Valentines Day was next week and I only had something for my dad. I was almost done, just needing to glue the last piece onto the front of the white paper. I didn’t think about making it for someone else. Until a girl came up next to me to borrow the red marker, the ones that smell like candy or flowers. We had looked at each other for one second as my stomach did a little flip I got the most brilliant idea.

Next thing I know, my hands were grabbing all the red paper I could reach. I grabbed the glue stick and the same marker the girl had used. When I pulled the cap off, the sweet sent of cherry wafted through the air around me. I traced hearts on white, pink and red paper. I went up to Ms. Jean to ask if she would cut them out for me. I watched her with cautious eyes to make sure it was perfect.

I ran back to my table and began gluing frantically; I only had a few minutes until we had to start cleaning up the classroom before going home. I felt a rush of hot air around me, moisture running across my forehead. The stick of glue ran out and it was dry running on the paper. I panicked. I looked for another in the box, flipping it over there was none in there. I searched the room, there was one on the floor. I went for it, bumping into people on my way, but once I reached there, I found only the glue cap, empty and not helpful. Turning to my right, there was one on the table. I snuck it without the other kids seeing. Running back to the table, I continued re-gluing, because it had dried from the first time.


With five minutes to spare I held my finished piece up to eye level and smiled. I scribbled a ‘Be my valentine’ on the inside, at the bottom my initials. I sat that moment and looked down to the right. My dad’s valentine was still unfinished under the scraps of paper. I felt a tinge of guilt as I remembered why I had stopped in the first place. The girl was stuck in my head as honey was stuck on the mind of a honey bee. How did I get distracted so easily? Just like dad.

Still two minutes left I started again my dad’s valentine, grabbing the red heart cut-out the teacher cut yesterday and the white base. I glued it to the front and tried to write on the back in big letters, ‘Love you dad, happy Valentines Day,’ but the marker decided to run out on love, it only said Lov. I dropped my head.

I seriously have to find a marker too? Again I looked in the marker box, and on the floor. Nothing, but kids were starting to clean up there table. Putting markers back in their boxes.

Finally searching for the another red marker, I scribbled the ’e’ on love and the rest of the sentence.

With two pieces done, I didn’t feel as guilty as before. With no pressure anymore I cleared my table of all the little pieces of red, pink and white paper. I put the glue and the scissors back, grabbed both valentines, one for each hand and handed one to my teacher for safe keeping over the weekend until Monday. The other to go home with me.

I realized as I was walking down the hallway to the bus, that I had the wrong valentine. I stopped, heart pounding and ran back to the classroom