story2

"Now what are we going to do?" asked Sommer. She sat on the sidewalk outside of
Jordan's window, and drew a picture with a white rock. "We can play basketball," suggested
Nicholas. "I don't feel like keeping score today," said Jordan. "I wish it were night time
already," I said as I held my head in my hands. "Me too," said Christopher, just as glum.
"Well, started Jordan. "We can pretend that it's already night time." We all raised our heads
to look at her. "Huh?" questioned Nicholas. "We can pretend that it's night time," she
repeated. "How do we do that?" asked Sommer. Jordan thought for a moment, and then
brightened. "Why don't we decorate the big tree in the court yard? We can make it look just
like a real Christmas Tree!" We all looked at each other for a moment, and then jumped
up laughing.

Jordan disappeared inside her window, and when she returned , her arms were full of
decorating goodies. She had several plastic and felt flowers, a few beaded necklaces, pink
cotton balls, and a roll of tin foil, which she began to roll into balls.

I went inside my apartment, and grabbed a pair of scissors, several sheets of construction
paper, a few markers, and all the crayons that I could find. When my mother asked what I
was up to, I told her, and she gathered up a box of different colored shoe strings. I was
amazed that there were so many. "Where did they

all come from?" I asked. "From you," she answered. "From all of your shoes. I always kept
the shoe strings just in case we might need them for something." She smiled , and threw in a
handful of rubber bands too. "Thanks mom," I said. I hugged her briefly, and then ran
outside to meet my friends.

"Why don't you hang these up too dear," said a voice behind me. It was Ms. Lynn, and in
her hands was an old string of Christmas lights. That was it! Just what this tree needed.

"Here, I'll plug them in for you," said my dad. He went inside, and plugged the lights into an
extension cord. The bulbs sprang to life. Only half of them worked, but it was just enough.
My mom placed an arm around Ms. Lynn's shoulders, as Derek and my dad wrapped the
lights around the tree.

Everyone seemed to quiet down once the lights went up. Like it was a signal or something.
I heard a noise behind me, and turned. It seemed that everyone else did too. It was
Jordan's daddy walking out of his front door, and in his arms, wrapped snugly in a blanket,
was Jordan. He walked slowly up to the tree. "Go ahead honey" he said to her. She
stretched out her hand and hung a small, pink, pair of ballerina slippers on a low branch.
Jordan had been a dancer when she could still walk. They turned around, and he placed
Jordan in a chair that someone had just brought out for her. Her daddy sat down beside her.

The record player was still on. The song Silent Night suddenly filled the air, and Andrew
began to sing

along. His voice was a perfect tenor, and nothing had ever seemed so beautiful. One by
one, new voices were added, and soon we all became a choir. Nearly every adult
surrounding the Christmas tree had tears of joy staining their cheeks, and as I looked, I saw
that Nicholas did too. He looked back at me and just shrugged. It was okay. The moment
was ours, or so we thought. As we looked around it seemed that there were many strange
faces in the crowd. People had come from the "nice neighborhood" down the road..

"I hope they don't think our Christmas tree is dumb since they have more money than us."
said Sommer. She looked nervously at all the new people. "Who cares! " scoffed
Christopher. "It's ours." He slapped her on the back and began to sing loudly to the tune of
Jingle Bell Rock. The atmosphere turned from somber to festive, and everyone began
talking and laughing again. Several people began to set up tables and chairs, and I think I
started to drool, because some of the new people were setting up bowls of food like a buffet.
It wasn't long before we all had a feast fit for a king.

"Hey Khrys!" yelled Christopher from across the yard. I turned, and looked in his direction.
"What?" I called back. "Wanna play four square?" he asked. I thought for a moment, and
shrugged my head. "Sure," I answered. I began to saunter over, when I noticed Derrick at his
post. His car sparkled in the sun. "Hey Derrick, ya think you can fix my bike?" I asked. He
turned his head towards me. "What's wrong with it?" I stood next to the left fender of his car,
and drew a picture in the wax with my finger. Derrick's eagle eye zeroed in on my Picasso,
and he walked over to where I was, and buffed it out. I laughed. "Well," I started. "I think the
chain's all messed up or something. The peddles just don't work right." Derrick gritted his
teeth over a scratch, and then said, "Yeah, I'll look at it as soon as I'm done here." I thanked
him, and began to make my way over to Christopher.

"Derrick gonna fix your bike?" he asked. "Yeah," I said. "In a little while." We were joined
by Nicholas and Sommer, and the game began. It was really fun, but eventually we were tired
of playing it.

When I stepped outside, I was amazed by what I saw. Dozens of people were in the
courtyard, laughing and singing. Nicholas and Christopher had gone door to door to get
everyone to help with the make-shift Christmas Tree. I laid my box of shoe strings and
paper onto a table that Mrs. Hubbard had brought outside. Two of her oldest kids began to
cut out ornaments, and paper snow and another took the box of strings and rubber bands
over to the tree, where the crowd hanged them next to Jordan's foil.

Derrick brought out several pine scented car fresheners, and hung them in the branches. He
was the tallest person among us, so he helped to put all of the high stuff up.

Suddenly, there was music. I looked to where it was coming from and smiled . Andrew has
set his record player on his porch, and turned the volume all the way up. Christmas carols
swelled and filled the air with joy. The tree was filling up fast since now everybody had
brought something to decorate it with, but it was still missing something. I couldn't quite put
my finger on it.