THE FILM.
My Christmas cheer disappeared like the Malteser Celebrations.
“Come on, guys!” Dad yelled, like it was hard to lose six-foot-seven man in antlers. “It’s just a short walk to the hotel!”
But fifteen minutes later we were panting and sweaty after a low-level mountaineering trek, complete with yanking heavy suitcases over cobbles. Not made any easier by me refusing to take off a very large bobble hat, or loosen my scarf, because I didn’t want to be spotted with Dad just in case anyone recognized us together.
But Grace was right. Edinburgh was SO pretty. Even better than I imagined. A huge castle towered over the city, and along the high street was a Christmas market, little wooden stalls dotted about with the most delicious smells wafting out. There was even a tram! At the end of the market was the giant snow globe, already packed full of happy tourists. Which reminded me, I needed to keep an eye out for Harry. Grace wanted to interrogate him face to face about the social post – see if we could make him crack.
“Well, here we are…” Dad climbed some huge wide steps up to a massive green wooden door, a wreath as big as Billy on it. “The Winterfield.”
This was our hotel? It was the poshest place I’d seen in my life! A man in a top hat opened the door for us, and inside it just got grander. As our dads filled in paperwork, Camilla, the super-friendly receptionist, showed me and Grace the huge Christmas tree at the bottom of the Hogwarts-esque staircase. No way! Under the tree were tiny, wrapped Christmas presents with our names on! Maybe Elijah wasn’t that bad after all?!
“This way, ladies,” Camilla said, leading us up the winding staircase and into our room. She didn’t even let us carry our bags! Or mind that my snow-soaked Converse were leaving a trail of melted snow juice. “We saved the best rooms for cast...” She pushed one of huge wooden bedroom doors open. Did she think we were cast? I’m not sure cast would be holding hands and squeaking with excitement. We had our own room! With a balcony! And the best view of the castle! And was that a hot chocolate machine? And did the fireplace have two stockings hanging on it with our initials on? Be still my beating heart!
The bed was so big we could lie sideways and not stick out! I know cos me and Grace yanked off our shoes and jumped right on it.
It was very bouncy. We may have bounced on it. A lot. And then realized Camilla was still standing there, smiling to herself.
“I’ll think I’ll leave you to it… And if you need anything…” She gave a small nod. “Like emergency chocolates or – can I recommend the Christmas shortbread if you lassies are peckish – just ring reception.”
We waved bye and Grace flopped down on the bed, arms and legs spread out like she was making a snow angel.
“It’s official. We’ve hit peak Christmas.” She swished her arms and legs up and down. “We’re haven’t even been in Edinburgh an hour and already it’s the best … day … EVER!!!! All thanks to you.”
“Thanks to YOU! Imagine if I was stuck here on my own being dragged around novelty tie shops.” Dad had already bought one and I was worried how the next thirty-six hours could go. Grace took one of the freshly baked shortbreads.
“Your dad is an unstoppable force, Mol, so you might as well stop fighting it.” Easy for her to say, her genetic relative wasn’t the one unpacking Father Christmas pyjamas. She bit into a shortbread, crumbs flying everywhere. “Who needs boyfriends when you have free biscuits!” She had a point. And a lot of crumbs on her face. She held up another and clinked it into mine. “Jingle Ladies for ever!”
“For ever!” I replied. Then remembered I still hadn’t mentioned meeting Ru. Maybe that would be better to do once we were outside?
We arranged to meet our dads later, left the hotel and set off to explore.
It was snowing, and Grace stuck out her arms and twirled up the street. The scene looked like a Christmas card. It always made me glow when she unleashed dancing Grace. Look at my best friend with her superhero skill hidden away. A couple stopped to watch her pirouette and broke into applause. Grace of a week ago might tell them that December was actually the month most couples broke up; this week she’d walked around saying, “I wonder how many more people will be dumped this month”. But today … today Grace was bowing and saying, “Merry Christmas, one and all!” just like her granddad used to. We picked up some non-alcoholic hot toddies with big chunks of apple and orange in, and strolled up through the market then along the cobbled Royal Mile up to the castle. The snow was settling on the courtyard, so we found a quiet alley to build a snowman – which Grace named Simon – and then completely destroyed with the umbrella she’d bought. Grace grinned as she took a selfie with it (framing out a crying child in the background). Maybe she finally had turned a Simon corner?
I sent a photo of the obliterated snowman head to Ru.
Me: Think Grace is feeling better. Meet Simon…
But it went unread. Oh well, we’d be seeing each other in two hours… Two hours. I should really tell Grace.
“We’re here!” Grace pointed at the huge sign stretching over an archway made of baubles which said: “Light Up Your Holiday Season With SLEIGH ANOTHER DAY!”
Behind it the castle walls and gardens were lit up with moving art that made it look like a fairy tale castle with little elves at the windows and reindeer outside, and scattered around were the bits of set that I recognized from Leicester Square and Liverpool.
We headed under the arch, checked in and, arm-in-arm, walked into the event.
In every direction was something Christmassy. I scanned around. No sign of Harry. Or Ru … not that I was looking. In fact, Ru had mentioned he’d met someone called Harry at one of the crew parties, so running into them both would be a nightmare, as Harry could spill my elf secret, and out my imaginary reindeers.
Actual shudder.
“Mols.” Grace grabbed my arm, taking a temporary break from eating the shortbread she’d stocked up on. “Tell me I’m not dreaming. Or I am. Or whatever is the one that means this is really good.”
But I didn’t have time to answer.
“THERE YOU ARE!” Elijah appeared from behind a large snowman. He was wearing the same long black coat, plain black scarf and black shoes as in Liverpool. He plonked a box down at my feet. “I’ve been lugging this round for hours.”
It was a brown cardboard box, black gaffer tape all round. Scribbled on the top was one word, “sezud”. But no, he spun it round and turned it the right way up – “Prizes”.
No way! Had Elijah really come through for the fundraiser?
“Are these for us?” It was heavy too!
“Would be a weird thing to give you if not. You might want to leave it in a safe place.” He nodded behind him to some Portakabins. “Valuables in there.”
OMG was it valuable? This got better and better.
“Thanks, Elijah.” I went to hug him. He backed away. I returned my arms to my sides as if it never happened.
“No raffling them online. Or auctioning, or whatever.” Ooh, I hadn’t thought of that – maybe we could do that with the other things to help raise more money? “Raffle them in the room, on the night only. Seeing as they technically shouldn’t be leaving set…”
“No probs. Honestly, this is SO cool!” I turned to Grace. “Grace, no big deal, but you are looking at some actual, proper exclusive Hollywood movie things to raffle for the fundraiser!”
It took a second for the penny to drop, but when it did, Grace lunged and hugged Elijah. She was lightning fast, too quick for him to dodge. “THANK YOU!” I enjoyed his grimace. “We’re going to raise SO much money!!” She gave him another hard squeeze, her pompom dinging him in the eye. “That’s for the hotel too. Though I feel a bit vommy after all the shortbread. And three hot drinks. But it’s Christmas, right?!”
“Not all thoughts need to be out loud,” Elijah said, brushing shortbread crumbs off his scarf. “Although…” He eyed us up and down, taking in our matching bright red light-up Christmas scrunchies we’d just bought at the market. “Molly, you’ve made an effort for a change. Nice to see you not green. Is this your influence, Grace?” Charming. “Because I approve. Unless of course there’s another reason.” Erm, like what? “Meeting anyone?”
“NO!” I spluttered. “It’s all Grace!” I didn’t want him mentioning Ru before I’d talked to her, but Elijah almost looked disappointed.
“Well, you both look very … festive.”
“Thank you.” I took it as a compliment, even though it definitely wasn’t. “You look … warm?”
He flicked his scarf. “The word you’re looking for is stylish. I don’t do cheap fabrics. My skin’s too sensitive. And this” – he waved his hand up and down my outfit – “is a walking fire hazard. Although it would look great on camera. In a music video.” Not this again? I’d already messaged him twenty times saying “no”. He turned to Grace. “Grace, I’m relying on you to talk your friend round. You can have a starring role. I’m sure there’s room for a dancer.” Eurgh! He was a blackmail genius! I wasn’t telling him anything ever again. “It would be such a good last-minute video drop for the film, just before Christmas… Just before they pick who is getting the job on the press team…” He looked into the distance, a tiny smile starting. “Christmas number one is so close.” But then it was like he just realized he was still talking. And I was still shaking my head.
“Fine!” He cleared his throat. “Whaddya think then…” He pointed towards the maze. “Going to look good on the gram? Is that what you young people say?” He was only about four years older than us. “Obviously, the snow is all down to me, and I had to ship these in …” He pointed to the three huge Christmas trees that were dripping in lights. “… from Norway. No biggie.” He blew on his nails.
“Well, I did.” Tim, the suit man from Liverpool, interrupted. “Someone had to do something, seeing as I’ve just scanned the papers and there’s a big fat ZERO pieces in there about the film.” Elijah’s shoulders dropped. “Time’s running out, Eli. This was meant to do the trick, so let’s hope today we get some pick up. We need whatever it takes. Exclusives. Arguments. Who’s kissing who. Photos, photos, photos. Unless of course you don’t want that job…” Elijah went to reply, but Tim talked right over him. “Although that music video idea had legs…”
He walked off without even a “goodbye”. As much as Elijah annoyed me, I could kind of see why he was so pushy. His boss wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“Sorry about him.” It was the first time Elijah had sounded human. “He’s got a lot of pressure from up top, I guess. If we don’t hit that top spot for Christmas, we’re ALL in serious trouble.” He sighed. “And I’m definitely waving goodbye to that job.” A crackle came over his headset, flicking him back into normal mode. “So please do a decent job today … first thing you need to do is pick up a production iPhone from the cabin. It should be set up and logged in…” He rattled off everything we needed to do – mainly feature Little Elf Girl “as much as possible” (I didn’t say what was possible was “not at all”) and give a look at the event through the eyes of someone “pumped about the film”. I tried not to snort, but luckily Grace leapt in, going into detail about the bit in the film where they have a high-speed sleigh chase in Lapland, and Joseph’s hair is all snowy, and … well, a lot of Joseph-based content … until Elijah had gone glassy-eyed and said something about needing to go and check the snow wasn’t melting.
We collected the phone and spent the next half an hour wandering around. But with only an hour till we met Ru, and me getting stressed we’d run into him any moment, the time had come.
“Graaace.” I slowed as we came to a light-up penguin on a sledge (which made no sense. It’s like all logic was off with Christmas decorations. Reindeer being ridden by a Christmas hedgehog? Sure, why not?).
“That voice means you either have something to confess to. Or … nope, just that first one.” But she was smiling. Chewing shortbread, but smiling.
