The days grew colder quickly in a small town called Little River. It snugly fits right next to beautiful flower fields and hills and Boston, Massachusetts. Sometimes during the winter, the snow would fall in the meadows, and a beautiful orange-pink sunset would cast its warmth all over the town. It is truly a sight to see. 

But this story does not take place in the meadows, but rather in a house all decorated for Christmas in the middle of a friendly suburban neighborhood. In this house lives a little brunette girl named Stella, her parents, and her grandmother (who came for the holidays), but her parents were out in the town that night, so it was just Stella and her grandmother.

13-year-old Stella couldn’t sleep, so she put on her favorite sweater and crept downstairs to eat a snack, hoping her grandmother wouldn’t notice. Unfortunately for her, a sneeze tickled her nose as soon as she reached the pantry. She couldn’t hold it back, so she awakened the house and alerted the grandmother of her presence downstairs. 

“Stella?” 

Grandma ambled into the kitchen to catch Stella red-handed in front of the pantry, holding a box of cookies. “Dear, what are you doing up?” she said gently.

 “I can’t sleep,” Stella said sheepishly, “and I wanted some cookies.” 

Grandma laughed. “Go have some cookies. I’ll be on the couch.”

“Ok.”

“If you want a story, just ask me, alright?”

“YES, thank you! I want a story. I’m going to finish these cookies first.”

“Sure thing. Let me sit down.”

Grandma always told the best stories, and she told them whenever Stella couldn’t sleep. They were action-packed with just the right amount of suspense, tragicness, and romance. Grandma always said she got them from reading something called Wattpad, but Stella didn’t know what that was. She said never to read them because they were not age appropriate for Stella, and she always said that she told the stories she read with an appropriate twist on them.

The kitchen was filled with the warmth of the living room fireplace, sending a sense of peace and holiday magic all over the house. This was Stella’s favorite time of year. The thick blankets on the couch, warm cookies, and happiness that came with Christmas were unbeatable. 

She finished her cookies, made some hot chocolate for story time, and cleaned up before hopping onto the couch right next to her grandmother.

“Ready for a story?” she asked. 

“Yep! I made hot chocolate for both of us too.”

“Thank you, dear.”

Grandma took her mug from Stella and gently set it down on the table, and then they both hauled big blankets from the couch and bundled up.

Grandma cleared her throat, and said, “This is the story of a Christmastime one year when I was a little girl just like you. Not a Wattpad story,” she chuckled, “but a story from my own life about one of my best friends.”  

Stella nodded. 

“This was around 2023, and I was around 15 years old.”

“Wow, that was so long ago! Like 80 years ago! ”

“Yes, correct. I was just about to go on Christmas vacation. It was the second-to-last day of school and we were watching a Christmas movie. Remember Este, my best friend?

“Is it the lady who came by yesterday with dark brown hair and cat-eye glasses?”

“Yes! Correct. She was one of my closest school friends and she’s still my friend to this day. Isn’t that amazing?”

“Wow, I want a friendship like that.” 

“I am very lucky for Este. She loved to have fun, and she partied a lot. We almost got arrested on an island vacation, but that’s a tale for another day.” Grandma chuckled, remembering the memories.

Stella wanted to hear what happened on the island, but Grandma could only tell one story per night because then she got too tired. She always said that she was retired to be “tired and lazy all day”. Storytelling took a lot out of her.

“Anyway, back to the story. There was one boy in class that had a big crush on Este. His name was Leo, and everyone knew that he liked her except Este herself. Leo also happened to have what we called lots of ‘rizz’, which was a shortened slang term for ‘charisma’. He had wavy hair and soft grey eyes.” 

“What’s rizz?”

Grandma laughed. “Just as you guys have your own slang words, our generation had ours as well. For example, the term ‘rizz’ could be used like this: ‘That boy has lots of rizz,’ or ‘He rizzed her up.’” 

“Oh, that’s funny. Give me another example.”

“We used the term “sus” as a shortened word for "suspicious. Usually used when someone said something that could be interpreted as something dirty.” She sighed. “So many people tried to make things people said into something dirty. It was annoying.”

Stella laughed. “I’m sorry that happened.”

“That day in the classroom, nobody was paying attention to the movie. The teacher wasn’t inside with us, I think she was talking to another teacher outside. I remember a group of girls were in the corner making TikToks-”

“What’s TikTok?”

“Oh, I forgot you don’t know this stuff. When it first blew up, the main thing about it was dancing to sped-up music,” Grandma cackled, “and later on it was also a place to get pop culture news and see what was trending. I remember making so many TikToks.”

“It was such a huge platform. If you didn’t know what TikTok was, you were probably either a small child or what we called “boomers,” which were elderly people born between 1946 and 1964. Grandma chuckled. “How the tables have turned now.”

“It’s OK, Grandma. I can teach you how to stay relevant in this age.”

“Please do. Anyway, Este and Leo were similar in lots of ways. Both Leo and Este liked to party, were bold and outgoing, and got into minor trouble here and there at school. They both had soft sides and, despite getting into trouble sometimes, were very intellectual. It made perfect sense that Leo would have a crush on Este and a big one. It helped that Leo had four classes out of six with her, so they hung out a lot.”

Grandma then paused to recollect the memories, and Stella readjusted her position on the couch. She could fall asleep right then and there listening to Grandma’s comfortable and joyous voice, accompanied by the heat from the fireplace. The warmth felt like a big hug and it radiated everywhere. 

“Continue the story, Grandma.”

“Oh, yes. I remember now. The day before, I had asked Este what she thought of Leo, and Este had only said that she liked having him around. I was willing to take a gamble and say that she did have a crush on him based on that one statement.” Grandma laughed out loud. 

“Did she have a crush on him?”

“I’ll tell you later on.” 

“Grandma!”

“Shhh,” Grandma chuckled, “I’ll reveal it soon. I then told Este that Leo had a crush on her and she didn’t believe me. No matter how many times I told her that everybody at school knew, she still didn’t believe me. ‘He’s just my friend, everyone knows that.’ I was determined to prove it, preferably before Christmas vacation, so that meant I had to get Leo to confess straight to her face before the break. I had Leo’s friends’ contacts, and through them, I got Leo’s contact. It took some convincing, but he agreed after 35 minutes. I thought it would take longer than that, honestly. The confession would take place during the fourth period, the period before lunch.”

Grandma then paused, sipping her hot chocolate and taking her time. 

“Really, Grandma? You decided to pause right now at this point in the story?” Stella said with an exasperated smile.

“Oh, come on. You don’t think it was just a coincidence that I paused now?” Grandma said grinning. “Alright then, let’s finish.”

“I entered the fourth period and saw Leo and his friends whispering in the corner. I went over to them to make sure he didn’t chicken out, and luckily he didn’t. He was just going to wait until a little later. That seemed a little skeptical to me, but I didn’t want to be pushy about it. Finally, after half the class went by, the teacher was out of the room, and everyone separated into groups, not paying attention to the movie. Leo stood up with his friends teasing and shouting next to him and walked over to Este, who was sitting next to me. We were on our phones and playing a game when Este looked over at Leo and smiled. 

‘Oh, hi, Leo. Wanna play this game with me and Lucy?’”

“Some people then and there started staring at us. But finally, Leo said the words: ‘I have a crush on you.’ Now the whole class was silent. I could tell Leo was bracing himself for potential rejection, but finally, Este looked up and grinned. ‘Well, me too, idiot.’ The whole class erupted into chaos. Leo’s friends were cheering next to him, the girls were surrounding Este, and we all just made a bunch of noise- oh, the noise! I can’t remember what exactly was said but I know for sure we were quite loud at that moment,” Grandma said with amusement.

“Aw, that’s a happy ending then. What happened to the two?”

Grandma smiled. 

“Este is married now. Do you know her husband’s name?”

“No, what is it?”

“Leo.”

Stella’s jaw dropped. “Este married Leo? Did she meet her husband in high school? That’s so cool!”

“It is amazing indeed. They both had lots of maturing to do before marriage, but it is still very sweet.”

Stella was sleepy now. She said goodbye to her grandmother and headed up the stairs, warm and happy from the cookies, the fire, and the story of how her grandmother’s best friend’s first love was her true love.