The North Pole Challenge (Flea's Five Christmases, #1) (28 page)

             
The question threw Rome for a loop. She was usually such a smooth talker that her sudden stutter made Minko – and to a lesser extent, Flea – even more suspicious.

             
“I…uh…walked around the entire Christmas tree to see how much empty space was left,” she said. “It really must’ve filled up since the last time Flea checked. There are only a handful of open spots left. I’m afraid that we might hear the factory whistle soon.”

             
Rome rushed back to her workstation, where she started to build her next toy chest. Flea was more than happy to end the interrogation so they could all focus on building. But Minko had one final question.

             
“Why does your hat look so crooked? When you left, it was on perfectly straight.”

             
Rome’s hands shot up to her head and she straightened the hat.

             
“Oh, I… I took it off to… to scratch my head. This thing gets real itchy sometimes. Don’t you think, Flea?”

             
“I guess so,” Flea said, though he couldn’t think of a single time when his head itched. In fact, Flea loved the hat; he wasn’t sure why, but ever since he’d gotten to the North Pole and started wearing the hat at all times, he hadn’t spotted a single speck of dandruff on his shoulders.

             
“Is that the
only
reason you took it off?” Minko pressed.

             
In an instant, Rome’s expression changed from guilty to annoyed.

             
“Do you have some sort of problem with me?” she asked. “Because if you do, just come out and say it. We have too much work and too little time to waste asking stupid questions.”

             
Minko looked mad but before he exploded with accusations toward Rome, he glanced at Flea, who slowly shook his head. Minko understood Flea’s gesture not to push the subject any further and he actually gave in and continued building without saying another word.

             
With the threat of the factory whistle hanging over them, the three students continued to push ahead. Rome and Minko fought for validation, Flea for his mere existence at the North Pole. They all felt so much pressure about the impending whistle blow that any strange sound made their hearts sink. Flea felt like he was on the verge of cracking mentally and emotionally. His two friends shared the same feeling.

Rome was the first to break.

              “That’s it, I can’t take this anymore,” she said. Although she had bickered with Minko only an hour earlier, Rome suddenly turned to him for permission. “We need to find out how many orders we have left, don’t you agree?”

             
Minko sighed.

             
“I thought you two said there wasn’t a way to find that out,” Flea said as he completed another birdhouse and hauled it toward the conveyor belt. When he glanced back at his Christmas ball, he saw the next tiny hologram already hovering above it.

             
“We said that
we
couldn’t get that information, but I might be able to use my charm to see if
Niko
could find out for us,” Rome said. “I know we’re short of time but this suspense is making it impossible to focus. Minko?”

             
Minko had been so dead-set against the idea when Flea mentioned it before that Flea didn’t think he would possibly agree to it now, especially since Rome brought it up. But Minko surprised Flea by giving her a one-word answer.

             
“Hurry.”

             
For the second time in an hour, Rome rushed out of the room.

             
“Why didn’t we do this sooner?” Flea asked. He’d gotten so skilled at building that his hands worked on their own while he talked to Minko.

             
“Like I said before, it goes against elf code to question your work. Even a
card-elf
understands that,” Minko said. “But it doesn’t seem to matter if we break that code since I doubt we’ll finish anyway.”

             
Flea completed yet another birdhouse. As he picked it up off his workstation, he continued talking to Minko.

             
“Well if asking Niko about our order lists is really that bad, maybe we should stop Rome before – ”

             
Flea never completed his thought. From the corner of his eye, he spotted the tiniest change at his workstation: it appeared slightly dimmer than before. He didn’t need to look at the overhead lights to know that they were all still shining brightly. Flea nearly dropped his birdhouse when he realized that there was no longer a hologram floating above his green Christmas ball. He rushed to the conveyor belt and dropped off the gift before running back to his table.

             
“What’s wrong?” Minko asked.

             
Flea picked up his ornament and studied it closely. Nothing was broken. He shook the green ball expecting another hologram to appear, but nothing happened. Flea heard a loud bang behind him and turned to see that Minko had dropped his hammer to the floor. His friend’s mouth hung open in shock.

             
“I think you’re done,” Minko whispered as he rushed toward Flea, nearly stumbling along the way because he couldn’t take his eyes away from Flea’s ornament. Minko’s next words were shouted with joy. “I think you’re
actually done!
”

             
Flea felt such a rush of adrenaline that he picked up his much bigger friend in a big bear-hug, surprising them both with his strength. Once the shock faded, Flea carried Minko back across the room.

             
“
You
have to hurry up and finish now, too,” Flea said excitedly.

             
With his own burst of adrenaline, Minko wriggled free from Flea’s grasp and rushed back to his workstation, where he felt totally re-energized and ready to finish his orders.

             
“I could help you finish, there can’t be too much left on your order list,” Flea suggested.

             
Minko didn’t even look up when he answered.

             
“You can’t build anything for me. Only the owner of a Christmas ball can complete the work assigned to him.”

             
“There’s
other
ways I can help,” Flea said.

He rushed over to the pile of supplies and grabbed what Minko needed for his next assignment. He also provided Minko with words of encouragement as he built, though Flea’s presence only made Minko more nervous. The two were disappointed after each finished order, as a new hologram appeared over Minko’s ball every time.

              “I think you should go and hang your ornament on the tree,” Minko said after building several more rocking horses. “Maybe you won’t be punished for Rome’s and my failure, regardless of what Vork said.”

             
Flea stared down at the green Christmas ball in his hand and wondered if Minko could be right, that it might be more difficult for Santa and Niko to kick him out of the North Pole if his ornament hung triumphantly on the Christmas tree. But as tempting as that idea sounded, Flea had his
own
code he planned to follow until the end, even if it led to his expulsion from the North Pole. Flea put his Christmas ball down on the table.

             
“The only time I’ll hang my ornament is when all
three
of us do,” he said. Flea could see his friend becoming teary-eyed again so he pointed to Minko’s workstation. “Stay focused on what you’re doing, it could be your last order.”

             
“Rome is probably almost done, too,” Minko said. “You need to hurry up and find her. She needs to know how close we are.”

             
Flea rushed out of the production center, his insides doing flips with a mixture of excitement and worry. But when he reached the village, his heart sunk at the sight of the beautiful Christmas tree. It glowed even brighter now that it was almost completely covered. Flea had little time to waste. He ran straight into the middle of the party, which now consisted of hundreds of elves packed tightly together in the village center. Flea was reminded of watching the New Year’s Eve ball drop in Times Square on his television. It didn’t seem possible that so many bodies could squeeze into such a limited space. Though all the elves appeared to be having a great time, the scene couldn’t possibly be worse for Flea; finding one particular elf in the sea of faces seemed impossible, especially with the threat of the whistle blowing at any second.

             
“Rome!” Flea called out at the top of his lungs, his voice barely audible over the noise of the crowd. He forced his way deeper and deeper into the crowd, frantically searching through dozens upon dozens of unfamiliar faces. “Rome!”

             
“Rome!” another voice called out, followed by a round of laughter. Flea looked up to see a large cluster of cider-drinking elves mocking him, including the elf who’d spoken to him earlier. Soon, nearly a dozen loud, obnoxious elves were screaming Rome’s name. Normally, this would’ve annoyed Flea but the group was actually helping him, even if they were doing so inadvertently. In fact, Flea couldn’t care less if
Santa himself
made fun of him just as long as he somehow found Rome sooner.

Even with the other elves calling out her name, it took Flea nearly fifteen minutes to spot her. Rome stood on the outskirts of the crowd, talking to a group of her former friends. Artimus and a few of the bigger guys weren’t with them but Flea recognized Addy and a few other well-dressed girls. Flea wished he had time to observe Rome to see what she was up to, but he had much bigger issues right now.

              “Rome!” he called out, surprising her and the other girls.

             
Rome quickly rushed over to him.

             
“What are you doing out here?” she asked.

             
“You’re asking
me
what
I’m
doing?” Flea asked. “What are
you
doing talking to
them
?”

             
“I just found Niko a few minutes ago and begged him to look into our list of remaining orders. He promised to do that and I was on my way back to school when my friends stopped me and wanted to talk. Artimus wasn’t around so I didn’t want to be rude and blow them off, though it
does
seem strange that they kept talking even though I told them I had to go.”

             
“So why didn’t you just walk away?” Flea asked. Considering that Rome had already lied to him and Minko about talking to Artimus, Flea thought Rome’s explanation sounded odd, and she was doing nothing to ease his suspicions. Flea hated that he had to doubt whether Rome had even spoken to Niko.

             
“Even though Artimus and a few of the guys are big jerks, a lot of my other friends aren’t that bad. They might be followers and weak but I understand how hard it can be to stand up to Artimus,” Rome said. “Actually, Addy and some of the girls seemed interested in how we were doing in school. I don’t know, maybe they were only being nice because they’ve been drinking candy-cane cider that they swiped from the older elves. But after being around you and Minko for so long, it’s kind of nice to talk to other girls again… no offense.”

             
“And you think that
now
is the best time for a little chat with the girls?” Flea asked. He sounded eerily like Minko as he snapped at Rome, who quickly became angry herself.

             
“So now
you’re
going to start lecturing me, too?” Rome snapped back, as the two were on the verge of having their first fight. Flea suddenly understood how Minko could get so frustrated with her. But once he remembered why he’d been searching for her in the first place, he dropped the argument.

             
“None of that matters. I came to let you know that my Christmas ball stopped giving me more holograms,” Flea said. He smiled when he saw Rome’s expression change from confusion to excited understanding.

             
“You’re really done? Did you hang your ornament on the tree?” she asked.

             
“I won’t do that without the two of you hanging yours with me,” Flea said. He expected a similar level of gratitude from her that he received from Minko but didn’t get it.

             
“Sometimes an elf has to do what’s best for himself – or
herself
– without worrying about others,” Rome said.

             
Flea wondered if Rome was talking about his situation or one of her own.

             
“I don’t know about you but that’s not the kind of elf I’d want to be,” Flea said.