Another holiday, another chapter. Hopefully I can update my other one too over the next few days. Sorry it's been so long!

It was with a huge amount of surprise and then glee that I greeted Crane when he picked me up from my class the following Saturday. I had known that he was coming home that day for the Christmas break, but I hadn't expected that he would be the one picking me up. I squealed when I saw him in the car park, leaning against the driver's side of the jeep with his arms crossed and ran straight to him, throwing myself into his middle and hugging the daylights out of him. Crane laughed softly and hugged me back.

"When did you get back?" I asked looking up at him, my arms still around his waist.

"Mid-morning. I thought I'd come to class and surprise my favorite little sister." He smoothed my hair back fondly. "We'd better get on home. Brian's making a huuuuge welcome home lunch."

I agreed happily and Crane and I set off for home. On the way home, I filled him in on my news, or the family's news like what happened in my class, Olivia STILL not being at school, and the fact that there had been two hospital visits that week. First, Evan had been thrown off his horse at youth rodeo. He'd had a suspected broken collar bone, but it turned out to be only badly bruised. The next day, Guthrie had been playing soccer in the school playground with some other kids and he had tripped and smashed his head against the side of one of the buildings. When he'd started feeling nauseated only an hour later, the school nurse had called home and Adam had come to collect him and take him to the hospital. It turned out he had concussion and he'd been off school the next couple of days, resting. I had been beside myself when Guthrie had hurt himself. I had point blank refused to go back to class until Guthrie had been picked up and had sat next to Guthrie holding his hand and worrying over him. I'd wanted to go to the hospital with Guthrie too, but Adam had made me stay at school and ordered me to go back to class.

I'm sure Crane knew all this- someone was bound to have filled him in- but he listened patiently anyway. Crane's nice like that.

"Sounds like it's been a real eventful week!" he said, when I'd talked a mile and minute and run out of steam.

"Uh huh! Crane, how long you home for?"

"Around three weeks."

I had known that, but there was something delicious about hearing Crane say that he was going to be around for three whole weeks. That feels like a lifetime when you're 8.

I shifted with excitement next to him. "And are we still going to get our tree tomorrow?"

"I believe we are."

"I'm so happy!" I squealed.

Getting the tree as a family was one of my most favorite things to do. I felt like I might explode with excitement.

Crane glanced at home for a moment. He smiled softly, but all he said was, "I'm glad, little one."

/

Crane was right- Brian had made an enormous lunch to welcome Crane home. He often grumbled about cooking, but I think he secretly enjoyed it, otherwise why would he go all out? Both Guthrie and I were really over excited about Crane being home, and we had to be told a couple of times by both Adam and Brian to calm down. It was hard though. When you're excited, you're excited!

We were about finished and about to leave the table when Brian shared one of their communication without words looks with Adam, and then said to the table, "Before y'all leave the table, now that Crane's home and Christmas is less than 2 weeks away, I think we'd better draw our secret santa names sooner rather than later."

"Yes! I love secret santa!" Guthrie yelled and I copied him. Secret santa was something we did every year at Christmas time because there were so many of us and it was too expensive for each of us to buy everyone else a present. It had started with our parents: they had bought all of us kids a present each, and then the kids would only buy our secret santa name a gift. Adam and Brian had continued the tradition, so all of us younger kids, Crane included, got a gift from the two of them as our 'parents' and then the rest of us would only buy our secret santa name a gift. Adam and Brian were included in that too. Last year I had drawn Crane's name. I knew he loved reading as much as I did, so I'd taken my saved up allowance money and with a lot of Brian's help- he's a surprisingly excellent gift buyer- we'd chosen Crane a book on European history we thought he'd like at the bookstore. I was secretly hoping to draw Crane's name again because book buying was fun, even if it wasn't for yourself. But it seemed unlikely.

"I'm calling getting to pick first," Daniel said, shooting his hand up in the air.

"You got to pick first last year," Evan said, "Give someone else a go."

"It doesn't really matter though, does it?" Ford said. "I mean, you don't get to pick the person you're buying a present for; it's all anonymous."

"Who cares? I still want to pick first!" Daniel said.

Ford shook his head like a parent would, as though he couldn't believe Daniel's immaturity.

"To stop any arguments, I'm goin' to pick first," Adam said. Daniel grumbled a little, but I could tell he didn't care that much.

Adam fetched a clean bowl from the cupboard and then took a sheet of lined paper that was lying on one of the side counters, probably left over from one of our pieces of homework. He tore it into 8 pieces and then wrote down our names on the pieces of paper, folding each one over a couple of times so that the name was covered. Guthrie went to lean on Adam's shoulder, watching the proceedings carefully. When Adam had put all our names into the bowl, he shook it around a bit to mix up the pieces of paper.

"Right, I'm goin' to pick now," he said.

"Remember the rules, Adam, you're only allowed to put it back if you draw your own name," Guthrie said.

"Aww, so I can't buy myself a gift then if I draw my own name?" Adam asked, teasingly, but Guthrie took him seriously and shook his head.

"That's against the rules, Adam," he said gravely.

"Alright, Guth, whatever you say."

Adam shut his eyes theatrically and swished his hand around in the bowl before pulling a name out the bowl. He unfolded the piece of paper and peeked at it, before smiling briefly.

"It's not my own name," he said, to Guthrie more than anyone else.

There was a very brief tussle about who would get to go next. Crane volunteered to go last and Ford said he didn't mind either. He shared a smile with Crane as if to confirm that the two of them were above all the petty arguments.

Daniel did end up going next, but he had to draw twice because he picked himself. Then Evan went, then Guthrie, then me, followed by Brian, Ford and lastly Crane. I picked Ford, which I thought would be tricky. Evan, Daniel, Crane and even Guthrie were the easiest to buy for in my opinion because they all had very clear hobbies. But Ford was into a bit of everything. Technically you were meant to keep your secret santa name to yourself, but since Brian had helped me last year, I decided I would ask his advice again.

/

The christmas cheer continued into Sunday when after church, lunch and chores, we all went as a family to pick our Christmas tree in the late afternoon. Our family has a lot of land, and most years, because our family always needed money, my older brothers would cut down christmas trees and sell them for some extra income. I guess they could have just brought one home for us, but it was a family tradition that we all went together to choose our tree. It was also tradition that Guthrie and I, being the youngest, were in charge of picking it out. It was a job we took extremely seriously. The family were patient with us, well- apart from a few grumbles from Evan who said he was keen to get back because he said Diablo needed him, but he was soon distracted by Crane.

Guthrie and I couldn't agree on the tree we wanted: I wanted one which was a bit taller and skinner whereas Guthrie wanted a smaller and fatter one. We squabbled over it- not nastily or anything, but in the end, Adam said we would settle it with a vote, and whoever lost would need to be a good sport about it. Guthrie won.

Adam and Brian cut it down with an electric saw and then we loaded the tree into the truck with some of us squished up next to it in the back. When we got it home, we spent the rest of the evening decorating the tree with tinsel and our mother's christmas ornaments. Us younger kids drank hot chocolate but Adam, Brian and Crane had whisky, something they only drank at Christmas time on special occasions. Brian let Daniel try it, since he was 14, when Adam was out the room because he knew he would disapprove. It was only a sip, but Daniel couldn't stop coughing and said it tasted disgusting. Both Guthrie and I begged to be allowed to try it, but Brian said not a chance. We were both reluctant to go to bed too, because the rest of the family would still be downstairs, hanging out and having a good time without us, but we were mollified by Crane saying he would come and read to us. We even persuaded him to stay in our room until we fell asleep. We thought we were being clever because we planned to stay awake for as long as possible, but Crane had other plans. He fetched his guitar and strummed it softly, and before we knew it, we had both drifted away.

/

Because it was in the lead up to the end of the first school semester, we were having a test in math, English and science which would form a large part of our overall semester grades. It wasn't sprung on it- we knew about it, and Adam had made sure that Guthrie and I had time to study for the tests, although we didn't really have to be told or forced. I might have been at a more advanced level, but good grades mattered to Guthrie too.

That's why I was so shocked at what happened that week, on Tuesday, the day of the math test. We had it in the morning. Mrs Whitby said that it was best to always get tests over and done with first thing so we didn't need to think about them for the rest of the day. I was having my own test with the fourth-grade material that I'd been studying for a few weeks now, but I took it in the same classroom with everyone else.

Guthrie and I sit on opposite ends of the classroom. We'd always been separated since being moved in the first grade when at first, we'd been very distracted sitting next to each other, giggling and messing around- things like that. Initially, we'd hated being separated and we'd begged Adam to ask our teacher to let us sit next to each other again, but he'd refused.

"When you're at school, you're to listen to your teacher and obey her the same way you would me and Brian," he'd said. So we had to learn to live with it.

So, because I sat on the opposite end of the classroom, at the back, whereas Guthrie sat in the middle, I had a perfect view of mostly everyone in the classroom. I'd been completely engrossed in completing my own test, but I'd glanced up -I think to check the clock at the front of the room- and my gaze had flitted to Guthrie. He was sitting, with his test angled to the side, eyes on Mrs Whitby who had her head bent over something at her desk at the front. Undeniably and unmistakably, copying he answers off Guthrie's test, was Michael.

My heart started to beat quicker. What in the world was Guthrie doing? Was he crazy? Why was he just letting Michael copy all his answers off him like that? The two of them had been hanging out a lot more lately, especially at school, but that wasn't a reason really.

I glanced at Mrs Whitby again, terrified that she would look up at see what Guthrie and Michael were doing. But she was completely engrossed in her own activity.

Michael was finished copying Guthrie within a couple of minutes of me looking up, but I still couldn't concentrate after that. Luckily, I'd finished my test, but I didn't get to check my answers properly because the numbers were swimming in front of me.

I caught Guthrie at the beginning of first recess as we were heading outside to the playground. It was just me and him- the others had run ahead or were too far behind us for them to hear us, otherwise I wouldn't have said anything.

"I saw you during the test, Guth," I said quietly.

Guthrie glanced at me briefly but then looked straight head again.

"So what?" he said. I heard a hint of stubborn defiance in his tone.

"I saw you cheat."

"I didn't!"

"Knock it off Guth! I saw you," I said, and then because my voice had raised a bit, I glanced around quickly to make sure no one could hear.

"I didn't cheat," he whispered. "I only let Michael copy me. So it's not me cheating."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay," I said sarcastically. "Do you think Adam or Brian would accept that answer?"

If there's one thing our oldest brothers hated, and still do to this day, it's dishonesty, lying and cheating. Both of them came down hard on it.

"It doesn't matter coz they're not gonna find out!" Guthrie said. He looked at me warily. "You're not gonna tell, are you?"

I thumped Guthrie's arm, offended that he'd even ask that question. "Of course not! But what if Mrs Whitby finds out and she tells them?"

"She won't!"

"She might!"

"How?"

"Coz you'll have all the same answers, dummy."

We had reached the playground now, but we still hung back from everyone else even though some of the boys, Michael included, were calling for Guthrie to come and join the soccer game.

"I told Michael not to copy them all, so they won't look suspicious."

Wow. He really had thought it through.

"Why'd you let him copy you anyway?" I asked.

Guthrie shrugged.

"It doesn't matter."

"Guthrie! It does!"

Guthrie made a move to run off to join the game but I grabbed his arm.

"Tell me, Guth," I said softly. "We tell each other everything."

Guthrie glanced around to make sure no one was listening, even though it was pretty obvious we were still alone.

"Michael not good at math, Heidi. And his dad…"

"What about his dad…?" I asked, even though I could guess it was something bad. I remembered Michael's dad from encountering him at the Fall Street Dance a couple of weeks back. He was a horrible man. A bully.

"Michael said his dad would beat him if he didn't do good in this test."

I frowned at Guthrie. "You mean like a spanking?"

"No, I don't think it's a spanking like the kind Adam or Brian give. Michael said that the last time he'd not done well in a test, he'd had bruises and he couldn't walk properly for 3 days."

I immediately felt sick. Poor Michael. I wanted to cry. I couldn't even fathom what Guthrie was telling me. Were parents allowed to hit their kids like that?

"You need to tell Adam or Brian. Or even Crane!" I said but the minute the words were out my mouth, Guthrie looked at me fiercely and said "No!"

"Why? They'll be able to help!"

"I promised I wouldn't, Heidi. Michael says that if anyone finds out about it, his dad will hurt him mom."

I also remembered Michael's mom from the dance. She'd been mousy and beat down looking. I could believe what Guthrie was saying.

"Just leave it alone. It's over now anyway, okay?"

I agreed to leave it, because really, what choice did I have? I wasn't going to rat out Guthrie to the teacher or my brothers, and I wasn't about to tell anyone about Michael's dad in case his mom got hurt.

Of couse that wasn't the end of it though, because let's face it: teachers aren't idiots. Well, Mrs Whitby isn't anyway. Michael must not have made sure to change enough answers to cover his tracks because just before Mrs Whitby dismissed us to go home at the end of the day, she said quietly. "Guthrie and Michael, stay behind please. I want to talk to you both."

I felt my heart sink. She obviously knew they'd cheated. And if she knew they'd cheated, then it meant that Adam and Brian were going to know they'd cheated. Guthrie was in major trouble.