Page 16 of The Merriest Christmas

"Yeah," I muttered."I hope he's okay, but it took me hours to make those cookies, and now…it's all ruined."

Rose patted me on the back.

"We could do something else," Mom said.

"Like what?" I said.

"I brought those marshmallows," Rose said, nodding at the table."And it looks like you still have chocolate chips."

"And we have graham crackers," Finn put in.

I sniffed."Who ever heard of a marshmallow, chocolate chip, graham cracker house?"

"We'll be the first to make them," Rose said with a smile."Although, obviously, Finn and I will be winning."

"Yeah right," I said.

"But if you're scared"—Finn held his hands out and shrugged—"we can just call it now."

"Please, I am so going to beat you."

"Hmmm, and yet you still need a partner."

Seaver looked like he was going to say something, but I pulled one of the players over to my side.

"Hey," I said, "want to be my partner?"

"Sure," he said with a grin.

"What's your name?"

"Toby.It's nice to—"

"You too," I said, cutting him off and dragging him away."Let's win this thing."

"Whoa," he said."Where are we going?"

Away from Seaver.

"Toby, the only thing you need to know is that I'm very competitive," I said."And we're going to win.Got it?"

"Got it," he replied."Let's do this, O'Brien."

#

I thought we had it.I really did.There wasn't much competition since most of the players seemed more interested in throwing marshmallows at each other or eating the house rather than making it spectacular.But I'd underestimated Rose and Finn.

Instead of a house, they'd made a little baseball stadium and field.

They even included lights and used green sprinkles for the grass.

It wasn't even close.

"Team Rinn for the win," my brother said then turned as Rose gave him a high-five.

"We rock," she said.

"We do."

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