swim_read_repeat's big book of challenges

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Title: Special Bells
Prompt: Santa's POV of two teens opening their Christmas presents and confessing their feelings to each other
Synopsis: A story unfolds as the reader, along with Santa, watch two teenagers come to terms with their feelings in a tale full of Christmas magic.
Requirements: [Word Count] 1500+

Part One: The Memories
Christmas Day, thirteen years ago

     A little boy and girl sit, building a block tower by the fireplace. Their parents talk quietly on the couch behind them. Their joy is off the charts.

     Playing with the blocks they had received earlier that day, Estella and Jacob are silently constructing the tallest tower they could make. Both of them are happy, Estella warm and content with a mouthful of cookie sitting in her stomach; Jacob, the pickier eater, reminiscing about the yummy potatoes he'd eaten earlier.

     They're only three years old, but they've been the best of friends for their whole lives. Their parents are friends, so it was only natural for their kids to grow up together.

     From up above, Santa smiles.

Christmas Day, ten years ago

     Now six, Estella and Jacob are again opening presents together. This year, Santa has gifted them both LEGO sets. Their parents look on approvingly as they put together the pieces.

     The sets are like their friendship - tight, unbroken. Pieced together to create a cohesive scene, a perfect moment. Like every Christmas tradition, the Christmas Day celebration has been celebrated each year since the year they were born.

     After all, they were born on that day, together. It was always destined to be.

     Above them, Santa looks down, and smiles.

Christmas Day, five years ago

     Their eleventh birthday was the first Christmas they didn't spend together. It wasn't a big fight, they had made up almost immediately, and it was over the silliest thing. Jacob was mad that Estella was going on a trip to France for her birthday and leaving him behind. Estella was mad that he wasn't happy for her.

     And then, of course, as eleven year olds do, they resolved it. But that birthday marked the beginning of the end of their friendship.

     Up above, Santa's smile begins to fade.

Christmas Day, last year

     Estella and Jacob, the dynamic duo. Always pronounced as EstellaandJacob, like they were one person, not two. Always, until they weren't.

     Birthday number eleven was the start. Then, the next year, Jacob convinced his parents to take him on a trip without Estella. And then when they were thirteen, both of them reminded their parents that it was no longer cool to be friends with someone of the opposite gender unless they were dating.

     (Of course, this is completely ridiculous. But to teenagers, this is the way the world works.)

     By fourteen, they barely talked to one another. When their parents forced them to hang out, they sat in silence until someone took pity on them and engaged one or the other in conversation.