EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part three of a continuing, fictional holiday tale that is running daily through Christmas. Parents are encouraged to read along with their children.

Olivia would love to say she woke up the next morning to a crazy Christmas dream brought on by too much peppermint hot cocoa, but it was real. She’d left her house in a sleigh, and it flew, with reindeer, just like the stories. Well, not exactly like the stories — there were only two reindeer, but still. They flew!

The camp was real. Flying reindeer were real. Did that mean everything she thought was a lie was actually real, too? She hadn’t quite grasped what this meant for her thoughts on reality.

Last night, she’d arrived too late to be able to take much in, and after being shown around her cabin by a chipper young girl named Lucy with striped stockings and pointed ears (she was NOT an elf, Olivia had told herself sternly), she’d fallen into bed, ready to let the oblivion of sleep take away the shock of all that had happened.

As soon as she’d woken up, Lucy had knocked on the door, letting Olivia know that breakfast would be in the main lodge and the sleigh would be by shortly to collect all the campers.

So now she sat on a picnic table at the edge of the camp’s row of log cabins, and she got her first glimpse of the other hostages — er, campers. Olivia was briefly introduced to five other kids, all seemingly around her age, two girls and three boys.

As she sat now watching everyone awkwardly standing around outside the cabins wondering what to do, she tried hard to remember even two of their names. She knew one of the girls was Gia. And as she watched the smallest of the boys cleaning his glasses, she vaguely remembered him being a Niles. Miles? Giles?

“So what do you think?”

Olivia jumped and looked behind to see him standing there, watching her with a smile.

“Hello … Santa,” she added sarcastically.

He laughed and came around to stand beside her.

“You can just call me Kris. May I sit?”

“It’s your camp, Kris.” She rubbed her hands together, trying to warm them inside her gloves. Despite the frosty air, she had to admit this place was pretty. White snow sparkled as far as the eye could see, covering massive fields dotted with dozens of barns and stables. Every single tree was an evergreen, and all were thoroughly decorated with twinkling lights and shiny round bulbs.

She noticed the other kids watching her and Kris, and with a grin he waved them all over.

“Good morning, my friends. Our ride will be here momentarily, and over a delicious breakfast, you’ll get your orientation. I don’t doubt you all have many, many questions, and I promise you they all will be answered.”

One of the kids snorted and Olivia hid a smile. Kris gave no sign that he heard and grinned over their shoulders. “Ah, here we are. Our chariot awaits!”

A large green sleigh pulled up to the narrow road in front of the cabins, pulled not by magical flying reindeer, but white horses with candy-cane striped manes and tails.

They all piled in, and Kris sat in the front while the rest of them awkwardly tried not to sit too close to each other. Olivia tried to study the others while not being too obvious about it, and it seemed like they were all doing the same.

“My name’s Olivia,” she finally said, hating the uncomfortable silence. “I’m 11.”

“Miles,” a curly-haired boy said. “I’m 12.”

“I’m Chloe,” said a girl with wavy red hair. “I just turned 11.”

The other girl was Gia, age 12, and the boys were 12-year-old Lucas and 11-year-old Cameron.

“So, were the rest of you basically kidnapped and forced to come here, or was that just me?” Gia asked, and they all nodded.

“My parents made me,” Miles said with a frown. “They said they were sick of my attitude and I needed to learn the true spirit of Christmas. Whatever that means,” he added scornfully.

“Same here,” Cameron spoke up, as the others nodded.

Olivia sighed. Maybe a Christmas camp could be fun. It certainly was beautiful enough here. And as the horses pulled them through a quaint village decorated to look like Christmas exploded all over it, she even thought it would be a nice place to visit and explore … if it were her own choice. Nothing about this was her choice, though, and she doubted that anything Kris said at their so-called “orientation” would change her mind.

Read chapter four in tomorrow’s newspaper.