Miss Claus and Me

Chapter One ~ Amelia Jones

Ever since Amelia Jones could remember, she had been different. it wasn't because she was weird, or different in a bad way nessacarily, it was because she was just generally very kind.

Amelia's parents where busy and successful with their high-end business. They never had time for her and they where always very cold towards her too. Her mother was outwardly cruel, always telling her to do something 'better with herself', saying that her grades at school where never up to scratch, or telling her that her hobbies and dreams where useless.

Her father on the other hand had always taught her to work hard and to never stop working until you've found success... or until you've burnt yourself out entirely. He didn't have to say horrible things about Amelia to her face for her to know that he was thinking them.

Sometimes body language speaks louder than words.

But it was Amelia's siblings that treated her the worst.

Her brother was endlessly making fun of Amelia, and her sister was endlessly cruel. Constantly pointing out her flaws, degrading her ideas, and stealing whatever Amelia had away from her.

Some might call this simple sibling rivalry, but those who would just don't understand how awful a family could really be.

Amelia had tried to tell people before, her mothers friends, other adults that Amelia had hoped she could look up to and would step in to help her... But with her mothers charm and carefully thought out lies about what was really going on at home, no-one ever ended up believing Amelia's side of things... not even her own friends.

The more the years went by, the more alone in the world Amelia began to feel and what she really wanted more than anything was for someone to truly understand her and love her for who she really was.

It was on the eve of Christmas, when Amelia had turned ten that her biggest wish had finally begun come true.

Amelia had been going on her yearly walk around the block where she lived. Every year she had made it a tradition to save up the little amount of pocket money she had been given so that she could use it to make up packages full of necessities that she could give to the homeless shelter nearby. Something she always had to hide from her family, since they would have thought it was a stupid thing to do.

Afterwards she would always stay back to help out with the cooking of the shelters Christmas dinner.

Amelia was well-loved by all of the volunteers and the people that she did her best to help there and she much preferred their company over her horrible families at Christmas time.

But Amelia hadn't told them about her family yet. In fact she hadn't told anyone in a very long time.

The few times that she had attempted to get help in her childhood only to be turned away, had left a traumatic mark upon her heart. And even though the people at the shelter where her friends, she found it admittedly very hard to trust people completely after what she had been through.

So instead she tried to focus on helping others, putting her passion into little acts of kindness wherever she could. The smiles that she received in return for her help was all the fuel that she needed to keep going, hoping that someday she would be able to make a really big difference to peoples lives.

Amelia's favorite holiday had always been Christmas. It was meant to be all about spreading love, joy, and kindness around the world and that's what she was all about. So every year, when she was walking home from helping out at the shelter, Amelia couldn't help but to admire the beautiful lights that adorned the houses lining the streets.

Amelia lived in England, so walking home at five in the afternoon was always rather chilly in winter, but the glistening white snow that covered the rooftops, and the smell of cozy fireplaces puffing smoke out of the cottages sweet little chimneys, had always made Amelia feel rather warm inside.

Since she was only still a child, one of the adults from the shelter had always walked most of the way home with her, watching as she crossed the street to her house to make sure that she got their ok. But this year, their hadn't been as many volunteers available, so Amelia had made sure to sneak out by herself, so as not to trouble anyone.

Besides, she had walked home a thousand times before, so she knew the way very well.

But this year something different had happened.

When she had just a few minutes left of her walk, Amelia had noticed something out of the corner of her eye. At first she had thought that it was just another one of the lovely decorations that people had put up on their roofs, but when she took a closer look, she had realized that the reindeer where moving, and the sleigh was also far too three dimensional looking to be fake. So unless her neighbors had forked out the doe to put real live reindeer on the top of their roof, they must have gotten up there some other way.

Amelia gaped in wonder at the sight as she began to walk towards the house, and when she had realized that there was a ladder leaning against it, she knew exactly what she had to do.

So she straightened up her red velveteen skirt, and began to climb. When she had reached the top she couldn't help but to let out a little squeal, they really were real reindeer afterall and they were soooooo cute!

Amelia slowly began to walk up to one of them, being careful not to scare them as she offered out her hand for it to nuzzle. The animal allowed her to scratch behind its ears as it snuffled at her top, probably smelling the dinner she had cooked not so long ago and causing Amelia to giggle. Just as she was about to take a closer look at the beautiful red sleigh the deer was hooked up too, she looked up as she heard a voice say suddenly shout!

"Hey, little girl!"

But before Amelia could answer, she realized that she was awfully close to the roofs edge, and just as she was about to look around to see where the mysterious voice had come from, the old gutter that she was standing on began to give way underneath her feet.

Amelia screamed as she fell onto the ice covered pond not too far below her.

"Dad!"

Amelia heard the same voice yell just as she felt the ice begin to crack.

"What is it?"

Came a much lower voice. But before she could hear any more, the ice beneath her small frame had broken and fallen into the freezing cold water below her, taking Amelia right along with it.