There’s an excited buzz from my friends, but my mother frowns. “What about your cheerleading?”
“I think there’s a way I can do both,” I tell her. “I’m going to start off assisting one night a week at Gigi’s new cooking classes. I’ve talked to Coach O’Donnell, and she understands that I need to help my family right now. She’s willing to cut me some slack on the weekends if Gigi can be flexible with my schedule.”
“Way to go, Chadwick,” says Cassidy softly. “One more thing I like about you.”
I smile at her, almost glad she’s not moving.
My mother still doesn’t look convinced. “Will this affect your chances of being chosen head cheerleader?” Once my mother heard that there were such things as cheerleading scholarships for college, she was all for me trying out for the squad.
I shrug. “It might. But there’s always senior year for that.”
“Wait until we tell your grandparents,” my father says. “They’ll be so proud of you.”
“I am too,” my brother tells me quietly. “Nice work, Rebecca.”
“Thanks,” I reply. “But it’s just Becca, okay?”
Stewart smiles at me. “Okay.”
“Hey!” says Dylan, or maybe Ryan, pointing to the TV. “Look at the clock! They’re getting ready to start the countdown!”
Sure enough, it’s almost midnight. Mr. Wong rushes over to fiddle with the controls, and suddenly the slide show disappears and we’re watching live TV from Times Square. Gigi grabs my arm.
“Come on, new assistant,” she says. “It’s time to start breaking you in. I could use some help pouring the sparkling cider.”
“TEN—NINE—EIGHT!” shout the twins, as we finish filling everyone’s glasses. I join in at “THREE—TWO—ONE . . . HAPPY NEW YEAR!”
The tea shop erupts in loud whistles and cheers, and squawks from our noisemakers and party horns.
“KISS, KISS, KISS!” shrieks Chloe, climbing down from Cassidy’s lap and running around in excited circles. It’s true, everybody’s kissing everybody else. Well, except Megan and me, who clink our glasses together instead.
“To best friends?” she says.
“To best friends,” I reply.
Across the room, our parents are all kissing each other, and here at our table the twins are pretending to kiss each other too. Darcy really is kissing Jess—while Kevin Mullins patiently waits his turn. I have to avert my eyes at the sight of my brother kissing Emma Hawthorne. Eww! And I try not to watch as Zach Norton grabs Cassidy and plants one on her, too. She doesn’t pull away, and I don’t see her trying to smack him with anything, the way she did back in seventh grade, so I guess it’s official—Cassidy likes Zach.
I suppose I have to get used to the idea.
I look around to say something to Megan, but she’s not in her seat. I spot her rummaging in the basket of cell phones by the cash register. She pulls hers out and turns it on. Her face lights up.
“Omigosh, Becca! Look at this!” she cries, running back across the room. She holds up her phone. There’s a text message on the screen. It’s from Simon. I MISS U. CHAT TOMORROW?
I raise my glass to her again. “Happy New Year!”
As her fingers fly across the keypad, I look around the room. This has been a year of happy endings—for Megan, whose breakup might not really be a breakup. For Emma, who’s home in Concord again where she belongs. For Gigi, who’s launched her new tea shop successfully. For my mother, who gets to finish school, and for Stewart, who gets to start it. For Jess, who’s getting her cast off soon and who’s going to nail that audition next month, just like Cassidy says. And last but not least, for Cassidy and her family, who aren’t moving to California.
And if my dad hasn’t quite found his happy ending yet, thanks to our friends and their New Year’s Eve Secret Santa surprise we at least have enough happiness to tide us over until he does. As for me, soon-to-be waitress here at Pies & Prejudice, well, I’m ready for whatever lies around the bend in the Winding Hall of Fate. One thing’s for sure—Rebecca won’t be coming with me. If I never see her again it’ll be too soon.
Someone grabs me from behind. It’s Zach Norton.
“Happy New Year, Becca!” he says, grinning at me. His beard is crooked and his face is flushed. He looks gorgeous. Before I even have time to react, he leans in and gives me a big kiss. Even though I mostly just end up with a mouthful of fake white beard, it’s still a kiss. From Zach Norton!
So what if it’s not exactly the kiss I’m looking for? And so what if he goes on to make his way around the room, kissing practically everybody else—Megan and Emma and Jess and Chloe and even Gigi, too?
It’s still a fantastic way to start the new year.
“Each one of us has to be true to the deepest thing that is in him.”
—Betsy in Spite of Herself
Mother-Daughter Book Club Questions
This was the first Mother-Daughter Book Club book to include chapters told from Becca’s perspective. Did they change your opinion of her at all? In what way?
Do you think you will read the Betsy-Tacy books after reading this book? Do you think you would find the characters in the Betsy-Tacy series as relatable as the girls in the Mother-Daughter Book Club did?
Do you usually spend the holidays with your family or friends? What is your favorite holiday memory?
In the Betsy-Tacy high school books, Betsy is torn between Joe Willard, who’s handsome and smart but kind of aloof, and Tony Markham, who’s handsome and funny but a little on the wild side. Are you on Team Joe or Team Tony?
Maud Hart Lovelace always knew she wanted to be a writer. Have you ever felt that way about a certain profession? Have you taken any steps toward your goal?
Betsy is based on Maud herself, and Tacy is based on her childhood best friend. Do you like reading novels that were based on real people? Would you like it if one of your friends wrote a book about you?
Do you have a friend whom you would consider your Tacy? Do you have a crowd?
Do you and your friends have secret words and phrases like “Winona eyes” and “snoggestion”? What are some of them? Did you find yourself adopting any of the Betsy-Tacy words?
Megan was devastated when Simon broke up with her. Have you ever been in a relationship that ended before you wanted it to? How did you handle it? Were you able to talk to your mother or friends about it?
Cassidy and her family originally moved from Laguna Beach to Concord; in this book, they consider moving back! Have you and your family ever had to move? After you moved, did you keep your friends from where you used to live?
Have you ever participated in a Secret Santa? Were there any mishaps? Did you or any of your friends try to rig the drawing, the way Megan and Becca tried to?
Have you ever gone on a trip with a friend? Did you get along the whole time?
Has anyone close to you ever lost his or her job? How did that feel? How did you help them deal with it?
Why do you think Mr. and Mrs. Chadwick initially respond to the gifts with anger?
Jess was very upset to see Emma and Felicia become friends. Have you ever felt left out?
Megan manages to put her hurt feelings aside when she realizes that Becca and her family need her help. If you were in Megan’s situation, how would you react?
Author’s Note
How did I manage to grow up without knowing about the Betsy-Tacy books?
It’s a question that still puzzles me. Is it possible my hometown library didn’t have them on the shelves that I scoured weekly for new reading material? I can’t imagine that was the case. Somehow, though, Maud Hart Lovelace and her wonderful series never made it onto my radar screen when I was younger. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago, in fact, when I was in the Midwest on a book tour, that people began ambushing me to tell me about Maud and her books, and how perfect they’d be for my fictional book club.
They were right.
What’s not to love about tho
roughly modern Betsy Ray and her family and friends? Sure, the setting may be circa 1910, the fashions quaint and the slang unfamiliar, but Deep Valley is a kissing cousin to my fictional Concord. Emma, Jess, Cassidy, and Megan (and Becca too) would feel right at home in Betsy’s world of treasured friendships, fun-filled escapades, and cute boys. Lots of cute boys . . .
If, like me, you’ve never heard of Betsy and her friend Tacy, please go immediately to your bookstore or library and find them. I promise you’ll fall in love. Start at the beginning (yes, I know, the girls are five, but trust me on this one) and read them all straight through. You won’t want to miss a single word.
Which one is my favorite? Like Becca’s grandmother, I have two: Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown and Betsy and the Great World. For this book, though, I focused on Betsy in Spite of Herself, which finds our heroine in her sophomore year in high school, exactly the same age as my fictional girls. Plus, it has the added benefit of whisking Betsy to a very German Milwaukee for Christmas, an event I had great fun echoing. My maiden name is Vogel, which means “bird” in German, and I grew up in a family whose German roots were never more evident than during the holiday season, when we ate my grandmother’s Springerle cookies, sang “Stille Nacht” and “O Tannenbaum,” and decorated our tree while listening to other traditional Christmas music on the antique music box that our ancestors brought with them when they came to this country in the 1860s.
Is it any wonder that German was one of my majors in college? After graduation, I lived in Germany for a year, where I spent Christmas with a friend and her family in their tiny Bavarian village. We drank lots of hot chocolate (mit Schlag, of course), opened our presents on Christmas Eve, and later that night went to a worship service at a mountainside chapel. I’ll never forget the stunning setting—the simple wood-framed building decorated with evergreen boughs and candles—nor the joy my friend Maria and I had providing the music on our recorders. Afterward, when we went outside, it started to snow. Christmas magic doesn’t get much better than that.
As always, I have numerous thank you bouquets to hand out. Melissa Posten at Pudd’nhead Books in Webster Groves, Missouri, gets the first one, for literally pressing Betsy-Tacy and Betsy-Tacy and Tib into my hands as gifts as I was leaving her store. My friends Vicki and Steve Palmquist heard about this and gave me Winona eyes in Wayzata until I promised to actually read them (which I did, on the flight home). Radhika Breaden pounced on me a few weeks later at a local appearance and mustered her wits enough to invite a total stranger to her home for dinner to meet some Betsy-Tacy fans who happened to be in town. I mustered mine and went, not knowing what I was getting myself into. (A whole lot of fun, that’s what.) Now I have a host of delightful new friends, including the inimitable Kathy Baxter, the amazing Colleen O’Neil, and the resourceful Julie Chuba, who went above and beyond the call of duty to cart me all over Minneapolis and Mankato on a research trip. For the record, I would travel with you three anytime, anywhere.
Susan Brown, president of the Betsy-Tacy Society, her husband, Bob, and colleague Pat Nelson took time out of their busy schedules to give us a private tour of the Betsy-Tacy houses that I’ll never forget. Bouquets for all three of you, too!
I’d be remiss in not giving one to Alexandra Cooper, my fabulous editor at Simon & Schuster, a Minnesota girl and Maud Hart Lovelace fan herself, for enthusiastically embracing this project and patiently shepherding it to completion.
Betsy-Tacy fans online have showered me not only with love, but also with books and reference materials that were invaluable in writing this book. More bouquets to Kathy and Radhika, and to Julie Schrader, who sent me a copy of her guidebook, Maud Hart Lovelace’s Deep Valley, as well as Amy Dolnick Rechner for Between Deep Valley and the Great World: Maud Hart Lovelace in Minneapolis. And bouquets to all the rest of the Listren for ongoing encouragement and support.
I can’t forget my fearless experts—Jami Meyer and her daughters Kylie and McKenna, who clued me in on cheerleading techniques; Barb Odanaka for all things Laguna Beach and surfing; and as always, Lucinda and Helen Quigley, who keep me from wobbling all over the hockey rink. (An extra shout-out to Lucinda, whose U12 team won the USA Hockey National Championship this year!)
And finally, a very special bouquet to my husband. If anyone wants to know if I’m Team Tony or Team Joe, the correct answer is: I’m Team Steve!
Heather Vogel Frederick, Home for the Holidays
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