It was a typically cold December afternoon in the city of Toronto, Ontario. It was only three days away from Christmas and the Yorkdale Shopping Centre was crawling with thousands of people trying to get in their last minute shopping. Amongst the crowd was the very beautiful 'Vampire Diaries' star actress, Nina Dobrev.
Nina was back in her hometown for the holiday. Spending most of her year in California was fun and all but nothing beat the beautiful and familiar atmosphere of the city she called home before making it big. She only had a few weeks a year to come back, usually around this time. She was at her happiest as she walked through the mall.
The twenty-four year old brunette had left the DVD store, her bag filled with several movies for her close friends and relatives. She made several other stops afterwards, picking up clothes for the young children of her friends, a new laptop for her brother, diamond necklaces for the women in her family and a new eReader for her father. She was about ready to leave when she stopped by the food court for a quick snack.
Nina sat down with a small cheesesteak sandwich and happily munched away. She looked to her side and watched as several small children lined up to sit on Santa Claus's lap in front of a large Christmas tree. The memories of her past in that very chair in front of a similarly sized tree some twenty years ago made her smile. She was so lost in her memory that she did not notice the large drip of ketchup slide out of the sandwich and land on her new green and white knitted sweater.
"Shit!" she quietly exclaimed as she looked at the large red stain.
Nina stood up, tossed the little of sandwich in the trash and ran off to the restroom on the other side of the brightly lit tree. Running through the door, she grabbed a paper towel and ran it under some water. She tried to dab away the crimson residue with no success.
"Damn it!" she yelled.
Nina started to pull the sweater off, wanting to throw it in one of her bags, but had to stop when she remembered that the sweater was the only article of clothing covering the black bra underneath.
"The one time, I don't wear a fucking t-shirt," she said as she pulled it back down.
The troubled girl groaned as she looked in the mirror and saw that the red stain was made worse with the water. Not to mention, the white and green fabric was made darker on a large spot by the attempted cleanup. She was disgusted with how she looked and was afraid to go out, worried about the embarrassment she would feel.
Suddenly, Nina jumped when, in the mirror, she saw a tall man with short brown hair in an elf costume walk through the door and enter the restroom.
"What the hell!?" she yelled.
"What the hell, yourself!?" he responded. "Why are you in the men's room?"
Nina looked at the front of the door and saw the large sign which read, "MEN".
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," she said as she grabbed her bags from the floor. "I got a stain on my sweater and I ran in here and I didn't know where I was going and..."
"Slow down," the man said. "I see the stain on your sweater, why don't you just take it off?"
"Because I'd be walking through the mall in just a bra!" she yelled before taking a step back. "Sorry I yelled, I just don't know what to do."
The elf looked her up and down, making her somewhat uncomfortable.
"Are you in any hurry to leave the mall?" he asked, walking towards her without closing the door.
"Why?" she replied, starting to get nervous.
"You look like you're about Kelly's size, I bet you'd fit in her elf costume," he said. "You'd just need to stay for a few hours. She called out of work and I could really use the company...plus I'm sure the Centre wouldn't like one of their costumes disappearing."
Nina, sighing from the relief of knowing that she was not about to be potentially assaulted, thought for a few seconds.
"I really should be..." she stopped and looked out the door, seeing again the long line of children waiting to meet Santa. "But I've always wanted to be one of Santa's helpers. I'll do it."
"Great! You will only need to be here for about two or three hours. My name is Derek by the way," he said.
"I'm Nina," she responded before following him out of the restroom and to the employee's lounge.
Derek went through a closet and pulled out Kelly's elf costume and handed it to Nina. She handed him her bags to be put in a safe place before walking into the changing room next door. Minutes later, the beautiful brunette walked out of the room in her outfit. Her legs hugged by the red tights, her body covered by a festive green dress, along with the curled shoes, fake pointy ears and red Santa hat...Nina was a perfect elf.
"It fits!" Derek said. "Awesome! Let's go Nina, the children and the big guy are waiting."
For the next two and a half hours, Nina stood to one side of Santa while Derek stood opposite. Very quickly, she picked up the routine of the helper. She would alternate with Derek, approaching the kids, walking them hand-in-hand to Santa before picking them up and sitting them on his lap. She smiled as she heard the sometimes-crazy gift requests from the children but spent the majority of her time staring at her fellow elf.
Derek was a very well-built man. He stood at least six feet tall, much larger than the typical elf but not enough for her to care. It looked like he worked out on a regular basis, which she could tell by the tight costume he wore. He was in a pair of red tights like her with a tight green coat that showed of his torso and arms. Just looking at him, Nina guessed that he was an athlete of some sort. However, she did not care what he was or what he did outside of his holiday elf work; all she knew was that she liked what she saw.
As the last few children went through the Santa experience, Nina could see two more people dressed as elves approaching the chair. A young blonde woman and a man who looked to be a twin walked up to them, smiling.
"Hi," the woman said. "I guess lazy Kelly needed a replacement. Thanks for filling in! We'll take it from here."
"Oh no problem, I had a great time," Nina responded.
"Great! Have a merry Christmas Ms. Dobrev!" she said as she took Nina's place.
'Ms. Dobrev' smiled back at her before heading back to the employee's lounge. When she walked in, she saw Derek walk into the changing room and waited patiently for her turn. She started watching the news on the television and easily got distracted. She did not even notice him re-enter the room.
