A Christmas Story, by Peter, D1, NEON, Aegina

It was Christmas Eve and as Sydney looked down the street, everything was quiet. She never liked Christmas. Well, no, that wasn't true. Christmas used to be her favourite time of year, but since her parents had died and she was left homeless, it had lost its charm.

As she turned at the corner, she saw a group of kids singing Christmas carols. They seemed happy. Everyone did. Everyone was happy, except her. As she walked by the kids, they stopped singing for a moment. They were uncomfortable seeing her today. That didn't bother her. She didn't want to talk to anyone.

Suddenly, a hand grasped her and pulled her through a door into a hallway full of lights and Christmas decorations. It was her boyfriend, Jason. He was smiling and told her to follow him into the parlour, a large room with a Christmas tree in the corner and a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Harry was playing the piano and couples were dancing. Her best friend Jane was dancing with Anthony, Elliott with Alex, and Jason was dancing with her to Harry's Waltz.

But wait…

 

Jane wasn't her best friend. She didn't know any Harries. She didn't know how to dance, and she didn't have a boyfriend…

She woke up. She was lying against the brick wall of a coffee shop, listening to the people laughing and talking. She was filled with a feeling of melancholy.

It started to rain. She covered herself with a coat and tried to sleep again. Ten minutes later, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She hadn't seen the kids approaching. A little boy said:

"Hey, we're singing Christmas carols, do you wanna come with us?". She nodded. He grabbed her by the hand and they walked into the coffee shop.

A Christmas story by Peter NEON Aegina

Once upon a time, there was a young boy named Richard. Richard was a polite boy. He lived in the land of êscan. In êscan, no one celebrated Christmas because no one knew what it was. But this story starts somewhere else…

It starts in the little village of Hamlet. It was Christmas eve and Lucy was very bored. She couldn't wait for Christmas. As she was skating in the park and thinking about this, she saw a light in the window of the house opposite the park. No one lived there so the lights were never turned on. She was scared, but she started running towards the house.

Richard had fallen off a cliff. He should have died, but he didn't feel dead at all. He also couldn't see the cliff. He was in a room. The only light in the building was the light of the room that he was standing in. He looked out of the window and saw a girl running towards the house. She opened the door and Richard felt like he should hide. He tried to hide under the chair but that didn't work. And then, he had an idea. Lucy ran into the room but the room was empty, at least that's what sh thought. She turned off the lights and just as she was starting to leave the house, she heard a scream. She screamed herself, frightened. She'd thought the room was empty. Richard had been hiding behind her all this time.

Fifteen minutes later, they were in Lucy's house, sitting around a table with two large cups of hot chocolate in their hands. Richard explained to Lucy about the cliff and êscan and Lucy explained to Richard about Christmas. Richard told her that it sounded a lot of fun and also told her about the dragon festival. The dragon festival was a festival where the people of êscan worshipped the big God of Dragons by making little lanterns that float in the air and represent the flames of dragons. They also ate firepuffs, an extremely spicy dessert that was made with chocolate and a spice called hanzul.

The next day, Richard had a problem. Lucy had explained to him that kids got presents on Christmas morning. But there weren't any presents for him underneath the Christmas tree. So, Lucy and Richard went on a quest to find Santa (who was the person who gave the presents, as Richard had learned) and get some presents for Richard. To travel, they jumped off a frozen Christmas tree and were instantly teleported to the wonderful… tiny, little, frozen house of Santa. They knocked on the door (Richard reminded Lucy to do that) and an elf appeared in front of them. He gave Richard a tiny box and told him not to open it until new year's day. They got back, by jumping off Santa's house. On New Year's Day, they found out that the box was empty, but Richard could share Lucy's toys anyway.