The North Pole Challenge (Flea's Five Christmases, #1) (24 page)

             
“Sweet! A snowball fight! Hurry up, Grinder, we have to get in on this!” Wrench excitedly called out from the open garage nearby.

             
The spiky-haired twins picked up snowballs and rushed toward the growing crowd of elves, all of who joined the ‘fun’ snowball fight. The scene quickly turned chaotic as snowballs flew all over the place. Artimus and his gang attempted to attack Flea and Rome with ferocity but everyone was being pelted from all sides. With Flea’s superior aim and incredible arm, he struck only the bullies with his hardest thrown snowballs while he tossed much smaller, lighter shots at the others. Had this not started out as a battle with the mean group of ‘cool elves,’ the big snowball fight might have actually been fun.

             
During the snowy bedlam, Minko made his way to Flea and Rome, who continued to hold off Artimus and his friends. Minko wasn’t just amazed by how well Flea threw, but also by Rome’s ability to protect herself in a fight.

             
“The three of us could
definitely
beat the penguins in Snow Wars,” Minko said while the three continued to hurl snowball after snowball.

             
“The penguins?” Flea asked before he realized his friend had said
two
things he didn’t quite understand. “The
Snow Wars?
”

             
Before Minko could explain, a snowball whizzed between him and Flea, missing them both by a matter of inches. Across the way, they spotted Artimus banding together with his group of friends, who fought through the other elves and quickly made progress toward their three enemies. Minko and Flea were more than happy to stand there and fight, but Rome knew better and grabbed each of their hands.

             
“Come on, they’re not worth it,” Rome said, pulling them away. Minko was a bit more reluctant to leave but he eventually followed Flea’s lead. “How did you know we were in trouble? I thought you were staying behind to keep building.”

             
“Yeah, well, I just wanted to make sure you got back to the dorm safely,” Minko said. Flea glanced at his two friends and saw them both blushing. Rome stopped and looked at Minko, who quickly added to his reasoning. “I couldn’t let anything bad happen to you or else only me and Flea would be left and then class would get cancelled.”

             
In the midst of all the chaos, Rome stared at Minko and saw him in a whole new way. Flea felt awkward standing there with the two of them so he quietly took a few steps away. Minko’s face blushed red, too embarrassed to look at Rome. Flea came back to reality before either of his friends and he looked up just in time to see that Artimus had finally emerged from the hectic snowball brawl. His formerly perfect hair was now a snowy mess, another reason he appeared so focused on revenge.

             
“Look out!” Flea yelled as he saw Artimus launch a snowball directly toward Rome. It was too late for Flea to throw his own snowball to intercept it and he was too far away from Rome to melt the snowball. But while Rome remained frozen in fear, Minko sprang to action for the second time in minutes. He threw himself in the path of the speeding snowball and was promptly thrown off his feet and down to the ground. Flea fired another snowball back at Artimus but the bully dived out of the way before being hit. Artimus took cover behind a small snowbank, though Flea quickly picked it apart with a few well-placed throws. He was only another snowball or two away from destroying the snowbank and exposing Artimus when a number of his friends emerged from the big snowball fight and rushed to his defense.

             
“Come on, Flea!” Rome yelled behind him. “Forget about Artimus, he’ll get what’s coming to him later!”

             
Flea turned to see that Rome had already helped up Minko, who looked pained and out of breath, his hair and face covered in snow. There was a big white mark in the middle of his shirt and many of the blinking lights were now extinguished. But he somehow forced a smile – especially since Rome had an arm wrapped around his waist to keep him standing. Flea nearly started to laugh but a snowball barely missed his head and got his mind back on track. He launched one final snowball toward the group of elves before taking off with his friends.

             
Minko still hadn’t totally recovered from the direct hit and it was a major effort for Rome to help the much bigger elf. Flea got on the other side of his friend and tried to help drag Minko along but that just slowed all
three
of them and took away their only means of defense. They wanted to reach the safety of the dorm, where Artimus and his group wouldn’t dare continue the snowball fight. But it was obvious that they would never get there while half-dragging Minko, especially since snowballs were slamming to the ground all around their running feet.

             
“Just leave me,” Minko said valiantly. “Give me a few snowballs and I’ll slow them down for you.”

             
“And let them turn you into a living Popsicle?” Rome asked. “Don’t be ridiculous, this isn’t some cheesy old war movie.”

             
“He’s right about one thing,” Flea said as another snowball barely missed them. “There’s no way we’re reaching the dorm before they catch us. You two go ahead, I’ll try to distract them and lead them away from here.”

             
“But Flea, you don’t know how mean Artimus can be if he catches you,” Rome said.

             
“Actually, I
do
,” he said. “But don’t worry, I can take care of myself. I have plenty of experience dealing with bullies and snowball fights. Now hurry up, I’ll try to hold them off long enough.”

             
Flea released Minko and Rome continued to lead him away. With Artimus and his gang of ten running toward him, Flea bent over and grabbed a large handful of snow. Though there were plenty of targets to choose from, he took aim at his biggest enemy and threw. Artimus dived to the ground again and Flea’s snowball connected with the elf behind him. The entire group paused as Flea threw several more snowballs in rapid succession, as he was less concerned with hitting the elves than giving his friends more time to escape.

             
“Don’t be afraid of the freak!” Artimus called out to his crew. At that moment, Artimus barely dodged another snowball that Flea hurled in his direction. “There’s only one of him and
ten
of us.”

             
The group of elves collectively regained their confidence and soon there were ten snowballs soaring toward Flea. He dropped his own snowy weapon and put his hand up. He melted the first few snowballs, but they were coming from so many different angles that a couple partially intact balls made their way beyond his defense. The snow stung but did not budge Flea, who stood strong and watched the others reload. He unleashed a few more snowballs of his own but another round was soon coming his way. Again, he was able to stop most of the attack but a few more snowy fragments got by, one of them striking the side of his head, momentarily stunning him.

             
“See! The freak isn’t as powerful as he tries to convince us!” Artimus yelled. The group leader picked up more snow but instead of throwing it, he waved the rest of his friends forward. Flea glanced back to see that Rome and Minko had made up a lot of ground toward the elf dorm but they could still be caught if Flea led the gang that way. He only had one option left.

             
“Nice hair, now who’s the
freak
?” he yelled at Artimus. Flea threw one final snowball at the nearest elf before turning to run in the opposite direction of the elf dorm.

             
“Don’t let him get away!” Artimus yelled.

             
I guess his hair really
is
important to him,
Flea thought with a smile as the others followed him. Unfortunately, that smile didn’t last very long. Flea’s natural abilities to throw well and melt snowballs had proven indispensable in a fight so far but he hadn’t acquired the skill of running fast. Artimus quickly gained on him and Flea knew it wouldn’t be long until the angry group caught up and made him pay for his ‘hair’ comment. Snowballs crashed to the ground all around him and he expected one to slam into his back at any moment. Flea considered heading toward the security building but he almost preferred to take whatever punishment was coming from Artimus than turn to Niko for help.

             
Flea was eventually struck from behind and he crashed to the ground, though he absorbed the impact by rolling and quickly got back to his feet. Snow covered his face and got into his eyes but he kept running through blurred vision. He glanced behind again but could only see the shapes of several elves bearing down on him. Without realizing exactly where he was, Flea rushed to the nearest building and hid around the corner. He expected the others to round the corner and catch him at any second but nobody showed up. After brushing the snow from his hair and wiping it out of his eyes, Flea could finally see clearly again. He peeked around the corner to figure out why Artimus and the others had stopped their pursuit. The panting group of elves – including their leader – stood a few dozen feet away, all of them wearing shocked expressions. Artimus tried to play it cool by running his hands through his hair but Flea wasn’t fooled: Artimus was surprised by
something
.

             
Then, Flea saw why. Standing a few feet in front of Artimus was the green-eyed snowman, leader of the security force. Flea hadn’t noticed the snowman when he ran past. A chill ran down his spine, which had nothing to do with the freezing cold vapors that oozed from the building’s walls – walls made of ice.

             
The ice bank,
Flea realized.
That’s why they all stopped
.

             
He had no idea how he’d been able to get so close to the building without being stopped –
or
attacked – by the security force. Flea considered running away but was afraid of making a single move to alert the green-eyed snowman of his presence.
But the snowman
had
to have seen me approaching, I ran right by,
Flea thought. He spotted his footprints in the snow just a few feet next to the security leader.

             
Just in case the snowman
had
somehow missed Flea, there was one elf more than ready to point him out.

             
“Hey, snow brain! You aren’t doing your job very well,” Artimus called out to the snowman, though he still kept his distance. “You let someone by, he’s standing right behind you!”

             
Flea was ready to take off at the first sign of movement from the snowman but it stayed completely still. Based upon the lone display Flea had seen from the security force, he was pretty sure they didn’t miss much. Artimus turned away from the guard and addressed Flea.

             
“That’s quite a trick you just pulled. How did you get that close to the ice bank?” he asked.

             
Flea could tell that it was killing Artimus to have to ask him a question. But while Flea had no idea how he’d gotten by the snowman, he wasn’t about to give Artimus the satisfaction of admitting this. Although Flea was afraid that talking would alert the security force, the chance to further anger Artimus seemed worth the risk.

             
“Just because I’m new to the North Pole doesn’t mean I’m totally clueless,” Flea said, trying to sound as bold and confident as possible. “In fact, I’m surprised that
you’ve
been here so long and don’t know how to get past the snowmen. Guess you might be spending too much time on your hair.”

             
A couple of the girl elves in Artimus’s group chuckled, although they stopped when he spun around to glare at them. Flea was quite satisfied with himself, even more so when Artimus turned back to him and looked like he was ready to explode with rage.

             
“You can’t stay there forever,
freak
! Now why don’t you come over here already!” Artimus yelled.

             
“Why don’t you come make me?” Flea asked, before he knew what he was even saying. After all, if
he
could have somehow gotten by the snowman, then he saw no reason why Artimus wouldn’t be able to as well. Still, Flea couldn’t stop himself from antagonizing the North Pole’s biggest bully.

             
“I’m not coming over there because we’re not supposed to,” Artimus said.

             
“If you ask me, it sounds like you’re afraid,” Flea said.

             
Artimus turned to his group and yelled at them to attack Flea, to go and drag him away from the ice bank. But not even Roc or Orby budged while the rest of his friends shook their heads.

             
“Rome and Minko might not be builders but they have
way
more courage than you,” Flea taunted, wondering the whole time he spoke whether he was making a mistake. He was soon about to find out.