EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part five of a continuing, fictional holiday tale that is running daily through Christmas. Parents are encouraged to read along with their children.

Olivia and Miles had been assigned to the Candy Shoppe together, and they followed an elf named Piper, who was just as chipper as Lucy.

Olivia scoffed at herself for so easily accepting that Piper and Lucy were elves, but with their pointed ears, rosy cheeks and little bits of magic they effortlessly displayed, she had no idea what else they could be.

Piper led them down a few winding roads, following a network of red-and-white striped sidewalks. She gave them a brief tour as they passed through the town, pointing out the bakery run by Mrs. Claus herself, and the giant post office where hundreds of elves were hard at work sorting letters sent to Santa, and even a grocery store where elves got their favorite foods like sugar plums and blueberry muffins.

“Ah, here we are,” Piper exclaimed as they approached a building made to look like a gingerbread house. Except … Olivia took a deep breath, inhaling the spicy aroma of fresh-baked gingerbread.

“Yes, it’s really built out of gingerbread and candy,” Piper said with a grin, patting one of the giant candy canes lining the walk leading up to the front doors. They followed her inside, and Olivia was positive she had never smelled anything so wonderful in her entire life as the mixture of chocolate, cookies and candy wafted through the air.

“Santa’s Village actually has 17 different candy shops,” Piper said as she led them to the counter. “This one specifically deals with our Elf on the Shelf friends — they come here with special orders to bring to the boys and girls they watch over. Except we’ve been having some trouble lately with a few of the newer elves. They aren’t paying close enough attention to the orders they’re collecting, and now children are getting gumdrops when they want chocolate and cookies when they want candy. It’s a mess!”

Olivia thought that didn’t really sound like much of a problem at all, and almost said so but Piper sounded so worried that she bit her tongue.

“So as you can imagine, we desperately need some extra help in here to make sure everything runs smoothly,” Piper said. She proceeded to show them around the shop, pointing out the screens where orders came in and showing them how to make sure the right elves collected the right orders.

“Jack and Muriel will be here with you,” Piper said, waving across the shop to a pair of elves hard at work placing candies into bags and containers. “And if you need any assistance they can’t offer, you can always use your SnowPad. Good luck, and enjoy your morning!”

She skipped out the door before Olivia or Miles could say anything, and they looked at each other, then at the wall of screens that were rapidly updating with candy orders.

“Is it just me, or do you still have no clue what’s going on?” Miles asked, and Olivia giggled.

“I guess there are worse things we could be doing,” she said as they sat themselves behind the counter. “I mean, this place is pretty cool.”

“Feel free to help yourselves to anything you’d like,” Jack called over to them, and they didn’t need to be told twice. They’d sampled sugar cookies, chocolate Santas, squishy gumdrops and peppermint patties before the first Elf on the Shelf arrived. She was quickly followed by dozens more, and Olivia and Miles frantically ran around the counter, trying to make sure the elves were picking up the right orders. But the elves were pushing each other, half of them flying above the others to try to get to their orders first, and the chaos made it easy to see why all the orders were getting mixed up.

“This is crazy,” Miles said, wide-eyed, and Olivia agreed. She stared at the horde of little elves who were too eager and impatient to wait their turn, and stuck her fingers in her mouth to let out a loud whistle the way her dad had taught her when she was little.

At the sound of her piercing whistle, all the elves stopped and stared back at her. She stared back, slightly panicking at the sight of all the small, bright eyes focused on her. What on earth was she supposed to say to them? She was just a kid. What did she know about any of this? At that moment, she feared that this whole camp was a terrible mistake.

Read chapter six in tomorrow’s newspaper.