Celebrate the Season--Home for the Holidays

by Taylor Garland

  After paying for her purchases, Alyssa joined her mom at the front of the store. They were both hungry and decided it was a good time to break for dinner.

  Alyssa went to grab a table while her mom went to the pizza place to buy slices and sodas for each of them. Alyssa chose a seat across from Santa’s Workshop so she and her mom could enjoy watching the little kids line up to get their photo taken with Santa while they ate.

  “A slice of mushroom for me and a cheese slice for you,” her mom announced a few minutes later as she put a plastic tray onto the table. “Plus one slice of white pizza cut in half for us to share, as always.”

  “Yum, thank you,” Alyssa said, reaching for her slice.

  Between bites of pizza, Alyssa’s mom asked her about the girls she’d seen her talking to in the bookstore.

  “They’re from my school,” Alyssa explained. “The red-haired girl is Elle, and the girl with the curly hair is Rachel.”

  “They seemed nice,” her mom said after she finished chewing.

  “Yeah, they were really nice, and really friendly, but I kind of clammed up.” Alyssa put her piece of pizza down and wiped her fingers on a napkin. “I hate how awkward I get when I meet new people. When someone finally wants to be friends, I act all weird and shy.”

  “I’m sure you didn’t act weird, honey,” her mom said encouragingly. “And there’s nothing wrong with being shy. Lots of people are shy. Including yours truly. I bet those girls liked you very much.”

  “Wait, did you say you’re shy, too?” Alyssa couldn’t believe it. Her mom was as confident and outgoing as Cody!

  “You bet I am. Especially when I first meet new people,” her mom replied. “Sometimes it just takes me a little while to warm up. I’ve always been like that.” Her mom paused to take a sip of soda. “I haven’t really made many friends at my new job yet. I miss having a friend to eat lunch with like I did at my old job.”

  “Wow, I never knew that,” Alyssa said. “I thought people just flocked to you the way they do with Cody.”

  Her mom laughed. “Nope. Cody is one of a kind in that department. But you know what I find really helps me with my shyness? Not agonizing over it. If I’m a little shy or awkward when I meet someone new, I don’t beat myself up about it. I remind myself that I know that the next time I see them, I’ll feel a little more comfortable, and maybe before long I’ll get to know that person enough that I can relax and be myself.”

  “Relax and be yourself,” Alyssa repeated. She remembered how nervous she felt when she’d first started talking to Ryder and her friend Lauren at her old school. But then Ryder invited her to join knitting club, and soon she was really comfortable with both of them and Alyssa’s shyness was a thing of the past. “Easier said than done,” she said finally. “But maybe not impossible.”

  “To making new friends,” her mom said, raising her cup of soda for a toast. “To you and me making new friends! Soon enough, we’ll both have someone to eat lunch with!”

  Alyssa clinked cups with her mom and then remembered that she actually did have lunch plans on Monday with Elle and Rachel. She told her mom, who clinked cups with her a second time.

  “Listen to me giving you advice,” her mom joked. “Maybe I should be asking you for tips instead!”

  About an hour later, Alyssa was all shopped out. She’d separated from her mom for a little bit so she could shop for her. Alyssa knew her mom loved candles, and she found a candle in the shape of a palm tree decorated with Christmas decorations. Even though it was a palm tree, it smelled like pine. It was silly, Alyssa knew, but she also knew her mom would love it. The perfect present to commemorate their first Christmas in Florida. As she waited at their designated meet-up spot, Alyssa noticed that the pet store had a sign in the window advertising animal adoptions. She checked her watch—she was a few minutes early. Definitely enough time to go check out the animals!

  Alyssa loved all animals, but cats were always her favorite. Her mom had promised her she could get one when they moved to Florida and, true to her word, had asked a few times since they’d arrived if Alyssa wanted to go visit the local animal shelter to pick out a cat. Even though Alyssa wanted a cat more than almost anything, she had decided to wait until next summer to get one. She didn’t want to bring a new pet home and then not get to spend a lot of time with it because she was at school all day. She’d be home all summer and could help her new pet get accustomed to its new home by being there for it. But there was no harm in looking!

  Inside the pet store, there were about twelve cages, half with dogs and half with cats. Alyssa beelined over to a cage in the corner that contained three adorable kittens—two were black and one was orange.

  “Hello, sweet babies,” she cooed, sticking her finger through the bars of the cage to give one of the black kittens a gentle scratch on the head.

  As she looked at the other cages, Alyssa noticed that some of them had cards that said HURRICANE RESCUE and wondered what that meant. She caught the eye of a woman who worked for the shelter and asked her.

  “Those are pets who lost their homes due to recent hurricanes,” the woman explained.

  “That’s so sad,” Alyssa replied. “Is that what happened with these little kittens?”

  “No, those kittens were found in Sunset Valley Park. We find stray cats there sometimes.”

  “That’s right near where I live,” Alyssa exclaimed, recognizing the name of the park that was just a few blocks from her home.

  The woman nodded. “We care for the cats who live there, providing them with vaccinations and food, and we have a neuter-and-release program to prevent too many kittens from being born, but sometimes there are litters of new kittens. When we can, we try to find homes for the kittens.”

  “Why not all the cats?” Alyssa asked.

  “Cats that have only known life outside often prefer it that way,” the woman said. “That’s what makes them happy. We just make sure they are cared for and fed.”

  With that, the woman excused herself to go talk to a family who had come in to adopt a dog. Alyssa smiled and took one last longing look at the kittens. She wasn’t sure she could really wait until summer.

  The next morning, Alyssa woke up at her usual time but then decided to snooze a little longer. She’d stayed up pretty late the night before adding some embroidered finishing touches to one of the scarves she’d knit recently. Alyssa hadn’t mastered all the complicated stitches that Ryder had taught her, but she had the basics down and enjoyed making her scarves extra special by adding embroidered details. Last night, inspiration had struck, and she’d decided to add snowflakes to the edges of one of her scarves. She tried to mimic the look of the snowflakes from the holiday coffee cups. She was really pleased with how the scarf had turned out.

  Just as she was about to fall back asleep, something hit her: the smell of pancakes! That could only mean one thing—her mom was making her famous fluffy pancakes for breakfast! There was no way Alyssa was missing out on those.

  “I was beginning to think I was going to be eating alone this morning,” her mom said a few minutes later, when Alyssa came into the kitchen and plopped down at the table. Mrs. Sing looked over her shoulder from where she stood at the stove. “Did you sleep okay, sweetie? You look tired.”

  Alyssa explained that she’d stayed up a little too late working on one of her scarves.

  “You know how important sleep is.…” her mom began as she skillfully flipped a pancake.

  “I know! It was a mistake. It won’t happen again.… You know how much I love my sleep!” Alyssa replied.

  “Well, if you want to go back to sleep for a little while, I can save some batter and make you a fresh batch of pancakes later. We don’t have to leave for the holiday fair for another couple of hours.”

  “That’s right!” Alyssa said excitedly. “I almost forgot today is the Palm Meadows Holiday Fair. I’m definitely awake now!”

  Alyssa’s mom chuckled as she slid a pancake off the spat
ula and onto the platter she had set on the counter next to the stove. Alyssa scanned the table and saw that her mom had already put down plates, juice cups, silverware, napkins, and, of course, maple syrup.

  “Mom, you set three places. Cody is at his sleepover, remember?”

  “He texted last night before bed to say Ben’s mom offered to drop him off this morning on her way to do some errands. He should be home any minute now.”

  “I hope you made a ton of pancakes,” Alyssa said dryly. “You know that boy has the appetite of three kids plus two adults.”

  As her mom set the platter of pancakes down on the table, Alyssa let out a squeal of delight—the pancakes were shaped like Christmas trees!

  “Mom, these are so cool!” she exclaimed.

  “Why, thank you,” her mom said, pretending to bow. “I wanted to make something in the shape of a Christmas tree to celebrate us getting our tree tonight. I figured Christmas-tree-shaped pancakes were probably better than a Christmas-tree-shaped meat loaf!”

  “Definitely better.” Alyssa giggled as she took a big bite of pancake.

  As they ate, Alyssa told her mom she was thinking about bringing a few scarves to sell at the fair. She’d been unsure about doing it until last night. She wasn’t sure her scarves were special enough for someone to want to buy them, even though Cody and her mom kept telling her how nice they were.

  “Which scarves are you bringing to sell?” Alyssa’s mom asked.

  Alyssa explained that she was bringing the green marbled one she’d added the embroidered snowflakes to, along with two others. Those three scarves were actually the only completed ones Alyssa had. Even though she spent a lot of her free time knitting, it took her ages to complete one scarf. And Alyssa was such a perfectionist with her stitches that she’d been known to work on the same scarf for weeks on end.

  As Alyssa was asking her mom’s opinion on how much she should charge for the scarves, Cody walked in the door. “I was thinking maybe thirty dollars for each scarf. Maybe a few dollars more for the one with the embroidery.…” Alyssa was saying. “That covers the cost of the materials, and I still make a profit.”

  “I think more like five hundred bucks apiece sounds about right,” Cody said as he set his backpack down by the table. “You put so much time into knitting one of those—people need to pay up! And then you can use the money to buy me a really awesome Christmas present.”

  “Ha-ha,” Alyssa said, rolling her eyes at her brother. But she was secretly flattered that Cody thought her scarves were that nice.

  “Guess what I just saw outside, near our driveway?” Cody asked as he settled down at the table, eyes on the pancakes. “A calico cat. It ran away when Ben’s mom pulled up, but it was really cute.”

  Cody had barely finished his sentence before Alyssa was out the door, scoping out the driveway for the cat. But it was nowhere to be seen. Disappointed, Alyssa came back inside.

  “I wonder if she was a stray from the park,” Alyssa said as she sat down at the table. She explained to her mom and Cody what she had learned from the woman at the mall the night before.

  “That’s cool that they take care of the stray cats,” Cody replied. “That fluffy guy out in our driveway looked really well fed!”

  “Oh, it was most likely a she,” Alyssa told her brother.

  “How do you know?” Cody demanded. “You didn’t even see him!”

  Alyssa grinned—she loved being able to teach her big brother something—and explained that most calico cats were female. Just like most orange cats were male.

  “You sure know a lot about cats,” Alyssa’s mom commented.

  “That’s because she’s obsessed with them,” Cody grumbled.

  Alyssa laughed. Her brother was right—she was just a little bit obsessed.

  After helping himself to no less than three pancakes (even though he admitted to having had breakfast already at Ben’s), Cody filled his mom and Alyssa in on his sleepover, explaining that he and the guys had spent most of the time playing soccer outside and then video games inside once it got too dark.

  “Ben has a sister in your grade,” Cody told Alyssa. “Her name is Becca. Do you know who she is? She thinks you have lockers near each other.”

  Alyssa nodded. “Yes, I know who she is. Long, light brown hair, usually in a ponytail? Green eyes?”

  Cody scrunched up his face. “I have no clue what color eyes she has, but yeah, I guess that sounds like her. She plays soccer, on the girls’ team. She came out and played with us. She’s really good. Probably better than Ben, actually. She seemed pretty cool.”

  Alyssa nodded again. She definitely knew who Becca was. Alyssa never saw her talking to anyone other than the girls from the soccer team, so she’d had the impression that maybe Becca wasn’t that friendly. Like she had her own exclusive club. But, Alyssa realized, that might’ve been an unfair assumption to make. If Cody said she was nice, then Alyssa was sure she must be. Maybe she’d even go up to her at school and introduce herself. Alyssa laughed to herself thinking that, for the second time, she could use Cody as an icebreaker.

  “I’m going to walk around a bit and think about it,” said the woman who had been looking at one of Alyssa’s scarves.

  “Okay, thank you,” Alyssa replied cheerfully even though she wasn’t feeling very cheerful. The woman had been her first potential customer and had looked at the pink-and-blue scarf for at least ten minutes, trying it on and snapping pictures of herself wearing it. Alyssa had been sure she was going to buy it. But when Alyssa told her the price, the woman wrinkled her nose and said, “I’ll give you ten dollars for it.” Alyssa froze, unsure of how to respond. She didn’t feel comfortable explaining to a grown-up why she believed her scarf was worth three times that amount. She didn’t want to be rude! Luckily, Cody was standing next to her, and he jumped right in.

  “That’s actually a lot less than the cost of the yarn my sister used to knit the scarf,” he explained. “She spends hours and hours on each scarf. Thirty dollars is a really great deal.”

  That was when the woman said she’d think about it and walked away.

  “I don’t know, Cody, maybe I am asking too much,” Alyssa fretted to her brother. “I mean, I’m not a professional. I’m nowhere near as good as Ryder. Maybe I’m being delusional thinking people will want to pay thirty dollars for one of my scarves.”

  “Nonsense,” Cody replied. “We just got here. Your scarves will sell. And if they don’t, it’s not because they’re not worth it. It’s because this is Florida and, well, let’s face it… this place isn’t exactly a winter wonderland, despite the best efforts of the Palm Meadows Holiday Fair committee to convince us otherwise.”

  Alyssa laughed and immediately felt her spirits lift. Cody was right about the effort the festival committee had put into making the outdoor market area look and feel festive. Holiday lights were strung up everywhere, and wreaths that had been sprayed to look as if they were covered in snow hung on the lampposts that dotted the path to the main part of the festival, where food and drink tables surrounded a big Christmas tree. There were tables selling hot apple cider, hot chocolate with marshmallows, and Christmas cookies. They definitely get an A for effort, Alyssa thought… even though she couldn’t quite get excited by the thought of drinking hot chocolate outside on such a warm, sunny day.

  Alyssa’s thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of another customer—two, in fact. She looked up and realized she recognized these customers—Elle and Rachel from the mall!

  “Fancy meeting you here,” Rachel said, grinning.

  Alyssa smiled shyly and gave the girls a little wave.

  “Tell me you didn’t make these,” Elle said, eyes narrowed.

  Alyssa felt her stomach drop. Did Elle think her scarves were terrible?

  “I—I did make them,” Alyssa murmured.

  “Are you kidding me right now?” Elle demanded.

  “What? Why? I…” Alyssa’s voice trailed off.

  �
��Ugh, Elle, stop with the drama!” Rachel scolded her friend. “What Elle here is trying to say is that these are amazing! You are so talented!”

  “Absolutely!” Elle said, vigorously nodding. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound bad. Like we told you last night—don’t mind me. You’ll get used to me and my brand of charm in time.”

  Alyssa’s face broke into a huge grin as she allowed herself to exhale. “Thanks so much. I’m glad you like them. I worked really hard on them.”

  “That is so cool that you know how to knit!” Rachel replied as she ran her fingers over the green marbled scarf that Alyssa had added the snowflake embroidery to. “These totally look like something I’d buy online. How long have you been knitting for?”

  Just as Alyssa was about to respond, Rachel’s phone beeped. “Sorry, hang on one second,” she said, scanning her phone screen. “It’s my dad. He wants Elle and me to meet him for lunch. Can you join us, or do you need to stay here and try to sell your scarves?”

  “I just got here a little while ago, so I probably ought to stay.…” Alyssa said regretfully. She looked around to see if maybe Cody could take over for her for a bit, but he seemed to have wandered away.

  “No worries,” Rachel replied. “We’ll come back later. Maybe my dad will buy one of your scarves for my uncle who lives in Alaska.”

  “We’ll see you later!” Elle added with a smile.

  Alyssa waved goodbye. Did I just make friends? she thought happily.

  An hour later, a few more potential customers had stopped by to browse, but so far Alyssa had not made a sale. She’d received a lot of compliments on her scarves, though. Maybe Cody was right, Alyssa thought as she scoped out the stand next to hers to see how the proprietor’s homemade jam was selling. Maybe the scarves aren’t the problem… but the year-round sunshine is.

  “Ooh, this is so cool. What do you think?”

  Alyssa looked up and saw a pretty girl with long, light brown hair wrapping the green marbled scarf around her neck. She recognized her as Becca, Ben’s sister. “It looks great on you,” Alyssa replied honestly. “The green brings out your eyes.”