“Look, it fits perfectly!” Alyssa exclaimed.

It was a few hours later and after finishing up at the holiday festival, Alyssa, her mom, and her brother had headed to the local Christmas tree lot to choose their Christmas tree. In the past, the choosing of the Christmas tree had been far more complicated, as Cody and Alyssa usually chose different trees and their mom was stuck casting the deciding vote. She usually chose an entirely different tree to avoid playing favorites. But this year, the choice had been quick and easy. Alyssa spotted the perfect tree moments after they pulled into the lot. She ran over to it and declared, “This is the one!”

Cody took a long look at the tree and after a few moments slowly nodded in agreement. “Let us mark this momentous occasion,” he announced dramatically. “Alyssa Sing has, for the first time in the history of Christmas, chosen the perfect tree!” he teased.

Now, back at home, everyone was happy to see how well the tree fit in the designated corner in the living room. In their old house, the tree always went in the entranceway, but this house was set up differently and didn’t have enough space by the front door. But that was okay with Alyssa.… She liked knowing that the tree would be the first thing she saw every morning when she came downstairs.

While Cody went up into the attic to lug down the boxes of Christmas ornaments, Mrs. Sing got busy in the kitchen preparing a special surprise for them to enjoy while they were decorating. Alyssa wasn’t sure what it was, but it definitely involved using the blender.

“No peeking,” Alyssa’s mom yelled when Alyssa appeared in the kitchen.

“I promise I’m not peeking!” And to prove it, Alyssa clamped her hand over her eyes and carefully made her way over to the door. “I just wanted to go outside and see if the kitty came back.”

Outside it was nearly dark, but there was still enough light for Alyssa to look for the calico cat Cody had seen.

“Here, kitty, kitty,” Alyssa called. “Are you out here? I’d love to meet you if you are,” she said in her most friendly voice. Alyssa sat down in her driveway to wait and see if the cat might make an appearance. She’d read a lot of articles and books about cats and she knew they could be pretty picky about who they chose to spend their time with, but in her experience, cats almost always liked her. She just had a feeling this cat would, too. She waited silently, keeping her eyes and ears alert for any sign of the cat. A few minutes later, Cody stuck his head outside the door and announced that they were ready to begin decorating.

Back inside, Christmas carols were playing and Cody had put one of their favorite Christmas movies—Elf—on the TV with the volume off and the closed-captioning on. Mrs. Sing’s surprise turned out to be frozen cocoa. It was like a cross between hot chocolate and an ice cream shake. More important, it was delicious. Alyssa had to fight the urge to chug the whole cup in one gulp, it was so good!

“This tastes like a delicious new holiday tradition,” Cody commented as he nearly drained his glass.

“I’d like to propose a toast,” Mrs. Sing said, raising her frosty mug. “To the Sing family Florida Christmas, new beginnings, and new traditions! May the laughter, light, and love of the season fill our hearts, and our new home, all year round!”

“Hear, hear!” Alyssa and Cody called in unison. They clicked their glasses together and then slurped up the last of their frozen cocoa.

Alyssa was sure that she was in for another new beginning at school tomorrow, too.

An hour later, the tree was decorated. Alyssa, Cody, and Mrs. Sing stood back to admire their work.

“I think this is our prettiest tree yet,” Alyssa observed. “The white lights really put it over the top.”

“You say that every year,” Cody teased. Just as Alyssa was about to protest, he held up a hand. “Let me finish! You say that every year, and this year you happen to be right! The white lights were a great choice. That’s twice in one night you were right, Alyssa. It’s a Christmas miracle,” Cody deadpanned, throwing the pillow back at her.

“No throwing of the pillows, please,” Mrs. Sing said, but she was chuckling. She excused herself to go finish up some work on her laptop.

The family ritual of decorating the tree together had been more fun this year than ever, Alyssa thought as she settled on the couch to watch the end of the movie with Cody. Between reminiscing about memories attached to the different ornaments and reciting lines from Elf while the movie played in the background, Alyssa couldn’t remember the last time she’d had such a fun evening. It had helped to take her mind off of worrying about what had happened at the holiday fair. Now that she was thinking about it again, though, she couldn’t help but wonder. She was really looking forward to having lunch with Rachel and Elle tomorrow… but what if they had decided they didn’t like her anymore? At her old school, there had been some pretty complicated social dynamics between different kids, which made it hard to be friends with everyone. Alyssa had stayed out of all the drama—being best friends with Ryder and Lauren helped a lot because they just did their own thing—but Alyssa didn’t really know what the deal was at Palm Meadows Middle School. She wondered if maybe there was some history between Rachel, Elle, and Becca. There had been some situations like that at her old school, where kids weren’t friends in middle school because of something that had happened when they were younger. She hoped that wasn’t the case… or that if it was, that whatever it was could be fixed. She wanted to be friends with all of them, and hoped maybe they could all hang out together. She didn’t want to have to choose between her new friends.

Then again, she reasoned, maybe Elle and Rachel didn’t know Becca very well. Alyssa’s first impression of Becca had been that she wasn’t that friendly, when in fact she’d turned out to be one of the friendliest girls Alyssa had ever met. So maybe Elle and Rachel just needed to get to know Becca.

Alyssa stole a look at her brother as he sat at the other end of the couch, absorbed in the movie, even though he’d seen it at least a hundred times. She wondered if Cody might have some insight into the situation.

“Hey, can I talk to you about something?”

Cody hit pause on the remote and looked away from the screen. “Sure, what’s up?”

Alyssa explained what had happened at the fair. “I’m positive Elle saw me, and I got the feeling that she and Rachel purposely avoided coming back to the table because Becca was there.”

“Maybe they don’t like Becca,” Cody said, shrugging.

“Cody!” Alyssa exclaimed. “That’s exactly what I’m worried about! What if that’s true? I was hoping maybe they just don’t know her. What am I going to do if they do know her and don’t like her?”

“What can you do, Alyssa?” Cody tapped the remote control on his knee. “Who knows what their history is? Don’t forget, they’ve probably known each other since they were really little. Maybe they had a fight in second grade because Becca stole their Play-Doh and they never got over it. You can’t worry about these things.”

Maybe Cody is right, Alyssa thought. She doubted if their conflict had to do with Play-Doh, but maybe something had happened in the past. Cody started the movie, and Alyssa grabbed the remote and paused it again.

“Can you ask Ben? Maybe he knows if something happened…?”

Cody sighed and looked at his sister. “Alyssa, I don’t think it’s your business—you barely know any of them. I also think you’re ‘getting way ahead of yourself.’” He used air quotes at the end of the sentence because that was something their mom often said to Alyssa when she was worrying about something she couldn’t control.

Don’t get ahead of yourself, Mrs. Sing would say.

“I don’t see why you’re so worried,” Cody said a moment later. “I mean, Becca has friends from the soccer team, so you don’t have to worry about her. It’s not like you think Elle and Rachel are bullies or anything, do you?”

“No, definitely not,” Alyssa said quickly. “At least, I hope not. They seem so nice. But so does Becca, and I just want to be friends with all three of them.”

“Then you should be,” Cody replied. “Elle and Rachel can’t tell you not to be friends with someone. And if they do, then…” Cody sat up straight and waggled his finger at Alyssa in a bad imitation of a grown-up. “Then they’re not really your friends after all.”

Alyssa giggled as Cody tossed a throw pillow at her. “Look, just see what happens at school tomorrow. If it’s really bugging you, tell them you don’t want to be involved in any drama.” With that, he turned the movie back on. It was almost the end, and Cody turned the volume up as the characters in the film sang “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” to power Santa’s sled.

Alyssa told herself Cody was right. There was nothing to worry about.