Chapter 1:

"Fine—wait! Please…I…can't…keep…up!" Rein panted, running after Fine as she sped toward the auditorium.

Fine ran back, grabbed Rein's hand, and sprinted the rest of the way, a smile bright on her face. Today was the day! She, Rein, Shade, Bright, and their other friends were putting on a play for the school on Christmas Eve! Today was going to be their first rehearsal! The school board inspectors were coming to watch; they said it would raise their overall grade 10 points!

Hehe, now I won't have Camelot and Lulu up in my face all the time! Fine thought happily. She reached the auditorium doors and skipped inside.

"There's a king-dom just be-yond a star, not too far, You can go, if you on-ly dare." The eleven seed princesses' and the seed prince's chorus voices rang out over the room. Mirlo was painting the set. The others were separately rehearsing their lines. Fine stopped for a moment to listen to the next line of the chorus. "In this king-dom you'll find ev-'ry sweet tast-y treat you can eat wait-ing for you there!"

Fine started drooling a little. Rein nudged her and she reluctantly went back to work. Staring at her script with the words "The Nutcracker" at the top, she couldn't believe she was here. Why am I here? She thought. Then she remembered.

Lione had suddenly wanted to switch parts. At first she was Marie, the lead girl character, and Fine was the Sugar Plum Fairy (which suited her because she got to think about yummy sugar plums), but when Lione had looked through the script, she started giggling nervously and said to Fine, "Please, will you switch with me? Pretty please with a cherry on top and chocolate sauce all over the ice cream cone?"

Well, Fine couldn't resist that. So they switched, and now Fine was Marie. She flipped numbly through the script until she landed on one sentence…and instantly understood why Lione had switched.

"He takes her hand and exits…" The script instructed.

The thought made her blush. She knew that Shade (her all-time crush) was the Nutcracker, and if that meant holding her hand…

Fine started squealing to herself, face red, clutching her head and shaking it from side to side vigorously. Shade saw her and sweatdropped. Bright laughed. Rein quickly shook Fine by the shoulders and asked, "What are you doing?"

"It's a mag-ic place, a lov-'ly sight, pure delight! If you go, you will want to stay!"

Rein peered at the page Fine was turned to in her script, then leaned in close. "Oh…I see! Magic on Christmas Eve, eh?"

"What happened?" Shade came up and asked.

Fine stammered, "Huh? Oh, nothing! Nothing at all…," while at the same time trying to ignore the wink Rein gave her as she walked away.

Slam!

The auditorium doors swung open and some snow floated in. The wind died down and everyone saw the silhouette of someone against the dark evening sky. The person stalked in; suddenly everything seemed as if in slow motion.

The figure appeared closer and closer. Nobody made a sound. Before she knew it, the person—a boy—had leaped onto the stage and moved in front of Fine. Another strong gust of wind and snow swirled in out of nowhere and wrapped the two in a small blizzard. Fine stared, wide-eyed, at his ice-blue eyes, snow-white clothing, and glossy cape, which was billowing in the breeze. Fine's hair abruptly came loose from her golden hair rings. It was one of the rare times she felt her hair flying around her freely, and it left an odd feeling in her, like there was something she should have remembered, a long time ago...

Then he grabbed Fine's wrist and flew into the air, out into the open night sky twinkling with stars. He traveled along with lightning speed.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Fine shrieked.

"Fine!" She heard everyone else holler behind her.

And from the distance, she thought she could hear another line of the song "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy."

"If you dare now, we'll go there now, through the air now, to-day!"