For the Love of an Elf (Bernard the Head Elf romance)

Santa Gains a Few Pounds

Claire woke up in her bed on Christmas morning, just like Bernard said she would. She sat up so fast that she knocked something off the bed. A doll. The doll that Bernard the elf gave her last night at the North Pole. She picked it up off the floor and brushed its hair back. Pointed ears and glittery cheeks. Last night was real. Just then, she heard Charlie running down the hall, yelling at their dad to wake up. She dressed quickly and walked downstairs, the doll tucked under one arm, then into the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee for her dad. Charlie came running down, fully dressed as well, and immediately went to the presents, separating them into piles, one for her, one for him. Claire sat cross-legged on the floor and began opening her own. Art supplies she had asked for, including a real easel, plus a few books and a scooter. Their dad came down the stairs and sat down heavily on the couch. She heard Charlie ask if he was having a heart attack, then saw him run to the front door waving. Knowing her mom was there to pick them up, she ran back upstairs to make her bed and get her bag. When she got back, they were all outside, Charlie already in the car, Neal loading the presents in the trunk, and her mom and dad talking. As she got closer, she could hear the tone of the conversation and sighed. Hugging her dad goodbye, she said,'I love you, dad. Please don't fight with mom today', before getting in the car and buckling in. She heard Neal tell Charlie they'd talk about something at home, and as they pulled away, her dad was yelling that 'it' wasn't real. She assumed he was talking about the Santa thing, and she was proved correct when Charlie twisted in his seat to ask her if she believed their little adventure was real. Seeing her mom look at her in the rear view, she simply said 'Sure Charlie.' That seemed to satisfy him for the moment, so she turned to look out the car window while Charlie went on a rant about the elves. In the following weeks, that was all Charlie ever wanted to talk about, how their dad was Santa. He even told his class on career day, which led to Claire being teased as well. Kids would pull her hair and tie her shoes together and then say,'Uh oh, guess I'm going on the naughty list!' Then they'd just laugh and laugh. It was mostly older kids, and she tried to brush it off, but when her best friend Grace stopped hanging out with her because of it, it made her mad. She believed it was real, but she wasn't the one making a big deal out of it and she was still the butt of the joke. It wasn't fair. She was frustrated with Charlie for running his mouth, with her dad for not believing, and with her mom and Neal for blowing it way out of proportion. To Claire, it seemed like they should just let Charlie be a kid. If Santa wasn't real, like they said, then Charlie would eventually get over it. But then her dad started gaining weight and sprouting a lot of hair that came back overnight no matter how much he shaved. Kids would line up unbidden to talk to him whenever he was in public, and he still seemed confused but soon learned it was easier to just go with it. Indeed he seemed, well, jollier than usual. This didn't go over well with her mom and Neal, who thought it was all a big manipulation tactic to get the kids to like him more. Claire's eleventh birthday came and went, overshadowed by custody proceedings. At the last minute, her mom and Neal took them out to dinner at her favorite restaurant and then to a movie she wanted to see, but she was still sad. Charlie was upset all night, and when they got home, he ran straight up to bed. She could hear him crying through the door, while her parents talked in hushed voices in the kitchen. When she got up to her own room, she dressed for bed and pulled back the covers, just ready to go to sleep, but something glittered on the pillow. It was a beautiful silver locket, with her initials, CNC, engraved in a willowy script on the front, and Made in the North Pole, on the back. It was warm to the touch, and she briefly wondered who sent it, but that thought fled as soon as she opened it. Her room flooded with colorful lights, beautiful pink and blue and green. She gasped and snapped it closed. What was that? She sat on her bed for a long time just holding the necklace, studying it but scared to open it again in case her mom or Neal should see it. When she simply couldn't keep her eyes open any longer, she put it on and fell asleep clutching the pendant so tightly her knuckles turned white.