“Eli can’t handle hot sauce,” Jack says.
“At all?” Seth asks.
I shake my head. “I don’t like spicy beyond barbecue.”
Fred takes the packet back from me, frowning. “Barbecue is not spicy. Seth! Round two with these hot sauces!”
“You know it,” he says.
I open my gift next. Two bundles wrapped in tissue paper are inside the gift bag. One contains two Hershey bars.
“Basic, but classic,” Seth says.
The other bundle has an ugly sweater inside. Emphasis on ugly. I’m really hoping it’s supposed to be that way, because if Jack or Seth really think a strand of multicolored lights arranged like a tree on the front of a sweater (battery pack attached) is a good look, they need an intervention.
The way Seth bursts out with his barking laugh, I’m sure he wasn’t my Secret Santa. Jack’s ears turn red when I look at him. I hold the sweater against my chest. “Really?”
We’re all laughing now. “I couldn’t resist,” Jack manages. “You love your sweaters.”
“And now I have one I love to hate.”
“Put it on!” Fred says, tossing a chip at me.
“Then I’m the only one without a new outfit,” Jack says.
I offer the ugly sweater and he shoves it back. Turns out he does get something he can wear, though. Seth got him Christmas-themed socks—and a green elf hat with a big red puffball on the end.
Seth and Fred definitely got the better end of the deal, wearing their varsity jackets while I light up the room in my sweater, but Jack looks adorable with his new Christmas tree socks and his elf hat. Seth orders two pizzas and Fred puts on a holiday record.
The first night of holiday break becomes one of my favorite memories before it’s even complete.
FOURTEEN
JACK
Christmas Eve is on a Wednesday, this year. Technically, the school could have made us attend Monday and Tuesday. Eli says Fredricks Central School District usually gives at least the 23rdof December off, and since the 22ndis a Monday, I guess they realized most people would skip a solitary Monday before Christmas instead of the day before Thanksgiving (usually the day before Thanksgiving is off from school, but they couldn't give us both without blowing through snow days we might need).
It’s a good thing we have Monday and Tuesday off. Mom makes us clean the house like we did when we first moved in on Monday, sweeping and mopping and scrubbing till everything could be eaten off of. We even give Widget a bath. Eli is a boy scout, cleaning with us the entire time and then helping me watch Hugh in the afternoon while Janet helps Mom in thekitchen (Mom didn’t trust me to clean the kitchen properly, I guess).
My uncle and his family are due midmorning on Tuesday, and Mom asks us to do another round of cleaning Tuesday morning. There isn’t anything left to clean, but we pretend to be dusting whenever she bustles into the room, until even she realizes the house is spotless and suggests we relax with a movie.
She keeps looking at the door as we watch, waiting for her brother.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to go home for a little while?” Eli asks once Mom gets a text that they’re almost here and we all jump up. “I don’t want to intrude when you haven’t seen them in a while.”
I point one finger at him, sharply. “We’ve been over this. You’re staying.”
“But it seems—”
I press my fingertip to his chest. “Don’t make me get mad at you.”
He chuckles. “You can do that on command?”
I step closer. “I believe I told you there’s always something I can be mad about, with you.”
“Mom and Jack will both pout if you leave,” Janet says, putting Widget’s leash on him.
I let my hand fall. “Thanks for that, sis.”
