The Workshop: A "The Santa Clause" Fanfiction. (Bernard x Female OC)

I'll Make an Elf (That Looks Like a Man) Out of You

June 1995

Things were starting to get more tense at the Calvin household. Charlie hadn't been allowed to come over since spring, which was hard on both Dad and me. Laura and Neal allowed me to come visit him still, but were still wary, and tried to stay in the room. I did all I could to convince them that I was completely normal, but they could sense that something was off about me. Maybe it was my new found love of peppermint or the way ornaments would suddenly appear on any house plant they owned as soon as I looked at it. I tried everything to keep these new changes under wraps, but it was becoming harder by the day. Something told me that greater measures were about to be taken, and I was doing everything to try and avoid things coming to them.

I was worried that Laura and Neal were going to legally take Dad's custody away. I would see them muttering anxiously through the window anytime they saw me pull up in his car, worried that it was him. I was worried about what would happen if they did decide to do that. Would I still be able to visit Charlie? I knew it would always have to be a place other than home, and he wouldn't be able to stay overnight with us any longer.

I would find Dad downstairs most mornings, asleep in the piles of lists that have yet to be finished. To be fair, he had made his way through about half of them, but the "checking it twice." part was not going to be fun for him.

Most of my days consisted of training with Bernard, and that was about it. I was let go from my job as a warehouse restocker when they realized that I could no longer reach the shelves. They didn't act weird, considering that I was at one point able, but now could not. They simply saw this as the current fact, which I was glad about, as I wouldn't be sure how to explain anything. I left my choir group too, much to my dismay. Training was taking all my energy and our late night practices were getting harder and harder for me to stay awake for. I decided that when I did get to the pole, maybe I'd establish some music department in the elf schools... if that was a thing.

Since March, Bernard and I continued working on different elf magic training. Most of our training time was dedicated to teleporting. I was finally able to teleport from room to room, and he wanted to see if I could go from one destination to another. We mastered present wrapping, ornament painting and we even started on some toy making. But when Bernard showed up that day, I had already decided that training was not going to be on the schedule.

"You want me to do what?" Bernard showed up in his usual attire. It made sense, the North Pole was always cold, even in the middle of June, but here it was about 89 degrees out.

"Come to the amusement park with us!" I urged the grumpy-looking elf with his arms crossed tightly. "I told Charlie that I would take him this year. Whether you come or not that is what I'm doing today." I added, seeing his frown.

"No, we have too much we have to do, we can't miss a day of training!" Bernard shook his head adamantly, his black curls bouncing dramatically. "You know I have your next 188 days planned out in the calendar."

"We've been training practically every day for the last six months, we can take one day to relax!" I argued back, firmly standing my ground.

"We had a day off, remember, I took you shopping," Bernard answered smartly giving me a proud know-it-all smirk.

"No, no, no. That does "not" count! We weren't even practicing magic then! Besides, when is the last time you actually experienced something fun?"

"An amusement park does not sound like fun. It sounds like crowds of people trampling each other."

"Have you even ever gone to one?"

Bernard looked down, "No..." He said quietly, "But it sounds like a horrible idea." He stated again as if proving a point.