Lowest on the Totem Pole
Chapter 20
After the incident with Elsa's mother, Anna and Elsa chose to stay inside for the rest of the day. Kristoff was with them the majority of the time, though he did have to take Sven outside on a regular basis. The three students had the dining room table cleared off and were working on putting a large puzzle together. The box sat on its side at the end of the table so that they could see what exactly they were doing - not that it helped. They were two hours in and had barely gotten the edges put together.
"Kristoff, you dumbass, that's clearly part of the bottom green section! Why are you trying to fit it in the top blue?"
"Are you color blind, Anna? That piece is obviously blue! Seriously, what world are you in where that piece is green?"
Elsa sighed, setting her elbow on the table and resting her chin in her hand. She looked at the piece her friends were fighting over, and it was clear to her that it belonged in the middle purple section. She chose not to speak up, instead settling for watching the pair argue. They were very animated, arms and gestures flying everywhere. Elsa expected one of them to flip the table sooner or later. Her brow furrowed in confusion as she realized that they weren't even arguing about the puzzle anymore and were instead setting up to arm wrestle.
Surprisingly enough, Anna won quickly, slamming Kristoff's hand into the table. "I told you!" she shouted, a smug grin on her face. "Don't doubt the strength of a mechanic! Do you even do anything when you're at the gym, Kristoff?"
"Your mom," Kristoff grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting.
"Careful," Anna said sharply, any sign of amusement disappearing from her face. She pointed a finger at Kristoff's face. "The last guy who talked about my mom had himself a black eye for two weeks." With that, she poked her friend in the nose and sat back down, grin returning as she picked up another puzzle piece.
"And the last woman who did almost ended up getting her head torn off," Elsa commented, idly fitting a piece into the top right corner of the puzzle.
"A rightfully sensitive topic," Kristoff said. He shrugged and picked up another piece from the pile on the table, looking at it closely before trying to fit it in with the piece Elsa had just put down. Sadly, it wasn't even close – in fit or color.
By the time Teresa returned home, the puzzle was about a quarter of the way done. Elsa had done most of the work, though Anna had found a piece that fit here and there. Kristoff was still trying to figure out the difference between the green and blue pieces, holding on to one in hopes that he would find out where it went before it was the last piece.
"Anna," Teresa called as she took off her shoes. "There are groceries in the trunk of my car, could you bring them in please?"
"Sure thing, mom!" Anna called back, pushing herself and her chair away from the table before standing up. "Come on, Kristoff, take a break from the puzzle and help me out. I can smell your brain melting inside your head."
Kristoff sighed and set his puzzle piece aside - away from the rest, of course, so that he could come back to it later. He followed Anna out the front door and to Teresa's car, which was parked next to Kristoff's truck in the driveway. Walking around to the trunk, he saw that it was full to the brim with bags of groceries.
"Wow, your mom knows us too well," Kristoff said lightly. "This might be enough to last us through tomorrow, eh?"
"Dear God, Kristoff's going Canadian on us," Anna muttered, the grin on her face betraying her and assuring Kristoff that it was just a joke. She loaded up her arms with plastic bags, taking five in each and leaving two for her friend to grab.
Kristoff stared at the two bags remaining in the car and then looked at Anna, who was stumbling towards the front door, leaning heavily forward trying to balance all of the extra weight she was carrying. "You're ridiculous," he said with a chuckle and a shake of his head. He quickly grabbed the two remaining bags and shut the trunk before jogging up behind Anna.
Elsa watched in amusement from her spot at the table as Anna stumbled into the house, arms laden with shopping bags. When she saw Kristoff, she raised an eyebrow. "I thought you went out to help, Kris," she said.
"I am helping!" Kristoff argued. "She grabbed all those on her own before I had a chance!"
"And I'd have grabbed all of them if I didn't feel bad for you," Anna said, setting the bags down on the kitchen floor. "Do you want help with dinner, mom?"
"Anna," Teresa said, eyebrow raised, "what happened the last time you helped me cook?"
Anna hesitated, thinking. "Was that the time we had to call the fire department, or was that the time before?"
"Since you have to ask, the answer is no. No, I don't want your help with dinner," Teresa said light-heartedly. "I appreciate the offer, but I'll take Kristoff as my sous chef instead."
Anna heaved a sigh, her shoulders slumped forward and her head hanging. "I see how it is," she said dejectedly, walking back to the dining table to sit with Elsa. Once sitting in her chair, she looked up to Elsa with a grin. "See, Elsa," Anna stage-whispered, "that's how you get out of any kind of kitchen responsibilities."
"You're not getting out of doing the dishes though," Teresa said, digging through the grocery bags. Kristoff rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and washed his hands before helping Teresa get things into the fridge and cupboards. Taking a break from the puzzle, Elsa dug through her bag that sat next to the couch and pulled out an iPod and speakers.
"What kind of day is it?" Elsa asked, scrolling through her playlists. "I don't have Christmas music on here, so that's not an option."
"Today's a good day for Disney," Kristoff called out, his voice muffled by the fridge. Elsa looked up, curious as to why he sounded so far away, and bit back a laugh as she saw him practically up to his waist inside the fridge.
"When is it not a good day for Disney?" Elsa commented, selecting a playlist and turning the speakers on. She set them on the edge of the table closest to the kitchen so that everyone could hear and she could still work on the puzzle.
By the time dinner was ready, Anna and Elsa had almost finished the puzzle. There was only a single piece missing, near the center of the image, and said piece was sitting off to the side right where Kristoff had left it. Table settings were piled on the corner of the table, awaiting the finishing and consequent demolishing of the puzzle that covered more than half of the tabletop.
"Oi, Kristoff!" Anna shouted above the music. "Are you gonna finish this puzzle or what?"
Kristoff glanced out of the kitchen, a ceramic baking dish in his oven-mitt covered hands. "You guys left my piece out for me?" he asked, walking to the table with the dish still in hand. "Anna, pull a trivet out so I can set this down."
Anna complied, bringing over several trivets so that they would have enough for the rest of dinner. Kristoff set the dish down and Anna peeked inside of it, mouth watering at the scent of freshly baked biscuits. Kristoff took his oven mitts off, grabbed his piece, and triumphantly placed it in the open spot that was left for him. "Hah," he gloated, "I told you that piece was purple."
Anna rolled her eyes, not wanting to start another argument. Instead she simply started taking the puzzle apart, tossing the pieces back into the box. When she was done, the box went back into the closet with her other puzzles and board games and the table was set for dinner. Elsa assisted in the table setting and making sure that each hot dish was on a trivet.
"No Rapunzel tonight?" Elsa asked as the four finally sat down to eat. She had put the music away for the time being, wanting to have a nice, quiet dinner.
"Nah, she and her mom are doing whatever it is they do. She'll be over in the morning, bright and early to wake us up. You guys are staying the night, right? Cause we get up really early for presents and I wouldn't want you to miss that because I have presents for both of you and I think mom does too and Rapunzel might have even gotten you something so we don't want to open presents without you but if you guys go home then you'll be too late when you come over and - and - and -" Anna finally stopped to breathe and saw Elsa chuckling.
"Yes, Anna, the plan was to stay the night," Elsa said, hiding her smile behind a hand. "Don't worry, we'll be up bright and early for presents."
Anna cheered silently, grinning from ear to ear.
"Anna, can you please start dishing up and passing things this way?" Teresa asked, fingers tapping on the table impatiently. "I had a long day full of difficult people and I am so ready to eat a nice, warm, home cooked meal."
Anna nodded, loading her plate up with food before passing dishes towards her mother. "Why'd you have to work today anyway? It's a holiday for God's sake, they should let you spend time with your family!"
"When the police need psychiatric evaluations, they need psychiatric evaluations, Anna. Half of the police force doesn't even get tomorrow off, you know."
"You do psych evals for the police?" Elsa asked as dishes were passed to her. "That's really impressive! How did you get into that line of work?"
"Claire and I both majored in Psychology for our undergrad, but we went separate directions after that. She wanted to be a clinical psychiatrist, which meant several more years in school. One of us had to support the other, so I just got my Master's in psych with a focus on law enforcement. Once I was done with track and field, it didn't matter much where I ended up so long as I was able to support Claire on her path. Law enforcement was a good field to choose because there's never a lack of jobs there." Teresa said, smiling softly.
"Wait, wait, wait - track and field? You're that Teresa?" Kristoff asked, grabbing two biscuits from the pan he was just handed.
"That Teresa?" Elsa echoed, confused.
"Teresa Stevens, the Olympic hurdles runner! First openly lesbian American Olympic runner! I literally wrote a paper about you in high school, Teresa, I can't believe that you're... I mean... Well... Wow," Kristoff said, sitting back in his chair and staring in awe at Teresa. "I'm seeing you in a whole new light."
"I wasn't anything particularly special, Kristoff," Teresa said. "I ran several races and only placed in one of them - even then it was just third place."
"But third place at the Olympics!" Kristoff argued, throwing his hands up in the air. "You were third best in the world! I never thought I'd meet an Olympic athlete, let alone cook with one and eat at the same table on Christmas Eve! I think I might cry."
"Go ahead," Anna said between mouthfuls of food, "I won't judge."
It was late by the time the Summers household was quiet. Anna had kept them up playing board games and putting puzzles together, sipping at hot chocolate and slowly devouring the pie Teresa had warmed up in the oven. Kristoff curled himself up on the couch first, Sven sleeping at his feet. Elsa and Anna finally climbed into their beds a little past one in the morning, Anna dreading having to wake up in two hours to take her medicine.
Elsa laid on her side, facing Anna's bed. Impulsively, she reached up and fumbled around until her hand came in contact with Anna's. She tangled their fingers together, sighing contentedly. Anna squeezed her hand and she smiled.
"Elsa?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for being part of my family. I'm sorry it couldn't have been like this all the time."
"The past is in the past, Anna. Nothing to do but move forward and make up for lost time."
Anna squeezed Elsa's hand again, curling herself into a ball around it. "Happy Christmas, Elsa," she murmured as sleep finally began to overtake her.
"Happy Christmas, Anna," Elsa whispered.
A/N: Okay, this time I promise we're getting to Christmas Day. This chapter just dragged on for so long that I had to cut it off at some point. I try to keep my chapters around 1500 words, but they keep getting longer on me. We're learning more about Teresa and the rest of Anna's family - expect to see more of that in the next few chapters.
As always, thanks for reading and I look forward to any reviews that come my way! See you Thursday!
Much love,
~Matt