The North Pole Challenge (Flea's Five Christmases, #1) (21 page)

             
Flea headed straight for the canon elevator inside the dorm, soaring up to his floor with hardly a worry during the flight. He rode the chute and landed perfectly on his feet in the hallway, proud of himself for finally learning to do something right.
Maybe it
won’t
be so hard to get used to living here,
Flea thought. But as he started to walk down the hall, his day quickly took a turn for the worse. There was something different about the first unmarked door: a white strip of cloth was tied around the handle. At first, Flea was confused and wondered if this was merely a coincidence, if other lost elves had caught on to the trick of locating his room. But when he approached the next door – and the next one and the next one after that – he saw that
every
door in this hallway had the same piece of white cloth dangling from the handle.

             
Then Flea heard the laughter. The sound echoed from somewhere down the hallway and he knew it was at his expense. Usually he would’ve tried to avoid any sort of confrontation, but he was so angry that he didn’t hesitate to run toward the noise, determined to find those responsible for torturing him. Miss Mabel was no longer here to hold Flea back from sticking up for himself, which was exactly what he planned to do now. He sprinted all the way down the hallway – nearly slipping several times on small patches of snow scattered about – until he reached the other end. There, he saw Artimus Maximus and his group of well-dressed friends huddled around the final door before the ‘slidewell.’ The group continued to laugh even when Flea came into view and stopped just a few doors down.

             
“Here comes the freak!” one of the girl elves shrieked. “Let’s get out of here.”

             
Though most of the group quickly headed for the slidewell – with some of the bigger guys pushing aside the smaller girls so they could escape first – Artimus stood in place and stared at Flea, smiling his wicked grin. This so enraged Flea that he sprinted toward the much bigger elf, wanting to tear him limb from limb even though he’d never fought anyone in his entire life.

             
Artimus flinched first.

             
“Don’t you leave until you’re finished,” Artimus yelled at the lone elf still huddled by the final door. The group leader then followed the rest of his friends into the slidewell. Flea considered taking out his frustration on the last elf left behind but decided that following Artimus down the slide would be far more satisfying. But he didn’t make it to the final door when he heard Artimus call out from the slidewell. “Hurry up, Rome!”

             
Flea stopped dead in his tracks and looked at the final elf in the hallway with him. He’d been so focused on reaching Artimus that he hadn’t realized it was
Rome
tying the white cloth to the last door handle. As she turned to look at Flea and their eyes met, it dawned on him that this must have been Rome’s idea, that he had
just
told her about the way he marked his door. For a brief moment, Flea thought he saw a spark of regret in her eyes. But despite the fact that none of her friends were around, Rome didn’t apologize. She said nothing before rushing into the slidewell.

             
Minko was right,
Flea thought sadly.
She
hasn’t
changed.

             
Flea’s disappointment took away his desire to track down Artimus. Besides, he had the feeling that this wouldn’t be the last run-in he’d have with the cruel group of ‘cool elves.’ Flea’s sprint down the hallway had made him even more tired so he headed back toward his room, having to search for it all over again.

With each room he found full of toys, Flea angrily ripped the white piece of cloth from the handle. He had two handfuls of cloth by the time he stopped in front of another door and grabbed the handle. He paused because it felt cold to the touch. Although Flea had no idea why the handle felt like ice, he somehow knew that he’d found his room. He turned the handle but when he gently pushed the door, it didn’t budge an inch. Flea had to throw his entire weight against it and when the door finally opened, an avalanche of snow poured into the hallway from his room. Snow filled the inside of his room from floor to ceiling, and directly in the middle of that snowy wall were dozens of pieces of coal, aligned to form a single word: FREAK.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The Gift Wrapper

Flea yawned as he rushed to keep up with Minko. On their way to the elf school, Minko walked with an extra pep in his step, fueled by anger at how he’d just found Flea. Rome waited inside the entrance and immediately rushed over to Flea.

              “I’m so sorry about what happened, Flea. That wasn’t my idea,” Rome said.

             
“Tying the white cloth to every single door handle wasn’t
your
idea?” Flea asked.

             
“Well, maybe
that
part was, but it was only supposed to be a joke,” she said. “Believe me, as soon as I told my friends about the way you marked your door, I instantly regretted it. I had no idea they were going to do the whole snow thing until it was too late to stop them. I think you really embarrassed Artimus when you stopped his snowball. We’ve never seen anyone do something like that and I guess he wanted revenge.”

             
Minko looked so angry that he shook with rage, though he remained quiet and allowed Flea to address Rome first.

             
“That’s okay, don’t worry about it,” Flea said, not wanting any awkwardness in class. He’d slept off most of his anger toward Rome. Besides, he truly didn’t think that filling his room with snow had been her idea, though she’d obviously done nothing to stop it.

             
Minko was not so forgiving.

             
“Do you know where I just found Flea?” Minko yelled.

             
Flea tried to grab his friend’s arm to hold him back but Minko easily pulled himself free and stepped just inches from Rome.

             
“It’s okay, Minko, really,” Flea said, trying to calm him down. Minko backed away about a foot but wasn’t going to just drop the subject.

             
“It’s
not
okay, Flea.
Nobody
treats my friends that way.
Nobody
should have to sleep on the floor in the middle of the hallway because a bunch of iceblock-heads filled his room with snow,” Minko growled. “Just because you and your friends are the youngest elves here, that doesn’t mean you should act like mean little children, like you’re only fifty years old.”

             
Flea expected Rome to explode on Minko, who she seemed to hate more than anyone else. The two of them usually looked for any reason to battle and Flea was certain that this was about to turn ugly. But Rome surprised both of them by hanging her head and nodding in agreement.

             
“You’re right, it was really mean and you didn’t deserve that, Flea. I’m really sorry that Artimus and my other friends – myself included – can be such jerks,” Rome said with utmost sincerity.

             
“Why do you even bother hanging out with them?” Flea asked. “You’re so much better than they are.”

             
Rome shrugged. “I don’t know. We all grew up and went to school together and they accept me even though I didn’t graduate and now I’m just a… well, I’m not a real builder.”

             
“But it seems like they’re really mean to you, too,” Flea said.             

             
“It’s not that bad,” Rome said unconvincingly. “They just joke around a lot, they always have and I’m sure they always will.”

             
Vork stuck his head out of the nearby room and told the three students to end their therapy session and get to class.

-         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -        -        -

             
Although the toy factory clock – and thus the entire world – remained stuck on 11:59, the equivalent of a month’s worth of time passed at the North Pole. Flea, Minko and Rome spent a majority of that time in the classroom, honing their skills (though in Flea’s case, he made sure to hone a bit more slowly). Every time they left school, Rome ditched the two of them for her ‘friends’, who seemed to spend more and more time hanging out in front of the toy factory, waiting to harass Flea and Minko. Artimus and his goons hurled snowballs at them but Flea was able to stop them all, as well as keep Minko from fighting back. Flea wasn’t sure if he’d lost his ability to
throw
snowballs as well as he could stop them, but he was content with laying low and staying out of trouble. He just wished that Minko wouldn’t complain so much about Rome. After all, she’d never joined her friends in throwing snowballs at them.

             
The route they took to the card-writing station passed by the garage, where they always saw sparks through the garage door window and heard the
grinding
of serious metal work. As much as Flea and Minko both wanted to peek at the twins’ progress on the sleigh, they always resisted the urge to spy on Wrench and Grinder. Minko promised that staying away would make the big unveiling all the more exciting. But considering how much effort the twins seemed to be putting into the sleigh, Flea doubted he would recognize it the next time he saw it.

             
Eventually, Flea’s body required less and less sleep as he grew accustomed to life at the North Pole. Unfortunately, that meant spending more time writing cards, a task that Flea hated more each time he had to climb down the ladder to the small underground station. Flea often grew so bored while writing that his thoughts returned to Miss Mabel, who he started to miss even though no time had passed for her in the human world. Even Minko had stopped trying to convince him that writing names ‘wasn’t that bad.’ As Minko’s building skills improved, he became less content with the idea of staying at this job much longer.

             
Flea and Minko were in the middle of yet another long work session when they heard the hatch door
squeak
open.

             
“Niko ordered me to tell you two that it’s time for class now,” said the slow-speaking voice of one of the security building snowmen.

             
Flea and Minko looked at each other with relief and jumped out of their seats, both of them sore from sitting in the same spot for so long. This had been one of the longest breaks between classes that they’d ever endured and both started to worry that there was a problem. Minko quickly flipped on the laser-writer and the two rushed toward the school. As usual, Artimus and his friends were waiting, heavily armed with snowballs. But one of the girls rushed over to them and whispered something, causing them to drop their snowy weapons. The bullies played innocent just as Flea spotted Niko emerging from the school and heading in his direction.

             
“Hey, Niko,” Artimus called out. “How’s your father?”

             
Niko glanced nervously toward Flea before shaking hands with Artimus and speaking to him so softly that Flea couldn’t hear. Not surprisingly, it seemed as though Niko and Artimus were friendly enough with one another. After a brief exchange, Artimus rejoined his friends and Niko called out to Rome and Minko that they should head off to class.

             
“Have fun with your
buddies,
Rome,” Artimus called out, garnering several chuckles amongst his group.

             
Flea continued toward the school alongside Minko but Niko stopped him and said he needed to talk.

             
“Is everything okay with the North Pole’s security?” Flea asked once he and Niko were alone.

             
“No, as a matter of fact everything
isn’t
okay with security but that’s none of your concern,” Niko said. “I just visited with Vork and received an update about your class. I was very disappointed to learn that you’ve been underachieving. The North Pole is being put in more danger because you’re here and
failure
is the best you can do?”

             
Flea glanced around the North Pole village but didn’t see any signs of impending attack from the Army of snowmen.

             
“I still don’t understand how
me
being here puts the North Pole in more danger,” Flea said.

             
“And that’s something you don’t
need
to understand so spare me your attitude and fifty questions,” Niko said. “Maybe you should concentrate more on not allowing the card-writer and gift-wrapper to beat you in class.”

             
“The gift wrapper?” Flea asked.

             
Niko sighed and slowly shook his head, clearly annoyed.

             
“That’s what Rome does inside the toy factory. She begged me for the job even though there are machines that can do it,” Niko explained. “And
she’s
doing better than you?”

             
Flea couldn’t admit to Niko that he was taking it easy in class for Minko and Rome’s benefit, though he
wanted
to give a reason why he should stay at the North Pole. But his mind drifted to Rome and the news that she was even farther down the totem pole than she’d let on, reinforcing his need to ‘save her.’

             
“Nothing to say for yourself?” Niko asked. “I’m too busy to stand here and watch you stare off into space, you know.”

             
“I’m sorry, I’ll try to do better,” Flea said weakly. He tried to sound firmer when he spoke again. “I
promise
I’ll do better, I won’t disappoint you
or
your father.”

             
This was the first time that Niko looked genuinely surprised.

             
“You know that Santa’s my father?” he asked.

             
“I’ve picked up
some
common knowledge since I’ve been here. I’m not quite as dumb as you seem to think,” Flea said. “Is there any possibility that you could introduce me to Santa? I need him to understand how serious I am about being the best elf I can be.”

             
“I’m not sure an introduction is such a good idea right now,” Niko said. A sudden gust of wind nearly blew off his hat and he was careful to keep it pulled down low on his head. “Besides, Santa is very busy this time of the year and frankly, you’re just some new elf not worthy of his time. I’ve also heard around the village that you’ve had some trouble with Artimus and his friends, is that true?”

             
“Minko and I seem to be their favorite targets for throwing snowballs. But I’ve figured out a way to deal with the situation and avoid making trouble,” Flea said, hoping that his responsibility would gain him some credit.

             
It didn’t.

             
“No respectable elf would take such abuse without tossing a few snowballs back,” Niko said. “You were brought here for a reason and
any
sign of weakness gives Santa second thoughts about your character. Fight back, prove that you aren’t anybody’s target. And as far as your schooling goes, you’ll soon have the chance to prove your worthiness. You better not disappoint or you’ll get a one-way ticket back to the human world.”

             
Niko walked away without another word. Artimus and his friends continued watching Flea, as they were undoubtedly waiting for Niko to leave before attacking. Now that Flea had permission to fight back, he was tempted to stay right there and give the bullies a taste of their own medicine. But Flea no longer had to fight his battles alone and knew that Minko would not want to miss any of the action. He ran off toward school, excited to tell his best friend that they could finally fight back.

             
But when Flea rushed into the first classroom – the only one in the entire school where they’d ever had practice – he found it empty.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Final Exams

“Over here, Flea!” Vork called out from somewhere down the school’s long, dark hallway. “Get moving, we don’t have all day!”