I know I said that I'd post this on Christmas Eve, but I got sidetracked and pushed back. We ended up having a Christmas party two days in a row, and my computer's in the living room. Have you ever tried to type fanfictions with your Puritan parents looking over your shoulder? AWK-WARD!
Nick's song Joy to the World (A Christmas Prayer) is in this story.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Lucas/Jonas family or that song. I own Jamie. It would be nice to meet them, however.
My Christmas Prayer.
"Mom! My drawing's done!" Jamie Lucas ran as fast as she could down the stairs. Clutched in her chubby fist was a drawing of a Christmas tree with her family standing around it. She'd worked on it all day, and to her it was all worth it.
Mrs. Lucas set down the plate she'd pulled from the high cupboard. She glanced down at her seven-year-old daughter and smiled. "Well, let's see." Jamie handed the drawing to her mother with a proud smile on her face. Denise countered the smile with the same one on her face. "It's beautiful! Go show it to your father, he'll put it on the tree."
Jamie took back the picture and ran towards the living room- "Don't run in the house!" her mother warned- and nearly slammed into her brother, stopping herself in time.
"Hyper, aren't we?" Joe said, stretching out his twelve-year-old arms. Jamie shoved her picture in his face.
"Funny how active you can be after sitting in your room for two hours drawing a picture of a tree," Joe said, studying the people around it.
"That's just the way I roll," Jamie smiled.
"Why am I wearing a pink sweater?"
Jamie hesitated. Joe raised an eyebrow. "This is unacceptable, Jamie. Looks like you'll have to answer to…THE TICKLE MONSTER!" Jamie screamed. Joe lifted her onto his shoulder and carried her to the couch. Kevin glanced around from the back of the tree as Joe dropped his sister down onto the pillows and poked her sides. Jamie screamed until she was out of breath and coughing. When Kevin thought it was enough, he walked over and grabbed Joe's arm. "That's enough, guys. The last thing we need it for Jamie to get an asthma attack on Christmas Eve. Joe, go and make sure that Dad doesn't kill himself."
"Thanks," Paul said sarcastically. He hung the last of the ornaments on the tree and stepped down from the ladder. "That's a beautiful picture, sweetheart." He kissed his daughter's forehead.
"Dad, she feminized me!" Joe protested.
"Even better," Paul said, noticing Jamie's comical twist on his second oldest son.
"That is your favorite color," Kevin laughed. Joe rolled his eyes and walked into the kitchen, muttering something about helping Denise with the Christmas cookies. The rest of the family followed him after putting Jamie's picture on the tree in view of the fireplace.
"Pink! A pink sweater, and you didn't say anything? Thanks, mom, now I'm traumatized." Joe was saying. Not a minute after the words left his mouth, a year-old Frankie crawled over to Joe's feet and barfed on his socks.
Kevin covered Jamie's eyes and ushered her out of the kitchen. Joe looked like he was about to pass out. The parents just laughed as their youngest son looked rather proud of himself.
"Uh, Jay, why don't you go get Nick and bring him down here to-"
"Oh yeah! We need to finish our Christmas list and put it on the tree for Santa!" Jamie left and charged back upstairs as Joe hobbled over to Kevin in his boxers, with his tainted pajama pants and socks held at an arm's length.
"Dude."
"What?"
"You stink."
"Shut up, Kevin."
"Please don't be a grouch just because Frankie puked on you-" Kevin started laughing again. Jamie stuck her head from around the corner.
"Yeah, Joe. Frank's just a kid."
"So are you!" Joe said.
"Yeah, but I'm a cool kid." Jamie giggled.
"Oh, you're a cool kid? Well, the tickle monster LOVES cool kids!" Joe held out his arms. Kevin jumped backward to avoid being bumped by his brother's soiled pajamas.
Jamie's giggling face changed to a look of disgust. "I don't wanna be tickled with your barf hands! Don't worry, I'll ask put soap on the list for you. Santa will understand." His sister disappeared once again.
Kevin sighed. "You'd think they'd know by now that there's no Santa Clause," the fourteen year old said, shaking his head. Joe blinked.
"There's no Santa Clause?"
"Nick? Nick?' Jamie poked her head into her nine-year-old brother's room. Nick was laying on his stomach writing on a piece of paper. He tried to hide it as she entered.
"What's that?" She asked, pointing to the corner of the piece of paper he attempted to hide under his pillow. He sighed, realizing that hiding would be useless. He retracted the paper from his pillow. "Promise you won't tell?"
Jamie stuck out her pinkie finger, nodding. They shook with their pinkies, and Nick pulled out the paper. "I was gonna show Dad when it was done, but I need help."
Jamie reached for the song, but her mother called for her almost immediately. "Jamie, put on your pajamas! Santa's not going to come if you're not in bed!"
"Did you hear that, Nick? We gotta get to bed, or Santa's not coming!" Jamie jumped off the bed. "Listen," said Nick. "I'll show you later, deal?"
"Deal," Jamie then ran off to wash up and hop in bed.
When she was done, Jamie ran back to the room that she and her brother shared. Nick was there with the song in his hand.
"Nick, I'm kinda tired." Jamie yawned. "Can you sing it tomorrow?"
Nick shook his head. He walked over to Jamie's bed and climbed in next to her. Jamie moved to make room for him.
"I wrote it in a Christmas spirit." He said softly. Jamie listened intently, her eyes wide. "There are so many people- kids also- around the world that can't celebrated Christmas." He pulled to covers around his sister and continued. "I feel guilty whenever I think about that, so this is for them."
He laid down next to Jamie and began to sing.
"Every year at Christmas, all I can see, are pictures of the things I want around a tree. But this year's a little different. I'm not thinking of myself. So my prayer for this Christmas is for somebody else…"
Nick looked at Jamie. Her eyes were glassy, as though she would cry. She nodded, asking him to continue.
"So I pray joy, to the world, peace, for every boy and girl. Hope, when life is hard, light, when everything seems dark."
Jamie buried her head into Nick's shoulder. He swallowed, stroking his sister's hair as he continued.
"God, I know you're listening, and you can hear, the need of every broken heart and all their tears. I don't have a lot to offer, just this one simple prayer: that this Christmas everyone would know somebody cares. So I pray joy, to the world, peace, for every boy and girl. Hope, when life is hard, light, when everything seems dark. I pray that every hungry soul will be fed and will be warm. Not a single solitary child will suffer harm."
I don't think I'll ever have a better Christmas lullaby…Jamie thought. She closed her eyes and slipped away into a content slumber.
"And wars would find their ending as we take another view. My hope is that this Christmas prayer would somehow come true…"
Nick reached the bottom of the paper and looked down. Jamie has stopped her silent flow of tears and fallen asleep. Nick smiled to himself. "I'll ask Dad about the rest…" he muttered silently. He laid his head on the pillow and kissed his sister's forehead.
"Merry Christmas, Jamie."
-Some parts are cut out because it wasn't done. I don't know if Nick wrote all of it, or if his dad helped him. I chose the latter for this story.
Merry late Christmas!
-V