April, huh? I'm publishing Christmas posts in April?
Here's my excuse, if you want to believe it. She has been spending a lot of time on her laptop, and even though I already had all of my Christmas posts already written, I never got the chance to edit them for mistakes and post them until now. So that's why I am so many months behind. Due to this fact. I've decided to try to shorten my posts after this one so I can finish the rest of them faster and easier.
Anyways, as they say on Broadway, the show must go on.
And as they say in the Room She Lives In (at least they do now that I made it up) the snow must go on. She checked the weather for the month of December. It looks like we might get a white Christmas after all!
And so, without further ado, I present to you my fifth day of Christmas in February. Yesterday we discovered that Christmas was a forgiving time when Magneto was pestering us the entire time She was trying to wrap presents for her family and friends. And here to sing our lovely song is me, Queen Elsa. On the fifth day of Christmas a human gave to me five gift wishes! Four perfect presents, three new friends, two bah humbugs and a tiny doll Christmas tree!
***
I had absolutely no idea what I was doing or why I was doing it, but it was fun. And therefore I continued. She had three boxes in her room that were always closed, but now that the humans would be gone for half the day, I figured that now was the best time to explore around a bit. After all, we'd probably stay in this room for a very long time. It made sense that we would want to know every single aspect of it.
Well, at least it made sense to me. Loki isn't exactly curious, and Olaf isn't... well... smart enough to know what to do in these cases. And Magneto, ugh... what to say about him! So for a while I guessed it was just me today, diving into boxes and gathering objects I found fascinating with this little plastic basket She had brought up as an accessory for us to use one day. Not that She knew we would use it.
"Hey Elsa!" I heard a cheerful voice say behind me while I was headfirst inside one of the boxes. It was obviously Olaf. Nobody else I knew could be so happy for no reason.
"Hey Elsa!" I heard a cheerful voice say behind me while I was headfirst inside one of the boxes. It was obviously Olaf. Nobody else I knew could be so happy for no reason.
"Oh, hey, Olaf." I replied, pushing myself out of the box and standing up straight, basket linked in my arm.
"Whatcha doing?" Olaf asked, looking behind me at the box I was digging through.
"Oh, nothing," I said sheepishly, shifting my weight from foot to foot, like I should be guilty about something. "I was just doing a little exploring. I wanted to know what She kept in these boxes, that's all." I pushed the basket farther up my arm.
"What did you find?"
"Um, well, lots of books, and colored rubber bands, and clay beading kits and stuff like that."
"What's in the basket?"
"Magneto." I replied with a grin.
"Magneto." I replied with a grin.
"What do you mean? Did you capture him and force him into a basket?"
"Well, no. He kind of crawled in himself. And I didn't know he was in there until I wanted to use this basket to hold found objects in. But now I think he's asleep, so getting him out now is pretty much useless."
"Oh." What does one say to that?
"You wanna help me look for a few things we can use?" I asked, holding up a pretty blue gemstone pendant, just as I saw Loki walk over and stop at Olaf's side.
"Elsa, have you seen Magneto anywhere? He said he wasn't going downstairs today, but I haven't seen him all day."
"He's in Elsa's basket!" Olaf cried.
Loki gave me a weird look, as if this could possibly be true.
"Um, yup," I replied, and finally decided to lift the lid. Sure enough, Magneto lay inside, squinting in the sudden light that flooded his face.
(Magneto in my basket)
"Hey!" I cried, trying to shield his face. "You woke me up!"
"Oops, sorry," I whispered, and closed the lid. Then turned back to my friends. "See?"
"Uh, weird," said Loki, scratching his head. "Well, I came over to deliver a message. A heard the garage door opening a minute ago but the humans haven't come in yet, but just to be safe, we should probably get back up on the dresser."
My eyes widened in fright. "Why didn't you inform us of that earlier? Now I only have a few seconds to clean up the mess I made or She'll get suspicious!"
Loki only shrugged. "Not my problem."
"Ugh!" I cried, then tossed Loki the basket with Magneto inside. He caught it and started running towards the dresser. Olaf stayed to help me put the boxes away, and the help was much appreciated. Two minutes went by and the room was cleaned. And the humans still had not come in the house.
"Are you sure that you weren't just hearing things?" I asked Loki as the three of us (with Magneto still snoozing in the basket) sat up upon the dresser just in the nick of the time.
She burst into her room and went over to her closet, rooting around for something on the top shelf. Pulling down a thick spiral notebook and a pen, She then flopped down on her bed, opened the notebook and began to write.
Loki, Olaf and I watched her, trying to read what she had written, but the dresser was farther away from the bed than we thought. I guess we would just have to wait to find out. After She had scribbled down a few things (whatever they were) she closed the notebook and threw it onto her chair, then left the room and closed the door behind her.
"Ha-ha!" I exclaimed triumphantly, using an arm to push myself off the dresser. Probably not a good idea, because I fell to the floor with a loud thump. "Ouch." I mumbled, rubbing my head and sitting up. Hopefully no one heard that.
"Are you okay, Elsa?" Olaf whisper-shouted.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied. "Now let's go see what She wrote in that notebook!"
"Elsa, no," I heard Loki say. He was shaking his head and looked to be displeased. "That's her personal property. Just because we live in her room doesn't mean we should be going through her stuff."
"Oh, just relax. I'll put the notebook back when I'm done reading it."
"Don't you think this has gone too far? You already went through those boxes looking for stuff to use. That may have been too much already. We've gone too far. Let's just stay up here today."
"Oh come, on, Loki, She didn't even notice."
"I'm with you, Elsa!" Olaf cried, and climbed off of the handles of the dresser and stood next to me. We both looked up at Loki It was two against one.
"Fine, fine. Do whatever you want. But if you get caught, we're done for."
"We won't get caught," said Olaf. "Will we, Elsa?"
"No, we won't. We promise."
Loki sighed and turned away. We took that as in invitation to explore. I made it over to the chair first, and Olaf helped me reach it by letting me step on his head to climb up.
"I got it!" I said, holding up our prize.
"Hooray!" cried Olaf. "Open it and see what it says!"
"Good thing I can read," I muttered. "But not very well. Loki? Do you know how to read well?"
"Leave me out of this."
"Fine. Olaf, can you?"
"I don't have a skull. Or bones. So probably not a brain, either."
"Okay, I guess I'll just have to try, then."
I had trained myself to read from the text on the other doll's boxes at Wandering Oaken's. I knew some words very well, like "Disney" "Frozen" and "Snow Queen." But I wasn't sure if I was able to read anything.
"What does it say?" Olaf asked.
I jumped down from the chair and flipped through the notebook. All the pages were blank except for the third one from the beginning. That must be what She wrote, I thought, and I started to read it out loud.
"Christmas... I know that word... Wish List. Number... one. Art sup-supplies. Number two. A book on me? Meteor... meteorology. That's a long word. I can't read that one at all... I think it says a music album of some sort. And then... a bl-bla-black sc-scarf? Last one... a mini Elsa doll? What?"
I stared at the words to make sure I had read them correctly. Yep, I had. But just in case, I read them over and over and over again. A mini Elsa doll. But She already had an Elsa doll- that was me. Was I not enough for her? Was She trying to replace me?
"What does that mean, Elsa?" Olaf asked, looking up at me wide-eyed.
"I- I don't know." I stammered.
"I know what it means," said Loki from the dresser, who said he wouldn't get involved. "That's a Christmas Wish List. It's when humans make a list for what they want for Christmas."
"I know what that is!" I yelled. "But why does she have a 'mini Elsa doll' on this list? She already has me!"
Loki only shrugged. "How should I know?"
"Does this mean She's going to replace me?" I asked, fighting back to urge to cry.
"That's why you shouldn't go poking through other people's things," said Loki, unempatheticly. "You might see things that you don't really want to see."
I remained quiet and Loki turned away. Olaf looked over at me again, then walked over and gave me a hug, which I wasn't expecting. "Don't worry, Elsa, no one can replace you."
"She can." I said, but I accepted the hug.
"Not to me," said Olaf. "Come on. Let's put the notebook back on the chair and get up on the dresser. She might come back in her room soon."
"Right." I replied, but I didn't really want to talk. I was happy to put that notebook back, though, I didn't care if I ever read that again. Olaf helped me back the dresser and let me climb on his head again to get back up the dresser. I was so flabbergasted it was a little difficult to concentrate on one thing, even if it was just moving places. I wasn't much interested in exploring any longer, so we just sat on the dresser for maybe an hour, even though She wasn't even in the room with us. It was strange, but really, my mind was so focused on other things that the awkward silence didn't even bother me. Before any of us knew it, it was nighttime and She can back into her bedroom and went to sleep on her bed.
Usually when all the humans are asleep we dolls find it safe to go to sleep as well, but we had basically been relaxing all afternoon at it was hard for any of us to lie down and close our eyes. Loki curled up under our Christmas tree with his green blanket and dozed off immediately. He slept like a baby. Whereas Olaf and I did not. He wanted to stay up and talk, and I wanted to stay up and think... out loud.
"Why do you think She put that one her wish list? Is there another Elsa doll out there that She prefers over me? I just don't get it."
"I don't understand it, either," said Olaf, laying back, his arms folded under his head. "I think She likes you well enough. In fact, I think She likes you best of all. Remember the first day the three of us met? She gave you those snowflake earrings in your hair because She loved you best."
I looked down at my braid. "Yeah, but then one of my snowflakes fell out and we lost it."
"So? She still gave you the snowflakes, didn't She?
"Yes... but She also gave you that bracelet. And Loki and blanket. She loves us all equally, except maybe me now that she wants another Elsa doll."
"But She gave you your snowflakes first. Even when we lost that second one, she replaced them with two new ones. Shouldn't that mean something? I mean, I don't know, I just thought that maybe that meant She liked you more."
"Or She just came up with the idea first."
"What do I know? I'm only a snowman," said Olaf, then yawned. "You know, Elsa, all this talk is making me tired. Do you mind if I take a nap? We can chat in the morning."
"That's not a problem, Olaf. Go right ahead." I replied.
He turned on his side, facing away from me, and then a few seconds later I heard snoring. I smiled a little to myself, then moved closer to him and rested my tired head on his back. Since he was made of stuffing (not that Olaf himself knew) it was actually quite comfortable. I closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep. From the first day I had met Olaf, I wasn't sure what to think of him, but now he didn't seem bad at all.
I glanced over at the clock on her dresser. Yikes, it was four thirty five in the morning. No thank you. But I was too awake to go to sleep again, so I busied myself with re-imagining my dream. I had thrown a giant party for her, covering her room in piles of snow and beautiful ice sculptures using my powers. I had made She an ice dress like mine, and then showed her that dolls can come to life. Instead of freaking out, She scooped me up in a big hug and threw away her wish list. It was a really great dream. Unfortunately if that happened in real life I didn't think that would have gone over so well. I had to think of something else. I'm not much of the planning type, but I spent near forty-five minutes thinking of how I was going to make this work.
Finally I thought of a really great idea, but I needed a partner in crime. I didn't think Loki would agree with my plan, and Magneto was probably still asleep in the basket, so my first choice was Olaf. I nudged the snowman with my elbow.
"Psst. Olaf."
No response. I pushed him with both hands.
"Olaf." I whispered a little louder.
"MMmmm." he murmured in his sleep.
"OLAF!" I whisper-shouted, rolling him over completely. He bumped into our Christmas tree and some of the bells ornaments jingled. Loki turned around and pulled his blanket around him. I bit my lip, but he didn't wake, to my relief.
"Huh? What? What is it?" he cried, getting up immediately and rubbing his eyes.
"Shh. She's still asleep." I replied.
"Oh."
"Sorry to wake you so early. I need you to help me with something."
"Yeah, okay. What time is it?"
"Well, now it's five fifteen."
"In the morning?"
"Um, yes." I said, blinking in confusion.
"It's too early." Olaf mumbled.
"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry... again. But I have this really great idea."
"Okay, what is it?" Olaf asked, sitting next to me on the end of the dresser.
"I'll tell you," I said. "But we have to be quiet."
I explained my dream to Olaf. I went over all the details I could remember and told him how I was going to make this dream become a reality. "Maybe if I get She to notice how special I am, She'll keep me." I had said. Olaf nodded at my every word.
"So, that's what I'm going to try to do."
"Okay, I'm in." said Olaf, excited to be a part of my secret mission team. I smiled because I knew he wouldn't say no.
"First thing's first. We need to get downstairs somehow without waking any of the humans, Loki, or Magneto. Got that?"
"Yeah. I can do that. Wait... what do I need to get again?"
I sighed. This could take a while. "A few sheets of paper. I think some might be in the living room in one of the drawers. We already have a pen to write with, so don't worry about getting that. I would use what She has in her closet, but I think the door opening would wake her up."
"Okay, good idea. I'll be quick and quiet."
"Thanks, Olaf, you're the best." I said with a wave, as Olaf jumped down from the dresser, pulling at the door handle, and then dropping down to the floor. He disappeared out the open door. Once he was out of sight, it was time for me to put my plan into action. I had to make myself noticed by She. The easiest thing to do was sing, so I pressed the switch on my waist and went climbed off the dresser, confident that when She walked past me to go out the door, I would start to sing and my hands would glow blue... and well, when something is singing and glowing blue it's pretty hard not to notice.
Moving on with phase two, I tiptoed around her bed and crawled up onto her chair, where the notebook lay from yesterday's reading.
I hated the notebook, and I was a little angry at She, but I knew that a few alterations to the last words written might just change our fates. I picked up a pen and bit my lip. I wasn't sure if I knew how to write. At all. And the pen felt largely awkward in my small hands, but I tried my best. In the end, the notebook page looked like this:
(my "lovely" handwriting skills were put to the test)
I just had to hope that She would notice what was written without thinking about who wrote it.
With phase two completed, all I had to do was wait for Olaf. I was trying to be patient, but he was taking a while longer than I had expected.
Eventually I snapped. I went over to the door and opened it a crack.
"Olaf. Olaf." I whispered, calling into the silent house. The human's Christmas tree twinkled with festive green lights. Below the lowest bow lay Benny, who was sound asleep and curled up in the tree skirt, his body moving up and down with each breath. That seemed to be the only movement around. But I still stood guard at the door.
But then a light turned on somewhere downstairs, For a minute I thought it had been Olaf, but then realized that he was too short and couldn't reach any of the switches.
My heart stopped, and I knew that someone had to be awake. And Olaf had to be downstairs. "No." I whispered, and my instincts took over. Before I knew what was happening, I was running. Out the door and past Benny and the tree to the staircase, Gulping before sneaking down and peering through the breaks in the railing. Olaf sat on the couch, frozen in place. (Haha, frozen joke.) A few sheets of blank paper were at his side. His worried eyes saw me watching him. He mouthed, "help."
I suddenly realized why. There was a human in the kitchen.
What were they doing up this early?
"Stay right there Olaf. I'm coming." I mouthed back, and before I knew it, I was off the staircase and hiding behind the doorway leading into the living room.
I stood there, breathing quickly for what seemed to be two hours and two seconds all at the same time. I watched the human in the kitchen, who hadn't noticed me once, thank goodness, who was looking around for breakfast. Once they was busy with the stove (at least I think that's what it's called) I waved at Olaf to get off the couch and come with me.
"I can't!" he mouthed.
"Yes, you can!" I replied. "They're distracted! Come on!"
He hopped off the couch and ran. I'd never seen him waddle so fast before. We got onto the stairs and ran all the way up, not even stopping to look back, our fearful thoughts louder than the sizzling sounds in the kitchen. Whatever that human was making, it sure smelled delicious.
We sneaked back into the Room She Lived In and closed the door quietly behind us, then climbed back up on the dresser, panting.
"Hoo! That was close." I sighed, then picked up Olaf's papers and the pen I had taken from the chair. Olaf looked like he was going to pass out from so much physical stress.
"Wha- What are you... going to write?" he breathed.
"Something. You'll see."
I scribbled out a few well-chosen words and then hid the rest of the papers behind our dresser. You never know when we might need them again.
I showed Olaf what I had written, proud of my handiwork. He squinted at the paper, trying to read.
"Don't... l-let. Me... go?"
"Very good, Olaf! I knew you had a brain in that head somewhere." I said happily.
He smiled.
We set everything in place and prepared ourselves for when She would wake up. The notebook and pen were thrown back on the chair, and I placed the paper beneath me, just enough so that She would be able to see the words peeking out.
It was around the time we went back to our positions She had put us in before falling asleep that Loki woke up, and Magneto finally decided to come out of his basket.
I watched Magneto as he stumbled, unspeaking, eyes barely open, to the end of the dresser, climbed down, and fastened himself using his key-chain clasp to She's backpack, where he had been before taking a day-long nap in a basket. He hung there, and his eyes slowly closed once again, and he was asleep. I actually kind of pitied him for the first time.
Loki got up and stretched, then sighed and stared up at the ceiling o' snowflakes.
I cleared my throat to get his attention. "Beautiful, isn't it?" I asked.
Loki sat up quickly. "Um, yes. Very nice. She did a good job in making them..." he put his helmet on and picked us his staff awkwardly. "So uh... you guys are up early. What did you do?"
"What did you mean what did we do? Could we just not have been up early because we wanted to?"
I asked, trying not to make Loki suspicious of us.
"We haven't done anything." said Olaf behind me, but he said it in just a certain way to say that we really had done something we weren't supposed to do.
Loki narrowed his eyes. I saw him looking at the paper I was sitting on.
"What's that?" he asked, pointing at it with his staff.
"What's what?" I asked, trying to cover the paper up with my dress skirt.
"What's this?" he asked a bit more forcefully, and then before I knew what we happening he pulled the paper out from under me. I fell over. Luckily Olaf was there to catch me... er... break my fall.
"Don't let me go," Loki read with perfect fluency. I didn't know he could read so well. Really could have used his talents when we were trying to decipher She's wish list. But he wanted to be left out of it. So... why was he getting involved now? "Elsa, what is this?" Loki demanded, turning the paper around to look for more words, but there wasn't any.
"What does it matter? You don't want to get involved." I said a little louder than I should have.
She groaned and turned over in her bed. We all froze, staring at her until she sighed and was still.
"I wasn't going to get involved, but now it's going to be a problem."
"Oh, and going through her stuff wasn't a problem before?"
"It was, but not as big as this one. What are you doing, writing messages to She? You can't reveal yourself to the humans! That's what your blog is for, you've already done enough of that!"
"Guys, don't fight, please." Olaf begged.
"Olaf, we're not fighting, we're just discussing what will happen when Elsa makes the biggest mistake of her life." Loki explained angrily.
"It's not a mistake, I have to do this! I have to make myself be noticed by She!"
"And why on Earth is that?" yelled Loki. Turns out that when he gets angry, he starts to talk with his hands, throwing them around like he was the one with ice magic.
"Be-because," I stammered timidly, my voice becoming soft. "Because She's trying to replace me. And if She realizes that I'm special, maybe then She'll keep me."
Loki gave me the strangest look. "Whoever said you were getting replaced?"
"Well, She wrote that She wanted a mini Elsa doll in her Christmas wish list, and I thought that meant I wasn't good enough..."
And then the strangest thing happened. I was on the verge of tears with Olaf patting my back, and Loki yelling at me, and then... he started laughing. He was shaking his head and laughing.
"What- why are you laughing?" I asked, wiping my eyes.
"Elsa, Elsa, Elsa," he was shaking with laughter. "She's not going to replace you!"
"She's not? Well..."
"What made you think that She would?"
"Well... uh, uh..."
"She never said or wrote, for that matter, that She would ever replace any of us. Don't you think that She just wants a mini Elsa doll to add to her collection?"
"Her collection?" I never came across the idea that She was collecting us. I mean, now that Loki suggested it, it made sense. She was a doll collector at some sort, but a strange one at that. Three dolls wasn't much of a collection. Maybe... just maybe... that was why she wanted another Elsa doll?
"Don't you think She wouldn't have bought us if She was going to give us away later just to replace us with other dolls?" Loki went on.
"Um... uh, I..." At least I wasn't the only one who was stunned. Olaf, my partner in crime, had his jaw near touching the floor in surprise.
"Yeah. I think She's trying to build up a collection of some sort with the each of us here. She's simply trying to add to us. I don't know, it might give us a few new friends or something," Loki explained. "But then, who am I to predict our fates? In short, Elsa, She's not planning to replace you, or any of us, for a very long time."
"Uh...huh."
It was a long time before any of us were able to speak. Not because Olaf and I were shocked, but also because the alarm clock beeped and She was waking up and we had to go back to our positions on the dresser, pretending like nothing out of the ordinary had ever happened at all.
She got up from her bed, eyes barely open (kind of reminded me of Magneto's tired expression) and hit the switch on her alarm. The annoying beeping immediately stopped. She looked over at us Her eyes looked over at me, and then She picked me up and began stroking my hair, fixing the bangs on my head.
And on her face was the tiniest hit of the smile.
Not the kind of smile you do when you're evilly planning a future of online selling or garage sales for a doll you own, but a smile that was somewhat happy and sad all at the same time. Nostalgia, perhaps? She picked out some clothes from the closet, left the room, and closed the door.
Oh well. I was proud to be a part of a collection. A collection is a group of items with similarities, wasn't it? That was kind of what She already had. Loki and Magneto were Marvel characters, and Olaf and I were from Frozen. But we were all kind of in the Disney universe. And in a way I still stood out. I was the only doll with glowing blue hands that made me sing! I liked being special, and I was kind of fitting into She's collection without really fitting in at all.
Near the end of the time we had alone in the room, I was laying down by the Christmas tree, staring up into the branches, instead of looking down on them like I usually did. It was a cool perspective, with the light filtering through the bows and making each ornament shine. Even the plastic ornaments with the poor paint jobs looked beautiful in a way. It was just about different points of view, really.
"Elsa?" I heard Olaf's voice, and I looked to my left to see that the snowman was sitting beside me. "Are you okay?" he asked.
That was nice of him to ask. "Oh yeah, Olaf, I'm fine. Just a little surprised, that's all."
"Yeah, me, too," said Olaf, laying down next to me. "Hey, it's morning now. Wanna talk?"
I laughed. "I guess you're right, you did say we could talk in the morning."
"Okay, what do you want to talk about?"
"What left is there to say?"
"Do you really think that we're part of a collection She is making?" Olaf asked.
"I think so. Loki seems to know what he's talking about. But I think it's cool to be a part of a collection. I mean, it's probably a lot better than being beaten around by some two-year-old girl."
Olaf shivered. "I think that happened to Tom."
"Poor Tom," I giggled. "But really. We have a pretty good life here. She would never replace us, I'm sure of that now."
"Yeah," said Olaf. "So, Elsa?"
"Yes?" I looked over at my assistant and friend.
"What is the message here?"
"What do you mean?"
"You're probably going to make a blog post of this, and whenever you do that, you always put something about the meaning of Christmas at the end of your post."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," I looked back up through the tree. "Well, I'm sure we've learned something about Christmas here, because how could we not have learned something with all of the drama that happened in the past two days?"
"What is it, then?"
"That's a good question, Olaf. Why don't I let my readers decide?"
"Wow, people actually read your blog?"
"....Yes...."
"I was just kidding."
And that ended the day at the House She Lived In. At least for us, because then She came home and we had to go back to being normal non-living dolls. Later I was finally able to type this post up on my blog but I still hadn't really come up with a moral of our story. So... we'll leave it up to your for interpretation. After all, Christmas is kind of like that, too.
"You wanna help me look for a few things we can use?" I asked, holding up a pretty blue gemstone pendant, just as I saw Loki walk over and stop at Olaf's side.
"Elsa, have you seen Magneto anywhere? He said he wasn't going downstairs today, but I haven't seen him all day."
"He's in Elsa's basket!" Olaf cried.
Loki gave me a weird look, as if this could possibly be true.
"Um, yup," I replied, and finally decided to lift the lid. Sure enough, Magneto lay inside, squinting in the sudden light that flooded his face.
(Magneto in my basket)
"Hey!" I cried, trying to shield his face. "You woke me up!"
"Oops, sorry," I whispered, and closed the lid. Then turned back to my friends. "See?"
"Uh, weird," said Loki, scratching his head. "Well, I came over to deliver a message. A heard the garage door opening a minute ago but the humans haven't come in yet, but just to be safe, we should probably get back up on the dresser."
My eyes widened in fright. "Why didn't you inform us of that earlier? Now I only have a few seconds to clean up the mess I made or She'll get suspicious!"
Loki only shrugged. "Not my problem."
"Ugh!" I cried, then tossed Loki the basket with Magneto inside. He caught it and started running towards the dresser. Olaf stayed to help me put the boxes away, and the help was much appreciated. Two minutes went by and the room was cleaned. And the humans still had not come in the house.
"Are you sure that you weren't just hearing things?" I asked Loki as the three of us (with Magneto still snoozing in the basket) sat up upon the dresser just in the nick of the time.
She burst into her room and went over to her closet, rooting around for something on the top shelf. Pulling down a thick spiral notebook and a pen, She then flopped down on her bed, opened the notebook and began to write.
Loki, Olaf and I watched her, trying to read what she had written, but the dresser was farther away from the bed than we thought. I guess we would just have to wait to find out. After She had scribbled down a few things (whatever they were) she closed the notebook and threw it onto her chair, then left the room and closed the door behind her.
"Ha-ha!" I exclaimed triumphantly, using an arm to push myself off the dresser. Probably not a good idea, because I fell to the floor with a loud thump. "Ouch." I mumbled, rubbing my head and sitting up. Hopefully no one heard that.
"Are you okay, Elsa?" Olaf whisper-shouted.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied. "Now let's go see what She wrote in that notebook!"
"Elsa, no," I heard Loki say. He was shaking his head and looked to be displeased. "That's her personal property. Just because we live in her room doesn't mean we should be going through her stuff."
"Oh, just relax. I'll put the notebook back when I'm done reading it."
"Don't you think this has gone too far? You already went through those boxes looking for stuff to use. That may have been too much already. We've gone too far. Let's just stay up here today."
"Oh come, on, Loki, She didn't even notice."
"I'm with you, Elsa!" Olaf cried, and climbed off of the handles of the dresser and stood next to me. We both looked up at Loki It was two against one.
"Fine, fine. Do whatever you want. But if you get caught, we're done for."
"We won't get caught," said Olaf. "Will we, Elsa?"
"No, we won't. We promise."
Loki sighed and turned away. We took that as in invitation to explore. I made it over to the chair first, and Olaf helped me reach it by letting me step on his head to climb up.
"I got it!" I said, holding up our prize.
"Hooray!" cried Olaf. "Open it and see what it says!"
"Good thing I can read," I muttered. "But not very well. Loki? Do you know how to read well?"
"Leave me out of this."
"Fine. Olaf, can you?"
"I don't have a skull. Or bones. So probably not a brain, either."
"Okay, I guess I'll just have to try, then."
I had trained myself to read from the text on the other doll's boxes at Wandering Oaken's. I knew some words very well, like "Disney" "Frozen" and "Snow Queen." But I wasn't sure if I was able to read anything.
"What does it say?" Olaf asked.
I jumped down from the chair and flipped through the notebook. All the pages were blank except for the third one from the beginning. That must be what She wrote, I thought, and I started to read it out loud.
"Christmas... I know that word... Wish List. Number... one. Art sup-supplies. Number two. A book on me? Meteor... meteorology. That's a long word. I can't read that one at all... I think it says a music album of some sort. And then... a bl-bla-black sc-scarf? Last one... a mini Elsa doll? What?"
I stared at the words to make sure I had read them correctly. Yep, I had. But just in case, I read them over and over and over again. A mini Elsa doll. But She already had an Elsa doll- that was me. Was I not enough for her? Was She trying to replace me?
"What does that mean, Elsa?" Olaf asked, looking up at me wide-eyed.
"I- I don't know." I stammered.
"I know what it means," said Loki from the dresser, who said he wouldn't get involved. "That's a Christmas Wish List. It's when humans make a list for what they want for Christmas."
"I know what that is!" I yelled. "But why does she have a 'mini Elsa doll' on this list? She already has me!"
Loki only shrugged. "How should I know?"
"Does this mean She's going to replace me?" I asked, fighting back to urge to cry.
"That's why you shouldn't go poking through other people's things," said Loki, unempatheticly. "You might see things that you don't really want to see."
I remained quiet and Loki turned away. Olaf looked over at me again, then walked over and gave me a hug, which I wasn't expecting. "Don't worry, Elsa, no one can replace you."
"She can." I said, but I accepted the hug.
"Not to me," said Olaf. "Come on. Let's put the notebook back on the chair and get up on the dresser. She might come back in her room soon."
"Right." I replied, but I didn't really want to talk. I was happy to put that notebook back, though, I didn't care if I ever read that again. Olaf helped me back the dresser and let me climb on his head again to get back up the dresser. I was so flabbergasted it was a little difficult to concentrate on one thing, even if it was just moving places. I wasn't much interested in exploring any longer, so we just sat on the dresser for maybe an hour, even though She wasn't even in the room with us. It was strange, but really, my mind was so focused on other things that the awkward silence didn't even bother me. Before any of us knew it, it was nighttime and She can back into her bedroom and went to sleep on her bed.
Usually when all the humans are asleep we dolls find it safe to go to sleep as well, but we had basically been relaxing all afternoon at it was hard for any of us to lie down and close our eyes. Loki curled up under our Christmas tree with his green blanket and dozed off immediately. He slept like a baby. Whereas Olaf and I did not. He wanted to stay up and talk, and I wanted to stay up and think... out loud.
"Why do you think She put that one her wish list? Is there another Elsa doll out there that She prefers over me? I just don't get it."
"I don't understand it, either," said Olaf, laying back, his arms folded under his head. "I think She likes you well enough. In fact, I think She likes you best of all. Remember the first day the three of us met? She gave you those snowflake earrings in your hair because She loved you best."
I looked down at my braid. "Yeah, but then one of my snowflakes fell out and we lost it."
"So? She still gave you the snowflakes, didn't She?
"Yes... but She also gave you that bracelet. And Loki and blanket. She loves us all equally, except maybe me now that she wants another Elsa doll."
"But She gave you your snowflakes first. Even when we lost that second one, she replaced them with two new ones. Shouldn't that mean something? I mean, I don't know, I just thought that maybe that meant She liked you more."
"Or She just came up with the idea first."
"What do I know? I'm only a snowman," said Olaf, then yawned. "You know, Elsa, all this talk is making me tired. Do you mind if I take a nap? We can chat in the morning."
"That's not a problem, Olaf. Go right ahead." I replied.
He turned on his side, facing away from me, and then a few seconds later I heard snoring. I smiled a little to myself, then moved closer to him and rested my tired head on his back. Since he was made of stuffing (not that Olaf himself knew) it was actually quite comfortable. I closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep. From the first day I had met Olaf, I wasn't sure what to think of him, but now he didn't seem bad at all.
***
The next morning I woke up before anyone else, including She, which was good, because if dolls are still sleeping before our human wakes up... well then, that can cause a couple problems. Last night I had a dream that I had done something really big and surprising to catch She's attention, and then that made her no longer want another Elsa doll since I was so special. I was wide awake and full of energy, ready to make my dream become a reality.I glanced over at the clock on her dresser. Yikes, it was four thirty five in the morning. No thank you. But I was too awake to go to sleep again, so I busied myself with re-imagining my dream. I had thrown a giant party for her, covering her room in piles of snow and beautiful ice sculptures using my powers. I had made She an ice dress like mine, and then showed her that dolls can come to life. Instead of freaking out, She scooped me up in a big hug and threw away her wish list. It was a really great dream. Unfortunately if that happened in real life I didn't think that would have gone over so well. I had to think of something else. I'm not much of the planning type, but I spent near forty-five minutes thinking of how I was going to make this work.
Finally I thought of a really great idea, but I needed a partner in crime. I didn't think Loki would agree with my plan, and Magneto was probably still asleep in the basket, so my first choice was Olaf. I nudged the snowman with my elbow.
"Psst. Olaf."
No response. I pushed him with both hands.
"Olaf." I whispered a little louder.
"MMmmm." he murmured in his sleep.
"OLAF!" I whisper-shouted, rolling him over completely. He bumped into our Christmas tree and some of the bells ornaments jingled. Loki turned around and pulled his blanket around him. I bit my lip, but he didn't wake, to my relief.
"Huh? What? What is it?" he cried, getting up immediately and rubbing his eyes.
"Shh. She's still asleep." I replied.
"Oh."
"Sorry to wake you so early. I need you to help me with something."
"Yeah, okay. What time is it?"
"Well, now it's five fifteen."
"In the morning?"
"Um, yes." I said, blinking in confusion.
"It's too early." Olaf mumbled.
"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry... again. But I have this really great idea."
"Okay, what is it?" Olaf asked, sitting next to me on the end of the dresser.
"I'll tell you," I said. "But we have to be quiet."
I explained my dream to Olaf. I went over all the details I could remember and told him how I was going to make this dream become a reality. "Maybe if I get She to notice how special I am, She'll keep me." I had said. Olaf nodded at my every word.
"So, that's what I'm going to try to do."
"Okay, I'm in." said Olaf, excited to be a part of my secret mission team. I smiled because I knew he wouldn't say no.
"First thing's first. We need to get downstairs somehow without waking any of the humans, Loki, or Magneto. Got that?"
"Yeah. I can do that. Wait... what do I need to get again?"
I sighed. This could take a while. "A few sheets of paper. I think some might be in the living room in one of the drawers. We already have a pen to write with, so don't worry about getting that. I would use what She has in her closet, but I think the door opening would wake her up."
"Okay, good idea. I'll be quick and quiet."
"Thanks, Olaf, you're the best." I said with a wave, as Olaf jumped down from the dresser, pulling at the door handle, and then dropping down to the floor. He disappeared out the open door. Once he was out of sight, it was time for me to put my plan into action. I had to make myself noticed by She. The easiest thing to do was sing, so I pressed the switch on my waist and went climbed off the dresser, confident that when She walked past me to go out the door, I would start to sing and my hands would glow blue... and well, when something is singing and glowing blue it's pretty hard not to notice.
Moving on with phase two, I tiptoed around her bed and crawled up onto her chair, where the notebook lay from yesterday's reading.
I hated the notebook, and I was a little angry at She, but I knew that a few alterations to the last words written might just change our fates. I picked up a pen and bit my lip. I wasn't sure if I knew how to write. At all. And the pen felt largely awkward in my small hands, but I tried my best. In the end, the notebook page looked like this:
(my "lovely" handwriting skills were put to the test)
I just had to hope that She would notice what was written without thinking about who wrote it.
With phase two completed, all I had to do was wait for Olaf. I was trying to be patient, but he was taking a while longer than I had expected.
Eventually I snapped. I went over to the door and opened it a crack.
"Olaf. Olaf." I whispered, calling into the silent house. The human's Christmas tree twinkled with festive green lights. Below the lowest bow lay Benny, who was sound asleep and curled up in the tree skirt, his body moving up and down with each breath. That seemed to be the only movement around. But I still stood guard at the door.
But then a light turned on somewhere downstairs, For a minute I thought it had been Olaf, but then realized that he was too short and couldn't reach any of the switches.
My heart stopped, and I knew that someone had to be awake. And Olaf had to be downstairs. "No." I whispered, and my instincts took over. Before I knew what was happening, I was running. Out the door and past Benny and the tree to the staircase, Gulping before sneaking down and peering through the breaks in the railing. Olaf sat on the couch, frozen in place. (Haha, frozen joke.) A few sheets of blank paper were at his side. His worried eyes saw me watching him. He mouthed, "help."
I suddenly realized why. There was a human in the kitchen.
What were they doing up this early?
"Stay right there Olaf. I'm coming." I mouthed back, and before I knew it, I was off the staircase and hiding behind the doorway leading into the living room.
I stood there, breathing quickly for what seemed to be two hours and two seconds all at the same time. I watched the human in the kitchen, who hadn't noticed me once, thank goodness, who was looking around for breakfast. Once they was busy with the stove (at least I think that's what it's called) I waved at Olaf to get off the couch and come with me.
"I can't!" he mouthed.
"Yes, you can!" I replied. "They're distracted! Come on!"
He hopped off the couch and ran. I'd never seen him waddle so fast before. We got onto the stairs and ran all the way up, not even stopping to look back, our fearful thoughts louder than the sizzling sounds in the kitchen. Whatever that human was making, it sure smelled delicious.
We sneaked back into the Room She Lived In and closed the door quietly behind us, then climbed back up on the dresser, panting.
"Hoo! That was close." I sighed, then picked up Olaf's papers and the pen I had taken from the chair. Olaf looked like he was going to pass out from so much physical stress.
"Wha- What are you... going to write?" he breathed.
"Something. You'll see."
I scribbled out a few well-chosen words and then hid the rest of the papers behind our dresser. You never know when we might need them again.
I showed Olaf what I had written, proud of my handiwork. He squinted at the paper, trying to read.
"Don't... l-let. Me... go?"
"Very good, Olaf! I knew you had a brain in that head somewhere." I said happily.
He smiled.
We set everything in place and prepared ourselves for when She would wake up. The notebook and pen were thrown back on the chair, and I placed the paper beneath me, just enough so that She would be able to see the words peeking out.
It was around the time we went back to our positions She had put us in before falling asleep that Loki woke up, and Magneto finally decided to come out of his basket.
I watched Magneto as he stumbled, unspeaking, eyes barely open, to the end of the dresser, climbed down, and fastened himself using his key-chain clasp to She's backpack, where he had been before taking a day-long nap in a basket. He hung there, and his eyes slowly closed once again, and he was asleep. I actually kind of pitied him for the first time.
Loki got up and stretched, then sighed and stared up at the ceiling o' snowflakes.
I cleared my throat to get his attention. "Beautiful, isn't it?" I asked.
Loki sat up quickly. "Um, yes. Very nice. She did a good job in making them..." he put his helmet on and picked us his staff awkwardly. "So uh... you guys are up early. What did you do?"
"What did you mean what did we do? Could we just not have been up early because we wanted to?"
I asked, trying not to make Loki suspicious of us.
"We haven't done anything." said Olaf behind me, but he said it in just a certain way to say that we really had done something we weren't supposed to do.
Loki narrowed his eyes. I saw him looking at the paper I was sitting on.
"What's that?" he asked, pointing at it with his staff.
"What's what?" I asked, trying to cover the paper up with my dress skirt.
"What's this?" he asked a bit more forcefully, and then before I knew what we happening he pulled the paper out from under me. I fell over. Luckily Olaf was there to catch me... er... break my fall.
"Don't let me go," Loki read with perfect fluency. I didn't know he could read so well. Really could have used his talents when we were trying to decipher She's wish list. But he wanted to be left out of it. So... why was he getting involved now? "Elsa, what is this?" Loki demanded, turning the paper around to look for more words, but there wasn't any.
"What does it matter? You don't want to get involved." I said a little louder than I should have.
She groaned and turned over in her bed. We all froze, staring at her until she sighed and was still.
"I wasn't going to get involved, but now it's going to be a problem."
"Oh, and going through her stuff wasn't a problem before?"
"It was, but not as big as this one. What are you doing, writing messages to She? You can't reveal yourself to the humans! That's what your blog is for, you've already done enough of that!"
"Guys, don't fight, please." Olaf begged.
"Olaf, we're not fighting, we're just discussing what will happen when Elsa makes the biggest mistake of her life." Loki explained angrily.
"It's not a mistake, I have to do this! I have to make myself be noticed by She!"
"And why on Earth is that?" yelled Loki. Turns out that when he gets angry, he starts to talk with his hands, throwing them around like he was the one with ice magic.
"Be-because," I stammered timidly, my voice becoming soft. "Because She's trying to replace me. And if She realizes that I'm special, maybe then She'll keep me."
Loki gave me the strangest look. "Whoever said you were getting replaced?"
"Well, She wrote that She wanted a mini Elsa doll in her Christmas wish list, and I thought that meant I wasn't good enough..."
And then the strangest thing happened. I was on the verge of tears with Olaf patting my back, and Loki yelling at me, and then... he started laughing. He was shaking his head and laughing.
"What- why are you laughing?" I asked, wiping my eyes.
"Elsa, Elsa, Elsa," he was shaking with laughter. "She's not going to replace you!"
"She's not? Well..."
"What made you think that She would?"
"Well... uh, uh..."
"She never said or wrote, for that matter, that She would ever replace any of us. Don't you think that She just wants a mini Elsa doll to add to her collection?"
"Her collection?" I never came across the idea that She was collecting us. I mean, now that Loki suggested it, it made sense. She was a doll collector at some sort, but a strange one at that. Three dolls wasn't much of a collection. Maybe... just maybe... that was why she wanted another Elsa doll?
"Don't you think She wouldn't have bought us if She was going to give us away later just to replace us with other dolls?" Loki went on.
"Um... uh, I..." At least I wasn't the only one who was stunned. Olaf, my partner in crime, had his jaw near touching the floor in surprise.
"Yeah. I think She's trying to build up a collection of some sort with the each of us here. She's simply trying to add to us. I don't know, it might give us a few new friends or something," Loki explained. "But then, who am I to predict our fates? In short, Elsa, She's not planning to replace you, or any of us, for a very long time."
"Uh...huh."
It was a long time before any of us were able to speak. Not because Olaf and I were shocked, but also because the alarm clock beeped and She was waking up and we had to go back to our positions on the dresser, pretending like nothing out of the ordinary had ever happened at all.
She got up from her bed, eyes barely open (kind of reminded me of Magneto's tired expression) and hit the switch on her alarm. The annoying beeping immediately stopped. She looked over at us Her eyes looked over at me, and then She picked me up and began stroking my hair, fixing the bangs on my head.
And on her face was the tiniest hit of the smile.
Not the kind of smile you do when you're evilly planning a future of online selling or garage sales for a doll you own, but a smile that was somewhat happy and sad all at the same time. Nostalgia, perhaps? She picked out some clothes from the closet, left the room, and closed the door.
***
She didn't come back for a long time. I didn't count the hours, I didn't care much for time. She had taken her backpack with her, so Magneto wasn't around to bother us. Loki busied himself with happily removing all evidence we had left behind. He used whiteout on the notebook on where I had written in my part and shredded the "Don't let me go" paper into tiny little pieces and threw it away. Olaf and I remained quiet most of the day, still trying to process what Loki had told us. Was She really just getting another Elsa doll to add to a collection?Oh well. I was proud to be a part of a collection. A collection is a group of items with similarities, wasn't it? That was kind of what She already had. Loki and Magneto were Marvel characters, and Olaf and I were from Frozen. But we were all kind of in the Disney universe. And in a way I still stood out. I was the only doll with glowing blue hands that made me sing! I liked being special, and I was kind of fitting into She's collection without really fitting in at all.
Near the end of the time we had alone in the room, I was laying down by the Christmas tree, staring up into the branches, instead of looking down on them like I usually did. It was a cool perspective, with the light filtering through the bows and making each ornament shine. Even the plastic ornaments with the poor paint jobs looked beautiful in a way. It was just about different points of view, really.
"Elsa?" I heard Olaf's voice, and I looked to my left to see that the snowman was sitting beside me. "Are you okay?" he asked.
That was nice of him to ask. "Oh yeah, Olaf, I'm fine. Just a little surprised, that's all."
"Yeah, me, too," said Olaf, laying down next to me. "Hey, it's morning now. Wanna talk?"
I laughed. "I guess you're right, you did say we could talk in the morning."
"Okay, what do you want to talk about?"
"What left is there to say?"
"Do you really think that we're part of a collection She is making?" Olaf asked.
"I think so. Loki seems to know what he's talking about. But I think it's cool to be a part of a collection. I mean, it's probably a lot better than being beaten around by some two-year-old girl."
Olaf shivered. "I think that happened to Tom."
"Poor Tom," I giggled. "But really. We have a pretty good life here. She would never replace us, I'm sure of that now."
"Yeah," said Olaf. "So, Elsa?"
"Yes?" I looked over at my assistant and friend.
"What is the message here?"
"What do you mean?"
"You're probably going to make a blog post of this, and whenever you do that, you always put something about the meaning of Christmas at the end of your post."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," I looked back up through the tree. "Well, I'm sure we've learned something about Christmas here, because how could we not have learned something with all of the drama that happened in the past two days?"
"What is it, then?"
"That's a good question, Olaf. Why don't I let my readers decide?"
"Wow, people actually read your blog?"
"....Yes...."
"I was just kidding."
And that ended the day at the House She Lived In. At least for us, because then She came home and we had to go back to being normal non-living dolls. Later I was finally able to type this post up on my blog but I still hadn't really come up with a moral of our story. So... we'll leave it up to your for interpretation. After all, Christmas is kind of like that, too.
Leaving the end to you,
Queen Elsa
