Hailey the Lucia

"...What about now?" The short, hooked-nose elf with black, lockey hair squealed. He was but one of the many elves gathered in the all room, utterly livid over this situation.
The petite elf with strawberry-blonde pigtails reading an old novel on the great, army-green armchair, wiggled the bandaged up leg propped up on the footstool, "Sorry, Ralph. Still fractured."

"But what about..."
Before the same black-haired elf could finish, a sausagey hand yanked him back by the shoulder.
All of a sudden he found himself standing nose to nose with a portly elf donning a moustacheless red beard under his double chin, staring daggers directly into his eyes, "Stop bothering her, will you, Ralph? She recovers when she recovers. Until then she needs to rest. Is that clear?"

Ralph shoved away the hands of his superior, "Crystal. It's just... The rehearsal for the Lucia Procession is upon is in less than a week, and... I'm terrified she's gonna end up missing it. What're we supposed to do without our Lucia?"
"Yeah, pretty sure this year I'm gonna have to sit the Lucia out." Jess declared without tearing her eyes away from the pages in her book.
"Whaa?" The baby-faced elf with cropped, dirty-blonde hair said, "But... But Jess! You've been the Lucia every year! For as long as anyone can remember!"
Jess shrugged, "There's a first time for everything, I suppose."

"Please! Oh, please don't forsake our beloved tradition so haphazardly!" Ralph fell to his knees and kissed Jess's bandaged foot repeatedly. That he was acting purely out of desparation was a given, but even he probably had no idea why he resorted to such demeaning behaviour, whether under the apprehrension that grovelling to Jess would make her reconsider, or if it would somehow help heal the foot with the infantile logic of 'kissing the owie'.
Roland could only groan disapprovingly.

Jess chuckled awkardly, "Guys, this isn't easy for me either. As Christmas Day is getting ever closer, work just keeps piling up, and... All I can do is sit on my butt and hope to the spirits that it will all work out. But... Look at it this way, guys: the other girls haven't even had the chance of being the Lucia for well over fifty years now. This will be one of their time to shine, all right? So I want you to give whoever ends up being the new Lucia just as my love as you give me each year. You will have a great time. I just know it. Oh, maybe the Lucia Procession can visit me in the morning? Would that not be fun?"
Ralph looked up at Jess with his best sad puppy dog eyes, prying his lips off the cast, "...I'll try. But there really isn't a substitute for you."
"No, but of course not." Jess ran her hand through Ralph's lockes as if petting a dog, "Just like there is no substitute for any of you guys. That's why I love each and every one of you in your own way. Now, go ahead. If you work together, I know you will make a stellar performance, no matter who is the Lucia."

"Very well," Ralph rose to his feet, wiping the gross from his lips with his sleeve, "We'll do it... For you."
"That's the spirit!" Roland ushered the group away from Jess, "Now I think we've all, ahem, cheered Jess up enough. If we are to make the scheduled changes to the Procession at this point, then it's of utmost importance we have a meeting to decide our next Lucia. No dilly dallying! Go on! To the conference room! That means you too, Barry!"
"Good luck, guys!" Jess said, flipping a page on her book, "I know you can do it."

One after another, the elves left the all-room, leaving Jess to her novel. Soon enough only one other female elf remained with the bubbly blonde confined to her seat by the fireplace.
A complete counterpoint to Jess, her thick auburn hair haphazardly fell down the length of her back and over part of her face. She had not been the only elf in the room who frowned, but those frowns were all expressions of passionate dismay. Her tired, brown eyes, on the other hand, conveyed only frustration and perpetual defeat, as if to say 'things are not all right, at all, but that's fine'.
She distinguished herself from the other female elves, who all had lean and nimble physique, by having curvier hips, thicker thighs and gosh darnit even a little bit of boobs. While among humans, her bodyshape would be considered on the lithe side, albeit short and stocky, the other elves considered her just a bit pudgy.
After the other elves had left the all room, the remaining elf approached her younger, leaner blonde colleague. The closer she got to Jess, the more her eyes strayed away from the patient.

"Is anything on your mind, Hailey?" Jess asked.
"Uh, so...Whatcha reading?" Hailey asked.
Jess closed the book, her thumb pushing the pages she were reading apart as she looked at the title, "Moby Dick. One of the classics."
Hailey covered her mouth to keep herself from chuckling, "Uh... Ah, yeah. Very serious. Very... Illuminating. So... How's your leg holding up?"
"Well, it's not holding up at all right now, is it? That's why I have to sit down here and rest."
"Oh, but of course. And... Does it hurt?"
Jess flipped her book back open, pushing the pages apart with her thumb, "Sometimes, yeah. But mostly it's just itching. So much it drives me crazy."
"Ah, so... You want me to scratch... It?"
Jess glared at Hailey, who chuckled awkwardly.

"Look... I'm sorry, all right?" Hailey sighed, "We were carrying one of those huge crates from the docks... It was freezing, my hands went numb and... Who actually knew silk could be so heavy? So... Yeah, I lost my grip, and..."
Her gaze landed on the cast on Jess's foot.
"Hailey... It was just an accident. You have nothing to worry about at all."
"Yeah... Thanks. Just wish everyone else saw it that way. They just seem so... So upset, you know? To put it lightly."
"Yeah... These guys really react strongly if anything happens that is a bit different from how things have always been since times immemorial. That can be a good thing, but... Maybe it would best they don't find out your involvement with this. Let us keep that our little secreet, all right?"
Hailey nodded as she **** a smile. The truth was they probably already suspected her involvement. Hailey had a history of various mistakes akin to this, so the other elves probably looked on her as a likely suspect, if nothing else than out of habit.

"Now, why don't you go and join the other elves at their meeting? It is, after all, about the Lucia Procession."
"Eh... Not really my thing. It'd probably be a mercy for everyone to be spared the agony of listening to my singing." Hailey chuckled.
"Don't be like that, Hailey. Lucia is about warmth, and togetherness. It is all about kindness and love. So what if you are not able to give a stellar performance?"
"Yeah... Suppose they put me in the very back each year out of kindness and love and all that..." Hailey mumbled under her breath.

The conference room was in turmoil. The bickering of each person merged into a single, incomprehensible rabble that devoured any cohesive point that may inadvertently have left the mouths of these elves.
"Look, look! Settle down! This senseless bickering is getting us nowhere!" A female elf rose up, standing on her seat. It was Elvira, a cute elf with pearly white skin and wispy pale blonde hair.
"Look, this is all fairly simple..." She said as all eyes fell on her, "There's only one lady present here with golden Lucia hair." She ran her hand through her golden locks, "That really should be all that matters."
"Oh, come on!" A freckled elf, Sylvia, with long, fiery red hair tied in a plait behind her back interjected, "You want to blow up the eardreams with the senseless screeching you call singing? No, the only logical choice is that the lead choir girl should get this role." She pointed with her thumb at herself.
An elf with short light-brown hair, Emily, cleared her throat, "Excuse me? I'd rather be dead than to have a pizza face representing the symbol of beauty and warmth! Look, Jess and I... We're two sides of the same kind. Sisters from a different mother. If she'd trust me with this task, then I'd hope you'd trust me as well."

"That's enough!" Roland said, standing on his chair, "Look, we're never going to get anywhere like this. Why don't we have a vote? Everyone gets an equal say in who should be the Lucia, and the Lucia will be the one who has the public approval. And then we will drop this and work together, all right?"
The girls said nothing, but glared daggers between one another.
The blonde elf sighed, "All right. Fine. I... Wouldn't want to be the Lucia if no one else wants me to. "
"Yeah..." The red-haired elf said, "Fair is fair. I mean, it'd be disappointing if you guys didn't realise the right choice... But fair."
The rest of the girls nodded with approval, while the male elves sighed in relief that the issue had been settled... For now at least. They still had to decide on who to vote for, and they all made so compelling arguments. Not to mention they all made such a ruckus about them being the Lucia.

"Oh, and this goes without saying," Roland raised his index finger, "You cannot vote for yourselves."
"OH COME ONE!" The girl cried out in unison.
The red-bearded elf raised his open palm, signalling stop, "The purpose of this election is to decide on the very best Lucia, and we all have to pitch in and help decide on that. Now, I understand you all want the honour, but only one gets to be the Lucia, and I want you all to think really hard who would be the best for everyone if she got the role."

The girls stared daggers at Roland, and glared back at each other as they groaned.
Someone was gonna wake up with a few live lobsters in his bed.
Roland placed the ballet box on the table, just as Hailey walked in through the door.
"Sorry I'm late, guys. What did I miss?" She asked, closing the door behind her.
"...We're voting for the Lucia, Hailey." The elf with red plaits said. She had nothing good to say about the girl who showed up late, but in this case, they really didn't need more people to make the situation more volatile, and she was far too preoccupied with her competitors.
"Yes, and the voting starts now." Roland said, "Write down who you want to be this year's Lucia. Pick anyone you wish to see as the Lucia. Anyone at all... As long as it's not yourself."
"...Anyone, eh?" Hailey smirked mischeviously, writing down Roland's name on her slip with a giggle.

The Elvira did not have such an easy time picking who to vote for. If she ended up voting for the one who would become Lucia, instead of herself, she would be devastated. Obviously she wouldn't actually vote for the best candidate... Which really was her anyway.
But who actually was the worthiest candidate apart from her? All the girls were shooting for the role, and for her own part it could go any which way. If only she knew how the boys voted.
She tried sneaking over the shoulder of a male elf with neatly kempt chocolate coloured hair, but he swiftly turned when she tried. This was not going to be as easy as she thought.
Finally it occurred to her, she didn't need to know who they voted for. She only had to know who they wouldn't vote for, someone who definitely wasn't going to be the Lucia, and vote for her. She would basically be throwing her vote away.
A devious smile grew on the blonde elf's face as she glanced towards Hailey, looking bored and apathetic. Elvira wrote her vote down on her paperslip, and folded it down, making her way to the ballot box.
The Lucia crown was as good as hers.

Soon enough the votes had been cast, and Roland took the ballot box out from the conference room to count them in the lobby. The tension grew as the elves sat down awaiting the results.
The door finally opened, and Roland entered the conference room with his clipboard, "All right, ladies and gentlemen. The results are in. "
The elves all huddled in close, leaning in to the table as they sat on the edge of their seats, awaiting the results. Roland looked down at his own name, who only got one vote.
Roland cleared his throat, as he began reading from the clipboard, "Unfortunately a single vote was completely unintelligible. However, all I can say is that this person did not pick any of the top contenders, so it won't matter either way."
Hailey huffed, folding her arms. Her handwriting wasn't that bad.
"Sylvia and Elvira both got seven votes each."
The elf with red plait and the blonde elf glared angrily at each other as they were applauded.
"And Emily though... She got eight votes!"
The elf with short brown hair smiled triumphantly as she rose to her feet to roaring applause.
"But..:"
She looked confused back at Roland. Was he not done declaring the results?
"The winner of this election, and this year's Lucia, will be none other than... Hailey!"

The brown haired elf looked like she was about to have a heart attack.
The auburn haired elf almost fell out of her chair, "Say what now!?"