Christmas Eve in the City (a holiday romance novella)

By Evie Lester

Three high school seniors. Three Christmas wishes. Three days in New York City.

Marcy, Gia and Ellen head to the national choir competition where the top prize--scholarships for every member of the team--could change lives of every member of their high school choir. But they have to win it first. And they are up against some of the best choirs in the country. Still they have faith that their star singer will lead them to victory.

Only a monumental blunder might stand in their way.
Marcy Gordon has dreamed of visiting New York City since her mother and father told her romantic tales of their honeymoon in the city. With her father now passed, Marcy has only her memories. And this is her dearest one. With the scholarship they might win, Marcy sees herself matriculating at NYU and starting her glamorous life in the most exciting city in the world. But without New York, will she face a life of dreariness and regret?

Gia DeMarco is the star singer of the choir and she is carrying the hopes and dreams of her choir, as well as her family and friends, on her slender shoulders. She’s not sure she’s going to make it, and letting them down would be unthinkable. If only she had someone to lean on. Like the mysterious New York boy who appears as if by magic to offer his companionship and a tour of the town. But is he all he seems?

Ellen Albright has a problem. It’s her boyfriend, Zack. She’s been gone less than five hours and she can’t reach him on the phone. Not that she’s not thrilled to be in New York City. She has a long shopping list of presents she wants to buy and one special sight she wants to see--the most romantic place in New York. But she could relax and enjoy herself so much more if she could share the experience with Zack. But he won’t answer his phone. And the judgmental eyes of her two closest friends, Marcy and Gia, aren’t helping any. She knows they don’t like Zack. But she so does. And he feels the same, doesn’t he? But why won’t he pick up the phone?

So much hope. So many wishes. But these girls had better be careful drawing up their Christmas wish list. Because sometimes you just might get what you wish for on a snowy Christmas Eve in New York.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Evie Lester
• Release date: Oct 5, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301407347

Book preview

Chapter 1

They say that New York City at Christmastime is magical.

But Marcy couldn’t see it.

I can’t see anything, she complained, as she bobbed her head up and down, right and left. Oh, for Pete’s sake, somebody move.

Marcy was fidgeting, eager to get a glimpse through the side windows of the bus but there were too many heads and shoulders pressed up against the windows and standing in the aisle. It wasn’t fair. This was her city. Even though she had never set foot in it, she knew it was her destiny.

I think you can get a peek if you look out the front, Gia told her as she dislodged a clump of her dark brown hair from the zipper of Mary Jane Allen’s jacket and retreated to the other side of the bus where the view was decidedly less glamorous but the risk of being gouged in the eye was decidedly less as well.

No standing in the isles, the bus driver repeated for the umpteenth time. But no one was listening because the skyline of New York City was in view for the first time since their trip began.

I can wait, Ellen said from her seat on the unpopular side of the crowded Charter bus that was taking the Red Bridge High School senior class choir from the airport into New York City. This isn’t the view I want to see. She was busy punching the speed dial on her phone as she chewed on the end of her straight, auburn bob. The call rolled over to voicemail.

Ellen had a more romantic view of the city in mind. The most romantic.

Marcy rolled her eyes and tossed a blond lock over her shoulder. Come on, Gia. This is a once in a lifetime experience. You’ll never forget the first time you see New York. You don’t want your memory to be of the exit to the New Jersey turnpike, or some brick wall with graffiti or a bunch of billboards. You want a panoramic view. Marcy was gushing as she continued to weave and bob futilely trying to catch a peek at the famed skyline.

Gia was experiencing her own intense emotions. Not so much excitement as anxiety, fear bordering on panic. She, like her friends Marcy and Ellen, had always wanted to visit New York City. But she hadn’t counted on this. This was too hard.

Be seated, kids, please. You must remain seated while the bus is in motion.

There was a collective groan as half the population of the bus slowly, grudgingly made their way back to their seats on the opposite side of the bus.

Choral director Carol Ridley was feeling frazzled already and the trip had only just begun. She had a bus load of high school seniors in her charge for the next three days and she only hoped that the weather would hold up until she got them safely on the plane back home.

This was her first year teaching music at Red Bridge High and making the semifinals of a national singing competition was a real testament to her talent and dedication to teaching, but she was also feeling overwhelmed by the responsibilities of the trip.

Now, Miss Ridley continued, pulling a stray slip of hair behind her ear, trying to compose herself and set an example for her pupils, we will be arriving at our hotel in about fifteen minutes. This is your itinerary for the next two days. Her assistant, Mr. Ditch, was passing out colorful sheets of red and green paper covered from top to bottom in black ink.

No way, Ms. Ridley, Marcy whined. We’re going to be stuck inside some stuffy building the whole trip. Marcy was staring incredulously at the full schedule of choral practices and competition performances.

Only if we’re lucky, Ms. Ridley corrected her.

Hey, when do we eat? Perry Horton demanded from the back of the bus.

Can we have New York-style pizza? Bobby Cahill, who was sitting next to Perry called next.

Ugg, Kelly Mahoney, who was perpetually on a diet, groaned. It’s not even eight o’clock.

You will have a half hour to check into the hotel and freshen up before we meet downstairs in the lobby for breakfast. At ten a.m. we’ll arrive at the High School for Acting, Arts and Drama rehearsal hall in Queens for an introductory assembly. Then, we have a full day of rehearsals.

What about lunch? Perry Horton was asking again.

Eat it! Tyler Beckford cracked and laughed hysterically as if he had said something incredibly brilliant.

Carol Ridley grimaced.

She could be extremely intense when she was in her coral zone. But handling a bunch of teenagers on the road was beyond her skill set. But intensity had to count for something. Didn’t it?

Chapter 2

The only one more intense, both Marcy and Ellen would agree, was Gia, the lead singer and star performer of the senior class. Gia was quiet, unassuming and one of the nicest people you could ever meet, but when she sang she was transformed. It was as if she became the songs she sang. Passion, love, sorrow, pain, joy, fear, vulnerability. You name it. She could become that feeling when she sang a song.

It was mostly due to Gia’s talent and Carol Ridley’s dedication to her job as Choral Director that the school was headed to their first ever appearance at the Inter-scholastic Choral Christmas Sing Thing, a chorus competition for high school choirs that focused on holiday songs, and was sponsored by a national cookie company, the Cobbler Cookie Company. They made the famous cookies with the candy-coated chocolate chips and a peanut butter drizzle on top. Cookies so sweet and gooey they made you teeth hurt just thinking about them. The ones everyone grew up with. The ones that were a household name, so of course their singing competition became equally as well know. Everybody called it the Cobbler Cookie Christmas Sing Thing. And every high school choir wanted to win it--because of the grand prize. The grand prize was life changing.

The choir had earned a position in the finals of the competition by emailing a taped performance of an original melody mix of old and current Christmas songs put together by Brandon Wilson, the resident choral tech geek. He had all the professional equipment in his home and had been putting together musical mixes for the high school’s choir since his freshman year. Now as a senior his skills had matured into pure genius.

That’s how he earned the nickname Geekboy. Some people even meant it as a compliment. Brandon chose to take it as one anyway. And if his arrangement won a national singing competition, the name Geekboy would be a badge of honor. But he had his doubts because he hadn’t been given the creative freedom he felt he required to win. There were things about the song selections he didn’t agree with. But no one else seemed to mind. And he had been told his song preferences would have cost the school money they didn’t have.

Everyone in the choir, however, was convinced that with Brandon’s musical arrangement and Gia’s voice, they had to win. Only Brandon, and perhaps Gia, the lead singer, had been up nights worrying.

Most would also have agreed that winning a free trip to New York City was already the best prize of all and winning the grand prize would be an unimaginable icing on the cake. New York at Christmastime. What could be better?

But, now, looking over their schedule, they were all wondering if they would see anything more of the city than the New York skyline and the inside of a rehearsal hall. The top six performing choirs would be performing on stage at Radio City Music Hall on Christmas Eve night, but that was two days and an exhausting practice schedule away. Then they would have to compete in the semi-finals before the finalist were selected. And as much as they hoped, there was always a chance they would be on a plane headed home on Christmas Eve morning with no victory, no glory and no grand prize.

Everyone in the senior class had had their own ideas about the wonders that awaited them on their adventure in New York at Christmas, but the Three Musketeers--Marcy Gordon, Ellen Albright and Gia DeMarco--had a precisely-planned schedule that had not taken Miss Ridley’s over-packed schedule into consideration.

They were known at their school as the Three Musketeers because they had been inseparable since they met on the playground in middle school--being drawn to one another by their mutual interest in brightly colored socks and sillybands. They seldom wore brightly colored socks anymore, and had packed away their collection of sillybands years ago. But their friendship was still intact and as close as ever.

And they had planned to see New York together. But each had very different items on their must-do list and each thing involved different areas of the city. Now, they would have to totally revise their own schedule to fit everything in. If that was possible.

Gia’s wish list was short. But it was the one that would take the most time and it was very specific. She wanted to see the Statue of Liberty from the ferry that traveled between Manhattan and Ellis Island.

Gia’s great, great-grandmother had come to America from Italy in 1926 and, although they had remained in New York, their children had all moved west, so that now no one in the family lived in New York anymore. But Gia had grown up hearing stories about their voyage to America and how happy they had been to see the Lady Liberty in New York Harbor waiting to greet them.

And according to Gia’s grandmother that trip was when the DeMarco women were given the gift of song. Okay, her grandmother could be a little melodramatic. But the point was everyone in the family believed that fame and a great singing career was the destiny of someone in the DeMarco family. Through their singing. And Gia was their best bet so far.

According to her grandmother, Gia’s great-grandmother