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 spatula 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.”

“Thanks!” Becca beamed. “I love wearing green. I think it tricks my eyes into looking greener. When I wear brown, they look brown.” She frowned, and then a panicked look crossed her face. “Not that there’s anything wrong with brown eyes! Yours are nice! I mean, no offense!”

Alyssa laughed. “None taken.”

Becca looked relieved. She tilted her head and looked more closely at Alyssa. “Wait, you’re Alyssa Sing, Cody’s sister, right?”

“That’s me,” Alyssa replied a moment later. She almost said “Guilty as charged,” but had stopped herself, worried that sounded nerdy. There was something about Becca that made her a little nervous, but she wasn’t sure why.

As if Becca could sense Alyssa’s nervousness, she suddenly looked uncomfortable as well. Alyssa tried to think of something to say. “So, you’re Ben’s sister, then, right? Our brothers are, like, inseparable lately.”

But Becca just nodded. “They so are. I think this was their third sleepover. Have you ever gotten stuck listening to them talk about video games?”

“Well, I haven’t actually met Ben. But I have been stuck listening to Cody rampage about leveling up on his favorite game, so I can definitely relate,” Alyssa replied, laughing.

The two girls fell into an easy conversation after that. And a few minutes later, Alyssa made her first sale! A man came up to her stand and said that his wife had mentioned admiring one of the scarves. “She doesn’t know this yet, but I am taking her on a ski vacation in January. It’s her Christmas present,” the man explained.

“You should get the scarf and wrap it up with a little note telling her about the trip!” Becca exclaimed, thrusting the pink-and-blue scarf at him. “That way, she’ll have something under the tree to open on Christmas morning!”

The man agreed that was a great idea, and Alyssa grinned at Becca. Her grin got even bigger when the man didn’t bat an eyelash as Alyssa told him the price of the scarf.

“I owe you for helping me make that sale!” Alyssa said appreciatively as the man walked away with his purchase safely hidden in a brown paper bag.

“You don’t owe me,” Becca replied. “But I wouldn’t say no to a Christmas cookie if you can take a break.”

“Sounds good to me! Cody should be back in a couple of minutes, and I’ll ask him to man the stand for me.”

As Becca and Alyssa continued to chat, Alyssa caught sight of Elle and Rachel making their way toward her stand with a man who Alyssa assumed was Rachel’s dad. Alyssa made eye contact with Elle, who was taller than Rachel, so her head stuck out above the crowd, and smiled and waved. Elle returned her smile. Alyssa felt a surge of excitement—she couldn’t wait to introduce Becca to Elle and Rachel. Maybe all four of them could go have cookies together. But then something strange happened. As Alyssa watched them make their way toward her, she saw Elle’s face cloud over. She stopped in her tracks a few stands away and said something to Rachel. Rachel frowned as she looked over. Moments later, Rachel waved apologetically at Alyssa and then turned and walked in the other direction with Elle, dragging her very confused-looking father away with them.

Becca, who had been talking about what she wanted for Christmas, stopped speaking as she noticed the crestfallen expression on Alyssa’s face. “Is something wrong?” she asked, the concern obvious in her voice.

Alyssa wasn’t sure what to say. What had just happened with Elle and Rachel? Were they mad at her for some reason? She didn’t think that was it, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that they had turned around when they saw her talking to Becca.

Alyssa knew she couldn’t tell Becca that and was grateful when Cody showed up a moment later. “No, nothing is wrong. Let’s go get those cookies.”