Stolen Jerseys / ✓

Christmas Special

Originally I was just writing this story as a cute Christmas special, but then a few days ago I found out that this story won a Watty award! In a sense, this is my way of thanking you guys for reading this story, supporting it, and helping me win a Watty :)

In which Scott sucks at buying Christmas presents, Elle's really good at burning cookies, and this might be the first year that Connor doesn't accidentally light the Christmas tree on fire.

S C O T T

four days before...

Christmas in Canada is a beautiful thing. Christmas in the Wilson household is something else entirely.

"Elle!" I called, wrinkling my nose as I walked towards the kitchen. The window was open and I squinted through the thin screen of smoke seeping from the open oven, "I thought we agreed you weren't baking any more cookies."

Elle paused from blowing smoke out the window and turned to me, green eyes narrowed as she took in what I was wearing, "I thought we agreed that you would stop wearing those stupid pajama pants with reindeer on them," she muttered, turning around and pushing the window all the way open before stepping out of the kitchen, tugging on my arm as she went.

I frowned and looked down at my pants, grinning reindeer looking back up at me, "They're nice. It's why Connor and I have a matching pair."

"Oh yeah, because you should always take fashion advice from Connor," Elle teased, dropping down onto the couch and shooting me a small smile.

I dropped down onto the couch and flipped around, pulling back the curtain behind me and whistling at the sight. There was a forest behind us, and the trees and grass field were covered in a thick, dense coating of snow. Any footfalls that had been there from a few hours ago were long gone. The branches hung down with the weight of snow, and I loved this view almost as much as I loved the view from my old apartment in Toronto.

After two-and-half years of living in my (and Connor's) old apartment, we had made the jump and bought ourselves a house outside of the city. The view was nicer, there was more practice spaces for hockey, and, admittedly, I got recognized less out here than I did in the city. As cool as it was to have people come up and ask for my autograph, I did the enjoy the seclusion of being outside the city.

Moving didn't really change much, though. While Connor, Kelly, Edi, Jay, and Elle's parents still lived in the city, we saw them just as much. Elle's parents were up here at least once a week (usually with food), and Connor, Kelly, Edi, and Jay always showed up on a Friday night and crashed at our house until Monday morning rolled around. Connor always complained that Edi and Jay got "too much Scott time" since we all played for the Leafs, so that meant Connor had to stay at our house at least a day later than the others.

"Let's stay in today," Elle said, tugging on my hand and flicking on the TV. I smiled and slouched down, grabbing the blanket from behind us and tossing it over the two of us.

I wrinkled my nose and bit back a grin as I looked down at my girlfriend, "Stay here with the smell of burnt cookies? No thanks."

Elle leaned forward and smacked my arm and I grinned, pulling back and tugging out my phone when it rang. Connor's name flashed across that screen and I hesitated, debating between opening his text or not. Most of his texts were either complaints that Miguel wasn't paying enough attention to him, complaints that Kelly wasn't paying enough attention to him, or pictures of Chinese food that he ordered.

Plopping my feet up onto Elle's lap, I unlocked the screen and clicked on Con's message. I had four others from him - all weird emojis and pictures of him way too close to the camera - but this one made me pause.