'Tis the Off-Season (11 page)

“I'll wrap both gifts, I promise,” said Ava.

They heard a knock at the front door, and Moxy started barking her head off.

“That must be Coach Byron,” said Alex. “And Jamila and Shane.” Coach and Mrs. Sackett had invited Coach Byron, one of the Tigers' assistant coaches, and his kids over for Christmas Eve dinner.

“I think I love Christmas Eve even more than Christmas,” said Ava dreamily. “It's that feeling of being on the verge of wonderfulness.”

Alex agreed.

As the nine of them settled around the dining room table, Alex looked around, still feeling happy and excited. Shane and Jamila were all dressed up, Shane in a little bow tie and Jamila in a sparkly Christmas dress. Ava brought in a bowl of vegetable stew, and Mrs. Sackett set down the best part of the whole dinner—popovers. Uncle Scott was still looking clean-shaven, and he'd put on a pressed white shirt and a skinny purple-and-yellow tie.

Alex could sense that Scott and her parents were really getting along well and enjoying one another's company. Scott had even helped Coach with the Christmas baking earlier in the day, although Coach had finally blown up and insisted that they have their traditional Christmas Eve meal with a couple of special dishes for Scott, not the other way around.

They're acting like brothers again,
Alex thought.
I guess Uncle Scott's grace period after losing his job is over!

Tommy nudged Shane, who was sitting to his left. “You're going to like those popovers, pal,” he said. “I'm good for at least three of them.”

Shane licked his lips and stared, his eyes shining.

Uncle Scott dinged his glass, rose from his chair, and cleared his throat. “I'd like to propose a toast,” he said.

Everyone grew quiet.

“To my big brother, Mikey, and his fantastic wife, Laura. I want to thank you guys for your offer to help me during this, uh, transitional time in my life. You're blessed with three amazing kids, and you've done an amazing job raising them. I know I haven't been the easiest kid brother, and I know I've caused our mom and dad a lot of sleepless nights.”

Coach chuckled and swiveled his gaze upward as if to say,
You said it, not me.

“But you've always been an inspiration to me, and—” Scott's voice got a little thick.

Alex looked more closely down the table. Was that a tear in her uncle's eye?

He finished quickly. “So Merry Christmas, everyone. And just, well, thanks.”

He sat down abruptly. He blew his nose on his napkin, but no one reprimanded him.

Tommy, who was leaning closer and closer toward the roast beef sitting in the center of the table, broke the spell. “So can we eat now?” he asked. “Shane and I are starving here, people.”

Everyone laughed.

Alex felt a jab in her rib cage. Ava leaned in to whisper in her ear.

“I feel really, really guilty right now,” said Ava. “After how mad I was at our parents for saying I couldn't play. Having Uncle Scott here kind of puts things in perspective.”

“I feel bad too,” Alex whispered back. “I can't believe how upset I was that Mom wouldn't let me have the party here. Now that I don't have to host it, I'm realizing it would have been my worst nightmare. I would have been so worried about everyone having a good time, and keeping the punch bowl filled, and restocking the food, that I wouldn't have had one second to enjoy the party. It's so much less stressful just attending.”

Ava nodded. “And your stress about the party would have stressed out all the rest of the family too,” she said. “So we'll all be happier.”

After Coach Byron and his kids left, and the kitchen was all cleaned up, with all the dishes put away, the six Sacketts listened to a beautiful piano rendition of “O Holy Night.”

Uncle Scott had donned Mrs. Sackett's orange apron, and Alex wondered how he managed to look so hip.

“This is a really nice version of my favorite carol,” said Uncle Scott. “Who's the artist?”

Tommy grinned. “Me,” he said.

“No way,” said Uncle Scott. “You're a serious talent, T!” He gave Tommy a big hug. Tommy seemed pleased.

“Mom, Dad,” said Alex. “I have something to say.”

Maybe it was something in her tone of voice, but everyone stopped hugging and chatting and looked over at her.

“I feel really bad that I was kind of annoying about demanding to have the party,” she said. “I know how hard you guys work, and in retrospect, it really wasn't the end of the world, or my social life, not to have the party here.”

Mrs. Sackett smiled and reached out to tousle her hair. “Thanks, honey,” she said. “Believe it or not, it made me feel really bad to say no to you. But sometimes being a mom can be hard.”

Ava cleared her throat. “I want to say I'm sorry too,” she said. “About being so sulky with you guys when you said I couldn't play basketball. I know you had my best interest in mind. What I should have done is talked it over with you, instead of just being mad and slamming doors and stuff.”

Coach put an arm around her waist and gave her a big squeeze. “Well, you ended up advocating for yourself in a pretty mature fashion, Ave,” he said.

Tommy cleared his throat. “Okay, okay. Gee, how did this evening suddenly get so sappy? I guess I should admit that not going to that party in Boston wasn't the end of the world for me, either. Especially since now we get to hang out with Uncle Scott this week. What you're doing for him is pretty cool.”

Coach and Mrs. Sackett looked at each other, surprised.

“I told them why I was here,” Scott jumped in. “And how I asked you not to tell them—I realize now that wasn't fair to you.”

Mrs. Sackett let out a huge sigh of relief.

“We didn't like keeping secrets from you guys,” Coach said. “But we wanted to respect Scott's wishes, and we understood why he didn't want you to know he'd lost his job.”

“And we didn't want to involve you in our family budget. But we should tell you that everything is fine—we're setting aside more money so we can all go to Boston next summer,” said Mrs. Sackett. “And Alex, maybe with a little more notice, we can host a party in the spring sometime.”

“That would be awesome!” said Alex. “And while we're on the subject of admitting to being annoying—I also just wanted to say I'm sorry I wasn't very gracious about working at the day-care center. It was actually really fun, and it made me feel good to help out.”

“That's so nice, Alex,” said Mrs. Sackett. “Mrs. Barnaby reported that you and your friends did a fantastic job, and that the kids have all requested that it be a regular thing!”

Alex and Ava both gulped.

“And I'm glad you think helping out is fun, because I've signed us all up to volunteer at a soup kitchen tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? But it's Christmas!” exclaimed Alex.

Uncle Scott cleared his throat loudly.

“I mean, wow. Great. That sounds like a plan!” said Alex brightly.

“I'm cool with that,” said Tommy.

“Yep, me too,” said Ava.

The next morning, after a big breakfast of gingerbread waffles (a delicious new experiment of Coach's) and fresh fruit salad, they all filed into the living room to open presents. Ava got a San Antonio Spurs jersey—just what she'd wanted. Tommy got a gift card to his favorite music store. Alex got the new outfit she'd been drooling over for weeks.

“How did you guys know this was what I wanted?” she asked.

“You did leave the catalog lying around with the page folded down and the outfit circled,” Ava pointed out.

“Did I?” Alex asked innocently.

Tommy threw a bow at her.

Even Moxy got a present—a huge bone, straight from the refrigerator. She clamped her jaws around it and trotted over to Mrs. Sackett's newly cleaned rug, where she began gnawing away. Mrs. Sackett closed her eyes and turned away from the sight.

Uncle Scott left the room and reappeared with a slightly rumpled brown shopping bag. “I, uh, didn't have time to wrap,” he said, “but I hope you guys like these. I got them last time I was overseas.”

Tommy got a funky-shaped Egyptian string instrument that came with a bow and made a lovely, eerie sound. Alex got a Bedouin jeweled scarf. Ava got three different soccer team pennants, each in a different, strange-looking language.

“That's Arabic, Hebrew, and Urdu,” said Scott.

“Whoa,” said Ava. “These are way cool. Thanks, Uncle Scott.”

Tommy gave each of the girls a snow globe. “So you'll remember what snow looks like,” he said.

“Hey,” said Coach. “I distinctly remember it snowing here at
least
twice during my childhood.”

“Not me,” said Uncle Scott. “Can't remember the last time it snowed around here.”

Tommy snorted. “The only snow we're going to see is inside those snow globes, Coach.”

Ava and Alex always exchanged the last presents. It was something of a Christmas tradition in the house.

Alex opened her present from Ava. It was a new charm for her bracelet.

“What is it?” she asked, frowning.

“It's a baby rattle,” said Ava. “To remind you of our stint at the day-care center.”

Alex giggled. “Open yours,” she said.

Ava tore the paper off her gift from Alex. It was a foam ball and indoor mini hoop.

“So you'll stop bouncing that infernal basketball in the house,” said Alex.

“Ava's been dribbling in the house?” said Mrs. Sackett.

Ava glared at her twin.

The day of the party, Alex knocked on Ava's door and pushed it open. Ava was standing in the middle of her room, looking extremely uncomfortable in a large, lumpy ski sweater.

“You look . . . cute!” said Alex brightly.

Ava frowned and tugged at the neckline. “I hate wool. This sweater is so itchy. I feel like I'm crawling with ants.”

Alex giggled. “Look! Uncle Scott got the lights to work on my sweater!” She pushed the button and the snowflakes began twinkling.

“That's hilarious!” Ava said.

“Thanks.” She sat down on Ava's bed. “I'm really nervous about this party,” she admitted. “I just don't know what to do about the Corey and Lindsey situation. I think he likes me, but every time he and I get within ten feet of each other, Lindsey seems to pop up out of nowhere. I just don't know if she's okay with this, and I don't want to lose her as a friend.”

“Listen, Al,” said Ava. She put a hand on her sister's shoulder and quickly took it off again, perhaps grossed out by the feel of the scratchy artificial fibers. “I think you should just talk to Lindsey straight out. Ask her what she's thinking. It's not really fair of her to like another guy but keep you and Corey from liking each other.”

Alex sighed. “You're right. I'll try to talk to her.”

“Hey, you twins!” bellowed Tommy from downstairs. “If you want a ride to your party, you'd better be down here quick!”

Even though Corey's house was in walking distance, Alex had declared that she absolutely could not be seen in public wearing her ugly sweater. “We'd better get going,” she said. “Did you wrap the Secret Santa presents?”

Ava reached behind her bed and picked two misshapen packages off the floor, one large and one medium. “Yep,” she said proudly.

Alex winced a little as she looked at the wrapping job Ava had done. Alex loved wrapping presents, getting the corners just right and the paper creased just so. Ava clearly did not share her enthusiasm. The bulletin board Alex had made for Rosa was wrapped in thick, shiny paper that Ava hadn't properly creased. It had visible pieces of tape and a sad ribbon that Ava had attempted, unsuccessfully, to curl.
Let it go,
she said to herself. “Looks great!” she chirped brightly, and the two hurried down to find Tommy.