Over the last few months on of TMSM’s New Zealand Members Sam wrote and shared a story with us about Santa’s Reindeer and their connections to Disney. We wanted to share these stories with you over the holiday season. Charlie and His Reindeer is a five part, 10 chapter story the we will be sharing with you over the next few days. Please remember when reading this the author was originally written on Sam’s cell phone, and that same is a 16 year old from New Zealand so some of their slang and word usage is different that ours here in the US.
Charlie and His Reindeer Part 1 by Guest Blogger Sam Pratley
Intro
After the great success of the Disneyland Christmas Fantasy parade, the people at Walt Disney World thought it was a good idea to have one of their own, they searched far and wide to find the best possible reindeer for the job. “Ebony, your not doing it correctly, look this is how the Great Eight did it in the video” “that’s what I’ve been doing Terra, it doesn’t look right because we’re not doing it as a group” “well maybe we should, what do you think Charlie?” “I think we should just stop and give up”.
Chapter One: 2 Weeks Earlier
Charlie woke up and headed to his dance school, he wondered if anything would happen to him today to get him out of dancing, he hated it but his mother forced him to do it due to his older brother also having natural talent. Charlie had the talent and was really good at dance he just didn’t enjoy it. As he entered the dance hall he saw an unfamiliar human at one end of the hall talking to the dance coach who then pointed Charlie out, the human then walked over to him and asked, “Are you Charlie?” “Yeah, why are you here, and more importantly why are you talking to me?” Charlie asked, “well let me ask you one question and then I’ll tell you why I’m here, have you ever heard of the Great Eight?” “yeah their some reindeer dance group at Disneyland right?”, the human responded “exactly, I work for Walt Disney World and we’ve noticed the success of the Great Eight and the Christmas Fantasy parade and we’d like to start one at WDW, for that to happen we need some reindeer performers and apparently your the tip of the antlers”, Charlie didn’t seem phased “your point being……?” “We at WDW want you to perform with six others in our upcoming Christmas parade, which will run for most of the Christmas season, but we’d need your response today as you will need time to train, what did you say?” Charlie still showed no emotion “will I get paid?” He asked, “yes” the human replied, “ok I’ll do it” Charlie said with distain.
Terra and Ebony walked through the halls of their high school together, both heading to dance class, the bell rung and they started to run because they were late “stupid math teacher holding us in, when are reindeer ever going to need math?” “I know what you mean Terra” Ebony said as they entered the gym which was the length of the school away from their math class. Terra apologized “we’re sorry Mr. Tucker, Mrs. Barnes punished us for not following the rules”, Mr. Tucker then turned and whispered “just be glad she didn’t send you to Principal Atwood” his tone then changed as he faced his dance class “anyway class, there is a representative from WDW here to watch you all and choose one of you to perform in their upcoming Christmas parade, and a one two three four” the music started and the class performed the dance they had been learning. The hour was over and the pupils were tired and sweaty, the representative came over to them and said “well done everyone, if it were up to me we’d have you all in the parade, now I came here to find some human performers but after seeing you two dance I think we’ll take you reindeer”, the two of them looked at each other and said with glee “cool”.
As Reggie entered his house after school he saw that his little brother Sparky had beaten him and had taken the dance room, Reggie complained “mom, Sparky got the dance room again”, his mother then replied “well maybe you should get home quicker and not hang out with friends, that’s why Sparky keeps getting it”, Reggie headed up the stairs to his room while muttering to himself “Sparky doesn’t have any friends to hang out with”. As Reggie entered his room he heard the door bell ring and the music from downstairs stop, he heard a human voice and decided to see who it was “mom who is it?” He asked, “They say they are from Walt Disney World and they want to know if Sparky’s here” his mother replied as Reggie slammed his door shut, “yeah I’m here, why?” Sparky asked, “well we’d like you to come and perform for us in the Christmas parade this year and possibly for the next few years” “ok, yes” “that was easy” the human said.
Blaze went onto his computer straight after school to chat to his mate Aqua, she was another reindeer that lived across town “hey Blaze have you heard, Walt Disney World is looking for some reindeer performers for their Christmas parade?” “Really oh gosh I don’t think I’ll sign up, I’m not that good a dancer” “what? dude I’ve seen you dance, your good enough to be in the Great Eight” “Hey thanks, well I might go over there tomorrow and talk to them, what about you, are you going to sign up” “nah I’ve got nowhere to live near there” “what if you stayed here?” “Then I’d think about it” “well it’s ok if you want to” “ok” “ok see you tomorrow” “wait what?”
Walt was a Deer, not a Reindeer but just a regular old deer, although you’d think otherwise due to his unnatural coat. Today was Walt’s day off and he headed to the Magic Kingdom, he had heard rumors about some reindeer who were to be trained for the Christmas parade, he was able to head backstage since he worked at Walt Disney World and he saw six reindeer talking to a human. He watched as the reindeer seemed to argue with the human, Walt was too far away to hear what they were saying but he knew that it was an argument due to the way they were reacting. One of the reindeer turned to Walt and signaled him over, “here’s another reindeer, he can be our seventh member” “wait what I’m not a reindeer, I’m just a normal deer with an abnormal coat coloration”, the human then spoke “people won’t know that, are you any good at dancing?” “Uhhh no, but I’m willing to give it a go” “good welcome to the team………” “I’m Walt”.
Chapter Two: Introductions
Aqua, Terra, Blaze, Sparky, Ebony, Walt and Charlie all stood in a circle backstage of the Magic Kingdom, it was very early and it was before their school day started, although they doubted that they’d go to school now that they were trainees, they stood around a human who spoke “well everyone glad you all decided to show up, you will hopefully be the first ever reindeer that will perform in a Christmas parade at the Magic Kingdom, now introduce yourselves, starting with you” “uhh hi, I’m Sparky”, they all introduced themselves, then Ebony asked “why are there only seven of us, there was eight in the Great Eight, hence the name?”, the human replied “well Ebony that’s because we’re hoping to have an actual leader of this group, with the other six following along, like how Santa has his reindeer”, none of the others liked the idea of there being a ‘leader’, the human continued, “now follow me, since we haven’t had any reindeer before you lot, we have no mentors for you, so you’ll just have to watch videos of other reindeer and then learn from that”, the human lead them to a big courtyard with a brick wall at one end which had a projector pointed at it. “I’ve set up the video so that it will play a continuous loop, just watch it and learn from it, I’ll be back soon” and with that the human left the reindeer. As the video started to play, the reindeer gathered around it to watch the Great Eight do the performance the reindeer were to learn over the next few weeks, once the video had played through a few times the reindeer decided not to bother with it for that day and get to know each other more, Terra and Ebony already knew each other well due to them going to the same school, Aqua and Blaze were stoked to finally meet each other after years of talking through a computer, Sparky, Walt and Charlie walked up to each other and Sparky and Charlie looked Walt up and down “why are you two just staring at me?” “Probably because you say that your just an ordinary deer but you’ve got all the characteristics of a reindeer, are you sure your not one?” “Uhh I’m sure, I mean I’ve lived my entire life with a deer family, and all my friends and family who have known me since birth all say that I’m just a plain old deer” “well I’m not convinced, I think your just a reindeer, what do you think Charlie?” “I think I just want to get paid and never have to do this or see you lot again”, “ouch” the other two said in synch. Because of Charlie nastiness Sparky and Walt decided to go and talk to Ebony and Terra, “Look Ebony, it’s Sparky and ‘the reindeer who thinks he’s a deer and says he’s a deer but looks like a reindeer'” “I have a name” Walt said offended, “yeah but I forgot it” “don’t be mean to him Terra, hi I’m Ebony”. The seven trainees were a lot younger than the Disneyland reindeer. The human reappeared and spoke to the seven reindeer “ahem, since your all still young in some sense and your not old enough to leave school yet, well we’ll have to find you all a school to go to for the duration of your training, now since Ebony and Terra’s school is closest I think it’ll be good if you all went there, you’ll live backstage of Walt Disney World and go to school every week day, your weekends will be filled with training and so will after school every day, Ebony, Terra, please show your new friends to your school and get them settled in, then you’ll all meet back here after, school dismissed”
*Story and pictures by Sam Pratley
About Sam (by Aut)
Sam is one of the member’s of TMSM’s Facebook group TMSM Fan Nation. Sam is in school in Dunedin New Zealand and is one of the many members of the Nation that lives outside of the United States that contributes to threads and topics regularly adding to the “wonderfulness” of the Nation.
Michele also contributes theme park news for Fox 35 Orlando 11pm news and on the radio on WDBO.
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