A few days had passed, and Nadia seemed like she was improving by leaps and bounds. Kendra came to the hospital every day after school to visit her.

"Your favorite visitor is back, once again." Kendra said as she announced her arrival to Nadia. She then handed a small bag to Nadia that had a gift she bought for her.

"Thank you." Nadia said as she sat the bag on the night table next to her. "You just missed Allie and Brandy." Nadia replied.

"I saw them in the hallway. They told me during lunch today that they were coming to see you." Kendra revealed to her, "Lee also said he would be here later, but that he wanted to get you some flowers first."

"Wow, he doesn't have to do that." Nadia said.

"He doesn't see it that way. He kept asking me over and over what your favorite flowers were. Finally, I had to tell him that if he asked me that question one more time, you would be the one bringing flowers to him in the hospital." Kendra told Nadia.

"You didn't say that, did you?" Nadia asked her.

"Relax, he knew I was just joking. You know I wouldn't hurt your Prince Charming." Kendra answered.

"What-ever. Well, are you ready for the Holidays-Around-The-World tonight?" Nadia asked Kendra.

"Yeah, I wish you could be there to watch everything with me." Kendra told her.

"It's alright. Liberty's videotaping it and Brandy told me she was going to make me a copy of the show."

Kendra and Nadia sat and talked for a while longer. But then Kendra remembered that she had to leave soon.

"Well, I guess I better get going. I don't want to be late for the start of the show." Kendra said as she leaned over and hugged her friend, "I'll be back to see you tomorrow."

"Hopefully, tomorrow will be the last day you see me here. The doctors say if everything keeps going well, that I'll be out of here by the weekend." Nadia said optimistically.

"That'd be awesome!" Kendra said as she smiled and turned to walk out of the room.

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At the show that night, the air seemed to be full of electricity. Kendra watched in the backstage area as the various participants went through their last minute preparations.

"Kendra, have you seen Liberty? I want to know when I go on?"

"Yeah, Marco. I think I saw her over by Manny and Heather." Kendra replied.

"Thanks." Marco said, as he rushed off holding his accordion.

Kendra decided she would get away from the chaos inside for a little while. She went outside and stood by a rear entrance for a moment, just so she could get a breath of fresh air. As she stood out there, she saw Kyle and his group from the Heritage Foundation walking up to the school with their props and costumes.

"I'm glad you made it." Kendra said as she greeted the group.

"We're glad we could help." Kyle replied, "Where can we get ready?"

"Just go through these doors and make a right at the end of the hallway." Kendra said pointing.

"Come on guys." Kyle said as they walked inside.

Kendra turned back around with her hands in the pockets of her jacket. As she stood there, she watched as the snow began to lightly fall. It was kind of soothing to watch nature at work. But just as she was getting in touch with her surroundings, she heard Kyle's voice again.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

"What do you mean?" Kendra asked, not sure what Kyle was talking about.

"You need to get ready too." He replied.

"Get ready? For what?" Kendra said, still not having a clue what he was talking about.

"You have to try on the costume we brought for you. You're going to lead our float tonight." Kyle said, revealing the surprise he had been keeping from her.

"You've got to be kidding!" Kendra said, excited by the surprise announcement.

"I'm serious, but you need to hurry up so we can get you ready." Kyle told her.

Kendra hurried with Kyle down the hallway to put on the costume they had brought for her. It was a perfect fit. Then they showed her how to hold the staff she would carry as procession leader. As she looked at herself in the mirror in the dressing room, she couldn't believe her dream was coming true.

When the show started, Kendra stood with the rest of the group at the auditorium entrance. They watched as each participant took the stage. J.T. was the perfect choice as emcee for the event. His combination of personality and timing kept the audience's attention. Kendra watched as Marco played a medley of Christmas favorites on his accordion, some songs sounding better than others. But he still got a loud applause when he finished, nonetheless. Heather Sinclaire was next and her Celtic dance lived up to the hype that she had built up for it. Her performance was flawless and even though she got a long applause from the audience, she didn't think it was long enough. J.T. had to yank her off of the stage so they could go to intermission while they set up for Toby's tribute to Hanukah.

Toby came out and read a monologue with a small group behind him. Kendra thought he did a very good job. She had planned on finding him after the show to let him know so. When Toby finished, J.T. got back on the microphone.

"And now for something completely different. We have Ashley & Craig here to sing their original song, I'll Spend Christmas with You."

The audience watched as Craig, with guitar in hand, took the stage with Ashley seated next to him. Kendra thought it was kind of romantic that they were going to perform a duet together. Craig started playing their song and singing, but Ashley just sat there.

"I wonder what's wrong with her." Kendra thought to herself, "It couldn't be stage fright, Ashley's performed in front of people dozens of times before."

Then Kendra saw Ashley quickly stand up and witnessed, along with the rest of the audience, a moment that would go down in Degrassi history. The sound of flesh making contact echoed throughout the auditorium.

"Oh my God, Ashley just slapped Craig into next Christmas." Kendra thought to herself.

Most of the audience probably had the same thought on their minds because they let out, a seemingly, collective gasp.

As she watched Ashley walk off of the stage, with Craig trailing behind her, Kendra didn't really get the opportunity to fully take in what had just happened.

"Maybe they won't be spending Christmas together," J.T. said, trying to cover for what had just happened, "Anyways, it's my pleasure to introduce, a little earlier than expected, Kendra Mason and her Chinese New Year Dragon Dance!"

"Oh crap, we're on." Kendra said as she hurried to get into place in front of the Dragon float.

Kendra then led the group into the auditorium. They followed her onto the stage and put on a performance that had the audience mesmerized as they moved from one end of the stage to the other. Their Dragon seemed to have the audience hypnotized with its movements. When they were finished, they left the stage through an exit on the side of the stage. Kendra felt like she would never come down from the natural high she got from being able to do something she had dreamed about for so long.

After she changed out of her costume and helped Kyle and everybody load up all of their props, she said thank you to the entire group. Kyle said he hoped to see her again soon and then they left. Kendra returned to the backstage area to get the rest of her things so she could go home too. As she was gathering everything, Brandy came over to talk to her.

"Your performance was amazing." Brandy complimented her.

"Thanks. I'm glad you liked it, but I don't think anybody's going to remember tonight for anything that I did." Kendra replied.

"No kidding, wait till Nadia sees the tape I'm going to make for her, she's gonna flip. What do you think was up with Ashley and Craig anyways?" Brandy asked her.

"I don't know. Maybe I'll go talk to her tomorrow or something." Kendra told her.

"That may not be such a good idea." Toby said as he walked in from one of the hallways.

"So Toby, what was going on between them?" Brandy asked him.

"I don't have all of the details, but it looks like Craig was cheating on Ashley with Manny." Toby revealed to them, "I saw Ashley after she slapped Craig. We sat in the hallway for a little while and she only told me bits and pieces of what was going on, but I got the picture. She did not look good, not at all. She had this look like the whole world was crumbling around her. I've only seen that look on her face one time before. It was when she did something really stupid and Jimmy had broken up with her. But this time it wasn't her fault. I offered to walk home with her, but she said she wanted to be alone for awhile so she could think about everything."

"Poor Ashley." Kendra said, "I can't believe Manny did that, I thought she had really changed."

"I guess not." Brandy said, "But you can't blame it all on Manny. Craig has a mind of his own and he didn't have to cheat on his girlfriend, especially if he really loved her."

"I feel like I could punch Craig's lights out right now." Toby said.

"Toby, I know you're pissed off at Craig, but he would squash you flat." Kendra said trying to calm Toby down.

"I know. I'm not going to try to do anything to him, but somebody should." Toby replied.

"I don't think anybody has to do anything to Craig. The mess he's made of everything may be more than enough punishment." Brandy said, as she looked down at her watch, "Sorry, but I have to run and help to get everything cleaned up before it gets too late."

As Brandy left, Kendra grabbed a box so she could start her trip home.

"I'll see you later, Toby. I'll call Ashley this weekend to see how she's doing."

"Um, Kendra, let me help you with that." Toby said as he took hold of the box that was in her hands.

"Thanks. Are you sure you want to carry that all the way to my house?" Kendra asked him.

"I don't mind, really. Speaking of your house, where is Spinner at?" Toby asked as they walked out of the school.

"He had to work tonight. He traded with another guy last week so he could see my ice skating performance." Kendra answered.

"So how are you liking ice skating?" Toby asked.

Kendra and Toby talked about ice-skating, as well as the latest anime and anything else that happened to come up while they walked to her house. Kendra was glad that she and Toby were friends again, and so was he.

Even though the walk to Kendra's house wasn't that far, it was just long enough for the pair…

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Next Chapter: 'Tis the Season