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“Wendy, what on Earth do you get a guy for Christmas?” Rebecca said, currently freaking out in the one shopping mall of South Park, alongside Wendy, Heidi, and Nicole. All four were here shopping for their partners, the three had invited Rebecca along after she had kept texting Wendy frantically about finding a gift for Clyde. Needless to say, Rebecca was very thankful for their gesture,
“Rebecca, I haven’t shopped for a guy since- well since me and Stan were a thing. That ended right before freshman year. Which, yeah, not too long ago but Clyde is pretty different from Stan,” Wendy said, sighing. “Nicole, what do you usually get Tolkien?”
Nicole shrugged. “I usually never get him anything big, and he usually tells me along the lines of what he’d want. It’s just our thing. Plus, knowing his parents, he gets a lot so I usually keep it more about the thought and less about the money.”
That doesn’t really help her. As much as she would just ask Heidi, she wouldn’t help that much, the last guy she was with was back in elementary. Rebecca was stumped. She groaned and put her face in her hands. “What am I even supposed to do then?”
“Well, what does he like? That’s a good start,” Heidi said.
Rebecca thought for a moment. He liked a lot of things. Her, for one. The thought still made her giddy that she was shopping for her boyfriend. “Hm, well he likes hockey.”
“I always thought he was a football guy?” Wendy asked.
“That too. But he’s become more of a fan of hockey recently I guess.”
Heidi chimed in, “Ooh! Didn’t he always wear a letterman jacket? That has to do with sports?”
Wendy nodded along “Oh yeah! He was devastated when he grew out of it! Maybe get one for his favorite team or-“
“-or make one for the team he plays!” Heidi finished for her, then halting. “He plays hockey, right?”
Rebecca laughed. “Yeah, he plays for some league outside of South Park. Maybe that’s a good idea. They’ve got to sell patches on their website, I mean, what kind of sports team are they? I can look it up, but first we’d need to find a jacket his size.”
“Ooh yeah! Maybe see if we can find letter patches here to put his last name on the back! And a big number!” Nicole added.
The four girls nodded along, Rebecca finding the website for his team, the “Aspen Leafs” apparently. Interesting name, but who is she to judge? She did find a varsity letter, not awfully priced but still enough to make her sigh, but still add it to her cart and check out. They also sold other basic equipment, but she knew he had most of it. Using her debit, the package said it would be delivered by the 19th, good enough time, as they planned to exchange gifts on the 23rd to not interfere with families yet. Maybe next year they’ll join in, but both were a bit nervous at the idea.
With a bit of wandering around, they found some generic clothing store that did happen to sell a letterman jacket. Perfect color too! It was an amazing coincidence and Rebecca was thrilled that she didn’t have to search more online for something with cheap quality and insanely expensive shipping. She bought the jacket, stopping at one of those “make your own shirt” stores (seriously, why were they in every mall?) and picked up some more iron-on patches, this time ones that spelt out “Donovan” and “52”. With herself all settled, she allowed the other three to drag her around, grabbing things they all needed. It was a fun putting, and Rebecca smiled when they had to inevitably part their ways, grateful that Wendy offered to drive them all home.
As the days passed as she waited for her package to arrive, things seemed well. She saw Clyde as usual, hung out with friends, and so on. On the fateful 19th the package did arrive, she had to figure out exactly how iron-ons work. She then learned that she needed to bust out their old iron, learning why it was called an iron-on. Her lettering wasn’t perfect, but for her first attempt she was pleased with her work. She finished by ironing on the logo onto the front of the jacket. Pleased with her work, she snapped a photo and sent it to Wendy.
Attachment: 1 Image
Does it look good?
Rebecca awaited a reply, delighted that she responded not long after.
Omg yes!! I love it, and I bet he will too! This was a great idea!
Rebecca smiles, waiting for it to cool off as she gets out a bag to put it in, some tissue paper, and the box of swedish fish she got him as well. Once it was all tidy and wrapped, she smiled at her work, her mind at peace after some days.
——
Moving back time a bit, Clyde was equally as freaked out about getting something that was “just right” for Rebeca. Nothing was fitting enough, even though he knew about all of her hobbies and likings. His friends were sick of him continuously calling them.
“Dude, we told you! Just get her something small. It’s not that big a deal,” Craig said on their group call.
“Says the one who’s been with someone so long you don’t even remember not being with them!” Clyde chimed back.
Craig gave him the middle finger as Tweek was heard saying something to him from across his room, they seemed to both be at Craig’s house, thus why Tweek didn’t join the call.
“Don’t think too hard and you’ll know what to get her.” Tolkien hadn’t talked much, already set with his gifts and lounging in his room. Clyde gave up, saying he’d “find something” and hung up. If his friends weren’t going to help, he’d have to look back and remember things she’d mentioned over the past weeks.
He knew for sure she liked blankets and medical stuff, so what if he got her some blanket with a medical design? That’d be kind of funny and cool. Then again, where the hell would he find that? He knew there were some weird things on the internet, but this was their first Christmas. Keep it simple. At least for starters he had the “blanket” part down. What else had they talked about recently…
Clyde was over at Rebecca’s house, just hanging out on some recent weekend as he watched her draw. It was one of her many hobbies he found fond about her.
“Damn it…” Rebecca had said.
“What?” Clyde was confused. She was content just a moment ago.
“I wish I had better markers, these keep bleeding through all of my pages! The ink is getting all over!” She had exclaimed, exasperated. She had looked at Clyde for any opinions and he shrugged. “It’s whatever, I’ll just save up.”
Clyde had just nodded along then and continued watching her draw.
He hadn’t thought much of that moment until just now, another idea popping up in his head. He looked up “good quality markers that don’t bleed through” in hopes of finding something, and he stumbled upon these types of markers called “acrylic markers”. They seemed perfect, and he found a decent, 64-pack for a good price with good reviews. He ordered them alongside a blanket, ending up deciding on a floral pattern due to how much he knows she draws flowers.
When his packages came, he tried his best to wrap them and failed horribly. He tried again and again. Giving up, he put the items in a bag alongside some starburst he picked up for her from the gas station earlier (yes he is aware she still has braces, there’s times it’s okay to cheat on those rules).
Feeling satisfied, he slid back in bed. One less thing from his holiday to-do list that seemed to get longer every year. He should probably ask Rebecca what he should do for that science assignment… What? He’s allowed to ask his very smart girlfriend for help when he needs it. And not just for math. Even if she doesn’t even go to his school. Technically.
He picked up his phone and shot her a text about it, something about “moles in chemistry this.. molar mass that..” He didn’t even want to think about chemistry over winter break, yet here they were.
——
On the 23rd, the two met up at Rebecca’s house after Clyde got off for break, both a bit too eager for such a simple exchange. In reality, to them, it was a huge milestone. Their first Christmas! Rebecca was sitting on the bed as Clyde stopped awkwardly standing around and plopped down next to her. He held his back nervously, Rebecca having one of her own next to her.
“So…” Rebecca started, unsure of where to go with the conversation, too busy eyeing her gift.
“Well, um, here!” Clyde just handed it over to her, hoping she would take the memo to open hers first. She did, carefully tossing the tissue paper to the floor, grabbing first the starburst.
“Oh my god! I haven’t had these in forever since I got braces! I gotta hide these from my parents definitely…” She exclaimed, already excited over the little things.
Next, she couldn’t really avoid the big fluffy pile in the bag. She took it out, and was eager. “Oh and it matches my room too.. Cly-yde. Seriously- this is so cute. Thank you.”
Clyde was internally jumping for joy at the other girl’s excitement over the gifts he was insecure about. “Of course. I’m glad you like it. If you peek in there though, there is one last gift. In there.”
Rebecca looked in, staring a bit in disbelief as she took out the markers. “Clyde are these-“
“New markers? Yeah, I hope they work right. I looked some stuff up and they shouldn’t bleed through and all and-“ Clyde was cut off by Rebecca giving him a huge hug, smiling ear to ear.
“I can’t believe you got these for me! And you remembered the kind- I just, can’t thank you enough. I'm gonna use them today! Firstly, though, don’t you also have a gift to open? I mean, no rush buuuut these markers seem pretty cool and all…” Wanting to see Clyde’s reaction to her gift was enough to give her butterflies all over again just like when they first got together.
“Alright then, I suppose I can open my gift.” Clyde rooted through the tissue paper Rebecca neatly set up awfully clumsily, causing her to snicker. He pulled out a small box first. “Aw sick you got me candy too! I love swedish fish!” Clyde was just happy with his candy, toying around with it.
“There’s something else too, y'know. Keep looking,” Rebecca said, smiling at his foolishness.
“Right. I knew that.” Clyde rooted through the rest of the bag and pulled out a folded article of clothing, unfolding it, his jaw was on the floor. It was the letterman jacket Rebecca DIY’d. He held it up against his body, it would fit nicely.
“Some parts are a bit wonky- I’ve never used iron-ons and I hope that’s the right logo for your team and-“
Rebecca’s rambling was cut off by Clyde swooping her face in for a swift peck. Her face flushed, she still wasn’t used to that part of relationships. “Becca, I LOVE it! I think this is the best gift I’ve ever gotten. I’m wearing this every day! I just- I love it so much oh my god!”
Clyde was smiling ear to ear as Rebecca flushed more, in a prideful way. She was internally freaking out over how enthusiastic Clyde was about it. “Well then, try it on!” She said, hoping to see it on him.
Clyde stood up and slipped it on, it fit nice. He spun around a bit, looking at all angles of it. Rebecca liked the look of it, taking it in. Her handiwork draped over her boyfriend. It was a nice sight. Clyde could tell. “Looks good on me doesn’t it?”
Rebecca blushed a little. “Yeah. Yeah it does.”
Clyde smiled and sat back down, next to her. He wrapped his arm around her, behind her back. “Soo, you gonna try those markers out then?”
Rebecca’s face lit up once more “Yes! Let me grab a sketchbook…” Leaning over, she grabbed a plain sketchbook, opening to a blank page. She tore open the packaging on the markers and got to work drawing and coloring some beautiful flowers that went along with the blanket he got her. Clyde just smiled, occasionally commenting or pecking her cheek. He’s always been affectionate with her, after all.
Days pass after this, and the two are seen hanging around town throughout the rest of winter break. Clyde is holding a cold girl's hand on a walk. Rebecca is holding an also cold boy's hand, wearing a jacket that happens to have his name on it. He knew the second they left the house that day, that jacket was going into her arms once more. And that’s okay, he likes it on her. More than he’ll admit, it makes his teenage self giddy to see his girlfriend wear something with his last name on it. Others noticed the pair and waved, still somehow getting used to the interesting pair.
Needless to say, the two had a very happy holidays and can’t wait for next year.