The students could be heard filling up the moderately huge hall by Dan and Phil, making them even more nervous. For the contest, they had been around their own year, with others who had made jumpers, and now it was just the two of them, in front of a crowd of year 8s, year 10s, year 11s and the rest of their sixth formers. Luckily year 7 and 9 were in a different building, due to their timetable.

This amount of people was terrifying to both Dan and Phil, but Dan should have been used to it. A popular guy must be extroverted and social right? Wrong. Dan was constantly a bag of nerves and any social interaction with strangers made him sweat, he just covered it extremely well. Phil, on the other hand, flaunted his nervousness. After all, he was not at all used to speaking to people. He was the new kid and he'd yet to make a friend. Maybe Phil had made one now but it was yet to be confirmed, and he was in the same position as him. At least Dan had friends to comfort him. Let's just say, both potential friends were as nervous as each other, resulting in them holding  into each others arms for comfort, but getting a little too worried, and digging into each other's arms instead, not that either of them noticed.

Dan and Phil awkwardly stood at the front of the hall, where a space was cleared for the 'stage' area, meaning everyone was staring at the two boys in lame Christmas jumpers.

The English teacher from yesterday stepped forward. "Helloo girls and boys. Before the festivities begin, we have some important business to sort out," she explained, causing the whole room to groan in annoyance, as it caused a longer wait for the panto. The teacher gestured for Dan and Phil to step forward, and they nervously shuffled forward, looking down at the floor. "take a look at these two boys. No, not their looks. They may be attractive, that's not the point," she joked, making the two boys' cheeks turn red. Who gave teachers the right to say embarrassing things like that? There were a few uneasy chuckles, and a few whistles from the back, where the sixth formers were. The teacher coughed, and continued, "check out their jumpers instead. These two both won the jumper competition yesterday, so we figured it had to be settled once and for all today." Some students then took notice of said jumpers. "Shall we see how they created these masterpieces?" She asked, encouraging excitement.

She then turned to Dan. "Wow, your jumper is fantastic!" She exclaimed, eyeing the jumper up and down. "What happened to your less is more strategy you've relied on previously?" She asked.

Dan laughed a little, tugging on the jumper sleeves. "Yeah, I know. Quite different to before," he admitted.

"Tell us more about how you made this wonderful jumper," the teacher encouraged.

"Uhm, well... As you know, yesterday I didn't really put much effort in but I still drew with Phil. He seemed like a threat to my winning streak so I thought I'd try a different tactic. I was a little lost at the beginning, but then I got inspiration." Dan glanced at Phil, smiling slightly and continued, "at first I wanted to do a polar bear but I decided a Christmas tree was more effective. And yeah. I got the materials I needed and made this," he explained, then gestured to his jumper.

"We'll see if it paid off," the teacher said, then turned to Phil. "So Phil, how about yours?" She asked. "You went for a similar design idea but this time with a snowman. Explain your process," she instructed. Phil couldn't help feeling a little put out by her lessened enthusiasm for his jumper, and in fact, Dan thought he deserved more credit too.

"I didn't have as much time to work on my jumper this time, so I don't think it's as good as my Rudolph one, but I think this one has good textures. I was going to add some lights, to make it more fancy, but it didn't really work with the snowman," Phil explained.

"Well, it's still fabulous Phil. I can tell you worked hard on it," the teacher commented. Phil internally sighed in relief at the teacher's response. At least she still liked it. It was probably just that Dan's was better.

The boys took a step backwards and the teacher continued to 'present'. "Unfortunately, you guys will not be judging this one, but I hope you enjoyed seeing such amazing jumpers. So now, the teachers are going to vote on their favourite." She announced. The teachers then scurried to the side of the hall together. "Enjoy this Christmas song while you wait," she said, then half ran to where the other teachers were grouped.

Phil looked down at Dan's hand, which was shaking ever so slightly. Phil really wanted to hold his hand in reassurance but wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do. Dan looked up, and noticed where Phil was staring, and ever so slightly, inched his hand closer to Phil's, fingers brushing on his. Phil took a slight intake of breath at Dan's initiation and clasped their sweaty hands together. They really needed to get a grip. It was only about a yearly school tradition.

At that moment, they were in a sort of bubble, only concentrated on each other, both communicating with their eyes. It made their nerves almost fizzle into nothingness, replacing them with a different weird fluttery feeling, which was kind of unnerving.

The English teacher raised her voice, to make the crowd shut up, alerting Dan and Phil to reality. "We have come to the agreement that the winner is...." She announced, then waited for a drumroll. Dan and Phil looked each other, mouthing "good luck". "Daaannn!" She shouted happily, turning round to congratulate him.

Dan's mouth went wide open in shock. Really?? He won? All the build up to this moment, and now he was the winner? For once in his life he felt he was actually good at something he'd worked for. The students started cheering but Dan wasn't taking any notice. He stayed in a state of shock until he heard Phil saying something, grabbing Dan's hand again. "Well done," was what Dan realised he said. He smiled in accomplishment as he looked at the crowd clapping. He had won for another year after all, even though Phil was really good.

"Care to say a few words?" The teacher asked, beaming at him.

Dan stuttered out a few unrecognisable sounds before he could finally talk. "t-thankyou so much. I know I win every year, and it's just a silly thing, but this time it means q-quite a lot to me," Dan spoke. As dorky as it sounded, he really did love it. For once being popular wasn't the reason he was admired. Or was it? The teachers liked him as well and they all knew how much he cared this time. What if he won because the teachers liked him? After all, Phil was the more worthy winner.

Phil turned to smile at Dan. Phil may have been disappointed, but he was also incredibly proud, and the look on Dan's face alone, was enough to make him winning worth it.

The teacher opened her mouth to talk about the panto, but Dan stopped her. "Wait! I just want to tell you that I didn't make the lights. Phil did that bit," he announced, turning to Phil with an adoring look on his face. "So maybe he deserved it more?" He added. Phil then was the shocked one, his own mouth wide open in shock, his eyes imploring to find out what was going on with Dan.

"Dan, you don't have to say that. You still deserve it. We worked hard didn't we?" Phil insisted. Some of the audience at this point started awwing. Clearly they could see something brewing.

"Is this true Phil?" The teacher asked. "Because that would mean you both should really win. You both have such good jumpers, you both deserve it really." She continued. Phil nodded his head, not wanting to say more, just in case it ended up making her decide Phil should win.

"Phil should win it," Dan instructed.

"No, you should win it," Phil insisted. Both were staring at each other like they hated each other, but it was actually just a look of determination.

"Okay, okay. How about you both won?" The teacher suggested.

"I don't know..." Dan mumbled. "That's basically us both losing."

The audience were staring to get bored at this point. Couldn't they just crown the winner and get on with the real entertainment? Some people however, were lapping it up, staring in fascination at the conversation unfolding.

"Phil should win. He's the only reason why my jumper was so good," Dan argued. "Then next year we can properly battle it out," he reasoned.

"Really?" Phil basically gasped.

"Can you please just kiss already?" One student called out. Both boys blushed, and looked away from each other. They were barely even friends, why would they kiss?

The teacher tried to hide her chuckles and spoke again. "Why don't we have a quick student vote?" She suggested. Dan and Phil looked at each other, their eyes wide in surprise. A vote on whether they should kiss? What even was this s- "who thinks Dan should win the competition?" Oh.... Competition. Yes, that made more sense. Students put up their hands and the teacher roughly noted how many there were. "How many did Phil?" She asked. Again, hands went up and she counted quickly. "And the winner is, still, Dan!" She announced, and then immediately shooed Dan and Phil away, so they could sit down with the others. "well done Daniel," she said, while still trying to shove the couple away.

Instead of joining the others, to watch the staff pantomime, Dan gestured for Phil to follow him out the door. Phil followed him, slightly confused, but Dan was already talking. "It's so not fair. It's so not fair. You should have won. I know I was really happy about winning but you actually deserve it so much more I ju-"

Dan was interrupted by a feeling of something on his lips. Dan made a noise of surprise but then clocked on to what was going on, deepening the kiss. Phil's lips were so soft and somehow welcoming. Yes, they had only known each other for a night, but it was the best night of their young lives. And was Dan really going to have a problem kissing the person with such enchanting blue eyes, and kissable lips?

Phil's lips pressed into Dan hard, and he slightly pushed Dan backwards, their legs becoming tangled together. Dan couldn't help but moan into the kiss. He felt like he'd been waiting to kiss him the whole time they had known each other, even if he failed to admit it.

Phil felt exalted at kissing his crush, who had only recently gained Phil's respect. After looking at Dan's adorable face for so long, watching every time he bit his plump bottom lip, he was finally able to kiss him. Phil was so glad he chose to kiss him now, when Dan had changed into a better person. The idea that Dan willingly declined being the winner showed how much he had changed, and Phil could not resist kissing him.

Dan had never seen the point of being particularly nice to people, as you didn't gain anything from it, but maybe there was a point after all, if doing something nice meant a hot guy started kissing him.

Dan was pushed so far back, that he was met with a wall, which Phil happily pinned him against, deepening the kiss further, if that was possible, while putting his hands on Dan's cheeks, absentmindedly stroking them with the pads of his thumbs. Phil then dragged the tip of his tongue along Dan's the space between Dan's lips, encouraging his mouth to open, which Dan did gladly.

Their tongues were about to meet when laughter was heard from the hall they had exited, reminding them that they were in a public place, a school. There was a loud snack as the couple broke apart quickly. They stared at each other, panting, finally able to catch their breath. Dan's eyes raked Phil's face, and he smiled, making Phil want to kiss him again.

"I thought you hated me," Dan said, still slightly panting.

"I've never hated you, don't be stupid"

"Okay, but you did dislike me," Dan argued.

"Yeah, but then you went being all cute," Phil countered.

"All cute?" Dan questioned coyly, but still blushing.

"You were just ranting about how I should have won, which was so sweet of you," Phil explained.

"You deserved it!" Dan insisted, and Phil smiled at him admiringly.

"No, you deserved it."

"No, you"

"No, you"

"No, you"

"Okay, we need to stop this," Phil said, laughing.

"As long as you tell me you deserve to win," Dan demanded.

"You are too. Cute," Phil said, bopping him on the nose at the too and cute.

"Shut up"

"Not to mention, your face is always adorable," Phil added to the previous argument.

"Oh is it? You've never mentioned that before," Dan flirted.

"I'm pretty sure I have,"

They slowly leaned closer together, and before they knew it, they were nose to nose. Phil closed his eyes, preparing for another kiss, even though they were still in school.

"I told you I'd win," Dan murmured, completely killing the moment.

"Shut up you spork!" Phil shouted, whacking Dan on the arm.

"Oh yeah, you still haven't told me how sporks are born," Dan commented, grinning evily.

Who knew that such a stupid competition, that Dan couldn't give a shit about, could bring these two boys so close together?

~ Get ready for the a/n of all a/ns ~

So ... That's it. The 17 part 'oneshot' is finished. I wasn't actually going to make them kiss but the situation just felt right.

I may have made this far too mushy and probably unrealistic for such a short time knowing each other but eeehhh. - I was meant to make sure it went with the previous parts but I couldn't bare to re read my writing so eeehhh.

Thanks my dudes for reading the whole of this thing, even though it's waaayyy later than Christmas. 400 reads is fantastic!!

See you next year??! - yeah, so next year I will do another countdown thing and hopefully have less parts to each oneshot and actually finish at Christmas.

Now they've kissed I doubt I will make an actual story for what happens after this so yea...

Okay, I think I'm done now!! Bye!!