When Sammie and Cindy showed up for rehearsal in the morning, they found Jessica, George, and Marcus already in the kid’s break room. The three older kids were on their phones scrolling through stuff.

“Here’s another,” George said. “Marcus, this one talks about the Trans-Siberian style piece we did.”

“Let me see,” Marcus immediately went over to George and looked at his phone.

“The local news did a nice review of the concert,” Jessica commented. “Most of their review was about us five kids and how we were the highlight of the night.”

“What are you three doing,” Cindy asked as she went up to look at Jessica’s phone?

“We’re reading the reviews online about our performance. Everything so far has been positive, even the review from this guy who was against kids performing this year. He felt we only enhanced the Tri-City Orchestra and questioned why the adults were not better than the Christmas Angels.”

“That is soooooooo, cool,” Jessica said, bouncing up and down while hugging her American Girl doll.

The kids were looking through the reviews for about five minutes when Marcus called George over to his phone.

“I can’t believe she is still hung up on Cindy,” Marcus said as George read through the posting he had found.

“Who,” Cindy, Jessica, and Sammie asked together?

“Ariel,” Marcus replied.

“What did she do now,” Jessica asked with hatred in her voice?

George looked at the three younger girls and focused on Cindy, “Oh nothing, just a post about how she dislikes Cindy.”

“Well, I dislike her too,” Cindy replied.

“Okay kids,” Sammie’s Mom stated. “You are expected to be dressed and on stage in 5 minutes. Stop looking through the internet and time to get ready for another dress rehearsal.”

As the girls went to get ready, Marcus went over to the parents and showed them his phone. What they read on the screen was a shock. It was pictures and comments about protesting outside Symphony Hall last night with a few other people. They were objecting to Symphony Hall allowing a transgender kid to perform for the public. It specifically identified 10-year-old Cindy as the Christmas Angel who was transgender. The phone was passed around to all the parents, each parent’s eyes bulged as they read the post.

Once the parents had gotten all the kids in position for the performance, they went as a group to go find Miranda.

After reading the post, Miranda looked at the parents, “Yeah, it was just a small protest group. We explained to them when they first arrived that they cannot protest on Symphony Hall property. Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do to stop them from protesting on the city sidewalk. I hadn’t seen these posts, though. This one from Channel 2 News reporter Stacey Stillman is the most concerning. She has influence in the area. I’ll make a few calls to figure out what is going on. We have some connections that might be able to help, if needed.”

“Stacey, have a seat,” Channel 2 News Director Karen Tinslin said gesturing towards a seat on the other side of her desk. “Do you care to explain to me why I just got off the phone with the CEO of the company over an online post one of his news reporters have posted?”

Stacey Stillman just looked at Karen with a confused expression.

“Okay, play it that way, Stacey. You have posted a story online about one of the Christmas Angels, a ten-year-old named Cindy. Is that accurate?”

“Yes, Mrs. Tinslin, but I didn’t post it on the TV 2’s web site.”

“No, you didn’t,” Karen glared at Stacey. “You couldn’t. That would have to go through me, as you very well know since you asked the tech department to post that same exact story, but when they said they would forward it to me for approval, you took back the article. Is that accurate?”

“Yes.”

“So, after finding out you couldn’t post the article at Channel 2 News, you created an account online and posted the story on there. You didn’t post it anonymously. You didn’t even take off your official title here at Channel 2 News. No, you just posted it exactly how you intended to post it on our website.”

Stacey nodded her head.

“Well, that is a violation of your contract. As of this moment, you are on administrative leave with no pay pending an investigation. Security will be here shortly to escort you out.”

“But I didn’t do anything. I just . . .”

“Oh, Stacey, don’t even start to go there. Let me tell you what your little stunt has done. This morning, the CEO of the company got calls from two governors, the three mayors of the Tri-City area, and several of the sponsors of our News shows. They all wanted to know why Channel 2 was running a smear campaign against one of the angels. Several of them were also at the concert last night and saw you with the protesters outside the concert.”

“I was off duty. I had every right to be there.”

“Maybe, personnel and legal will determine that, but combined with the article you posted, everyone is feeling that Channel 2 is now against the best thing that has happened to the Tri-City area in decades, the Christmas Angels. I told you to drop the story about a transgender kid being one of the Christmas Angels. You didn’t. You wrote about one side of the story, not even looking at both sides. The people you have to support your version of things are all people who tried to harm an innocent ten-year-old transgender girl. The kids mother, she’s been in jail for child abuse to that kid and is under court orders to stay away from her. Yet, you make her comments in your article as the most important elements. The teenager who you reference was kicked out of a Music Camp for trying to beat the kid up. Not the reasons you give. Now, if that isn’t enough, this Channel has a strict policy to only state the facts. Your article is full of opinions and feelings, with almost no facts.”

“Sorry.”

“It is too late for that. The company is under investigation for violating a few laws regarding reporting on children. That little ten-year-old transgender girl has a lot of power behind her, and that is before the millions of fans and supporters she has. Everyone who called the CEO this morning was firmly behind that little girl. Did you know that the parent of one of the Angels is a local state Judge, one that is on the Governor’s list of possible new State Supreme Court Judges? The father of another Angel is a State Police Officer, and a third parent is a producer at one of our competitor’s stations. Did you do any research on that little kid? Did you know they were supposed to be in London this Christmas, performing for a Symphony Orchestra there? According to reports some real reporters have given me, the royal family was going to be in attendance. That little kid has a following around the world, and you decided to pick a battle with her.”

News Director Karen sat back in her chair, shaking her head back and forth, “Because of your actions, I need to jump into this hot potato. As ordered from the CEO of the company that owns our little station, we will be running positive stories about transgender, the Christmas Angels, and one on the Tri-City Symphony Orchestra.”

The look on Stacey’s face expressed her disgust at this.

“You forced us to do it. If you don’t like it, then complain to the person you see when you look in the mirror. You are the only reason we will be running those three stories. Now, get out of my office. I have a lot of work to do in order to save my job after the ridiculous stunt one of my, former, News Reporters pulled.”

“It is out, and we can’t do anything about it,” Marcus’ dad said. “This will impact every one of our kids.”

“Cindy can’t find out,” Herbert stated through the phone. “My daughter is too fragile at the moment. If she discovers her mother is telling lies to reporters, it will devastate her.”

“We have to keep it from both Cindy and Sammie at least until the end of the third performance,” Sammie’s mom added. “Sammie and Cindy are already nervous enough about these performances. I’m not sure what adding another issue to the mix will do. They’re only little eight- and ten-year-olds.”

Miranda looked at the group of parents, “I completely understand. We have two more performances to get through, and I am doing everything I can to make sure they go off smoothly. Here is what I have done and will be doing . . .”

Downstairs, the Symphony Hall dress rehearsal was progressing. Sammie sat down on the stage before the musical piece was even finished. This caught the attention of Conductor Frances and the Stage Director, Hannah. When the piece was over, a break was called, and Hannah had the five kids go to their break room.

When Cindy and Sammie immediately plopped down on the couch, grabbing their American Girl dolls just hugging them and vegging out, Hannah knew this would need to be more than just a ten-minute break. She informed the two youngest that they could play for a bit, then called the three older kids over to her.

“Okay, I want the three of you to stay off your phones and no discussing what is going on,” Hannah said before looking over at Cindy and Sammie. “Those two are just little kids in elementary school and we are pushing them. They don’t need to know what is going on. For now, though, they need a break, a real break. I’d recommend time on a playground, but we don’t have one here on Symphony Hall grounds. I need you three to help by thinking of something to get their minds off of tonight’s concert and the Children’s Concert tomorrow. No watching TV or getting on the internet, they need a real mind and body break. In thirty minutes, I’ll reevaluate if we continue this morning or just call rehearsal over and send you all off until tonight’s performance.”

Jessica looked over at Sammie and Cindy, “Can we play some music?”

Hannah looked at Jessica, “The idea of this is to stay away from your instruments, maybe get them moving or actively playing in make-believe play. I understand they have some toys in their backpacks. I assume stuff like Polly Pockets or stuff like that.”

Jessica giggled, “Yeah, they have Polly Pockets in their backpacks along with a few My Little Ponys, but what if we did some singing and dancing to music? Not us playing, just music we play on our phones.”

Hannah thought for a few moments and started to give her approval and then stopped, “What do you have in mind?”

Hannah, Jessica, George, and Marcus discussed some songs for the little ones to dance to. Hannah let them go out onto the stage to use the open space for dancing. She got Larry to play some music over the speakers and do some fun stuff with the lights. Jessica took control and tried to get the little ones to coordinate some dance steps.

At the end of the thirty minutes, the orchestra was all back in their spots while the girls did one last singing and dancing performance. George went up to Conductor Frances and Stage Director Hannah. He quietly had a conversation with them. Afterwards, Conductor Frances quickly pulled up a musical piece on his tablet and silently got the orchestra members to look at the piece he just pulled up for them to play. When the music the girls were dancing to ended, they headed over to their instruments.

“Girls,” Hannah stopped them. “I want you to do one more, please. During Children’s Concerts we always have a movement activity in the middle of the performance, to get the kids up and moving around. George has proposed that you three do one of your choreographed dance routines while the orchestra plays. I bet the audience will love having the Christmas Angels teach them all a dance performance.”

Jessica glared at George and then turned to Hannah, “Ummm, you want me to stand up in front of a packed Tri-City Symphony Hall to sing and dance to music? Are you nuts?”

“From what George has said, you did it at Summer Camp this last summer. So, you don’t have to learn anything new, just do what you did last summer,” Hannah smiled and nodded at Conductor Frances to start the music.

As soon as the first few notes of, Let It Go, started, both Cindy and Sammie jumped up and down with glee and dragged thirteen-year-old Jessica out to center stage.

“Come on Jessica,” little eight-year-old Sammie exclaimed as she got into position and started dancing how they had done it at camp.

At ten, Cindy had no concerns about joining right in, but she did notice something Sammie didn’t. Jessica was shaking her head and rolling her eyes as she joined the two younger ones.

When the music stopped, Hannah came back out on stage and knelt down on her knees in front of the three girls who were all giggling, “That was fabulous. Now, Sammie and Cindy, I know we haven’t practiced this, but do you think you could do that during intermission for the Children’s Concert. I think the audience would love to join you.”

As both Sammie and Cindy expressed no concerns over doing that, Hannah stood up and looked at Jessica, “Little ones always need a leader to help them. I will be looking for you to help these two and get the audience to join in. I’m not going to make you do it, but you three going viral with that performance at the mall has made the Children’s Concert possible. The kids coming would really want the three of you doing this, not just the two youngest.”

Jessica wanted to say there was no way she was going to stand up in front of an audience to sing and dance, but looking down at Cindy and Sammie’s faces caused her to cave, “Okay, I’ll do it.”

Conductor Frances had the orchestra practice Let It Go one more time, and of course, both Cindy and Sammie insisted that they practice the dance routine again. Afterwards, they finished the regular concert rehearsal.

The two little ones were not happy after lunch. They were ushered back to the hotel room and told to take a nap. The curtains were drawn, blocking all the light from outside. The room lights were turned off, except for the one in the bathroom, and Sammie’s mom started reading from a chapter book. Before she finished the first chapter, the two girls were asleep hugging their stuffed animals.

Cindy was the first to wake up, three hours after she fell asleep. Sitting up in bed, caused Sammie to wake up too. Neither one could believe they actually slept. Even more surprising to them, was how long they slept. To help them wake up, and have a restful afternoon, they watched Disney Junior episodes. At dinner time, they went to a restaurant around the corner from the hotel where the kids were thrilled to get hot dogs and chips.

Arriving back at Symphony Hall, they were met by Cindy’s dad and sister. Holly got to work on doing Cindy’s hair while Joyce did her daughter’s hair. The girls watched more Disney Junior on their tablets during the process. Jessica arrived about half-way through, and her mom was immediately on hair duty. By the time the boys arrived, the girls had their hair done and were playing with their American Girl dolls.

Jessica felt proud of herself for keeping the little ones busy and distracted until they were needed on stage. She expressed this concept to her Mom during one of the adult check in points.

Turning to Sammie’s mom on the other side of the room, “I’m not going to point out to her that she isn’t being a big kid watching the little ones. Jessica is acting just like she did when she was eight playing with her dolls. It’s so adorable. She tries to act like such a big kid now that she is a teenager, but she is very definitely still at times my little girl.”

“Yeah,” Joyce smiled at the three girls playing. “They want to grow up and be big kids. If they only knew there is nothing wrong with being little.”

When the concert began, all three girls were excited for another performance. The show went off without any problems. Back at the hotel afterwards, Cindy was offered a chance to sleep with Sammie as she had been doing or in the other room with her dad and sister. This was the last night the two would have a chance to have a sleepover, so she chose Sammie.