“Can I have everyone’s attention please,” Hannah said as she waited for the orchestra members to quiet down. “You have all done great, and the last two performances have been met by overwhelming positive reviews by those that attended. This afternoon’s performance will be different. Most of you have done one of our Children’s Concerts before, but for those that haven’t, let me explain.”

Hannah went into an explanation of the changes and shocked the five kids when she stated that Conductor Frances would be introducing them throughout the performance and asking them a few questions. She ended the discussion by stating that last night's performance would be airing on Channel 2 on Christmas day. There was also an offer to show the Children’s Concert during times programming is designed for kids, but no decisions would be made on that until after the performance.

George quietly said to the other Christmas Angels, “Yeah, several networks are trying to get the rights to air it. My mom’s station asked first, so who knows what will happen.”

Sammie turned to Cindy, “Cool, we’re going to be on TV.”

There was no real rehearsal that morning, just a run through of things without actually playing the music. The girls were then sent off and told to return after lunch.

When they reached the hotel, Holly took control. She set up a girls get together while the adults went to one of the other rooms. There were snacks and drinks. Jessica, Sammie, and Cindy’s American Girl dolls joined the get together. They were all sitting on blankets and pillows on the floor. All sorts of things were talked about. When Holly and Jessica started talking about boys, Cindy and Sammie voiced their negative opinions on the topic, so the older girls dropped the subject.

The children’s concert was an early afternoon performance, so after lunch they were off to the Tri-City Symphony Hall. Hair, nail touch up, and dresses were done before Marcus and George joined the girls in the break room.

As Cindy and Sammie got into position to go out onto the stage at the start of the Children’s Concert, it was obvious things were different this time. The noise from the audience was much louder than it had been for the last two performances. The two of them could hear comments coming from the audience about the Christmas Angels and people spotting Jessica, George, and Marcus.

“Okay, girls,” Stage Director Hannah said, coming up to the two little ones. “You have both done a great job on the last two performances but this one as you can already tell is a little different. When you go out there at the beginning, and during the performance, expect kids to shout stuff out. Try, try, try, hard to just ignore them. Focus on what your job is for the concert. No matter what is said, focus on playing your instrument, not the audience. If you have any questions or concerns, look at Conductor Frances for guidance. If it is too much, try to hold on to the end of whatever piece you are playing and then just leave the stage and go to your break room. Your parents are back there to help. No one can get up onto the stage from the audience, and only approved people can get backstage. Are you ready?”

Cindy reached out and squeezed Sammie’s hand while looking her right in the eyes, “Ready?”

“No,” Sammie admitted. “But, I guess this is no different from concerts at school with the whole elementary school with all the kids in the bleachers watching us.”

“This will be much better,” Cindy grinned. “Those kids are always grouchy because they have to sit on those uncomfortable bleachers. These kids have the comfy Symphony Hall seats.”

Sammie giggled.

“Now the hard part,” Hannah commented looking out on the stage. “Let’s see if the audience will quiet down when we dim the lights.”

The lights went dark with just a spotlight on the lit up Christmas tree. Hannah waited as the noise in the audience started to calm down. After a few minutes she squeezed the two girls shoulders and whispered, “Go.”

It was simple all they had to do was walk out onto the stage in their pretty little girl Christmas dresses and be in awe of the tree as they approached it. Then they would open up their two presents and take out their instruments. They had done it during every practice and the two previous performances. This was the easiest part of the concert. All they had to do was go out there, look at just the tree, and look cute and adorable.

As soon as they got on stage and the spotlights highlighted them, however, things changed. Suddenly, the whole audience started shouting and clapping. Both Sammie and Cindy jumped by the onslaught. They were frozen in place. They looked at each other and then out at the audience.

“Keep going girls. The show must go on,” Hannah stated loud enough that the girls could hear her. “Focus on the tree and your instruments.”

The two little girls looked at each other and then got back to the task at hand. Sammie said, “We need to ignore them. Time to just be cute little girls. Come on Cindy.”

The two girls got back into their role and headed for the tree. The noise in the audience didn’t start to calm down until the two little Christmas Angels had gotten their instruments and started playing. Throughout all of the first piece, comments from parents could be heard, telling kids to be quiet.

After the second musical piece, Conductor Frances, came over to Sammie and got down on his knees to be at her level, “Samantha, you are the youngest of the Christmas Angels.”

There was a lot of hooting and hollering from the audience, with a few people calling out, “Sam-mie, Sam-mie!”

“Well, Sammie,” Conductor Frances said with a quick look out at the audience. “You are playing wonderfully tonight. What is going through your mind.”

“Which cookies I’m going to put out for Santa tomorrow night,” Sammie said with a smile.

Suddenly there were several suggestions shouted out from the audience of different cookie types, along with a lot of laughter.

“Samantha,” Conductor Frances stated, looking down at her violin. “You are here today playing with a whole symphony orchestra full of adults. You can play at or above the level of any adult here. The only thing that sets you apart from them is your size and the stickers all over your violin. Those are where the Sammie side of you really shines through, even here up on stage playing with the orchestra. Tell us a little about your stickers.”

“I love stickers,” Sammie said with pride. “I have Vampirina, Sofia the First, and My Little Pony stickers on my violin. There is one other sticker though, and it is my favorite. This one right here of a little girl in pigtails playing a flute. Cindy gave it to me. I put it on my violin to remind me to keep practicing so someday I will be as good as she is.”

“You are already an amazing violinist.”

“Yeah, but Cindy plays her flute way better than I can play my violin,” Sammie looked over at Cindy. “Someday, I will play my violin as well as she can play her flute.”

“Thank You Sammie. Although I know you are already a top performer, I am sure you will get even better as you get older and practice more,” Conductor Frances moved away from Sammie and back to his podium. “Each one of the five Christmas Angels are extremely talented, but they all continue to strive to do better. Now, let’s hear more of their musical prowess.”

Two more musical pieces were played before the next of the child prodigies was approached by Conductor Frances. Cindy figured it would be her, with him going from youngest to oldest, but instead he went over to Jessica.

“Well, Jessica,” Conductor Frances said, coming up to the piano she was sitting at. “You are certainly a talented musician on the piano. The other four members of the Christmas Angels were collected by you. Can you please tell us about where you found them and why you brought them all together to perform?”

Jessica blushed, “We were not called the Christmas Angels until that video of three of us performing at the local mall went viral. We all met at Music Camp this last summer. I was taking a composing class and had to create an original piece of music. Originally, I figured one for just me to play on the piano, but Cindy needed help to . . . to shine, so I expanded it to be the two of us. Then I thought, well, since I was the best on piano at camp and Cindy was the best at woodwinds at camp, why not try to get the rest of the best players together to perform a piece.”

“And you did just that,” Conductor Frances stated as he smiled at the audience. “You got the five best performers together to perform. Your musical piece won first place, but you didn’t actually perform that piece on the piano. You chose to be the conductor of the piece when you performed it in front of everyone at camp.”

“Yes, sir. George, Cindy, and Sammie all decided that it sounded better when I was conducting it. So, we needed to find someone to play the piano. George suggested Marcus. I had never heard him play the piano, but he is amazing, even better than me.”

Conductor Frances and Jessica looked over at Marcus who was holding his electric guitar, then Jessica continued, “But, he was a Rock ‘n Roll performer and didn’t want to play the piano anymore. We sort of tricked him . . . well, Cindy did, and then he hesitantly agreed. But the only way he would join us for the Christmas Concerts here was if he got to play on his guitar instead of the piano.”

“Ah, yes, we will get to Marcus later in the performance,” Conductor Frances stated. “We all just heard him in that last piece. He really is quite talented on the electric guitar, and as the audience saw, not all music has to be the traditional style. I am impressed, Jessica. You got all these talented young musicians together and my understanding is you did it for Cindy and not yourself.”

Jessica beamed at Cindy, “She may be little, but she is absolutely amazing on that flute of hers. She was feeling so sad and depressed at the beginning of camp and I needed to do something to cheer her up and bring out the joy she spreads when she plays her music with emotions.”

“Thank You Jessica,” Conductor Frances made his way back to his podium. “This next piece will show some of Cindy’s amazing talent, as well as the other four Christmas Angels.”

The next musical piece started and the kids in the audience were fully captivated. After two more pieces, there was the intermission with Jessica, Cindy, and Sammie leading the audience in a singing and dancing performance of, Let It Go, with the full symphony orchestra playing the music for them. It was a hit. Then bathroom breaks for the audience and musicians. When they got back together, they started with another one of the fast and fancy pieces with music and lights showing off Marcus on his electric guitar and little dynamo Sammie on her violin.

The next time Conductor Frances approached one of the Christmas Angels it was George, “You are one of the oldest Christmas Angels, George. I know the three girls all look to you like a supportive big brother. That all being said, you are a very talented musician on the French Horn.”

“I love to play and have worked hard over the years to try and be the best that I can be. Cindy and Jessica both got me to be better though. I was an excellent technical player, but those two got me to tap into my emotions while playing. There is a big difference between just playing the music and feeling the music while playing. That is one of the things that makes Cindy such an amazing musician. She plays that flute of hers with such emotion. She taps into however she is feeling, sad or happy, and plays her music with those emotions. As you listen to her playing, you feel those emotions too. With her help, and prodding from Jessica as conductor, I finally figured out how to tap into my emotions while playing. It really increased my abilities.”

“Yes,” Conductor Frances looked out at the audience. “When we first learn to play, we all focus on the task itself: reading the piece, playing the music, and then figuring out how to play in a group. The truly talented musicians, though, learn to play with emotions. The experts in the field figure out how to play in such a way that the audience can feel those feelings from the music. Tell me George, the three kids younger than you are girls and they all look up to you. Do any others look up to you?”

“I have a little sister. I am very close to her and very protective of her. It is great being a big brother.”

“Big brothers are the best,” was heard from several young girls in the audience.

After two more musical pieces, Conductor Frances went up to the heart throb teenager on the electric guitar, “Well, Marcus, you are the oldest of the Christmas Angels. As I understand things, you were reluctant to join the group during the summer and even more so this Christmas. Your interest in playing louder and more fast paced music certainly isn't typical for a Symphony Orchestra, but have you enjoyed playing the music done in the style of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra?”

“Most definitely. I had never heard of Symphony Orchestra music done like that before until Jessica introduced me to it as a way to get all five of us back together for these Christmas concerts. It’s also given me a few ideas of what I can do when I am putting on rock concerts.”

Conductor Frances smiled at Marcus and then out at the audience, “Many musicians can play more than one instrument. Marcus here can play both the electric guitar and the piano. At age fifteen, he can do both at an expert level. In fact, I personally believe he plays the piano better than the guitar, but that is not where his passion is. Earlier we heard how George learned to put more feeling into his playing of instruments. Marcus feels he does that better with the guitar, so that is his focus at the moment.”

Turning back to Marcus, “Even though you are the oldest, you are not the leader of the Christmas Angels. Is that hard for you?”

Marcus laughed, “One of the things we learn at Music Camp each summer is that age doesn’t make you better at something. Once you figure that out, it is much easier to be part of a group, instead of feeling like you need to shine on top. Out of the five Christmas Angels, Jessica is officially our leader, but she isn’t the best player of the group. Actually the best would have to be our shyest player, Cindy, is probably the best musician of the five of us, and she is only ten. One of the most amazing things about her is that she doesn’t try to be better than others, she just tries to be the best she can be.”

“Cin-deee! Cin-deee!” was heard from the audience.

“Cindy is certainly good, and I will get to her after some more music,” Conductor Frances went back to center stage and started the music for the next piece.

When they finished the concert, Conductor Frances went up to Cindy, “Well, young lady. When I talked with all the other Christmas Angels, they mentioned you. Now, I know you are shy and probably don’t want to answer my questions, so instead I am going to ask you to show everyone why the others think you are so good of a player. Whenever you are stressed, overwhelmed, or just asked to play your favorite piece of music, you always play the same solo piece. Could you please play that for us right now?”

Cindy closed her eyes and brought her flute up to her mouth as the lights dimmed, except for a soft spotlight on Cindy. Suddenly, Symphony Hall was full of the sound of one of Friedrich Kuhlau’s flute solos. The audience went silent, until about two seconds after the last note, when the whole place erupted in applause.

“Cindy,” Conductor Frances stated as the lights came back up on the stage. “That was absolutely lovely. It was full of joy and happiness. You have such a positive impact on all the members of the Christmas Angels and the musicians here at Symphony Hall. It is impressive and shows us all something important. You don’t need to be loud and assertive to impact others. You can be quiet and shy like you, but still leave big marks on the world.”

“Thank You,” Cindy quietly said with a huge smile.

The five Christmas Angels were brought out together to the center of the stage, thanked for joining the Symphony Orchestra, and then were asked to play one more piece for the audience as an encore. When the concert was finally over, the five Christmas Angels met back-stage where they received hugs and congratulations from the parents.

Miranda was backstage with the parents, “Well, kids, that was absolutely amazing. Now, we were going to have you go out and meet people in the lobby, but we’ve decided to do things a little differently this time. During intermission, and right now, there are tables set up in the lobby to take questions from the kids in the audience. If you open up your tablets you can find the questions we have accepted. I’d like you all to pick a few questions to answer. We will meet out on the stage in ten minutes. So bathroom breaks and try to pick a few questions.”

After bathroom breaks and drinking some water, the five Christmas Angels opened up their tablets and looked at the questions. They were divided into ones for the general group, and specific questions for certain different Musicians. When Cindy opened up her folder, she found a sub folder labeled Transgender.

Holly sat on one side of Cindy and her dad on the other. Holly broke the silence, “Cindy, you don’t have to answer any question you don’t want to. You don’t even have to go out there to answer any questions. Honestly, Dad and I both feel you should avoid any of the Transgender questions, that is why they are in a separate folder. Since you have answered a lot of those types of questions from your classmates at school, Grandma thought you should be given the choice to answer some if you wanted to.”

Cindy opened the Transgender folder, “How do they know I’m transgender?”

Holly and Dad looked at each other before Dad reached around Cindy’s shoulders and gave her a squeeze, “A news reporter was looking into the Christmas Angels and discovered the truth. They weren’t supposed to connect the issue to your name when reporting on a child your age, but they did. They got in trouble for it too. It doesn’t matter now, most of the kids in the audience tonight know the truth. We can ignore the issue, or face it head on with family and friends there to support you.”

Cindy looked over to Sammie, Jessica, George, and Marcus all with their parents looking at the questions.

“Two minutes,” Miranda said, sticking her head into the break room.

Cindy quickly looked at the questions in the Transgender folder and highlighted three of them. Then she looked at the other questions in the main Cindy folder and highlighted three of them. When she went to look at the ones in the whole group folder, she didn’t have time. The five Christmas Angels were directed out to the stage where chairs were set up for them to sit in. Expecting to see just a few returning for this part, they were all surprised to see that a large amount of the audience was returning to their seats.

Conductor Frances was on stage looking at his tablet. He quieted down the audience and then started going from one kid to another asking questions they had highlighted. He would state who the question was for, the name and age of the person who asked the question, and then the question. He even answered a few questions that were about symphony orchestras or being a musician. There were a few questions the kids had not approved, since they were added after the concert. Cindy found one very interesting.

“This question is for Cindy, from eight year old Stella: Cindy, I am a transgender girl. My parents and a few friends know, but the other kids at school don’t know yet. Do your classmates know you are transgender and do they know you play the flute like a real angel?”

Cindy looked over at Sammie and then Jessica, before looking back stage at her Dad and sister Holly. Turning back to the audience, “When I was eight, like you, only my best friend Anna and my family knew about the true me. I was only supposed to be Cindy in my bedroom. Anna, and my big sister Holly, knew I was really Cindy all the time, only pretending to be a boy when I left the bedroom. That all changed this summer. I went against my parents orders and went to Anna’s birthday party in one of Holly’s old party dresses. At Music Camp the week after the birthday party, Jessica found out I played better wearing a dress than I did in boy clothes.”

Jessica got up and went behind Cindy and hugged her from behind.

Cindy continued, “When Sammie got involved, she helped me be Cindy full time at camp by making sure I had the right clothes to wear and lending me Molly.”

Sammie got up and joined Jessica behind Cindy hugging her. Then, Holly came out onto the stage and handed Cindy the Molly doll.

“That’s my big sister Holly, and this,” Cindy hugged the American Girl Molly doll before showing her to the audience. “This is the doll Sammie lent me the last week of summer camp. She then gave the doll to me as a gift. I had carried her around everywhere during that last week at camp. I was never without her. That is why Molly will always have a special place in my heart and in my room.”

Many of the girls in the audience could be heard saying, “Awe.”

“When I started fourth grade full time as Cindy this school year, I so wanted to bring Molly, but my therapist said it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to carry a doll around school full time in the fourth grade. She did have a point. If Kindergarteners can go to school without their favorite doll or stuffed animal, I could go to fourth grade without Molly here.”

There were several chuckles in the audience.

“Getting up and playing music in front of a large audience isn’t scary to me, but going to fourth grade as myself sure was. Everyone at school has seen me perform at Christmas programs and other events since I was in 1st grade. If the music teacher had known I played the flute when I was in Kindergarten, I’m sure he would have made me perform then too. It was only this year though that I let the school know I was really a girl named Cindy. Stella, I wish you the best of luck on your journey. It will not be easy. I made a mistake going against the orders of my parents, so my recommendation is to listen to your parents and your therapist. If you don’t have a therapist yet, get one. Surround yourself with people who know the true you and love you.”

Cindy stood up and hugged Jessica, Sammie, and Holly. She then looked over at the two boys, “Oh, Stella, that doesn’t always mean surround yourself with girls. George and Marcus are like two big brothers to me. George was amazing this last summer getting me through some panic attacks I had, just like he helps his real little sister. Marcus pretends to be all cool and macho, but he is just a big softy around girls. But, you might need some ear plugs if you listen to his music. He plays it real loud. It’s good, but loud.”

Many of the teenagers in the audience laughed or shouted, “Rock on, Marcus.”

Conductor Frances then closed out the Question and Answer section and the Christmas Angels left the stage for the last time.

As the kids gathered backstage, the realization hit them. This was goodbye time. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve, and everyone was heading to their own homes for Christmas. They wouldn’t see each other again until Music Camp in July, seven months away. George and Marcus were the first to say their farewells and head out.

“I can’t believe I agreed to wear a dress to this thing,” Jessica said as she went to get changed. A few minutes later she rejoined the group wearing a blouse and pants.

“Never again,” Jessica commented as she sat down on a chair. “I don’t care if it is what girls are supposed to wear to stuff like this. Never again.”

Cindy looked at Jessica and smiled, before turning to Sammie, “She may not like them, but I love getting all dressed up in a pretty dress.”

Sammie and Cindy twirled around the room in their fancy dresses.

After some discussion, Jessica gave both Sammie and Cindy hugs before leaving. She promised to stay in touch, but both of the younger girls knew they probably wouldn’t hear from the teenager again until summer.

Cindy and Sammie were playing together with their toys and dolls, not wanting to say goodbye to each other. Holly and the parents let them play together until Miranda came in and quietly told the parents that the protesters had left. That is when the girls finally had to say goodbye to each other. They made their way to the cars holding hands. After their American Girl dolls said goodbye to each other, Sammie and Cindy said goodbye. Sitting in their own cars, the girls waved to each other as they departed.

Holly reached over and took Cindy’s hand, “You did great sis. You really did. I am so proud of you. Dad set up with Sammie’s Mom a sleepover between Christmas and New Years at Sammie’s house, and another during Spring Break at our house. You’re not losing a friend Cindy, honest. The bond you two made during summer camp and this last week will keep you close forever.”

“Thanks Sis. Thanks.”