Dancing Through the Snow by Jean Little

“Heavens, you sound like a receptionist. Is Dr. Hart there?”
    “She is,” Min said, glancing over her shoulder at Jess, now collapsed in the largest easy chair. “But she’s filling her face with pizza. I’ll take the phone over to her, though.”
    As she crossed the room and held the receiver out to Jess, she grinned in spite of herself. Mrs. Willis must have been stunned. Min had always made a point of saying as few words as she could get away with, even when she had to talk to her caseworker. She did not know what had made her babble this time.
    “Of
course
that was Min,” Jess was saying. “She and I cut a Christmas tree down this afternoon and now she and Toby and I are taking a rest from trimming it. But if you want some pizza, you’ll have to be quick to get any before Toby chomps down the last bite. Min has put away her share too, I hasten to add.”
    Sybil Willis did not accept the invitation. She began asking questions instead.
    She never seemed nosy before, Min thought, while her insides knotted up and her hunger died.
    “Of course she’ll be with me until after Christmas,” Jess snapped, straightening in the chair. “I told you that this morning. I hope she’ll be with me much longer than that. I was needing a house elf.”
    Toby snickered. Min scowled but, inside, she was laughing too. She vowed she’d do a better job than Dobby or Kreacher in the Harry Potter books. She liked Dobby, in spite of his goofy ideas, but she was no house elf. She always wore matching socks, for one thing.
    There was a silence. They could hear Mrs. Willis raving on. She sounded pretty upset, even though the kids could not catch her individual words.
    “You know who Toby is, Syb. You’ve just forgotten. How old is he? What do you care? He’s a little older than Min, but not much. You’re twelve, aren’t you, Tobe?”
    Toby grinned and nodded.
    “You do know him, Sybil — Laura’s boy. You knew him when he was a baby.”
    As she talked, Toby slid out of his chair and stretched his long body out across the carpet. Then he crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue. Min snorted with laughter, despite herself. Jess’s eyes were sparkling but she only said, “Is there anything else you wanted to know, Sybil, or can I get on with my supper?”
    They all heard Sybil bang down her receiver.
    “She’s nice,” Min squeaked. “What did she want?”
    “She has talked some more to that couple and they think they might even be interested in considering adoption later on, if you hit it off. She suggests I am being selfish. She does not want you hurt, that’s for certain. She’s a brick.”
    “A what?” Min said, trying to picture her caseworker as a brick, trying not to hear the word
adoption.
    “My mother’s mother used to say that,” Jess said, grinning. “It means the same thing as ‘She’s a good egg.’ Or ‘She’s a humdinger.’ How about ‘Right as a trivet,’ ‘She’s a peach,’ or ‘She takes the cake’?”
    Toby snorted but Min held onto her self-control and nodded, blushing faintly. She felt ashamed of laughing at Mrs. Willis, who had been so good to her for so long.
    “She really is pretty cool. She’s the one who looked after me first,” she muttered, remembering the shoes Mrs. Willis had kept for her. “She’s … kind.”
    “I’m fond of her too,” Jess said. “We’ve been friends for years, but I can’t resist teasing her a little. She takes herself too seriously. She’s done it since we were young.”
    “Hey, Rapunzel, help me clear up this mess,” Toby said, putting on a saintly look and beginning to gather the garbage.
    “What did you call me?” Min stuttered.
    “Calm yourself, Rap. I haven’t asked you to let down your rope of hair and haul me up to your tower window, have I?” He was smirking.
    Min’s eyes shot daggers at him. What was he talking about now? “Good thing,” she growled.
    Then she stalked out with Maude walking along behind her like a calico