Mom says the holidays are when miracles happen. She sure wasn’t kidding. I saw one with my own eyes tonight.
We had just finished stuffing ourselves with mushroom stew—AGAIN. That’s what we eat for Thanksgiving, to celebrate the time when mobs and miners came together in peace. Dad leaned back in his chair, and I could tell he was about to launch into his story about the olden days, when only MOBS roamed the Overworld. Before miners came and battles broke out.
Well, I’ve heard that story a gazillion times just this past week alone. I guess Mom was tired of it too, because she stood up and said we should do something fun as a family—SHOPPING!
That’s how I ended up on the street by the Creeper Café, where the miracle happened.
See, Mom gave me and my sisters a bunch of emeralds to buy gifts for Creeper’s Eve.
That’s December 31, when we all creep around and hide presents for each other to celebrate the new year. I don’t exactly love buying gifts for my sisters. But if I shop smart, I’ll have enough emeralds left to buy something for MYSELF.
My teenage sister must have had the same idea, because she disappeared into the Skins R Us store by the café. Cate is always trying out different wigs and skins. She’s got a whole closet full of them at home.
Chloe, my Evil Twin, disappeared too. I really wish she’d do that more often. (We haven’t gotten along since, like, Halloween.)
Then Mom and Dad hurried into the candy store with Cammy before she blew up with excitement. I knew my baby sister would want blaze powder candies.
They’re so hot, they’d make her blow up anyway. But I didn’t point that out.
Like I said, when your parents offer you emeralds, you don’t argue. You just grin and walk away before they make you put the emeralds in your piggy bank or something.
So I headed down the street toward the fireworks store. I figured if my family saw me coming out of there, it would give them a huge hint about what I want for Creeper’s Eve. Fireworks to ring in the new year, please!
But as I passed the toy store, guess who popped out? My good friend Sam the Slime. And he was dragging something behind him: a new Nether brick-red sled.
“That’s dumb,” I said before I could stop myself. “It NEVER snows down here in the plains.”
Any other mob might have gotten mad. But my words bounced right off that jolly slime. He said he wasn’t waiting for snow. He was going to make an ice slide.
Well, THAT sounded pretty cool. I wanted a piece of that action. In fact, now I wanted a sled too. A bigger one. A faster one. A greener one. And there it was, right there in the store window!
Staring at that sled, I could already picture me zooming around the snowy mountains of the Taiga.
And that’s when the miracle happened.
A snowflake drifted out of the sky and plopped onto my forehead. I’m not even kidding. It dribbled right down my cheek like a tear of joy.
And that snow kept right on coming. It snowed so hard, we didn’t even have to go to school tonight. We had our first official Snow Night!
Of course, we all went to school anyway to play in the snow. There’s this big hill behind Mob Middle School, and I couldn’t wait to ride on Sam’s sled. But when I got there, he said there wasn’t enough room on it for me. Say WHAT?
I tried to prove him wrong. I stretched myself out until I was long and skinny. I rolled into a ball and tried to sit on his lap. But no matter how I twisted and turned, I couldn’t fit on that sled with Sam.
So I did what any friend would do. I asked him to get off. I mean, what does a slime need with a sled anyway? He’d probably have more fun BOUNCING down the hill.
Before I could say so, the sled DISAPPEARED. Someone swiped it right out from under us! And then Bones was zooming down the hill, laughing his bony skeleton butt off.
Sam waited for a while, as if Bones and his gang of spider jockeys were actually going to bring that sled back. But I knew better. So I decided to do something I’ve always wanted to do—build a snow golem. And when Sam saw me rolling a snowball, he forgot all about his sled and bounced over to help.
Ziggy Zombie helped too. He’s about the grossest kid I know, but I owe him big because he’s the one who found a couple of Jack o’ Lanterns to use for the snow golems’ heads.
Those pumpkins must have been left over from Halloween. They were black and rotten around the eyes, and the back sides were half eaten, like critters had made dinner out of them. I don’t even WANT to know what was crawling around INSIDE.
But when Ziggy put the Jack o’ Lanterns on the snow golems’ bodies, it worked! Those golems actually came to life. They stared right at me and started sliding around in the snow.
I was pretty sure I’d died and gone to creeper heaven, until—
SMACK!
An icy snowball hit me square between the eyes.
“Gotcha, Itchy!”
Yup, that was Bones again, sailing by on Sam’s sled. The nickname stung—my name is NOT Itchy, it’s Gerald. And that snowball hit me HARD. Who knew you could shoot snowballs with a bow?
Pretty soon, all his spider jockey friends joined the fight, and Sam and I were in a battle for our lives. So I did what any smart creeper would do. I hid.
Sam tried to hide between the snow golems too, but there wasn’t even CLOSE to enough room. So I pushed him back out. When in danger, it’s every mob for himself.
Those snowballs kept coming, bouncing off Sam left and right. He was one big jiggling slime ball. He didn’t know which way to turn!
Then another miracle happened. Our friends the snow golems started throwing snowballs BACK at Bones.
He was a pretty good shot too. The good news is, the golems chased those skeletons right down the hill, and they never came back. The bad news is, they took Sam’s sled with them.
Sam wasn’t all that happy with me after that. The slime kind of gave me the cold shoulder, actually. Until his girlfriend, Willow Witch, showed up.
Personally, I think Sam’s kind of young to be dating an eighth-grade witch. But every once in a while, it’s kind of nice to have her around. Like tonight, when Sam was acting all mopey. She cheered him up by saying, “Do you want to make snow spiders? I’ll show you.”
Willow plopped onto her back and swept her arms and legs up and down. When she stood up, she’d left a mark in the snow that KIND of looked like a spider. So we all tried it—even Ziggy Zombie.
I wasn’t totally happy with my snow spider. But then I looked at Sam’s and felt a whole lot better about mine.
And while I was lying there beside him, staring up at the snowflakes, I had an epiphany. Dad says that’s when an idea strikes, like lightning from the sky.
I decided that the snowstorm was a SIGN—a sign that I HAD to buy that sled in the toy store. NOW.
So I raced back to the store and bought that shiny green sled. I sneaked it home without anyone noticing. Well, my pet squid Sticky noticed. He stared at the sled from his aquarium. Then he turned his beady little eyes toward me. Was he trying to make me feel guilty?
Sure, I’d spent every emerald Mom had given me for Creeper’s Eve gifts. “But it’s worth it,” I told Sticky. “Don’t judge.”
And it WAS worth it, until I realized someone else had seen me bring that sled home. My Evil Twin.
Suddenly, Chloe was all up in my face, threatening to tell Mom and Dad. So I did what I had to do. I broke open my piggy bank and bribed her with my last couple of emeralds just to keep her quiet.
But now that she’s gone and the sled is hidden under my bed, I’m freaking out. I mean, Creeper’s Eve is only 30 days away. And I have a couple of important things to do before then.
So it’s time for a plan. Here’s what I’m thinking:
That’s a pretty good plan. But a creeper’s gotta have SOME fun, right? So maybe I’ll add one more thing to the list:
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Become the greatest sledding creeper of ALL time
Hey, it’s the holidays. And I’m here to tell you, miracles can happen!
