"Ugh," Beck groaned and rolled over to look at the clock, only to hit open air, which preceded the hardwood floor. She lay there for a few moments before it dawned on her that she didn't have hardwood floor in her apartment.
My floor is supposed to be carpet.
Unless I passed out in the kitchen this time, in which case this should be linoleum.
…Wait, what?
Her eyes shot open, bulging slightly. She took in the sideways view of the festive room from her spot on the floor.
"Son of a bitch!" Beck scrambled to her feet, banging her knee on the bedside table. Holding her wounded knee, she hopped on one foot to the window. She yanked back the thick drapes and squinted as artificial sunlight flooded the room.
She turned to a large, ornate mirror on the wall and made a face when she saw her eyeliner smudged, bloodshot eyes and dragged-backwards-through-a-bush bed head. She grabbed some clothes and dragged herself into the shower, taking her time and belting out a verse or two of Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody."
When Beck emerged in clean clothes, she shuffled into the kitchen and stared idly into the empty refrigerator. She hummed a bit of the song to herself while squatting and doing a few lunges to loosen her tight blue jeans.
"Nice solo," someone commented dryly. Beck jumped, ceasing her exercises, and turned her head to see a green beret poking above an issue of The Yule Gazette. "You were a little flat, though."
"I'll make a note of it," she mumbled, leaning on the open fridge door and gazing at Bernard from beneath her eyelashes. "I'm sorry, how did you get in here again?"
A hand emerged from behind the paper and dangled a set of keys. Beck walked over to take them, but Bernard snatched the keys away, setting the paper down on the table. "Ah, ah, ah." He wagged a finger at her. "You've got to earn these. I can't trust you yet."
"I freaking hate you," She rolled her eyes immaturely and flung open the refrigerator door again, as if food had somehow materialized in the few seconds that she had been out of the immediate vicinity. "Why is there no food?" She whined.
Bernard gave a long-suffering sigh, and plopped a paper bag onto the table. Beck slowly approached the table and gingerly pulled the bag open, keeping her wary eyes on Bernard the whole time. She then proceeded to reach into the bag as if there was a snake inside, and pulled out a cinnamon bagel with cream cheese.
Bernard ran through the snow to Beck's house. She had been out of school for the past few days due to the flu, and he needed to hurry if he wanted to see Beck and make it to school on time.
He approached her ground-level window, knocking on the glass. There was a shuffle inside before the window was pushed open. Beck stood, shivering as the icy air blew into her bedroom. She was dressed in a heavy bathrobe, and she had dark circles under her eyes.
"Good morning!" He greeted her.
"G'morning," She hoarsely replied, sniffing. She gave an exhausted smile.
"I have to go so I'm not late, but this is for you. Feel better soon, okay?" He pushed a brown paper bag into her hands and hurried off with his book bag, his legs looking awkward in his too-short school slacks.
Beck chuckled and looked inside the bag, pulling out a cinnamon bagel with cream cheese. She smiled. "My favorite. What a guy," She mused, biting into her breakfast.
"It's poisoned." She declared, promptly dropping it on the table.
"Don't be ridiculous. We need to keep you alive for liability reasons," Bernard said crisply. Beck stared at him, unsure whether or not he was being serious. He calmly took a sip out of his paper "to-go" cup.
"Heh," was all that Beck could come up with: a half-laugh and a sneer. Despite herself, she took a large bite out of the bagel. Sadist, she thought bitterly.
"We've got a lot of work to do today. My work day started at six, but I thought I'd give you an extra hour or two."
"How magnanimous of you," Beck said, polishing off the bagel.
"Just a cross I have to bear," He shot back, annoyed. "Anyway, we're going to try to place you in a job today." He finished off his drink and moved to put the cup in the trash can. This required him to lean past Beck, which allowed her to catch a whiff of his breath.
"Hot Cocoa? Really?" She raised an incredulous eyebrow. "I thought that was coffee you were drinking. And here I was just beginning to take you seriously." She smirked at having gained the upper hand once more.
"My feet are freezing," Beck complained on the way to the workshop.
"Why aren't you wearing appropriate shoes for the snow? We're at the North Pole. It's a little nippy up here." Bernard shot a look at Beck's canvas high-top sneakers. "Do you wanna get frost bite?"
When the two reached the workshop, Beck pulled off her jacket and flung it to the side dramatically. "I'm home!" She announced.
A few elves gave her dirty looks, and someone hissed, "Hide the dolls!" but most of the workers ignored her presence altogether.
"Tough crowd." Beck hooked her thumbs in her belt loops.
Bernard led her into his office and sat at his desk. Beck wandered around the room, gazing at the different articles and certificates. She paused briefly when she saw a familiar photo from elf school, but quickly looked away and cleared her throat. "So uh, when do I start working?"
"Now." Bernard dropped a stack of papers onto the desk in front of him and looked up at her expectantly.
"You're joking." Beck stared at him. "A desk job?"
"Just until I can find a department head willing to take you in," Bernard told her. "In the meantime, have at it." He grinned smugly at her, and she vaguely wondered whether anyone would hear his screams of terror through the closed door. She saw red for a few moments until she realized he was still talking. "-And since it's not the busy season, I have nothing better to do than babysit you."
Beck swore at him. "We don't talk like that here," He said sternly. "You need to watch your language. But trust me, the feeling is mutual."
Beck spent the next hour alphabetizing letters to Santa. Seriously, she thought, It's the day after Christmas. These kids sure move fast. Then she had to sort orders from the departments for new supplies and parts, among other tedious tasks. All the while, Bernard sat at his desk, filling out his own paperwork.
Christmas requires a lot more paperwork than it used to.
"Wow – just wow."
"What?" Bernard looked up from his work, annoyed. Beck was sprawled on the floor, surrounded by inventory sheets and order forms.
"This is not what I expected for the Head Elf."
"What do you mean?" He inquired in a monotone, neatening a stack of papers and putting them into a manila envelope.
"This is so – mundane. I expected your job to be a little more exciting." Just as she said that, an alarm went off that rattled the very walls.
"ELFCON ONE. ELFCON ONE. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. REPEAT: THIS IS NOT A DRILL."
"Knock on wood," Bernard stood and looked at Beck.
"Now that's what I'm talking about!" She followed him down a hallway, down another hallway, down dozens more hallways. She noticed that all the other elves had become almost motionless, and completely silent (aside from the deafening alarm, that is).
"Okay, what exactly is happening?" She inquired, her voice rising over the alarm.
Bernard hushed her. "ElfCon One," He informed her. "It's our security system. Chances are it's just a plane, but we can't be too careful." He led her to a red-and-white pole in the middle of the floor and told her to hang on.
"Why?" Beck asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Just do it."
She followed his orders, and he did the same. Bernard opened a small, nearly invisible hatch in the pole and punched in a series of numbers, the beeps sounding suspiciously like "Jingle Bells." The floor seemed to jolt, and Beck soon realized that a platform was raising them up through a newly opened hole in the ceiling. They passed into a dark control-room, and Beck stepped off the platform. Bernard opened another hatch, unfolding two handlebars and peering through a scope.
"This one's flying really low," He observed worriedly. He made his way to a younger-looking, chubby elf who was seated at a control panel – one that was emitting a series of fast beeps. There was a radar screen with a dot quickly closing in on the origin.
"It's an A-10," The younger elf explained.
"What is an A-frosting-10 doing at the North Pole?" Bernard clenched his jaw. Beck just looked around at the control room in awe. He pulled a few levers and gears before peering at the radar once more. "Brace yourselves," Bernard warned just before the whole room shook violently, throwing a few elves from their stations. Beck was knocked to the floor, while he held fast to the pole.
The tremors soon stopped however, and the beeping from the radar slowed down, eventually ceasing altogether. There was a moment of silence, before someone pulled a lever, silencing the alarm. The workers in the room began applauding, and Bernard went around with handshakes.
"Another crisis averted."
Beck shakily got to her feet. She ran her fingers through her mussed hair and looked around, bewildered.
A girl turned to her and snorted. "Newbie. You're not going to throw up, are you? Somebody get her the puke bucket!" She called to her comrades.
"Idonotneedthepukebucket," Beck snarled at her, grabbing onto the back of the girl's swivel chair and yanking on it, causing her to spin out of her seat. She composed herself and made her way over to Bernard, stepping over equipment. "What the hell was that?"
He paused in looking over plans for upgrading the security. "That was a plane. You know, the big metal birds in the sky?"
"Thanks for clearing that up for me." She leaned against the control panel. "So, even the North Pole's gotta keep up with the Joneses, huh?"
Bernard went back to the pole, and she followed him. "As the rest of the world progresses, we need to progress in order to hide ourselves." They began their descent into the now busy hallway. "Not only to keep a certain magic and mystery to Christmas, but to protect the elves from exploitation. We've had to upgrade our security recently, after an incident involving Jack Frost. Thankfully I was taking a sabbatical that year, but God, there was so much paperwork." They reached his office once again. "And every time something like this happens, every time there's a security breach, there's even more paperwork. Filling out reports, damage assessment, not to mention paying the workers overtime to reset the system." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I hardly have time for my own job, let alone you. So get to work."
"Well, aren't you just delightful to be around?" Beck mumbled, turning back to her work and opening up a thick manila envelope. Bernard, whose head was already bent over his desk, writing, wasn't listening.
Beck looked at him, trying to see the shy, gawky boy from her youth, but had no such luck. He had really grown up, she noticed. But she would never admit it. Nor would she admit that in truth, his busy ways and strict purposefulness impressed her to the point of intimidation.
Chapter Four up!
It's a bit shorter than the last ones, but I felt bad for leaving you guys hanging. As a reader, I know how easy it is to lose interest in a story.
Review Please! Critiques welcome!