CHAPTER 5
BLAKE BECOMES GINGER
When the bus dropped me off behind the mall, it was a balmy sixty degrees, and I wondered how I would muster up any holiday spirit for the audition. Though Dev had promised to put in a good word for me with the elf wrangler, I wasn’t sure how to act like a damned elf. I knew I was supposed to be perky, but that was about it. And after the rough few days I’d had, acting perky was going to be a stretch.
Dev told me the audition was being held in the basement of the Stony Point movie theater. While walking to it I could see Santa’s Village being constructed in the center of the mall. From my vantage point it looked like an enormous movie set, painted glittery shades of red and green. Fake snow surrounded the buildings, and even though we had a week to go befo
