AMANDA sat in her wheelchair at the back of the hall watching everyone rehearsing the Christmas play. It isn't fair, Amanda thought, as tears began to fill her eyes and roll down her face.

Amanda watched Jane happily singing her solo song as she played the part of Mary, she sounded good but Amanda knew sshe could sing it better, that was her song, it should be her up there on the stage not Jane, it just wasn't fair.

Two days ago Amanda had gone ice skating and tumbled on the ice, and broke her leg, taking away her dream of playing the star role of Mary in the School Christmas play, it was the part Amanda had longed to play all her school life, but now the dream was over.

Mrs Tinsel, Amanda's teacher noticed her crying, she knew how disappointed Amanda was at having to give up her part, but she had the perfect plan to make Amanda feel involved again.

Amanda was a brilliant artist, the best in the school and some one was needed to do all the face painting on the children to bring all the characters alive. Mrs Tinsel went to Amanda and asked "Amanda will you do a very important job for me? Will you do all the face painting on the day of the play?" Amanda agreed, after all it was better doing that than not being involved at all, wasn't it?

On the day of the play Amanda carefully painted all the children's faces, there were sheep, cows and other animal faces to paint and Amanda did a wonderful job, the face painting was just amazing it really brought the characters to life.

The play went really well and the hall filled with the applause of the audience, Amanda could hear all this and felt sad that she wasn't out there with everyone. The Christmas play had always filled the school with the magical feel of Christmas, everybody got so excited, to her Christmas would just not feel the same. I won't even be able to ride my new bike I've asked Santa for Amanda thought to herself, Christmas might as well be over.

Mrs Tinsel came into the room smiling at Amanda and then pushed her wheelchair into the main hall in front of the audience. "This is Amanda everyone," Mrs Tinsel said "Amanda did all the wonderful face painting, that has helped bring the play to life, she's a little star, let's all give her a big round of applause." The room filled with clapping and cheering, Amanda felt so proud, she now knew that her part as the face painter was just as important as playing the star role as Mary. "Christmas isn't over." Amanda said to herself , "It will still be a magical time even with my broken leg."