In England, snow started to fall like small pieces of cotton blanketing London in white. That afternoon a boarding school for girls somewhere in the city, the students were all busy packing their things up. They put their uniforms inside their trunks along with some other of their personal belongings—books, notebooks, pens, gifts from friends, etc. They fixed their beds and went out of their rooms with their trunks. The girls were all busy kissing and hugging friends before parting their ways. Christmas break had started and they'll be seeing each other by next year already. Susan and Lucy Pevensie attend this school and they're actually happy that school was finally over for the year. They'll be going back to Dr. Digory Kirke's home where they actually have a wonderful time exploring his big mansion. As the two sisters talked at the hallway with their trunks on hand, they saw a familiar girl walking ahead of them. Her name is Alyssa Whittaker and she is sixteen years old; a year younger than Susan and two years older than Lucy. She's like the most beautiful girl in the campus. She has long brown elegant wavy hair, has beautiful ocean blue eyes, and snow white skin. She's like a princess of modern times.

"Lisa!" Lucy called out merrily.

Alyssa, or most commonly known as Lisa, turned around at them with a beautiful smile. Lucy looked at her from head to toe amused as soon as they approached her.

"Wow, you look so wonderful, Lisa" she complimented.

Indeed she is. Being a daughter of a wealthy family, her parents spoiled her a lot with everything beautiful. Like now, she looked elegant in her clothes even if it looked simple. For her top, she was wearing a blue plunge neck blouse with striped patterns. For the bottom, a blue flower spring printed mid length skirt, a pair of black leggings underneath it, and a pair of gray boots. Lisa's cheeks turned rosy because of the compliment and grinned at her younger friend.

"Why thank you, Lucy. You don't look bad yourself" she said with a heavenly voice with the same British accent as Lucy's.

"Anyways, are you riding the train home to Hertfordshire?" Susan asked.

Lisa nodded, "Yes I am"

"Great, we can all go together then"

"That would be wonderful!"

And the three of them left the boarding school and walked out of the cool snow covered city. They headed straight to King's Cross station where the other Pevensie were waiting. As soon as they arrived at the train station, two young men—one blonde and one black haired— approached them.

"Where have you two been? We've been here for almost an hour" Peter said in annoyance, looking at his watch. "It's nearly four"

Susan rolled her eyes and looked at Lisa, "This is our older brother, Peter"

Lisa smiled and stretched out a hand, "Hi, I'm Alyssa Whittaker"

"N-nice to meet you" peter said, quite embarrassed on how he acted.

"And this one here is Edmund" Susan added.

"Hi Edmund" Lisa said nicely.

Edmund smiled a bit and looked away almost instantly.

The train arrived and the five of them went in. Lucky enough, there were vacant seats for all of them. They all sat quietly and watched other passengers go in. A few more seconds, the doors of the train closed and began to move.

"How are you going to spend Christmas, Lisa?" Susan asked. "Are you going to have a Christmas party at your big mansion?"

"What mansion?" Lisa asked.

"Oh come on, everyone's saying you're living in a mansion"

"It's not really a mansion"

But that's not entirely true. Lisa's home in Hertfordshire was as big as Digory Kirke's house. It has no neighbors and their house was in the middle of the field like a barn.

Lisa sighed and put her trunk between her legs so it wouldn't move around and answered Susan's previous question, "Well, I'll spend it alone"

"Really?" peter butted in, fixing the scarf around his neck.

"Yes, my parents are abroad for work and our helpers would be with their families"

"That's sad. Our parents are away too"

"Let's not talk about sad things" Lucy shared and grinned, "So Lisa, did you receive a lot of presents before leaving the boarding school?"

Their boarding school held an annual Christmas party before the start of vacation. They get to give each other gifts and partied all night without thinking about homework. Lisa thought for a moment.

"I didn't really receive a lot but, I got one that is very interesting" she said.

Susan looked intrigued, "What is it? A dress? A makeup?"

"A pair of shoes?" Lucy added.

"A skull"

The four Pevensie children looked at her surprised. They were more likely of thinking about the usual stuff that girls like.

"Is that some kind of joke?" Peter asked curiously.

Lisa looked at their expressions and laughed, "Of course not. You see, I'm into archaeology and one of my friends' fathers is an archaeologist. They sent me a historical skull of a human"

"Cool, I'm into archaeology myself" peter said enthusiastically.

"Really?" it's Lisa's turn to look excited.

She never met someone, aside from her father, who likes archaeology.

"Yeah, I'm thinking of taking it next year in college"

Then both peter and Lisa seemed to get along and understood a thing or two about archaeology. They talked about the mummies in Egypt, the dinosaurs' fossils, etc. leaving both Lucy and Susan dumbfounded. In the meanwhile, Edmund snorted. It' his first time to hear a girl to be interested with that kind of stuff.

"You're into archaeology?" Edmund scoffed. "But that doesn't suit a girl like you"

Lisa leaned forward to see Edmund beside peter and peered at him, "What kind of girl exactly am I?"

Edmund gulped, "You know…A girl! Shouldn't you be more interested with fashion like these two here?"

He said it as if it was a bad thing.

"Hey!" Susan and Lucy scowled.

Lisa folded her arms in annoyance, "Well, I beg to differ. I'm not the stereotype kind of girl"

Edmund just rolled his eyes and ended the discussion. Edmund doesn't really understand girls at all and he doesn't fancy any girl. Maybe it's because all he cared about were adventure and stuff.

A few minutes later, the train started to slower down to the next station. Lisa looked ahead and got all her things ready to go down on Hertfordshire station.

"Well, this is my stop" Lisa said with a smile.

The train stopped at Hertfordshire station and Lisa got up with a few more passengers departing. Lucy and Susan gave her a hug and peter shook hands with her for the last time.

"See you in the future" peter told her eagerly.

Lisa smiled, "Yeah, see you guys and take care"

She hauled her trunk out with her. She looked back at the train and waved at them as the train slowly moved on. Lisa left the platform and looked for her fetcher. As soon as she was on the station, an old man approached her wearing a black suit.

"How was your trip, Madam?" he asked nicely as he took Lisa's things.

Lisa smiled and walked with him towards the black car. "Splendid, Henry"

She sat on the back of the car and waited for Henry. As soon as he loaded the last luggage in the trunk, he got in and started to drive back home. Lisa drew a deep breath and watched the places they passed by. There were children running around the street playing with snow, parents on their way home with a bag of groceries or gifts, etc. But Lisa sighed. This Christmas, she wouldn't be experiencing any of those. Her parents were out on a business trip all the way in America leaving her all alone. As they arrived in the Whittaker's mansion, a group of personal maids were aligned in front of the house, waiting for her arrival. When the car parked, the maid opened the car door and everyone bowed when she went out.

"Welcome home, Madam" they all said.

Lisa smiled at them and headed straight inside of their house. It was very cold inside the house but still quite cozy. There were pictures hanging in every wall and the living room was full of antique furniture and décors. Lisa inherited her interest on archaeology through her father who was an antique collector and a soldier. Whenever he was assigned to different countries, he made sure that he would bring home something fascinating. She headed upstairs and inside her room. It's been awhile since she's been in her room and she was quite happy to see it. Her room was as big as a classroom and there's even a veranda overseeing the field. She opened her closet and decided to change into a more casual and simple clothing. She took a long striped gray and white knitted shirt, a pair of black jeans, blue sheep skin coat with hood, a pair of long blue fingerless gloves, and a pair of brown fur boots. She locked her door and changed then folded the clothes she wore neatly and placed it on top of her bed. After that, she fell back down on her bed.

She didn't really want to be home for Christmas because she knew how it would be—boring. During Christmas, all the servants leave to spend it with their family so Lisa would be alone during the holidays. She closed her eyes and someone suddenly knocked.

Lisa groaned, "Come in"

The butler, Henry, opened the door and was standing up straight. "Sorry to disturb you, Madam but, there's a delivery for you downstairs"

Lisa got up with a confused face, "A delivery?"

She went out and saw something big standing in the middle of the living room. It was a big brown square wardrobe, looking very elegant. She looked at it then to Henry.

"Who sent it?" she asked.

"There's a note" Henry said and handed her the small folded paper.

Lisa unfolded it and read the unrecognized cursive writing.

Have a jolly Christmas! Please put this in your room, it could be quite helpful

Lisa looked at the wardrobe again. Her mother couldn't be the one who sent it because it's not her type and she just told the helpers to bring it up to her room. It took five men to carry the whole wardrobe and carefully placed it inside Lisa's spacey room. They put it down just beside the veranda door and left the maids to put the clothes in the new wardrobe. Lisa, on the other hand, went in the kitchen to make herself a cup of hot choco when Henry appeared.

"I almost forgot your mother sent you a letter this morning" Henry said, handing the white envelope to Lisa.

Lisa put the cup of hot choco down and took the letter, "Thank you, Henry"

"Anyways, I'd be leaving by tonight, madam" he said.

Lisa smiled at him and leaned back on the table whilst putting the letter in her pocket, "Splendid, make sure to have fun"

"I will but, would you be okay being alone?"

"Don't worry, Henry. I can take care of myself"

After she finished her hot choco, Lisa went up back to her room. The maids just finished fixing her new wardrobe and left the room to pack their things for the night. Lisa lied down on her bed and began reading a poetry book she took from her desk. She was also fond of reading books since she didn't have a lot of friends. Well, she does have a lot from the high class but, she doesn't get along with them. All they talk about were new fashion trends, boys, and simply being classy. Lisa doesn't want any of those. She likes fun people like the Pevensie siblings to whom she can talk about almost anything interesting. She sometimes wished that she also has a sibling so her life wouldn't be this boring. All of a sudden, as she was busy reading the book, she heard loud chirpings of birds. It actually sounded like canaries. Lisa got up and went out of the veranda. It was very icy cold and she looked left, right, and up. There's no single bird in sight, just a blanket of snow covering the whole field. She thought that it was just her imagination. She went back inside her room and closed the door while shrugging off the snow on her head and shoulders. As she was about to lie down the bed, she heard the chirping again, getting louder. She turned to the brown wardrobe curiously. She carefully opened it and got startled when a yellow canary bird flew out and stood on the pole of her bed. She looked at it for a minute and became curious.

How did it get in the wardrobe? She thought.

Not just that, there were more chirpings inside the wardrobe. She separated her hanged clothes like a curtain and looked for the trap birds. To her surprise, she felt a breeze inside. She went in and was more surprised that the inside of the wardrobe was big and long as if it was a hallway. She went further and could still hear the chirping birds.