The Gift of Fan Fiction 2021

Christmas on the Other Side (The Promised Neverland one shot) Day 7

They were finally free.

Out in the world like humans should. Free to do as they please as the group. They, together one winters day came across their first directed advert for the Christmas season, most of the children never hearing about the holiday the way it is celebrated outside the orphanage, all but the avid readers from the group.

"Christmas is a holiday celebrated by primarily Christians as this was the day baby Jesus, the savior, had been born in Bethlehem.  The holiday is welcome to anyone also as it has been presented with the mascot, Santa, who comes and brings presents one Christmas Eve while everyone is sleeping." Isabel has informed her kids, who got really excited. 

"Hey mom! Now that we're in the human world, will Santa visit us for Christmas?" asked one of the younger children. The younger children got bouncy and excited as Isabel chuckled. "We'll have to see what happens. Santa may not know we're here yet!" The older kids looked around. It was hard enough for them to get money from only having one adult in the group, so the whole group being excited to get gifts would probably be a hard thing to pull off. 

The older kids in the group decided to gather together and try to figure out a way to help the smaller kids get a Christmas. They have been through a lot this year and they wanted to help the littler ones feel safer if they could. So, at their young age, they couldn't go out and get a job, so they decided to try to use their crafts to raise money.

A lot of the kids had hours of sketching experience and had a pretty good hand at art. So most of them decided to make commissions. Some were very good at math and other school type subjects and decided to be paid tutors, and some even paid to do the work themselves. Others sang and danced in the streets, collecting change from passing business men, getting pictures snapped by the older women who thought they were adorable. By December 19th, they have collectively gathered a large sum of money! They were all set to go shopping. 

The day of Christmas came and the little kids crept into the kitchen bright and early to see if Santa had really come. When they saw the gifts, they all excitedly shouted with glee, so much so that it woke their mom as she came running towards them. "What's wrong childre- Oh my! Who brought all of this?" A child, no more than four, came up running to his mom with a gift marked for her, "Santa, of course! Just like you told us!"

She opened the gift to find a pitch pipe, with the notes to her lullaby in a card with it. She turned to find her elder children standing there, smiling at everyone else. Out of instinct, she turned to hug them, feeling a warmth that she had never felt as a mother on the plantation.