Deep down, Amelia knew that it wasn't right to be angry with Nicole. If Chuckie liked her, she knew he must have had a good reason. She just wished that Nicole wasn't the only thing on Chuckie's mind these days. As she headed to her next class of the day, Amelia found herself trying as hard as she could to deny that Angelica's assumptions were correct.

I don't have a crush on Chuckie, she told herself firmly. I don't.

But, flashes of memories seemed to be insisting otherwise. She'd always spent more time with Chuckie than she did with her other friends. She kept each and every little thing he'd given to her, no matter how small or insignificant. He had been her first kiss.

True, she was very young, and lacked the proper maturity to really understand what a kiss meant, but still... It was her first kiss, and he had been the one to give it to her.

It was the day of the big holiday party in Kindergarten. All the kids had had a great time making decorations, and filling out coloring activities. Eventually, the kids from older grades were brought to join in, which meant that Angelica was there as well.

The older girl had opted to spend most of her time at the party, bragging to the younger children that she'd seen Santa with her own eyes once, and that he had brought her a Cynthia dollhouse with a working hot tub, satellite dish, entertainment center, and attached garage. Amelia could kind of remember that night as well, but the memory was a little hazy.

The kids continued to talk, and eat sweets and play. Until, Angelica darted over to Amelia and Chuckie, pointing above their heads. "Uh-oh! You two're standing under the missile-toes!" She said, gesturing to a bit of mistletoe that had been tacked onto the doorway. "You know what that means!"

Both the younger children shook their heads.

"It means that now you gotta kiss!"

"A plant can't make people kiss each other," Amelia said.

"Yeah it can!" Angelica insisted. "Those are the rules!"

And so, Chuckie and Amelia did kiss, seeing it as some sort of game.

"Ha!" Angelica giggled. "Now you've gots cooties!" she teased.

Now, all these years later, Amelia was realizing something. She definitely did have a crush on Chuckie.

She spent the rest of the day perplexed as to what she could do about that. Chuckie had been one of her best friends for as long as she could remember, if she told him how she felt, and he didn't feel the same, things would just wind up being horribly awkward between them. Maybe he wouldn't even want to be her friend at all.

Maybe one of her friends would have some advice for her? She didn't think Tommy, Dil or Phil had ever had a crush on anyone before. She didn't want to admit to her older sister that she had been right, she wouldn't get a chance to see Lil until after school as they were in separate classes. Then, there was Kimi. And there was no way she could talk to her. Amelia tried to imagine how terribly awkward it would be if Phil or somebody came to her and confessed to having a crush on Angelica...

There was, however, one person that she would be seeing soon, and that she might have decent luck getting advice from. Amelia was in advanced math, meaning that she took that class with older students.

When she got to math class, she would ask Susie what to do.