"There's a water park here?" Bernard raised an eyebrow. "Very odd for a North Pole knock off."
"I forgot, I should have gotten you a swim suit," I told him, "If you wanted to swim that is."
"I haven't gone swimming in..." Bernard thought, "I can't even remember. It was before I was an elf."
"They don't have any hot tubs or heated pools at all at the North Pole??" I was shocked, I was not going to live the rest of my prolonged life never swimming again. "I am going to talk to my dad about that when we get there."
"Bernard we should swim! They have water rides and slides, and you would like them!" Charlie urged him to comply.
"We could see if one of the stands here sells souvenir swim suits?" I suggested, "So you don't have to swim in jean shorts?"
The three of us found one of the gift shops, and sure enough, there were a pair of swim trunks. They were bright blue with palm trees and little shirtless surfing Santas all around.
"Do you guys have anything else?" Bernard asked, holding the quite gaudy pair of swim shorts up.
The employee shrugged, "They don't come in high enough demand for us to restock the other colors."
Bernard frowned but went to grab some money anyway. I stopped him from paying.
"I dragged you along, let me buy the shorts for you," I told him. I knew he hated them and was just doing this for Charlie, so I felt bad if he would have bought them. Bernard went to object, but I handed the money to the cashier already.
"Hey, why did you do that?" He asked as we walked away.
"Bernard, 30 bucks isn't the end of the world." I laughed, and he gave me a small smile in return.
"Just this one time," He took the bag from my hands.
"Debatable,"
I waited for Charlie to change into his swimsuit first so that one of us could always be watching him when he came out. Charlie's trunks were red with a white bandana print on them. My swimsuit was a classic high-waisted indigo bikini with high-cut legs. It was fun enough to be flirty, but not "too fun" that I would feel uncomfortable wearing it in front of anybody. I had a matching sarong I wrapped around myself as well, just so I wouldn't feel like my butt was hanging loose when I was still walking around.
When I walked out of the changing room, Bernard instantly looked away, a maneuver that my dad would no doubt approve of. I felt bad when he changed, as it was apparent how completely naked he felt. If he thought jean shorts were practically naked, no doubt without a shirt and shoes, he would feel even more exposed. He walked out covering himself with his arms. His skin was so unbelievably white, that I thought I felt I would blind myself simply by looking at him, which was a lot coming from me.
"This is horrible, i'm changing back-"
"Bernard, no!" Charlie grabbed one of his arms, which he yanked away and pulled back to cover himself again.
"I- I can buy you a t-shirt if you'd like." I suggested, "If that would make you feel better?"
After some more hesitation, he nodded with a sigh. "I can't believe i'm doing this. Curtis would say I'm breaking at least 30 rules."
"Curtis doesn't need to know!"
I went back to the gift shop and of course, the only t-shirt available had pictures of sunbathing elves on it, along with the matching surfing Santas on his shorts. I bought it anyway and walked back.
Bernard took one look at it and shook his head. "That's patronizing, I can't wear that!" He hissed in a low whisper.
"Okay, then put on your black shirt, but you'll have to wear this one home so you don't get my car all wet." I rolled my eyes at him. I did get it though, I wouldn't want to wear matching swim shorts and t-shirt like that.
He grumbled a little more and pulled back on the black t-shirt. Charlie, who had been waiting patiently for us to figure out the shirt situation was fidgeting, watching the pool and waterslides just a few feet away.
"Hold on, sunscreen-" Charlie took off towards the pool as soon as he saw Bernard take a step forward. I grabbed Charlie's arm. "Do elves get sunburned?" I looked at Bernard curiously. "I didn't think about that. Do I have magic skin?"
"I had a buddy who visited Jamaica on vacation and he came back very red and burnt. So yes, we do burn. Worse than most because we never see this type of sun at the Pole."
"Darn, I get magic that can make mountains of garlands appear out of nowhere and turn water into hot chocolate but I can't naturally protect my skin from the sun?" I sighed and grabbed the bottle of sunscreen out, coating Charlie in a thick coat. I then made sure to put some on myself, as I was as white as a skeleton. Handing the bottle to Bernard, he crinkled his nose.
"This stuff smells strange." He frowned. I noticed that when the two of us talked, he either looked directly into my eyes or literally anywhere else other than me. When we weren't talking, he mostly paid attention to Charlie, or again, literally anywhere else in the park.
"Well do you want to end up a tomato by the end of the day? At least get your neck."
"Angie, you should help him get his neck so he can reach-" Charlie started saying.
Bernard and I gave Charlie a look and he stopped talking.
After that, we were finally ready. The three of us walked over to the pool. Charlie jumped in and immediately started paddling around and splashing us.
"Get in. Get in. Get in." He would emphasize with each chlorine-filled splash.
"Okay, okay! Stop with the splashing!" Bernard waved his hands. He awkwardly slid into the pool and just stood there not moving.
"Angie! Come. ON!" Charlie then went to just splashing me.
I laughed at him, he was so excited. I loved seeing him like this. I took a couple of steps back, ran forward, and cannonball jumped into the deeper end of the pool.
"Hey kid, no running by the pool!" The lifeguard yelled at me along with a couple of toots of her whistle.
"Woah, Angie that was such a big splash!!" Charlie jumped up and down. Once I swam closer to them, he asked me, "Can we do a chicken fight?"
"What is a chicken fight? Where would you get chickens from?" Bernard's dark eyes darted around as if a chicken was about to fly down out of the sky.
"Charlie, there isn't enough people to do a chicken fight." I shook my head with a smile at Bernard's confusion.
"You could ask another kid to join!' Charlie said as if that was a normal thing.
"I don't think so," I laughed.
"What... humans fight with chickens? How strange."
"No, you have to climb on eachothers shoulders and kick eachother until the one on top falls off!" Charlie explained with a giant smile.
"That sounds horrifying." Bernard said with wide eyes. He was still just standing there with his arms crossed.
"Don't worry, we won't be doing that," I laughed again. "We'd need at least four people. And it's not as violent as you think, it's actually fun."
"Well maybe if you do convince the other elves to build a pool we could try that," Bernard said very thoughtfully, "Although I still don't understand the appeal." He was becoming self-aware of exactly how little he actually knew about "human culture", and I could tell that he was becoming more curious, even if he did think some things were odd.
"Do you want to go on the slide with me?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah, let's go." I smiled but Charlie shook his head.
"No, I want to go with Bernard." Charlie smiled up at him, all adorable looking.
Bernard followed Charlie hesitantly up the steps to the swooping water slide, and I could hear a loud scream all the way from the opposite side of the pool. I didn't hold back snickering at him because I knew he wouldn't be able to hear me. They went a couple more times, Bernard stopped screaming in terror after the third time, then Charlie with me a few times too.
"Angie I think I need water, I'm getting dehydrated." Charlie said all serious after the two of us went for the last time.
"That's a good idea, do you want me to grab you your water bottle?" I asked him. I was about to climb over the edge of the pool but he was quick to scramble out and yell, "I'm fine, you go with Bernard because he had to wait down here by himself!"
Bernard went to move by me. "Okay, what's the deal with Charlie?"
"He made it obvious, did he not?" I shook my head laughing. "Don't let him bother you, he's just being a stinker."
Bernard chuckled. "He's a good kid though."
"I know," I smiled while looking toward Charlie. He was sitting on the ground next to our stuff gulping down water. "I'm sure this whole thing is like a big amazing dream for him. His dad as Santa? That's like the craziest thing, you know? I'm sure if I was his age when this happened I'd be the same way."
Charlie looked up at the two of us and motioned to the slide with his hands then back at us.
Bernard laughed, shaking his head. After a moment he asked, "Well...should we go? For him I mean? He might stop teasing us if he sees us go down the slide."
"Or he might tease us more," I responded with a chuckle, "I'll go down with you though- if you want." I added. "How often do two elves go down a water slide?"
"Not very." Bernard grinned and held out his arm. "Well shall we?"
The two of us embarked on our journey down the slide, and Charlie whooped and hollered for us once we reached the bottom with a big splash. I heard Bernard laugh as we went down, a real laugh rather than a sarcastic or half-hearted chuckle like normal. At last, he seemed to be relaxing slightly, rather than being overly cautious of everything around us.
Though he was a little suspicious of the log flume ride and hated any of the drops because, "There's no seat restrains here. This is unsafe! I am going to fall out- I don't like this,", once we would get to the bottom of the drops, he would gain a big smile.
Something about watching him made me chuckle. Seeing him like this was almost like watching a kid have fun. It sunk in that he probably didn't have too much of a childhood, having been "chosen" at such a young age, and most likely trained right off the bat. I wondered when the last time he had laughed that hard or been able to let his guard down as much as he had today.
It was adorable how much Charlie adored him too. Anywhere Bernard would go, Charlie would follow in his shadow. If Bernard went to grab more sunscreen, Charlie would go too. If Bernard went to go grab some water, Charlie would follow him over to the table. If Bernard had to pee, Charlie would suddenly have to pee also, and so on.
I knew there were rules about photos at the North Pole, but I didn't necessarily know how those rules applied to me. Since I was an elf, was I allowed to have pictures? I saw pictures in the workshop halls, so certainly there were some pictures allowed. I ignored the possibility that I might have to delete these pictures since Bernard and I were elves and might destroy some "magic secrecy rule'', and took as many pictures as I could. My favorite was one where Bernard was looking up at a giant gingerbread man with a hand shielding his eyes from the sun, and his other hand on his hip. He was standing in a wide stance, with a face deeply analyzing what he was looking at. There next to him was Charlie a little mini copy, doing everything the exact same way he was.
The rest of the afternoon was spent going on more water rides, slides, and swimming until we were exhausted. The weather began to cool down, so I suggested that the three of us should probably head home soon.
"That was the best day ever," Charlie smiled with a yawn, his towel tightly wrapped around his shoulders. His cheeks were a little pink, so I knew he had gotten a little burned, which I knew Laura would call me out on once she saw it.
Bernard was burnt too, a little worse than Charlie. His cheeks were also pink, but so were his ears and arms. He probably didn't feel it now, but he would tomorrow no doubt.
I gave Charlie a side hug, "Good bud, I'm glad." I smiled, "Now go get changed." I ushered him forwards.
A/N:
So, I've obviously never been to Santa's Village, but theme parks and coasters are another random special interest of mine, so I had a lot of fun writing these chapters. I added some made-up rides (The water park stuff for instance, that while is it a real thing now, definitely wasn't at the time) since I didn't want to have rides that came out after the year this is based in, but I also wanted some variety. Also, if I added any art I've drawn of OCs/any characters in the story, would you guys like that? Another note: I am sorry about the late (ish) update to the story. I've had a lot of friends and family coming into town for the holidays so I've been busier than normal. I've also been facing some bad autistic burnout just from having people constantly around, so I haven't had a lot of time to relax. Things will calm down soon, and hopefully, my schedule will be back to normal.