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But I was nothing, if not resourceful I had a plan It wasnʼt a fool-proof plan It wasnʼt even a good plan But it was a plan And on Christ to put my plan into action Chapter 9

Christreat unless have randparents than clean socks It took two days and endless patience to get through our multitude of family celebrations that included each of Dadʼs divorced parents, Mo with Talley and her mom, ere considered family since Mrs Matthews had baby-sat Jase and el woke everyone up with screams of, "He came! Santa ca I hoped he had brought her a watch and sense enough to let e leʼs new kitty, Elf, that promptly hissed at Jase and attempted to claw out an Family Christh the door of the quaint log cabin tucked into the woods Part of it was due to the delicious s et the abuse frorowl as if I hadnʼt eaten in weeks Part of it was the hts and decorations that covered every inch of the house Part of it was the sound of Christuitars But athered me into his arms and spun me around the roome over

"Well, do I pass inspection?"

Charlie screwed his mouth up to one side, which made hiht you were supposed to be orange with a splattering of black and blue"

For once in rateful to be a whiter shade of pale "Itʼs all faded away, except for a rather spectacular spot on reenish yellow" I regretted the words the second they were out of an decided to shuffle in froh that he had tears rolling down his cheeks by the tiladies

Later, e gathered around the tree, Charlie placed a sh the paper to uncover a vintage looking necklace The pendant was in the shape of a hippo decked out in a tutu and toe shoes

"Do you like it?" Charlie asked, sweeping ht it at one of those hipster-cool stores down by ca about how ered the tiny piece of metal as he secured the clasp "I love it Itʼs perfect" And it was

It was funky and cool without being ostentatious I didnʼt plan on ever taking it off

Jase randparents and a nice stack of new games from Uncle Charles and Aunt Diane Jase and Charlie ian called "the back parlor" and everyone else referred to as "Uncle Charlesʼs old rooh candy-colored landscapes and engaging psychotic bunnies in some fairly inane competitions with Jase, Charlie, and Layne, Charlieʼs soh, Layne got tired of not getting our jokes and went to do so sames and tapped out Jase and Charlie pretended to be disappointed, but really they were just excited to tear into the neo-player shooting ga over since Jase opened it

I spent the led into Charlieʼs side on the love-seat, watching as they valiantly atte

"Iʼm confused," I finally admitted "Are they aliens or zombies?"

"Theyʼre obviously zombified aliens," Jase said as he shot one between the eyes, causing brain matter to splatter on the screen