North Pole High: A Rebel Without a Claus by Candace Jane Kringle {Promo}

North Pole High: A Rebel Without a Claus

Genre: YA teen romance/humor/fantasy

Publisher: elfpublished books

ISBN: 978-0615681917

Cover Artist: Jessica Weil

Book Description:

MEET SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD CANDYCANE CLAUS. She's the most popular girl at North Pole High. Her father is world-famous. And every day is Christmas. What more could any girl want?
BOYS! And the new boy, Rudy Tutti, is hot chocolate. But he hates anything to do with Christmas!
When Candy and Rudy are forced to work together on a school Christmas-tree project, her world is turned upside down: Her grades start to suffer, she loses her taste for ice cream, and now the two North-Star-cross'd teens must contend with her overprotective father — Santa Claus — before Christmas is ruined for EVERYONE!

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EXCERPT 

GROUNDED

Thirty-two tiny hooves clippity-clopped up the walkway alongside two heavy boots. My whole body quivered. I’d been waiting alone in the dark, empty stable for over an hour, sitting in front of the storage space under the sink where I sometimes used to hide when I was little, wishing I could still fit—my father might be making me live out here from now on.

I shuffled outside to help unhook the reindeer’s harnesses and guide them into their stalls. The pits of Daddy’s coat were stained with perspiration from walking the girls home. Neither of us said a word. I waited for him to break the silence, then decided an apology would sound more sincere if offered before being demanded.

“I’m really, super-duper sorry, Daddy.”

He kept tending to the animals as if he hadn’t heard me. Then he made a heavy sigh and, without looking at me, as if he were talking to Cupid instead, said, “In over a hundred years, I have never had to pick up my reindeer from an impound lot.”

He went back to filling Cupid’s water bowl.

I’d never felt so small.

“Look at Blitzen!” Daddy’s face turned purple. His eyes widened as if they had a mind to shoot out of his head and spank me. “She’s shaking! These deer need to be in tip-top shape! I have a mall tour coming up.”

I deserved to be scolded, even though it seemed kind of pointless since the things he was yelling at me were not things I didn’t know. As he bellowed about my foolish irresponsibility, I couldn’t help but remember how proud I’d been of my dad the first time I got to go with him on a mall tour—his annual visit to every department store in the world, where he finds out what you all want for Christmas. My father, at his best. He so loves getting out there in front of all the good little children, it shines from him as if his soul were composed on a Lite-Brite set.

I sometimes envied the attention he lavished on all those kids during all those business trips. Kids he barely knew. Then this one time, at the Millenia Mall, a little girl named Kimberly told me how lucky I was to have the coolest guy for a dad all year round. To her, he was a rock star, and it was easy to see why.

“It was so stupid of me to take the sleigh,” I told him. “I don’t blame you for being mad at me.”

Daddy tore off his gloves and whipped them to the ground so fast it made me shudder, along with half the reindeer. “That right there is what angers me the most. That you want to protect that miscreant sleigh thief. He has dragged you down so low you don’t even know which way is Christmas anymore.”

“But Daddy, I’m the one who took the sleigh. Rudy had nothing to do with it.”

“Don’t you lie to me. I am still your father. It’s not too late for you to wind up on the Naughty List too, young lady.”

Sweet Nicholas! He’d never threatened to N-List me before. He’d never even joked about it. Nobody born in the North Pole, let alone of Claus blood, had ever come close to making the List. It just didn’t happen.

Daddy parked his jumbo butt on a wooden stool and ran his fingers through his beard. “Your mother thought I was being too hard on you over the incident with your grades,” he said. “She thinks I should butt out of your ‘private affairs’.” He made air quotes and sneered like the words were choking him. “Boys, she meant. Well, look where boys have gotten you so far.”

He popped a handful of jelly beans in his mouth and kept lecturing while he chewed. “…No, in truth it appears you require even more discipline. I was prepared to let you come with me on my mall tour this year, but now,” he blinked for dramatic effect, “I’m afraid that can’t happen.”

My reaction was the last thing either of us expected. It started with a laugh, but that didn’t hurt his ego enough. “Good!” I shouted. “It’s boring going to malls with you. You only pay attention to those brats who line up begging you for toys. You think they idolize you, but you’re just buying their love, and I don’t want any part of that. I’m sick of being a Claus!”

About the Author:

Candace Jane Kringle is a junior at North Pole High. She likes candy canes, unicorn races, and making snow angels. Her father is the most well-known and beloved toymaker and distributor in the world. Her memoir, North Pole High: A Rebel Without a Claus, is her first book. After high school, she plans to enroll at North Pole University and write more books.

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