"Alright, welcome to teleportation school." Bernard sat at the desk in my room, leaning slightly back in his chair.
"It's my room." I said sarcastically.
"It's not like there's another place we can go." Bernard crossed his arms. "We can't get you back to the North Pole unless you either learn to teleport, or wait until we bring your dad, and trust me, some of your training you'll want to be done there."
"What does that even mean?" I raised an eyebrow. "What, none of my training involves dressing up as a monkey and dancing around right?"
"I can add it to the list if you keep wasting my time."
I rolled my eyes. "Okay fine, what do I do?"
"I want you to watch me do it first. Take note of the things that I am doing, my form, my posture, every little detail." He stood back up and walked into the middle of the room.
Bernard turned into sparkles and reappeared from more sparkles a few feet away. "So?" He asked expectantly.
"Um..." There wasn't anything that stood out other than the sparkles. I shrugged.
"Watch again-" He did it again, moving back to his original position in another gust of sparkles.
"I honestly cannot tell." I shook my head after thinking of what he wanted me to notice.
"Oh for the goodness of gingerbread." Bernard shook his head. "Do you not see what I'm doing with my feet!?"
"You are leaving piles of glitter all over my room that I need to sweep up and you are telling me that I was supposed to be looking at your feet?"
"Yes- Okay-" He sighed. "It might be easier if you just try." He looked at me, waiting for me to do something.
"I don't know what to do!!" I threw my hands up and yelled at him a bit snarkily.
"Well don't just stand there, at least try!" Bernard yelled back at me.
I looked at him, my mouth open and trying to form words, but nothing would come out. I finally shook my head, sighed, and squeezed my eyes shut. I was picturing the hallway. I clenched my fists together and focused all I could. I could feel my face turning red.
"Okay, stop! Stop!" Bernard walked over. "That was just embarrassing."
"Well I'm sorry, you didn't exactly give me any tips!" I glared at him.
"Stop pouting, I just wanted to see if you could do it." He glared back at me. "Feet shoulder length apart." He started walking in circles around me to inspect my form. "Keep your elbows in. Tighter!" He moved my arms so that my elbows were jabbing into my sides. "Okay, that looks right- " Bernard took a step back and then frowned. "Unlock your knees, you're going to faint."
I tried to look at him, but I could only see myself in the mirror. I looked ridiculous. "I'm done playing charades, can we get to the teleporting part?"
He ignored my comment. "Now you are going to quickly twist your left foot clockwise while picturing where it is you want to go; do the hallway. Give it a try."
I quickly moved my left foot and tried to picture the hall, but I immediately fell onto the floor instead.
"You went counter clockwise." Bernard stood over me, looking down.
"You could have just said to the right or left." I narrowed my eyes at him. To my surprise he offered me a hand back up.
"Try again."
This time I did everything exactly as he said. I held my feet shoulder length apart, dug my elbows in, and made sure to turn my left foot clockwise. It was as if a strong force picked me up and chucked my body at the floor. I rubbed my butt where I landed hard.
"Well, no that wasn't right either. You're supposed to land on your feet." Bernard shook his head again. "You need to... Just... focus." He was horrible at giving advice. He helped me up again. "Watch me again."
Every time I tried teleporting, Bernard would either stop me or watch, only for me to be magically thrown to the floor like a ragdoll. It was always, "You need to hold your elbows in more! If they are out, they could be cut off!" or, "Your feet were more broad shoulder length apart, not regular shoulder length apart," or "You have to stop clenching your fists."
"Try again," He would say over and over and over.
I did try again. I tried again and again and again. Every time I either ended up on the floor on my butt or a few times on my face. Bernard kept trying to show me, but it was always so quick that I could hardly follow.
It had been almost two hours of trying to teleport without progress. After two hours of falling on my butt, it was beginning to hurt. I knew if I looked at my backside I would probably have a bruise forming.
Bernard was sitting on the desk chair again, lips pursed into a frown and his hands rubbing the bridge of his nose. I was sitting on the edge of my bed, arms crossed and frustratedly trying not to start crying. I always cried when I got too overwhelmed and tired or angry. I hated that.
I was so annoyed with both Bernard and myself. Bernard looked annoyed too, but mostly tired. This happened after failing for the last time, I couldn't take it anymore and I yelled at him when he tried to start lecturing about my elbows again. Now, just like two bitter children, we were sitting on opposite sides of the room ignoring eachother. We sat like that for maybe five minutes not saying anything at all.
"Just- try it one more time." He finally said after sighing loudly and rolling his head over to look at me.
"Can we just agree that I can't do it?" I croaked. I hated my voice like this. It always made me feel weaker that I cried when I was angry. "I cannot take doing this again."
He glanced at me, then away again, an almost surprised look. He obviously didn't know how to comfort someone on the verge of tears. "I'm not going to leave until you get this right."
I think the way he meant this was "I'm going to stay here and help you get this done." But it came off more as "I'm going to make you fling yourself onto the floor like an idiot for the next billion years unless you get this right."
"Come on, stand up. Feet shoulder length apart," Bernard said for the billionth time albeit in a friendlier tone, ushering me to come stand next to him again.
At that, I finally cracked and teared up.
His eyes widened. "Uh-" Bernard opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. His hand was outreached as if he was going to pat my shoulder or something, but paused, and decided to stand there with his arm half upwards instead.
"This is so embarrassing... Stop it!" I tried to tell myself. I turned my head away so I wouldn't have to look at him struggling what to do. I covered my face with one hand to stop myself from breathing too hard.
He stood there awkwardly staring while I tried to get my eyes to stop producing tears.
"Are you okay?" He said, finally placing his hand on my shoulder. I flinched away slightly, and he pulled his hand back.
"I'm fine." I kept facing away because I knew I must look ridiculous. "I think I just need to take a break for a little bit." I sniffed, which sounded more like a snort.
He nodded slowly and disappeared downstairs somewhere. I heard Bernard's voice talking about something with my dad, and he was gone for about five minutes. I took that time to go into the bathroom and clean my face up.
My mascara was the worst. I washed my whole face and reapplied my makeup lightly, mostly to cover the redness of my eyes.
When I walked back into my room, Bernard was sitting at my desk, with two large sandwiches, much like the one he devoured whole a few months ago.
"I made you a sandwich." Bernard motioned to the sandwich. Quite honestly I thought he was going to eat both sandwiches. "Food is supposed to make you feel better."
I couldn't help smiling just a little. I don't know how he expected me to eat the giant sandwich, but I sure wasn't going to do it like I knew he was. "Thank you."
"Don't worry, I got you a knife." Bernard also smiled slightly, shaking his head and seeing my expression.
I cut my sandwich up into smaller easier to eat sized sandwiches.
"Bernard, do you actually like the North Pole?" I asked him after he annihilated about three-quarters of his sandwich, and I had calmed down significantly. Part of my problem was definitely due to me being hangry and tired.
"Of course I do." He looked back at me like I was crazy. "Life never gets boring there. You can have the same job for a thousand years, but there's always something that makes it interesting."
I nodded slowly. "But... do you ever miss being a human? Did you miss your family?"
Bernard stopped eating. He nodded after a bit of thinking. "I did at first. I know that sounds horrible-" He added after seeing my face. "It was hard for me to adjust as an elf. The chosen elf before me was long gone, so I didn't have anyone to relate to. I was just a kid when it happened too. We didn't even have a fireplace then, they didn't really make them like they started to a few years later, with the chimneys and all."
Bernard leaned back in the chair and looked off into the distance. "But yes, I had a family; brothers, sisters, cousins, and they all thought I ran away." He shrugged, his expression growing solemn. "I would try and come back as often as I could I'd visit the little ones who still believed in magic, but everyone else I knew stopped recognizing me after I turned. Then they all grew up, they all got older than me, and nobody knew who I was anymore."
I didn't say anything. It was not a future I wanted to look forward to at all.
"But the thing is-" He kept going, "After a while you learn where you belong here. As a chosen elf you get to do all sorts of things normal elves can't. You have unique opportunities, and everyone loves to see you learn." Bernard took his eyes off of where he was staring at my wall and glanced at me. "So yes, I do miss my family sometimes. When I think as an elf, it doesn't seem that long ago, and it can get painful. But there really isn't any use in dwelling on it this far gone, because as a human, so much time has passed that I wouldn't even know who my biological family is anymore."
He leaned forward again, stood up, and stretched. "That's the special part about being chosen, you get to think both ways. Elves will move on from things slower, they hold onto things for centuries, humans don't do that. Humans know that life is short, so you can't spend all your time thinking of one grudge or feeling. There's ups and downs to both sides."
I nodded. "What about Charlie?" I asked after not saying anything for a long time. "Will he forget about me?"
Bernard shook his head. "Of course not. Charlie saw first hand what magic is, that type of belief is rare." He gave a small smile. "Don't be worried, Angel, everything will turn out okay."
I didn't correct him on my name this time and instead gave a small smile back, even if it was still unsure. I didn't want to watch my baby brother grow up and pass away when I still looked young. I didn't want all my friends to not recognize me anymore when I came to visit, because so much time passed, and they moved on with their lives. That was such a scary thought.
Bernard seemed to read my mind. "Your Dad won't age in the same way though. As long as his magic stays strong, he will age slower, much like an elf."
"So when I am three thousand years old he will still be sending me to my room? Great." I chuckled a little, mostly trying to make myself feel better.
Bernard laughed too "Believe me, I know how that feels."
I sighed, then stood up, feeling a bit more confident in myself. "Okay, I think I'm ready to try again."
Bernard gave a smile and stood up also. "Alright, show me what you got."
I did everything like before. I ensured my feet were in the right position, my shoulders square and my elbows tucked. I pictured the hallway in front of me and took a deep breath. Quickly, I shifted my foot clockwise and I felt myself being lifted again, along with a small pop, but when I opened my eyes, I was not where I was standing before.
"I did it!!" I jumped up and down excitedly. I was not in the hallway, but I moved about two feet to the right, which for me was still big progress. "Did you see that?!" I beamed. It was the strangest feeling ever, moving without moving my legs.
Bernard smiled and chuckled back at me. "I think you're going to get the hang of it, Angel." He coughed, "Sorry, Angie." He clarified.
"I don't even care!" I laughed, then paused, taking a deep breath. "Okay, I'm going to do it again." I gave him a smile.
Bernard sat down in the chair as I popped all around the room, giggling and jumping like a little kid every time I managed to do it. He watched me with an amused grin.
"Once you practice jumping further distances, you can come back with me to the North Pole to visit." Bernard said when I finally was calming down from my teleportation spree. "I'm sure the other elves would like to see you too." He added quickly before I could say anything.
"Or maybe you can admit that you are tolerating me more than you'd be willing to confess to anybody." I teased him. "It's alright, I know I am pleasant company."
Bernard rolled his eyes with a half-smirk. "Alright, alright. How about this. I am sorry that I was rough on you when we met... I just had to make sure you could handle it, you know?" He paused, looked down then back up at me. "Friends?" He stuck out his hand.
I shook his hand heartily, "I think you used the word buddies before."
Bernard shook his head at me, rolling his eyes again, but not as much in an annoyed way. We sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes. "You know," He said breaking the quiet. "I'm surprised you did it."
I was laying down on the floor, exhausted. Apparently teleporting about a hundred times takes a lot of energy. "Did what?" I propped myself up with an arm and looked at him.
"Teleporting. It's not easy." He answered shortly. "Most elves can't even do it."
"No way!" I didn't believe him. "I'm sure plenty can learn."
Bernard had a proud expression on his face as he shook his head. "No, they really can't. It takes a lot of focus that many elves aren't able to hold. It's because of that reason that our E.L.F.S team all uses jetpacks."
I raised my eyebrows, totally surprised by this. "I guess I wouldn't have thought about that." I was quiet for a moment. "Wait, do you mean you thought I wouldn't be able to do it?"
"I wasn't sure, but when I saw that you wouldn't give up, I knew I needed to push you." Bernard answered honestly. "But I'll tell you this, the elves at the Pole are going to be jealous when they find out that you, a new elf, learned to teleport in one day."
I laughed, "How long did it take you to learn?" I asked him.
"You don't want to know." Bernard avoided answering. "Anyway-"
"No, tell me!" I cut him off.
"It took me almost a week to teleport a few inches, and I couldn't teleport between rooms for almost six months."
"And you were all tough on me, trying to make me go out into the hallway! Does this mean I have bragging rights?"
"If you really want to."
"Good, because I plan on beating all of your learning times"
It was on this day that something finally cracked Bernard's tough shell. He still liked to revert to his grumpy self occasionally, and he was very much still straightforward, but I felt much more comfortable teasing him about these things to his face, rather than getting annoyed with him and not saying anything.
A/N:
Okay, I lied. I was able to get another chapter out, but only because I've been hyper-fixated on writing and could literally not stop myself from doing so. The number of times I've watched The Santa Clause this year gives me pure bliss and energy to fuel my inspiration, and I still have a full two movies left after this!