He glanced over at Elda again. The judges had left her table by now, and she was back to chatting with Dinesh. The two of them were laughing about something. A sour feeling settled in Danny’s stomach. Anxiety, that’s all this was. Giddy nerves and excitement manifesting themselves as sickness. He was about to ask out his dream girl. It was a very good thing, no matter what his gut was trying to tell him.
The mayor and the other judges went to the middle of the floor, and everyone around the room stood up straighter as the mayor started speaking. “We saw so many delicious looking gingerbread people on these tables today. The spirit of Christmas, as always, is alive and well in North Pole.” The mayor’s eyes twinkled as he surveyed the room. “But enough sappiness. Let’s get to the scores.” He glanced down at the paper in his hands. “In third place so far, Ms. Tinka Foster.”
Tinka jumped up and down, squealing, as Sam tried to wrap her in a hug. Tinka was off to a good start. Their scores in this round carried over into the second and third.
Danny’s palms were sweating. He’d never lost this round before. Never ever. Ever.
“In second place,” the mayor said, “Elda and Holly Page. Your grandma would be proud.”
Elda high-fived Dinesh at the table next to her, and Danny’s eyes swooped around the room, instinctively hunting for Holly. She was standing over by the punch bowl, ladling herself a cup of eggnog. She glanced up as if she felt Danny’s eyes on her. She didn’t smile. In fact, she scowled and looked away.
The sickening dread in his stomach was gone, replaced by tingly excitement and disappointment. He hated that she looked at him with such distaste, like she didn’t think he was good enough for Elda or something, like she saw right through him and was completely disenchanted. He desperately wanted to change her mind.
Mayor Sandoval continued, “In first place is…ho, ho, ho! Danny Garland, the comeback kid!”
The crowd cheered loudly for him as Danny accepted a certificate of achievement from the mayor. This gingerbread contest was supposed to be the thing that fixed all his problems, but all he felt was numb.
…
Holly rubbed her temples. “Okay. Maybe we should put this on hold and practice the gingerbread houses instead.” She plucked her pencil and sketch pad out of Elda’s hands and tossed them aside. Elda really, really, really wanted to help Holly with their sketches for the showstopper, but—and it pained Holly to even think this—Elda sucked at gingerbread. Not only had she been awful while piping the frosting earlier today during round one, but she didn’t appear to have an artistic bone in her body. She kept trying to add different ornaments to the sketches that’d completely throw off the balance of the entire showstopper.
Elda popped yet another gumdrop into her mouth, even though Holly had asked her repeatedly to stop eating all their candy. They’d already lost three bags of Skittles to Aunt Vixi’s kids, who had not been deterred by Holly’s threatening note. “This gingerbread thing is hard work, huh?”
Yes, yes, it was, but that was news to Elda. Holly’d started building gingerbread houses when she was in preschool, and she kept making them even after her family stopped coming to North Pole for Christmas. Getting a bunch of cookies to stand upright while loaded down with candy and frosting took skill and practice.
But Holly had to stop holding the fact that Elda was a novice against her. Elda had always been the one to keep the team fed and hydrated. She may not have helped on the actual showstopper, but she provided a valuable service. She was and always had been, as far as Holly was concerned, an integral part of the team. Holly had to keep reminding herself of that.
“We’ll worry about the showstopper later. For now we need to concentrate on round two.” Holly opened up one of the gingerbread house kits Elda had found at a grocery store, complete with some bastardization of royal icing. Holly grabbed scissors and opened it anyway. “If you can learn to make a gingerbread house stand using this garbage, you’ll have no trouble making one stand tomorrow during the competition using the real stuff.”
The girls stood at their worktable, trying to erect a house on a tiny bit of cardboard using store-bought gingerbread and icing. Holly showed Elda how to make a base of royal icing to help the walls hold, and how to line them up at perfect angles. “Basically, our goal is twofold,” Holly said, her sticky frosting-covered hands holding two walls upright as the icing dried. “Make sure the thing stays standing, and make it look pretty. Both elements count for a lot. As long as it stays up, we won’t get docked too badly for, like, frosting seeping out the cracks or whatever. And if we can decorate it nicely, that goes a long way, too.”
Elda spread more frosting along the crack between the two walls. “Thank you for helping me.”
“Of course,” Holly said.
“I mean, with this, but also with Danny. I think it’s working.” Elda furrowed her brow as she held the walls together in some approximation of a right angle. “Danny said he’s going to stop by soon.”
“Ooh.” Holly tried hard to feign excitement. She’d known the score going in—Holly would do the work, but Elda would reap the benefits. And the benefits were considerable. Danny Garland was a beautiful, sweet, smart boy, and Holly’s crush on him had only gotten bigger.
“I talked you up to Dinesh today,” Elda said.
“Mmm-hmm.” Holly never should’ve given Elda the okay on that. She didn’t want Dinesh. She didn’t want anyone here in North Pole except Danny. It wouldn’t be fair to Dinesh for her to agree to go out with him when she definitely wasn’t interested.
“He seemed kind of into it,” Elda said.
Sure, kind of. And that was the other thing. Dinesh didn’t like Holly; that much was obvious. He, like Danny and most other people who were attracted to girls, liked Elda. If Dinesh had in any way indicated that he’d be interested in dating Holly, it was probably only as a way to spend time with Elda. “You know what? I’m good,” Holly said. “Maybe we should nix the whole double date idea. I don’t need you to set me up.”
“I want to,” Elda said. “You’re so great to help me with Danny and the gingerbread contest. Give me a chance to do the same for you. Grandma would’ve wanted us both to be happy.”
Dinesh wasn’t going to make Holly happy. “I’m honestly fine.” A wave of sadness hit her, which was nothing new. All her emotions were so near the surface here in North Pole, especially since they were staying in Grandma’s house and going through Grandma’s things. And every day, the house got a little emptier, a little less Grandma-like. She would’ve wanted both girls to be happy, but that didn’t seem possible, given the current situation.
The side door of the garage opened, and in came Danny, the very reason for Holly’s emotional confusion.
Carrying a Christmas gift bag over his shoulder, he maneuvered his crutches past their gingerbread paraphernalia on the floor and took a seat in an empty lawn chair. Elda jumped up and got him another chair for his leg.