The North Pole Challenge (Flea's Five Christmases, #1) (35 page)

             
“They said you’re supposed to rest,” Rome said.

             
“Maybe, but I don’t have much time left here and I don’t want to miss seeing the big change to the sleigh,” Flea said, winking at Minko. “I think we should hurry up and get outside before we miss it.”

             
“There’s
no way
I’m letting
that
happen, especially for the
big change
,” Rome snickered, as she apparently wasn’t as excited as the boys. “Your wound needs to stay out of the colder weather for a while.”

             
On cue, Flea felt the cold burning sensation in his shoulder again, a pain that made him weak in the knees. Flea told them that he was more than willing to brave the cold, but even Minko agreed that going outside was a bad idea.

             
“I hate to say it but Rome is right…
this
time, at least,” Minko said, earning himself a second punch to the arm in a matter of minutes. “Oww, you hit pretty hard for a crybaby.”

             
Rome readied herself to punch again but Minko flinched so much that he tripped over the corner of Flea’s bed and crashed to the floor. The three friends shared a good laugh but a sudden excited cheer from outside told them that something big was happening.

             
“We should at least watch from the window,” Flea said as he hobbled across the room and threw back the curtains. Outside, the snow fell heavier and they didn’t have a good angle to see much of anything except the huge glowing Christmas tree.

             
“We won’t be able to see much from here,” Minko said.

             
“You two can go if you want,” Flea said. “I understand how big a deal this moment is and I don’t want you to miss it because of me.”

             
“Don’t be silly,” Minko said right away. “We can watch from the dorm but we need something to help us see better. Let’s hurry up and get to my room, I think I have a few pair of binoculars laying around.”

             
Flea struggled to keep up with his friends as they rushed out of his room. He barely reached his own doorway when he had to stop and take a deep breath. Flea doubted whether he could make it all the way to Minko’s room, especially since he didn’t know how far away that room was.

             
“Are you going to be okay?” Rome asked. She and Minko stopped at the next door over and waited for Flea to catch up.

             
“I’m not sure,” Flea answered honestly.

             
“Come on, Flea, I know you can do it,” Minko said.

             
“Don’t push him too hard, he’s been through a lot,” Rome snapped.

             
The last thing Flea wanted to do was start his friends fighting – not that
that
took much – so he rushed to reach them at the next door. He figured the two could help him if they had to go much farther – or even worse, up the ‘hopwell’ or down the ‘slidewell.’

             
“See, I knew you could make it,” Minko said. But instead of rushing off down the hallway again, Minko turned to the nearby door and grabbed the handle. “Welcome to Casa de Minko.”

             
Minko and Rome walked into the room littered with broken and old-fashioned toys, a room that Flea had stumbled into several times while looking for his own.

             
“Well, are you coming in?” Minko asked.

             
“You live next door to me?” he asked.

             
Minko stuck his head into the hallway and looked toward Flea’s room, the next one over.

             
“Yeah, I guess I do.”

             
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

             
“I don’t know, you never asked,” Minko said.

             
Flea could do nothing more than smile and shake his head. He followed Minko into his room. Minko’s closet door was wide open and blinked with hundreds of tiny lights from his wardrobe.

             
“I know what you two are thinking,” Minko said as he rummaged through several layers of junk on the floor. “‘How does he get all of these cool, new toys even though he’s never worked in the factory?’”

             
Flea raised an eyebrow and looked at Rome, who just smiled and shook her head.

             
“I have connections with a few elves from the toy factory. I still get a lot of the best stuff available,” Minko said. “Ah, here we go, I found them.”

             
Minko dug out three pairs of binoculars and handed one to Rome and Flea. The three took position in front of the room’s large window and looked down at the village center.

             
“Looks like we’re just in time,” Minko said.

             
Unfortunately for Flea, he had a difficult time focusing the binoculars. No matter which way he turned the lens, he couldn’t get a perfectly clear view of the party, not to mention the fact that his binoculars were already cracked. Flea focused them as best he could and watched the slightly blurry scene below.

             
“Here comes Santa Claus,” Minko said. Flea watched as the big man in red –the extent of the details he could make out – stepped in front of a large covered object. “That’s the sleigh, here comes Wrench and Grinder, too.”

             
Indeed, Flea saw two blurry elves make their way to the front of the crowd, the twins recognizable by their red and green hair. The crowd went crazy as the mechanics waved to them and approached the covered sleigh. Flea, Minko and Rome could hear the crowd chanting, “Big Change! Big Change!”

             
“I can’t wait for this part,” Minko whispered.

             
“
Big
change, ha!” Rome said.

             
The twins ripped away the cover and presented the sleigh to the crowd, which instantly went quiet. Although Flea couldn’t see specific details, the sleigh appeared exactly the same as it had the first – and only – time he’d ever seen it. Flea was just as confused as the crowd, especially since he’d walked by the garage dozens of times and always heard the twins hard at work. He’d expected the sleigh to look totally different, which couldn’t have been further from reality.

             
“Wow, isn’t that incredible?” Minko asked.

             
This confused Flea even more, as he studied the sleigh again but still couldn’t spot a single difference.

             
“What did they do?” Flea finally asked.

             
“
I
can’t tell the difference,” Rome said, which made Flea feel better. “And I don’t really think Minko can, either.”

             
“Sure I do,” Minko said quickly.

             
“Then what is it?” Rome asked.

             
“Umm…well…maybe you need to look closer,” Minko said.

             
Flea also had the feeling that his friend didn’t really know. The twins proceeded to turn the sleigh around for the confused crowd. As soon as they did, the crowd erupted in cheerful laughter and applause. At the bottom part of the sleigh’s cargo hold, a left arrow blinked red and a right arrow blinked green.

             
“I
told
you those two are geniuses,” Minko said.

             
“Turn signals?” Rome asked, clearly annoyed. “Why would Santa possibly need turn signals on a sleigh?”

             
“You never know. I’m sure you probably thought the same thing about the sleigh’s headlights, too,” Minko shot back at her. “And look what happened the last time the sleigh needed headlights, look who they had to turn to for help.”

             
“Are you talking about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?” Flea asked, recalling the well-known Christmas song.

             
He turned and looked at his friends, both of whom wore expressions of disgust.

             
“Don’t get me started on that song, he plays it
over and over
at the stable,” Rome said.

             
“And he
refuses
to answer to any name but
Dolpho
,” Minko added.

             
Flea felt another sharp pain in his shoulder, causing him to drop the binoculars. He reached back and touched the sensitive part of his shoulder, which felt icy to the touch. His friends continued to look out the window through the binoculars but when Flea attempted his again, the small crack had grown even larger, making his view worse. Santa emerged from the stables with several huge reindeer following. The reindeer were hooked into the sleigh’s harness and seemed to glimmer in the light. Flea was certain that the animals must be even more impressive specimens up close. While many of the reindeer looked similar from so far away, Flea noticed that one of them was clearly absent.

             
“There’s no Rudolph… err, I mean Dolpho,” he said.

             
“Luckily for Santa and the other reindeer, the flying weather looks clear so Dolpho isn’t needed,” Minko said.

             
With the reindeer fastened to the sleigh, Santa stepped to the front of the crowd, which instantly hushed.

             
“This is where Santa introduces the helper he’s chosen to accompany him on the delivery trip,” Minko explained. “But I don’t see Niko anywhere. Before the building season this year, he was chosen to go again.”

             
It wasn’t long before the elf crowd exploded in applause.

             
“Wow, I don’t know who Santa introduced but I doubt Niko would get
that big
of a cheer,” Rome said.

             
Flea watched as a path cleared amongst the crowd and a single elf made his way to the front. Flea’s broken binoculars stopped him from identifying the elf but his friends had no such problem.

             
“Fuff!” Rome and Minko said simultaneously.

“I guess Niko
isn’t
going with Santa this year. I wonder why,” Minko added.

             
Santa Claus and Fuff climbed into the sleigh and the crowd parted down the middle. The elves all cheered when the reindeer began to move. Flea was astounded by how quickly the huge animals accelerated. It only took a few seconds for the reindeer to cross the distance between the village center and the dorm building, which they seemed headed straight for.

             
“Are they going to hit – ”

             
As an entire unit, the reindeer suddenly took off the ground. It didn’t look to Flea like the reindeer were flying – more like running on air, as their legs continued to churn as they lifted higher and higher. The reindeer and sleigh still looked like they were headed for the dorm but at the last second, the pair of lead reindeer banked to the left and turned them completely around. The sleigh barely cleared the top of the Christmas tree but once they soared higher into the sky, Flea saw the shimmering once again underneath the animals. Within seconds, the reindeer and Santa’s sleigh disappeared into the distance and a great cheer exploded from the crowd.

             
“Wow,” Flea said. “Now I understand why the sleigh launch is such a big deal. I just wish I could’ve seen it from the ground.”

             
“Maybe next…” Minko started but then became very sad. “Oh yeah, sorry about that.”

             
“I wonder what happens to me now,” Flea said. “I hope I get to stay for at least a
little
while longer.”

             
But a knock on the door confirmed that Flea had just jinxed himself.

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

             
The three elves turned away from the window to see Niko and Vork standing in the open doorway, a sight that filled them all with dread.

             
“I’m here to make this official,” Vork said without so much as a hello. “Even though the three of you were close to finishing your orders – which frankly, I didn’t expect to happen – I can’t pass you through elf school and into the toy factory.”

             
“And that means Flea must leave the North Pole now,” Niko said. Santa’s son didn’t look nearly as thrilled to give this news as Flea expected.

             
“That’s not fair,” Rome said angrily. “Flea finished, we didn’t. He shouldn’t be punished for that.”