Scott and Mackenzie were watching Charlie's soccer game, when a little girl came up to the bench they were sitting on. She sat next to Scott; he moved away a bit. But she stood up and tapped his shoulder. "What?" he turned to her, she sat on his lap. "I want some ballets slippers." She told him. Mackenzie tried to not laugh but couldn't help herself because this little girl just assumed that an overweight man with white hair, wearing a red coat, was Santa Claus. Or maybe kids just had a way of knowing. The little girl then looked at Mackenzie. "Are you an elf?" she decided to play along, so the girl wouldn't ask something else, like 'Are you Mrs. Claus?'
"Yes I am." Scott turned to his niece with a raised eyebrow. "Then why are you so tall?" the girl asked. Mackenzie didn't even need to think about the answer because she already knew it. "I'm a south pole elf, and we're taller." Before the little girl could ask another question, more kids started lining up to tell Scott what they wanted for Christmas. He didn't want to pretend to be Santa, but he couldn't disappoint all the children that were standing in front of him with hopeful eyes.
Everything was going fine until Laura and Neal walked over. Scott picked the boy up from his lap, so he could stand. "This is bad." Mackenzie whispered to the elf girl next to her who nodded in response. "I'm not done!" the boy tried to stop Scott. "Fax me." The man replied, then put him down on the bench. He walked up to Laura and Neal while Mackenzie followed. "Hi, hey...I know this looks pretty odd, but these kids lined up all by themselves." Scott said hoping that they would believe him. "I think it's safe to say that you have taken this Santa thing to an unhealthy level." Neal said taking out his wallet. "Take my card, call me." He handed it to him. Scott took it and looked at it. "I really have to tell you, this is beginning to scare me, never in my normal dreams...but then this is you we're talking about." Laura said. "Honey, the point." Neal looked at her. "I never thought you would stoop to changing your physical appearance so Charlie will like you." She started, Scott sighed and looked down. "Did you ever consider what Mackenzie's parents would say about this? Or how dangerous it is to a little boy?" Laura asked. Tears rolled down Mackenzie's cheeks. "Whoa, whoa. Don't bring them into this! And how is this dangerous?" Scott asked angrily. Charlie walked up to his parents, confused about what was going on. "Come on, Charlie. We're going home." Laura took her son's hand and turned to her niece. "You're coming with us." She said but the teen shook her head because her aunt couldn't just take her from Scott because he had full custody of her, Laura pulled Charlie over to the car. She knew that she would have to save Mackenzie from her crazy uncle somehow. "You let him stay. I'll go!" Scott called. "If you don't get your act together, Scott. So, help me...I will..." She didn't finish. Mackenzie turned to her uncle. "You don't think, she'll go to a judge, do you?" she asked still in tears. "No of course not." Scott placed a hand on her shoulder. "Everything will be alright." He promised. She hugged him tightly.
The next day
Mackenzie was reading in the living-room when the doorbell rang. She got up and answered it. It was a delivery man. "I'm looking for a SC, is he here?" he asked. "Yes, that's my uncle, one moment, I'll get him." She replied, then turned to the stairs. "UNCLE SCOTT!" she called. "What?" he called back. "You have a delivery!" she had a feeling that it was the list. Scott came down the stairs with shaving cream on his face, his hair was even whiter now and he was starting to look more like Santa Claus. "Hi there." He greeted throwing a hand towel over his shoulder. "Hi, I have a delivery for SC, that you?"
"Yeah, Scott Calvin. That's me." He was handed a clipboard.
"Sign here, please." Scott gave him a chuckle clearly confused of what he ordered. "Thanks, I'll get the packages." The delivery driver said once he handed back the clipboard and started to head down the stairs. "Packages?" Scott was more confused than before. "There's quite a few of them." The new Santa went back into the house, after telling him that he would leave the door opened for them.
"Mack, did you order something?" he asked walking to the living-room, where she was sitting and reading again, she looked up. "No." she shook her head. "Maybe it's the list." He glared at her.
"Not funny." He went back upstairs to finish shaving. "He still doesn't get how important this is?" a voice appeared next to her. She turned to see Bernard; her heart fluttered. "No, he doesn't, and how long have you been here?" she asked, "Also why are you always here?" she didn't mind seeing him all the time, but she would like to know the answer. "Not long, and I'm always here. Because I have to keep Santa's spirits up." The Head Elf replied. Mackenzie was about to speak but was cut off by whistling and footsteps coming down the stairs. Suddenly it stopped. That's when she noticed the house was full of red boxes. Mackenzie looked at the elf who was smiling. They listened quietly as Scott read off one of the names. "Armand Assante?" he read out loud to himself. "Yo!" he yelled loudly before running out the door. "Let's leave him to it." Bernard stood up and held out his hand. "Care to join me for some Christmasat the North Pole?" she stood up and took his hand, she gave up on bringing up the fact that it was too early for Christmas.
"Ready?" he asked wrapping his arms around her. They both blushed.
"Yeah." She answered. Then all of a sudden, the scent of peppermint appeared; it was Bernard. Mackenzie wondered why she never noticed it before because this wasn't the first time he had his arms around her, they teleported away just as Scott reentered the house. "Mack, could you help me figure out where to put all of these boxes?" Scott asked. No answer. "Mack?" still no answer. "Yo, Mack Attack!" once again nothing, now he was worried, scared that something happened to her. "Mack! Mackenzie!" he called running around the house, and both of the yards. The fear took over and he needed to find her. "Mackenzie! MACKENZIE!" he called for the sixth time, but still nothing. "MACKENZIE!!!"
Bernard and Mackenzie appeared in the middle of the village. "Welcome to Elfsburg." He smiled. She gasped in wonder as she took in the sights of the village, it was like she stepped foot in one of those Christmas village decorations that her grandmother setup every year, or something from a Cracker Barrel. She turned to the elf. "It's beautiful." He smiled again.
"Come on, I'll show you around." He took her by the hand and led the human through Elfsburg. Mackenzie quickly realized that they were being stared at, by bright smiles on little elves faces. Everyone is staring at us." She whispered, "Why are they smiling?" "For the staring, that's because no human apart from my father has step foot in the pole, and the second one, I'm not sure." He explained, "Also I'm breaking a rule, so they're probably surprised about that."
"Oh? Which rule is that, and you've never broken a rule before in your life?" she asked. He chuckled. "Nope. I like things to go by the book." He looked up at her, "But I brought you here." He smiled. She looked down at him. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked. "It's against the rules for any human, besides Santa, to be here." He told her.
"Oh..." she looked away.
"It's alright, they'll get used to it. They'll have to when you and your uncle come to live here." He couldn't wait for the day, just being with her made him extremely happy. She smiled down at him, then shivered. "Are you cold?" he asked.
"No, I'm just shivering because I want too." She sassed. "Would you like some cocoa?" Bernard asked. "Yes, that would be great." She answered. He led her to Cocoa's Cafe. They were greeted by a blonde elf. "Could we have two hot chocolates?" Bernard asked. The little Elf nodded as she turned to Mackenzie. "Double chocolate?" she asked. "Uh...yeah how did you know?" Mackenzie replied, looking to face Bernard. "Did you tell her?" he shook his head, then brought her over to one of the tables. She stared down at it. "Is something wrong?" he asked sitting down at the table. "I think I'm too tall." She pointed out. The elf didn't think about that, because everything in his house was built for humans and elves. That's when something came to him. "We can bring the cocoa back to my house." He offered. "There will be a chair that you can sit in comfortably." There he goes being nice again, but he would have to be because they were going to be stuck with each other. She smiled as she sat down in the chair, with her legs out, so her knees wouldn't hit the table or be in her chest. "I'm alright here. I have to get used to sitting on elf sized things." She said, there was something about that sentence that sounded weirdly inappropriate, or maybe Mackenzie just had a dirty mind. She was thankful when Cocoa brought over their hot chocolates. "Thank you." Mackenzie smiled. "How much is it?"
"No charge, for Santa's family." Cocoa smiled back, "How did you know my favorite kind of hot chocolate?" Mackenzie asked, Cocoa didn't answer, she just smiled again then walked away. The red head looked at the curly haired elf across from her. "Why do I get things for free?" she wasn't sure how she felt about that, because it would get annoying after a while. "Because we're like royalty." He explained. "Oh, I see." She picked up the mug in front of her and took a sip. "This is amazing!" she smiled. "That's because Judy makes the best cocoa." Bernard smiled. Mackenzie agreed, she had never had Judy's cocoa before, but she was pretty sure not much else could beat this. Then something came to her. "If you're supposed to keep my uncle's spirits up, then why are you spending so much time with me?" she asked looking at Bernard, "Does it have something to do with that sparkle that appeared on Christmas Day?" He thought for a moment. "Because it's easier to keep someone's spirit up when they believe, then when they don't." he answered, ignoring the question about the sparkle, but the teen shook her head. "But I don't really believe." He gave her a smile.
"But you're starting to." She smiled back, because he was right, and because he made her happy.
"You could answer my second question?" she leaned closer to him. He sighed, annoyed because he didn't want to talk about it. "Yes...the sparkle is like when you find your soulmate." He muttered looking down at his cup. She couldn't believe what she just heard. Did he just say soulmate? Mackenzie decided to ignore the answer and move on to something else. "So, Elf, is there something else you want to do?" she asked. "What would you like to do?"
"See the whole village, since I'll be living here, once my uncle..." she paused. "Is there a phone I could use!?" she realized that they left without telling Scott. Bernard nodded. He led her to an office, where Tante Kringle was. "Oh, hello Bernard, who's your friend?" she asked in her German accent. "This is Mackenzie Wolfe, Mackenzie this is the Elf queen, Tante Kringle." Bernard introduced. Mackenzie liked hearing him say her name, even though this was the first time he did. "Oh, this is the famous Mackenzie and the one you shared the sparkle with?" Tante smirked.
"Tante!" Bernard shouted in south elfish blushing. "Nice to meet you, Your highness." She bowed. "No need for that." Tante smiled. Mackenzie smiled back. "Tante, that's German for aunt, right?" she asked. Tante smiled again, "Yeah."
"Tante, Mackenzie needs to call the new Santa." Bernard said. Butterflies filled her stomach, and Bernard liked how it sounded to say her name, but still wouldn't call her by it. The human thanked the elf queen and called her uncle. "She's pretty. Don't you agree?" the elf queen asked in south elfish, turning to Bernard, who was beet red. "Ja, but I don't like her in that way." He replied also in south elfish, she didn't say anything else, because she knew that he was lying, because of the way he was looking at their guest.
The two elves could hear Scott yelling over the phone, his voice mixed between anger and worry, Mackenzie finally got a few words in. "Uncle Scott, I'm fine. And Bernard will bring me home soon." She said then hung up before Scott could say anything, she knew that he would be upset and worried, but he would be alright now that he knew that she was okay. "Alright, now what should we do?" she asked, turning to Bernard, the head elf thought for a while, "How about we go do some preparations?" he said, holding out his hand. The human nodded and took his hand then they walked out of the office.
Bernard led Mackenzie to where the Christmas trees were sold, Jessica was there with Dingle, Jingle, Zingle and Wingle looking for a Christmas tree for Santa's office. "Hello, Bernard." Dingle greeted as the elf and human walked over to the trees. "Hello." He said, then turned to his mother. "Mackenzie this is my mother, Jessica. Mother this is Mackenzie Wolfe, the new Santa's niece." The head elf was afraid that his mother would bring up the sparkle like Tante did, but she didn't, she just smiled at the human. "Nice to meet you, Mackenzie." "You too Mrs. Claus." She shook her hand. "Are you going to help us pick out a tree for the office?" Jessica asked, letting go of Mackenzie's hand and turned to her son with a smile. "Sure, if that's alright." Mackenzie answered; Jessica turned back to her, "Of course!" the six elves and the human picked out the perfect tree then brought it to the office.
Jingle, Dingle, Zingle and Wingle put the tree up. "It looks great." Mackenzie smiled. Bernard smiled back at her. "You are welcomed to join us for decorating tonight." Jessica said, the human turned to her. "I would love to, but I can't stay here too long because my uncle is freaking out." She answered chuckling a bit. Mrs. Claus smiled, before looking back at her son. "Deer, why don't you take Mackenzie to the kitchen to make some cookies." Bernard thought about it then looked up at Mackenzie. "What do you say, would you like to make some cookies for Christmas?" "Yes, that sounds fun!" the head elf took her hand and led her to the kitchen.
The baker elves smiled when Mackenzie and Bernard entered the room, the two started making some Christmas cookies called; Springerle, Pfeffernüsse (a German "Pepper-Nut" Christmas Cookie) and lastly one called Oma Kiener's Hazelnut. Then some ginger bread cookies because they were Mackenzie's favorite, they frosted the gingerbread men and put Sprinkles on the cookies as well. Bernard noticed that the red head had frosting on her face and flour all over her shirt, he laughed a bit, she looked at him, with a raised eyebrow. "What's so funny?" "You're covered in flour and frosting." He laughed more; she took a handful of flour. "Well so are you!" she said throwing it at him. the baker elves were upset about the mess, but they were all happy to see Bernard smiling like he used to. Even though Mackenzie still thought that it was too early to be getting ready for Christmas, it was still fun to pick out a tree and make Christmas cookies, it all reminded her of the Christmases with her parents.