Chapter Text
Snowflakes frosted over, slowly melding to ice as they clung to every surface on the streets of Newark. A hardware store a few blocks from the rock sold frosted trees that shook snow onto the ground as Corinne Schroeder lifted one with a bare hand inviting cold to linger upon it.
“I think this one’s a little tall,” she said, referring to the several feet it had over her. “We don’t exactly have a saw to trim this one, maybe in Manitoba I would, though.”
“Let’s see this one,” Micah said, lifting up a tree no taller than four feet from the board it was leaned against.
“Mikes that’s way too small.”
“It’s not such a bad little tree.”
“Sure but we can at least have something that reaches the window.”
“It can be a Charlie Brown tree,” she quipped.
“See this one,” Corinne moved, lifting up a tree narrowly taller than her. “Has to be six-feet-something.”
“How much is it?”
“Oof. Umm,” she checked the tag on one of the branches. “Ninety.”
“Geez, in this economy? That’s a week’s work of groceries and then some.”
“Yea but it’s a nice tree.”
“It’s not groceries nice.”
“We can afford it.”
“Only up for a month.”
“Let’s compromise,” the goalie said, taking a few steps and lifting a tree a little shorter than the defender from a board. “Seventy and five-foot-two.”
“Fine, I like that one. No gaps and it has sturdy branches.”
“Great. Maybe we could put it on a box so it looks taller.”
“Deal.”
*
“Where’re your ornaments?” Kalty asked, dipping a cookie into a glass of milk, admiring her handiwork of getting the tree up the stairs and into the base.
“Box; In the closet I think.” Sarah said from the floor of the living room, unfolding two stockings that had just come in a parcel from Seattle courtesy of a teammate from Princeton. Two Sirens hockey socks sewn together with an orange heel and toe accented by an embroidered ‘Sarah’ on the top mimicked the nearly identical design to the one reading ‘Kalty’.
Kristýna returned from the hall was a box marked fragile, placing it next to Sarah. The shorter girl lifted up her stocking to show her.
“Where do you wanna hang these up?”
“No fireplace, maybe on the TV shelf?”
“Go ahead,” Sarah said, handing her the other one.
“D’you know if anything else came?” Kalty asked, placing a hefty book over the loops coming out of the top corner of each stocking to keep them from falling.
“Just this card from Pou and Stace,” Sarah replied, standing and flashing it between to fingers to show Kalty. The Victoires stood smiling brightly with Arlo sat between them. Kristýna imagined for a second what that life could be like, with Sarah; not hiding anything but— she halted the thought in her mind as Sarah looked at her puzzled.
“Uhhhh, fridge?” She blurted, blinking her eyes fiercely. “Want me to put it on the fridge?”
“Sure. I’ll get started on these ornaments.”
She opened the four-folded cardboard top, hoping not to find any shattered ornaments. Gingerbread men, candy canes, snowmen, reindeer, all different materials and sizes filled the box.
“K, do you have any ornaments?” She asked, looking up at the taller girl who had just pulled on a sweater.
“All back in Czechia.” Sarah frowned.
Kalty began reaching into the box and shuffling over to the tree to hang them. Sarah soon followed suit.
“Where did you get these? I don’t remember seeing them in your dorm ever.”
“Packer gave them to me, plus a few from my mom.”
“That’s nice. At Colgate my roommates always made a few paper snowflakes and put them up with the ornaments. They were only red and gold circles, you know the ones?” She said, hooking a felt snowflake to the branch.
“Yea, they’re pretty,” Sarah hung a candy cane. “What was your tree like back home?”
“Oh, in Czech? Same thing, throw some ribbon on there, an angel on the top, lotta branches and empty space, my dad liked it simple.”
“That’s sad.” Sarah joked.
“No it’s not.” Kalty defended, playing along.
“A depressing three colored tree? No lights or anything?”
“Well what was Your tree like then? Huh?”
“I dunno we just had ornaments of stuff…..”
“Stuff,” Kalty pondered, stroking her chin for dramatic effect. “How deep….”
“Shut up, it was like places we’d been, family pictures sometimes, stuff we made in school, a bunch of hockey ones.”
“I bet you made that thing fully hockey.”
“I was the decorating Tzar.”
“Oh so you one hundred percent did, didn’t you? Was you tree all pucks on hooks and skates and sticks?”
“More variety than That. We had a bunch of Leafs ornaments. I always thought it was sorta funny since it was a spruce tree with maple leav—“
“Wait wait wait. You call ME a poor soul yet YOU had a tree decorated for the Leafs of all things? Sar, come the fuck on.”
“You are a Capitals and Rangers fan I don’t wanna hear it.”
“Yea but I’m not putting that in my window for the world to see.”
“What, so I should be ashamed?” She quirked an eyebrow.
“YES!”