Under the Mistletoe

I was driving to work this morning and for some reason this particular memory popped into mind.  Oh, how I miss being this starry-eyed!

It was the day before Christmas break of my sophomore year in high school. A group of us girls had gathered at my locker and we were chatting away. Then I let them in on a little secret: "I have a piece of mistletoe in my locker." "What?" they all squealed. "Who is it for?" I told them, and they couldn't believe it. It was for one of my older brother's friends: one of the most popular seniors in the school. "You're so brave! I couldn't do that," one said. I was thinking of course you couldn't, you have a boyfriend that you can kiss whenever you want. I didn't have that luxury, so I had to make my own opportunity.

I thought about how I was going to execute the plan for most of the day. Then I discussed it with my best friend Emily. "When  you do it are you going to go right for his mouth?" "Um...I have no idea. I just have to see how it plays out. But first I have to get him to my locker." "Well if you know where he's going to be after school, you can take the mistletoe to him. So maybe you should put it in your purse." I thought that was a great idea! "I'll do that!" But I was very nervous. I hadn't kissed a guy before, so I hoped reading all of those Rosamond du Jardin books would make some knowledge come out at the right time.

Finally, the bell rang dismissing last class and I made a beeline for my locker to get the mistletoe out so I could go find Derek. As I was rummaging around in my locker, Emily's boyfriend came up. I had been in "teen love" with this guy since I had first seen him when he transferred to our school the prior year. But of course he had fallen for Emily. This had caused a real rift in our friendship for about 5 minutes, but as always I got over it and harbored no ill will. "Hi Rita," he said. "Hi. What's up?" "Emily said you had mistletoe." "I do, but I'm sure you don't need it." He smiled. "Can I see it?" I shrugged. "Sure." I handed it to him.

He took that piece of mistletoe, held it over my head, and planted one on me. And I mean laid one on me! Can we just say it was my first French kiss??  Does anyone besides me still call it a French kiss? Anyhoo, by the time we were done I was dumbstruck and shell-shocked. He smiled at me and handed the mistletoe back. "Merry Christmas!" he said as he sauntered away.

What in the world had just happened?  My mouth was probably still hanging open when Emily rounded the other corner and came up to me. "Did you see Tom?" "How did he know I had mistletoe?" "I told him." "Well did you tell him to use it?" "Did he?" "YES!" Emily giggled. "Then good for you! Now that you're all warmed up, go find Derek and call me later!"

I had forgotten about Derek! I hastily stuffed the rest of my books in my locker, put on my jacket and closed my locker. When I turned around, I saw Derek heading down the hall in my direction. I froze as he stopped in front of me. "Hi Rita." "Um...hi Derek." "I hear you have something for me." "I do?" He pointed to my hand, where the mistletoe was. Nonplussed, I raised it over his head and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "That was beautiful," he said, then kissed me on my cheek. "Merry Christmas Rita."

As I watched him walk away, I wondered how he had known about the mistletoe. Then I thought: who cared???

It wasn't until I was talking to Emily that evening, that I found out that the mistletoe info came from my friends, who had told people about how brave I was going to be. I didn't know whether to be thankful, or mortified. But since we were now on Christmas break, it didn't matter as no one would remember once school resumed. But as you can see: I remembered! And I always will. 

Merry Christmas! 🎄🎅🤶