Vanessa Gets a Valentine
Bedtime Story #6 of 12
Dylyce P. Clarke
Eleven-year-old Marcy poked her best friend Vanessa in the arm. “I saw Jared looking at you. Maybe tomorrow he’ll give you one.” Their teacher, Miss Perryman, had told them to bring Valentine’s Day cards to exchange with each other.
“Don’t kid me,” Vanessa said. “He doesn’t even like girls, only his silly old sports. He’s always throwing footballs with my brother. And if he did like girls, he’d go for someone like you. I wish I had your curly red hair.”
“You are pretty,” Marcy said. “And you have dark hair and the same color eyes as Jared.” She giggled. “It’s his eyes that make him so dreamy. Hey, maybe you should give him a card.”
“I’d be too embarrassed,” Vanessa squealed then sighed. “He’ll probably have more cards than any boy in school.”
After Jared transferred to their school in January, most of the fifth grade girls hoped he would speak to her, including Vanessa. Jared ignored them all.
“All right, be a chicken.” Marcy tugged her arm. “Let’s go make our cards.”
The girls spread their supplies out on Vanessa’s kitchen table. Scissors, pink, white and red construction paper, glue sticks, and sharpened pencils. A bag of heart shaped candy with sayings like, “Call Me, Hot Stuff, and Be Mine” sat off to the side.
“Who are you going to give yours to?” Vanessa asked Marcy.
“Well, I like Susan and Kelly and you of course. Then I might make one with a “Hot Stuff” candy stuck on for Eddie. He’s kinda cute and doesn’t do mean things to me like some of the other boys.”
“I like those girls too, but I’m not as brave as you are. I don’t dare give a Valentine to a boy.”
In a short time paper scraps littered the floor and several cards in different shapes lay on the table. Vanessa and Marcy wrote their names on two small paper bags that would sit on their desks for collecting cards from their classmates.
***
The next morning Vanessa tucked the cards she’d made into her backpack and headed to school. The card exchange would take place during fifth period.
She felt a little giddy when Miss Perryman said, “Happy Valentine’s Day class. Now go around the room and deliver your cards in each others mail sacks.”
A flurry of activity followed. Back at her desk, Vanessa smiled at the cards her girlfriends had given her. She even got one from Fred, a shy boy she spoke to at lunch sometimes. But she hadn’t seen Jared putting cards in anyones sack. There wasn’t one in hers.
“He didn’t give me a card,” she told Marcy on the way home, and then heard her name called.
Jared walked up. “Hi,” he said shyly. “I didn’t want the class to see me. Well, I mean, here.” He thrust a card at her.
“You like me?” Vanessa asked amazed.
Jared grinned. “Why d’you think I throw pigskin with your brother all the time?”
