A/N: Sorry about the delay! I really thought I was going to get a chance to work on this during the month. Between finishing classes, graduating college, looking for a job, and the holidays, I've just been really busy. Obviously, this won't be finished in time for Christmas. But of course I will still finish it.
This chapter right here is more of a transition, so it's a little shorter than I would like. I will have more time to work on this in January after everything has calmed down.
Thank you for the reviews so far! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Chapter 4
The next morning, Alex shocked her whole family, and Harper, when she bounded down the stairs at 9:00 sharp, fully dressed and ready for the day. "Good morning, everyone!" she greeted cheerily. She breezed past her brothers and Harper, who were eating breakfast at the table, and went to get her own food from the kitchen. Her unexpected attitude had caused both Harper and Max to freeze with their full cereal spoons halfway to their mouths. Justin had actually gone so far as to drop his, which landed with a splat on the floor.
Her parents were equally overwhelmed, and stared at her while she went to grab a bowl from the cabinet. "Alex, honey?" her mother asked worriedly, and put a hand on Alex's forehead.
"I'm fine, Mom," Alex laughed while she brushed away her mother's hand. "I just wanted to start the day right before the hard work starts."
Meanwhile, her father had a calculating look on his face as he tried to figure out her plan. "Excuse us for being a little skeptical, Alex. I mean, I wasn't even sure if you knew the sun rose before noon."
"Of course I knew it rose before noon. It rises..." Alex trailed off when she realized she actually didn't know when the sun came up. "...way earlier than that," she finished lamely, then brushed it off. "Look, what can I say, finding out I was on Santa's naughty list was a bad shock that really got to me."
"You were shocked to find this out?" Theresa blurted, then looked down in embarrassment due to ruining her daughter's emotional confession. "Sorry, go on," she muttered.
Slightly insulted, which wasn't helped by her brother's and Harper's ill-concealed laughter, Alex chose to ignore that and continued. "So, rather than just blow this off...like I do everything else," she admitted, "I'm really going to put real effort in during my time there. Santa needs help."
Her confession had won her formerly doubting father over. "I'm proud of you, Alex," Jerry said as he gave her a quick hug.
"Don't believe her just yet, Dad," Justin warned. He was giving her a warning look from his seat at the table. "She has some kind of plan up her sleeve. I don't know what it is, but I know she has one."
Alex sadly shook her head. "Oh Justin, can't you believe that for once I can be selfless and really pitch in when someone else is in trouble?" She held her serious face for about a second, which dissolved into laughter when her family did. "Okay, I don't blame you, but this time I mean it, I promise."
"That's good to hear. You'll have a better time today if you get in the spirit."
All laughter abruptly ceased at the remark, which hadn't come from the Russo's or Harper. The group slowly turned around to find an elf in their living room. This one looked like a young man around Justin's age, his pointed ears half-hidden by dark, messy hair. His deep, green eyes went with the green, button down shirt he wore over brown slacks.
Alex was mesmerized. While he wasn't that obvious brand of handsome, she still found him totally attractive in a rugged sort of way.
Her trance was broken when he moved towards them and glanced down at the clipboard Alex just noticed he had in his hand. "Okay, you're the Russo family, right? Santa told me to pick you up. My name is Ethan, by the way," he introduced and held out his hand for the nearest person to shake.
That happened to be Alex. "Yeah, t-that's us," she managed, sure her hand was shaking when she took his. "I'm Alex."
"Right, you're the one doing time so Santa will fix your stuffed animal," Ethan replied, which effectively ruined any moment they may have had. This became even more so when he glanced down at his clipboard again. "The rest of you are just volunteering."
Jerry nodded. "Yes, and my son Justin and I will be trying to fix whatever problem you have at the factory," he supplied.
After he studied the notes some more, Ethan looked up and replied, "Right. Well, are you all ready to go now?"
"Yeah!" Max exclaimed and jumped up from the table, his cereal forgotten. "Do we get to pick what we make? I want to build the best toy race car, ever!" he exclaimed, a mad-scientist-like expression on his face as he rubbed his hands together..
Harper stared at him for a second, then shook her head. "And I want to work with the dress up clothes! Do they need fashion designers?" she asked hopefully.
Just then, Alex really noticed what her best friend was wearing. Of course, Harper had taken the Santa's elf concept to the extreme. She was dressed in what was thought to be typical elf fashion - a green, cloth outfit of a long-sleeved top and pants, slippers on her feet with jingle bells on the toes and attached to the red felt on the ankles, and a red-and-green pointed hat, also with a jingle bell.
No doubt Harper had done this as an effort to blend in. But Alex guessed by Ethan's normal outfit, once again Harper would stick out like a sore thumb...even at Santa's workshop.
Ethan had obviously took note of this as well, and gave her a weak smile. "Um, well...you could ask the elf in charge of that department, she...might take you on," he replied, though it was clear he thought there was no chance of that happening.
"Really? Thanks!" Harper exclaimed, either oblivious to or choosing to ignore his dubious tone.
As he realized that the elf had just appeared, and they needed to get to the North Pole somehow, Justin asked, "So, how are we getting there, exactly?"
Her eyes wide, Theresa excitedly asked, "Do we get to ride in the sleigh?"
But her hopes were quickly dashed when Ethan shook his head. "Nope, sorry, that's only for Santa, especially around this time of year. The elves are getting it ready for the big night now." He then snapped his fingers, and a medium-sized red sack appeared. "Here, you have to put these on," he said while he took out some Santa hats.
"Great," Alex muttered as she reluctantly put one on her head. The bright shade of red totally clashed with her outfit, which contained deeper, tasteful, tones of red and green. Even though she had dressed as such to show her Christmas spirit, the hat was a little much. "Do we have to wear these?"
His hat already on, Justin replied smugly, "Oh, Alex, I'm sure they're special items charmed to enable magical transportation, right Ethan?"
Ethan grinned. "No, they're just for fun. Really, all I have to do is this."
He then took out a large green whistle and blew into it. But while everyone covered their ears in anticipation, no sound came out. Instead, Alex found herself floating in a swirling red and green vortex of sparkling lights.
Delivery Elf Alex munched on a sugar cookie as she wandered through one of the workshops an hour later, entertained by the unusual sights and sounds.
They'd arrived in the main house, which was actually a mansion and the base of operations for the whole complex. That was where the naughty-nice list was made, where Santa, his wife, and his parents lived and worked, and where meals were served. While the Claus family mostly stayed in the workshops with the elves, they did spend several hours a day in their own offices.
Around the mansion were brightly colored, extremely large Victorian-style houses that each catered to a specific type of toy. There was one for dolls, another for stuffed animals, and another for vehicles like bicycles and scooters. Three other huge structures provided room for wrapping presents, storage, and the barn for the reindeer.
Her family had gone to their respective sections. Justin and her dad were in the storage house, attempting to fix the disappearing gifts problem. Her mother, and a disappointed Harper who had been quickly rejected by the head dress up clothes elf, were helping with doll assembly. Max was in his glory in the vehicle building, learning how to fix bikes and toy cars (however, from what she heard, the elves were having a hard time keeping him from crashing everything he made).
After dismissing every kind of toy for one reason or another, Alex had been put on delivery duty. As it turned out, while many of the tools used by the elves were top of the line, Santa's workshop hadn't been put online quite yet. Toy production reports and other material still had to be transported by messenger. And when there weren't any documents to transfer, Alex was given baskets of cookies to bring around to the elves for them to snack on while they worked.
A basket of treats on her arm, Alex decided to head over to the reindeer barn. She hadn't been in there yet, and she really wanted to check it out. Besides, it was the building closest to where she was standing in the courtyard. As predicted, it was freezing at the North Pole. Of course, New York City was freezing this time of year too, but its low temperatures were nothing compared to the below-zero temperatures at the workshop complex.
She reached a side door of the barn and pushed it open. The decor was stereotypical barn, save for all the wood beams and stalls painted a mellow shade of green. However, the creatures milling about were majestic, furry brown reindeer with antlers that added at least another foot or two to their height.
"Whoa..." Alex breathed, stunned by just how tall and muscular they all were. Then again, one probably had to be in pretty good shape to fly around the world in one night while carrying enough presents for thousands of children.
The nearest reindeer to her was Dasher, according to his collar, who was currently trying to sneak a cookie out of her basket. "Hey! That's not for you!" she chided, then winced when he gave a loud, intimidating snort. Startled, she glanced around, and reluctantly gave the reindeer a cookie. "Okay, here, but don't tell anyone where you got it from."
"He won't have to. You're not particularly inconspicuous."
Alex whirled around to find a female elf smiling at her, pointed ears half-hidden by a messy mane of rich brown hair. "Yeah...well...he started it by trying to take a cookie out of my basket," Alex grumbled, then went over to the elf and handed her a cookie. "You want? I'm Alex, the new delivery elf. I'm just a temp, of course."
"Sure, thanks," the elf replied as she took the cookie and bit into it. "I'm Chelsea, nice to meet you. Excuse me for asking, but what are you? You're clearly not an elf."
At the elf's bluntness, Alex grinned. Maybe they could be friends. "I'm a wizard. I'm doing some time so Santa will fix the stuffed animal I got when I was little."
"Oh, one of those," Chelsea said with an understanding nod. "We get a few wizards like you every year, who want to make up for landing themselves on the naughty list when they were a kid. I'm guessing that's your situation? Santa doesn't usually mind fixing toys for good kids who have grown up."
"Guilty. But it's not so bad. This place is kind of cool," Alex admitted. She then looked around and noticed there was no other employees around. "You have to take care of all these reindeer by yourself? That's not fair."
Chelsea shrugged. "We Caretaker Elves come in shifts. I'm only here for a few hours or so until someone else takes over. And they're only eight of them. Imagine if they weren't immortal, magical reindeer and had offspring every year?" Chelsea then leaned in and playfully whispered, "Besides, the workload is much lighter in here. Making toys is so much harder."
The remark made Alex grin. Oh yes, they could definitely be friends. "I hear you," she assured her. She then happened to look down at her basket...which was almost empty. "Hey! What happened to..." She turned around, then gasped when she saw crumbs falling from Dasher's mouth. He must have followed her without her notice. "Dasher! Bad reindeer!" she scolded.
But Chelsea only laughed. "Don't worry about it. Like I said, these guys are immortal. Nothing will hurt them."
"Who said anything about them? Now I have to go all the way back to the mansion and fill my basket," Alex whined. After Chelsea laughed, Alex began heading back toward the door. "It was nice meeting you, Chelsea! I'll definitely be back here..." She then trailed off when she remembered that she hadn't seen Ethan for a while, and she would need somewhere to go once she refilled her basket. He'd also mentioned that he liked to go out to the reindeer barn frequently. "Hey, um, wouldn't happen to know where Ethan would be, would you?"
Suddenly, Chelsea's face darkened, and she snapped, "Hands off, he's mine."
"Whoa, sorry, so didn't know..." Alex quickly replied, thrown off by Chelsea's scary and abrupt change in demeanor.
Just as quickly, the elf had reverted back to her friendly tone. "Just messin' with ya," Chelsea teased, amused by Alex's startled look. "He's all yours. He usually does hang out here, but I heard he's spending all day in storage helping two wizards try to fix the storage problem."
Alex laughed at Chelsea's prank.. "Nice one," she replied. "And yeah, the two wizards are my dad and brother. Guess that's where I'm headed once I get a refill."
A/N: Also sorry about the OC overload. Don't worry, they won't be featured too much - I mean, it's Santa's workshop, you gotta have elves right?
