the wrapping room of course, come on, come help me.” Sparkle said excitedly.

Chris and JC just shrugged and followed her, she led a narrow hallway and into a large room, nearly as big as a gym, she opened the door and they both knew why it was called “The Ribbon Room.” Chris and JC thought they had seen it all, but this room was covered with tinsel, ribbons, wrapping paper, and toys, a lot of toys, and gift boxes.

“Here hold this.” Sparkle gave them the ribbons that she was holding, and she went to go to this huge gift box, a name tag was hanging on it, Chris looked at the name tag, it read “Sally, Merry Christmas.”

“Who’s Sally?” Chris asked Sparkle.

“Sally is a three year old girl who wants an oversized teddy bear; she’s staying with her grandmother, and she doesn’t have anyone else to play with.” Sparkle explained.

Just then, a huge plush white teddy bear was being dropped into the box, along with a few other stuffed animals, a giraffe, a panda, and a tiger, and a unicorn.

“She’s gonna love it.” JC said, his voice just above a whisper.

“Yes she is.” Sparkle responded with a happy sigh.

Elvin made his way into the room, carrying some small boxes in his hand, “You wanted these?” He told Sparkle.

Sparkled beamed with joy and said “Yes.” She motioned him to help her out with the rest of the wrapping, Chris and JC also helped out all through the rest of the afternoon.

Justin, Joey, and Lance were at the park near the woods, it was starting to snow, Lynn did not approve of this, and was kind of upset with her son, but Justin insisted on coming to the park to investigate, he couldn’t sit around and wait for the cops to do the work, he was tired of waiting for them, he decided to look for Chris and JC himself.

“Are you sure about this?” Lance told his younger friend.

“Sure, I’m sure.” Justin added.

He followed the narrow road into the woods, the snow was coming down hard by the minute, making it difficult to see, they left their truck parked at the parking lot of the park, and they couldn’t bring the truck here into this narrow path.

“We should go back Justin.” Joey said, buttoning his coat for the hundredth time, it was getting cold.

“Joey, we can’t, we’ve only been out here for half an hour.” Justin whined.

“But what if we catch hypothermia or something, and that would be far worse, don’t you think?” Joey snapped.

Justin remained silent for a moment, Joey was right, they can seriously ill out here, and he couldn’t risk that fact. “Ok Joey, we would just keep going a little further and if we don’t find anything, we’ll turn back okay?” Justin promised.

Joey nodded and turned to Lance, who had a scarf tied up covering his nose and mouth, who also agreed.

After a few minutes of walking into the woods, Justin spotted something, it looked like a house, or a cabin of some sort, but he was looking at the back of it.

“Guys look.” Justin said excitedly and pointed to the cabin.

“Do you think Chris and JC are in there?” Joey added.

“I hope so.”

“But I don’t see their car.” Lance continued.

“Maybe it’s parked somewhere else?” Justin said with a shrug.

“Maybe.” Lance replied.

Justin, Lance, and Joey ran towards the cabin, there boots sinking into the snow with every step they took, they peered into the foggy window, and they didn’t see a back door, so they went around to the front. They knocked at first, no answer, Justin twisted the knob and the door opened with a slight creak. Stepping inside, the guys were revealed by sudden warmth and comfort, a small Christmas tree stood at the corner.

“H-Hello?” Justin stammered.

“Anyone home?” Joey called out.

“Do you know that we are entering on someone else’s property?” Lance whispered.

“Well this is an emergency.” Justin told him back.

They looked around the small cabin, a sofa, a refrigerator, linen closets, a bathroom, and a bedroom that had two small beds.

“Do you think Chris and JC stayed here or something?” Joey replied.

“Maybe they did, but if they stayed here then where are they now?” Justin wondered.

“You know, before we start talking, we should call our parents so they won’t worry about us.” Lance added.

“Good idea.”

All three of them pulled out their cell phones and dialed their designated numbers, but little did they realize that their phones didn’t get any signal at all.

“That’s weird.” Justin said.

“Yeah, no signal, no bars at all.” Joey went to the window to see if  his cell phone got any signal, no luck.”

Lance looked at the both of them and said. “Hey, do you think they came here and they tried calling us from here and maybe that is why nothing got through?”

“I see your point, maybe they have been here, and maybe they parked their car somewhere near these woods, and maybe they left back or-Justin stopped for a moment and started to think.

“But what if something horrible happened to them.” Justin continued.

“No, that’s impossible, this cabin doesn’t look menacing.” Lance said looking around.

“Maybe they don’t want it look menacing, maybe it’s a trap to lure us here, and what if some maniac comes back and starts-

“Justin!” Joey and Lance cried out in unison.

“Don’t even joke about something like that!” Joey argued.

“Yeah, maybe a nice old lady lives here, not some serial killer.” Lance added.

“You’re right I’m sorry, I let my imagination run wild again.” Justin laughed nervously and sat down on the couch.

“Well, then what are we gonna do?” Lance said, taking a seat next to him.

“I don’t know, we can’t go anywhere, look at the snow outside.” Joey responded.

They remained silent for a moment until Lance spoke up.

“You do know that our parents are going to wonder where we are right?”

“Oh you got that right.” Justin said.