“So are you dreaming of a white Christmas?”

Sixteen-year-old Noelle Kramer looked up from the Secret Santa memo she was reading. There had been a stack of them on every table in the cafeteria. She excitedly waved the memo in the air with one hand as her best friend, Lily Norris, slid into the seat next to her with her lunch tray.

Noelle and Lily had been best friends since kindergarten. They had bonded over nail polish, trying to figure out what color their kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Nelson, was wearing on her nails. Noelle had thought it was cherry while Lily had thought it was purple. When they finally worked up the courage to ask Mrs. Nelson the color of her nail polish, she told them it was raspberry, which instantly became Noelle and Lily’s favorite color (at least for that year).

After that they were joined at the hip, playing together every day after school, calling each other on the phone, having sleepovers, sharing their toys, and then as they got older, sharing their clothes and innermost secrets. Especially secrets having to do with guys!

“No, I’m not dreaming of a white Christmas,” Noelle answered “Are visions of sugar plums dancing in your head?”

“No.”

“Then explain the dreamy expression I saw on your face.” Lily held up a hand. “And please don’t tell me it has to do with Charlie.”

Noelle bit her lip. She had been thinking of Charlie. When wasn’t she?

She knew the very last thing Lily was going to want to talk about was romance, so she’d have to ease into this.

“Principal Hicks’s memo!” she exclaimed.

“I know, I know,” Lily groaned. “I saw it. Like I don’t have enough people to shop for. Now I have to add another person to my Christmas shopping list. But that still doesn’t answer my question.”

“Don’t you see? This is the chance I’ve been waiting for.”

Lily abandoned the carton of chocolate milk she was getting ready to sip. She gave Noelle a suspicious look – a look Noelle knew very well. Noelle didn’t even have to say her next words. She knew Lily knew what they were going to be. Often they could read each other’s minds.

But Noelle said them anyway.

“I finally have a chance to get Charlie.”