Autori: 

Boeru Teodor Mihai                                        Oprea Teodor Denisa

Brăgău Ioana                                                   Oproescu Ștefania

Brînzea Ruxandra Teodora                            Perianu Alexandru

Bucșaru Vlad Mihai                                         Popa Robert

Buriu Alexandru                                              Popescu Ilinca

Costin Vlad                                                       Răileanu Radu Mihuț

Dima Erica                                                        Sava Maria Teodora

Dima Tudor Petru                                           Sava Ștefan

Goga Octavia                                                   Slabu Răzvan Gabriel

Haraga Maia                                                    Șerban Maria Magdalena

Hoimoc Daria                                                  Toader David Mihai

Isac Ruxandra                                                 Tudorache Andra Maria

Jurubiță Alexandru                                         Vollert Anastasia                              

Lupu Daria                                                       Vollert Sofia

Mușat David Adrian        Colectivul clasei a V-a C de la Școala Gimnazială nr.11  Buzău                     

Năblea Cristiana                 

Nedu Radu

Once upon a time, in December, there was a girl named Natalie. She had lots of friends, a great family and even pets. She had everything she wanted, but Natalie was in a wheelchair. All she had always wanted was to be able to walk, dance, run without having to permanently stay  in a wheelchair. Natalie's parents couldn't afford the surgery as it was quite expensive for them. But, luckily, Natalie was an optimistic child, full of hope and ready to enjoy every bit of the happiness that life was giving her. The fact that she couldn't walk didn't make her feel ugly or sad, actually she was a very pretty girl with blonde wavy hair, blue eyes, quite tall and slim and always with a smile on her face. Natalie was kind, happy, funny and really hard working at school, with the best grades. Although Natalie couldn't walk, she always had faith in herself, as her parents taught her, never giving up on her dreams. 

She was helping her parents decorate the tree as she always did on Christmas Eve. When they got to the top of the tree, Natalie asked her father:

“Daddy,could you please hold me so I can put the star on top of the tree? Last year I couldn’t‘’ she sadly said .

‘’Of course dear! You know, I was the one to put the star on top of the tree when I lived with my parents, but it looks like the roles switched’’, her father answered with tears almost falling from his eyes, thinking his daughter was still trying to help even though she was clearly not able to.

‘’Now, now let’ s not get emotional, this is Christmas Eve! We need to be the happiest we’ve ever been’’, Natalie said to her mother.

Natalie’s dad held her up in the air while grunting and saying:

''Well, it looks like I’ m not that strong anymore’’

‘’Trust me honey, I knew that ever since you got in your thirties'',  Natalie's mom said while chuckling.

‘’Ok, now that everything is ready let’s go to bed’’, Natalie said.’’ We don’t want to disturb Santa!’’

‘’You’re right sweetie. Let’ s go to bed.’

But Natalie lied, she wasn’t actually going to bed, she was actually trying to spy on Santa! Now, don’t tell me that she is a naughty child, because, you and me tried it too, and we both know how that ended. But this girl had something within her that was very rare upon the human race. It was true kindness and she wasn’t kind just for popularity, she was kind because she wanted to.

Natalie got into her wheelchair and started using her special technique code named by her The Super Silent Ninja wheelchair technique! Eventually, she was a ten year old child. She got to the living room and she couldn’t believe her eyes! Santa was right there! Sitting on a chair and arranging the presents under the tree, so everybody can

enjoy them. When he saw the girl he turned into smoke and vanished! From the pile of dust that Santa had turned into, a red note came falling with a candy stuck to it. On the note it was written the following: It won’t be that easy to talk to me! HO HO HO!

Natalie got frightened for one second, then she sneaked into her bed. All night long she thought about that moment. Then, she suddenly got up, went to her desk, took a sheet of paper and started drawing. She drew Santa and his strange disappearance, a sleigh and a red dot. After an hour, she heard her father’s voice calling her:

’’Natalie, are you awake?’’, said her father.

She got into the bed and pretended to be asleep when her father entered her room. Rex, the girl’s dog, came behind him. Rex felt that the girl wasn’t sleeping so he licked her cheek.

’’Rex, stop! Please! All right, I am not sleeping! It is true! I have to sleep, but I can’t. I am just thinking of something...Come on, stay with me, but be quiet!’’, said the girl.

They both stayed there for a long time until the girl started rubbing her eyes, so Rex pulled her by the hand towards the bed.

’’Rex, what are you doing? OK. OK. I am going to bed.’’, Natalie told Rex.

Natalie got into the bed and Rex, her dog, laid down, next to her. Both were carried away in the world of dreams.

Natalie heard a sound that woke her up. She was alone in bed. It was as if she heard a bark, like Rex’s, but also a loud laughter. Being curious, she got up and tried to get into her wheelchair.

’’I really succeeded!’’, she said happily.

She went to the living room, the place where the noises were coming from. Her parents were sleeping and it wasn’t pleasant to see that she was not sleeping. She was a little afraid, but she let herself guided by the sounds.

’’Rex, is it you?’’, she asked, not realizing that, no matter how many times she had asked, nobody answered because dogs cannot talk! Finally she reached the living room and what she saw amazed her: two elves, with colorful hats, were laughing and playing with Rex. The one with the green boots and the wide smile from one ear to the other was throwing the ball around the house and the other elf was competing with Rex in catching it.

Whoever reached the ball first received a gift and Rex was surrounded by lots of toys and gifts.They didn’t notice Natalie. But what shocked her was the big red sleigh in front of the window and there was SANTA!

 Natalie could not believe her eyes when she saw Santa Claus. Without thinking too much, she invited him to sit on the most comfortable armchair they had in the living room, near the Christmas tree. Although he was in front of her and she was talking to him, Natalie still could not believe that what was happening was real. After he had drunk some warm milk and enjoyed a very tasty cookie, Santa Claus told Natalie that, although she was one of the children experiencing some serious trouble, he was happy she never stopped smiling and hoping that one day she would be a normal child that could walk, dance and feel the green grass under her small feet. 

Because she was such a wonderful child and a special one, Santa Claus gave Natalie the chance to express her greatest wish.

    Extremely happy, Natalie told Santa Claus her greatest wish, that was to collect enough money for her surgery. Their conversation was interrupted by a loud noise made by Santa` s reindeer and elves, so, Santa Claus and his little helpers needed to leave as soon as possible, not to be seen by someone.

Incredibly happy, Natalie said “Good bye” to Santa Claus, promised him she would learn to ride the bike as soon as she would get well and went to her room to sleep.

    As she was trying to sleep, Natalie was thinking about the conversation she had with Santa Claus and was wondering: would her wish come true?

And the most important question: why her?

    Suddenly, Natalie realised one thing: she could move her toes. While trying to sleep she had the urge to move her feet and then she realised that she could feel her toes.

’’ Santa Claus, I thought you would only give me the money for the surgery, not that I would be able to walk! I thank you from the bottom of my heart!’’

Santa heard what Natalie said and was very happy that he could help her, but he didn’t have the chance to think clearly because his elves broke the gift- making machine and they couldn’t fix it. He still had billions of gifts to make, but how? Santa thought of something, something that really would work. He got quickly into the sleigh and headed for Natalie.

     Meanwhile, Natalie was trying to understand the miracle she was facing…..she could feel her legs, she could walk…….and even so, she still kept it secret, not telling anyone about it. Her soul was fighting against the need to share her biggest wish coming true with her family but the fear that all those happenings might be just a vanished dream made her keep it secret. Every morning and every night she had prayed to get the chance to collect the money for her surgery. 

  It wasn’ t easy for her to see her father’s sad eyes everyday, trying to smile happily at her and her mother…..her beautiful restless mother, who never seemed to get tired of anything related to Natalie, her sweet smile….and her embraces gave Natalie such power!

’’Oh Rex! What should I do? You know how happy I am but even so….something seems wrong….I can feel it.’’, Natalie confessed to her beloved friend, Rex, while she was watching from her window the snow falling. She couldn’t comprehend the source of her feeling but deep down in her soul she knew it was related to Christmas.

''Come on guys, we need to get to Natalie as soon as possible! We can’t let the magic of Christmas disappear! NEVER!’’, said Santa to his reindeer.

''Only a pure soul can understand the magic of Christmas and fight for it! And that person is you, Natalie.'' said Santa to himself.

All the way to Natalie's house he tried to find the proper words to explain to her some things which she only read in books. Santa felt a little stressed about it.

    When he arrived, Santa begged Natalie to help him with the toy factory. He was telling her that they were about to leave for a big adventure. Natalie was very excited and full of happiness, saying that it would be for sure the best Christmas ever!

On the way to Lapland, Natalie asked Santa how she could help him. Santa Claus told her that they were going to meet a good friend of him who was very good at repairing anything at any time. When they arrived, Santa Claus’ friend, Saint Nicholas, gave them cookies and milk and asked them what had happened. Santa told him that the gift- making machine had broken down and he couldn’t make all the children’s wishes come true without it. Saint Nicholas told them that he needed a symbol, but where from....?

’’Nicholas, what are you saying? What kind of symbol? Are you aware of the fact that Christmas is almost here and I don’t have time for this? Just repair that nasty machine and forget about symbols!’’, Santa said nervously.

’’ But my friend, you know I can’t do that without imprinting the symbol. All you have to do is to bring me the symbol of the HEART OF FIRE!’’

Santa was deep in his thoughts, thinking about the conversation with his best friend. What should he do? How could he convince Natalie that she was the only one able to get the HEART OF FIRE?

 Meanwhile, Natalie was having lots of fun in Saint Nicholas’ garden, where she was admiring his works of art prepared for children, too. Suddenly, she saw Rudolf, the reindeer, waiting for his master to come.

‘’Hi!’’ she said.’’How is it possible to travel around the world in just one night?’’, she said caressing his back.

''Hello, sweetheart!'', Rudolf said. ‘’ Santa has to travel ten million kilometers in those 24 hours. If all he had to do was travel from house-to-house during this time, he would need to move at an average speed of 77 kilometers per second – that’s 3,000 times the speed of sound. Talking about the speed of light –  have you ever heard a sonic boom on Christmas Eve? Those shock waves sent out when the sleigh catches up with the pressure wave it generates whilst moving. You haven’t heard that, have you? Well that’s because we’ve created a form of anti-sound using a special speaker on the rear of the sleigh.’’ Rudolf explained to Natalie. 

Natalie was speechless. '' Am I dreaming? How is it possible...a reindeer... to talk to me? I even understand what he is saying. Oh my God! What is happening to me?'' the girl yelled nervously.

’’It is all right, dear. It is normal to hear and even to talk to me. We are in the magic world, don’t forget!’’, Rudolf said to Natalie.

’’Still, why are you here? How come that a mere human is here? Never in my magic life have I seen a human in Saint Nicholas’ house! Not to talk about Santa! It is the first time ever someone sees him! So, please, get yourself together, girl, because things aren’t strange just for you, Natalie. Nothing is normal here these days, and I can’t figure it out why…’’, Rudolf explained to the scared girl.

While Natalie and Rudolf had their colourful conversation, Santa and his friend went to the magic library to look for the magic map, the only place where the HEART OF FIRE was mentioned. Afterwards, they finally decided to take Natalie and go to the HIDDEN FOREST, more precisely to the centre of the forest, where the HEART OF FIRE was. But, as the map showed, it wouldn’t be an easy journey.

Once the three were ready, they set out on a treacherous journey in order to find the HEART OF FIRE. Natalie was scared, she didn't know what to expect from the Hidden Forest, she was hoping that all three of them would return safely to the real world, repair the gift-making machine and save Christmas. There were lots of obstacles but if they wanted to save the magic of Christmas, they had to continue. Everywhere they went into the Hidden Forest they could see so many weird animals and plants Natalie didn’t know about their existence. Even the teddy bears were alive, running and laughing and singing, too!

’’What is the name of this animal?’’ Natalie asked.

’’Its name is ginger- tiger’’, Santa said .

'' Why do I have the feeling that time passes so slowly here? Look, it isn't night anymore, but my watch shows that it has only passed half an hour. I am a little worried for my parents because I don't want them to panic if I am not at home in the morning.'' Natalie confessed to Santa.

'' Oh, Natalie, don't forget where you are. Everything happens differently here. Time passes very slowly and don't worry, just focus on our work.'' Santa assured Natalie.

When they were half way through the journey, they could see a big temple made of gingerbread. It was surrounded by lots of Christmas trees. Natalie was amazed by the view which distressed her attention for just one second.

’’Santa, watch out for the giant snowman!! It is coming towards us!'', screamed Natalie. But it was too late to avoid it, so they collided with it, and, of course, the sleigh was knocked down by the giant snowman. As they were falling freely from the sky, Santa was desperate to save Natalie.

''Nicholas, hurry up and do your spell! We don't have much time! Come on, man!'' yelled Santa Claus.

'' Santa, catch Natalie NOW! Saint Nicholas commanded. And, of course, it was said and done by Santa, and, immediately, Saint Nicholas did his magic spell and the three of them were flying high in the sky. Natalie was at first terrified but, afterwards, she was amazed by the way things changed so quickly.