Christmas with the Calvins

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Dasher, try to stay out of sight alright? I won't be long." Jess instructed the reindeer before tying his lead to a tree. The two had landed in the stretch of woods behind her old high school and so the elf began making her way towards the school building. Just before crossing the tree line she made sure her pointed ears were well hidden udder Bernard's cap. Jessie entered the school and told the secretary that she was there for a meeting with the Principal. The secretary, who recognized Jess from her years as a student, gave her a visitor's pass and sent her down the hall. The Principal's office was in the same location it had been five years ago and she found Laura and Neil waiting just outside.

"Jess! I didn't know you were coming, is Scott here?" Laura ambushed her daughter.

"No, I didn't tell Dad about this. You know how he gets when it's this close to Christmas. I barely wanted to tell Barnard, he gets stressed by proxy." Jess sighed.

"Yeah, what's it like being married to Bernard?" Neil asked with intrigue. Jessie was saved from answering as Charlie's principal, Carol Newman, swung open her door. Carol had only been the Principal since last May. Despite being in the position for a short amount of time, she'd already drastically improved the school and wasn't tolerant of anyone who went against her rules. It was barely past Thanksgiving and Charlie Calvin hit his second strike.

"Dr. and Mrs. Miller, we meet again." Principal Newman greeted the parents dryly. "Excuse me a moment, please." She looked past Neil and Laura to glare at Jessie. "Young lady, we don't wear hats in the hallway. What class are you suppose to be in right now?"

"She's not a student!" Laura jumped in. "This is my older daughter, Jessica," She wrapped an arm around her oldest child's shoulders.

"Oh, well I was hoping this meeting could just be us adults and Charlie." Principal Newman explained.

"I'm twenty three." Jessie tried to reply nicely.

"I'm sorry, but is this a joke?" Principal Newman seemed offended. "I wanted to discuss Charlie's problems but maybe things run deeper..."

"I stopped growing when I was twelve." Jess clarified. "And if you look into Charlie's records I am one of his legal guardians."

"Oh very well, all of you please come in." Carol sighed. No wonder Charlie acted the way he did. She could only imagine what his father was like. "Will Mr. Calvin be joining us today?" Laura and Neil both looked at Jess for a cover story.

"He couldn't afford to take time away from his work." The elf remarked vaguely.

"Jess?!" Charlie spotted his sister when she entered the room. It had been months since Jess and Charlie had seen each other. They shared a hug and he was careful not to disturb the familiar hat he guessed was hiding his sister's elfish ears. Bernard had been right, as usual, Jess noted as she took in her sixteen year old brother's five foot nine inch frame. Her baby brother towered almost a whole foot above her.

"Hey Char, getting yourself into a bit of trouble?" Jess accused. Charlie noticed her tone lacked its typical sense of joking or sarcasm. "If you're not careful you're going to end up on Dad's other list." She warned just low enough for him to hear.

"I'm afraid it's much more than a bit of trouble Miss Calvin." Carol said, now standing behind her desk. "Please have a seat, we have a lot of ground to cover..."

No one bothered explaining to Principal Newman that it was technically Mrs. Calvin as she was married but her husband didn't have a last name. The subject was obviously best avoided, so they took their seats around the room as suggested instead.

"Bernard!" Curtis sprinted into the head elf's office. "I have some bad news..."

"Is it Jessie?" Bernard questioned immediately. He knew he should have never let his wife go out alone. She was still a young elf and didn't realize the number of things that could go wrong outside of the pole.

"No, as far as I know she's still at Charlie's school." Curtis assumed. He hadn't heard anything to the contrary, so there was no sense in worrying his boss over nothing. "I'm talking about this..." From the hall Curtis dragged in the giant magnification machine. A small white business card was attached to one end.

"Curtis, that's the Santa Clause. We already knew about that." Bernard groaned.

"Well, you're half right." Curtis said nervously. "The red border around the card is the Santa Clause. But have you ever looked at the filigree in the center of the card?"

"Curtis, I don't have time for your riddles, just tell me what you found out." The head adult snarled.

"Right." The number two elf flipped up the largest magnifying glass on the machine. "Have you ever heard of the Mrs. Clause?"

"Oh no!" Of all the rules Bernard could have ignored from the Christmas handbook, the Mrs. Clause was possibly one of the worst.

"I'm back!" Jessie announced poking her head into her husband's office. Both men stared back at her with gaping mouths and frightened expressions. "What's going on?" She noticed the grim looks on both Curtis and Bernard's faces.

"We forgot about the Mrs. Clause." Curtis explained as his boss was unable to speak.

"The Mrs. Claus, like Santa's wife?" Jess asked. She sat up on her husband's desk and waited for someone to answer her.

"No, Darling, more like the contract kind of clause." Barnard told her gently.

"Oh, like the Santa Clause when dad put on the suit?"

"Exactly!" Curtis agreed. "Only this one means he has to get married by Christmas."

"Christmas...this Christmas?" Jess looked at over her shoulder at Bernard.

"Apparently your father's been Santa for almost eight Christmases..." The head elf tried to think back.

"There was the first Christmas where Dad and Charlie delivered half of the presents after he put on the suit," Jess recalled. "Then the second was the year E.L.F.S. rescued him..."

"And the third was after your eighteenth birthday , and that big fight you and Bernard had." Curtis remembered.

"Then Jessie and I got married that summer and our five year anniversary was this July." Bernard added.

"No wonder we forgot about the Mrs. Clause...it's been a busy eight years." Curtis said.

"Okay, so what happens if Dad doesn't find a wife by Christmas?" Jess questioned.

"He doesn't get to be Santa anymore."

"He won't be Santa anymore." Curtis and Bernard replied together.