Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

MIZ

Christmas Eve eve was my favorite day of the year! It was the last day of work for the elves before our Santa's big day. It was also our last chance to meet quotas.

Here I was on the last workday of the year, almost five in the evening, and I was late. Late, late, late.

The mold workshop had three different stations for molding figurines and action figures. I was the last one still tinkering. Holly and Glitter had already finished their work for the year.

I had one more plastic mold to complete. I was putting the finishing touches on a unique action figure with hearing aids in both ears. In a few hours, she would be packed into Santa's sleigh and delivered to a deaf child who wanted to see herself in an action figure.

To save myself time, I leaned over to unplug the warming machine. The alternative would be to pull the vat of black plastic for the figure's curly hair off the heat with tongs, which required the use of both hands. I couldn't let go of my phone, not when Griselda was about to get hers!

In a couple minutes, the plastic would cool enough to pour. Until then, my reality television show needed me more.

The addicting show had only one season with eight episodes, and I was totally engrossed. A social media ad had hooked me on the exciting show, and I'd rejoiced when it was available on my favorite streaming app. I'd been watching it off and on all day.

I set my phone timer for two minutes. I'd gotten into trouble for working late in the past, and I'd learned to set timers with all the bells and whistles so I wouldn't miss the cooldown time. If I did, I would have to start over.

Thirty seconds into the fifth episode, another alarm blared. The fire alarm. Weird.

I glanced up from my phone to see flames licking the shell of the clay mold form. I could have sworn I unplugged the machine!

I covered my workstation with the fire extinguisher's foam. I accidentally drenched the mold, too. The instant cold after so much heat deflated the figure's face. Time to start fresh, anyway.

"Miz!" Holly waltzed onto the shop floor with a gift bag on each arm. Her cotton-candy pink hair hung in perfect ringlets to her shoulders, the result of spending her first afternoon of vacation at her favorite hair salon. "Come on, hon, we've got to go!"

"I know, but—" I set down the fire extinguisher and pointed to the molding machine, which was still smoking. As we watched, the mold caught fire again because I still hadn't unplugged the machine. Dammit.

I flung myself on the floor to yank the huge plug from the wall. It was heavy-duty, like a clothes dryer, and it took me about three seconds to remove it from the wall socket. It would have taken only two seconds to remove the mold from the heat with tongs and then switch off the machine.

"Poor thing!" Holly's nose scrunched as she took in the figure's crumpled face.

"If I don't finish, that poor little girl is going to be without an action figure on Christmas morning."

"This party won't last long," Holly said. "Besides, it stinks in here. Open a window, let it air out, and when we come back around ten, you can work on it then!"

It did smell like burned plastic, and Holly was the voice of reason whenever I needed advice. I cracked open the windows, moved the two molds away from the heater, and went to the coat room to grab my winter gear.

Christmas Village's streets were spelled to keep off the snow, which was nice, but the chill in the air set in around the end of August and never let up until April. December was downright uncomfortable, in my opinion. I wore a fur-lined ski parka, a red hat lined with reindeer fur, and mittens everywhere I went. I wore my red scarf everywhere, too, even indoors.

Holly laughed at me in her light jacket and cute suede boots. "Are you sure you're one of Santa's elves?" she asked.

I'd asked Santa the same question during my year-end review. "Santa says I need improvement, but I'm still on the team."

"I'll come back to the shop with you," Holly reassured me. "We'll get this done before Santa leaves tomorrow."

"Thanks, Holly." She was my best friend. My only friend, really. Being a forgetful klutz who's not good at his job alienated me from most of the other elves.

They sure liked to buy me drinks, though. "Hey! Miz is here!"

Holly raised her hand to the elf at the bar, and we made our way through the crowd. Two elves bought me cinnamon drinks. After the second, I felt dizzy. After the third, I felt downright nauseated.

"I've got to go," I said to Holly. "Not feeling well."

"I'm not ready to leave yet," she whined. "I know you need help?—"

"Stay. It's fine." I tried to smile, but it probably looked more like a grimace, based on how shitty I felt.

I puked in the bushes outside the bar, leaving a telltale hole in the snow. Afterward, I felt better, but I was still unsteady on my feet. I lost track of where I was a couple times. At one point, I realized I was almost to my apartment building instead of the workshop and the unfinished figurine.

By the time I got back, I was an icicle. The lights were on, which was weird. I couldn't remember shutting them off when I left with Holly, but the checklist on the door would have reminded us …

A very angry Santa 30 stood in the middle of my workstation. He wore his casual clothing, which meant he'd stopped by after his official duties. Above his snow-white beard, his nose and cheeks were redder than usual.

"Hiya, Santa!" I tried to sound cheerful, but my throat was still froggy.

"Mistletoe."

Oh, snickerdoodle. Santa never used my full name.

"Sir?"

"You forgot to reset the fire alarm."

I forgot a lot of things, to be honest. I was the reason we had a checklist on the door.

Santa barreled toward me. With a gentle grip on my shoulder, he guided me to the heating station and the two lumps of ruined plastic I'd left out.

"You were supposed to finish this action figure before you left work today."

"I know," I whined. "I forgot."

"You … forgot?" Santa stared at something above my head. He was trying not to roll his eyes at me while he counted to ten. At least, that's what he told me he did when he stared into space like that. He did it so often, it had come up in my year-end review.

"Miz, you need to finish the action figure. Little Janey is counting on you."

"I will, I promise," I said as my stomach made itself known once more.

"Now, Miz!" Santa called after me.

Long story short, I made a mess of the bathroom. Santa found me wiping my mouth with a damp towel, and then using that towel to try to hide the stench of cinnamon alcohol and bile.

"Oh, Miz." Santa shook his head. "This isn't the place for you. I thought things would change, that eventually you would settle down and find a mate. I wanted you to be happy here, but you're miserable."

"I'm not miserable," I lied. "I don't handle liquor very well."

Santa frowned. "You've been drinking?" His voice was low and colder than I'd ever heard it. "You left, knowing you would need to come back to finish this project, and you thought you could do it inebriated?" He sniffed in the direction of the sink. "Fireball, no less?"

"I'm sorry," I squeaked.

"Get yourself sorted. I'll make you a pot of coffee to help you sober up, and then you're going to finish the action figure. I have to leave in …" he glanced at his watch, "twelve hours. If you're not on the tarmac with the action figure before I leave, we'll have to make a special trip on Christmas morning." He shook his head, and he looked a little sad. "You won't be coming back."

That sounded ominous, even to my drink-addled brain. While we'd modeled Christmas Village after the modern world, I'd never ventured outside before. Now, I might not have a choice.

I forgot about it the moment I stepped into the storage room to grab my spare change of clothes. The pallet where I sometimes slept was too inviting. I sank onto the pillows, certain I would only close my eyes for a few minutes. I would worry about Santa's warning afterward.

Eight hours later, I woke with the worst hangover and a horrible taste in my mouth. Santa had left coffee for me at the back of the workshop. How could coffee be both burned and cold?

I filled my favorite mug and popped it in the microwave. Everything went dark.

Oh, sticky pine sap! I hadn't been paying attention, and I'd used the cup with the decorative tinsel top.

"No, Miz, that's metal, plain and simple." Carol, the electrician elf, shook his head. "It'll take me a few minutes to fix your breakers and get you back up and running."

It was fine. I still had time. While Carol worked his magic with the power, I did what any elf in my situation would do. I continued watching the show I'd started yesterday.

An hour later, and still no power.

"Sorry, Miz," Carol said when he found me sitting on the pallet in the back room in my winter coat. "You've really fried the circuits this time."

Right. This wasn't the first time I'd accidentally put the tinsel cup in the microwave.

My hands were nearly frozen when the lights finally came back up and I could wrestle the molding machine's plug into the wall. I started over with a new stick of brown base.

Three of the four colors in my melting kit had scorched tops. I knew from experience they would turn gray if I mixed the scorched part with the rest at full temperature. Better to start over. It took me fifteen minutes to scrape them out. I set the ceramic tray on the heating element for a moment to melt the rest. After two seconds, the remnants liquified, and I poured them out.

I could have saved myself a ton of time and hassle if I'd just set it on the heating element at the start. I wished I could blame my hangover, or the stress, but this wasn't the first time I'd missed a crucial timesaving step in the process, either. Santa was right. I was worthless.

While the bars of plastic melted into liquid I could pour into the final action figure mold, I was tempted to start my show back up. I had only one episode left.

No. Santa was counting on me. I needed to finish the action figure and rush it to runway 30 before Santa's takeoff.

Still, I had to wait for each part of the figurine to cool before pouring the next section. Boredom won over duty, and I turned on my show.

The final episode of the season was everything I'd hoped it would be! I'd poured two more colors into their sections and waited for them to cool before the epic ending. It ended on a cliffhanger, of course. While I waited for the final black plastic to melt, I hopped on the streaming service's website to see if the show had renewed. Not yet. Then I scouted the message boards to see if anyone had heard rumors about a second season.

In the rush, I forgot to set my timer. This time, the smell of overheated plastic caught my attention before there was any smoke, but the damage was done. The plastic was baked into the mold, so I wouldn't be able to pour it. I had to start with the hair again.

This time, I set the timer on my phone. I even tried to watch it count down, I really did, but then I needed to know if I recognized one of the actors from a different show. That led me down an internet rabbit hole until the alarm blared.

Finally, I poured the plastic into the mold up to the line. It only took a second or two for it to settle around the figure's face as a perfect bob hairdo showcasing her hearing aids.

With the last step complete, I only had to wait for the hair to cool so I could paint her face. I forgot to set the timer again, instead cleaning my workstation, which led to gearing up to take out the trash.

I heaved the trash bag into the dumpster and longed for vacation. We had three weeks off after Christmas before we started planning for the next year. I was so looking forward to lying in bed for three weeks and catching up on the movies and television shows I'd missed.

I was supposed to be doing something …

Right. The action figure's face and symbol on her chest still needed to be painted. I grabbed the delicate detail brush and the black paint with a hint of paint thinner. If I screwed it up, I could wipe it off and start over.

I did that twice before I got her eyebrows just right. Then I perfected her lips and the strange symbol on her chest. It wasn't until I finished the outline that I realized it was a megaphone.

Finally done, I packaged the figurine. I shut the lid before I noticed the most important piece sitting outside the box. The placard designated the figure as one-of-a-kind, made with love from Santa's Workshop. I opened the box and tucked it into place, admiring my handiwork one more time. I wasn't the best elf in Santa 30's workshops, but I was proud of my finished work. If only I had a process I could be proud of. Instead, I had a disorganized mess.

I bundled myself back into my parka, hat, and mittens, careful to secure the box inside my messenger bag so I didn't lose it along the way. I would need to trek over a few snow drifts to the reindeer hangars, and then onto runway 30.

When I reached the field of snow between me and runway 30, I glanced at my watch. Then I noticed the sleigh marks on the snowy tarmac. In the distance, a brightly colored sleigh lifted into the sky, and with it, my future.