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Jacques wriggled in place, straining against his seat belt as he peered out the car window. The sun had already begun to set, sending pinky-orange streaks of color across the golden sky. Clouds dotted the horizon here and there, deep orange and heavy with approaching snow.
“Are we almost there now?” Jacques asked for what felt like the hundredth time. He straightened for a better view of the driver’s seat, tightening his hold on the small box he held in his lap.
His mother, Elaine Collet, glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “Patience, Jacques,” she replied, smiling sympathetically. “The Christmas party has barely even started.”
Jacques huffed, flopping dramatically back in his seat. The holiday season had just begun, and the ice dancing studio where Jacques took lessons was having a Christmas party. As usual, one of the student’s families had been asked to host the party, and this year, Jacques’s partner and best friend, Josée Voland, had been chosen.
Well, technically her mother had been chosen, but it was all the same to him. He couldn’t wait to see how Josée had decorated her house and to present her with the gift he had specifically chosen for her.
The car took an abrupt turn, and Jacques’s stomach tingled with excitement as he recognized Josée’s neighborhood. Houses, all cheerfully glowing with string lights and ribbons, sprung up on either side, each blanketed in a crisp layer of snow. But Jacques only had eyes for one.
As the car pulled into the driveway, he pressed his nose against the window, anxious to see his partner’s house. Two red ribbons had been wrapped grudgingly around the handrail, and a small wreath hung on the door. Other than that, the house looked the same as it always did. Jacques frowned; that was a bit disappointing. Then again, he knew not everyone enjoyed decorating with as much gusto as he did. Already, his room at home looked like a Christmas craft store had exploded inside of it.
The rumbling purr of the car engine slowed to a stop, and Jacques blinked out of his thoughts as his mother opened her door. Instantly, his excitement returned, and he hastily unbuckled his seatbelt, springing out of the car with his gift box held close.
“Slow down, Jacques,” Elaine laughed, taking his hand to prevent him from charging across the front lawn. “Your friend isn’t going anywhere.”
Logically, Jacques knew that, but in his opinion, it took far too long for his mother to finish locking the car and lead him to the front porch. He fidgeted eagerly as she rang the doorbell, packed snow crunching beneath his boots. Josée would open the door for him, he was sure of it, and then he could give her his gift, and they could run inside, and—
Jacques’s merry flight of fantasy was unceremoniously cut short as the door swung open and there stood not Josée, but her mother. Mariette Voland regarded Elaine with an expression somewhere between annoyance and resignation.
“Mrs. Collet,” she said, ignoring Jacques as she stepped aside to let them in.
Jacques hardly noticed that he hadn’t been addressed; he was too busy scanning the hallway for Josée. Light filtered in from a few of the side rooms, bouncing off the walls and creating an odd mixture of brightness and shadows. Voices floated toward him from further inside, but they were too muffled to recognize.
“Maman, I’m going to find Josée,” Jacques called over his shoulder as he started forward.
Elaine, conversing with an increasingly irritated-looking Mariette, waved to indicate she had heard. Jacques continued down the hall, skirting around various adults and scampering classmates whom he vaguely recognized. A mouth-watering smell was drifting from the kitchen, but he refused to let it distract him. He had one task at hand: find Josée.
The hallway finally dumped him out into a sitting room, which was currently void of party-goers. Jacques frowned, scanning his seemingly-empty surroundings. Just as he was about to give up and go search the kitchen (and maybe get a snack), his eyes caught on a small shape peeking over the couch. He could recognize that dark brown ponytail anywhere.
“Josée!” he exclaimed, shoving his gift behind his back as he bounded forward.
Josée whipped around, an expression of mingled surprise and relief washing over her face. “Jacques!” she replied with an equal amount of enthusiasm. “Finally, I’ve been waiting forever!”
She scooted sideways on the couch, which Jacques took as an invitation to sit. He dropped down beside her, his heart fluttering in an odd rhythm.
“I am sorry it took so long,” he told her. “I wanted to come sooner, but Maman said being early was rude.”
Josée made a sympathetically annoyed face. “Well, it’s good that you’re here now,” she said. “I was getting so bored.”
She’s just as happy to see me, he thought giddily, his heart fluttering again in a way he didn’t quite understand. Dismissing it as unimportant, Jacques pulled his gift box out from behind his back. “I brought you a Christmas present!” he said proudly, presenting it to her as if it was some sort of personal achievement.
“Oh, Jacjac!” Josée said, beaming at him as he thrust the box into her hands. “Merci.”
Eagerness sizzled through him; would she love it? “Open it, open it!” he begged, leaning over to give his partner an energizing nudge.
Josée carefully untied the excessively-glittery ribbon he had wrapped around the box, releasing a flurry of red sparkles onto the floor. Jacques wriggled in his seat, fighting the urge to take the box and tear it open himself. Finally, after far too much careful disassembling, his partner pulled off the lid and peered inside.
Tucked amongst a nest of shimmering, white tissue paper was a delicate, porcelain ice skate ornament. Josée drew a delighted breath, slipping its golden ribbon onto her fingers and carefully lifting it from the box.
“Oh, Jacques,” she breathed, eyes glued to the ice skate as it glittered in the light of the fireplace. “It’s beautiful.”
Jacques’s face grew warm, and he glanced away, smiling nervously. “I picked it out all by myself,” he said shyly. “I hoped you would like it.”
“I love it,” Josée said, giving him enough courage to look at her again. “Merci.”
A large grin erupted across his face and remained there as she delicately laid the ornament in the box and set it aside. However, his smile faltered as she turned back, her expression morphing into frustration.
“I have a present for you, too,” she told him. “But it’s upstairs.”
“Then let’s go get it,” Jacques replied, trying not to show his confusion. Why is she so upset about that?
He bounced off the couch and grasped her hand, preparing to tug his partner to her feet. Josée stiffened, pulling back.
“I can’t,” she huffed.
Jacques tilted his head at her. “Why not?”
Josée let go of his hand, dropping her gaze to the floor. “Mama said I have to stay out of the way until the party is over.” She gestured to the empty sitting room.
A wave of mingled disappointment and indignation washed over Jacques as he flopped back down beside her. It was a Christmas party! For their ice dancing studio! How could her mother be so unfair? He cast around for something to say that would cheer his partner up.
“It’s okay, Josée,” he said, doing his best to swallow his disappointment. “You can give it to me during practice next week.” But that’s a whole weekend away! his mind protested. Jacques firmly dismissed the thought; this wasn’t Josée’s choice.
“I wanted to give it to you now,” she huffed, interrupting Jacques’s train of thought.
“I could go upstairs and get it,” he suggested.
“But I wanted to get it for you,” she grumbled, crossing her arms and scowling at the table as if it was to blame for the situation.
Jacques squinted at the shadows dancing across the carpet, thinking hard. There was an idea prickling in the back of his mind; he hesitantly poked at it. Would Maman be mad if I suggested it? Taking an uncertain breath through his nose, Jacques turned toward his partner. “What—what if you did go get it?” he said slowly.
Josée’s expression clouded with confusion, and she gave him an expectant stare, silently prompting him to continue. Jacques cast a quick glance at the hallway, just to make sure Josée’s mother wasn’t anywhere nearby. She wasn’t. A thrill of energy ran up his spine.
“We could sneak upstairs,” he whispered, leaning toward Josée.
Her eyes widened. “What if we get caught?” she whispered back anxiously. “Mama will be really mad.”
“So we won’t be caught,” Jacques replied, nearly on his feet already. “A lot of the grown-ups are in the kitchen anyway. Your mum is probably with them.”
Josée was silent for a moment, watching the hallway with an indecisive expression. “I really don’t want to keep sitting here,” she said slowly, as if reasoning with herself. “But if she catches me…” She cast Jacques an uncertain look.
Digging his fingernails into the couch cushion to help him think, Jacques replayed Josée’s exact words to him. She said her mum told her to stay out of the way, he realized. Not to stay on the couch.
“She never said to stay here, right?” he clarified, poking the couch for emphasis. “Just out of the way?”
Slow realization lit behind Josée’s eyes as she nodded. “And we won’t be in the way upstairs,” she said. She looked up at Jacques with sudden excitement. “Let’s do it.”
Unable to remain sitting any longer, Jacques bounced off the couch for the second time. Josée followed suit, albeit much more carefully. She slid off the cushion, casting wary glances in several directions as her feet touched the floor. When nothing happened, she let out a relieved sigh and straightened her shoulders. Jacques gave her a reassuring nudge before taking her hand and leading her out of the sitting room.
The trip down the hall was a bit of a challenge, but in an incredibly gratifying sort of way. There were several adults still standing around, and Jacques, just to ensure Josée wouldn’t accidentally get in the way, went ahead to scout a clear path for her. He ducked around several partygoers’ legs and pieces of furniture, beckoning to his partner whenever there was a clear spot, and soon began to feel like one of the secret agents from his oldest sister Camille’s spy movies. All he needed was a cool pair of sunglasses.
Finally, after taking probably much longer than necessary, he and Josée emerged at the foot of the stairs. “Tu vois?” he said, clasping his partner’s hands. “We made it just fine.”
Josée smiled, her face still alight from the exhilaration of their adventure. “Come on, before someone sees us!” She tugged him up a few steps before letting go and bounding ahead.
The light from the party gradually dimmed as they climbed the stairs, the voices fading along with it. Jacques was half inclined to pause at the top of the stairs and enjoy the stillness, but the lure of Josée’s Christmas present was too strong. He hurried after his partner, pausing in the doorway as she clicked on the lights. Jacques’s eyes were instantly pulled to a short, plastic Christmas tree perched on Josée’s desk.
“Isn’t it pretty?” she beamed, striding toward the little tree before turning to face him with an immensely proud expression. “Mama almost didn’t let me have it, but I did so well at practice last week that she said yes.”
Jacques glanced past Josée at the tree. Little yellow-orange lights were strung through its branches, a bit unevenly, but that was hardly noticeable through the glittery gold tinsel. And sitting beneath the tree, wrapped in shiny red paper, was a small box with a tag that read, “For Jacjac.” A tremor of excitement ran up Jacques’s spine.
“Oui, Josée, it’s very pretty,” he replied, trying not to show his anticipation. Good friends were patient, he reminded himself, so he would wait as long as it took. “Why aren’t there any Christmas ornaments on it?”
Josée cast a glance at her tree. “I don’t have any for my tree,” she replied. “Mama wanted them all on the big tree downstairs.” She turned to gaze up at Jacques, expression glowing. “But now I have the ice skate from you!”
Jacques clasped his hands behind his back, giving his partner a shy smile. Josée smiled back for a moment before turning to pick up the little box. Once again distracted, Jacques fixed his gaze on his partner, stomach churning with anticipation.
“Here,” she said as she passed him the present. “This one is yours.”
Not waiting for any further cue, Jacques dropped to the floor and began shredding the wrappings. Josée hardly had time to sit down across from him before the paper was off. The thought abruptly occurred to Jacques that whatever it was might be breakable, and he finally found it within himself to slow down. Carefully setting aside the paper, which now looked like somebody’s cat had been playing with it, he opened the box and peered inside.
Sitting in the bottom was a small, round keychain with a picture of a Shih Tzu on it. It was sandy and white with a flat, black nose, and strongly resembled his own little dog. “Ah, Josée!” he exclaimed, pulling it out for closer inspection. “It looks just like Aimée!”
He looked up to find that his partner had gone a rather deep shade of scarlet. “That’s why I picked it,” she said, flashing him an embarrassed smile. “I thought maybe you could put it on your skating bag.”
Jacques reached over to pull her into an appreciative hug, admiring the keychain over her shoulder. “Merci, Josée,” he said. “Je l’aime!”
Something suddenly flickered on the edge of his vision, and he glanced up at the window. The light from the room cast a sheen over the glass, so he mostly just saw a reflection of himself hugging Josée. However, something small and pale kept flickering past every few seconds, interrupting the stillness of the reflection.
A delighted gasp escaped him before Jacques’s mind had finished clicking the pieces into place. “It’s snowing!” he exclaimed, releasing Josée and lunging toward the window.
“Mama said it might,” she replied, coming up to stand beside him. “She said it could make the party cancel if it started early enough.”
“Well, it’s too late for that now,” Jacques pointed out, pressing his nose against the window and squinting. The glass was cold and instantly began to fog with the warmth of his breath. “I can’t see outside,” he reported.
“It’s because of the light,” Josée replied matter-of-factly, spinning neatly in place and crossing the room to the light switch. With a faint click that Jacques was nearly too distracted to register, the light flickered off, abandoning the room to the soft, orange glow emanating from Josée’s little tree.
Outside, the sky had turned a deep shade of indigo, several bright stars winking merrily behind a swath of clouds. As Jacques watched, one of the stars seemed to break away from the rest, then another, and another, and he suddenly realized they weren’t stars at all.
“Ça alors,” he whispered, his breath momentarily clouding the window pane in front of him.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Josée, who had returned to the window, give him a sideways glance. “This isn’t your first snowfall, Jacques,” she reminded him, though she sounded more amused than anything else. When he turned to look at her, her eyes were fixed just as intently on the floating snowflakes.
“I know,” he said, pausing to admire how the glow from the tree outlined his partner in golden light. “But it is still pretty.”
He sidled a step closer to her, and a comfortable silence fell between them. The snow soon began to fall faster, creating a dusting of color on the dark grass below.
“I guess you’re right,” Josée said after a few seconds had passed. “It is pretty.”
“And the perfect weather for us,” Jacques pointed out. “We are ice dancers, non?”
Josée giggled. “Right,” she replied. She watched him carefully for a moment longer, and Jacques hesitated, sensing she was about to say more. Josée’s expression softened thoughtfully as she turned back to the window. “I am glad you came,” she said. “It would’ve been awful sitting downstairs by myself all night.”
Jacques glanced at Josée with a delighted grin. “Of course I came,” he said. “You are mon meilleure amie, I couldn’t just stay home.”
He couldn’t tell if it was simply the orange light from the little tree, but Josée’s cheeks suddenly looked redder as she turned to look up at him again. “We’ll always be partners, won’t we, Jacques?”
Jacques blinked in confusion. That question seemed a bit random; of course he would always be her partner. Who else was there in their class? In an effort to reassure her, he placed his hands on her shoulders and squeezed. “Bien sûr oui, Josée,” he said confidently. “I will always be your partner, no matter what happens.”
She hesitated for moment, as if contemplating whether or not to continue. At last, she said, “Even if we don’t win every competition?”
Further confusion clouded Jacques’s thoughts. Why would winning or losing have anything to do with him staying her partner? A faint memory pulsed in the back of his mind, of something he had overheard Josée’s mother saying a few months ago, after they had lost a competition. Something about losses affecting the people who wanted to be around you…He couldn’t remember exactly, and the uncertain expression on Josée’s face was distracting him. Shoving away his thoughts, Jacques gave her another supportive squeeze.
“Even if we lose every competition in the world!” he declared.
Josée blanched, her eyes widening, and she grabbed his hands as if she was afraid for his sanity. “Jacques, don’t say that!” she exclaimed.
“Don’t worry, Josée,” he replied hastily. “I didn’t mean we are going to lose, just that I will always be your partner.”
She instantly relaxed her grip. “Good,” she said, tossing her ponytail over her shoulder as if trying to hide the relief in her eyes. “Because all the other boys in our class are silly.”
Jacques turned back to the window, allowing himself a small smirk at being placed in a higher category than his classmates. He and Josée remained at the window for a few moments longer, watching the snowflakes fall, until at last, she broke the silence.
“We should go back downstairs,” she said. “Mama might come looking for us if she notices I’m gone.”
Jacques tried to hide his crashing disappointment under a sigh. He already knew they would eventually have to go back downstairs, and if he was being honest with himself, a confrontation with Josée’s mother the very last thing he wanted right then. “A-kay, fine,” he said, instinctively moving in sync with his partner as she turned from the window.
After shoving his new keychain into his pocket, and helping clear up the shredded wrapping paper, Jacques trailed after Josée into the hall. The return trip was much the same as the first, as most of the partygoers were still standing around socializing. After a quick detour to the (thankfully Mama-free) kitchen for something to eat, they returned to the sitting room, where they decided to stay for the rest of the party.
By the time the festivities were coming to a close, they had eaten their way through numerous paper plates of crackers, cheese, and other various horderves. Jacques, pleased with staying up to what he considered “late at night,” but what was really only about 9:30, was about to ask Josée if she thought it would snow again tomorrow when a set of footsteps sounded behind them.
He cast a glance over his shoulder, stomach plunging with disappointment as he saw his mother. He already knew what she was going to say.
“It’s time to go, Jacques,” Elaine announced, smiling warmly at both him and Josée.
“Maman,” Jacques begged, though he knew it was pointless. “Please, just a few more minutes!”
“You’ve already asked that twice,” was her reply.
Jacques sighed in defeat, turning grumpily to Josée. She giggled at his expression, though he didn’t miss the disappointment flashing behind her own eyes.
“Goodnight, Jacjac,” she said, leaning forward and wrapping both arms around his neck.
Jacques felt his face flush as he hugged her tightly. “Goodnight, Josée,” he replied, pulling back.
She gazed up at him with dark, brown eyes, her face seeming to glow in the soft firelight. Jacques didn’t understand the bubbly feeling in his chest, but he couldn’t hope to control the probably ridiculous-looking grin that scrawled across his face. Suddenly feeling brave, he leaned toward her and, before there was time to talk himself out of it, planted a kiss on her cheek.
Face burning with embarrassment, he leapt from the couch and with a quick “See you on Monday” dashed past his mother to the hall. If he had stayed a moment longer, he would’ve seen the equally embarrassed, but undeniably pleased, expression on Josée’s face.
Once back in the car, Elaine regarded him with an amused smile. “Did you have a good time?” she asked, starting up the car with a rumbling purr.
Jacques nodded eagerly. “Oui, I did, Maman!” he chirped, pressing his nose against the window as the car backed down the driveway. “We talked, and ate so many snacks, and I gave Josée the ice skate ornament!”
“Did she like it?”
“She said she loved it,” Jacques replied, straightening in his seat.
Elaine said something else, but he was only half listening, instead watching the Voland’s house retreat into the darkness. He fingered the keychain in his pocket, planning to clip it to his skating bag as soon as he got home (and showed it off to the rest of his family). He already couldn’t wait to take it to practice on Monday.
Maybe Josée will put her ice skate ornament on her tree tonight, he thought, though in the back of his mind, he knew she would. She had said she loved it, which, to his twelve-year-old mind, was as good as saying he loved him. And she does, he thought, twisting in his seat to look up at the falling snow. She wants me to always be her partner, even if we lose. And I will always be her partner.