The weeks following to finals were strange for the two friends. They still spent time together, in fact they spent more time together than ever, but things were different. Chelsea felt Raven being standoffish with her. She knew she should try and find out what was going on, but she didn't have a whole lot time to do it. She was a science major, and with finals coming up she had a lot of work to do. Raven was also pretty busy working on final projects for her design classes.

Ronnie had seemed nonplussed at the fact that Raven had seen them kiss. In fact, she thought it was a good thing. As she put it, a little jealous never hurt anyone. Only Raven wasn't acting jealous, if anything, she seemed overly supportive. No matter how hard Chelsea tried, she couldn't convince her that she and Ronnie were nothing more than friends. So Ronnie had helped her come up with a totally new approach to finding out Raven's feelings, but it would have to wait until over winter break.

Finals week turned out to be a lot easier on her than she thought, and by time they were over she felt like she'd done a pretty good job. She was ready for classes to be over, though, and left the dorm the afternoon of her last final.

Chelsea's parents were to be out of town the first week she was home, and she decided to throw a party. She invited some of the people from her fraternity over as well as most of the people from QA. She'd gotten a reluctant Raven to agree to bringing the food, and helping set up. Eddie had agreed to DJ, and Ronnie was going to supply a little holiday "cheer."

Everything was going better than Chelsea thought, and then she saw an opportunity to set the first part of her plan into action. Raven was standing in the archway between the dining room and the family room where the party was to be. She was so busy talking to Eddie, she hadn't even noticed Chelsea's arrival, or the wink Chelsea shot at Eddie. He walked over to his table to finish setting up his equipment.

"Nice outfit, Rae." Chelsea said trying to stall Raven.

"Thanks, I like yours, too." Raven said with a smile.

Then Chelsea did it. She leaned over and kissed Raven square on the lips. It wasn't a passionate kiss, but it wasn't a peck either, and she knew Raven was shocked because she gasped as their lips parted.

"What…what….what was that for?" Raven asked her breath a little ragged.

"Silly, you're standing under the mistletoe." Chelsea replied pointing up. She had to keep from smiling at Raven's reaction.

Raven kept opening her mouth like she had something to say, and closing it when no words came out. Ronnie had walked into the dining room behind them, and looked at Chelsea puzzled. The redhead looked up with her eyes, so that only Ronnie knew what she was saying, and when the older girl saw what stood above them, she grinned and gave Chelsea a thumbs up sign.

"What…what about Ronnie?" Raven asked finally finding her voice.

"What about her? Raven, I keep telling you, we're just friends. Besides, it was just a friendly little peck. Where's your holiday spirit?" She asked grinning at the stunned look on Raven's face. Then she turned and walked away.

Operation Raven's heart was under way.