My Best VALENTINE

The best feeling in the universe and beyond is when somebody actually likes you and remembers to tell you! AND Valentine's is a fine kind time to do it!

So I took all of my Valentine cards to school for my whole class. I chose the best of the best super best cards to McKenzie, Alexa, Mallory, Ashley, Audrey, Laura, Caitlyn, Hailey, Heidi, Aubrey, Jonathan, Nathaniel, Jase, Samuel, Ethan, Daniel, Brandt, and Asher. Then I chose sorta good ones for Cassandra and Margaret and Neil and Martha and Jacob. Then I almost didn't want to give one to Regge because he looked on my spelling paper, but I have to get over that, because maybe he will never EVER do it again...okay, fine, I gave an owl valentine for him. Oh no!  Next I ran out of valentine cards. Oh well, there was only one name left and it was Seneca. She doesn't talk very much and so that means she is SHY. It's okay, she won't even notice probably.

Today was super doo-per good! I got loads of Valentines! But the best of the best was the one from mom and dad. All of our breakfast plates were turned upside down and my mom said, "Don't turn them over until after the blessing!"   It was hard to keep my eyes closed during the prayer because I was so excited. I tried to concentrate... which means to think about what we were doing... because prayers are very important, and because everything we have is a gift from Heaven,  so I listened the best I could, and then when Jayden said, "Amen", we hurried and turned our plates over and there was my best Valentine ever! It was a giant Pink Bear and it was holding a Zagnut candy bar and that is my very very favorite candy of all times! I couldn't wait to show it to Luci! And when I did, she said it was the best valentine that she had ever seen too!

At school, we had to do some Math, and some spelling, and some reading, and THEN Ms. Clay finally announced that it was time to put our Valentine boxes on our desks and then we got to go around the room putting Valentines in each others' boxes. We had copied all of the names on the Valentine envelopes so we knew which Valentine to give to everybody. She said we learned alot about how to write and how to spell that way. Mostly, last night, I learned how to get tired from writing everybody's names, but now it was today and so it all works out!

I got tons of Valentine cards! Some of them were funny, and some were very nice, and some had hearts and some had cute cartoon animals on them. A couple of my friends even wrote messages on the back...and that was amazing...because my hand was so done after just writing names on the envelopes and the: 'from Hadley K' part on the back of every single card. It was my favorite day of February 14th school!

Ms. Clay let us go early to recess too! WOW! Everyone was super happy about that and so we had to STOP! RIGHT WHERE WE WERE AT! and think about being quiet in the hallway for a minute, before we could go. I was right by Seneca's desk and so I stood right there for a whole minute. The lid was off of her box and I could see that she didn't have many valentines in her box. Maybe everybody else ran out of valentines too. She looked very sad.

Luci and I were on the swings and I kept thinking about Seneca. If my valentine box were almost empty...then I would be sad too. Something inside me was drooping down for a minute. And then I got a great idea. "Luci, come quick," I jumped off the swing and hurried into the school with Luci following right behind me. "What are we doing Hadley?" she wondered when I stopped at our classroom door. "Luci, you need to stand here and guard the door so that no one and I mean NO ONE will come into the class room!" I hope she didn't roll her eyes, but I couldn't wait to see. I had to do something important and really really quick.

"Ok Luci, thanks for being my smarty hardy guard-y! Let's go back out on the swings." Luci demanded to know about our adventure, but just then the hall monitor boy came around the corner: "You can't be in the school until the bell rings, ya know." And we did know, and Luci said, "Let's GO!" and so we headed out the door as fast as we could without running...because running is also against school rules. Then, just as we got outside the doors, the bell did ring, and it was LOUD right there by that door! It was so funny, because everybody came running, sorta like when you put food in a dog's bowl...just get out of the way!

When we got back into our classroom, Luci passed me a note: "Ok Hadley K, what did you do? Why did we come into the class during recess and risk getting a ticket from the hall monitor boy?" She was worried. What did she think I was doing? Eating all of the candy by myself? Putting the teacher's desk upside down? Coloring on the walls? OF COURSE NOT! But still, I should tell her because she is my very very best friend. But... if you tell people when you do something nice then something about it goes away. Hmmm.

"Seneca!" somebody was excited. "That is awesome!" "Wow, where did you get that?" Lots of kids were around Seneca's desk right then and everybody was telling her that they liked her special valentine. I saw a big smile on Seneca's face. She was holding a giant pink bear valentine and it had a Zagnut candy bar on it! Luci looked over at me with wide eyes that said, 'oh'.

Ms. Clay went over to see what everyone was ahhhhh-ing about, "Someone must think that you are very special Seneca"...but Seneca could not even talk. She just smiled and held her valentine and looked at it over and over. "Ok, everybody...back to your seats", Ms. Clay said and then she let us choose: we could read, or draw, or play quiet games, (like dot to dot or hangman and stuff) until it was time to clean up and go home. We had so much fun and I kept peeking over at Seneca (and yup!), she just smiled and smiled and smiled...even when she was reading a book...she still held her special Valentine! Out of the corner of my eye, I could see other kids sneaking valentines into Seneca's box. One by one, the valentines piled up until her box was full to the tip top!

When the last bell rang, Luci and I gathered up all of our books and our valentine boxes and started for home. "That was nice Hadley K. I think it made Seneca a little different. She smiled the whole half hour left of school. Maybe she doesn't have to be so shy now. That was really nice. But what about your special valentine Hadley K? That was your best one!"

I was quiet for a while and we could hear the snow crunching of our boots, because Luci was right. It was my best one. Plus, it was from my mom and dad. Plus, it had a Zagnut candy bar right on it. Plus, that is my very favorite candy in the galaxy. I sorta felt a little tear coming but I knew that part of it was sad water and part of it was happy water. Because, when I think about how happy Seneca was, and how nice everybody was to her, then it all works out. So I raised my eyebrows really tall and my tear melted back.

"I think that Seneca's smile was my very best valentine Luci." And when I heard those words out of my mouth, then, something inside me smiled too!