Be My Valentine

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring!  Rachel's alarm clock  went off as it always did.  She looked outside her window and noticed that  there was a fresh blanket of snow on the ground from the storm the previous. She walked over to  her calendar  and realized  that Valentine's Day was four day away.  'Oh joy' she thought sarcastically rolling her  eyes  at the thought of it. Valentines Day used to be fun in elementary school  when the students had classroom parties and everyone traded cards with sweet little messages on them and  those candy hearts that had messages inscribed on them such as  "Call Me" or "Be Mine"  Now that  she was older  valentine's day had lost its appeal to Rachel and  she  only saw it as a commercial holiday where all the card stores went crazy.  She got ready for school as she  always did.  When she got to  her locker she noticed something that she typically didn't see   a piece of paper sticking from the vent.  She reached for it and unfolded it.  It simply read  "This Valentine's Day will be different for you."  'Yeah right' she thought to herself. She stuffed the piece of paper in the pocket of her jeans,opened  her locker and gathered the books she'd need for her morning classes and headed to first period biology.  At lunch her table was a buzz with talk about the upcoming  winter formal. "Rach, are you going  to ask Danny Bryant to the winter formal?"  her best friend Willow asked.  "Isn't he supposed to ask me?" Rachel asked.  "Well, he's pretty shy  so you might want to ask him before someone else does."  her friend Madison suggested. "Alright then ,I'll give it  a shot." 'First  I have to work up the nerve.' Danny Bryant was the  captain of the track team and Rachel was a music geek  who was also an accomplished member of the  Souhbrook High Girls Basketball team. they came from two different cliques and was afraid of what people would think if they went to the dance together.  Throughout the rest of the  day the pondered over the idea of asking Danny the dance.  She thought that if she was  going she best be acting fast before another girl jumped in and took the chance away from her.    For the next three days mysterious notes kept appearing  in her locker vent   sweet little poems and antidotes. The lacrosse team always did a  fundraiser where you brought  a rose for a dollar and  gave it to someone special.  Rachel noticed Danny Bryant at the table  buying a rose. She watched as Danny leaned and whispered in the ear of the person behind the table of he wanted to address the card  to. ‘He’s probably  giving it to one of  his lady friends from track’ she thought  and she walked past him into the cafeteria to join the rest of her friends for lunch.   After lunch she found another note  in her locker vent. ‘Gosh, this person sure is persistant.’ She thought getting kind of annoyed with this whole shenanigan.  She opened it   and it read1

Good luck at your basketball game tonight. Meet me after the game. I have something important to ask you.2

~Someone special3

Now  Rachel was  curious. Who was the masked avenger behind all of these mysterious notes and could the important question  be related to the winter formal? She was intrigued by the whole  thing.  At the end of 6th period as she walked to French class she caught up with Willow. “Hey,do you know anything about this?”  she said handing the note she had gotten in her locker vent  over.   Willow looked it over carefully. “No,can’t say that I do, but looks like someone’s got a secret admirer.”   Willow answered nudging her friend playfully.   “Do you think whatever this person has to ask me  has anything to do with the winter formal?”  Rachel looked at her friend quizzically.    Willow shrugged.  “We’ll have to see what happens, good luck   in your game tonight sport  the girls and  I will be  there with bells on cheering for ya.”  “Thanks babe.”  Rachel said squeezing her friend’s shoulder and she headed off toward French class.4

Later that evening  at the basketball game  Rachel  sat in her seat at the sidelines watching the game intently. Every now than her eyes would wander over to the stands to see if the person who’d been leaving her notes was somewhere sitting in the stands. She spotted Danny Bryant  sitting in the top row with a bunch  of his track friends… suddenly Rachel’s eyes were averted from Danny’s face to the rose sitting in his lap.. the very rose he’d purchased at lunch that afternoon.  Her heart started beating wildly. ‘O Gosh, he didn’t give it to one of his lady track mates, it could be for me?” she wondered. The substitution whistle blew  “Rachel,stop your daydreaming and go in for Monica.” Coach Richards said looking at her sternly.  “Yes sir.” Rachel said  getting up from her seat and taking her teammate’s space  on the  court.     The game went on flawless and the Raptors won by a whopping score of 78-34.    After the game had ended, the girls on the team  had showered and had their post-game pep talk  Rachel and her teammates departed  from the locker room and headed for home. As Rachel was  leaving the gym  she noticed  Danny Bryant standing against the wall  underneath one of  the basketball hoops  rose in hand. She walked over to him.  “ Hey  Rach, good game.” Danny said. “Thanks Danny, who’s the flower for, your girlfriend  or something?”  Danny blushed  profusely. “Umm…  actually  it’s  for you. Happy Valentines day.”  Rachel was shocked.  “Gosh, thanks Danny  that was really sweet of you.”  “Not a problem.”  Danny said still blushing.  ‘ Boy this kid  sure is  giddy.’ Rachel thought to herself as she turned to go.  “Wait Rachel, I have a question for you.”   Rachel turned around.  “Sure  Dan, shoot  what’s on your mind?” Rachel asked.  “Will you go to the winter formal with me?  I know it’s sort of last minute and all with the dance being tomorrow.”   Danny asked, his face flushed crimson. Rachel’s jaw dropped and  for a minute the room was so silent you could hear a pin drop. ‘O God, he asked me to go to the winter formal.  I don’t believe  it.. the cutest guy on the track team  wants  ME to go to winter formal with him’  “So will you?” Danny asked.  “Yes Danny, I will  most definitely.”   “6:45 a good time to pick you up?”   Danny asked  his shyness gone and face color returned to  normal. “Sure that sounds great see you then.” 5

Rachel was bouncing was excitement and could’t wait to tell her friends about this sudden turn of events related to the winter formal. She could’t believe that  Danny  Bryant had asked her to the winter formal. 6

At the dance the following evening Rachel had the time of her life dancing with  Danny and living it up with her friends.   At one point in the dance   Danny pulled her aside.  “I need to tell you  something important  can we go out in the hallway and talk privately.”    Rachel started to get all jittery ‘OMG is going to ask me to go steady?’ she thought.   The couple  went to find a private space in the hallway to talk.    They finally found a bench to sit on over by the right hand side of the stairwell.  “So umm you know all those notes and things that have been showing up in the vent of your locker all week?”7

‘Oooh  good   I’ll finally  know who’s been leaving me all those notes’  Rachel thought to her self excitedly.  “Yes, do you happen to know who left them?”  she answered.  Danny suddenly turned a deep shade of  crimson. “I left you all those notes.  Willow told me where your locker was and I wanted to surprise you.   Rachel was in shock  just as she had been when  Danny had asked her to the dance the night before. “I really like you a lot  Rachel Ericson. Will you be my girlfriend?”   Rachel let out an ear-shattering scream that could be heard two counties over.   Danny gave her a strange look.    “Well, will you?”  Rachel nodded her head unable to speak.  She could’t believe it. Danny  Bryant was officially her boyfriend.  This had been the best valentines  day ever!   8