Why was he tilting his head?!
“Dasher…” He stopped, his face incredibly close to mine. “Can I ask you something?” Gulp. I could feel his breath on my neck. I nodded, not saying a word. “Would it be OK if…” What was happening?! “If I asked…” It felt like my world had shrunk to just this one metre square. “Why your neck is … green?”
Ah! I almost collapsed back. What on earth had I thought was happening?!
“Long story…” Well, it might be short. I didn’t know. I hadn’t made it up yet. BUT I wasn’t ready to tell him, to tell anyone, about my elfy past! Especially when we’d been getting on so well. And he’d also realize that under pressure I named reindeers “Rodney”. “But it involves a very green, er, very avocado face mask.’”
His eyes narrowed. “And your … arms?”
“It was actually a full body mask.” His eyes lifted up to my head. “And hair.”
And with the quickest bye possible, I trudged to meet Dad, the whole weird day scrolling on repeat through my brain. But as I headed towards town, not one single person did a doubletake or asked about Elf Girl. Even though the song was getting bigger, so far it was just the eagle-eyed waitress back home who’d connected the dots. Maybe I could survive this?
And maybe this Christmas was salvageable? Grace had enjoyed today. The party was taking shape. And I’d had a really nice time with Ru. Which wasn’t a problem because we were just friends, and I was still one hundred per cent very much a Jingle Lady.
And as I stood in the pick-up area looking for Dad’s headlights, my phone pinged. A voice note from Ru.
“Sorry, but reindeers are bad with phones. Just ask Derek.” Even though it had only been ten minutes, it was nice hearing his voice. “All hooves and…” He stopped, lost in where the joke might go. “Hooves?” He stopped, laughed, then composed himself. “Probably should start again, but seeing as you probably won’t reply to this I might as well carry on. I wanted to say I had a good time today.” He paused. “Learning about naked mice was a highlight of course.” Another pause. “And seeing you was also OK I suppose … maybe.” I could picture the grin he was doing. And realized I was smiling too. But that was OK. Jingle Ladies could smile at messages and it didn’t have to mean anything. “So, if you want to do it again in Edinburgh, let me know? I’ll be there all weekend. Or don’t reply and I’ll get the hint.”
But Dad’s car lights swept in and Grace jumped out the millisecond it stopped.
“Don’t panic,” she said, breathless.
“You said that earlier.”
“But this time I mean it.” Uh-oh. “Two words.” She gulped and the beginnings of Christmas cheer instantly melted. “There’s a photo of what I can only describe as an elf and some kind of supermodel on the internet. And the elf is you.”
CHAPTER
10
TO DO:
•Pack jumpers (make sure Mum doesn’t sneak in long johns – AGAIN)
•Present idea – buy Billy a hoof pick?
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•Booking form for hall!!
•Make 200 snowflakes
•Try to get over Dad throwing away the first 200 snowflakes
“Slice?” Dad offered me some Chocolate Orange the second he stopped for the lights. Some people might not think Christmas chocolate was OK before 7 a.m. but those people were not my dad. For last night’s dinner he’d just had mince pies.
But chocolate always helped. I chewed and stared out of Cara the Camper Van’s frosty window as we drove past Holly Hospice, their little Christmas tree hardly staying upright in the breeze and broken lights dangling off their roof. I could see why Grace wanted to raise as much money as possible to help Grampy G’s friends have fun.
Not that anyone else was awake yet. We’d had to set off SO early to get to Edinburgh for the Sleigh Another Day event. But I didn’t mind. Just one more day and this whole film nightmare would be over. Elijah had asked me to do a Little Elf Girl takeover of the film’s social account with “lots of elfies”. I think his vision was for me to be in the posts, but Grace and I had come up with a much safer idea. I’d brought my elf hat and we were going to put the bell at the very bottom of each photo, like there was a tiny elf posing just out of shot. Then all I had to do was upload them, and wait for Elijah to hand over the footage.
Finally something going right. This week had been awful. I snuck a last look at the picture of me that had been posted. Before we picked up Grace and her dad, I needed to get my “it’s fine, I’m dealing with this” face back on.
Eurgh. Every time I looked at it, I felt the same sick thud, like the world had tilted off balance. Harry smouldering and my stupid blinking elf face.
Why on earth had SleighAllTheDaysFans, the stupid film fan account, shared this photo with the world? And how had they got it in the first place?! I wanted to kill Harry.
689 likes.
45 comments.
1 caption that might ruin my whole life.
Ten years later and THIS is what the “Love Your Elf!” girl looks like! Can we call it an exclusive?!
Shout out to @MollytheLolly for turning up to the Liverpool light switch-on and taking such a great elfie
! So jelz she got to hang with Maeve and Joseph! Mol, if you’re reading can you give us the inside gossip on #Maeseph?! #hohoho #peacetoallelves #seeingthefilmsisgoodforyourelf #sleighanotherday
Harry never said he ran a fan account, but when I’d immediately messaged him to take it down, he’d pretended to be clueless.
Harry: Sorry Molly (also that rhymes). No idea what you’re talking about. The only one I sent that photo to was you 
And the only person I’d sent it to was Grace. And there was no way it was her.
All week I’d been petrified someone I knew might start following SleighAllTheDaysFans, so I’d checked I was on private, changed my profile picture to a picture of a slice of toast and asked Grace to stop following me, so there were no clues the account they’d tagged could be me.
