Her face felt hot, and she lay on her back for a while, staring at the ceiling, until she heard a knock on the door. To her surprise, it was Andrew, carrying a big box wrapped in pink paper. “I was going to save this for your real birthday, but I’m thinking you might need something to cheer you up right now,” he said. Noelle sat up, surprised. “Really?” “Yeah, why not?” Andrew replied with a shrug. Noelle had almost forgotten how nice her brother could be when he wanted to. She took the box from him. The wrapping was bunched in places, so she could tell that he had done it himself. He had even tied a lopsided purple ribbon around the box. “What is it?” she asked. Andrew grinned. “Open it and see.” Noelle carefully unwrapped the paper and then lifted the lid of the box to see a pair of pale pink ice skates inside. “Oh my gosh! These are exactly the ones I wanted!” she cried, picking up one of the skates. “Well, I want to race you this year, and now that you have new skates there’s no excuse if you lose,”
