Valentine

I could definitely wait for Valentine’s Day. It was my first Valentine's Day in New Hampshire after moving there from Montana five months earlier. The reason I was so bitter about Valentine's Day was when I moved, I had to leave behind almost everything I loved: my friends, my dog Waffles and most important of all my be-

“Hey, guess what, Samantha!”

 I jumped. My little six-year-old brother was standing behind me with his hat on backwards and his favorite Pokémon sweatshirt.

 “What do you want Samuel?” I respond.

“Mom wants me to ask you if you are going to the Valentine’s dance”

“No, I am not going.”

There was only one person she wanted to go with, and he hadn’t asked her.

Meanwhile, Charlie was thinking about the dance too. There was one girl he wanted to ask in particular. The problem was he was sure that she’d say no. After all, she had only just moved here.

But after thinking it over he decided, “better to do it than live with the fear of it.” There was a 0.01 chance she would say yes.

The next day at school when I was getting my algebra book from my locker, Charlie walked up to me.

“Hi, Samantha.”

“Hey.”

He took a deep breath, so I started wondering…. He said, “Do you wanna go to the Valentine’s dance with me?”

“Why not?” I said. “It sounds fun!”