Chasing Jacob (Jacob Whitesides Fanfiction)

Free

About two months after Ryan's incident we were getting ready to host our annual Christmas party and it finally felt like things were getting back to normal. My parents were busy fixing up the tree setting out the food. Josh was staring anxiously into the mirror trying to straighten out his ugly sweater, but some of the puffballs and things wouldn't lay the way he wanted. I laughed at him from the kitchen where I was pulling another batch of cookies out of the oven. "The sweater's supposed to be ugly. There's no point trying to fix it."

He glared at me. "Yours isn't even ugly. Why can't I wear the Rudolph sweater?"

I stuck out my tongue at him as I started rolling out some more cookie dough. "I got stuck with that one for the past six years when it was way too big on me. You finally grew out of Rudolph. It's my turn to wear the good ugly sweater."

He sighed and gave up. "Katrina's gonna think I look like an idiot."

I rolled my eyes. "It's an ugly sweater party. That's the point. Calm down."

Josh came out and took one of the peanut butter cookies that just came out. "You're really good at this."

I blushed. "I try. You know cookie baking is my thing."

He picked up a cookie cutter from the counter and carved a candy cane out of my sugar cookie dough, placing it on the cookie sheet. "Are these the last ones?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Once these are in I have to go get ready."

"What's left to do?"

"I still have a few presents to wrap and I need to fix my hair."

My hair was currently up in a messy bun and I had to wrap up the boots I got for Sierra, the guitar picks I got for Jacob, and the headphones I got for Dakota. We only had a half hour before people were set to start coming. "Can you keep an eye on my cookies?" I asked Josh.

"I have to pick up Katrina in like fifteen. How long til they're done?"

I leaned across the counter to check the recipe. "Seven minutes once they're in. Can you pull them out?"

Josh nodded. "Yeah. I'll get it."

I slipped the cookies in the oven and skipped upstairs to my room, grabbing the wrapping paper and bows from the guest room along the way. I sat down on the floor and started wrapping as fast as I could. When I wrote out Kota's name tag, a massive smile broke across my face. He'd just gotten in from his Dad's house the night before. It felt like he'd been gone for an eternity. I couldn't have been more thankful to have him back in my life for the next week or so.

Wrapping up Jacob's present made me just as happy. After all these years of crushing on him, he was finally mine. It took a long time to get there, but I finally had him. I couldn't have been more thankful.

Wrapping Sierra's gift just reminded me of the way things used to be. I'd known her since she was a baby and had a present for her every Christmas since she was born. She was like my own little sister most of the time. Through everything that had changed, her and I hadn't. She never looked at me any different and I think she was the only one.

I topped all the gifts with bows and stood up in front of my mirror, taking my hair down. I re-parted it and straightened the ends. In addition to that I picked up the elf hat I had lying on my bed and pulled it on. My parents had a stupid thing where they wore Mr. and Mrs. Claus hats and Josh and I were their elves. We were one of those families and I was happy to be a part of it.

There was a knock on my door and I turned to see Santa Claus himself standing in my doorway. "Ready for the big night?" he asked.

I smiled and adjusted the bell on the end of my elf hat. "Yeah. It's been ages since everyone was together."