Page 40 of Single Girl Rules: HoHoHo

But it was too late.

Ash flipped the button over and pushed it.

Chapter 10 – Pornstar at a Christmas Rave

Christmas Eve, 2013

I held my breath and waited for the glass atrium to turn intoa giant fireball.

I hated to die so young. But at least I was going to look hotas hell doing it. I mean…I was totally slaying this bikini. I just hoped that asecurity camera caught me walking in here so that everyone would see howfabulous I looked when I got incinerated.

But… Nothing happened.

“Huh,” said Ash, looking down at the big red button. “Whydidn’t it work?”

Oh thank God!Ash must not have hit the button hardenough. It was a Christmas miracle!

“Put it down slowly and back away,” I said.

Instead, Ash held it up to her ear and shook it. And then shehit the button again.

No!

The floor started to shake as the sound of heavy metal gearsgrinding together filled the air.

I was about to take off running, but then Slavanka said, “Thatsound like big ass bomb.”

Good point.There was no sense running. Because if thebomb was as big as it sounded, it was probably going to take this wholefreaking mountain down. So instead I just posed real sexy to ensure I went outin style.

“You guys are being so paranoid,” said Ash. “It’s not a bomb.It’s a secret door!” She pointed to a portion of the floor that had slid opento reveal a hidden spiral staircase. The banister was wrapped in red and green Christmaslights and I thought I heard the faint sound of Christmas music playing at thebottom of the stairs.

“Lead the way,” I said to Ash. There was no use trying to gether to give up this chase. And I was beginning to think that maybe thiswasn’tthe work of Crazy Isabella after all. Don’t get me wrong, this whole thing wasstill extremely creepy. But if she wanted to murder us, she’d had like twenty opportunities.She could have shot us on the balcony. She could have cut the ski lift cables. Shecould have gunned us down in the dark atrium. And she could have blown us up withthat button. Why would she pass up all those opportunities just to lead us downsome secret staircase?

I didn’t have an answer. Maybe we really had spotted Santa. Andthis was all just a ploy to distract us while he slipped away into the night.

The Christmas music got louder and louder with each step wetook down the spiral staircase. And eventually we found the source of it: a shinybrass gramophone surrounded by six-foot-tall candy canes in the middle of a biground room.

I jumped as a machine to our left sputtered to life. Gearsspun and valves hissed and steam shot out of it. And then the smell of hotchocolate filled my nose as the machine simultaneously filled three mugs to thebrim. More gears whirred and the nozzles over the glasses shifted. The newnozzles sprayed a perfect little dollop of whipped cream onto each mug. Andthen mini marshmallows rolled down a tube and landed gently on top. A red andwhite striped straw dropped into each mug and the machine fell silent.

“Santa is really giving us the VIP treatment. Whipped creamandmarshmallows? He’s a genius.” Ash grabbed one of the mugs and took a big sip. “Ohmy God. It’s so good.”

Why the hell not?I grabbed a mug too. And it reallywas good. It tasted a lot like Teddybear’s hot chocolate. Which made me wonder.What if Teddybear…

“Look!” said Ash, pointing at her name on the wall. It wasspelled out in big white letters trimmed with green Christmas lights. Below it lookedlike something you’d see in a changing room for a Christmas movie: a big mirror,a vanity fully stocked with a full assortment of brushes and make-up, and a rackof green outfits with white fur. “I think Santa bought me a whole new wardrobe,”gasped Ash. “Although I’m not sure aboutthat.” She pointed at a knitgreen ski mask pulled over a mannequin head. “Why is the top of that maskmissing? It looks like someone tried to rob a bank on Christmas and got scalpedby an overzealous security guard.”

“That’s so that we can wear it and still show off our hair,”I said. “And also…no. This isn’t a gift from Santa. This is definitely a giftfrom Teddybear and Ghostie.” Now that I’d seen the ski mask, I was sure of it. Itwas exactly like the one I’d drawn last night.

“Huh?” asked Ash.

“They must have found the plans we drew up. For the presentdelivery competition.” They said they’d handle the Isabella issue. It made sensethat they used our plans for it. We’d come up with some top-notch ideas.

Ash stared at me like I was crazy. “I have no idea what you’retalking about.”

“Last night. We were brainstorming ideas of how we could stopIsabella. And we devised a plan where we’d have a competition to see who couldhelp Santa deliver the most presents to the soldiers staying here. And my team wouldbe composed of me, a Locatelli, and a Chadwick. We’d win by a landslide, andthen they’d see how well we all worked together and then they’d happily agreeto form an alliance against Crazy Isabella.”

Ash took a big sip of her hot chocolate. “Hmmm… Not ringingany bells.”

“Seriously? We were going to each be on a different team…” Ipointed to Ash’s changing station. And then I pointed to the stations on eitherside of it. “Why else would we all have different colored clothes?” Ash’s namewas lit up in green and all her clothes were in green. Mine were red. AndSlavanka’s were white. It was clearly three different teams.

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