According to Wikipedia, the custom of kissing when two people meet under mistletoe is of Scandinavian origin. Every time a couple kissed under the plant, a berry would be removed, and when there were no more berries the next couple caught underneath it would not be obliged to kiss.

It's December nineteenth; first day of the Christmas holidays. The weather was already turning cold despite it only being early winter, but there didn't seem to be snow on the way.

I wouldn't be spending Christmas day with the others. Tomorrow Ulrich's dad would be here to pick him up, Yumi and her family would be leaving to visit relatives in Japan, Jeremie would be taking Aelita with him to stay for the holidays and I'd be going home to Italy and helping with my family's annual Christmas celebration.

But that doesn't mean I can't get everyone in the Christmas spirit six days early. Armed with a single sprig of mistletoe – four berries –, a rod and some string, I was going to do my friends a favour whether they thought of it as one or not.

Of course the thought of using the mistletoe to my own advantage had crossed my mind once or twice, but I'd decided that doing so would earn me more slaps than kisses. Not that I needed the mistletoe in the first place.

My first two targets would be easiest, but the second two would be more of a challenge. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it; at the moment Jeremie and Aelita were my top priority.

Said targets weren't hard to find. They were both in Jeremie's room, the young Einstein working on some program while Aelita knelt on the floor beside him watching.

I shoved the door open with a flourish, grinning, "Hello!" I see two lovebirds in need of some assistance. It's a good thing Odd Della Robbia's here to give them a hand!

Aelita turned and smiled, "Hi, Odd." Before turning back to the screen which, to me, looked rather uninteresting. Not only that, but I hadn't interrupted any conversation. Jeremie didn't even acknowledge my presence. He needs to get out more. I rolled my eyes, approaching the two with the mistletoe hidden behind my back.

The way I presented the plant wasn't too extravagant; I simply held it above their heads and waited for a reaction.

Aelita noticed it first, frowning at it in confusion, "What's that for?" Yeah it sounded like a stupid question, but I don't blame her. She'd lived a fairly isolated life, so it would be understandable if some of the smaller traditions were unknown to her.

Jeremie, aiming to impress, finally looked up from his computer. As soon as his eyes found the mistletoe, utter hilarity ensued. His eyes widened in shock, his entire body went rigid, his face became as red as a tomato and his jaw almost dropped to the floor, his speech reduced to tiny stutters. There was no doubting that Jeremie knew what the plant symbolised.

I had to force myself not to laugh, instead giving a rather idiotic-looking smile. Out of all my friend's reactions, Jeremie's was definitely the one I had been looking forward to the most. With his shyness around girls, his reaction would be worth putting on YouTube. Not that I'd do that to a friend.

Maybe next year.

With Jeremie now off in la-la land, it was up to me to give Aelita – who was looking at Jeremie with worry and even more confusion – the answer she wanted, "This, Princess," I jiggled the mistletoe above their heads, "Is called mistletoe. I don't know much about the plant itself, but I do know that on Christmas if two people are underneath it, traditionally they have to kiss." It's harder than it looks to talk when you can't stop smiling.

Now she looked even more baffled, and I wondered how long it would take before she'd reach maximum confusion, "But it's not Christmas."

I shrugged, "Since we aren't going to be together on Christmas, I figured it'd be ok to do it now."

Jeremie's stutters began to sound more and more worried and frantic, but Aelita's face brightened in understanding, "Oh, ok!"

What happened next occurred a little faster than I'd expected. Aelita leaned forward, closed her eyes and kissed Jeremie on the lips, earning a muffled gasp from the blond.

After a couple of seconds she pulled away, causing the poor stunned Jeremie to fall off his chair backwards in shock. He fell to the floor with a goofy smile on his face, twitching occasionally. Well, so much for progress on that program.

Aelita crawled quickly to his side, "Jeremie! Oh, I'm so sorry!" Personally I don't really think there's anything to apologise for, "Will he be ok?"

I waved my hand in dismissal and plucked a berry from the plant, "Oh, he'll be fine. Just give him a day or so."

Leaving the berry on the table, I made my way out of the room with a huge grin plastered across my face, "Merry Christmas, lovebirds!"

Now it was time for stage two of my plan. This part would require great skill, courage and bravery, so I'm going to have a metre-long pole do my job for me.

I'd waited for half an hour behind Ulrich's cupboard until he and Yumi arrived for their 'study date.' Ulrich had asked for Yumi's tutoring so that he mightn't have to endure another maths lesson from the teacher his parents hire for him.

After that, I'd waited another ten minutes so they'd think nothing was amiss. Why the half-hour beforehand? So they didn't see me enter the room.

After I'd had about as much maths talk as I could take – and not enough flirting as I'd assumed – I made my move. I lifted the rod with the mistletoe attached over the top of the cupboard, the sprig hopefully hanging above Ulrich and Yumi's heads, and waited.

"Ok, you did pretty well on those last questions. Now we've got to move on to trigonometry."

"Ugh, I hate trig. It makes no sense."

"Do you understand SOHCAHTOA at all?"

"Not really." I wouldn't be surprised if he was lying just so he could spend more time with Yumi.

The Japanese girl laughed, "Do you at least know what it stands for?"

"Um…Sine Opposite Hypotenuse…Cosine Adjacent Hypotenuse…uh Tan Adjacent…no, Tan Oppo- hey! What's that?"

A short silence, "Mistletoe?" Oh, if only I could see their faces.

"Another short silence and Ulrich spoke up, "We don't have to-"

"No. Let's just get this over and done with. It's not like anyone's watching." I inwardly cheered.

I should've set up a camera, or at least a mirror. But I doubt they wouldn't have noticed. Nothing gets past those two.

After yet more silence, Ulrich spoke, "This is Odd's doing, I know it."

"That rod wasn't here when we came in."

"Where is he?" I cringed at Ulrich's yell.

I heard him get up and start searching the room, not that there were many places I could operate from in the first place. I didn't think this far ahead. I'm dead.

As his footsteps neared me, I bolted. Ulrich tried to grab me but I was too fast, dodging under his arm and getting a nasty whack on the back after misjudging his move. It's better than getting caught though.

I dashed to the door and ripped it open, yelling, "Merry Christmas!" before slamming it behind me and tearing down the hallway.

December twentieth, early morning. Ulrich had confronted me last night about what I'd done, hitting me a few times with the mistletoe rod – after removing the mistletoe – until I begged him to stop. Begged. He's never going to let me forget it. After that, I removed another berry from the sprig.

Now I was sitting on the edge of the planter outside the drink machines waiting for Ulrich. He'd told me to meet him there but I don't know why. His being late was making me on edge though.

After about ten minutes of watching a few year 6 students play handball, I was joined by Sissi, idling by the door with a steaming cup of what smelt like hot chocolate in her hands.

At first I thought nothing of it, but after a while I had to ask, "You waiting for someone?"

She glanced up and nodded, "Ulrich told me to meet him here." My eyes widened. No, he wouldn't… "What's it to you anyway, pipsqueak?"

"Don't look up."

She screwed up her face, probably in both confusion and anger at the fact that it sounded like I was trying to order her around, "Why?"

"Hey, Sissi!" No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…

Sissi looked up at Ulrich's call.

Wait, how was Ulrich calling from up there?

My curiosity got the better of me and I looked up. Ulrich was sitting on the roof, probably not high enough for his vertigo to affect him, holding out a sprig of mistletoe – my sprig of mistletoe – with a huge smirk spread across his face.

That's when I started glaring at him. That's also when I wondered why I hadn't taken all the berries off the plant when its usage had expired.

Sissi seemed completely oblivious to the dangerous, evil plant in his hands, "Ulrich!" her smile melted into a look of confusion, "What're you doing up there?"

"Oh you know, just hanging around. I wanted to give you a special goodbye before we leave."

Her eyes lit up, "Oh, really?" By all rights she should not be happy. I sure wasn't, but nonetheless I got up and walked over to her.

"Really."

"What-" her question was cut off when my lips pressed against hers. Her breath tasted like chocolate. I could feel her lip gloss, soft, and cringed slightly as some made its way onto my lips.

"The feeling didn't last long, however, as I had to pull away in order to dodge a swing from the girl. Ulrich was laughing uncontrollably above us. I really wished he'd fall off that roof.

"What the heck was that for, scrawny?"

"Svelte. And Ulrich had mistletoe," I pointed accusingly to the brunet, "it was all his fault!"

"Yeah, right! You probably set this up yourself!"

She looked really aggressive, ready to fight. So I took to first option that came to mind and ran, Sissi screaming her head off behind me.

I wiped the lip gloss off as I ran. Come to think of it, maybe it hadn't been so bad.

Maybe.

Merry Christmas, guys.