***

"Did you know that mistletoe is poisonous?" she asked as she stepped up beside him. She hadn't exactly been avoiding him all night. But she hadn't walked up to him either. And now as the party was winding down, she had approached him.

"Really?" Joel tried to school his face into his most interested look while still smiling engagingly.

"You wouldn't know how the mistletoe got up there, would you, Joel?" she asked innocently. Or maybe not so innocently, as she was moving toward the doorway as she said it.

"I have no idea," he lied. "But it would be a shame to let it go to waste."

"Yes, it would. Wouldn't it?" she smiled as she touched his cheek.

He closed his eyes, waiting, hoping, that his chance had finally come. Then he heard the laughing behind him and opened his eyes.

He saw Carter, who had just returned to the party, looking very shocked. Mostly because he found himself being kissed by Ms. Fairweather. Joel's expression fell, and he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You have to be under the mistletoe too, you know," Chad said, barely holding back his snicker. "Carter beat you to it."

Joel brushed off Chad's hand and pulled his hat down low over his eyes. "He was just in the right place at the right time. Next time."

He didn't get much further because Chad couldn't hold back his laughing any longer. And Joel had to laugh too. Because Ms. Fairweather had gotten the best of him, again. But he'd show her. He was if nothing else, persistent.