Alice Lennox

Chapter 2: Wait, Where Did You Say We Were?

After a few houses, I started to get tired and fell asleep until Charlie woke me up again. I watched as we flew somewhere covered in ice and snow.

"Is this okay, Dad?" Charlie asks.

"No, it's not okay!" Scott responds, "Hey! Does this look like home to you?" He asks the reindeer, which wander into an entrance in front of us.

"Where are we, anyway?" I ask just as someone, looked like a kid, came out and pulled a red and white striped pole from a snow pile.

"What is that?" Scott asks, and Charlie responds.

"I think it's the North Pole."

'Are we really out this far?' I thought as we watched the kid push a button on the pole and enter something into a keypad. The ice below us started to descend and we saw what looked like a stable for the reindeer come into view. There was a bunch of other kids that were watching us as we landed.

"This is so cool." Charlie and I say at the same time.

"Charlie, stay with Alice and stay here." Scott says as he asks one of the kids that passed us who was in charge, to which the kid told him "You are, and I'm not a kid, I'm an elf," before walking away. Scott kept following some others and asking them the same question only to get the same answer. Right after he left, some other elves came to clean the sleigh, and Charlie and I got out so they could do so.

"Isn't this cool, Alice? Look at all this!" Charlie says.

"Yeah, it's cool," I respond, before seeing Scott walk away with another elf, but he seemed older than the others. "Come on," I say, following them.

As we approached them, all we got from their conversation was Scott saying "No, I don't want anything to drink."

"I'm thirsty, and hungry too." Charlie says.

"I thought I told you two to stay in the sleigh." Scott scolds.

"Who are they?" The elf asks.

"This is my son, Charlie. Charlie, this is...."

"Bernard." He responds.

"And I'm Alice," I add.

It was so cute seeing how nice he was to Charlie, even gave him a snow globe. Of course Scott just wanted to get back home and possibly forget this all happened. "Hey, can we take a direct flight back to reality, or do we have to change planes in Denver?" He asks.

Bernard just ignored the question and sent Charlie and I with another elf to get something to eat. I was so surprised to see everything, and Charlie would point out a bunch of different things I missed. We later caught up with Scott and Bernard in the main workshop area.

"Dad, you gotta see this place!" Charlie says excitedly.

"It's amazing! Better than everything I've ever seen!" I added.

"I'll ship the list to your house." Bernard says.

"What list?" Scott asks.

I turned to look at Scott with an 'Are you kidding me?' Look. "Seriously?" I asked.

"You know, the List." Bernard says before he quietly, and reluctantly sings "He's making a list,"

"Checking it twice!" Charlie adds

"Gonna find out who's naughty and nice!" Every other elf in the room chimed in, which I couldn't help but laugh a little at.

"Put a P next to the nice ones and a C next to the naughty ones." Bernard instructs.

"P and C?" Scott says, confused.

"Oh my goodness," I whisper to myself, "P for Presents and C for Coal. Right?" I say.

Bernard nods and walks off, the three of us following.

"Wait how do I know who's good and who's bad?" Scott asks

"You'll know." Bernard responds.

"What if I don't buy into this whole Santa Claus thing?"

"Don't you even kid about that."

"Why not? What if I choose not to believe it?"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to face Scott, a large silence in the room.

"Then there would be millions of disappointed children around the world. You see, children hold the spirit of Christmas within their hearts. You wouldn't want to be responsible for killing the spirit of Christmas, now would you?"

Hearing that mini-speech made me want to cry, or even slap Scott, but instead I did nothing. The very thought of something like that happening, the fact that Scott would say the things he did...

"Alice, I want you to come with me," Bernard says, interrupting my thoughts. "Judy will take you two to your room, and get out of the suit, it needs to be cleaned."

"And taken in," Scott says.

"Then get some sleep, we've got a lot of work to do, and only a year in which to do it." Bernard finished as he walked away, signaling for me to follow him.

A good amount of the walk was quiet, especially since what had happened just moments earlier. Normally, I can tolerate the things Scott says, but this time, I just felt so-

"Alice, are you alright?" Bernard asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I respond, "Just a bit irritated."

"Why's that?"

"I've heard Scott say a lot of things, but what he said back there just...I can't think of a word to describe how I felt. And with Charlie standing right there-"

"You shouldn't worry about that. Give it time, he'll come around."

"I hope you're right about that."

"On a brighter note, have you liked what you've seen so far?"

"It's better than I could have ever imagined."

"Well, that's good to hear."

We then stopped in front of a door.

"Here's where you'll be staying for the night. I assume you've got things from here?"

"I think so," I respond before going inside. "Goodnight, and thanks."

A/N: Surprise update! So I know I said I would only update this once a week but I have decided to instead update twice a week to keep this within the time frame I would like to have this all ready in.

Until next time!

~Sarah_Renai