9. Take a Chill Pill

9 Take a Chill Pill When I came out of the bathroom wearing my regular clothes, the whole gang clapped me on the back. "You were awesome, A.J.!" said Alexia. "Those girls didn't suspect a thing," said Ryan. "How did you know the words to that dumb song?" asked Michael. "It's been stuck in my head all week!" I admitted. We hustled through the crowd to get back to Santa's Workshop, all the way at the other end of the mall. It took a long time to find Andrea and Emily. They were close to the front of the line now. "Where were you?" Andrea asked with

当我穿着平常的衣服从浴室出来时，那帮人拍了拍我的背。 “你太棒了，A.J.!” “那些女孩一点也没怀疑，”瑞恩说。 “你是怎么知道那首愚蠢的歌的歌词的？”迈克尔问。 “整个星期都在我的脑海里挥之不去！”我承认。 我们挤过人群回到圣诞老人工作室，一直走到商场的另一端。 我们花了很长时间才找到安德里亚和艾米丽。 他们现在离队伍的前面很近了。 “你去哪儿了？”安德烈问。

her mean face on. "What took you so long?" "It's almost our turn to meet Santa!" said Emily. "Take a chill pill," I told them. "We're here, right?" I could see Santa Claus now. He was sitting on this big throne with his red suit, red hat, white beard, and black boots—the whole getup. Santa was fat and jolly, just like I imagined. He was surrounded by Christmas trees, presents, fake snow, and a giant nutcracker on each side.* "Ho! Ho! Ho!" Santa bellowed. "Y'know, I'm not sure that's the real Santa," said Neil the nude kid. "It looks like Santa to me," said Michael. "I'm so excited!" said Andrea, rubbing her hands together. Soon it would be our turn. We were on pins and needles.

她那张刻薄的脸。“你怎么花了这么长时间？”“快轮到我们见圣诞老人了！”艾米丽说。 “冷静一下，”我告诉他们。 “我们在这里，对吧？”我现在可以看到圣诞老人了。 他坐在这个大宝座上，穿着红色的衣服，戴着红色的帽子，留着白胡子，穿着黑色的靴子——整个装束。 圣诞老人又胖又快乐，就像我想象的那样。 他被圣诞树、礼物、假雪包围着，两边各有一个巨大的胡桃夹子。*”!喂!Ho !”圣诞老人大声。 “你知道，我不确定那是不是真的圣诞老人，”裸体小孩尼尔说。 “我觉得它像圣诞老人，”迈克尔说。 “我太兴奋了！”安德烈搓着双手说。 很快就会轮到我们了。 我们如坐针毡。

Well, not really. We were just standing there. If we were on pins and needles, it would have hurt. I got up on my tiptoes to look all around. There were so many happy, smiling faces. Christmas trees. Twinkling lights. Jingle bells jingling. It was a beautiful scene. "Ah," I said, "I love the smell of tinsel at Christmastime." "Tinsel doesn't smell, dumbhead," said Andrea. "That's pine needles that you smell." "It's your face that I smell," I said. Why can't a truck full of tinsel fall on Andrea's head? Just then, one of Santa's elves came running down the line of kids. "It's almost your turn to meet Santa!" she said. That's when I realized that the elf wasn't a real elf. It was our librarian, Mrs. Roopy!

嗯，不完全是。我们只是站在那里。 如果我们如坐针毡，肯定会痛的。 我踮起脚尖环顾四周。 有那么多快乐的笑脸。 圣诞树。闪烁的灯光。 铃儿响叮当。那是一幅美丽的景色。 “啊，”我说，“我喜欢圣诞节时金箔的味道。” “金箔没有味道，笨蛋，”安德烈说。 “你闻到的是松针。” “我闻到的是你的脸，”我说。 为什么一卡车的金箔不能砸到安德里亚的头上？ 就在这时，圣诞老人的一个小精灵从孩子们的队伍中跑了过来。 “快轮到你见圣诞老人了！”她说。 那时我才意识到这个精灵并不是真正的精灵。 是我们的图书管理员鲁比夫人！

She was dressed up like an elf! "Mrs. Roopy!" I said. "What are you doing here?" "Who's Mrs. Roopy?" asked Mrs. Roopy. "I'm one of Santa's helpers from the North Pole." She wasn't fooling anybody. It was Mrs. Roopy for sure. That's when I realized that all of Santa's helpers were grown-ups from our school. The guy playing Christmas songs on the organ was our music teacher, Mr. Loring. The lady dressed up like Frosty the Snowman was our custodian, Miss Lazar. Another one of the elves was our Spanish teacher, Miss Holly. "Miss Holly!" I said when I saw her. "What are you doing here?"

她打扮得像个小精灵！“夫人。 Roopy !”我说。“你在这儿干什么？”“谁是鲁皮太太？”鲁皮太太问。 “我是从北极来的圣诞老人的助手之一。” 她骗不了任何人。 肯定是鲁比太太。 这时我才意识到，所有帮助圣诞老人的人都是我们学校的成年人。 用管风琴演奏圣诞歌曲的人是我们的音乐老师，洛林先生。 那位打扮得像雪人Frosty的女士是我们的管理员，Lazar小姐。 另一个精灵是我们的西班牙语老师霍莉小姐。 “冬青小姐!”我见到她时说。 “你在这儿干什么？”

"Earning a little extra money over the holidays," she said. "We all are. .Feliz Navidad!" "I guess teachers don't get paid very much," said Ryan. "Teachers get paid?" I asked. "I thought they just came to school every day because they had no place else to go." There was just one family in front of us

她说：“在假期里赚点外快。” “我们都是。祝福你！”“我猜老师的工资不高，”瑞恩说。 “老师有工资吗？”我问。 “我以为他们每天来学校只是因为他们没有别的地方可去。” 我们面前只有一个家庭

in line now. A lady with a big camera came over. I did a double take. The lady was Ms. Hannah, our art teacher! "Merry Christmas!" she said. "Now listen up. When you sit on Santa's lap, I'm going to snap your picture. So let's see some big smiles, okay?" "Okay!" we all said. "Do you want to buy the twenty-dollar package or the forty-dollar package?" Ms. Hannah asked us. "Package of what?" I said. "Package of pictures, of course," said Ms. Hannah. "The twenty-dollar package includes one eight-by-ten in a nice frame. The forty-dollar package includes two framed eight-by-tens and ten wallet-size pictures. I suggest you buy the forty-dollar package so you can share your pictures with your grandparents, your aunts, your uncles.

现在排队。一位拿着大照相机的女士走了过来。 我看了两眼。这位女士就是史密斯女士。 汉娜，我们的美术老师！“圣诞快乐！”她说。 “现在听好了。当你坐在圣诞老人的腿上时，我要给你拍照。 所以让我们一起开怀大笑，好吗？”“好吧！”我们都说。 “你想买20美元的还是40美元的？”Ms。 汉娜问我们。“装什么？”我说。 “当然是一套照片，”她说。 汉娜。“这个20美元的套餐包括一张8乘10英寸的精美画框。 这个40美元的套餐包括两张镶框的8乘10的照片和10张钱包大小的照片。 我建议你买40美元的套装，这样你就可以和你的祖父母、阿姨、叔叔分享你的照片了。