Gansey sat in the middle of Monmouth's floor, surrounded by Henrietta's downtown, the bank's new roof held loosely in his hand. He stared at the ceiling, too preoccupied even to nibble his mint leaf. "It's almost Christmas," he said slowly.

Noah, the only other person there, didn't look up from the book on ghosts Blue had gotten him.

"I haven't gotten anybody anything," Gansey groaned. "I've been busy with..." He waved a hand at the ceiling. "Noah, what does everybody want?" He tapped the cardboard roof against the floor. "I don't know where to start. And all the gifts need to be perfect." Gansey frowned and slid to the floor, staring up at the ceiling.

"Maybe you should have started thinking about this before," Noah said absentmindedly, turning a page. "Did you know that there are ghosts that like to suck on people's toes?" He shuddered, imagining his own toes being molested.

"Let's start with Jane," Gansey said, ignoring the toe-sucking ghosts. "She has that old bike...so, I could get her a replacement!" He sat up and triumphantly helped himself to a new mint leaf.

Noah, at last provoked to attention, carefully set his book down. He ventured, "I thought you were going to work on not throwing money around."

Gansey frowned and swiveled to face Noah. "Is a bike too much? It's not even two hundred dollars for a decent one. I wouldn't have to buy her a champion bike."

Noah leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "You can spend fifty dollars, tops. Thirty would be better." He had to laugh at his friend's pained expression. "Might be nice to get her craft supplies, like if you found some cool yarn or something."

"You're a genius!"

Noah smiled shyly and turned rather less transparent. "I could help-"

"-me do my shopping!" Gansey finished, jumping to his feet. The keys to the Pig were already out of his pocket. "Is now okay?"

Noah looked down at his book. Reading, or Christmas shopping? "I'm right behind you." He hurried to join Gansey.

The pair started at the craft supplies shop. Noah had vanished halfway to the store, so Gansey had to pick out the yarn on his own. There were more colors and textures than Gansey would ever have thought possible. He picked up countless skeins of yarn, hoping that one would be right. Here was a soft moss green that reminded him of the tree behind 300 Fox Way. There was a yellow that was the color of Cabeswater's fall foliage. This ball was pink like Jane's switchblade. That ball was softer than anything Gansey could remember touching. He sighed, trailing his fingers over a rack of knitting needles. How was it that he could know his friends so intimately, he thought, and not know what they wanted, not really? Gansey wished Noah would come back. He looked helplessly around the store until something caught his eye.

Gansey made his way across the floor to a rack of spangly yarns. There was one that looked...well, it looked magical. It was deepest purple but also somehow blue, shot through with strands of pink and black and sprinkled with tiny sequins. Gansey picked it up and held it out in front of him. "What do you think, Noah?" he whispered, hoping that the ghost was somewhere around. He suddenly shivered and jumped backwards. "Noah!"

"Sorry," came a soft voice. "That's beautiful, Gansey," and when Gansey looked to the side, he could see Noah's outline.

"You think so?" he asked.

"It's perfect."

Gansey took two more skeins from the shelf. He was about to reach for one more when he felt something like a cold hand landing on his wrist. Gansey retracted his hand from the rack of yarn.

Luckily, Noah managed to (mostly) reappear in the Pig while Gansey was sitting in the parking lot. Gansey was touching the yarn and thinking of what to get for Adam.

"Come on, Gansey. It's not that hard. What does Adam like?" Noah said, sitting cross-legged in the passenger seat.

Gansey took a breath and blew it out. "Well, he's damn independent." Noah gave Gansey a disapproving look. "So he wouldn't want anything that he actually needs."

Noah nodded. "I think you should get him a sweater or a nice wallet or something. It's, like, undercover useful."

"Ooh," Gansey said, brightening. "What do you think? Red? Blue?"

"I think forest green might be nice," Noah mused. "With cables." He grinned. "Or, you know what would be funny?"

"What?"

"A new Coca-Cola shirt!" Noah dissolved into giggles.

Gansey couldn't keep from chuckling. "I think the sweater is a better idea."

"Okay, you're probably right. So, where to? Thrift store? They have some pretty nice clothes sometimes."

"The thrift store?" Gansey asked. "Are you sure?" He drew his eyebrows together, pained.

"It's up to you, but most of the stuff is in pretty good condition." Noah looked across at his friend.

Gansey sighed and started the engine. "Off we go."

Noah and Gansey flicked through seemingly endless racks of tops. Noah sighed at all the unsatisfactory sweaters.

"How about this one?" Gansey held up a soft brown sweater.

"It's nice, but..." Noah paused. The brown against Adam's hair and skin would be too much. "Let's keep looking."

They found two more sweaters that might work, but nothing that felt perfect. The pair headed off to the mall. "I hope we'll find something for Ronan as well," Noah said, rubbing his hands together. He secretly really liked Christmas shopping. Noah had sniffed about a million different kinds of mint until he'd picked out a wrinkled-leaf mint plant for Gansey. Arranging for somebody to paint Chainsaw for Ronan had been pretty easy. Unfortunately, it had been near impossible to separate Chainsaw from her owner. Luckily, Chainsaw's talons didn't do anything to Noah's ghostly skin. For Blue, Noah started with bike handle streamers. Later, he'd found a camping hammock. He thought she'd appreciate sleeping under her tree. He was still thinking about Adam's present, but for the moment Noah had his eye on a book about cars.

Gansey sat up straighter and gripped the steering wheel. "This one is important, and I have no idea what it should be." He thought aloud. "It's obvious that Ronan loves Chainsaw. He loves street racing, but if I'm not spending more than fifty, I can't get him anything to do with cars." He glared at Noah. Noah nodded firmly and didn't mention that he had spent more than that on Blue. "I could get Ronan a new bracelet. The old one is looking pretty worn."

Noah rested his chin in his hand. "I think he's pretty attached to that one. I don't know what you should do. I've already covered Chainsaw."

"You have?" Gansey turned to look at him.

"I found out that Orla is a painter, so I had her paint Chainsaw. It turned out all spooky and cool." Noah smiled like the cat that's caught the proverbial canary.

"How are you so good at this, Noah?" Gansey asked, mystified.

Noah shrugged. "I know things. What if you got Ronan a picture or a painting of The Barns?"

"Perfect! We could have Helen take a photographer up in her helicopter to get a good angle." Gansey stared off into space until Noah whacked him and pointed out a stop sign. "Oh, but that would be more than $50."

"I think that would be okay just this once."

Noah and Gansey spent hours making their way through the mall. They branched out from their original plan of getting Adam a sweater to a new plan of getting Adam just about anything. Noah sorted through piles of ties. Gansey riffled through shelves of books. They both scrutinized paintings, examined sweaters, and considered gift cards.

Finally, Noah turned to Gansey. "Are you any good at crafts?"

"I don't know. Maybe I should find out," Gansey replied. "Do you think that's a good idea?"

"No," Noah said. "I love you, Gansey, but I don't think that could go well." He smirked.

"In that case, I guess I'll go back to the thrift shop and buy him one of those sweaters. So, I have a present for Jane and a present planned for Ronan and Adam. Who does that leave?" He looked sideways at Noah.

"Hmm," Noah said, tilting his head and thinking. "I'm pretty sure that's everyone."

"What about you? I need to get a present for you."

"Who, me? Oh, uh, you don't need to get me anything."

"Of course, you! What do you like?"

"Well, blink182, skateboarding, my mustang..." Noah looked downcast for a moment."You guys. Glitter. Brownies. Mario Kart. Magic, when it's not super scary creepy magic."

"So I should get you a paranormal horror movie," Gansey said, trying to lighten the atmosphere. Noah looked up at him, eyes wide, and Gansey laughed. "I'll find something else."

They headed out to the Pig, making predictions about how their friends would react to the gifts. On the way home, Gansey looked over at Noah. "Thanks for coming with, Noah."

Noah understood the unspoken sentiments. "Anytime, Gansey."

"What a Christmas Eve," Gansey said in a hushed tone, trying not to wake Adam, who was sleeping under his new sweater. Blue and Noah nodded in agreement.

Blue leaned over to Noah and whispered in his ear. "You know, Gansey did a suspiciously good job of picking out presents this year. Did he have a little help from a certain ghost?"

Noah dimpled and whispered back, "Yes, yes he did." Blue returned his smile.

Gansey stretched and pulled out his iPad. "There's one more gift to give!" he declared, looking over at Noah.

Noah scooted over to Gansey. "Are you giving me an iPad?!"

"No," Gansey said, handing Noah the tablet. "It's what's on the iPad."

"Oh," Noah said, peering at the screen. He pressed play on the video he found there. His parents' faces faded in. Noah dropped the iPad and stared at Gansey, shocked.

"Go on," Gansey said. Noah turned back to the screen. The video began with Gansey's disembodied voice.

"Mr. and Mrs. Czerny, is there anything you would like Noah to know?" Noah's dad looked shaken, but his mom took a deep breath and looked steadily into the camera.

"Noah, honey. I would like you to know that we're doing...okay. The girls are well. Rachel was just accepted into Bryn Mawr, and she's so excited! Rebecca is loving her first year of high school. She's started taking skateboarding lessons, and they tell me she's quite talented. I think that she did it for you, but, being a teenager, she doesn't tell me anything." She laughed. Noah's dad glanced at his wife and spoke.

"We started a scholarship fund in your name to help other kids go to Aglionby, son. I'm so glad you had the opportunities that you did. If you're out there somewhere, know that we love you, and we're always sad we didn't get to know you more." He huffed as though to keep tears away.

Noah's mom blew the camera a kiss. "Rest in peace, Noah," they chimed together. The screen went black.

Everyone turned from watching the video to watching Noah's face. Blue looked desolate. Gansey looked as though he was regretting his gift. Ronan cleared his throat and mumbled something about sentimentality. Adam was still asleep.

Noah looked up from the iPad. While he didn't have actual tears on his face, they all thought it looked as if he had been crying. "Th-thank you, Gansey." He turned back to the screen and watched it again, wiping his face.

"Are you sure?" Gansey asked. "It seems like a bit much now that I..."

"No, it's perfect." Noah threw his arms around Gansey's neck. Gansey rubbed his back.

As Noah was watching the video for the fourth time, Blue came over and leaned into him. Noah looked over at her and echoed her previous words. "You know, this is a suspiciously good present. Did Gansey have help from a certain girl?"

Blue looked at the iPad and paused. "You know, he didn't. It was all his idea."

Noah wasn't sure if she was lying or not, but he appreciated it all the same. He leaned over to kiss her cheek. "Merry Christmas, Blue."

"Merry Christmas, Noah."