1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Shimmersnap

“And just a splash of sparkle there, and some purple glitter over here. Hmm.” I eyed my creation. “Less plum and more mulberry jam. Okay, it’s perfect… or maybe just a teensy, tiny bit more pink glitter.” I snapped my fingers. “There! Now it’s perfect.” I held up the toy. “What do you think of this, Glister?”

My coworker turned, their usually bright, cheerful face and rosy cheeks settling into a frown. They winced. “Shimmersnap, that’s a baseball bat. It didn’t need any glitter.”

“No glitter?” I felt the sparkle inside of me dull. “Yeah, but it doesn’t hurt though, right?” Everyone needed glitter in their life. It was boring without it. A plain woodgrain bat? Everyone had those. This one was unique and gorgeous. Any child would be lucky to get this in their stocking.

They rolled their eyes and turned away.

I assumed the toy was just fine and sent it down the belt.

Another toy complete, and now I could get started on the next one. It might be January, but we were always getting prepared for Christmas. Only three hundred and forty-three more days. That was a lot of toys to glitterize!

“Shimmersnap!” the booming voice of our supervisor called out from his office.

I worked in the warehouse for Santa #56. It was perfect. I had thought I loved working for Santa #48, but this one was way better. I’d only been with Santa #48 for a few short weeks— after the glitter incident involving the reindeer and Santa’s favorite suit, I decided I better relocate. I also had done a short stint with Santa #36, but he really didn’t like me or maybe it was because of the bedazzling… I went through a short five-year stint where I thought everything needed shiny gems. I was over that now though, I recognized that only some things needed gems, but all things needed glitter. I’d been here for two years now, and it was wonderful—even if I was slightly more shiny than the rest of my coworkers.

I leapt to my feet and popped into my supervisor’s office. Not all elves had the magic needed to pop in and out of places, but I could. It was the best. Almost as great as when they released cosmic-grade blue thirty-seven glitter!

“You called, sir?” I put my hands behind my back, smiling brightly. Oh, his office was just so dull. Sure, there was Christmas everywhere—garland and colorful globes covered every corner of the room—but there was no pizzazz, no sparkle, no glitter.

I snapped my fingers, and a touch of glitter sparkled through the room, illuminating.

“Oh,” he groaned. “Shimmersnap, there’s no easy way to say this, and I hope to all things Christmas you aren’t surprised, but… you’re fired.”

I stumbled back. “Fired? From the toy department? What new department will I be at? I can go back to being with the bakery.” Although, I had been banned from there when I mixed up my edible glitter with the non-edible. No one had gotten sick, though! They just had very shiny… um… results from eating the non-edible glitter.

“You’re fired from the whole North Pole. You just made a baseball bat out of glitter and sparkle. The minute that hits a baseball, it’s going to be useless.”

“But it shines!” I protested.

His face softened. “Not everything is supposed to shine, dear.”

I waited for the punchline, for him to tell me he was joking. “Of course it was! I can do better,” I said quickly. “Maybe toy-making isn’t my strong suit…”

This wasn’t the first time I had received that feedback. Apparently, coating all toys with glitter wasn’t exactly what the boys and girls of the world wanted. It was just what I wanted. But I knew there were kids out there who loved glitter and sparkle! There had to be!

“The decision’s been made,” he said. “It’s come from above. Not only are you fired, but we think it’s time for you to find where your place truly is in the world. Perhaps settle down with a mate. The right alpha to help make you less…”

I bristled at that. I didn’t need to be less anything. “What? My place is here! At the North Pole! With the other elves.”

“We think you might be better suited someplace else.” Despite his words, his face was kind. He wasn’t being deliberately cruel, just that’s how it was all coming out.

All elves lived at the North Pole. Mostly. There were exceptions, but I wasn’t one of them! I had never been anywhere else. “Where else is there?”

“That’s for you to find out,” he said.

My stomach lurched. “So you’re just going to abandon me? Throw me out in the cold? You can’t do that.” They probably could. There wasn’t a whole lot that the fleet of Santas couldn’t do.

“No, no, no. We’re giving you a chance to take a break. Regroup. Then you’ll find your place. There’s a time limit on it though, Shimmersnap. And there will be consequences if you don’t accomplish the goal before next Christmas.”

“What? What is my goal?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Why do they rely on me to give this kind of information? I am not cut out for this.”

I’ll say. If this man was going for soothing and encouraging, he was failing miserably.

“You’re being sent to live with humans in a place called Bland, Michigan.”

Michigan. I knew that was the state shaped like a mitten. I always thought it was kind of cute. I loved the way the lakes around there glistened and shined. I almost wanted to add glitter to them. I had tried to once, but of course, I was stopped.

I didn’t really love the whole “Bland” idea, but surely that was just the name and not the personality.

“Where am I going to go?” I asked.

“Now, this might sound scary, but just trust me on it. We’re going to turn you into a statue and put you somewhere that your mate can find you. You aren’t unique in this either, Shimmersnap. There are several other elves on the naughty list who are getting the same sort of treatment. With a few variations.”

“A statue?” I had heard, of course, of other elves being turned into statues. It was always punishment, though, for those that were bad boys and girls. I hadn’t been bad. All I wanted to do was make the world sparkle.

“Don’t worry, you won’t be there long. We have plans to make sure that you make it into the hands of a very special person. Your human mate.”

I got excited at that. I thought humans were fun. “Is it going to be one of those exciting ones? Maybe one that, like, has a real cool job and does awesome things? Sequins are all the rage these days thanks to that Taylor Swift. Will I be with one of those humans? Maybe one of her backup dancers?”

“No, this human is a bit different than you.”

“Well, yeah, all humans are different than me. I’m an elf. How different?”

“He does taxes for a living.”

My eyes bulged. I thought for a moment they’d fall out of their sockets. “Taxes? But that’s numbers and math and ledgers and balance and... boring. That’s absolutely boring! You can’t send me there! There has to be some mistake! He and I will have nothing in common.”

“We can, and we are. We’re going to arrange for your items to go in storage with Dancer. You remember him, right?”

I nodded. He was one of the reindeer I had worked with in the past. He was a close friend of mine. He knew about this? He was behind this?

My supervisor patted my shoulder. “Trust us, Shimmersnap. It’s better this way.”

How could it possibly be better this way? Right then, at that moment, my sparkle became a dull glow, almost entirely extinguished. Not even glitter was going to make this situation better.