Monsters Under Mistletoe

2. Ogar

Chapter 2

Ogar

W ell that didn’t go according to plan. He went into her office on a snoop mission. Hopes of getting some information on what to get her, but all he’d gotten was distracted. It was just too fun riling her up, then she’d teased him about lesson plans, and his mission was practically a bust. The only thing he realized she really needed was space. Her room was cramped with books and the organization was lack-luster at best. He could fix that.

And suddenly, he had an idea for her present, but he needed help to accomplish it. That was why he stood in front of Principal Grislow’s office, waiting for him to be off the phone. He needed someone in on it that wanted this as badly as he did. Ogar was going to give Willow the best Krampus gift ever, but he would need her to be roosted from her nest for several hours, and not allowed to return till the party.

“Mr. Mantinelle, how may I help you?” Principal Grislow grinned as he hung up the phone.

He ruffled his curly red mop of hair. He was a leprechaun. Five foot two with a bush of ruby hair on his chin, bright green eyes, he was as mischievous as they come. But he tended to keep his shenanigans to meddling in people’s love lives or playing fun pranks on children. Last year, on the last day of school, he released ball pit balls into the school, flooding the halls with them so everyone had to wade through thigh high ball pit to get home. The kids loved it. Teachers also had a good time once the kids were gone. Ogar and Ricky ended up picking teams for ball pit dodgeball and it felt like the whole school was in on it.

Of course, Willow was on Ricky’s team and only ever aimed at Ogar’s head.

“I need a favor, and kind of a big ask. So I got Ms. Bronte as my secret Krampus,” Ogar smirked at the man who put on a shocked face.

“Oh? How weird!” Principal Grislow snickered to himself. “And?”

“I want to redo her room for her. It needs restructuring, she needs more storage, and space, and I know that storytime rug wrapped up in the supplies room was always meant for her room, but we never had the time to set it up due to having to basically tear apart her room to set it up.” He’d already ordered the organizers for her room. Even got them in that pretty lilac and dusty mint color combo she loved so much. If Willow wasn’t wearing either color that day, it meant she was having a rough day.

And she says I don’t notice things… I just… only notice things about people I want to notice things about. He watched out for over a hundred students a day, studied their habits, and helped where he could to ensure everyone was happy, healthy, and safe. He didn’t have time to also pay attention to grown adults, who were capable of taking care of themselves. Minus maybe the grumpy literature teacher, who would flip her lid if he tried fussing over her. Which of course means I NEED to fuss over her.

“Oh?”

“As her Krampus gift, I got her organizers, a few other things for her room, even got her some new books with the 50 silver budget. I just can’t have her seeing what I’m doing. So, I was hopingtonight I could stay after and get that set up. Then, tomorrow, if you could keep her busy and away from her room so it doesn’t ruin the surprise?”

He even had a gag for it to truly make her head spin on a swivel. He’d asked the spa, Co-Lilies, if he could have a blank gift card with a bow on it.

His grand plan: Catch her at the party, unsuspecting. Play it off like the card was her gift. Let her lose her lid. Tease her a little to add extra flair. Then tell her the truth, that his present was in her room and that was why Principal Grislow was a pestering puppy all day. She’d stomp to her room, cursing his name up and down… and… boom! Awe struck and speechless.

It was going to be perfect.

Principal Grislow nodded, that evil little grin on his face told Ogar all he needed to know. “I think that’s a wondrous idea. How long do you need tonight?”

“Me? Three hours tops.”

“Good, I’ll lock up the school, order my dinner, watch a movie. You have until eight, and whatever magic you can pull off tomorrow to get it done. I can’t guarantee much, but I can guarantee she won’t be in her room tomorrow.”

Principal Grislow picked up the phone on his desk, held up a finger to Ogar, and dialed something. The overhead speaker crackled to life.

“Attention teachers, due to the need for a solid, deep cleaning without inconveniencing the cleaning staff, all core classroom teachers will finish up any and all work in the cafeteria or teachers lounge tomorrow. I repeat, all core classroom teachers will finish up work in the cafeteria tomorrow prior to our party in the library at two pm. This will give cleaning staff ample time to scrub down rooms, and everyone can get home on time for the holiday. Thank you!”

Ogar stood with wide eyes as the principal hung up with the world’s biggest grin.

“You’re the man!” Ogar extended a fist to Principal Grislow that he tapped his knuckles against. Ogar made an explosion with his fingers before sauntering back out. “Thank you!”

“You’re very welcome, Mr. Manitelle. Now, work some magic!”

Oh, he was gonna work something… probably Willow’s nerve, but… something!

An hour left and all his deliveries made it on time. He was hiding them on a wheely cart in the gym. Ricky already left for the day to finish up gift shopping for his own family, giving Ogar free reign. However, the Minotaur wasn’t interested in staying in the gym alone. Wandering down the halls as he often did, his hooves led him straight to classroom 32B.

Willow Bronte was curled up in her chair as usual. She’d gotten one of those massive, criss-cross chairs that allowed her to be a total hunch gremlin behind her computer. Her usual long, strawberry blond hair was up in a messy bun on her head, her button down ruffled and mostly undone to show the camisole underneath, and her slacks were covered in book tabs. Ogar stopped in the doorway, entranced. Her face said she was concentrating as her fingers worked to add multi colored tabs to a lesson plan binder. Is she almost done?

“Keep hunching like that and you’ll get a crick,” he announced, grinning from floppy ear to ear as she squawked and chucked her lesson plan book into the air. While she scrambled to untangle her knotted limbs and catch the book mid-flight, he sauntered up to the desk.

“What are you doing here!” she snarled, stumbling foot over foot. Ogar swooped in as her legs buckled.

“Clearly saving you from eating tile, Ms. Bronte,” he teased.

She dropped into his arms like a warm sack of flour. Soft, malleable, and draped over his arm with little effort. He brought her back up and almost forgot to let her go. Those pretty, honey colored, doe eyes stared up at him. Her lips parted and he realized she wasn’t wearing the normal tint on her lips today. Not a dash of eyeliner or even a splattering of blush like she usually did. Did she have freckles?

“You’re not wearing make-up.”

“And?” Her face exploded into red as she fought her way like a drenched cat from his arms. She clawed her way back into her shoes and rushed to flatten the wrinkles in her attire again. “It’s teacher work week, what does it matter?”

“It doesn’t,” he wheezed. Oh, that backfired.

“I just didn’t feel like getting all done up,” she muttered under her breath. Her hands slowed to a stop as Ogar put his palm over her shaking hands.

He liked to rile her up, not tear her down.

“I didn’t mean it like that, Willow.”

“Like that? Like I look bad or something? Because you didn’t!” Those wide eyes darted up to him in a panic. “What do I care what you think of how I look? I mean, your professional attire is mesh shorts and a crop top! What are you even wearing? Could hardly call that work appropriate, you look like you work at a sports shop.”

Ogar laughed sheepishly, standing up straight. “I deserved that.”

“I-I-I… I’m so sorry, that … that was mean.” She licked her lips nervously, stepping back and clearly evaluating the situation.

Ogar shifted, bowing his head to catch her gaze again. It lifted to meet his. Nose scrunched, brow knitted, she was clearly upset. He sighed, “I didn’t mean you looked bad without make-up. You usually wear like cool liner or glitter blush, and your lips are usually darker pink. It just flew out of my mouth, I’m sorry. You look just as beautiful with or without it. I just…”

Why did he say it? Then he realized why, the freckles. “I can see your freckles.”

Her hands flew up to her cheeks, splotchy red with embarrassment as she shrunk, “Oh, yeah. Those.”

“You don’t like them?” He arched a brow. They made her look sweet, a massive sprinkling of brown dots across her cheek and nose, even up her temples and around her forehead.

“They’re not dark enough to really notice, but they’re not light enough to ignore, you know? And I have so many, they’re all over! I just, I like covering up the ones on my face. Like you can actually see me without them. I just… I woke up late today because… well…” her face flushed again as she shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, had a late night, woke up late, didn’t have time nor did I want to do much other than get this done.”

Ogar rocked back on his hooves, taking a full inspection of her with furrowed brows. She was soft, shoulders slouched, face fallen, hands tangled into knots in front of her. The words flew out of his mouth without warning. “How can I help?”

“What?” she croaked.

“I’m done with my lesson plans, so what do you need?” He nodded toward the tabs still clinging to her slacks where she’d left them.

“Oh… Well…” She trailed off, turning back to her desk before scooping up a bunch of file folders. They were all color coded with labels and stickers to match their contents. “I have to submit these to the library to ensure we have the right books for the right part of the semester. And this needs to go to Principal Grislow, so he can post to the social media with the story time content like he wanted for Month of Reading, next month, and this needs to get copied like 25 times so I have it for the first day of class coming back. And I need to…”

He scooped up the files from her hands, seeing her carefully written instructions on each of them so none would be mis-placed or mis-filed. “I think a meat head such as myself can handle this.”

“Thank you,” she pouted. “You don’t have to, I’ve just accepted my fate. I’m staying late. There’s no way I’m getting anything done tomorrow.”

“Stay late?” he barked out a laugh. Absolutely not, your pretty tuchas is walking out with the rest of them or else my plan is ruined. “No, teachers support teachers, remember.”

“Well, that’s…” she trailed off, the usual level of snark and rebuttal he got from her rearing its head for a moment before something seemed to dawn on her. She fiddled with the hem of her shirt, “That’s very nice of you.”

“Mmm, is it?” He cocked his head.

“It’s about time you supported someone other than yourself,” she blurted out as she snapped her gaze back up to him.

“Atta girl,” he winked, savoring the way her face immediately broke out in red. Ogar hoisted up the folders, “I’ll get these squared away, you finish up what you have, and you’re leaving precisely at 5, am I clear?”

“Who are you, my mother?” she snapped.

Ogar physically clamped his mouth shut to keep from retorting something rather unprofessional that he wasn’t sure Willow was ready to hear. A lot of pretty spectacular insinuations about, ‘no but I’m your Daddy’ or ‘I can make you a mother right now if you’d like,’ the kind of breeding kink style commentary that would wind up with a binder chucked at his head or in HR.

Ogar was beginning to think maybe it was one-sided. Maybe Willow wasn’t in the same boat with the same feelings. Until he turned in the doorway to find her blushing and plucking book tabs off her pants. She glanced up at the same time and found him staring.

“ Whaaaat ? Do you need directions to the library?” She laughed, but there was a smile on her face and he knew better.

Willow Bronte was a grumpy, confrontational, honest to a fault, bookworm. But she was his book worm. He just needed to find a way to bridge the gap between where they were now… and a future where he pinned her to the whiteboard and kissed her for all he was worth.