"Aren't we getting a little old for this?" Zack asked his companion as she watched Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer fly across the screen.

Jessie Spano never turned her eyes away from the screen, taking his comment in stride and hitting him back, "I'm sorry didn't you dress up as a girl and pretend to be Screech's girlfriend last week?"

Now he glared, "That wasn't last week…it was like…."

She did turn towards him now, "Like two months. I'm sorry you are a complete grown up. Can we watch the show now?"

"Come on, Jess, its kid's stuff," he whined, wiggling to get more comfortable on her bed, there really wasn't enough room for the two of them, not like when they were ten.

"Are you kidding me? Rudolph is actually a very complex story about prejudice and segregation. In fact, you could compare it to…"

"No, no, no, please stop," he said, holding out his hands in mock surrender, "I'll watch, just no school talk, it's a Saturday, and we have two weeks off." He sighed, "I should have known you'd have like written a paper on Rudolph."

He grabbed another cookie from the dish on her night table and never even noticed the pillow until it landed on his face.

"Hey," he said, trying to grab the pillow. Jessie was too fast though and was up and pointing it at him. He grabbed the other one, "You're in trouble now Spano." He lunged over her bed as she let out a cry and ran. Since she really had no where to go they soon ended up trading soft blows until they were laughing too hard to continue. They fell back on the bed, Zack almost on top of Jessie this time.

Sometimes during all the laughing Zack realized just how close he and Jessie were. It was silly; of course, Jessie was his friend and nothing more. But somehow, with her pressed against him this way, her wearing much less than she did in school he felt weird….and then he felt something that made pull away at super fast speed.

Jessie barely even noticed his weirdness; she was already back into Rudolph and yelling at him because she missed the Abominable Snowman.

"I'm re-winding it and we are watching again," she told him. She did just that then looked up at him, "Well sit down already, you're blocking the television."

"Don't be such a nag," he said, falling back into their normal banter and feeling slightly better. So he had an insane moment of lust for his best friend, he was 16 it happened. He smiled at his silliness as Jessie snuggled back against him.

Truth be told he was….happy to be here for their yearly tradition. The last few weeks had been…less than fun. Kelly dumping him for her older boss boyfriend, then having to watch them exchange Christmas presents on Friday had not made his mood any better. And he knew that Jessie and Slater had called it quits again a few days ago, although they did that every other week. Still, with all of that it was comforting to be here with the one girl who couldn't break his heart into a million pieces. Jessie definitely wouldn't ditch him for some older grease head.

"So are you….do you think you and Slater will be back together by Christmas?"

She turned to glare up at him, "No, I am never dating that pig again." She turned back to the movie for a moment, and then looked up at him again, "Why do you care anyway?"

"I…I don't…I mean, you're my friend and he is and…I was just asking, just forget it," he said the words quickly, cursing himself for even bringing up with subject.

"Okay," she said. Both of them paused, staring at each other. That feeling came back, he suddenly felt queasy, his hands moist and then he was leaning closer to her. She was leaning closer to, their lips only millimeters apart—they were practically sharing the same breath.

"JESSIE!" the sound broke them both out of their dazes and away from each other. They bolted for opposite sides of the bed as Jessie's mom came through.

"I brought up some more cookies. You guys need anything else?"

"No, no thanks Mrs. Spano," he said quickly, both of them trying to look calm, as if they hadn't almost been caught red-handed.

"Okay," she said, "I'll let you get back to Rudolph."

She left, leaving them both in silence, except for the musical toys singing in the background. They sat very still, their shoulders still touching as they watched the movie end and the tape shut off.

"So," Jessie said quickly, "The Grinch next?"

He turned, surprised, but smiled at her, "Sure….that sounds good…for a kid's movie."

"Shut up," she said again, sticking her tongue out at him as she moved back to the VCR.

He took a deep breath and told him it was a good thing Mrs. Spano had interrupted. The last thing he needed to do was mess things up with Jessie by doing something crazy and kissing her.

Still, as she settled back down against his side he couldn't help but lift his arm to wrap around her.

Even though nothing had happened he didn't think their tradition would ever be quite the same again.

And he wasn't sure he minded the change.