When she awoke, the answer had come from the Rosensteins. They were ready to sign on—with one condition. They wanted to see an event successfully planned and executed by the new Team Carrigan’s.

“We need to go to the bank soon. Like, before Christmas. How do we show them an event in time?” Noelle asked, pacing in front of Hannah’s desk, where they’d gathered to read the email.

Hannah took a pen out of her bun and tapped it against her lips, her gaze unfocused. She materialized a yellow legal pad from seemingly nowhere. She propped herself on the corner of her desk and perched her purple sparkly reading glasses on her nose before pointing her pen at Miriam. “This is your baby. You got any ideas?”

“I actually kind of do have an idea,” Miriam said speculatively, nearly vibrating with what Noelle now thought of as Miriam Geeking Out Energy. She loved when Miriam got excited about something. All her lights were on, right now. “We have the annual tree lighting on Christmas Eve to wrap up the festival. It’s new, since it started after I left, so I don’t know for sure, but it’s mostly unveiling the tree, right? Not a lot of other stuff going on?”

“Mr. Matthews usually dresses up as Santa,” Hannah said, nodding. “Other than that, the attention is on the tree. Cass decorated it every year, and you know if she was giving a performance, she wanted the spotlight on her.”

“Okay, it’s already happening, so we can amplify it, rather than add an entirely new event to the calendar. What if we made it a carnival, with a bunch of booths from local places. Invited everyone from Advent, have some live music. A real closing night for our Christmas season. We could livestream it on my Instagram and use photos and video from it for promo.” She deflated a little, sitting back in her chair. “Is it too last-minute to get people to come, though?”

Noelle shook her head. “Oh, you’ve never lived in a small town where there’s nothing to do. If you have a party, everyone will come. Especially if it’s in honor of Cass. People want to celebrate her. It’s a great idea.”

Hannah already had a pen in her teeth. “It’s really smart. It could work.”

Noelle turned to Miriam. “You should decorate the tree.”

“What?!” Miriam squeaked. “That’s way too important a job to give to me. I’ve never even decorated a normal-sized tree.”

“Miri, you’re the artist.” Noelle crouched down in front of her and took her hands. “You’re the one with the vision to pull off an over-the-top fiasco of a tree worthy of Cass Carrigan. If this is going to work, we need your art at the center of it.”

“Noelle’s right, Miri,” Hannah said. “This one has to be you.”