21

As Bryn stood in front of the full-length mirror on her closet door, she knew that this creamy white formal was absolutely gorgeous. From the structured, form-fitting strapless bodice down to the luminous pearly beadwork that glimmered like moonlight on the lower half of the skirt, everything about this gown was total perfection. With the right shoes and accessories, a sophisticated up-do for her hair, and a little tanning, she would definitely be the belle of the ball. Bryn gave a happy spin, watching as the weight of the beaded skirt made it swirl out slightly. Some three-inch heels would be perfect.

She gently removed the splendid gown, carefully hanging it back into the sleek Nordstrom’s garment bag. It had been on sale, but it had not been cheap. Not by any means. Still, she assured herself, it was well worth it. If nothing else, it was already worth it just for the reaction she got from Amanda, Sienna, and Devon when she’d announced she was getting it. She knew they were not only surprised but understandably envious. Everyone had admired the gown on the rack, but Bryn had been the brave one who’d decided to try it on.

She hadn’t told her parents how much it had cost yet, but it wasn’t like Dad had really given her a limit. Oh, he’d warned her not to go overboard, but she would remind him that, as the chair of the Christmas ball, she was expected to wow everyone at the dance. And this gown was designed to do just that.

She couldn’t wait to see Beth and Jack Hartford’s faces when they saw her in it. For some reason that seemed almost more important to her than Jason’s reaction. She did want Jason to be proud of her too, but the Hartfords were so rich . . . so influential . . . so supportive of this whole event. She really wanted to show them that she was something special. She wanted to impress them. Now if only she could find just the right shoes.

She went online, starting what would probably turn into an exhaustive search for the most chic pair of pearl-white shoes. Hopefully she’d find them for a good deal too. Dad would appreciate that. She’d just located a good possibility when she heard someone tapping on her door. Assuming it was Mom, she called out a distracted “come in,” but it was Abby who entered her room.

“I texted and called you,” Abby said a bit glumly as she peered over Bryn’s shoulder.

“Check out these shoes.” Bryn pointed to the photo. “Aren’t they to die for?”

“They’re okay, I guess.”

“Well, wait until you see my dress.” Bryn sprung to her feet, unzipping the garment bag to show Abby her fabulous find. “Did you ever see anything so beautiful?”

Abby’s brow creased as she looked at the white gown. “Wow, it’s really formal, isn’t it?”

Bryn laughed as she extracted the dress. “Isn’t it yummy?”

“I guess.”

“What’s up with you?” Bryn held the dress in front of her, dancing before the mirror again. “Why so gloomy?”

Abby frowned at Bryn. “I guess I’m worried about you.”

“About me?” Bryn blinked in surprise. “Why? I’m doing just fine, Abby. You don’t need to worry about me.” She hung the dress back in the bag, carefully zipping it closed.

“Well, you and Jason are supposed to be our partners in Project Santa Sleigh,” Abby began, “but it seems like you’re more interested in things like your dress than you are in helping with it.”

“I’m going to help with it,” Bryn assured her. “Like I told you, I just wanted to get my dress figured out. That frees me up to focus on helping you.” She pointed a finger at Abby. “Have you gotten your dress yet?”

Abby shook her head. “Mom and I are going shopping next week.”

“Well, you don’t want to put it off too long. Poor Sienna and Devon. They couldn’t find a single thing today. Although Amanda got her dress too.” Bryn gave her a smug smile. “Not as pretty as mine.” She described it in detail to Abby. “To be honest, red is not Amanda’s best color. Not that I mentioned that to her. She looked kind of washed out in it, though.”

“Kent and I are going to FAC tomorrow. Do you want to come?”

“FAC?”

“Family Assistance Center.”

“Oh.” Bryn sat down to consider this. “Do I really need to go there? I mean, I want to help with these kids and everything, but is that the best use of my time?”

Abby scowled, making her face resemble an old lady’s.

“It’s just that I might be more useful doing things like shopping for the kids, you know? I’m such a good shopper. If you gave me the kids’ sizes and stuff, I could probably put together some cool outfits.” Bryn brightened. “Wouldn’t that be fun? It could look really awesome in our sleigh. You know, to lay the clothes out with everything. Kind of like a store window. And we could prop some toys around and—”

“Wouldn’t it be easier for you to pick things out for them if you knew them?”

“Tell me about them.” Bryn waited.

“Well, Sarita is seven and Samuel is five.”

“Wait.” Bryn grabbed a pen and notepad from her desk. “What size do you think they wear?”

“I don’t know. They seem about average size for their ages.”

“The girl’s seven and the boy’s five?” Bryn asked.

“Yes.”

“And what kind of coloring are they?” Bryn made notes.

“My kind of coloring,” Abby said in a slightly chilly tone.

“Right.” Bryn nodded. “They’ll look great in bright, bold colors. This will be fun.” She turned around to her computer and quickly pulled up some children’s clothing websites. “What do you think of this?” She pointed to a sweater with big stripes of primary colors.

Abby leaned over to see it. “I guess that would be cute, but I’m not sure about sweaters. They might need stuff that’s easier to wash, you know? Like things that are warm and sturdy.”

“Still cute, though, right? I mean, just because kids are poor doesn’t mean they can’t look cute.”

Abby’s somber face cracked into a bit of a smile. “Yeah, Bryn, I guess being poor doesn’t mean you can’t have style.”

“I can do my part by getting them some clothes?”

Abby let out a sigh. “Sure, why not.”

“You don’t sound very enthusiastic.”

Abby patted Bryn on the back. “Look, Kent and I will be grateful for any help you and Jason can give. We just didn’t like feeling like we were pulling this sleigh by ourselves. By the way, we got started on it and it’s looking pretty good.” Abby pulled out her phone and showed Bryn a photo of a cardboard structure that resembled a sporty-looking sleigh.

“Hey, that’s not bad.” Bryn nodded. “Maybe we could have a real chance to win this thing.” Now she was imagining filling the sleigh with some pretty cool-looking stuff—maybe it could all be color coordinated. “What color do you plan to paint it?”

“We haven’t decided.”

“What if we kept everything in primary colors,” Bryn suggested as she returned to her computer, switching over to toy websites and finding some sturdy-looking toys. “Like these. The sleigh could be red and blue and yellow.” She pointed to a wooden puzzle. “And the clothes could be coordinated too. Can you imagine how cool that would look?”

“I guess.” Abby cocked her head to one side. “But we want the stuff in the sleigh to be practical and enjoyable for the kids. Not just cool to look at. You know?”

“Look at these wooden puzzles. What kids wouldn’t like them?”

“I don’t know. Check the age range that the toys are made for. We want them to be appropriate for five- and seven-year-olds.”

“I’m on it, Abby.” Bryn clicked onto another site.

“Okay then. I better go because I’m on my bike and it’ll be dark soon. I just wanted to make sure you were helping . . . that you’re into this.”

“Believe me, I’m into this.” Bryn gave Abby a big, confident smile. “You’re going to love what I bring to it. Who knows, it might be you and me doing the red carpet next year. Can you imagine?”

Abby shook her head. “Not really.”

Bryn pointed to the bag hanging on her closet door. “I already have the perfect dress for it.”

Abby laughed. “You’re not going to be the star walking down the red carpet, Bryn. Even if we won, we’d be sitting on the sidelines. Remember?”

“Who says we can’t be shining like stars on the sidelines?”

Abby waved. “Good-bye, my delusional friend. Happy shopping.”

The next week and a half passed in a crazy-busy blur for Abby. She was so glad that she’d quit the basketball team. Along with the demands of school and daily life, she was investing a lot of time on Project Santa Sleigh. Between doing things with young Sarita and Samuel, who had both become very special to her and Kent, she was also doing all she could to keep everyone else’s enthusiasm for the project up. She continued to find and post new resources on the school’s website, hoping to make quality gifts and goodies accessible to all. From what she was hearing, everyone in the school was really getting into the project. Whether it was for the kids or for the prizes was anyone’s guess, but Abby didn’t care—as long as it was a success. And she’d been thrilled to hear that the skating party was really going to happen. Scheduled for the Sunday afternoon after the dance, it was estimated that more than 130 children would be in attendance—with 78 filled sleighs awaiting them.

To Abby’s pleasant surprise, Bryn had come through with flying colors on their sleigh too—well, sort of. She had certainly found a number of great bargains for the sleigh—all in the primary colors that she’d decided upon. Abby had to admit their stuff looked pretty stylish in the sleigh as the four of them admired their handiwork in Abby’s garage on Thursday afternoon.

“I’ll fluff it up with red, yellow, and blue tissue paper, and I’ll have helium balloons in the same colors.” Bryn beamed at them. “I think we could have a real good chance of winning.”

“Wow.” Jason poked Kent in the ribs. “Imagine you and me at the Rose Bowl, bro.”

“Two days until the big night.” Bryn eagerly rubbed her hands together. “I can’t wait.”

“What I’m really looking forward to is the skating party,” Abby admitted. “I can’t wait to see the looks on the kids’ faces. Not just our kids either. All of them. It’s going to be awesome.”

“Speaking of awesome,” Bryn said to Abby, “are you going to let me see your dress?”

Kent elbowed Jason. “I think that’s girl-speak for ‘time to split.’”

After the guys left, Abby led Bryn up to her room. She was pretty sure that Bryn wouldn’t be overly impressed with the formal she’d chosen. “I wanted to be frugal,” she explained as she opened her closet.

“Don’t tell me you went to the rental place too!”

“I thought about it. But Mom and I went to Dress 4 Less and they had a markdown rack that—”

“Dress 4 Less? Markdown rack?” Bryn gasped dramatically as she collapsed onto Abby’s bed. “Tell me it ain’t so.”

Abby removed the cranberry-colored cocktail-length dress and held it up to her. She actually kind of liked it and could almost imagine wearing it more than once.

“It’s short,” Bryn exclaimed.

“Yeah. But some girls are wearing short dresses. Emma’s is short and—”

“But mine is floor length,” Bryn said. “You saw it—remember?”

“I know. That doesn’t mean I have to—”

“But I wanted us to look good together.”

“We will look good. We’ll be red and white—very Christmassy.”

Bryn just shook her head. As Abby looked at her image in the mirror, she was pleased with her choice. Not only did it look good, it would be comfortable too. “My shoes are really cool,” she told Bryn. “I think you’ll like them.” Bryn approved of the glitzy silver-heeled sandals, but she was not a fan of the dress. As Abby told her good-bye, she realized that she really didn’t care. Bryn might be a fashionista, but she wasn’t Abby’s boss.

Cassidy could tell that something was wrong as she walked across the cafeteria toward her friends. Bryn looked seriously angry, and Amanda looked curiously smug. “What’s up?” Cassidy asked as she set down her tray.

“Amanda went over my head,” Bryn exclaimed hotly. “She went to Mr. Worthington and together they made the executive decision that the chairs of the dance committees will not be allowed to participate in Project Santa Sleigh!”

“That’s not exactly right,” Abby corrected. “We can participate. We just can’t be in the competition.”

“So our team—Abby and Kent and Jason and me—we don’t even have a chance at winning.” Bryn scowled at Amanda.

“Same with us,” Amanda said lightly.

“Well, you didn’t even have a chance at winning in the first place,” Bryn snapped at her. “I saw your sleigh and it’s nothing like what we—”

“How did you see our sleigh?” Amanda demanded.

“Jason got a picture of it from Darrell and—”

“It’s supposed to be top secret,” Amanda said hotly.

“What does it matter now?” Sienna said calmly. “Why not just let it go?”

But the debate was on, and Amanda and Bryn didn’t seem willing to let it rest. Finally it was Devon who got them to settle down. “I thought we were doing this for the kids,” she said loudly. “Remember? It’s about the kids. It’s Christmas and peace on earth and goodwill toward men. Remember Christmas?”

Cassidy felt strangely proud of Devon just then—and glad that they were partnered in this after all. She also felt a slight surge of hope that they might have a real chance at winning this contest, because their sleigh was looking pretty good.

“Devon’s right,” Abby chimed in. “This is supposed to be about the kids. The prizes were just a way to get everyone on board. I’m out of the competition too, and even though I’ve worked hard on Project Santa Sleigh, I don’t even care that I can’t win. The best part of all this will be seeing the kids’ faces on Sunday.” She pointed to Amanda and Bryn. “And besides, we get to be judges. That’ll be fun.”

Bryn just rolled her eyes.

“So the chairs are the judges?” Cassidy asked with some concern. “Is that fair? Can you guys really be unbiased when it comes to your friends?”

“We’re not the only judges,” Bryn explained grimly. “Jack and Beth Hartford are judging, along with Mr. Worthington and Mrs. Dorman and three other teachers. Ten in all. We have evaluation forms and we’ll rank the entries with numbers. It’s all very official—and fair.” She frowned. “Except that we can’t be in the competition.”

“And we have to go to the dance early to do the judging,” Amanda added. “I hadn’t really counted on that.”

All in all it seemed fair to Cassidy. And if it increased her team’s odds of winning . . . well, she wouldn’t complain.