When they arrived home, Michelle wanted to bring up the clock. She had been thinking about it all through the drive. She was almost positive it had something to do with all this time travel stuff.

This would be the perfect Christmas story, thought Michelle. All it needs is the ghost of Christmas past.

"Um, Dad?" She decided to cautiously broach the subject once they were inside and Tommy had disappeared into his room. "About that cuckoo clock..." She paused. Before she could think of what to say, her father interrupted.

"Oh, Michelle. You want me to buy it too?" Her father smiled at her as he took his coat off.

Her mother groaned as she unwrapped her scarf. "Oh, Herman, I really wish you'd give up this clock thing. I don't even know why you want it so much. It's becoming a pipe dream at this point."

"Maybe," conceded Mr. Webster as he hung it on the coat rack. "But you never know. Maybe this year, they'll lower the price."

Lower the price? Yes, that was it! Her father had been able to buy the clock two years later because there was a discount since it was Christmas. It was Christmas now as well, so maybe the price would be lowered too.

Before her parents could get into an argument, Michelle quickly said, "Have you tried buying it this month, Dad?"

Her father frowned. "Yes, I think so. At the beginning of December, I asked Anthony if there was a discount. You know, being the month of giving and all."

"And what did he say?" Michelle tried not to sound too excited.

"He said there was, but it was still too expensive for me to buy without losing too much money." He added, "Or at least, too expensive by your mother's standards." Michelle felt her excitement quickly being replaced by disappointment.

Mrs. Webster frowned, hanging her own coat that was already off on the rack. "Forgive me if I'm not eager to spend our hard earned money on some oversized antique. Why do you want it, again?"

Michelle tuned out the argument that was starting. She didn't want to press her father too much in case it seemed weird of her, but she couldn't just give up either. This might be her chance to fix this time travel thing.

"Are you sure it's too expensive?" she asked.

Her mother stopped talking with her father to look at her. "Michelle, don't tell me you've gotten this ridiculous cuckoo clock idea into your head too."

"Of course not," she protested. "It's just..." She paused, trying to think of an excuse. "The pageant was great, but I thought we could do something else for Christmas. Something special." Immediately after saying it, she wished she could've thought of something better.

"Oh, and wasting our money on an overpriced antique is something special?" Her mother crossed her arms.

"Well... not really," admitted Michelle. "But, well, it'd be something new, wouldn't it?"

"See, honey? Michelle's on my side," Mr. Webster told her mother. "You're outnumbered."

"Oh, don't you two start ganging up on me," groaned Mrs. Webster, but the angry motions she did when she was actually mad at Michelle's father were absent. "Besides, we don't know Tommy's opinion. He could side with me."

Of course. Darling Tommy, thought Michelle bitterly. His opinion would mean more than her and her father's combined.

"Look, let's just drop the clock thing," said Mrs. Webster. "I don't know why we've gone on about it for so long. You already said it's too expensive."

"Yeah, it is," conceded Mr. Webster with a sigh. In a lower voice, he added to Michelle, "Don't worry, Michelle. We'll convert your mother some other time."

"I heard that!" called Mrs. Webster as she disappeared down the hall.

Michelle wanted to insist further, but knew she couldn't. The discussion was over. What else could she do, run to Anthony's Antiques right then and steal it?

When she entered her room, she wasn't surprised to see Tommy inside. She was, however, surprised to see him paging through one of her treasured Harry Potter books. Though why she was surprised, she wasn't sure. This was Tommy, after all. No matter how cute he could be at times.

"Tommy!" She snatched the book from it, her eyes frantically scanning the pages. To her surprise, there were no marks. No dirt, no smudges, no water, nothing tainting the pages. She remembered he had gotten chocolate smudges on it last time.

But still. He didn't have to touch her own property without her permission, after she did the courtesy of reading the books to him!

"Did I say you could touch my books?" She held the book far out of his reach as he tried to grab it again.

"I don't see what the big deal is," shrugged Tommy. "I didn't even get anything on them."

"That's not the point! The point is, they're my books and I didn't say you could touch them." Michelle tried to keep an even tone, as much as she felt like yelling at Tommy.

"But you never let me touch them," noted Tommy. "Why don't you?"

"Because you ruin every single one!" Michelle exploded, failing to keep her even tone.

"But I didn't ruin this one," noted Tommy.

Michelle paused. He was right. He could've ruined this one, but he didn't. But still.

She was just about to reply when she felt someone's presence behind her. "Michelle, what's going on?"

Her mother. Michelle must've been talking louder than she thought.

"Nothing," she said quickly. She knew there was no use tattling on Tommy. Her parents just took his side every time.

Her mother's gaze fell on Tommy. "Tommy, was Michelle being mean to you?"

Michelle groaned. Here it came.

"No. She was just teling me about Harry Potter."

Michelle wouldn't have been more surprised at that moment if her mother had sprouted green wings and started breathing fire. She couldn't be hearing correctly. Tommy was lying to cover her?

Mrs. Webster frowned. "If you say so. Well, if she's being mean, tell me. I'll make sure she stops."

"Yes, Mom."

Michelle forced herself to close her gaping mouth before her mother saw. When she left the room, Michelle opened it again. She was tempted to pinch herself to see if she was dreaming.

She looked at Tommy. "Why did you do that?" The Tommy she knew never missed a chance to tell on her.

Tommy shrugged dismissively. "Well, since you're reading Harry Potter to me, I thought I owed you one."

"Well... uh..." Michelle had to force the next words out of her mouth. "Thanks, Tommy. It was really nice of you."

Tommy nodded, then glanced at the book Michelle was still holding. She groaned inwardly, expecting even more pestering that might result in her actually getting trouble this time (she doubted Tommy would cover for her twice), but instead, he simply left her bedroom.

She breathed a sigh of relief and started reading the book, but she could barely bring herself to care about the words she'd already read so many times already. She missed reading to Tommy. It seemed so boring to read by herself now, when she already knew exactly what happened.

Suddenly, she heard a few familiar-sounding knocks on the door, followed by a voice. "Do you wanna build a snowman?"

Michelle groaned, flopping onto her bed and covering her head with a pillow in an unsuccessful attempt to block it out. She had forgotten how much he liked that song, too.