Love At The North Pole

Chapter Seven: The Battle To Believe

"Turn to page 165 and read the section about the digestive system. Then, write a one-page paper on what you learned from that passage."

I turned my book to the assigned page and leaned down to grab my anatomy notebook from my backpack. I felt something round and looked down to see the glass of the snowglobe reflecting off of the yellow lights from the classroom.

"What's that?" My lab partner, Brandon asked.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it," I said quietly while grabbing my pencil and writing the date in my notebook.

"Come on, Claire. I wanna see," he forced while grabbing my backpack from the ground.

"Brandon, stop!" I shouted but it was too late.

"What the hell is this? A snowglobe? That's what you were freakin' about?"

"Put it back, Brandon! Give it to me!" I shouted, grabbing at the snowglobe. "It's special to me! Stop!"

"Brandon slipped out of his chair from me pushing him and the snowglobe flew across the classroom before smashing against the wall.

"No!" I screamed, causing the class to go silent. Tears welled up in my eyes and I began to cry, gripping Bernard's sweater that was hanging down my body.

"Miss. Calvin. Why don't you take a break in the office," Mrs. Gauss says while wrapping a comforting arm around my shoulder.

I continued to bawl my eyes out while walking down the hall towards the office. I made it into the office and noticed my Mom and Neil sitting in the office with the principal. Moving to the look in the window, I saw my Dad sitting on the other side.

"Mom? Dad? Neil? What are you doing here?" I asked while walking into the room.

"Clara. What are you doing in here, young lady?" The principal asked.

"Mrs. Gauss sent me down. Something happened in class," I sniffled.

"What happened, sweetheart?" Mom asked while motioning for me to take a seat in the empty chair.

"I don't wanna talk about it with you guys. I'll tell Dad later," I say quietly.

"Scott, what have you done to these kids?" Mom exclaims causing me to look up with a glare.

"He didn't do anything, Mom! It's all a lot to explain, okay? Can't you just calm down for a minute and realize that Charlie and I are just kids! We have imaginations but this... What happened on Christmas Eve wasn't just our imaginations. It was real," I blurt out while gripping Bernard's sweater in my small fist.

"Scott, what are the last thing the three of you did before you went to bed Christmas Eve?" Neil asked with a long sigh.

"We shared a bowl of sugar, did some shots of brown liquor, played with my shotguns, field dressed a cat, and Charlie and I looked for women while Clara met up with a guy in the city," Dad joked in all seriousness.

Mom, Neil, and the principal gave Dad a death stare and all I could do was sit there in the awkward silence.

"I read Charlie a book! Clara went to bed while listening to her music," Dad shrugged finally.

"What book?" Neil asks.

"Uh, Hollywood Wives. The Night Before Christmas, folks. Come on!"

"And did you go up to the North Pole?" Neil goes on.

"No-"

"Yes-"

Dad and I both turned and looked at each other. I knew he was trying to forget everything and pretend it was all a dream. But it wasn't and he knew it!