The North Pole Challenge (Flea's Five Christmases, #1) (23 page)

             
“Is everything okay?” Flea asked his friend on the way back. Minko’s hands shook from a combination of nerves and frustration.

             
“I don’t think I can do this, look at how complicated this rocking horse is,” he said, pointing to his hologram. “I don’t even know why I’m trying to do this. I’m a failure and I always will be. ”

             
Flea hated to see his usually happy friend defeated so quickly.

             
“No, you are an
elf
and you’ll be a great builder one day,” Flea said firmly. “But that has to start
now
. This rocking horse might seem difficult as a whole but you have to look at it as a bunch of smaller parts.” Flea sawed and hammered and sanded as he talked and in a matter of seconds, he had several key components already built. But he refused to put them together, leaving that part for Minko. “All of the individual skills you learned in class can be applied here as long as you stay relaxed and focused.”

             
His friend nodded and smiled. As Flea walked away, he watched proudly as Minko took a deep breath and continued to work much more confidently. Rome, however, didn’t lack the skills or confidence to be doing so poorly. Vork’s ‘present’ to Rome was just inside the door to the production room; Flea quickly reached inside.

             
“Do you want to be a gift wrapper forever?” he whispered to her. Flea held out the big red hat. “Don’t worry, Minko and I still think you look perfect even if your hair and clothes aren’t perfect.”

             
“Don’t tell Minko about the gift-wrapping thing, he’ll never let me hear the end of it,” Rome said as she took the hat.

             
“Your secret is safe with me,” Flea promised, “as long as you stop worrying what you look like.”

             
Rome smiled and in a symbol of good faith, she ripped the sleeve of her designer shirt. “You’re right. Now I’ll look like a mess no matter what,” she said, though she still looked sadly at her ruined shirt, as though she’d lost a good friend. But she pulled her hat over her hair and returned to building, successfully finishing the toy chest before Flea got back to his workstation.

             
The three built for countless hours without so much as a single visit from Vork or Niko to check on their progress. Flea continued to produce the most gifts but Rome wasn’t too far behind his production level. Even Minko – whose orders were easier to build than the others’ – improved and maintained a respectable building pace. But order after order appeared above Flea’s Christmas ball and his body eventually reminded him that it wasn’t
completely
accustomed to the elf schedule just yet.

             
“There’s no end in sight, is there?” Flea asked, breaking the silence that had lasted during several hours.

             
“Welcome to the life of an elf during the Christmas season,” Rome said, stifling a yawn as she finished yet another order.

             
“I love it,” Minko said with a wide smile. There wasn’t the slightest hint of fatigue on his face.

             
“We’re weeks behind the rest of the elves. It would be nice to know exactly how many orders we have,” Flea said. “Oww!”

             
He dropped his hammer to the floor and grabbed his right pinkie finger, which exploded in pain. This was the first mistake Flea had ever made – at least the first
accidental
mistake – and the other two elves were just as shocked as Flea.

             
“Are you okay?” Minko asked.

             
“Yeah,” Flea said, clearly embarrassed. “Guess I’m getting a bit tired. Kind of wish I had that metal glove on right about now.”

             
Flea forced a smile, but got back to work right away. With his finger still throbbing, it was hard for him to clear his mind and let his instincts take over while building. His progress slowed dramatically and it wasn’t long before Rome started producing just as quickly as him. But she had also grown very tired and soon the two of them were making as many mistakes as Minko.

             
“Maybe you should both get some rest,” Minko suggested, “or at least some fresh air. There’s no point struggling through your orders right now if you can come back fresh and refocused.”

             
“What about you?” Rome asked. “You’ve been making mistakes, maybe you should get some rest, too.”

             
Minko chuckled, clearly as energetic as always.

             
“Unfortunately, my mistakes have nothing to do with fatigue,” he said. “I want to pull my own weight around here and since I’m much slower than the two of you, that just means I have to work longer.”

             
“This isn’t a contest, you don’t have to feel the need to do as much as us,” Rome told him. “We’re all in this together and regardless of what happens, I’m proud of the incredible progress you’ve made.”

             
Minko looked at Rome suspiciously, as if waiting for the punch line of what surely must be a joke. After all, these were the first kind words she’d ever directed at Minko. But when no joke came, Minko blushed and continued to focus on his construction.

             
“Thanks, but if this is the only chance I ever get to be a builder, I want to take full advantage of it and not waste a single second,” Minko said.

             
Flea and Rome left the elf school’s small production center – at least small when compared with the toy factory – and headed down the dark hallway and outside. The fresh air definitely felt great to Flea but it quickly became obvious that his body needed sleep to recover.

             
“Don’t forget to take your hat off,” Flea said as they approached the toy factory. Like usual, there was a large group of elves near the huge building and Flea guessed that Rome’s friends were among them. “You don’t want your friends to see you wearing it.”

             
“You know what? I don’t care what they think anymore,” she said. “I’ve realized that there are things way more important than having Artimus and the others accept me. For so many years, I was the odd elf out because I couldn’t build, so the only way I could fit in with my friends was by doing whatever they said. But because of the risk that you took so that Minko and I could learn more in school, I know that I don’t have to listen to my mean friends anymore and I can be who I am supposed – ”

             
Rome’s hat suddenly exploded off the top of her head, as snow sprayed against her and Flea. Rome looked shocked when she turned around to see Artimus and the others laughing at her.

             
“That hat makes you look like a
loser
, just like your two new
pals
,” Artimus called out to her. “Now hurry up and come over here. You’ve been spending too much time recently with the freak show.”

             
Rome turned to Flea and frowned apologetically, the same expression she usually wore right before ditching him for Artimus and her other friends.

             
“It’s okay, go on,” Flea said, not wanting to make the situation any harder for her than it already was. “I don’t want to cause any trouble for you.”

             
Rome nodded before picking up her hat and starting toward her friends. Flea was used to this and didn’t think twice as he headed off toward the elf dorm. But when he heard the sound of Rome’s voice – her tone oozing with attitude that she normally reserved for Minko only – Flea turned around and was shocked to see her addressing Artimus in such a manner.

             
“Don’t you elves
ever
work or is waiting for me your only activity?” she asked.

             
Rome brushed the snow off her red Christmas hat and proudly pulled it back onto her head. She crossed her arms defiantly and stared at Artimus, who was momentarily surprised by her sudden attitude change. But he quickly recovered and fired at the sorest spot in Rome’s life.

             
“Who do you think you’re talking to like that,
gift wrapper
?” Artimus yelled for all the elves to hear. “Now take off that ugly hat and get over here or you can forget ever being friends with us again.”

             
“Yeah,
gift wrapper
,” one of the bigger elves from the group said. “Nobody else would be friends with you.”

             
“That’s right,” Artimus agreed. “We’re all that you’ve got so you better not talk to us like that.”

             
“I already have two
real
friends who don’t care if I can build or not,” Rome said. “They accept me for who I am and don’t need to bully me to make themselves feel better. They aren’t as pathetic as you, Artimus.”

             
Rome turned her back on her friends and began walking back to Flea.

             
“You’ll come crawling back to us,” Artimus Maximus yelled. “And you’ll hate what we’ll make you do to become part of us again.”

             
Rome appeared concerned by Artimus’s warning but she did not turn back toward him, which only made the group leader angrier. Flea had hoped all along that Rome would change and was so proud that she finally had. But he had little time to enjoy this moment because he saw Artimus bend down to the ground. Knowing there was no way to reach Rome in time to save her, Flea quickly scooped up his own snowball. Artimus wound up and threw his projectile toward the back of Rome’s head. For a brief moment, everything around Flea seemed to slow down and he focused solely on the speeding snowball. Without a thought, Flea launched his own snowball.

             
Since Rome’s back was turned to Artimus, she didn’t even know that she was under attack and looked surprised to see Flea throwing snow in her direction. His snowball whizzed by the side of her head – missing her ear by mere inches – and hit the other snowball just behind her, causing an explosion of snow in mid-air. Flea was just as amazed by his throw as the rest of the elves watching.

Obviously, he hadn’t lost his other ability. Rome spun around and quickly realized what had just happened.

              “You better not try that again, Artimus,” Rome warned.

             
Flea didn’t think that threatening Artimus was the way to get him to back off so he quickly joined Rome’s side. As expected, Artimus did the opposite of what Rome said and reached to the snowy ground for another weapon. Flea and Rome grabbed snowballs of their own, as did the rest of the elves from Artimus’s crowd. Flea and Rome found themselves in a showdown against numbers that were not in their favor.

             
“You got lucky with that first throw, freak,” Artimus yelled.

             
“You don’t want to test that theory,” Flea called back, which only enraged Artimus more. The group leader turned to his well-armed friends and waved for them to fan out. Within seconds, Rome and Flea were nearly surrounded, though the two of them remained focused on Artimus, who was calling the shots. Red-Robe’s warning to ‘save her’ again came to mind and Flea valiantly stepped in front of Rome, shielding her from whatever Artimus was about to do.

             
“You should have just stayed out of our business, freak,” Artimus said.

             
Artimus pulled his arm back, ready to throw, but that arm never got the chance to move forward. He was suddenly drilled in the chest with a snowball and went down hard. Rome and Flea turned simultaneously and were both shocked to see the identity of the thrower.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

No Trespassing

“Don’t you
ever
throw anything at her again!” Minko yelled at the stunned elves, many of whom rushed to Artimus’s side.

             
“Get away from me!” Artimus ordered his friends, his breath short and words pained from the direct hit he suffered. “Don’t just stand there, fight back!”

             
The stunned elves might have hesitated to attack, but Rome had no such uncertainty. She took aim at the largest elf still surrounding them – that being Artimus’s friend, Roc – and let her snowball fly, scoring a direct hit. Following her lead, Flea took aim at another elf and struck his target. The impact threw the elf – Orby – to the ground five feet back from where he stood. Rome’s remaining friends – now her
former
friends – recovered from the shock and made a feeble attempt to fight back. With their three strongest elves down, though, the counterattack was weak. By the time Artimus pulled himself together and struggled to his feet, other outside elves – most with no idea about the animosity – gathered around in what they thought was some sort of game.