The set was dark, and the children dressed in black had run onto the stage, the Nazareth boards in their hands. From the side of the stage, Robin smiled as the faint tones of trumpets began on the CD player.
Matt was the first child out, dancing his little heart out, with Zack and a few other boys following suit. They were setting the tone, and doing a brilliant job of it.
William was doing brilliantly as Joseph, Saffron taking Mary on like a champ. It was so great to see them starring the way that they should be.
Of course, there had to be a big finish to the first song. And, of course, that big finish was Alfie sliding in on his knees.
It went dark, and the children all bustled about, finding where they were supposed to be next. Robin went around the other side of the stage for this number, making it easier for some of the children to leave the set and change.
Joseph left Mary for the next song. The romance song that they had been dreading. There had only been a few decent run throughs, but that was okay. One Look was a beautiful song, and Robin knew it.
It had been her favourite to write. Her favourite to perform. But every time she listened to it, it made her cry. That was the beauty of a good song.
As the set changed once again, Paul caught Robin's eye from the opposite side of the wings. He offered her a small smile, one of slight relief, and she just copied that. Butterflies rampaged through her chest.
Then it was the Gabriel scene. And though Robin had nothing to do with it, she was glad it went off without a hitch. There was so much that could have gone wrong, and didn't.
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Backstage, Robin had been forced to go to the other side of the stage again as there were an immense amount of costume changes coming up. Of course, things had to go wrong when it had been so smooth.
Sam asked, tentatively. "Mr Maddens?"
"Yes, darling?" He replied, only half listening as he finished putting an eyeliner moustache on Bob.
"I have a tummy ache." She pouted. "I don't think I can go on."
"Oh, Sam. We really need you to go on."
Robin turned around and asked, calmly. "Have you tried taking deep breaths?"
"Yeah."
"Tried taking your hat off for once?" Paul said, passive aggressively. She nodded. "Okay, Alfie, you're just gonna have to do it."
The young boy had just walked in, not expecting to have been dropped it at the deep end. He was still wearing his angel costume. "What?"
"Can you go on in Sam's place please?" Robin asked him kindly, though, he has no choice.
"No way."
Paul crossed his arms. "Why?"
"Because that's a girls costume."
"You already look like Barbarella. What's the difference?" The man relied, in a matter-of-fact way. "Go in there, get dressed. Thank you. Thank you, Sam."
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Whilst the palaver continued backstage, Mr Poppy was in charge of the play's narrator. He was having a great time, dressed as an angel on a swing, suspended in the air.
But halfway through his speech, he was cut off. Gordon Shakespeare had marched onto the stage, stopping the performance altogether.
"Stop. Stop everyone!"
"Mary had to run..." Mr Poppy did his best to continue, but he was finding it increasingly difficult.
"Stop! You shut up!" He jabbed a finger towards the man. "Stop! Stop, everyone! That will do. Okay, that's the end. Stop! I'll have that, please. Give me that."
He snatched the microphone from the teaching assistants hands, and grimaced as he looked upon the crowd of parents.
"Right, my names Gordon Shakespeare. Just telling you now, you thought you were here to see Hollywood. Same reason you're here, to meet those people. Not to see this substandard chav fest! It falls upon me to tel you that no one was coming from Hollywood! No one was coming and nobody will! That man, is a sham!" He pointed a finger towards Mr Maddens now, though he was in the wings. "As if Hollywood would come to Coventry! No! Look at him! He's a dishonest person. He lied."
"Sorry..." Robin apologised meekly as she glided onto the stage. "I just..." her fist flew towards Gordon's face. "I've wanted to do that for bloody years, you insufferable coward."
"You absolute-"
"Look." Mr Poppy pointed up to the sky in awe.
There was a faint light in the sky that began to grow with the few seconds it was visible for. The whirring of spinning propellers was overpowering. It was a helicopter.
Robin grinned as she ran off the stage and back into the wings.
Mr Poppy exclaimed, and the children cheered. "It's Hollywood! Ladies and Gentlemen, May I please introduce to you the star of Bethlehem and her sparkling sparklers."
Mr Poppy was pulled from the stage by his harness and Shakespeare trudged off, like a stroppy child. It was rather hilarious.
When Paul saw Robin again, he began to fret over the state of her hand, but she was okay. Even though she protested against it, he wrapped a bandage around her skin so that she wasn't inclined to use it so much.
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After all of the work that Sadie had put into making Sparkle and Shine a great performance, it certainly paid off. The entire number went off without a hitch. However, they could enjoy it as much as they wanted to because of the musical extravaganza that was directly after it.
It was the wise men boyband song, which meant there was a lot of eyeliner being used as fake tattoos.
As they were going that, Mr Poppy rushed into the room, excited. More so than he should have been.
"Oli! Oli! Your mum's here. I just saw her. She's right at the back. So when you do your rap, just look for her and give it your everything. Oh, and Mr Maddens, the donkeys freaking out."
"What?" He turned away from Zack with a concerned look.
"I didn't have any mints so I gave it chocolates. it's feeling a bit icky."
"You gave it chocolate?"
"Yeah, I've got to do narration."
Paul rubbed his face and sighed. He tilted his head towards his best friend, who was applying eyeliner to her son. "Robin, have you got the make up?"
"Yeah," She grinned. "Go on."
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Brightest Star was a hoot, to be perfectly honest, and Paul was sad to have missed it. When he went out the back to see the donkey, he didn't find it there. Instead, he saw Jennifer, and gulped loudly.
"Hello, Mr Maddens." She smiled, nervously.
He stammered. "You weren't coming."
"I know."
They hugged like friends. Nothing more, nothing less. Just friends.
"Thank you, really." Paul offered a thankful beam, but he removed himself rather quickly. Seeing Jennifer had reminded him of something that he hadn't thought of before. "But I've got to go. I need to do something."
Paul ram as fast as he could to the wings of the stage. And he saw Robin. She was standing with her back to him, and straight away, he b-lined for her.
He kept her close, and looked at her intently for a moment. And in the second Robin opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, and he swiped her away in a kiss. They hugged one another tightly, afraid of letting go.
"I love you." She whispered, their gaze never breaking.
"I love you too."
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As the song finished and the crowd clap, the unthinkable happened. The lights went off as the children were preparing for the stable scene.
Whilst Jamie and Buddy were working hard at fixing the whole situation, Mr Maddens and Ms Harper were in charge of calming the children. It wasn't so bad... but most of them were still afraid of the dark which didn't help.
"Shh, I'm going to give you all a candle." Mr Maddens soothed. "We've got these candles here. I'm gonna give you all a candle. As soon as you've got one, just make your way out onto the stage, okay."
"Please don't touch the wet bits either, it'll hurt." Robin smiled as happily as she could.
"Hey, everyone." The blonde woman joined them to help out, and Paul introduced her. "This is Jennifer, my friend, who you all heard about, from Hollywood." There was a great roar of hello's from the children.
"Give out the candles." Paul told her.
As the children filed onto the stage, and they sang with the lights off, it was beautiful. They sang better than they ever had before, and sounded so wonderful. The darkness added an atmosphere that they could barely even expect to see.
Robin found herself crying into her scarf from the wings. Paul noticed, and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer.
"Hey, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"
"This is..." It took a moment to find the right words. "The best night of my life. Everyone I love is together, doing what we love. Thank you."
This time as the audience clapped and cheered, the lights came back on, illuminating the cathedral once more. Jamie and Poppy surely did make a great team.
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Soon enough, the teaching assistant was back on the stage as the end of the show came around. It was his mission to rile them all up again and make them happy.
"Come on everybody! Clap your hands! We're gonna tear the roof off this place! Let's rock and roll!"
There was a whole dance done by the children. Some of it went wrong but it didn't matter. It was just fun.
"We've got a special guest from Oakmoor. Thomas joined by Becky, boogie."
With that, the two children began to jive. Robin wasn't a dancer like her youngest, and was jealous of anyone who could. Especially those who didn't seem to take much effort.
"Mr Maddens, come up! Come on!" Robin chuckled and pushed him hp playfully. "Bring Ms Harper with you, come on!"
As Paul held Robin's hands, they did a little dance together. Everything seemed to be in place.
Gordon was brought up by Mr a poppy, and though none of the of the children cared, it was a big moment for the teachers.
By the end of the night, there was a sense of euphoria in the air. Robin had her sons in her arms, Josh holding onto Jamie like his life depended on it, and Paul held onto her.
At last, Paul Maddens had a reason to love Christmas once again. It gave him family.
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Disclaimer!!!
I do not own Nativity. I do not own the cast or the characters. The only things I own are my changes to the storyline and my original characters: Robin and Jamie Harper. I do not own the character of Matt either, just the change that he is related to my original characters. Please do not copy my work. Any similarities to real life are purely coincidence.