Home for Christmas (11 page)

I wanted to throw popcorn at Dad! He was
seriously
going to go through every ornament on our tree until he found the one he was “looking” for?

I leaned over to Heather. “I'm going to talk to my mom,” I said in a whisper. “Be right back.”

“Going to invite her to join the search party?” Heather whispered back. She smirked as I stood up. I grabbed a throw pillow from the couch and lightly bonked the top of her head.

“Silver! Dead!” Heather whisper-shouted at me.

I grinned, my back to her as I hurried out of the den. I turned down the hallway and almost jogged to my parents' room.

“Mom,” I said the second I reached the doorway.

“Are you okay, honey?” Mom asked. She waved a hand at me, motioning for me to come inside. She was lying in bed under a knitted red blanket with her feet peeking out. Her golden-brown hair, the same color as mine, was loose around her shoulders. She was in yoga pants, a Canterwood sweatshirt washed so many times the colors had faded, and her fave holiday socks—woolly white ones with red-and-green reindeer.

“Dad has to be stopped,” I said. I stood at the foot of the bed. “He kept coming into the den, and I thought he really just forgot something or was making sure we were all comfortable. But then I realized—it's because of Eric and Jacob! Dad's freaking out that I'm hanging in the ‘dark' den with boys.”

Mom laughed quietly and shook her head. “Your father told me that he was making us tea. I've had this holiday movie on Hallmark paused for fifteen minutes waiting for him. Let me go drag him in here and tell him to leave you and your friends alone.”

“Thank you, Mom,” I said, letting out a sigh of relief. “Doesn't Dad realize that I could be alone with boys any day I wanted when I'm at school? I haven't done anything crazy yet!”

Mom cocked her head at me. “Yet?”

“Strike that,” I said. “Ever.”

“Much better. Good cover-up, Sash.” Winking at me, Mom tossed off the throw blanket and followed me to the den.

I sat back down and looked toward the tree. Dad was only a few inches down from the top—he really
was
going over every ornament!

“Hey, guys,” Mom said, smiling at my friends. She
stepped around our spot and walked up to Dad. “Jim?”

“Hon, oh, right.” Dad's face turned red. “The tea. It's, uh, boiling. I was looking for your favorite ornament in here. I wanted to display it in the bedroom.”

“Uh-huh,” Mom said, taking his arm. Looking over her shoulder at us, she mouthed,
Sorry
, before focusing on Dad again. “Let's look for that tomorrow when the kids are at the stable. I'll help you with the tea, and we can start the movie before it gets too late.”

“You sure?” Dad asked Mom. “It's barely nine.”

Mom nodded. “I'm already getting sleepy. I'm sure Sasha and her friends are too. They'll probably be heading to bed soon.”

“Definitely,” Brit said immediately. “I'm so sleepy.”

“Me too,” Alison added.

Dad eyed us, and I let my eyelids droop a little so I looked tired. Finally Dad nodded, and Mom followed him up the den steps. Dad shuffled off into the kitchen and Mom turned back to us.

“Stay up as late as you like,” Mom said, her voice low. “Mr. Silver will be asleep in minutes, so you don't have to worry about any more interruptions.”

We all smiled.

“Thank you, Mom,” I said. “I love you.”

“Love you, too. 'Night, guys.”

My friends chorused “Good night” to Mom, and she left to help Dad in the kitchen.

“Just in case your dad becomes an insomniac, I think it's better if we stay over here,” Jacob said, nodding at himself and Eric.

“Aw, you're scared of Sasha's dad! So cute!” Heather said.

“Would you want a guy messing with your dad if you brought him home for the holidays?” Jacob fired back.

His jab silenced Heather. I shot Jacob a
what are you doing?
look. Jacob knew that Mr. Fox was a sore spot for Heather. I'd witnessed some ugly exchanges between Heather and her dad. Mr. Fox was all business and didn't care what Heather had to do to be the number one rider at Canterwood. It was that cutthroat ruthlessness that had made us instant enemies. But Heather had changed. She wasn't Mr. Fox's puppet anymore.

“Let's stop talking about our dads,” I said. “Anyone want to play a game?”

13

Lauren

“OH, C'MON!” KHLOE STUCK OUT
her lower lip and made giant sad eyes at me. “It's not late, we don't have to be at the stable until eleven thirty tomorrow,
and
how many chances does a girl get to have a giant sleepover like this?”

I kept a straight face, trying to make her think I was still considering her idea. But I'd already said yes in my mind. Khloe and I were alone in my bedroom. The guys were at Taylor's house and the other girls were checking in with their parents, laying out clothes for tomorrow, and doing whatever they wanted around my house.

“I don't know,” I said slowly. “Do you
really
think anyone will want to play a game?”

“YES!” Khloe bounced off my bed, ran across the room
to where I stood, skidded to a halt, and bounced up and down on her toes. “Yes, yes! They will totes want to! Please, LT!”

“Hmmm. I guess . . . okay!” I grinned. “I already thought it was a fab idea five minutes ago. I couldn't stop from letting you beg a little.”

“Argh! I hate you!” Khloe said, throwing her arms around me.

“Ouch!” we both screamed at the same time.

“Khloe!” I jumped away from her.

“What?! Lauren!” Khloe's mouth hung open.

“You shocked me!” I said. “Literally. Static electricity shocked me.”

Khloe covered her mouth and looked down at her fuzzy leopard-print socks. “Omigod.”

We both giggled. I put up a hand, gesturing for Khloe to stay away.

“Don't come any closer,” I said. “You might knock me out next time or something. Jeez.”

Khloe grinned, proud of herself. “Well, I think you're rocking the I-just-rubbed-a-balloon-against-my-hair look. You're welcome.”

“What?” I turned around to face my mirror. My long hair hung in its usual waves. I eyed Khloe in the mirror. “Get ready, Kinsella. Game. On.”

A short (
very
short!)
while later, Khloe had rounded up everyone and we were in the game room. It was a room that Becca, Charlotte, and I had always brought friends to. But once Mom and Dad heard of my plans for Christmas, they'd added a mini-fridge and snack bar. There was a pool table in the back, a dartboard on the far wall, a TV and couch and plenty of floor space.

“Okay, everyone take some of these and a pen,” Khloe said. She held up the white index cards that she'd asked me for. The seven of us—Brielle, Ana, Carina, Lexa, Clare, Khloe, and I—sat in a circle on the carpet. We each had tea, soda, or hot chocolate beside us.

We all took a few index cards and one of the blue gel pens. Khloe had insisted that all the pens had to be identical. Easy, since I had a million blue pens.

“Anybody ever played Totes Honestly?” Khloe asked.

Everyone shook their heads.

“I've never even heard of it,” I said.

Khloe grinned, her lips shimmering with peachy gloss. “That makes it even better. It's really easy. We're all going to take turns ‘Hosting.' If it's cool, I'll be the first Host to show you how it works.”

“Cool by me,” Carina, who sat on my left, said.

“If I'm the Host,” Khloe continued, “that makes the rest of you Bluffers. To start, I would take my index card, write ‘Totes honestly . . . ,' and then finish the sentence with something that's true. I wouldn't show any of you my answer. You guys, the Bluffers, will write the same question and an answer you
think
is really true.”

“Can you do an example?” Lexa asked. She sipped her hot chocolate. “Sorry! If I don't ask, I'll get confused.”

“No problem!” Khloe said. “Of course. So, I'd do this. . . .”

We watched while Khloe wrote:
Totes honestly, my fave TV show is
_____.

“Now, you guys do the same and write what you think I'd say. But don't let me see,” Khloe instructed.

I wrote:
Totes honestly, my fave TV show is
Sing. I kept my hand over my card while everyone else finished.

“Pass them to me, please,” Khloe said. We handed her the cards, and she shuffled them around
très
fast. “I'm doing this so
you
guys can't tell my card from yours anymore. Okay, so now I'm going to read the cards aloud, and the Bluffers have to try and guess whether the card I read is true or not.”

“Oh, cool!” Brielle said. She pulled her blond hair into
a messy ponytail. “This game is going to be awesome.”

Everyone else chimed in with the same responses.

“Thanks, guys,” Khloe said. “We can keep score or not, really. Up to us. We'll take turns playing Host, and every time make sure to start your card with ‘Totes honestly.' Oh, also—if you really don't know the answer, you don't have to vote for your card. You can choose someone else's answer as yours—no one will know.”

“Ooh!” Ana squealed. She sat on Khloe's right, with Clare next to her. “I have so many lines. I could play Host forever.”

We laughed.

“Me too!” Clare said.

“So about scoring,” I said. I paused and let a few seconds pass as my friends looked at me. “I say we keep score. First person with ten points wins. How about the loser has to do a dare of our choice?”

“OMG!” Carina said.

“LT!” Khloe said, pretending to wipe away a tear. “I'm so proud.”

“Whoa, Laur,” Bri said. “Brill idea! Maybe you should text Sasha and tell her that you're channeling Heather.”

“No, I'm not,” I said quickly. “I'm not saying we should do a mean or scary dare. Just something fun.”

“Chill,” Bri said, shaking her head and smiling at me. “I was totally teasing you.”

I stuck out my tongue at her. “Who can we trust to keep score?”

“I vote for Carina,” Lexa said.

Soon Carina had a legal pad and had written all of our names on a fresh sheet of paper.

“I think Khlo should go first, since she thought of the game,” Lex said.

“Go, Khloe!” I chanted.

I looked around as my friends cheered on my bestie. Khloe sat directly across from me, then, in counterclockwise order, it went Ana, Clare, Bri, Lexa, Carina.

“Let's use these”—Khloe held up our cards—“as my first turn. Hope you guessed right, girls.”

Khloe held up the first index card. “ ‘Totes honestly',” she read, “ ‘my fave TV show is
Reality Stars
.' ”

We all started answering at once.

“False,” I said.

“False,” Clare answered.

“True,” Lexa said.

“True,” Carina said.

“False,” Ana said.

“False,” Bri said.

“Under each person's name, I'm going to write that answer,
T
or
F
, and then put a ‘one' if that person guesses right,” Carina said. She carefully recorded all of our answers.

“Next card,” Khloe said. “ ‘Totes honestly, my fave TV show is
Sing.
' ”

We shouted answers as Carina scribbled on her notepad. Soon we'd gone through all the cards.

Khloe waved the index cards, smiling. “So . . . totes honestly, my fave TV show is . . .
Sing
!”

Carina crossed out and circled a bunch of things on her paper. “We have two points awarded to Lauren and Clare!”

“I almost answered wrong,” Clare said. “I thought you might have put that new prep school murder mystery show as your favorite.”