“If I eat one more cookie, I am going to explode,” Rachel declared. “I am too full to ever eat again!”

“Me too,” Elle agreed, rubbing her stomach for emphasis. “I should have stopped after Home Alone 2,” she joked. “Those were the best sugar cookies I’ve ever had. You were totally right about adding a pinch of brown sugar.”

Alyssa smiled happily from her spot on the floor of her bedroom. They had just finished watching Home Alone 3, the third movie in their holiday movie marathon. Dasher was curled up next to her, purring contentedly while she napped. “I can’t take credit for the cookies. It was my mom’s recipe. She’s an amazing baker. I’m actually kind of a terrible baker unless I follow a recipe.”

“Well, you can’t be any worse than—” Rachel stopped speaking suddenly.

“Than who?” Alyssa prompted.

“I think she was going to say Becca,” Elle finished. Rachel nodded. “We used to have a holiday sleepover every year, just the three of us. We’d been doing it since second grade, and so we had a bunch of traditions.” Elle began to pet Dasher gently as she spoke. “One was making a million Christmas cookies. Becca would somehow mess them up. Every year. It was kind of hilarious. Baking is, like, the one thing she’s not good at.”

“We’re not making fun of her when we say that,” Rachel added quickly. “You can ask her—she’d tell you herself!”

“Oh, it’s okay, I didn’t think you were being mean,” Alyssa replied. Dasher woke up, stretched, and curled back up into a ball, moving even closer to Alyssa. “Speaking of Becca… I had invited her to come tonight,” Alyssa said quietly.

For a moment, neither Elle nor Rachel spoke, and Alyssa felt a knot form in her stomach. Are they angry I invited her? Say something!

Elle spoke first.

“What did she say?” she asked.

“She said she couldn’t make it,” Alyssa replied uncomfortably. Why did I bring it up this way? This is just awkward. “She had plans with Renee…?”

“Renee is one of the girls from the soccer team,” Rachel said. “One of the girls Becca is really friendly with now… now that she’s not friends with us anymore.”

The air grew thick. Alyssa hated how uncomfortable things became whenever Becca came up. She took a deep breath and blurted out what she had been wondering for a week now. “What happened between you guys?”

Elle and Rachel exchanged a look. Rachel shrugged and nodded to Elle.

“At the beginning of last year, Becca went out for soccer,” Elle began. “She made the team. She’s really good.…”

“So good,” Rachel interjected.

“And the kids on the soccer team are really close,” Elle continued. “They have their own parties and sleepovers and stuff.…”

Alyssa nodded. “Yeah, my brother is on the boys’ team and he’s always doing things with the guys from his team.”

“Exactly.” Elle nodded. “And I guess Becca just liked hanging out with the soccer kids more than us because before long she just stopped spending any time with us. She came to my birthday party that year, but she showed up an hour late and then had to leave early because there was some soccer team emergency.”

“And then she bailed on our annual holiday sleepover,” Rachel added sadly. “She called at the last minute to say she couldn’t make it because of some soccer party. And then when we returned to school after the holiday break last year, she stopped sitting with us at lunch so she could sit at the soccer table. No explanation or anything. She just stopped being our friend.”

Alyssa looked at her friends’ faces, and she could tell it was hard for them to talk about it. They missed Becca—she was sure of it.

“I’m really sorry that happened,” she said finally. “I have to say, though, that does not sound like the Becca I know. I mean, she’s busy with soccer for sure, but she’s been making all this time to help me knit scarves for this insane scarf order I have. She’s being a really good friend to me.…”

“She’s a great friend to have,” Rachel agreed. “She just stopped wanting to be our friend. My mom said that sometimes friends grow apart, and that’s what happened, I guess.”

“I just can’t believe that,” Alyssa said honestly, even though her own mom had told her basically the same thing. “She doesn’t seem like the kind of friend who just… discards her old friends when she makes new ones.”

“Or maybe she just got tired of us,” Elle said simply. Alyssa started to protest, and Elle held up her hand. “Hey, it’s okay, Alyssa. You are awesome and I don’t blame Becca for finding room in her busy schedule for you. She just never made time for Rachel and me after she joined the soccer team. It’s like she decided she wanted to move on, and she did.”

Alyssa was positive that wasn’t what happened, but she knew she couldn’t keep disagreeing with Elle.

“It’s okay, Alyssa,” Elle continued. “Rachel and I have each other, and now we have you, too, as our friend.”

“Right,” Rachel said.

Alyssa twirled her fingers in Dasher’s fur. “Thanks for saying that—I’m so glad you guys are my friends! But I have to tell you, I think you’re wrong about Becca. I think this was all just a misunderstanding. I can’t explain it, but I really think she misses you.”

“Has she said that?” Elle asked.

“Not exactly,” Alyssa admitted. “It’s just a feeling I get. I feel like if she could have come tonight we all would have had so much fun. You guys remind me so much of each other,” she added, looking at Elle.

“OMG, tell me about it.” Rachel laughed. “I used to say that all the time.”

Elle smiled, too, at the memory. “Maybe you’re right,” she said finally. “I miss Becca, and I’d love to be friends with her again,” she added. “I’ve just never thought that maybe she missed us, too.…”

“Me neither,” Rachel said softly.

“I have an amazing idea, then,” Alyssa said, jumping to her feet so fast she startled Dasher. “Let’s have a do-over sleepover next weekend with the four of us!”

“Actually, about next weekend…” Rachel began. “Elle and I were planning to have our annual holiday sleepover on Saturday night.…”

“Oh. Right,” Alyssa said. She felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment. “That’s okay. We can do it some other time.”

“Alyssa, let me finish!” Rachel said playfully. “Elle and I already talked about it, and we wanted to invite you to come this year! And maybe… well, maybe we can invite Becca, too.…” Her voice trailed off as she looked at Elle uncertainly.

“I don’t know,” Elle said, replying to Rachel’s unspoken question about Becca. “First things first… Alyssa, will you come to our sleepover next weekend?”

“Definitely!”

“Great. And as for Becca, Rachel and I will sleep on it. Maybe we can talk to her at lunch next week or something and see how it goes. I’m all for giving this a chance if she wants it, too, but we need to know that she actually does want it. Is that fair?”

“Totally fair,” Alyssa replied.

A short while later, Alyssa was curled up in bed with Dasher beside her. She could tell Elle and Rachel were asleep from their even breathing. Alyssa sighed happily and snuggled with Dasher. She’d had the perfect holiday sleepover tonight and had plans for another one next weekend… one that would hopefully include all her friends.

As Alyssa drifted off to sleep, she realized she knew exactly what she wanted to write her holiday-wish essay about. She just hoped it was okay to write about a wish that had already come true.