Page 10 of A Very Addicted Christmas

“We’ve gathered all six of you here for a really important presentation,” Winona says, rocking on the balls of her feet. She claps her hands together. “We’d appreciate it atonif you all took this one-hundred percent seriously.”

“Because this is serious,” Kinney emphasizes.

Presentation.

Rose and I share a look, and I lift my brow. It sounds intriguing.

Winona is wearing green plaid boxers, a baggy Camp Calloway T-shirt, and knee-high socks.Pajamas.So this isn’t something special enough to dress up for—or they didn’t think it’d help their cause. I can’t discern which.

“And we thank you all for being here,” Audrey says quickly.

“It was mandatory,” Kinney adds. Her black pajama top has skeletons printed with the wordsit’s my party.

“We’re here. It’s the butt-crack of dawn,” Lo says, through a mouthful of muffin. “What’s this presentation all about?”

I notice the remote in Winona’s hands and she clicks the button. The 100’’ projector screen starts lowering. She clicks another button and the first slide to a PowerPoint appears.

6 Reasons Why Winona, Vada, Kinney, and Audrey Should Be Allowed to Go On Tour

Ryke starts coughing on his oatmeal.

“Deep breaths,” Daisy encourages, and if I turned around in my seat, I’d imagine she’s patting his back.

“Kinney, we’ve talked about this,” Lily says.

They have?

Audrey hasn’t formally asked Rose and me to go on tour with the older kids, and I wonder if she was stalling and waiting for the right time. That's the thing about Audrey Virginia Cobalt. She appears young and innocent with her wardrobe of soft colors and pinks, her round orb-like eyes, and her whimsical inflection on certain words. But she's still our daughter. Born from lions.

I've seen her conspire with her brothers to bake "screw you" cupcakes for Luna's bully at school. Rose caught them before they were delivered to Dalton Academy, and she noted how Tom and Eliot were nice enough not to make their little sister write "fuck you" in frosting.

Audrey, my youngest, often begs me to play backgammon with her. She wants to get better. Just so she can one day beat Charlie. So for all her sweetness, there's cleverness. I don't underestimate my twelve-year-old.

“It wasn’t Opposite Day, Kinney Hale,” Lo tells her strictly. “The answer wasno.”

She crosses her arms over her chest. “Well you didn’t say I couldn’t try again.”

“It’s a good presentation,” Winona argues. “Please,pleasejust let us have a chance totryto convince you.” She extends her arms. “Open your minds.”

Audrey chimes in, “We put a lot of work into it, Uncle Loren.”

Rose waves them on. “I’d like to see it.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t want to see it, Rose,” Lo snaps. “I just said the answer isno. It’s a tour bus, not the Magic School Bus.”

“We can argueaftertheir presentation, Loren,” Rose says with less heat than usual. It hasn’t been completely extinguished by the recent fallout, but it’s not as scalding.

Lo eases back. “Fair.”

“You can begin,” I tell Winona.

She clicks a button, and the next slide appears after the first dissolves away. It’s followed by…music. I frown, trying to place the voice. And then I realize. It’s Taylor Swift.

My brows arch.

REASON 1: WE SHOULD NOT BE PENALIZED FOR BEING YOUNG.

“Age is a construct,” Audrey begins.

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