Long Lost Elf

Chapter 18- Cold

I shivered as I woke up. There must've been a snowstorm last night. I blew on my hands for warmth, but they stayed cold. I crawled out of bed and walked over to the thermostat in the hallway. It was seventy-five degrees in the house, how could I be cold?

"Mom?" I called out. "Charlie?"

"Yeah, sweetie?" Mom came out of her bedroom, looking at me.

"I'm a little cold," I said, surprised at my words.

Mom went into her bedroom and took out the thermometer. She walked back over to me and put the end in my mouth. She turned it on and it beeped after a couple seconds. She looked at it and furrowed her eyebrows.

"What's wrong?" I asked concerningly.

She felt my forehead. "You're not warm," she stated. "It says your body temperature is thirty degrees, but that can't possibly be right."

"That's hypothermia, and I don't remember going outside at all," I said. I grabbed the thermometer and looked at it. Exactly thirty degrees fahrenheit.

"We'll check it later. For now, put on a jacket or something," Mom sighed.

I nodded and walked into my room, taking Bernard's hoodie out of my backpack and putting it on. I walked out of my room and looked out the window. There was at least two inches of snow on the ground.

"Okay, I see," Dad said downstairs. It sounded like he was talking to someone downstairs.

I walked down the stairs quietly and looked into the living room. Dad was on the phone with someone. He was frowning when he hung up. That was never good.

"Something going on with the elves?" I guessed.

"No," Dad shook his head. "Charlie got in trouble again."

I hung my head in disappointment of my brother. "Are we going to the school?"

"I guess so," Dad grabbed his coat and slipped on the shoes.

I did the same and we went to the school. Principal Neil and Charlie met us at the front entrance and we walked into the school.

"Are Laura and Neil on their way?" Principal Newman asked.

"No, I volunteered to go solo on this one, with my daughter," Dad explained.

"Wow, you've- you look... you've really lost weight. Are you feeling alright?" Principal Newman asked.

"I made this for the girl," I unclipped the bracelet from my wrist and gave it to Charlie. "I couldn't sleep, so I made it."

"How'd you know they were her favorite colors?" Charlie looked at me.

"I'm an elf. It's intuition," I whispered.

"Your hands are really cold," Charlie noticed.

"Yeah, it's weird. The thermometer said my body temperature was thirty degrees. How crazy is that?" I explained.

"A little," Charlie shrugged. "But so is you being eighteen hundred years old."

We looked at the graffiti on the wall and I looked at him in surprise. Dad turned to him, frowning.

"Charlie, you promised you weren't gonna do this again, and now you've broken a promise. Whatsa matter with you, Charlie? I'm gonna have to punish ya! I'll ground him for, uh, two months," Dad said.

"I thought you were on my side!" Charlie protested.

"-Better, Charlie, you're suspended," Principal Newman said over both of them.

"But- Dad!" Charlie looked at him.

"Hold on a second. I'm just as upset as you, but isn't there another way we can punish him that doesn't involve taking him out of school?" Dad cut in.

"What'd you have in mind?" Principal Newman challenged.

"Community service?" Dad suggested.

"Huh. That's not a bad idea." She looked at Charlie. "Okay, Charlie. I want you to start by cleaning up this wall. I want everything, everything off of there by tonight. And then, for the rest of the week, you can clean up every mark off of every locker in this hallway."

"Every one?" Charlie questioned.

"Do as she says, Charlie," Dad said sternly.

"But I have homework, tests to study for," Charlie argued.

"Not my problem." She turned to Dad. "I have a detention group that meets on Saturday. So we will all get together at the Sullivan Rec Center and scrape off graffiti at eight a.m. See you three there."

"You said all three of us? I-I'm very busy, and so is Crystal. We do a lot of other community service," Dad tried to get us out of the day.

"That's good. You just got yourself elected Parent Rep, and Crystal is now a supervisor. And Charlie, we'll talk about the suspension," Principal Newman said and walked away.