Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jada had needed to go by the hospital to discuss something that had come up with one of the donation events that she wanted to do. It was a Friday afternoon, and Giulia was supposed to be on her way to a movie and a nice dinner as part of a mother/daughter date, but Jada had promised she would be quick. She hadn't been. It had been about five whole minutes since Jada had disappeared, and Giulia knew they were going to be late for everything.

She clung to her doll, waving its arm up and down, talking to it in a high-pitched voice under the not-so-watchful eye of one of the nurses. The chairs here were uncomfortable, and the little girl wriggled in discomfort, waiting for the adults to finish talking.

There were other people here, and the blonde child took them in from under pale lashes. There were boys and girls, and there was a person with a puppy with a sign, the kind of sign she had been told she couldn't go pet those puppies.

Let's see... who was next to look at?

There was a person also in the room, and though Giulia's attention had drifted over them several times while they did some thing over in the corner with counting a bunch of dolls. It was not until her teeny little ears caught on the possibility of a sniffle and bright blue eyes caught a little trace of dampness that Giulia turned her attention to that person in particular, her golden head tilting to the side to consider the stranger.

They had an awful lot of toys, to be here crying in the waiting room. Maybe something had gone wrong? Or maybe they were just extra proud of everything they had done? Giulia wasn't sure, but this was a dilemma.

She wasn't supposed to talk to strangers, but this was the saddest stranger that she had seen in a while, with actual tears. She couldnt' just leave them sitting there all by themselves, crying. That would be a terrible thing to do to anyone! So slipping off her uncomfortable chair, Giulia made her way delicately over to the stranger, holding tight to her little red-headed toy.

"Boy," she chirped, considering the stranger, "Why are you crying?"

As the boy looked up at her, blinking, Giulia gave him her very best big girl comfort smile, the one she always gave Jada and Amelie and Cook and Teachers when they was super sad. He was a big grown up, so whatever reason he had for being sad in a hospital had to maybe do something with one of his babies? Or maybe a little sibling? Well, it was neither of those, but it was just as important, and Giulia's little heart gave a sad twinge.

"That isn't a silly reason," she assured him, reaching out with one tiny little hand to pat Shiloh on the cheeks, like when Aidan was sad, or Giulia was sad, and a grown-up had to wipe the tears away, "That is a very nice thing you do for all the sick boys and girls. Making toys sounds like hard work, like Santa. And you don't even have any elves."

How could one person be expected to keep up with all this kind of hard work if they didn't even have any elves?! It was not gonna happen, even Giulia knew that. No one was perfect.

But it was a terrible dilemma. How to make sure that all the little kids would get a toy? Giulia twisted her own toy in her fingers, pressing her face into the soft hair thoughtfully, making a little humming noise. And then she caught on to something she could do.

Oh! Oh, but this was Melody, with her little blue and green dress, but Giulia didn't have her hat with her, or her purse! Oh, no! Still... "You can have my doll," she said simply, and pushed Melody towards the boy. "I have lots of dolls. And this is for a good cause."

"I think Santa only eats cookies. Mrs. Claus is the real boss." Giulia nodded sagely, then said, "Girls. They run the world."

Even the North Pole.

"Nice to meet ya Shiloh. I'm Giulia. And you didn't ask me to give up my toy?" when had he gotten the impression he'd asked for it? Silly boys. No wonder they needed little girls. "It's not losing. It's giving. And I have lots of other toys, someone else will love Melody real good." he pushed at her toy and Giulia sighed.

Jada sighed a lot when people were egaspatating, which she said was a big girl word for really dumb boys. Shiloh was probably a boy, and he was being silly, so that meant he was egaspeatating. So that meant Giulia got to sigh.

Right?

Or something.

"We can give out the toys together, and we can pick the saddest looking person and give them Melody."

"I am very sir tan," Giulia promised the boy. He seemed to see how very determined she was that they would make all the children happy, and he was smiling now instead of crying, which was very good! Very good in deed.

"Don't call me miss," she protested, wrinkling up her nose unhappily, "miss is my sister." just like ma'am was their mother. "I'm just Giulia."

She led Shiloh to the doorway, his bag loaded with toys and goodies. "I am your elf," she told him with delight, "An Giuli-elf for Shil-anta." leaning in, she said, "and you are better. Santa always gives me socks and underwear."

The idea of her mommy caring if she gave her toys away threw Giulia for a moment. "Why would she mind? They are my toys, and I give some away every year around Christmas for the kids whose mommies and daddies can't afford big Christmases, or don't have mommies and daddies."

That was a very good explanation, and Giulia paused to consider his words carefully, her fairly-complected face scrunching up as she considered, tiny pink mouth pursing and blue eyes staring off. "Your mother is right, I suppose," she decided at last, not grudging; "It is proper to address a little Princess as a miss until they permit their knights to call them by name. Otherwise it would be a scandal."

As Giulia was a self-proclaimed expert on princesses, she would know. Or claim to. "Giuli-elf is a good name," the child said magnanimously and full of pride in Shiloh, as though it was his invention, "I think we should make them call us that while we give out toys today." She stopped by the desk to tell the nurse she was going with Shi-lanta and to have them tell Jada when she got back.

"Why were you in the hospital?" she asked curiously. "I never had to be in the hospital. Just when Jada has a quick meeting or when I need shots." she stepped away from the desk and rejoined him, walking alongside quietly until they came to the first, darkened door. "I can be super-sneaky, Shil-anta. Like a ninja. I trained and did learning to be a ninja, ok?"

Reaching out, she offered him Melody. "Hold my doll." she took the toy he offered, and scampered into the first room, peering around and tucking in the doll she had been told to give with great care. No resident stirred, and her first mission was a success.

Returning to Shiloh was much quicker than sneaking in, and as she snuck back out, she offered him a high-five. "We are gonna be the best gifters ever."

Giulia clucked her tongue at Shiloh's tale of woe. Not listening to mommies was a terrible idea- girls were smart, after all, and mommies could arguably be the smartest of all the girls, cause they were old. But Giulia was sure that Shiloh knew that, now, so she focused on the more important job at hand. Delivering toys with Shilanta Claus!

As their palms made contact, and Giulia dissolved into giggles, she couldn't wait to see who they would be delivering the next toy to. "All of them aren't gonna be able to stay secret," she said with a sad sigh. "But I can be super sneaky and you can distract them? Or will we just offer them the toy di rekt lee?" she looked at him and then was like, "I think that means just hand it to them." she wasn't 100% sure, but she was sure enough. Words were real hard sometimes, but she was getting better.

"Cookies and milk are very important for Santa. We even leave reindeer treats, because they have a very hard job. Santa has to keep his energy up." she nodded sagely. "And so do Giuli-elfs and Shiloh Clauses. I'm ready when you are!" she scampered down the hall with excitement, rising up to peer into the next room.

“That's a great idea!” Giulia said cheerily, beaming at Shiloh. Glad that was such a simple solution- they were pretending to be a Shiloh-Claus and Giuli-Elf, they could just pretend to be sneaky! Not the best, but good.

The blonde little girl tried very hard to do her sneakiest, but more than once while she was fake-sneaking she fell into a set of terrible giggles. She really had to work on her elf-game!

Giulia was happier and happier with each toy given out, and at every child, she considered carefully between the toy Shil-anta had given her, and Melody. Sometimes it was a hard decision, but Melody kept telling her to wait, and when they got to the last child, Giulia was very glad they had. This was the saddest of the children, clearly, and most in need of Melody's chipper smile and brightly-colored dress.

They were asleep, but Giulia still decided to be very extra quiet. Before they opened the door, she paused to brush the doll one last time, checking her carefully. “First Impressions,” she told Shiloh, “Melody wants to make a good one. This is the first time she's gotten to choose her home, after all. She is very worried that she won't be liked, but I think Melody is just an- ankhshus.”

She touched the doll on the nose. “You're beautiful. I'm sorry I didn't bring your sunglasses today. I'll try and come back with the rest of your toys, ok?” And then she slipped into the room with the other girl, looking between the two as she tried to decide where to set Melody. Finally, she tucked the doll carefully under one arm, and touched Melody's pretty dress one last time before scampering out of the room.

“Whew!” she said as she approached the boy again, “Santa has a really hard job! I don't know how he does the whole world in one night!!”