Page 18 of Christmas Criminal

Noelle scoffs. "Not anymore. Thank god."

"Noelle is fulfilling a community service requirement," I explain.

"Oh."

And the only sound is that of our feet on the pavement.

"So what did you do?" Robbie asks.

She crinkles her nose. "I threw eggs at my dad's house."

Robbie's laugh is boisterous–as it always is–and Noelle can't seem to resist laughing along with him.

"Why?" he asks.

She shrugs. "He didn't show up for my sister when he really should have. And I got mad and needed to do something, and I went in the fridge for a drink and came out with a carton of eggs instead."

Robbie chuckles again, eyes wide with delight.

"Don't get any ideas," I tell him.

"I mean, it was pretty cathartic to be honest," Noelle says.

I turn to her, giving her my best stern teacher face because theworstpossible outcome of this pseudo-punishment would be further trouble.

"But a bad idea," she finishes, her eyes on mine. "A very bad idea. Because now I'm a criminal."

I nod my approval.

"Hmm," he says. "I don't know. Might be worth it to do once."

"No," I say. "It's not."

Noelle waves me off. "Well, wait. Whose house would you egg? Maybe we can get creative. I mean, they mightdeservean egging, but we might have options for vengeance that don't land you in community service."

"Hey," I say, drawing their attention to me. "No egging. No vengeance." I pause, making sure my words hit. I'm suddenly worried this was theworstidea I could have concocted. "Today is about undoing past wrongs by contributing positively to the community."

Noelle rolls her eyes. "Okay, what are you, an after-school special?"

Robbie's laughter fills the air once more, and the glare she's giving me crumbles into a smile.

"Can the two of you do me a favor and just behave for the next two hours?" I ask.

Robbie shrugs. Noelle rolls her eyes.

And silence descends upon us once more.

"So in theory, if there was a kid in Snow Falls who was going to egg somebody's house, whose house do you think he would egg? Speaking as a totally objective third-party observer who understands that egging houses and enacting vengeance is wrong."

I throw my hands out in front of me, turning my attention to Noelle.

She brushes her hair behind her ear, her attention on Robbie, and–

She's flipping me off. She's brushing her hair behind her ear with her middle finger, lingering a second longer than she really needs to.

And when she glances back at me, she only grins.

What have I gotten myself into?

---