On another, more dismal note: AUGH! (Peanuts style.) People! So apparently, the last chapter either completely sucked and nobody had the guts to tell me, or…well, actually that's all I've really got right now. Seriously?! Was it that bad?
*Crickets*
O.O Damn it. Well, I hope this chapter is a bit better. Maybe even REVIEW worthy! I dunno. Perhaps I'm overly hopeful. Anyhoo, see you on the other side!
All the Best,
Ana
P.S. Oh, and I threw in a surprise that may be gratifying to the other Fanfic authors out there…*sigh* I couldn't help myself. It gave Ellington something to be really embarrassed about…if Bernard finds out. I mean, wouldn't you be mortified, if you were her?
That's what I thought.
Viva la Fanfic!
P.P.S I'm not belittling anyone's work here. Put the guns away! *cowers and runs away*
3. Insults, Embarrassments, and Eavesdropping
The girls' rooms were beautiful, as they were as highly and impeccably decorated as the rest of the Workshop. But it took some talking between Annise and Ellington before the younger girl would agree to the idea of sleeping in separate rooms. Not that they hadn't had separate bedrooms before; but in a strange new place, both girls were a little uneasy at the idea of Annise on her own.
Abby and Carol assured the girls that this was the North Pole, not Brooklyn, and no harm could possibly come to Annise when Ellington was on one side, and, soon, Dottie on the other.
After the girls had been convinced, Carol sent Abby for some cocoa and helped the girls get acquainted with how the rooms were laid out. Each had their own bathroom, with shower and bathtub, and their own walk-in closets, which, when the gilded boxes were placed inside, had clothes hung up in rows upon rows, with shoes still in boxes and paper.
"This...is...amazing," said Ellington, who had never had so many beautiful clothes all to herself in her life, or such a lovely room. Ellington's room was papered in dark green, and trimmed in dark wood. There were stained glass windows set in deep hues of red, green, blue and purple. And there was a stone balcony, overlooking the whole town of...
"What is the town called?" Ellington asked, looking out over the twinkling lights. The sky was beginning to glow in the east. "I've seen it called Christmasjunction, Elfton, Elfville, you name it. What's its real name?"
Carol laughed out loud. "Where in the world did you hear that? Christmasjunction?" And she laughed again.
Ellington laughed a little too, realizing how odd it really did sound. "On the web. People write this stuff called Fanfiction. There are whole web pages devoted to fan written stories about The Santa Clause movies. Didn't you know?"
"Well, I'm sure the elves do," said Carol, sitting on Ellington's bed. "They keep track of all kinds of developments in the human world. Social media has been a big concern of late; so much said so quickly, it's hard to keep up. But no, I've never heard of fanfiction. Do you write any?"
"Oh no." Ellington snorted. "Anyway, it's mostly it's a bunch of girls going gaga over..."
"Over what?"
Ellington sighed, and tossed her head as if it didn't really matter. "Oh you know, various good looking characters in said movies."
"Who, Scott?" Obviously, Mrs. Claus was a little biased.
"No, not exactly..." Ellington trailed off, grateful when Annise popped in the room.
"Can you believe it's almost morning here? We had hardly gone to bed at home! I saw a bunch of flying reindeer out of my window, too! It was awesome!"
Carol sat down on the bed, patting for Annise to sit next to her. "Yes, well, the reindeer training team usually gets started pretty early in the morning, as do most of the elves. All of Elfsburg will be bustling within the next half hour." She gave Ellington a meaningful look.
"Elfsburg?" Ellington laughed.
"Uh huh. You see, the Pole is situated on top of an enormous iceberg, so I guess you could call it a pun, if you like. I think Bernard had something to do with it."
"I see." Ellington traced the wood of the windowsill thoughtfully. "Carol, why is Bernard my chaperone? I thought that he would be too busy to have time to show me around...although he probably sees it as babysitting." She scowled.
Carol decided to follow her gut feeling and not tell the girl of Bernard's punishment...or of his involvement with the Clause. Instead, she merely shrugged and said, "I'm really not sure. Scott didn't tell me. But you could ask Bernard."
Carol wasn't the only one not sharing her thoughts. Ellington wasn't about to share that she was one of those Fanfiction writers herself.
She just hoped that no one at the Pole would delve too deeply into her browser history. They would find the stories she'd written, and Ellington didn't think she could ever live down having written a romance about Bernard. Not here.
Cringe.
Carol took Annise to meet with Curtis, and offered to take Ellington to Bernard as well. But Ellington declined, preferring to wander about a bit on her own before being subjected to Bernard's endless grouching. Stepping out of the workshop, she tried to blend in, pulling her coat warmly around herself to keep out the chill. A few of the elves stopped and smiled at her, and Ellington smiled back, despite how out of her element she felt. The atmosphere was welcoming. Ellington figured that that was a part of the Christmas spirit that permeated the entire town. But somehow, something felt…off. She attributed it to her fluttery stomach and pushed the thought from her mind.
Elfsburg was charming, to say the least; but it was difficult to tell where the Workshop ended and the town began, there were so many out buildings. Though she first thought that giving herself a tour would be virtually impossible, Ellington found that as most buildings were labeled, she could easily tell what was what. And, of course, there were many street signs that directed her in every direction possible.
So Ellington was occupied for a good two and a half hours, enjoying the decorations and ornate architecture of the town. Each building seemed to have been designed with Christmas in mind—which, Ellington realized, had to be true. She noticed that, among many of the more common festive motifs, they relied heavily on swirls and muted colors. Ellington, who had a fondness for intricate design, was delighted to find that almost everything, for the streetlamps to the paving stones, had a special pattern or signature embossed onto their surfaces.
It wasn't snowing; but the ground was dusted with snow all the same. Either by merit of the cold or some kind of magic, it stayed dusty and didn't stick to the bottom of Ellington's boots like snow usually had in Washington. She walked with her hands in her pockets, until she suddenly realized that her fingers were brushing leather in her right pocket. To her surprise, it was a pair of lady-like flannel lined black leather gloves. She slipped them on gratefully, flexing her fingers thoughtfully. They, like the rest of her clothes, fit perfectly—and that was something to marvel at, as Ellington had surprisingly small thumbs due to an inherited gene mutation. They were child sized thumbs, and her sisters often teased her about them. Ellington loved them as a matter of pride, and simply out of stubbornness.
She stopped on a corner to look across at some young girl elves playing together in the snow. Not for the first time since her arrival, Ellington thought about her sisters. Annise, she knew, was her best friend. Ellington hadn't any friends her own age, and liked it like that; she was a particular type and didn't get along with just anybody. Many even thought her stuck up. Ellington had often wondered if they were right. The fact was most people bored her. She didn't really have much in common with people her own age. This was just one of the numerous downsides to being 'mature beyond her years'.
But Dottie, far away on the mainland, lived a life entirely different from Ellington's. The two sisters weren't close like they used to be. There were things that Dottie had done...things that Ellington couldn't understand. Dottie had been raised differently than her sisters, in a different world. And she had made choices that Ellington never could have made.
Dottie, despite being a full year younger than Ellington, had had more relationships by far...and not the good kind. That July, Dottie had 'hooked up' with a guy she liked, who turned right around and dumped her. Realizing hindsight that she had been played, Dottie decided it was the stupidest thing she'd ever done, and vowed never to do it again.
Then, she did the same thing, three more times.
In the same month.
Leave it to my idiot blonde sister, Ellington had thought, stomach clenching in anger at her sister's recklessness. Maybe she and Dottie didn't always get along, but Ellington loved the 'idiot blonde', and was as fiercely protective of her as she was Annise. Their family's past had ensured that, but...
As soon as she thought that, Ellington's body went rigid. She couldn't think about the past. Her past. Her family's past. The unspeakable trials they had been through, as a family, while Dottie had lived in her own little happy world at her mom's…
Even before the cancer.
There was a reason her family had left Washington.
She was drawn out of her thoughts by the sound of someone clearing their throat.
"Ahem."
With a jump, Ellington turned to see Bernard, dressed warmly in the scarf and jacket she had seen in the first movie. He was holding two steaming drinks. "Took me a while to find you."
"Oh." Her voice flat, Ellington struggled to bring her head back from the dark place it had been going.
"Um…are you okay?" Bernard frowned. "You look…odd."
"Oh, thanks." said Ellington, summoning up her sarcasm . "I'm fine, actually. I was just thinking. About…the weather," she finished lamely, mentally face palming.
Bernard, hardly fooled, decided to play along. He handed her a drink. "It must be pretty cold out here compared to what you're used to," Bernard commented as Ellington pulled the lid off her beverage. "Hawaii, I mean. Bit of a climate shock, I'd think."
"Yeah—hey. This is cocoa." She sipped it. "Good cocoa, geez. Wait." She froze. "Did Judy make this?"
Bernard almost smiled. Not quite. "Yes. She… sends her regards." He still wasn't pleased about his situation, regardless of how pretty his charge was. He wasn't being cold, just...reserved. Luckily, Ellington knew how to reciprocate.
"Wow. I thought she retired," Ellington said distantly. Another thing she had read online.
Bernard frowned. "I don't know why you think that everyone retired just because they weren't in on or the movies."
"Well, there's Abby…"
"Abby is Judy's intern," said Bernard. "Judy is still very much around." Ellington knew that the irritation was personal, as well. She had assumed he was gone after the second movie. Clearly, this bothered him.
"I see. Well, something tells me that she wouldn't have put it like that, but when I see her, I'll make sure I thank her myself. Looks like I can't trust you to deliver messages accurately." She grasped the drink more tightly and began walking away, looking into some shop windows.
"Ooh, touché," said Bernard sarcastically. He followed after her as she walked on. She was pretending to look at things in the shop windows. "And where do you think you're going? I was sent to come get you."
"Joy," Ellington said, sighing deeply and turning on her heel. She set a hand on her hip. "Are they trying to torture us both? Because I know you don't want to do this, and I don't want to be griped at by a crabby, overworked elf that'd rather be doing pretty much anything except dragging me around. So what do you say we just agree to ignore the whole emissary/chaperone thing? You leave me alone, I leave you alone. The perfect solution." And she turned away yet again.
Rolling his eyes, Bernard lunged and grabbed the arm of Ellington's coat. "It's not that simple," he said, irritated, "and I'm not that cold, good grief." He sighed, and looked away. "Look, you're right, okay? Obviously this isn't what I would have picked to spend my time doing."
"I already knew I was right. I didn't need you to tell me; it was a statement." Ellington snorted. "But thanks again. Wow, really batting a thousand today, aren't ya, champ?"
Another eye roll. "Yeah, well, fine. My point is, I don't have the authority to decide if we get to part ways or not. Only Santa does; and he's dead set on this 'emissary/chaperone thing', as you so eloquently put it. So for right now, you and me? Well, like it or not, we're stuck together. We may as well come to terms with it and at least get along."
Ellington narrowed her eyes, assessing him. "And what if we don't?" She felt exceptionally resistant all of a sudden.
But upon seeing Bernard's disappointed expression, she immediately reneged. "Uh! Fine."
"Thanks," Bernard replied. Ellington was surprised how that actually stung, having him fling her own comment back in her face. Normally, that didn't even faze her. The embarrassment gave her something to think about during the awkwardly silent walk that followed.
Sometime later, walking down a seemingly endless street, Ellington shored up her reserve and decided to apologize. Rude though she often was, she could never hold out long before feeling plain old awful about what she said. But this time, apologizing seemed to be even harder than usual. All she could manage was, "I'm…sorry. For the way I acted back there."
Bernard looked at her out of the corners of his eyes. Ellington's gaze was fixed on her drink. He decided to answer, instead of pretending not to have heard like he normally would. "Yeah, well neither was I."
She sipped her cocoa thoughtfully which was harder than you'd think, considering the pace at which they were walking. "It's not that I dislike you, mind. I just resent being…resented."
Bernard shrugged…or maybe he was readjusting his coat. "That's natural. I personally resent having my work belittled by being given another job, and then treated as if balancing both will be easy."
Based on the direction of the street Bernard chose Ellington guessed that they were headed back to the workshop. With a small snort, Ellington said softly, "Yeah, I bet. I know I would."
For some reason, this actually made Bernard feel…better.
"Unbelievable," he muttered.
Ellington looked up, alarmed. "I'm sorry. I wasn't being sarcastic…"
"No, not you. Just…it's nothing." He couldn't believe how quickly this girl made him change his mind. First he had been annoyed by her, then insulted by her, and now, consoled by her? This was beyond abnormal. This was weird.
She…was weird?
That made sense.
Bernard tried again. "What I'm trying to say is, I wasn't resenting you. I was just resenting the situation. Any other time, I think we'd get along better."
"'Any other time'?" Ellington asked. She found that an intriguing idea.
"Sure. I mean, I've got the whole Christmas shebang, and you…well, everything with your father…" He faltered, unsure how to avoid being insensitive again.
"Ah. My father," Ellington said flatly, and then grimaced. "No. My father isn't the worst of my troubles. The fact that I'm going to be living next door to Dottie for the foreseeable future… that's my real problem."
Meanwhile, Curtis was busy showing Annise what he did best…that is, flub up.
"And this is the pantograph room, where we replicate toys!" They marched into the room, where other elves were bustling around doing various tasks that Annise found hard to pay attention to with Curtis' incessant chatter. "And this is the pantograph itself," he said cheerily, gesturing up at the large tower of a machine like a game show hostess displaying a fabulous prize. "A beauty, isn't she? I built her myself…well, with some help, of course. Took me around, oh, three hundred and fifty seven years to get it just right."
"Wow," was all Annise could muster, for one question had slipped into her mind past the barrage of information, and she had to ask it aloud. "So this is the machine that you used when you effed up and made that toy Santa?"
All the elves in the room collectively fell silent, and turned to look at Curtis.
Curtis turned very red. "Aren't you a little young to be using language like that?"
"What, English? No," said Annise flatly, in her best Ellington impersonation. It worked for Ellington. Why not her? "Well? Was it?"
"Umm…" Curtis turned even redder. "Why don't we go look at something else…"
The elves all burst out laughing, and turned back to their work as Curtis led Annise out by the hand.
"I guess you haven't really lived that down yet, have you?" Annise commented.
"What do you think?" Curtis snapped, sounding much like Bernard. Apparently both could emulate their older counterparts with great accuracy, should the situation require it. "I am barely living down that fiasco as it is! So please, before you decide to go around reminding everyone of my mistakes, think of how you would feel in my shoes." He was breathing hard, visibly upset.
Annise, who was naturally sympathetic anyway, felt terrible for having called him out. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "That was a really thoughtless thing to say. Please forgive me."
Curtis nodded, but he was so ruffled that it took him a minute to fully realize that she had apologized. Then he nodded again. "Thank you," he said. "Nobody apologizes to me."
"We're the younger ones," Annise agreed softly. "People forget us sometimes."
Curtis felt a pang in the chest. Poor kid, she must be having a hard time, with her dad and everything. Did she have anyone to talk to?
"Look, if you ever need anyone to talk to... I mean, I know you have Ellington, but…someone your own age, I'm here."He shrugged lightly, as if it didn't matter much to him either way.
"Um, aren't you like nine hundred and something?" Annise asked, confused. "I'm ten."
"Yeah, well, maturity wise, I'm your age, okay? Let's leave it at that."
"Okay." With a soft laugh, Annise shook her head. "Thanks." But her eyes stayed on the floor.
Seeing how she obviously still felt awful for embarrassing him, which was…refreshing, Curtis found it his duty to patch things up mainly as a form of apology for his outburst. "Why don't we go get some lunch?" he offered. "I know of a great little café in Elfsburg."
"Okay," Annise said, looking up with a sparkle in her eye.
"Come on," Curtis took her hand again.
On their way out of the workshop, they saw through the glass of the front doors two familiar figures coming up the stairs.
"It's Bernard!" Curtis cried, suddenly alarmed.
"And Ellington," said Annise happily, ready to step out and greet them.
"Quick! Hide!" Curtis pulled her behind a partition in the wall.
"Curtis, why are we hiding from Bernard?" This seemed suspicious.
"Well…" Curtis reddened again... it seemed to be something he did often, Annise noted. "I sort of didn't finish my assignment yesterday…he doesn't know yet…"
"Curtis!" Annise punched him in the arm.
"OW!" Curtis shot her an injured look. "What! Shoeing the reindeer is a difficult job! It takes a lot of time! And I was busy getting ready for your arrival, so...it sort of fell by the wayside."
Annise face palmed. "Okay, well…should we go take care of it?" She was a very responsible young person.
Also, she knew that ticking off an older sibling figure was a very bad idea.
"Shh!" Bernard and Ellington walked in through the doors, deep in conversation.
"…And they don't even understand how difficult it is to manage everything!" Bernard was saying.
They just see the power aspect of the position and want the authority, not the actual work," Ellington agreed.
"Oh good grief," Annise whispered, annoyed. It was obvious who they were talking about.
Ellington said something quiet that they couldn't make out; but Bernard's reaction was marked. "Exactly," he said…but then his eyes widened. Bernard spun around, saying something back that was just as quiet.
This went on for a bit. They could see Ellington's face, and apparently she had the last word…in a way. Whatever she had said, Bernard seemed pleased with it. "Right," he agreed yet again, giving Ellington that cute smile of his.
He turned away and kept walking, Ellington following him with a vacant yet disturbed expression on her face. Bernard didn't seem to notice, because his back was to her. Also he was still talking. "But those above us just think we don't want to share the power. As if!"
Woah," Curtis breathed. "He agreed with her. Twice." Seeing Annise's look, he said, "Bernard doesn't agree with anyone but Santa. Like, ever. And sometimes not even him."
"What about Mrs. Claus?"
"Well…" Curtis considered this. "Her too. Sometimes."
"…When we both know the real reason is…" Ellington was saying, but then was too far away for the eavesdroppers to hear anything more.
"'The real reason'?" Annise wondered. "What's the real reason?"
With a sigh, Curtis came out from behind the partition. "No idea. But gee," he laughed, "looks like my 'girlfriend' joke might have been right after all!"
"What girlfriend joke?" asked a voice from behind them.
Curtis paled.
Ellington had quickly brushed off her real concerns about Dottie, merely telling Bernard that Dottie didn't like that Ellington was the eldest. Bernard instantly began talking about his own troubles with being the eldest; this was just what Ellington had been hoping for. She didn't want all of the attention on her family issues just yet. Besides the rather publicized issue of her father's health. And so, for some odd yet welcome reason, the rest of their walk had been spent talking about being the eldest.
More than odd, really, since the elf was centuries older than the girl of seventeen years.
But somehow, they had a lot in common. And it was enjoyable to have someone to talk to, Ellington found. Someone who understood. Their pace had slowed, till it was almost a stroll. Ellington soon discovered that listening to Bernard's stories was actually more satisfying than sharing her own (again, a relief, as she found sharing her own stories about as much fun as sharing her family issues.)
Passing the time in this way, it seemed to Ellington that they reached the workshop all too soon. As they climbed the stairs, Bernard was expounding on how stupid it was for anyone to want his job.
"They just assume that running everything is a cinch! That it's all just some sort of power trip! They assume that they could take over, and they don't even understand how difficult it is to manage everything!" It was obvious just who 'they' were. He was ranting about Curtis, clearly.
"They just see the power aspect of the position and want the authority, not the actual work," Ellington said knowingly. Then, just loud enough for him to hear, she added, "I suppose it was good that Curtis had his viewpoint corrected."
"Exactly," Bernard agreed, and then froze. He whipped around, eyes wide in disbelief.
"Did you just say Curtis?"
"Well, yeah," said Ellington quietly, ducking her head to avoid being overheard. "I mean, c'mon Bernard. Curtis is the one whose always giving you crap about being the Head Elf. Everyone knows that."
"Everyone knows…" Bernard trailed off. She was right, of course. It was obvious. But he never really thought about it so matter-of-factly. It was a fact that was just sort of… well, there.
"Right," he said lightly, flashing that sideways smile that made every fan girl's stomach flop. Including Ellington's, regardless of how much she loathed even the thought of her stomach flopping from a guy's smile. Or elf's smile. Whatever. Ellington didn't go for that kind of romantic garbage.
At least, not that she would admit to herself.
Because a corner of her heart felt soft and mushy all of a sudden, and she didn't much like the thought of it.
She heard him go on, something about how people above them thought that they didn't want to share the power. For some really weird reason (or maybe it was Bernard's ears) she was reminded of the Lord of the Rings, when Gandalf said, quite ominously, 'There is only one Lord of the Ring…and he does not share power with anyone.'…or something like that. Then she started imagining Bernard as an elf of Middle-earth, possibly wearing some sort of tight fitting
WHOA WHOA WHOA!
What the hell! Ellington reeled her mind back in with a vengeance. This was wrong, on so many levels. She set herself back into the moment, where Bernard had paused waiting for her reply. Desperately, she searched for something that sounded smart and made sense.
"It's not about our wanting the power to ourselves," she blurted (or what felt like blurting, maybe it was normal talking after all) as she followed after him into the crowds of the workshop. "The idea is completely ludicrous, especially when we both know that the real reason we don't want their help with serious tasks lies in the simple fact that we know they will bungle it up!"
Bernard stopped in his tracks. Oh great, I've done it again, Ellington thought. He turned back to her. "Do you feel that?"
Ellington's heart sped up. Damn you, involuntary cardiovascular responses. "What?"
"A crawling sensation. On your skin."
If possible, Ellington's heart sped up even more. She considered this. Sure enough, an unsettling creeping chill was washing over her skin. It had a prickle to it.
"Yeah. What is that?" she wondered, somewhat annoyed.
Bernard looked around suspiciously. "We're being watched."
Ellington didn't think this was the reason at all; at least not for her. But given that Bernard felt the same thing (and certainly not for the same reasons), she figured he must be right. They were being watched. Her stomach agreed.
It only took a few seconds for Bernard to spot Curtis' elbow sticking out from behind the partition. But it was Ellington's idea to sneak up on them.
"…Gee," Curtis was laughing. "Looks like my girlfriend joke might have been right after all!"
Oh, God. Why?! Weren't her own hormones enough? She didn't need encouragement! She needed rebuttal!
Ellington felt her stomach twist. If anything else happened to her stomach today she was going to have to start worrying about the negative effects on her health.
Forcing herself not to check Bernard's facial expression, she asked,
"What 'girlfriend' joke?"
Things were getting even more complicated than Ellington had expected.
Well well well! You made it. The end of chapter three. I'm pretty surprised myself…I was initially anxious about posting this story at all…okay, fine, I'm still anxious about posting this story at all. PLEASE, pity the author, who is ripping fistfuls of her hair out in worry that her writing is giving people headaches. *single tear*
Okay, enough with the pity party.
But seriously. Guys. Make my day, and please REVIEW! Even Guests can review, and it would really mean a lot to
Yours truly,
etiquette-faux-pas
Informally Ana