Chapter 4

The Divider

Katie watched the sleeping Bernard through the half open divider from her bed, resting her head in her hands.

"I wonder if I'm the only half-elf in the world. The way he reacted, it seems that the only people he's heard of are full humans and full elves," she sat, waiting for the alarm to go off. She couldn't sleep all that night, thinking about the conversation they had after they revealed who each other truly were. Sort of.

"I know I sound like I'm just being stubborn and stupid, but I still can't believe that the North Pole is real. I think he's just seen the movies and is acting like Bernard to mess with my head. I don't think he knew that it's my favorite movie on the face of this earth, but still, who hasn't seen it?"

She glanced over at her clock and sighed. It read "5:30 A.M.". The sun was just coming up over the sunrise. "I thought he said that elves didn't need to sleep much. That would explain why I can pull all-nighters for two weeks before I get tired. I wonder if I should try waking him up."

She tentatively got up and walked over to the cot. She gingerly sat down next to him on it, and put her hand out to tap his shoulder. She pulled it back quickly though, suddenly having second thoughts. This pattern repeated, till her clock read "6:00 A.M." Finally picking up enough courage, she lightly placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Bernard," she whispered, shaking his shoulder delicately. Bernard said something in his sleep in response. Katie screwed her face up in annoyance. "Now I'm not sure I believe him about not sleeping a lot."

She looked around at her window. It was much lighter now, but it would still be a good full hour before her alarm went off.

"I think I'll go take a shower and change into some clothes. By then, Bernard will be up, and we can go down and open some more presents. Oh!" she smacked her forehead. "I don't have a present for him! Wait…" She began rummaging around her room, quietly, as not to wake him up.

The first thing she paused at was a necklace. It was gold, and had a heart locket pendant on the end of it. "He was wearing a necklace when he first got here. But I can't give him this one," she opened it to see a picture of her on one side, and a picture of another girl of similar age, but with raven-black hair and light brown eyes. "Cecilia just gave this to me this year for Christmas! And she is my best friend," she clasped the necklace around her neck, then continued rummaging.

"Hmm…what about…this?" she pulled out a teddy bear that was wearing a Santa hat.

"No, that'd be stupid." she thought, tossing it somewhere behind her, then walking out of the room. "Maybe I'll find something in the Game Room."

"Ow!" Something hit Bernard's head, waking him from his sleep. It wasn't hard, but was soft, kinda like a pillow. "Katie, why did you have to-" he was cut short in his angry and slurred speech when he realized that Katie wasn't in the room with him.

"Where'd she go? What time is it?" he thought as he looked around for her or her alarm clock. She said that she would wake him up at 7. He found her clock on the bedside table. It read "6:35 A.M.". "Oh, I guess that both of us woke up a bit early. I wonder what she went to do. Wow, can you believe it, a half-elf! Who thought that they existed? I might as well get dressed while she's gone. It doesn't take very long for me to dress anyway." He turned to the extra dresser, and knocked off the projectile that had woken him up in the first place onto the floor. Looking down on the floor, he saw that it was a teddy bear, wearing a scarlet red Santa hat.

"Odd. Why was this flying though the air, and why was it flying towards me? Kinda cute. It would make a good Christmas present for Katie. It probably was a Christmas present for Katie." Bernard thought as he started getting his clothes on, "Now that I think about it, I should make Katie a Christmas present. I know it's four days after Christmas day itself, but it would still be a nice gesture."

"Katie and Bernard seem to be getting along nicely. I'm glad that you let this go through, Santa. Though that curve of you sending a boy down here threw me off a bit!" Katie's father told Santa as he was making French Toast. He always got up extra early, just naturally, and made breakfast. Santa was sitting in one of the chairs in the kitchen, looking as if half of him didn't like this idea much, and half of him thought this was an amazing idea.

"I'm not so sure that this was entirely safe, Marcus, and I'm not talking about them sleeping in the same room." Marcus snorted, "I have the divider set up so it's like they're sleeping in two separate rooms."

"Yes, but Mother Nature told me at the recent meeting about Frost and Melody." Santa's voice trailed off as Marcus let his arm holding the spatula drop to his side.

"Sorry," Santa added, feeling awkward.

"You didn't do anything wrong. No one can change the past." Marcus said, beginning to flip the French Toast in the pan again.

"But we can change the present! It wouldn't be so hard to cancel everything now. Bernard came to me when he found out that he had been chosen, wanting to back out-"

"But, obviously, you refused then. Tell yourself the argument that you told him that he couldn't back out."

"Yea," Santa nodded, quickly, "I see your point, but that's not the only thing. The reason Mother Nature told me about Melody in the first place was because I'd taken Jack in at the North Pole." The plate of finished pieces of French Toast dropped to the floor. "On a sort of probation-like set-up."

"Ah," Marcus answered, just standing there, ignoring the spilt food on the floor. "Well, that's none of my business. The North Po-"

"Marcus, you know perfectly well that this is 100% your business! I was going to bring Bernard back before

he found anything out about M-"

"Considering how much Katie is like her mother, I would be surprised if he already knows that she's a half-elf. I would be surprised if he knew about her mother's background. Katie doesn't even know about that." Marcus laughed, nowpicking up the French Toast he dropped.

"Then the best course of action would be to leave him where he is." Santa sighed, getting up from the chair. "He'll stay here until the end of the year, as planned. Or we find out if Jack's really shaped up or not." He laughed as he got up and grabbed his coat, which was hanging on the back of the chair. "Probably gonna be the first one."

Marcus snorted again. "You have a good sense of humor. The other one didn't, unfortunately. It was one of his faults." He looked up from the mess he made on the floor. "See you soon, Santa. Watch out for Jack. He can be really tricky."

"Thanks." Santa turned away, starting to walk down the hallway that led to the living room. Marcus turned back to his clean-up job. "Marcus," Santa said, stopping halfway out of the room. "Take care, okay? For Melody's sake?"

"Yes sir." Marcus whispered, but when he looked up again, Santa was gone.

"I just have to find a present for him! But the ones I'm finding just don't seem appropriate!" Katie thought as she pushed the game room door open. Shelves full of books and board and computer games, and the bean bag chairs strewn around the room greeted her, as usual.

"Hmm…" Katie shifted her weight to her right foot, and rested her chin lightly on her right hand as she scanned to room for something that would make a good present.

As she scanned the room, a small angel statue that was placed on one of the topmost shelves peeked down at her with spring-green eyes like her's. It caught her eye quickly, as it was wearing a pale blue and very flowy dress and had curly golden hair which stood out greatly against the dark deep brown of the wood around it; in it's hand was a large (for the statue), closed, and red-brown box in it's hands.

Katie rested her gaze on this small statue and just stood and stared at it for a minute. Then, very slowly, as if walking through water, Katie went towards the shelf. Standing on some of the lower levels, she reached up for the angel. Holding it firmly, as not to drop it, yet at the same time, very gently, as to avoid having it break in her hand, she pulled the statue down. Getting back down to earth, Katie held the angel in her hands, then tenderly opened the box in it's hands. It played a tiny, frail, but very pretty and uplifting little melody. The angel was a music box.

"The last one Mom made before we went on the beach trip. She promised to make me one like this. She never got to it. All because of that freak snow…" Tears welled up in her eyes, making the figure in her hands seem fuzzy and blurry. Carefully placing it in one hand, she wiped her eyes with the other, and looked back down at the angel. It was still playing the soft and very sweet melody on the tiny music box inside. It never needed to be wound up, as if by magic. Her mother had shown her how to make beautiful music boxes like this, but never was able to show her how to make one of the magical ones, like this one was, that never needed winding up.

"I found the perfect present." Katie thought, gingerly taking the angel out of the room with her.

"Almost…no…wait…there. Perfect!" Bernard thought, putting the last bits of ribbon on the wrapped box he held in front of him. "Good thing I brought those gears with me accidentally. I hope that she'll like it. It'll be the perfect present!" He put the box down on the bed, triumphant at his work of art. The box was a medium sized present, wrapped in pale yellow wrapping paper, topped with a shiny red bow. There was a small, similarly red card under the bow that red in green letters: "To Katie, From Bernard".

"Creek!" the door was suddenly opened, making Bernard jump. Katie hadn't come back for a full hour and a half, giving him plenty of time to make his present for her. Turning to see who had entered, he blushed deep red again, now in a position he would have expected to blush in. Katie was walking in, pushing the door open backwards, holding her clothes bundled up in her arms, wearing only a pink towel around her body. Her blonde hair now looked dark brown, almost matching his, dripping wet, leaving her bare shoulders shiny.

"Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinner reconciled, Joyful- oh!" she was singing a Christmas carol under her breath, and as soon as she saw that Bernard was awake and looking at her with a shocked expression when all she was wearing was a bath towel, she froze.

Nobody moved for a complete minute. Then Bernard gathered himself together first, and mumbled, "Sorry, I uh-"

"Don't be. It wasn't your fault. I was the one who forgot to close it before I left. Can you help me pull the divider out? It's easier to push back in than to pull out," Katie laughed, dropping the clothes, bundling up the towel to hold in one hand. Then she grabbed the divider with her other hand. "Um…okay," Bernard answered, trying to concentrate on the divider and not Katie's towel as it was slipping off. Because of this, he accidentally grabbed Katie's hand. Bernard's cheeks then beat their previous record on how red they could go.

"Think you've got it?" Katie asked, the mischievous grin she wore so often appearing on her face.

"Y-yea. Yea, I think so."

"Good," Katie slid her hand from underneath Bernard's.

"Wow, this is hard to pull out!" he thought, starting to push it with his shoulder, ignoring how close his and Katie's faces were together.

Just as they were about to seal themselves off, Kate looked up and said, "Bernard," His head shot up quickly. "Great! Did I mess up again?" "What?"

"Red and gold." Katie answered with a smile, before pushing it shut the final few inches.