"Jacob David West! If you don't get away from the popcorn I will end you!"

Taylor let out a loud laugh at her mom's shout. Taylor walked out of her bedroom, carrying her suitcase, which was sandwiched full of clothes, winter gear, and various gifts, including the vase she had bought for her mom a month and a half ago.

She peered down the stairs, where Jacob was holding the massive bag of popcorn kernels, playing a game of cat and mouse with her mom, who was chasing him around the kitchen island.

Her mom turned to run one direction and Jacob ran the other way, running them both in loops. She paused at the top of the staircase, her eyes on them as they ran around.

Taylor bounced down the steps, feeling, for some reason, significantly happy. She was extremely excited to be seeing her grandparents again, and she was wearing her comfy travel outfit: leggings, her running shoes and her sweatshirt.

"Jacob," Her mom was heaving for breath. "Give that back so we can get in the car and go."

Jacob's mouth curled up into a positively evil smile, similar to the grinch's. "Only if you catch me."

"Boy," Her mom glared with little anger at Jacob. "I brought you into this world, I can take you out of it and use your uncle to hide your body."

Jacob cackled. "Fine, fine, I'll give it back because we should go, but this is not over."

Her mom's eyes were blazing with non-real anger. "You bet it isn't."

Taylor laughed and grabbed her winter jacket, tugging it on and pulling her toque down over her head. She ducked out into the garage and lifted her suitcase into the backseat, where Jacob would be sandwiched with them for the painfully long ride.

Her mom hopped into the driver's seat and Taylor opened the door, jumping into the passenger seat. Jacob grumbled briefly, shoving the massive bag of popcorn kernels on top of the pile of suitcases.

Her mom opened the garage and pulled out of the garage, watching to make sure it had shut before pulling out of their street and driving south, out of town.

~~~

An hour into the ride, Taylor glanced back at Jacob, who was dozing in and out, watching some old movie on his phone, his head resting against the stack of suitcases.

She tugged her phone out of her pocket and raised an eyebrow at the text from Aubrey.

'Do either of you know where I can get sunscreen in December?'

Taylor blinked in confusion and texted back. 'Why do you need sunscreen? There is like only five hours of sun right now anyways.'

'Italy is going to be warm, and I don't want to spend five months with a permanent sunburn.'

"Mom?" Taylor asked. "Do you know anywhere that sells sunscreen right now?"

Her mom blinked in surprise. "Sunscreen? What for?"

"Aubrey's trip starts in three weeks and she needs sunscreen."

"Oh, I forgot she was going to Italy. You're going to miss her, hey?"

Taylor nodded, the sad feeling in her stomach heavy. Aubrey, Clara, and her had been friends since preschool, and this was the first time they weren't going to be in school together.

"Tell her we can poke around a bit in Edmonton to see if we can find any."

Taylor nodded and relayed her message.

'Thank you!' Aubrey texted back.

Her mom glanced back at Jacob, who had both headphones in and evidently wasn't listening to their conversation. "Did you smooth anything over with Nasir?"

Taylor shrugged noncommittally. "Not really. We are kind of just avoiding each other at this point in time. I overheard an odd conversation between him and his sister in the library with Clara and Aubrey."

Her mom raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything, keeping her gaze on the quiet road in front of her.

"His sister thinks we should date."

Her mom let out a laugh, keeping her gaze forwards and unblinking through her sunglasses. "It's always the little siblings."

Taylor rolled her eyes. "I know." She glanced back at Jacob to make sure he wasn't listening again. He caught her gaze and raised an eyebrow. He popped a headphone out.

"Why do you keep looking back at me?" He demanded, his features laced with indignation.

"Never mind," Taylor waved her hand at him, gesturing for him to go back to his movie. "I was just seeing if you were awake or not."

He glared suspiciously at her, but put his headphone back in and carried on with his movie, his gaze only flickering between her and the screen a couple of times.

"Jacob doesn't know, I'm assuming?"

Taylor laughed sarcastically and nodded. "Obviously. I know he likes Nasir, but still, I don't want to die or have that conversation of all things with him."

Her mom nodded and chuckled in amusement. "Fair enough. Goodness knows that he would be more than willing to punch Nasir if he found out."

"Found out Nasir did what?"

Taylor's face blanched. "Nothing. We were just talking about something that had happened at a game, carry on with your movie."

"No," Jacob sat up. "I want to know what you are talking about."

"It's none of your business," Taylor sassed him, twisting in her seat to face him.

Jacob made a mock offended face. "It is now."

"Jacob," Her mom let out a warning tone. "Go back to your movie."

Jacob huffed and Taylor stuck out her tongue, but he didn't push it anymore, instead putting back in his headphone and carrying on.

Taylor twisted her neck, looking out the mildly frosted over window. It was just an endless expanse of white fields, rolling off into the distant horizon. There were a few horses trotting across one of them, the only movement for ages.

Taylor twisted and popped her peppermint gum. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she hummed, wondering what Aubrey needed now.

She tugged out her phone and turned it on only to squeal and drop it.

"What the hell was that Taylor?" Her mom blinked in surprise, keeping one eye on the road and the on Taylor as she scooped her phone up off the truck floor.

"He texted me," Taylor whispered, holding her phone like it was on fire.

Her mom let out an excited gasp. "I knew Damsa would come through."

"What do you mean?"

"Damsa and I were chatting about the bad water between you two and we were trying to figure out how to make it better. Damsa must have convinced him that it was a good idea."

Taylor raised an eyebrow. "You set this up?"

Her mom waved her hand. "What does the text say?"

Pausing for only a split second, Taylor opened it, and read it quickly. She turned to her mom in her seat, straining against her seatbelt.

"He says, 'Hey, I know there is some sort of awkward tension between us right now, and I understand that it is my fault. I still don't know what I did, but it obviously upset you. I'm not going to apologize, because I don't really understand why or what I did, but I just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas and I hope that when the new year starts we can figure whatever this is out.'"

Taylor swallowed and blinked up at her mom, her face heating up with embarrassment.

"Oh my goodness, he is so totally Damsa's son," Her mom smiled. "That is so painfully cute."

"What do I text back?" Taylor asked. "Every time I try and stay mad at him he does something like this and then I'm reminded why I liked him in the first place."

Her mom laughed. "Well, you don't have to tell him why you're upset, but you should at least say something."

Taylor nodded and pulled her phone closer to her face and quickly typed out. 'I hope we can work this out in the new year too. I want to apologize for what I said in the arena. I didn't mean it. You had just pissed me off. You aren't really an awful human being. That was rude of me and I'm sorry.'

It only took a few seconds before the dots popped up at the bottom of the screen. A second later, another text answered back.

'You were mad at me, but I accept your apology. Until you are ready to tell me what I apparently did, can we call it good? Just so we have peace of mind over the holidays?"

'Sure. I'll see you in the new year.'

'See you in the new year.'

~~~

"You are so big!"

Taylor and Jacob exchanged a worried glance as their grandma opened the door, a massive grin on her face. She was a thin woman, and very slight, but it seemed she had the dominant genes over anyone else in the family because her brown eyes were in every child and grandchild she had.

Her grandma clapped her hands together and stepped out onto the wooden porch in suburban Edmonton. She grasped Jacob's cheeks, squeezing them. Taylor hid her face to hide her laughter at Jacob's disgruntled expression.

The outside of the house was covered in rainbow Christmas lights, and out in the snow-coated lawn, there was a model set of Santa and his reindeer.

"You are getting so tall, taller than Taylor now." Her grandma cheered, then turned her sights to Taylor.

It was Jacob's turn to laugh as Taylor got pulled into a hug. "And you are growing into such a lovely young lady. You must have all the boys fawning over you."

Taylor could feel the embarrassment rising all over her body. She shook her head to hide her red face and ears from her grandma as she cooed over them.

"Well, come on in. You too, Katie! We can do that later!"

Taylor and Jacob's mom glanced back from where she was fooling around in the truck.

"We've got you two in the spare bedroom downstairs, and your mother can use the spare bedroom upstairs."

Taylor nodded her response and entered the house after their grandma.

As she remembered from childhood, it still smelled of candles. It was the smell of holly and pine trees, the kind that spread all throughout the house with their insanely heavy scent. Her grandpa was standing just inside. He was tall and wearing a button-up underneath a sweater vest.

"If it isn't two of my four favourite grandchildren!" He beamed at them, and they were subject to yet another round of hugs and coddling.

Taylor could feel her face absolutely burning with humiliation. There was bread dough sitting on the counter, ready to be placed into loaves.

"It's too bad Clark couldn't bring down the girls." Her mom commented. "That would be so much fun."

Her grandmother nodded rapidly. "We will have to get him to do that later. I don't care if he isn't technically related to us anymore, I won't have him escaping the family now."

Taylor chuckled and turned in the living room. The floor was carpeted, and there was a wooden coffee table with a small nick in it from where she had dropped something as a kid. In the corner, sandwiched up against the windows, was a proud pine tree, only half decorated with baubles and lights. Bing Crosby's White Christmas was crooning out of an ancient record player, filling the room with a holiday air.

"Figured we'd wait for you both before decorating more." Her grandpa smiled, linking an arm over her shoulder.

Taylor smiled. "That's sweet of you."

He smiled down at her. "You are so pretty. Have you got a boyfriend yet?"

Taylor shook her head. "Nope."

"No one?"

She went to shake her head but stopped at the positively evil expression on Jacob's face. "What?" She demanded.

"She has someone she want's to be her boyfriend!" Jacob beamed as he confessed this.

Taylor snapped her gaze to Jacob as he laughed. "What are you talking about?"

He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "I may or may not have been watching that movie, or at least paused it long enough to know what that conversation was about," His eyes crinkled. "I can't believe you thought I didn't know."

Taylor's mouth dropped open and she snapped her gaze to her mom, who was still standing in the entryway with their grandma.

"I didn't tell him," Her mom denied. "He figured that out on his own."

Jacob laughed. "I've had suspicions for like a month, that conversation in the truck just confirmed them."

"How could you have possibly known?"

Jacob rolled his eyes and shook his head in disbelief. "You were never good at hiding your facial expressions." He made an unflattering imitation of her face, with his eyes like saucers, before breaking into laughter.

"You have three seconds to run," Taylor clenched her hands into fists. "Before I hunt you down and make you regret the day you eavesdropped on that conversation."