"I'll get it," she called out, reaching for the receiver and placing the cookies on the kitchen counter. "h.e.l.lo?"

"Hi, Christy? This is Doug."

"Doug, hi! Guess what I have for you?"

"I hope it's cookies!"

"Yep. Katie and I made them this afternoon for you guys. I'll mail them to you tomorrow."

"I was hoping you were bringing them with you tonight. Rick said he gave you the message."

"He did," Christy said. "But I can't come. I'm sorry, Doug. I really wanted to, and hopefully I'll be able to another time." She lowered her voice. "My parents aren't in favor of my driving all that way at night and everything."

"I wish I'd known that," Doug said. "I could've given you a ride."

"That's okay, Doug. It's kind of a long way for you to have to come."

"I wouldn't have minded a bit. Actually, I should have called you earlier. You see, tonight is our last G.o.d-Lovers. We won't meet again until next semester starts up. Probably the end of January."

"Oh, I didn't know, Doug. I'm sorry. Now I really feel bad."

"I should have called you earlier," Doug said. "But hey, we have a huge Christmas break starting next week. We can all get together and do something then. Are you going to be at your aunt and uncle's in Newport Beach like you were last "I'm not sure yet what we're doing. I could probably make arrangements at work and ask my aunt if I could stay with her." Christy thought of how fun it would be to get together with her Newport Beach friends again. Last Christmas she had had breakfast on the beach with Todd.

Todd was so different from any other guy she had ever known. The last two years of her life were filled with memories of him: her first kiss, a trip to Disneyland on her birthday, the vacation last summer on Maui, long talks, and many ups and downs. She thought of New Year's Eve last year, when she and Todd went to a party in Newport Beach at their friend Heather's house. At midnight Todd had given her a gold ID bracelet with the word "Forever" engraved on it and kissed her.

While she was dating Rick, he had "borrowed" the ID bracelet and traded it for a clunky silver one that said "Rick." Her relationship with Rick had its share of rough water, but when she found out he had taken Todd's bracelet and sold it, she broke up with him immediately.

Christy had faithfully made payments at the jewelry store to retrieve her gold bracelet. Then one day she went to make a payment and found out that some guy, who wished to remain anonymous, had paid it off.

She still didn't know who it was. At first she suspected Jon, her boss. He denied it when she asked him. Katie thought it might have been Rick, trying to make up for being such a jerk. For a while Christy wondered if somehow Todd had found out and paid it off.

She glanced at her bracelet, now secure on her right wrist, and asked Doug, "Have you heard anything from Todd? Did he say when he's coming back from Hawaii?"

"No, I haven't," Doug answered slowly. "We need to be praying for him though, because the next two weeks are his big compet.i.tion weeks at Waimea. He'll either make the pro surfing-circuit or drop out."

"If he doesn't make it, does that mean he might come home?" Christy tried not to sound too hopeful.

"Who knows. He might stay at U of H for the next semester. Or he could be on a plane back right now. You never know with Todd."

Well said, Doug. I couldn't have expressed it better myself. You never know with Todd. Looking at her bracelet again she thought, He could be on a plane right now. You never know!

Monday morning with a sore throat and thought about how wonderful it would be to stay in her cozy bed all day. But she knew that, with only five more school days until Christmas break, she couldn't afford to miss any of her tests or get behind in her homework.

So she made an agreement with herself. If I don't feel better after I take a nice, hot shower, then I'll go back to bed.

The shower seemed to perk her up, and she went to school with a package of Mom's cough drops in her purse. She actually felt okay until lunch, when she told Katie about Doug's phone call.

"So we missed our one opportunity," Katie said flatly.

"They'll start up again in January," Christy replied defensively. "I didn't know that was their final meeting."

"I'm not blaming you," Katie said. "I'm b.u.mmed, that's all. I had such a great feeling about being invited to a college campus and being considered on *their' level."

"Is that why you were so eager to go?"

"Sure! Didn't it make you feel a little grown-up and, you knowakind of like the big kids were saying, 'Red Rover, Red Rover, send Katie and Christy right over'?"

"Not really, but I can see what you mean. Don't strangle me, but for a while I was thinking you wanted to go because of Rick."

Katie dropped her candy bar on her lunch bag and said, "Christy, how could you even think that?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's because I know Rick. He likes a challenge. You know that. I guess it seemed after our encounter with him in the mall parking lot that you became sort of a challenge to him."

"Challenge or no challenge, Rick isn't exactly my favorite person."

"I know."

"Rick and I couldn't be more opposite." Katie s.n.a.t.c.hed up her candy bar and chomped into it for added emphasis.

To herself, Christy muttered, "Sometimes opposites attract."

"I heard that," Katie said. "Now can we talk about something else? Like the way Glen hugged me last night when I gave him the CD?"

"Oh, Katie! I'm sorry! I meant to ask you what happened. Tell me, tell me!"

"There's not much to tell. I gave him the CD after church last night, and he hugged me and said thanks. His mom was standing right there. It wasn't a big deal."

Christy's eyes scanned Katie's for more details.

"That's it. It was nice. I'm glad I gave it to him, but I wouldn't write a love sonnet about the experience. Speaking of sonnets, have you read that thirteen-page sonnet for English yet?"

Christy shook her head and slowly sucked her boxed orange juice through the thin straw. It surprised her that Katie wasn't more excited about Glen. She didn't seem to be as interested in him as she had been a month ago.

Christy watched and listened to Katie the rest of the week. She didn't mention Glen once. Christy thought it best to wait for the right time before bringing up his name.

It was a grueling week of homework and three huge exams. By Friday Christy was so eager for school to end that she spent her last cla.s.s writing out Christmas cards and working on her Christmas shopping list.

Half the cla.s.s had ditched, and the teacher sat on the edge of his desk showing a clump of students his famous card tricks. Christy hoped to finish all her Christmas cards so she could mail them from work that night. With only a week left before Christmas, she hoped they would arrive on time. Alissa's card was going to Boston, and Paula's would be sent to Wisconsin, but the rest of her friends were in California, so their cards should arrive before the big day.

But what should she do about Todd? She had a card addressed to him at his address on Oahu, but would he get it if he was surfing all week like Doug said?

And what about a present? Last year she had painted a surfer on a T-shirt for him. He probably liked it because she had seen him wear it several times.

This year a painted T-shirt seemed like a dumb present. She was surprised she had thought it was such a great idea last year. Maybe she should just send him a card. It was probably too late to mail anything to Hawaii anyway. She should have thought of all this much sooner.

The final bell rang, and everyone cheered and joked, saying, "See you next year!"

Christy stuffed her cards in her bag and met Katie at Christy's locker as planned.

"Ready?" Christy asked. "I'd like to get to work a little early so I can mail my Christmas cards."

"I have everything," Katie said. "Let's go. Thanks for giving me a ride again. If my brother doesn't get his car fixed soon, I'm going to make my parents give him an ultimatum. He doesn't even ask. He just takes off in my car as if I don't have places to go, people to see."

"Why don't you ask your parents to get his car fixed for him as his Christmas present?"

"That's a good idea," Katie agreed as Christy unlocked the car doors. "By the way, what are you getting Rick this "Rick? Nothing!"

"Not even a card?"

"Well, maybe a card. I was going to send one to Doug, and I was thinking about adding Rick's name to it. I want to talk to him face-to-face and settle everything between us. I don't think a card would do much good."

"Sounds wise," Katie said, humming to herself the rest of the way to the mall.

Now Christy's curiosity was up. As they walked into the mall, she asked, "Katie, why did you ask if I was sending Rick a Christmas card?"

"Oh, no reason," she said.

Christy wasn't convinced. She felt suspicious the rest of the evening. It still bothered her that Rick had hung around and talked to Katie last Friday, and yet he hadn't given her a time when they could sit down and talk.

Maybe it was up to her to set the time. She had Rick's phone numbers in San Diego and at his parents' home. She could call him and make him talk to her. But by the time Christy arrived home from work, all her fiery determination had died down to the same barely warm embers she had felt ever since they broke up. She would wait for him to call.

To her surprise, the next morning he did.

"Hi," Christy said, not at all sure what to say next. She decided to let him do the talking.

"Nice being out of school for Christmas, isn't it?" Rick said.

"Yes. Yes, it is."

"Well, are you working all next week?"

"I work Wednesday all day, but I have the rest of the week off."

"So Monday would be good to get together and talk," Rick said. It sounded more like a statement than a question.

"I think so. What time?"

Rick was silent for a minute. Christy wondered if she had asked the wrong question. For this to work, it had to be Rick's idea that they get together. She refused to give him any cause to think of her as one of his many old girlfriends who was trying to get back together with him.

"I don't know," Rick said suddenly. "I'll call you."

"Okay," Christy replied.

Then he hung up.

At first his abruptness made her mad. Then she thought about how he had sounded like he was trying to figure out how to talk to her normally. The whole time she had known him, he had been a smooth talker with lots of promises and flattery. Maybe Rick didn't know how to talk to her without an ulterior motive. Or maybe he was changing, and his new shy side was coming out. Did he really want to get together and talk, or was he doing this just for her? Could it be that hard for him to switch from boyfriend to friend and let their relationship go on, even if he didn't always have control?

I guess I'll find out Monday, Christy thought and hurried to get ready for work.

She arrived at the pet shop around 10:45- I* was clear that the Christmas rush had begun. Christy rang up purchases for nearly two hours without a letup. Most of the sales were the seasonal promotional stuff, like kitty stockings filled with catnip and reindeer horns on a headband for a dog.

Christy didn't mind that it was so busy. She actually entered into the spirit of things and told the customers "Merry Christmas" when she handed them their bags.

Around one, Beverly, the other pet shop employee, came to relieve her at the cash register.

"Jon said he wanted to see you in the back," Beverly told her.

Uh-oh. Sounds like I'm in trouble.

Jon was slicing open a box when she stepped into the back room.

"You wanted to see me?"

"Yeah. Have a seat. I wanted to talk to you about the way you've been saying Merry Christmas to all the customers."

"Yes?"

"Well, Christy, not all of our customers celebrate Christmas. It could be offensive to them," Jon said.

"I'm only trying to be nice," Christy said defensively. "It didn't seem to bother anyone. Most of them said Merry Christmas back. I think they like hearing it."

"Now, don't be defensive," Jon said. "Change it to 'Season's Greetings,' and no one will be offended, okay?"

Christy started to nod, but then she realized that deep inside, it wasn't okay.

"Okay?" Jon said again, looking for her agreement.

"No, it's not really."

Jon looked surprised and waited for her to explain.

Christy bravely put her thoughts into words. "Remember once you told me that if people believe something they should take a stand and not be sneaky about it?"

"Well, yes," Jon said. "That sounds like something I'd say. I'm sure I wasn't referring to this though."

"It applies to this," Christy said firmly, before she lost all her nerve. "At least to me, it does. It's not just a season that I'm celebrating. I'm celebrating Christ's birthday, and that's what Christmas is. Everybody knows that. How can that be offensive?"

"Christy, that might be what you believe, but that's not what everyone else believes."

"Then if they don't believe it, why can't they accept what I believe and say their own Season's Greetings back to me?"

"Okay, okay!" Jon said. "You win. You believe something, you're taking a stand for it, and I have to admit that I admire that. Go ahead. Stick with the Merry Christmas. How much can it hurt?"

"Thanks, Jon."

"That's okay. Now why don't you take your lunch break? It's been nonstop all morning. If you don't get away now, you might not get a chance."

Christy was about to leave when she realized that because it had been so busy, Jon hadn't taken a lunch break either.