Bernard's POV

I couldn't believe this. Ever since the real Santa left, Curtis and I have to deal with Toy Santa's antics. I hate having to lie to the elves, but we had no other choice. Dr. Hismus had informed us that the elves in the Tinsel Football incident did not have any serious injuries and should be released from the infirmary soon.

After convincing the injured elves that "Santa" was just stressed and overwhelmed from the season, Curtis and I headed back to the main workshop to check on the departments. We were approaching the stuffed animal department when we heard a hearty chuckle coming from NN.

"Curtis, what is he doing in the Naughty-and-Nice Center?" I asked him. Curtis shrugged, but followed me as we hurriedly approached Toy Santa. "What's going on here?"I snapped.

"Well, I'm checking the naughty-nice list," Toy Santa explained, with a plastic grin on his face. "Actually, I'm checking it twice."

"I ALREADY TOLD YOU!" I began raising my voice. A few of the NN elves looked up at me. So, I softened my tone a little bit. "It's been checked. Don't worry about it."

"Well, I do worry about it," Toy Santa disagreed. "There's a lot of mistakes. I'll give you a big fat for instance! In Denmark, there's a guy named Sven Halstrom right here. He's a Dane. Apparently, he was wiping his nose on his sister's shirt. Yuck! That's not very nice! And yet he's on the nice list."

"We try to cut most children slack this time of year," Curtis calmly suggested.

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND THAT!" Toy Santa hollered at us. "It looks like kids are misbehaving everywhere. They're running with scissors, they're always sticky, "'I'M NOT GOING TO STOP THIS CAR! NO, WE'RE NOT THERE, YET!'", "'BRUSH YOUR TEETH!'", "'PICK UP THOSE CLOTHES!'" It goes on and on."

"But they're just kids!" I interjected. "Everybody misbehaves some time."

"BUT ACCORDING TO THE SANTA HANDBOOK," Toy Santa snapped. "Naughty kids get lumps of coal in their stockings. Right? If they don't have stockings, we will make them stockings. In my personal opinion, they should all get coal in their stockings. Don't you?"

"No!" Curtis began to protest. "That's not how it works!"

"Get me the Naughty-Nice List!" Toy Santa ordered one of the NN elves. "Get me every list! Get me everything!"

Curtis and I looked at each other nervously. What exactly is Toy Santa up to? Hopefully, the real Santa will come back soon. Will he?