Celebrate the Season--Secret Snowflake

by Taylor Garland

  The live Christmas music worked its magic, even in a place as unmagical as the Hampton Creek Mall. Riley could see it from the risers—the way the stress in people’s faces softened; the way their feet tapped in time to the songs, and their heads bobbed along to the music. She wouldn’t be a bit surprised if some of them were humming along to the familiar tunes.

  Mr. Mac definitely knew what he was doing when he picked the songs for 3C’s program at the mall. Almost all of his selections were upbeat and catchy, building to a fun, jazzy rendition of “Jingle Bells” for their big finale. When Riley heard Mr. Mac play the intro on his keyboard, her heart felt bigger, as if it were inflating with happiness. She would make up for her late cue; she would pour all her heart and soul into singing for this audience, these Christmas shoppers—and by doing so, Riley would be spreading the Christmas spirit that made the holiday season so magical for her. Mr. Mac always encouraged the kids to rock out during this song, and maybe Riley would go for it! Maybe—

  BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

  The sound was so shrill, so piercing, that Riley plugged her fingers in her ears and winced with pain. Mr. Mac stopped playing abruptly. What was the point? No one could hear him over the blaring alarm.

  An uneasy murmur arose from the crowd. Riley looked around, unsure. What was going on?

  “I don’t know about you, but those aren’t exactly the jingle bells I was imagining,” Jacob cracked.

  Before Riley could reply, the loudspeakers crackled overhead, and a voice said, “Attention, shoppers. Please stay calm and proceed to the nearest exit.”

  Riley sniffed the air nervously. Was that smoke she smelled—or was it just her imagination? She glanced over to the food court and gasped.

  Smoke was billowing out of the burger place!

  “Look!” Riley cried, grabbing Jacob’s elbow.

  Whooooshhshhhshhhshhhhh!

  An assistant manager ran over to the deep fryer and hosed it down with a fire extinguisher. A massive white cloud consumed the smoking equipment until Riley couldn’t see if it was still on fire. The problem must’ve been under control, though, because people in the food court started to applaud.

  “Guess I won’t be having my extra-crispy fries after all,” Jacob said near Riley’s ear.

  She laughed, then realized she was still holding on to his elbow. Riley dropped her hand faster than if she’d touched something on fire. “That was freaky,” she said. “I’ve never seen a real fire before.”

  “That’s what happens when good fries go bad,” Jacob joked. “We should probably have a moment of silence for all the fries we lost today.”

  “Proceed to the nearest exit,” the voice blared over the loudspeaker.

  Mr. Mac rubbed his chin. “You heard the lady,” he announced. “Come on, 3C—let’s go. No running, no pushing, no panicking.”

  “But the fire’s over,” one of the eighth graders said. “Can’t we finish our show?”

  “They’re still evacuating, probably as a precaution,” Mr. Mac replied. “Think of it like a fire drill at school—and a great story you can tell all your friends tomorrow!”

  Riley smiled ruefully as she tugged at her itchy tinsel trim. She had a feeling that she’d be telling stories about the Hampton Creek Mall concert—in all its disastrous glory—for a long time to come.

  That night, Sophia came over for dinner after their shopping spree at the Candy Emporium. She and Riley couldn’t stop giggling about all the things that went wrong during 3C’s performance. Whenever they started to settle down, one of them whispered, “Smokin’!” and they cracked up again. Then Sophia grew serious.

  “Are you okay?” Sophia asked.

  “What do you mean?” asked Riley. “I know it wasn’t the greatest choral performance I’ve ever done, but I don’t think we need to print up ‘I Survived 3C at Hampton Creek Mall’ shirts or anything.”

  “No, your neck,” Sophia said. “It’s kind of pink. Like you have a rash or something.”

  Riley stood up so she could glance at her reflection in the mirror over her dresser. Sure enough, she had a pink ring circling her neck—and a matching one on each wrist. “Just my luck—I must have a tinsel allergy!” she groaned.

  “Well, on the plus side, your sweater looked awesome,” Sophia said.

  “I can’t believe I missed my cue for the opening song,” Riley said, shaking her head. “Are you sure you didn’t notice? It must have been so obvious.”

  “You know I would tell you if I noticed,” Sophia assured her. “Trust me—you were totally cool about it. Very subtle. No one suspected a thing.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Riley replied. “Maybe it’s best that Marcus didn’t show up. I probably would’ve died of embarrassment if he’d seen me mess up like that.”

  Sophia looked surprised. “You were expecting Marcus?” she asked in astonishment. “Did you, like, invite him?”

  “No, of course not!” Riley said. “I just, you know, talked about the concert really loud when he was nearby.”

  Sophia had a mischievous look in her eyes. “Smokin’!” she replied.

  “Stop! I can’t breathe!” Riley complained as she cracked up again.

  “Seriously, though, that was pretty smooth—telling Marcus about the concert without, you know, telling him about the concert,” Sophia said.

  “I tried to be subtle,” Riley explained. “But maybe I was too subtle. It was cool that some people from school came—you were there, and I saw those twins from eighth grade, and Alice.…”

  Riley’s voice trailed off unexpectedly.

  “What?” Sophia prompted her.

  “Alice,” Riley repeated. “I just realized… Alice was there.”

  “And…?” Sophia said.

  “Well, doesn’t that—surprise you a little?” Riley said. “She always keeps to herself; she never talks to anybody. But now I’m wondering if she overheard me talking about the 3C concert… and I mentioned it was at the mall.…”

  “Still not following,” Sophia told her.

  “Maybe she doesn’t know where to go… or what to do… or who to hang out with,” Riley said. “Maybe she’s been feeling totally clueless. If she really is super shy, she might not know how to make friends.”

  A troubled expression crossed Sophia’s face. “I never thought about it like that,” she said. “I always assumed she didn’t want to hang out. I mean, she never talks to anybody… or even smiles.…”

  “I probably wouldn’t smile, either, if I didn’t know anything about my new town or the kids at my new school,” Riley pointed out.

  “Stop!” Sophia said, covering her face with her hair. “You’re making me feel really bad.”

  “We should all feel really bad,” Riley said. “Seventh grade has been crazy so far and none of us have gone out of our way to get to know her… but that’s no excuse. Have you made any Secret Snowflake deliveries to Alice’s mailbox yet?”

  “No,” Sophia admitted.

  For a moment, neither girl said anything.

  “I think I know how we can fix this,” Riley finally said.

  “How?” asked Sophia.

  “Secret Snowflake!” Riley exclaimed.

  “You are Secret Snowflake obsessed!” Sophia laughed. “I’m not sure it’s the answer to every problem, though. Like, just because I start leaving presents for Alice won’t solve the fact that she hasn’t made any friends here.”

  “No—you’re right. But it’s a start,” Riley said. “Remember how you didn’t know what to do for Alice because you don’t know her?”

  “Yeah. That’s still my problem,” Sophia said.

  “Well, why don’t you use the Secret Snowflake gifts to show Alice how awesome it is to live in Hampton Creek?” Riley said, getting more excited with every word. “You might not know Alice very well, but you know everything about Hampton Creek. You could give her a map of the town with all the cool places to hang out marked on it… a pretty bookmark and an application for
a library card… a roll of tokens for the arcade.…”

  Sophia clapped her hands together. “Riley! You’re a genius!” she gushed. “The Secret Snowflake gifts could be like a scavenger hunt that leads her all over Hampton Creek so she can start to feel at home!”

  “Exactly!” Riley cried. “And that’s just the start. I’m going to invite her to join 3C. I mean, she showed up to the concert. Maybe she’s interested!”

  “And I’m going to invite her to hang out at my house over Christmas break,” Sophia declared. “But not until the end of Secret Snowflake. I don’t want her to guess my identity just yet.”

  “Ooh! What if we invite Alice to a slumber party?” Riley suggested.

  “I’ll ask my mom—but I know she’ll say yes,” Sophia replied, grinning. “Maybe we could do it on New Year’s Eve! We could stay up until midnight—”

  “Way past midnight!” Riley chimed in.

  “And get a bunch of noisemakers and sparkle confetti—”

  “You mean you haven’t had enough sparkle confetti already?” Riley joked.

  “You can never have too much sparkle confetti,” Sophia declared.

  “I guess you’re right when it comes to New Year’s Eve,” Riley replied with a grin. “Just when I thought December couldn’t get more exciting, now we have a Secret Snowflake sleepover to plan!”

  Riley reached into her pocket and wrapped her fingers around her latest Secret Snowflake surprise—a small bottle of beautiful, bright blue nail polish. It wasn’t just her favorite color; it was pretty much her favorite shade of her favorite color, and Riley couldn’t wait to get home and do her nails. She’d almost been tempted to break it out during lunch and paint her pinky nail—just to see how it would shimmer with all those specks of sparkly glitter—but had managed to resist. The cafeteria monitor’s strictness was legendary, and Riley knew she’d be crushed if her gorgeous new nail polish was confiscated.

  Not too much longer, Riley promised herself. After all, school was over for the day. She just had 3C rehearsal left—and then she could give herself the most sparkly manicure ever!

  More than that, though, Riley was excited to see if Alice would show up for 3C rehearsal. She’d seemed surprised when Riley came up to her in homeroom to thank her for coming to the 3C concert—and even more surprised when Riley invited her to join 3C. There were just two concerts left, but if Alice showed up at rehearsal on Friday, Riley had a feeling Mr. Macintosh would let her join.

  When Riley arrived at the music room, she was surprised to see that Mr. Mac wasn’t there yet. She wandered over to Jacob, who was staring at a half-assembled, metallic silver Christmas tree in the middle of the floor.

  “What is that?” Riley asked.

  “Space Christmas,” Jacob said in a robotic voice. “Alien Tree. Prepare for blastoff.”

  Riley giggled. “I’ve never seen such a weird tree,” she said. “Is it made of metal?”

  Jacob reached down to touch it. “It’s not sharp,” he said. “It’s almost like the branches are made of metallic pipe cleaners. Seems kind of old, huh? Like one of those retro-futuristic decorations from the nineteen-fifties.”

  “Where’s Mr. Mac?” Riley asked, glancing around the room.

  “Not sure,” Jacob replied. “But his coffee is on the desk, so he can’t be too far. Maybe ten feet away, at the most.”

  Riley giggled. It was no secret that Mr. Mac was practically addicted to coffee. He even had his very own personal coffeepot in the music room. Sometimes when Riley arrived at the music room, the smell of freshly brewed coffee filled the air, and Mr. Mac joked that they’d be rehearsing in his acoustic cafe!

  “So…” Jacob said in a funny voice that sounded a little higher than usual. “Still getting good stuff from your Secret Snowflake?”

  “Oh yeah, definitely!” Riley replied. “In fact, today I got—”

  “Hey—some help here!” Mr. Mac called as he lugged a massive box through the doorway. Riley and Jacob hurried over to help.

  “What’s with the tree?” Jacob asked.

  “And what’s in the box?” Riley added. It was way too heavy to be sheet music.

  “You’ll see,” Mr. Mac said mysteriously. He clapped his hands together. “Okay, people, let’s get—”

  His voice broke off unexpectedly. Riley glanced around the room curiously—and spotted Alice and Sophia standing by the door!

  “Hi, girls. Are you here for 3C rehearsal?” Mr. Mac asked.

  “Yeah. Is it too late to join this year?” asked Sophia.

  “Definitely not,” Mr. Mac said, beaming. “Riley, grab some extra music, okay?”

  Riley grinned as she hurried over to get some sheet music for Alice and Sophia, then crossed the room to the doorway. “You came!” she whispered to Alice. “Yay!”

  Then Riley turned to Sophia. “And so did you!”

  Sophia shrugged. “After the way you talked it up, I had to check it out for myself,” she replied. But Riley could tell she was just trying to act cool.

  “Well, I’m glad you did,” Riley replied. “I think you’re gonna love it!”

  When everyone was settled, Mr. Mac patted the large cardboard box. “Can anyone guess what’s in here?” he asked.

  “Is it new music?” someone called out.

  “A tuba?” joked one of the boys, making everyone laugh.

  “Not exactly,” Mr. Mac replied. Then he opened the flaps of the box to reveal a massive jumble of tinsel garlands, brightly colored baubles, strands of twinkle lights, and more.

  “Christmas decorations!” he continued. “This is actually just one of ten boxes that belonged to my grandmother. She died last year, at the impressive age of ninety-nine. Ninety-nine years old! And for her entire life, she loved Christmas more than anything. I don’t know, maybe it’s genetic.”

  “It’s definitely genetic,” Jacob whispered to Riley.

  “So I have all these decorations that used to belong to her,” Mr. Mac continued. “Way more than I need for my apartment. So I’ve been wondering, what should I do with them? And after our concert at the Hampton Creek Mall, I finally figured it out.”

  Lillian’s hand shot into the air. “Are we going to decorate the music room?” she asked.

  “Yes!” Mr. Mac replied. “Starting with my grandma’s old tree. I figured we need a place to put the last Secret Snowflake presents at the party. And I think you’ll be working on something in art class that we can use to decorate the room, too. I have a feeling this year’s Christmas party and Secret Snowflake reveal is going to be the best one yet.

  “But I’m getting ahead of myself,” Mr. Mac continued. “Anyway, I have way too many decorations to use just in the music room. Anyone else want to guess what we’re going to do with them?”

  “We could decorate the whole school,” Ben suggested.

  “Getting warmer,” Mr. Mac told him. “Think even bigger than that.”

  Riley tapped her fingers against the bottle of polish in her pocket. If it was a bigger deal than decorating the whole school…

  She raised her hand. “Are they for our next concert?”

  “We have a winner!” Mr. Mac announced. “Heads up!”

  In a blink, Mr. Mac reached into the box, then pitched a lightweight ornament made of ribbons in Riley’s direction. She caught it right before it sailed past her head.

  “Good eye!” Jacob said.

  Riley grinned at him. “Thanks!”

  “As you know, our next performance will be at the Sunny Acres Retirement Community,” Mr. Mac explained. “Which is a fancy way of saying ‘nursing home.’ And this time, we’re going to do more than just sing.”

  “Will we have another fire drill, too?” Jacob joked.

  Mr. Mac shook his head. “I sure hope not,” he replied. “But I was thinking it would be nice to step it up a little. Not just show up and sing, but make ourselves useful, too. I mean, can you think of a better way to spread Christmas cheer than doing good deeds?”r />
  “No,” everyone chorused.

  “Neither can I,” Mr. Mac said. “That’s why I called Sunny Acres and asked if we could decorate the common room for Christmas. And they said yes!”

  The kids broke out into spontaneous cheers. Riley thought this was an amazing idea and was happy to see that her fellow 3Cers agreed.

  “And that’s not all,” Mr. Mac said after they’d quieted down. “I’d like to challenge all of you—every single member of 3C—to think of something special you can do for the residents at Sunny Acres, too. How can you make their holiday happier? How might you bring them comfort and joy?”

  There was a pause.

  “Don’t everybody talk all at once.” Mr. Mac broke the silence with a joke, and everyone laughed. Riley had to wonder if everyone else felt the same way she did—already dreaming up ways in which they would rise to the challenge.

  “Partner up! Make it fun!” Mr. Mac encouraged them. “You can even work together over the weekend. I can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with. Now, give me five minutes to get our new members up to speed. Try to keep it down to a dull roar, okay? Alice and Sophia, would you come here for a moment?”

  Before she left, Sophia tugged on Riley’s sleeve. “We’ll partner up, all three of us,” she said. “You, me, and Alice.”

  “Of course,” Riley agreed.

  In a split second, though, she remembered something: Jacob was the only other seventh grader in 3C—until about five minutes ago. If Sophia and Alice hadn’t joined, Riley had a feeling that she and Jacob would’ve worked together on the surprise for Sunny Acres. She felt guilty for leaving him out in the cold just because her best friend had suddenly joined 3C.

  She snuck a glance at Jacob out of the corner of her eye. He wasn’t goofing around for a change; instead, he was staring at his sheet music like he was studying it. Riley could tell that he’d heard every word of her exchange with Sophia.

  “Hey,” Riley began.

  Jacob looked up. She hadn’t really noticed his eyes before—they weren’t just brown but flecked with green and gold. Hazel was the word that popped into Riley’s brain before she focused on what she really wanted to say.