Four days until Christmas and I'm still no closer to figuring out what to get Misty for Christmas, Ash thought unhappily as he laid on his bed. Yesterday's shopping trip had been a total disaster.

Now who can that be, Ash thought as the doorbell rang. He bounded downstairs and discovered that his visitor was…

"Misty?"

"Hi, Ash," she said, holding out a pair of ice skates. "The pond at Professor Oak's place is frozen over, so I thought we could go ice skating."

"Ice skating?"

"Sure. You do know how to ice skate, don't you?"

Now Ash had been ice skating only once in his life and he remembered spending most of his time falling then. But he didn't want to disappoint Misty, so he reluctantly took the extra pair of skates from her and the two headed to the pond at the eastern end of the Pokémon preserve.

Misty quickly tied her ice skates and started skating gracefully around the oval pond. Ash watched her in fascination as she did a series of fancy spins.

"Wow, Misty, you're really good."

"Well, since I'm a water Pokémon gym leader and ice is just frozen water, I did a lot of ice skating when I was growing up in Cerulean City. But I bet you're pretty good too. You grew up next to this place, so I bet you spent all your winters here skating on the pond, didn't you?"

Actually, Ash had spent most of his winters sledding down the hill of the Oak estate, but he wasn't about to admit that to Misty.

"What am I going to do, Pikachu?" Ash whispered to his Pokémon as he tied the laces of his skates. "I don't know how to ice skate."

"Pikachu," his Pokémon said comfortingly.

"You're right, Pikachu," Ash said confidently, clenching his fist in determination. "If Misty can do it, then so can I! Besides, if she can do all those fancy spins and tricks, then how hard can it be?" Ash jumped to his feet and nearly fell on his face as his feet started sliding out from underneath him. Regaining his balance, Ash wobbled unsteadily as he tried to make his way over to Misty.

I'm not going to make myself look like a fool in front of her, Ash thought determinedly. Maybe if I get going really fast then that'll impress her. Ash started skating faster and faster and discovered that he could keep his balance better that way. Wow, look at me, he thought happily as he sped towards Misty. I'm flying like a Fearow! This ice skating isn't so hard, after all.

"Hey, betcha can't do this, Misty," Ash playfully taunted her as he sped by.

"Ash, watch out for the…" Misty called out as Ash realized that he was heading straight for the oak tree at the edge of the pond.

Ash tried to stop himself, but was going too fast to control where he was going. "Aaugh! How do you stop these?!"

CRASH!

"…tree."

---

"Keep that ice pack on your nose and the bleeding should stop in a few minutes." For the second time in three days, Ash found himself on the Pokémon examination table in the laboratory while Professor Oak was administering first aid. "So what happened this time? Misty mentioned something about ice skating."

"Yeah, we were skating on the pond and a tree got in my way."

"You're lucky you didn't break your nose, or anything else for that matter," Professor Oak admonished as he started putting away the bandages. "Keep this up and pretty soon I won't have any medical supplies left to treat the Pokémon with. Why were you going so fast, anyway? Misty said that you went flying across the pond."

"I…well…I…oh, I didn't want to let her know that I couldn't ice skate! Besides, she was doing all those fancy jumps and stunts and stuff. I didn't want to seem like I couldn't keep up with her."

Professor Oak chuckled. "So you were trying to impress Misty, were you?"

Ash's face turned bright red. "I'm not trying to impress her! Why would I want to do something like that for? She's not my girlfriend!"

"I never said she was, Ash," Professor Oak said, amused by the boy's reaction.

"Hey, Ash," Misty said as she came into the room. "Are you all right?"

Professor Oak smiled. "I'll leave the two of you alone."

"Hey, don't…" Ash called out as Professor Oak returned to his workstation.

"Oh, Ash, that looks really bad," Misty noted as she removed Ash's ice pack.

"Nahh, it's not that bad. Professor Oak said it wasn't broken or anything. See, it's not even bleeding anymore. Besides, Pokémon Masters are tough. It doesn't even hurt." Ash winced as Misty gently touched his bruised nose. "Well, maybe it hurts just a little."

"Next time, I think we'll just stick to something safer like going for a walk," Misty said as she gathered up her ice skates. "I've got to get going, but I just wanted to make sure you were all right before I left." "Besides," she smiled mischievously as she gave Ash's arm a comforting squeeze, "I've got to go check on your Christmas present. See you, Ash. Professor Oak."

"Good-bye, Misty," Professor Oak called out from his workstation in the corner of the lab. He looked up from his work and saw Ash lying on the examination table with the ice pack on his head and an odd expression on his face. Curious, Professor Oak closed his internet browser (where he had been looking at a web page titled "How to Find the Perfect Present for the Special Woman in Your Life") and wandered over to where Ash lay.

"Something the matter, Ash?"

"I think I'm getting sick or something, Professor Oak."

"Sick?"

"Yeah, I feel kind of hot. Like I've got a fever or something." Ash adjusted the ice pack on his head. "My whole body also feels like, well, tingly. Kind of like how I feel after I get shocked by Pikachu. And my stomach feels like there are a whole bunch of Butterfrees flying around in it. And it also feels like there's a whole herd of Rapidash galloping around inside my chest."

Professor Oak smiled. "Based on the symptoms you've just described to me, I don't think you're coming down with anything, Ash."

"Are you sure, Professor? Can't you use one of these machines to figure out what's wrong with me?" Ash grabbed one of the electrodes from a nearby monitor and stuck it to his forehead.

"First of all, those machines are for diagnosing Pokémon, not people." Ash yelped as Professor Oak yanked the electrode off of the boy's head. "And I think I have an explanation for your mysterious symptoms."

"You do? What?" Ash asked as he sat up.

"Ash, you like Misty, don't you?"

"Well, yeah, I guess I like her…as a friend, I mean," he added hastily as he felt the redness starting to creep back into his cheeks.

"Ash, now that you're getting older, you're going to start feeling the way you do about girls more and more. It's a perfectly normal reaction. I get those feelings when I'm around your moth…" He quickly slapped a hand over his mouth. "Uh, what I meant to say was that it's normal for you to feel that way about Misty."

"And that's why I've got to find her a Christmas present," Ash said as he hopped off of the table and handed the ice pack to Professor Oak. "You heard what she said. She's already found me something."

Professor Oak handed the ice pack back to Ash. "Keep that on your nose a bit longer and the swelling shouldn't be too bad tomorrow. I hope you've learned something from all this, Ash."

"Yeah," Ash said as he replaced the ice pack on his injured nose. "If I ever need free medical care, I should come to you first."

Professor Oak frowned. "Try again, Ash."

"Uh…that trying to show Misty that I could ice skate even though I couldn't was a pretty dumb idea?"

"You're getting closer, Ash," Professor Oak said, smiling. "Just don't try so hard to impress Misty. She seems to like you just the way you are. And besides, you're going to kill yourself the way you're going. I can't keep patching you up every other day." He started searching through the cabinets. "Oh yes, that reminds me. I still owe you a tetanus shot, don't I?"

Ash was out the door before Professor Oak turned around.