Play with fire-Cazzie

Chapter 20

"Have you thought about what you'll wear today?" Paige asked as we played outside. We had cleared the snow a while ago, and now we took the opportunity to catch up and practice together.

"Nope. Does that matter?" I asked, trying to take the ball from her.

"Of course! It's the first time you'll spend Christmas with your girlfriend. Don't you want to make a good impression?" She tried to jump up and shoot, but I rushed over and blocked her attempt.

"That doesn't interest me. She met me in a sports outfit. Seeing me like that again won't make a difference." This time it was my turn to try to score, and without waiting any longer, I jogged towards the basket without losing the blonde's mark. "What are the classes like at UCONN?" I asked, trying to change the subject. And she sighed as she stepped in front of me to make my task impossible.

"Impossible. The classes are fine and everything. But the workouts are unbearable. Besides, the coach thought it would be a great idea to do a different workout for the 'prodigy, Paige Bueckers.' I hate being treated more special than the team. We're all the same. "Her thought was haunting my mind, and she took advantage of it to steal the ball from me, and for the first time since we started playing, win."Is something wrong, Gardner? It's not usually that easy to win a point against you." 

I looked at her with a confident smile before answering.

"I just wanted to give you the chance to feel what it's like to win against me. Even if it's for a second."

Actually, she couldn't know I didn't see the UCLA team the same way. I did feel different from the rest of the team. And I would love to train separately if necessary. At Newton, that didn't happen because we were all talented. 

Paige believed my excuse, although not so confidently. We were going to continue playing, but my girlfriend's voice interrupted us.

"Superstars, it's time for a break." She said as she showed us a tray of cookies shaped like penguins. Paige took one and made a cute sound. For my part, I looked at her strangely. "What? Sam likes them. And since your mom had the ingredients, I decided to make some."I laughed and walked over to kiss her lips gently.

"Now you're going to be Sam's favourite person," I said before moving closer to her to continue our kiss, but the sound of Paige eating prevented me from doing so. I looked at the blonde, who was eating, jumping up and down with happiness. "And you won Paige." We both laughed and rejoined our lips.

"They're frozen, Newton." She commented, looking at me sweetly.

"Then you'll have to keep kissing me to warm them up." I added before taking her waist and kissing her again, being careful not to let the cookie tray fall.

***

While Izzie was taking a shower, I decided to go to the kitchen, seeing how Elsa worked. Unlike other years, this time, she wasn't nervous while giving a thousand screams. Instead, she was quiet, tidying up the last things and keeping an eye on the oven.

"Ok. What happened here, and why isn't the kitchen on fire?" I joked.

"Oh, Case! Izzie is wonderful. She helped me with the turkey. We made cookies. She taught me an apple pie recipe that looks great."

"Really?" I asked, starting to survey the place.

"Oh no. None of that. You'll have dessert later." I pouted, trying to get a slice. "Nope."

She finished and went back to ordering the last decorations on the table. I sighed and walked over to the couch where Sam was, eating cookies while watching TV. I took advantage of the fact that he wasn't paying attention, and I jumped on him to get a cookie.