The North Pole Challenge (Flea's Five Christmases, #1) (20 page)

             
“Try again,” Vork said and restarted the timer.

             
Flea and Rome started over. Flea slowed his pace so that he came just short of finishing when the timer reached zero. This same pattern continued for several hours, as Flea built slowly enough to barely miss finishing or he made small mistakes that took him too long to correct. While Rome came closer to finishing each time, she eventually hit a wall where her work was not progressing any further. She clearly became frustrated and Flea’s words of encouragement between each round of building soon annoyed her.

             
“Don’t worry, you can do this,” Flea said after one occasion when she came close to finishing.

             
“You don’t know
anything
so
stop
talking to me,” she snapped. Rome looked remorseful for a brief moment but Vork started the timer again before she had the chance to apologize.

             
Soon after restarting, Minko called Vork over to his table, leaving Flea and Rome alone. Flea knew he might not get another opportunity like this so he glanced over at Rome to see which section she started to build. At this point, her hair was all over the place and her face was covered with a layer of dust but she didn’t seem to care, as she was too focused on the task at hand. Flea didn’t feel proud of what he was about to do but Rome was obviously following Vork’s advice to focus on building and she deserved to be rewarded. With Vork concentrated completely on Minko, Flea started to build his chest at the exact opposite part of Rome. Flea knew that Minko’s test only lasted thirty seconds but he made significant progress in that limited amount of time. He took his partially built section and placed it on Rome’s table, taking back some of her materials in return. She looked at him with confusion but Flea merely nodded, silently telling her to hurry up.

             
Flea returned to his table and saw that Vork was still preoccupied but that didn’t last much longer. By the time Vork returned with only a minute remaining, Flea was much further behind than usual. He could feel Vork’s suspicious glare though Flea refused to make eye contact, worrying that the guilty expression he wore would give him away. A light-bulb went off in Flea’s head. He mis-hit another nail, sending it out the side of the chest. He grunted angrily – though he hoped not
too
angrily.

             
“That’s the second time in the last minute,” he muttered to himself, loudly enough for his teacher to hear.

             
Though Flea had sacrificed so much of his allotted time to help Rome – not to mention fixing his ‘mistake’ – he still came very close to completing his toy chest when the timer ran out and his project fell to pieces yet again. But when he looked at Rome’s table, he saw that her toy chest remained intact and a wide grin appeared on her face.

             
“Has a
miracle
finally happened?” Vork asked. He closely examined Rome’s project as she ran her hands through her hair and wiped the dust from her face. Vork nodded his head approvingly but when he looked in Flea’s direction, Flea quickly turned away, unable to stop himself from blushing. Though Vork must have undoubtedly suspected something amiss, he said nothing – at least nothing about Rome’s sudden success. “It looks like the prized newcomer is our only failure.”

             
Flea and Rome both looked over to Minko, who held up his board full of green nails, the stopped holographic timer flashing at the one-second mark. Minko was clearly happy but he tried not to smile
too
much when he looked toward Flea.

             
“You better learn as quickly as your classmates or you might not be needed here after all,” Vork warned. “Class dismissed.”

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While Vork’s warning worried Flea, he was happy to hear Minko talk so excitedly about the moment he finished his hammering challenge. As the two walked down the school’s dark hallway, they heard the sound of running footsteps behind them.

             
“Hey guys, wait up!” Rome called out.

             
She’d already changed out of the elf costume and prettied herself up, but Rome still wore the big red Christmas hat. For the first time since Flea met her, Rome appeared totally relaxed, not annoyed or angry or upset. She finally looked like a real person – or a real
elf
– and not some phony who was more concerned about her looks and image. To someone who didn’t know better, the three students might have actually looked like a group of friends walking the halls.

             
“I still like the elf costume more,” Minko said as he looked over Rome’s fashionable clothes.

             
She was about to argue with him, but instead chuckled and slowly shook her head. “You
would
think that,” she said before turning to Flea. “I just wanted to say thanks for helping me back there. I know I might seem selfish sometimes but I
am
appreciative for what you did.”

             
“Why is she thanking you, Flea? What did you do?” Minko asked.

             
“Nothing,” Flea said quickly. He was certain that his friend would be angry if he found out that he and Rome had technically cheated. “It wasn’t really a big deal. I just tried to keep both of us positive the whole time so we wouldn’t grow discouraged.”

             
“Yeah, that was a nice thing to do even though I haven’t exactly been the nicest elf to you,” Rome said.

             
“I’m new here so I’m sure there’ll be times when I need help from
both
of you,” Flea said. “I still understand so little around here, I can’t even find my room in the dorm. I actually had to rip a piece of my shirt and tie it around the handle to remember which room was mine.”

             
Rome chuckled, her smile so radiant that Flea had a hard time walking without tripping over his own two feet. The students walked out the door and into the outside world, where the snow continued to fall lightly.

             
“Don’t worry, if you lived in the human world for so many years, it won’t take long to get used to this place,” Rome said.

             
As they approached the toy factory, Flea and Minko expected Rome to head off on her own, especially since even more elves hung out near the factory’s entrance. But she didn’t distance herself from them. In fact, she even allowed the other elves to see her talking to them.

             
“So, what are you two going to do until our next class?” she asked.

             
“Why do you care?” Minko asked defensively.

             
“I don’t know, I just – ”

             
Rome never got the chance to finish that thought.

             
“Rome!” a voice called out near the factory.

             
A group of youngish-looking elves – all of them as well-dressed as Rome – stood apart from the rest of the elves near the factory. This group looked at Flea and Minko with total disdain, especially the guy in the front. He stood with his hands on his hips, angrily glaring, his hair tousled in an unnatural way that must’ve required plenty of time to get just right. He was clearly the leader of the group and was just as handsome as Rome was beautiful. But it didn’t take long to show that he had a mean streak that cut even deeper than hers.             

             
“You’re actually hanging out with the card elf and the weird new guy?” the leader asked Rome.

             
Rome frowned at Flea and Minko in an apologetic way before her expression changed back to its usual snobby sneer.

             
“Of course not,” Rome said as she jogged over to her group of friends. “I’m being
forced
to take that stupid class. Trust me, I can’t wait until it’s over.”

             
Flea and Minko watched as a few of the ‘cool elves’ pointed at Rome’s red hat and laughed. She immediately turned red and took it off, smoothing out her hair in the process. Flea suddenly understood why she’d been so adamant about not telling her friends about the elf outfit she was forced to wear in class. Despite Rome’s sudden attitude change toward him, a part of Flea actually felt bad for her. Her ‘friends’ didn’t seem to treat her very well and Flea certainly knew how it felt to be the outsider in a group.

             
“Let’s go, I don’t feel like listening to this any more,” Minko whispered.

             
When Flea turned to follow him toward the hatch, he thought he spotted red-robe just outside Santa’s cabin but when he blinked his eyes, he saw nothing there. He wondered if the saving that Rome required went beyond just graduating from elf school. Minko, however, had little sympathy for her.

             
“I
knew
she didn’t change,” Minko said. “She would never do anything to anger Artimus Maximus, he’s the leader of that little group. He can be a real pain in the ice. If it wasn’t for his entourage never leaving his side – especially the big guys, Orby and Roc – I would… I would do
something,
that’s for sure.”

             
“Why does Rome feel the need to hang out with them?” Flea asked.

             
“She’s just trying to convince herself that she’s not in love with me,” Minko said.

             
Flea chuckled but when his friend looked at him, Minko appeared totally serious. Just as Minko broke into a grin, there was a loud
thud
as a snowball smashed against the back of his head and caused him to stumble forward and crash to the ground. Flea spun around just in time to see a snowball
whizzing
directly toward his face. He felt the warmth in his hand and raised it to cover himself. A breeze blew just hard enough to push the snowball off its path, missing him by inches. In the distance, Flea saw the group of elves laughing just as Artimus – and his perfect hair – unleashed a fastball headed right for him. This time, Flea held his hand up and watched as the snowball instantly melted before it could hit him.

             
The crowd of onlookers – consisting of more than just Rome’s group of friends – gasped upon seeing Flea’s ability to stop the snow in mid-flight. Many were visibly disturbed and some even went so far as to rush back into the toy factory. Artimus, however, seemed more bothered by Flea.

             
“Freak!” he yelled out. “The new guy is a
freak!
”

             
Artimus ordered Rome and the rest of his group back into the toy factory. Minko pulled himself to his feet and picked up his own snowball, launching it in the group’s direction. Unfortunately, it came up well short. Minko unleashed a torrent of threats toward Artimus and the group but they were all inside by the time the first words left his mouth. With the rest of the elves still staring at Flea, he grabbed his friend by the arm and convinced Minko that it was time to cool off and head to the card-writing station.

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Flea and Minko put in another marathon session of card writing. At first, the work  wasn’t so bad since Flea was finally able to use his right hand again. He listened to Minko complain about Artimus and Rome and everything else at the North Pole that made his life difficult.

             
“You can add being friends with me to that list,” Flea said. “They all think I’m a freak now.”

             
“Artimus and his friends have been calling me a freak for
decades 
now so don’t worry about them. They’re just jealous of the amazing abilities you have,” Minko said. “Besides, the way I figure, it’s better to have the elf with freakish abilities on
my
side.”

             
Flea eventually grew tired and needed sleep again, as his body had not yet acclimated to life at the North Pole. Minko was still wide-eyed and energized from his success in class so he stayed behind at his card-writing post. Deep down, he hoped this was the last Christmas season that he’d hold
this
job.

             
“If I’m still asleep when you find out about our next class, make sure you come and find me
right away,
” Flea said. “My room is the one with the piece of white cloth tied around the door handle.”

             
Flea headed back to the elf dorm, passing numerous elves along the way. Word had apparently circulated about what he’d done during the snowball attack and many elves stared at him with a combination of apprehension and fear. This was a new feeling for Flea, as the students in his new schools usually looked at him because they thought he was strange. He suddenly wasn’t so sure which way was worse.