Sammie, Cindy, and Jessica entered their break room backstage and put their backpacks down. Getting out their music tablets, the three headed for the door.

“Drink of water and trip to the bathroom first,” Joyce said.

When the three were finally ready to go out on stage, Marcus and George had arrived.

Hannah stopped the five kids and their parents before they could leave the break room, “Okay, there are the Christmas Angels. I can’t believe you three. I sent you out to get new dresses for the performance and you end up in a viral video that currently has over three million views. That’s impressive for just sixteen hours. The Christmas Concert was completely sold out before the eleven o’clock news was finished. Next time the three of you go to pull a publicity stunt like that, give us some warning please.”

“Oh my,” Marcus said looking down at his phone. “You three really are being called the Christmas Angels all across social media, and the views on that video are now over four million. I’ve gotta see this.”

“See what?” Jessica asked.

“What are you talking about Hannah,” Sammie’s mom inquired?

Hannah looked at the expressions on the girls faces and the parents, “You mean you don’t know?”

“Know what,” Jessica’s dad asked?

Hannah laughed, “Their viral sensations and don’t even know. You three this morning were even on one of the national morning talk shows. Okay, umm, Sammie, Cindy, and Jessica were recorded playing Christmas music at the mall yesterday afternoon. A video of their performance was posted online. The six o’clock Channel 2 news reported about it and were the first to call you Christmas Angels. At the time though, no one knew who the angels were. For the next few hours, all over social media, the question being asked was, Who are the Christmas Angels?”

“All we did was play a few Christmas songs for kids at the mall,” Sammie said.

“George, look at this,” Marcus brought his phone over to George. “Does that look like just playing a few Christmas songs for kids at the mall?”

“Way more adults in that crowd than kids,” George stated. “This was at a mall? Jessica, how’d you get a baby grand piano into the mall to put on this concert?”

“It’s there for anyone to play. I always try to get my mom or dad to let me play on it whenever we go to that mall.”

“Whoa,” Marcus exclaimed. “You have the kids and adults singing along to Santa Clause is Coming to Town. That crowd loves you. No wonder this went viral. Sammie, how are you pulling that sound off on a violin? What? You go straight into silent night, with the crowd going silent. You have that crowd in the palm of your hands. I knew the three of you were good, but to have control of a crowd like that. This is the middle of a mall, and it is silent.”

“Yeah,” Hannah said. “Extremely impressive. It is causing Jim and I to rewrite how we are going to do the Christmas concert. Jim told me you five kids were prodigies, but I didn’t understand. Let’s go out and have a talk with the rest of the orchestra.”

Hannah didn’t lead everyone to the stage, but instead, to the seats where the audience would be. The rest of the orchestra members were there chatting with each other and looking at Mr. Francess sitting on one side of the stage.

“Morning everybody,” Mr. Francess said as soon as the kids and their parents were seated. “Hannah and I have decided that you all should watch a video that is going viral and has been reported on at the local and national levels. Based on this video and the response to it, Symphony Hall management has asked us to add more performances of our Christmas Concert.”

Looking at Sammie, Cindy, and Jessica, “When I invited the five children to perform with us, I knew what we were getting, and I thought our concert would be their introduction to the world. They apparently had other ideas.”

“Actually Jim,” Hannah interrupted. “They had no idea of their fame until I told them a few minutes ago.”

“Let’s watch the video and we will talk afterwards,” Mr. Frances said before looking up at the control room and nodding his head.

The lights dimmed and a thirty-minute video of the girls’ performance at the mall was shown. Then there was the six o’clock news report followed by the one at eleven.

“Symphony Hall management would like us to take advantage of their instant fame,” Mr. Frances said after quieting everyone down. “Hannah and I have already started discussions on how we want to modify the concert to make the kids more of a focal point.”

In the middle of a discussion on adding two more performances, Sammie raised her hand and waited patiently for Mr. Frances to call on her, “Can one of them be for kids instead of grown-ups?”

Many of the orchestra members, especially those with young kids or grandchildren, thought this was a great idea.

By lunchtime, they had settled several issues and rehearsed a variety of music pieces. At three o’clock, the girls were told that they were done for the day. With George and Marcus practicing one more music piece with the orchestra, there was a discussion in the break room as to what the girls would do for the rest of the afternoon.

“Come on Jessica, it will be fun.”

“Sammie,” Jessica got down to Sammie’s height. “I’m too old for the Children’s Museum. I loved it when I was your age, but it just isn’t for me anymore. You two go and have fun. It is a fabulous Children’s Museum.”

“What are you going to do?” Cindy asked.

Jessica looked over at her dad talking with Sammie’s mom, “I am going to try and talk Dad into bringing me home to get my cell phone. We don’t live that far out of town, but Dad hates driving in the rush hour traffic, so we’re staying at the hotel during these rehearsals. I really need my phone though. Dad insisted I leave it at home, but I want to stay up to date with our fame. I can’t do that without my phone.”

Everything was packed up and the group went in Joyce’s car back to the hotel. After dropping Jessica and her Dad off, it was a quick trip to the Children’s Museum.

“There is no way I am running a story on one of the Christmas Angels being transgender. Even if it is true . . .”

“It is,” Stacey interrupted her news director. “I’ve got some girl named Ariel willing to go on record about how the boy started at camp this last summer as a kid named Frank. Apparently, this Frank kid wanted to win some competition, so he got all the kids who had more talent than him kicked out of summer camp. When the kid manipulated everyone into treating him like a girl, Ariel felt scared the kid would come into the bathrooms and rape her.”

“How old is this, Ariel? We can’t interview a minor.”

“Oh, Ariel is eighteen. She’s not a minor anymore.”

“So, this eighteen-year-old Ariel was afraid of the little ten-year-old Christmas Angel who looks like they’re seven? That sweet little thing that plays the flute?”

“Yeah, the freak is evil. Even his mother has stories about how manipulative and evil he is. She explained to me how he was a sweet young boy until he was brain washed by Woke teachers who convinced her son that he was a girl. This turned him evil and manipulative. The mother has told me about how the freak destroyed her marriage and even got her arrested for no reason at all.”

“Stacey, boy or girl, it doesn’t matter. The kid is ten-years-old and their video currently has over ten million views in just 24 hours. Whether you want to believe it or not, this is a free country. If the kid wants to go around wearing a dress, they have the right to do that. This news agency is not going to destroy a young child’s life over a culture war issue.”

“But transgender individuals should not . . .”

“Stop right there. This conversation is over. We are going to report on the Tri-City Symphony Orchestra doing two more performances and the Christmas Angel’s video hitting over ten million views. This is a feel good story for the area, not a culture war battle with an innocent ten year old in the middle.”

“Innocent? That freak could be in the girl’s bathroom doing who knows what . . .”

“It’s a bathroom. They will be using it for the intended purpose. Come on now. The kid is ten and probably being seen by a doctor to help them deal with some very tough medical issues.”

“Good point, we should interview the doctors and expose this plot to feminize our boys against their will.”

“No Stacey, we are not going to report lies on this news channel. Although you have a right to believe whatever you want, we have no right to spread lies and conspiracy theories. The community expects us to tell the truth, and that is what we are going to do.”

“We have to warn our community members to stay away from this kid. Other kids are in danger just being around him.”

“Stacey, we do not report on fake news, conspiracy theories, or political motivated culture wars. Drop the topic. There is nothing along this line that I will allow talked about on air, so drop it and get back to real news stories.”

Cindy and Sammie had fun for three hours exploring everything from bubble making, to a huge Lego room. For dinner, they returned to the hotel and walked to a pizza place just one block away. Two pizza’s were delivered to the table. Sammie and Cindy looked at each other before turning to Sammie’s Mom.

“Mommy,” Sammie asked? “Why so much? We can’t eat all this.”

Joyce looked down at her phone, before looking over at the door, “We are expecting someone to join us.”

“Who,” Cindy looked over to where Joyce was looking.

A moment later in walked two police officers.

“Daddy!!!!” Sammie jumped up and went running off to hug her dad.

Carrying his daughter back to the table, Mr. Ellsworth sat down next to his wife, “Hi Joyce. I hope Sammie Pooh isn’t giving you too much trouble.”

Joyce leaned over and kissed her husband and daughter, “She’s a little Christmas Angel. She would never give me any trouble.”

“Yeah, I’m anjelly,” Sammie stated as she cuddled into her dad. “Hi Patty, thanks for brining Daddy to me.”

Mr. Ellsworth chuckled, “Sammie Pooh, did you mean angelic.”

“Yeah, that’s what I said.”

Joyce and Patty held back a chuckle.

“Hi Officer Ellsworth and Officer Granlin,” Cindy said as she took a piece of peperoni pizza and put it on her plate.

The five had a nice dinner together, but it was over way too early for Sammie. Her dad and his partner had to get back to patrolling the interstate highway.

That night, the girls got to watch some Christmas specials on TV. Joyce wondered if there were any other kids in the world that watched these shows like Cindy and Sammie. The two girls had their instruments out, and played along whenever there was any type of music in the show. It was how Sammie had learned many of the Christmas songs back when she was five, and she has done it each year since.

George was spending the night at Marcus’ house. Instead of watching Christmas specials, the two of them were having a jam session on their instruments with two of Marcus’ friends.

Jessica was at her house, watching the Christmas specials. She wasn’t, however, playing along to the music in the shows. After the shows were over, Jessica said bye to her mom and headed back into the city with her dad. She was always amazed that it took only about thirty minutes when there was no traffic but could take several hours at other times of the day.

When the five kids went to bed that night, their thoughts were all on the same thing. The upcoming Christmas concerts.