Not Alone For Christmas

Chapter 3

Another year had passed and it was once again Christmas Eve. Ralphie and Petra were getting ready to head into the snowy winter of Philadelphia. It was the first ever Justice Orphanage Neighborhood Christmas Caroling and everyone at the orphanage had to walk out in the snow and sing Christmas carols.

Petra grabbed a red beanie Ralphie got her for her birthday and placed it on her head. She looked in her mirror and smiled at herself. She repostioned the hat a few times when she heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," she said to the person behind the door.

Ralphie came in and looked at Petra. She was wearing that red hat and she wore a gray coat with a pink and red scarf. 

Petra saw Ralphie look at her in the mirror. She turned around and placed her one hand on her hip and oher behind her head and bent her left knee.

"How do I look?" Petra said, laughing in her silly pose.

"Beautiful," Ralphie said. He smiled and opened the door wider, signaling to Petra that he'll leave when she does.

Petra smiled and skipped her way to the door. She walked out the door as Ralphie closed it behind him. They walked out to the door to the other kids and received a small book with Christmas carols in it. They all sepeated themselves into groups, to go to different parts of Philly at the same time. Petra and Ralphie were in the same group, naturally, and received pins indicating what group we were in. Our group had snowflake pins, which meant we went near the old folks home and in that neighborhood.

"Ok, dears," Mrs. Guthery told us, "remember, we're doing this so that people can see how wonderful you all are. Show your biggest smile and sing like the angels I know you are."

Petra and Ralphie exchanged glances and looked back at the landlady, whose gray hair was tucked in a wooly hat.

She assigned our group to a volunteer and sent us on our way. About 10 minutes later, we arrived to our neighborhood, but they let us explore for a bit while we waited to go in the old folk's home. Before Ralphie and Petra separated from the group, Ralphie saw the volunteer hand a big stack of green cards: the Justice Orphanage's phone number, in case an elder wanted an orphan.

Ralphie and Petra sat on a rock outside of the building. They were snuggled together to try and stay warm. They watched as everyone was running around and playing in the snow, and the adults were talking to some other people and glancing back the kids every now and then to see if we killed each other yet.

The two violinists sat in silence for the majority of the time. They made comments about some things, but they kept their own thoughts to themselves. Ralphie was debating with himself about telling Petra his rue feelings for her, and Petra was thinking about if she'd get adopted tonight and have at least one truely great Christmas.

"Time to go in everyone!" one of the volunteers yelled to the orphans.

Everyone rushed to get their books back and get into the formations we had practiced for the last two months. We opened our books and started singing the first song: "Silent Night"

Petra wasn't much of a singer. She'd rather play her instrument to the classic Christmas song, but Mrs. Guthery didn't allow it. She, then, whispered the words like she did when she played the songs, and with her fingers, she positioned them against the book as if she was playing her instrument.

Ralphie wasn't the greatest singer of all time, but he was decent in Petra's mind. Just the way Ralphie belted out his voice made Petra want to punch him.

After the fourth and final verse of "Silent Night" ended, the volunteer told us to go in small groups to each of the rooms and sing for the elders.