Author's note: For those of you who are not Roman Catholic, St. Raphael is an archangel who appears in the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit (τωβιθ). In the narrative, Raphael teaches the young Tobias to rescue a girl named Sarah from the clutches of the evil demon Asmodeus, whereafter the two fall in love and are married. Thus, in Catholic mythology, Raphael is our patron saint of matchmaking.

Jade West has never been one to take bad news very well. When she was seven years old and found out that Santa Claus was not a real person, she boycotted Christmas until it became socially unacceptable amongst her friends for her to do so. She must have been fourteen before she celebrated Christmas again.

So when Jade found out the school had canceled the new play she produced, and that they had promised to showcase on Russian Christmas, she was hopping mad to say the least. She could care less about the Christmas season, and that they were deciding to produce a last minute Christmas Pageant to accommodate the ever growing population of Eastern European residents around the Hollywood Arts area. Adding insult to injury, she found out that it was none other than Tori Vega who came up with the idea and would be in charge of its execution. And probably playing the Virgin Mary, too.

Tori had gathered all the willing participants in that black classroom where Jade pretended the Latin girl had given her a boo-boo eye during their stage fighting presentation. "All right, so Beck, how about it?" Tori beams, very pleased that it is all coming together. "You wanna play Joseph?" she continues.

"That's what I'm here for," he answers her in his usual cool and half-smug tone. He cannot help but crack a smile back at the tan girl who spreads happiness faster than George Takei can spread a meme. She is the girl everybody loves. Well, everybody except one person of course.

The heavy metal door to swings open and smashes against the wall to which it is hinged. The sound reverberates throughout the hallow room sending shivers through the students' bodies. Jade rushes through the opening, up the aisle and marches straight up to Tori. There is no laptop to slam shut this time like there was when Tori ruined her art project with a decision to host the first ever Hollywood Arts prom. (Sorry, Jade is right. There is no such thing as a prome). So she settles for the next best thing and barks at the wide-eyed latina, "How could you do this to me again? Really, Vega? Are you kidding me?"

Tori takes a step back, a little intimated by the chizzed off goth-girl standing right in front of her. "What are you talking about?" she questions honestly. Her voice is shaky, because she has never seen Jade quite this angry before. It wasn't her fault. She did not know about Jade's play.

"Your stupid Christmas pageant falls on the same day as my 'Clowns Don't Bounce: The Sequel' is set to premiere, so they canceled it!," Jade yells punctuating the last two words and taking a menacing step forward.

"I'm... I'm v-very sorry Jade," Tori stutters out as she recoils from the other girl's words. "But the flyers were already posted around town and it looks like a lot of people are really excited about the event," she defends and adds a small, nervous smile.

Jade takes her left hand and flips the fold-up chair next to Tori against the wall with such violent force. "I don't care," she screams, "Cancel it!" She moves her face within inches of the other girl, glaring right through her soul.

"N-n-no," Tori manages to eek out. She follows with a quick, "I'm sorry" and drops her head, not having the strength to face the piercing eyes of the her enraged frenemy.

Beck and André—who, if we're being honest, are both a little terrified of Jade—get to their feet and rush over to where Tori and Jade are standing. "Woah, woah, woah," Beck shouts to Jade as André places himself in between the two girls. "Just calm down, okay, Jade," he advises in the most calm and collected voice he can muster at the moment. He places a hand on Jade's shoulder, but immediately regrets it.

Jade swings around to face her ex-boyfriend, his hand falling off her. With murderous intent in her eyes, she warns him, "Never touch me like that again." But Beck doesn't back down. He tells her sadly, "I think it would be best if you just left, Jade. You're not welcome here anymore." He follows with a small shrug and a strained expression.

The goth grits her teeth and lets out a small sigh after studying the worried faces of all her friends. Tori dare not look her in the eye. "Fine," she huffs, "I'm not going to do anything this time." All the fire in her voice has left. She turns on her heel to leave, but pauses. She brings her attention back to the cowering Latina.

"You know what Tori..." Jade says in a depressed tone, "You're always taking everything I have away from me... Ever since you got here." Her eyes begin to water. Tori looks into her big blue eyes and her shattered appearance is like a shot to the heart. Jade shakes her head, "I wish the two of us never met, because my life would be so much better if you were never in it."

With that, Jade runs out of the room leaving everybody frozen and at a loss for words. Tori finally breaks the silence by telling Beck, "I'm gonna go after her." She moves her legs to follow the paler girl, but Beck grabs her wrist and fixes her in place.

"She brought this upon herself," he informs her. "She has to learn not to behave like this again. If you go after her and make everything better, you're just going to encourage her bad behavior." Beck nods his head and releases his hold on Tori.

All of her friends nod along, even Cat, much to Tori's surprise. Tori stands in place shuffling her feet. "I know," she responds, "but she just looked so sad, and... and... well, shouldn't that be enough?"

"Why do you always care?" Beck asks incredulously as he takes back his previous seat. "None of us care if she wants to act like a gank," he adds. Her friends nod along, but Cat stops herself mid-nod. "Well," Cat admits holding her thumb and index finger next to each other, "I care a little bit."

"We still have to finish doling out the parts for the play," André reminds Tori speaking practically. "Come on, girl," he continues as he drapes an arm around her shoulders and leads her down to the chair next to Beck.

Tori glances at the door and then back at her friends. Just when they were confident they had gotten her settled, she jumps up out of her chair and shouts, "I'm sorry you guys. I can't leave her out there crying somewhere," before she runs off into the cold night.

Jade trudges through the dark night in the local park nearby Hollywood Arts. The tears freeze on her red cheeks. The moon is partially obscured by white clouds. Out of breath, Jade finally stops dead in her tracks and rests her hands on her knees. "Stupid Vega," she thinks to herself.

She plops down on the ground scooting over so that her back is resting against the leg of a rusty bench. Her cell phone vibrates and she pulls it out of her pocket. It's a text message from Tori that reads, "Where are you Jade? I'm really sorry. Please let me talk to you." She groans and puts it back in her pocket. Why does Vega always have to try to make things right, she thinks. She can never just own up to the actions she takes, but always has to backtrack. This would be a lot easier if Tori wasn't so sweet. But, wrecking a play she worked so hard on was definitely not sweet, Jade reasoned.

It's freezing cold out and she didn't take a warm jacket with her to school this morning. It looks like it might snow. What a way to spend Christmas Eve. She pulls the jacket tighter against her body. After sitting for a good ten minutes, her body begins to shake. "Uh," she says to herself with a glottal emphasis, "I am going to get sick if I stay out here too long, and Vega's not worth it." She pushes herself to her feet and begins the long walk home.

She comes to a small bridge that overlooks a large duckpond. Her eye catches the sight of a black and white swan swimming alongside each other. She smiles a small smile at the coincidence. White swans were too cliché she thought, but black ones always remind her of herself a little. They are different from the ordinary, just like she is. Jade rests her hands on the railing and gazes at their beautiful feathers and beaks. The white swan nuzzles its beak against its the black swan's neck, and snuggles as close as possible to its companion. They must be lovers, she thinks. She would never admit it, but Jade does not hate all romance. Just the capitalist consumerism it has become associated with. True romance was worth dying for.

I step up behind her and place my hands on the railing besides her. She jumps at my presence and punches me in the arm, screaming, "Oh my God!"

I pretend to recoil from her hit, and rub it with my other hand. In a friendly voice, I respond with an, "Oww... that hurt."

"I'm sorry," she mutters as she takes a step back. "I didn't see you there, and you just kind of snuck up on me." Once she has taken a few seconds to process what happened, she looks me up and down with curious eyes. I am dressed in the classic, black, priest attire with a white collar and everything. "Did I just hit a priest?," she asks with a morbid expression on her pretty porcelain face.

I chuckle and tilt my head, waving a hand over my body to draw attention to my outfit. "No, No," I answer her, shaking my head. "I just chose this look, because I thought it would be more appropriate than the Middle-Eastern clothing I used last time." I lean back against the railing, trying my best to look what you humans call "chill".

"Oh, okay. That's not weird at all," Jade quips with a nicely timed roll of her eyes. "I'm going to get going," she says pointing in the opposite direction. She is clearly weirded out with me. Maybe she thinks I am here to pick up little kids or something. "Wait," Jade turns back around, "How did you know my name?" Her eyes are full of anxiety.

Very cryptically I respond, "Because I was sent here to grant your wish, Jadelyn West."

Jade reaches into her backpack and brandishes a pair of very expensive scissors. "Okay, stalker," she deadpans, "I have these and I am not afraid to use them, so why don't you just run along your merry way, whoever you are." She spins them around her forefinger and glares at me menacingly. It fails, because you cannot look menacing with puffy, bloodshot eyes.

I smile and inform her, "First of all, you cannot hurt me with that. Second of all, I am your guardian angel, Raphael." That was not entirely accurate, I realize. "Well, not your guardian angel," I correct myself. "I'm filling in because your regular guardian angel gets holidays off." I realize this might not sound all that convincing to her. She has never been religious, nor would the most religious believe that a crazy stranger were an actual angel.

"I am seriously considering just running in the other direction," she says to me with flared nostrils.

"I did not mean to frighten you, little one," I try my best to calm her. I keep my distance hoping it will relieve her fear. "But I speak the truth. I know that you were born on July 17th, that you love to cut up flowers, that you still sleep with your childhood pink unicorn when you are sad and that you wished you had never met Tori, because you think your life would be better without her in it."

Jade gasps at the life details I am rattling off. Stuttering, she protests, "How the hell do you know all of that? How long have you been watching me." She runs a hand through her hair trying to wrap her head around this strangeness.

"All your life, I'm afraid," I answer her truthfully. "I know it's difficult for you to comprehend, but like I said, I am your angel. God sent me to..."

"I don't believe in God," she interjects, biting her tongue.

"Well, that is quite all right, dear, because He believes in you," I say without any bitterness. I take two slow steps in her direction, like a man trying not to be noticed by the outdoor cat he feeds, so that he can finally get a chance to pet it. "And God fully intends to grant your wish. You truly think your life would be more pleasant without Tori Vega in it?" I give her one last chance to back out.

"Yes," she answers, "That's my Christmas wish." She does not know why she is being truthful to me. Perhaps it is a mix of sadness from being betrayed by all her friends and not sleeping in the last twenty-four hours. "Tori has done nothing but mess up my life ever since she got to Hollywood Arts. So if you really are an angel, then I think you should get on that as soon as possible." She scuffs her shoe against the pavement and adds, "But I still think you are full of it."

I nod my head in contemplation and clasp my hands together. "It does not matter if you believe me or not." The clouds in the sky disappear and the moon begins to progressively increase in its intensity, illuminating the dark world. Jade's eyes dart from the sky and moon back down to me. "When you awake, it will be morning and your wish will be granted. Tori will have never been accepted to Hollywood Arts and know nothing of who you are."

The veil between worlds is torn and a truer, angelic form of mine becomes visible to her. I grab the frightened Jade's shoulders and tower over her with my blazing wings outstretched. I glare her in the eyes. "But be careful what you wish for Jade" I warn. "If it turns out you were wrong about Tori, you will regret it. Sometimes we don't realize what we have until it is gone."

The moon explodes in a brilliant blast of white that consumes Jade's world.