A/N: Sorry about the short chapter. I promise they'll be longer later :)
Flying utterly: Thanks again! I could never forget Batty. I love the other sisters, but it annoys me sometimes when fanfics only focus on the older sisters.
Guest: Thank you so much! I've never been called talented before :)
Day 2- Ornaments
"My goodness!" said Iantha, pressing a hand to her heart as Jane, Skye, Jeffrey, and Rosalind struggled inside with the Christmas tree. "You had to pick the biggest tree there, didn't you Martin?" Mr. Penderwick kissed her cheek.
"The bigger the better," he laughed.
"Daddy!" came Jane's voice from the living room. "Where do we put this?" Mr. Penderwick rushed to help them set it down. After much shouting and stumbling and Hound barking and pine needles in everyone's face, the Christmas tree was finally set down in the corner. Jane, Rosalind and Skye were sent into the basement to retrieve Christmas tree lights. Jeffrey felt a tug on his shirt and looked down to see Batty looking thoughtfully at the tree.
"Why don't we make our own ornaments, Jeffrey?"
"That's a good idea." interrupted Cagney, poking his head into the living room. "Do you have any art supplies?"
"Of course."
"Why don't you show me and Jeffrey?" Batty led them to a closet that was stacked to the brim with glue sticks, construction paper, pipe cleaners, markers, stencils, and more.
"You have quite the collection, Batty." remarked Jeffrey, grabbing some tubes of glitter glue and a stack of construction paper.
"Yes," Batty agreed, going into the kitchen with her arms overflowing with pipe cleaners. "Rosalind says that Mommy used to do lots of arts-and-crafts with them when they were little." She and the boys set their supplies down on the kitchen table, where Iantha was feeding Ben some applesauce.
"What should I make first?" thought Jeffrey aloud, surveying the supplies before him. Cagney and Batty were already making their ornaments, spreading glue and snippets of yarn across the table. Suddenly Jeffrey knew. Quickly grabbing some popsicle sticks and markers, he set to work with a smile.
When Skye dared to venture into the kitchen at last, it was nearly dinnertime. Everyone else had gone into the living room decorate the tree, and Skye had been admiring it when she noticed someone was missing. Only Jeffrey was still working, head bent over the kitchen table. Skye plopped down silently in the chair next to him, marveling at how messy the kitchen had gotten since the ornament making had begun. She propped her chin in her hands, watching Jeffrey. His face scrunched up when he was concentrating, and for some reason there was gold glitter in his hair, courtesy of Batty.
"I finished!" Skye jerked back, then took a closer look of what Jeffrey was holding out to her.
"A snowflake," she said slowly. It was cleverly made, with silver-glitter sprinkled popsicle sticks sticking out from the center and attached with blue yarn
"Yeah," confirmed Jeffrey. "Now look closer." Skye leaned in. On each point of the snowflake was a word and a face.
"Hey!" said Skye. "Did you cut up one of our photos?"
"Yeah-Iantha said she had more copies. Keep looking. See anyone familiar?" Skye peered at one point of the snowflake. On the popsicle stick in lavender marker was written Jane , and at the end of the stick was Jane's smiling face. Skye recognized it as a picture from Iantha and Daddy's wedding. Below that was Rosalind written in primrose marker and laughing with Tommy, and then Batty written in orange marker hugging Ursula the bear. Under that was Mr. Penderwick written in deep green, smiling in a tuxedo, then Iantha written in dark purple with a photo of her and her telescope, and little Ben in red with his favorite duck, and Hound and Asimov written in light green with a picture of them in the backyard together. And last but not least, written in blue, was Skye. The photo was one she didn't remember. She was wearing a dress, for one thing, and was smiling, actually smiling. Thank goodness she had her camouflage cap jammed stubbornly on her head. It must have been another of those wedding photos. Darn photographers everywhere.
Skye looked at Jeffrey.
"Oh, Jeffrey, it's wonderful."
"Really?"
"Yes. But did you really have to use that picture of me? I'm wearing a dress."
Jeffrey laughed.
"I thought you looked nice."
Skye rolled her eyes and playfully ruffled his hair.
"Yeah right. C'mon, let's go put this on the tree." They let Batty hang the snowflake ornament right in the middle of the tree, shining for all of Jeffrey's second family to see.
A/N: PLEASE REVIEWWWWW! MEANS THE WORLD TO ME!
