Karen's in Love

  After Andrew had cleaned up his mess, Seth said, “Lisa” (that’s Mommy’s name), “I have something for you.”

  Mommy said, “And I have something for you.”

  She gave Seth a red flower. I think it was a carnation. Seth gave Mommy a red rose. Then they kissed. Right in front of Andrew and me.

  “Ew!” Andrew screeched.

  “Gross! Ick!” I cried.

  Mommy and Seth laughed. Then Mommy said, “Okay, off to school, Karen.” (Andrew goes to preschool. He usually goes in the afternoon.)

  Suddenly I remembered our class party. I remembered our valentines. I remembered my fancy valentine for Ricky. My stomach began to feel funny.

  What would Ricky think of the card?

  What would Pamela think of it?

  Would Ricky give me a valentine?

  Ms. Colman had said we did not have to give valentines to every single person in our class. Some teachers make you do that, you know. I think it is stupid. You are supposed to give valentines to people you like. And I do not like Pamela or Jannie or Leslie. So why should I give them cards?

  Seth drove me to school that morning. Boy, was I nervous. And all over one silly valentine.

  Love makes you feel weird.

  At least, I think it was love that was making me feel weird. It could have been all the candy I ate at breakfast.

  Special Delivery

  Even though we had had our long Valentine’s Day breakfast, I still got to school early. In fact, I was the first person in Ms. Colman’s room.

  Whew.

  There was a reason that I wanted to get to school early. I wanted to deliver my valentines in private.

  The week before, we had made mailboxes for our desks. At least, Ms. Colman had called them mailboxes. But they did not look like any mailboxes I had ever seen.

  “Boys and girls,” Ms. Colman had said.

  Yea! I’d thought. I bet this will be a Surprising Announcement.

  I was right.

  “Today,” Ms. Colman had gone on, “we will make mailboxes for our valentines.”

  Ms. Colman had handed out oaktag. (I did not know what oaktag is. I found out that it is very stiff paper.) We taped two pieces of oaktag together to make a pouch. Then we wrote our names in the middle of the pouch. And then we decorated our mailboxes. I used crayons to make a border all around my name. This is what the border looked like:

  I colored the hearts pink and red. I colored the flowers orange and yellow.

  The pouches were very pretty, but they did not look like mailboxes.

  * * *

  Anyway, on Valentine’s Day, I entered Ms. Colman’s room with my cards. I was nervous. My stomach still felt funny.

  I hung up my coat. Then I put my spelling book away in my desk. And then I took the valentines out of their bag. There was a small pile of the ones that had come from the store.

  And there was Ricky’s big, fancy card in the big, fancy envelope I had made for it. I looked at the valentine for a long time. Finally I decided that if I were going to put it in Ricky’s mailbox, I better do it right then — before anybody saw me.

  My hands shook a little as I opened Ricky’s mailbox.

  I dropped the card inside.

  “Special delivery,” I whispered.

  Then I began to deliver my other cards. I dropped one in Nancy’s box, in Hannie’s box, in Natalie’s box, and kept on going.

  Other kids came into the classroom. They began to deliver their valentines, too. I did not care if they saw me putting the store-bought cards in my friends’ boxes. But I was glad that nobody had seen me drop the special card in Ricky’s box.

  When I was finished delivering, I sat down at my desk. I had not put a card in Pamela’s box or Leslie’s box or Jannie’s box. That will show them, I thought.

  I watched the other kids deliver their valentines. I noticed that lots of kids put cards in Pamela’s box. I also noticed that Pamela had only three cards to deliver. Let’s see. One for Jannie, one for Leslie, and one for … Ricky? Oh, no.

  Where was Ricky? Had he come in yet? I looked all around the room. There he was. He was putting a card in Hannie’s box. (That was okay with me.) Would he put a card in my box? Or maybe he had already put one in, while I was busy watching Pamela. How would I know? Ms. Colman had said we could not look in our mailboxes until the party in the afternoon.

  I watched Ricky deliver the rest of his cards.

  He did not put one in my box.

  I wanted to take mine out of his, but I could not figure out how.

  Red Hots

  Knock, knock, knock.

  I looked at the door to our classroom.

  The room mothers were here! It was time for our school party to begin.

  Usually, I just love parties. I cannot wait for cupcakes and candy and games. But that day all I could think about was whether Ricky had put a valentine in my mailbox. I did not think he had. If that were true, I would just die.

  “Party time!” said Ms. Colman.

  “Yea!” cried everyone except me.

  Mrs. Papadakis was one of the room mothers. She placed a pink frosted cupcake on everyone’s desk. Bobby Gianelli’s mom was the other room mother. She passed out red hots and punch. We were allowed to talk while we ate. I wished I could talk to Hannie and Nancy, but they were too far away.

  I turned around in my seat anyway to look at the rest of the class. That was when it happened. The awful thing.

  Pamela said loudly, “Hey, Ricky!”

  “Yeah?” Ricky turned around in his seat, too.

  “Happy Valentine’s Day!” said Pamela. Then she looked at me.

  Ricky blushed. “Happy Valentine’s Day,” he murmured.

  I tried to ignore Pamela. I ate my food. I ate the red hots, one by one. Then I drank half of my punch. Then I peeled the wrapper off of my cupcake. Then I ate all the icing off the top. (Icing is really the only good part of a cupcake.) Then I ate the rest of the cupcake, too. And then I finished my punch.

  After we had eaten our snack, Ms. Colman said it was time for games. First we played one sitting in our seats. Ms. Colman wrote VALENTINE on the board. We were supposed to see how many words we could make from the letters in “valentine.”

  I found fifteen words. (This was a hard game.) I won the game, though! (Well, I tied with Natalie, who also found fifteen words.)

  After that game, Ms. Colman organized a Heart Race. It was a sort of relay race with paper hearts. I played the game as well as I could. But my heart was not in it. (Get it? My heart was not in it?)

  All I could think of was my mailbox. It looked full. But there was only one valentine card I really cared about. (You know who that was from.)

  He loves me, he loves me not, I thought.

  2 Good 2 B 4-Gotten

  “All right, class,” said Ms. Colman. “Everybody back to your desks.”

  The relay race was over. Pamela’s team had won. (Of course.)

  “You may now,” said Ms. Colman, “see what’s inside your mailboxes.”

  In a flash, everyone pulled the valentine pouches off of their desks. I emptied mine out. A pile of cards fell in front of me. One of them must be from Ricky!

  I looked around to see how many cards other people had gotten. Most had gotten about the same as me.

  Guess who had gotten more than anyone else. Pamela.

  Guess who got the least. Natalie.

  Natalie’s eyes were red. I hoped she wouldn’t start to cry. When she cries she snorts, and I did not want snorting at the party.

  Okay, here goes, I thought, as I reached for my first card. I ripped it open. It was from Natalie.

  “Hey, Natalie! Thanks!” I called. I waved the card in the air. It was a Snoopy card. Natalie gave me a tiny smile.

  I opened card after card. I got cards from Hannie, Nancy, the twins, and Hank Reubens. I got two cards that were not signed. At last there was only one card left. It did not look special. It was just an ordinary card.


  But it had to be from Ricky. It just had to be.

  I opened it. It was from a girl named Audrey.

  I could not help what happened next. Tears filled my eyes. I did not want to cry in front of my whole class. (But if I did, at least I would not snort.)

  All of a sudden, an envelope was dropped on my desk. I looked up. Ms. Colman had put it there. I opened it in a big hurry.

  It said: “To Karen, a shining star. Happy Valentine’s Day! From Ms. Colman.”

  That was nice. I would always keep the card. But what I really wanted was a card from Ricky. One tear rolled down my cheek. I wiped it away. Then I looked over at Ricky. He was opening my card! Oh….

  Ricky stared at the valentine for a long time. Then he glanced at me. A funny look was on his face. I was gigundo worried.

  Ricky reached inside his desk. He pulled out a huge envelope. And he handed it to me. Very carefully, I opened it. I pulled out a beautiful card. Ricky had bought it at a store. On the outside were hearts and flowers and butterflies and birds. On the inside Ricky had written: “I’m sorry about our fight. Will you still marry me? Love, Ricky. (U R 2 good 2 B 4-gotten.)”

  “Ricky!” I exclaimed. “You mean you aren’t mad anymore?”

  “No. Are you?”

  “No. Is the wedding on? Are we going to get married?”

  “Sure,” replied Ricky. “How about Monday? On the playground? That way everyone can come.”

  “Everyone who wants to,” I said. I was thinking that Pamela would not show up.

  I ran to the back of the room. I waved Ricky’s valentine in the air.

  “Ricky and I are getting married on Monday on the playground,” I told Hannie and Nancy. “Spread it around.”

  “Congratulations!” cried Nancy.

  She and Hannie ran off with the news.

  By the time the bell had rung and the party was over, everyone in our class knew about the wedding. Most of them were excited.

  Not Natalie Springer, though. She just looked sad. And I knew why. It was because of her valentines. It must feel awful to get just a few cards when everyone else gets a lot. I would have to think of something nice to do for Natalie.

  Santa Claus Sam

  The next day I woke up in my big-house bedroom. Moosie and Tickly were by my side. I smiled. I had a lot to look forward to. First would be our big-house valentine party. Then I would get Hannie to help me with plans for the wedding. And on Monday … Ricky and I would get married!

  I leaped out of bed. I was excited about our party. It would be a special morning party. Afterward, we would go out to lunch at McDonald’s. It would be Emily’s first time there. Can you believe that she had never been to a McDonald’s?

  * * *

  At eleven o’clock that morning I heard Daddy calling around the house, “Party time! Party time! Everyone report to the living room immediately!”

  Daddy can be so silly.

  I grabbed my valentines and ran downstairs to the living room. Soon my whole big-house family was there. We were holding cards, and Sam had a pile of gifts with him. They were gigundo pretty — all wrapped in red paper and tied with white ribbon.

  I was so excited that I shouted, “Everyone, hand out your valentines!” (Nobody bothered to tell me to use my indoor voice. I guess they were as excited as I was.)

  So we passed out our cards. Sam passed out his cards and gifts. Everyone began opening everything at once. Except for Emily. Emily did not understand cards and Valentine’s Day. So Daddy and Elizabeth opened her things for her. They kept pointing to pictures on the cards and telling her what they were. Finally, Emily learned a new word: heart. Only she pronounced it “hot.”

  I noticed that everyone was opening their cards first and saving Sam’s presents for last. So I did the same thing. (I felt bad that I did not have a present for Sam.)

  Nannie’s card to me was sweet. It was the flowery kind.

  David Michael’s card had a joke on it:

  “Why did the chicken cross the playground?

  To get to the other slide!”

  Finally there was nothing left to open except Sam’s presents. Emily Michelle looked from Sam to the presents and back to Sam. Then she asked, “Santa?”

  Everyone laughed.

  We opened Sam’s boxes. Guess what was in mine. Nothing! Guess what was in Kristy’s. Cotton balls! Guess what was in Nannie’s. One red hot candy! All of Sam’s presents were like that. (I stopped feeling bad about not having a present for him.)

  When everything had been opened, we piled into two cars for our trip to McDonald’s.

  “Yum,” I said as soon as we stepped inside. “I know what I’m going to order. A cheeseburger, French fries, and a vanilla milkshake.”

  “I’m going to have two hamburgers, a large order of French fries, and a large soda,” said Charlie. (Charlie can eat an awful lot.)

  “Soda?” spoke up Emily. “Soda?”

  “You can have a soda,” Elizabeth told her.

  But Emily was running off. She had spotted a huge clown across the restaurant. (It was not a real one.) Daddy ran after her. He caught up with her just as Emily reached the clown. “Ronald McDonald!” said Emily very clearly.

  Soon we had our food. We sat down in booths. We took up three! David Michael and Andrew and I were allowed to sit by ourselves. We felt very grown-up.

  Daddy and Elizabeth sat with Emily. Emily was excited by everything. She opened up packages of catsup and salt. She pulled napkins out of the holder. She kept saying, “Ronald McDonald!” But she did not eat a thing.

  McDonald’s was fun. All I could think about, though, was going home and planning my wedding with Hannie.

  Wedding Plans

  I was out of the car almost before Daddy had parked it. I ran inside the big house to hog the telephone. I needed to call Hannie right away. Since she was married, she was a wedding expert. And we had to plan a whole wedding by Monday.

  “Hello, Hannie?” I said, when she answered the phone.

  “Karen?”

  “It’s me! Hi! Can you come over right away? We have to plan my wedding.”

  Hannie said she would be there. In about five minutes the doorbell rang.

  I answered it. Hannie and I ran upstairs to my room. We closed the door. We needed privacy. Then we sat on my bed. We both looked serious. (Well, this was serious business.)

  “There is so much to talk about,” I began. “Where should we start?”

  “Your dress,” said Hannie. “It has to be just right.” Hannie sounded very professional.

  “It won’t show much,” I reminded her. “We’re getting married outdoors. It’s cold. I’ll have my coat on.”

  “But Ricky will see you in school. So you’ll want to look nice, won’t you?”

  “Definitely.”

  “Okay, let’s see,” said Hannie.

  “I’ll be getting dressed at Mommy’s,” I reminded Hannie. “So it has to be a little-house outfit.” I thought for a moment. “What about the dress with the tiny flowers all over it, and the lacy collar? Mommy will probably let me wear my party shoes, too.”

  “That sounds fine. And can you wear your good coat?”

  “I think so,” I replied.

  “Terrific. Now what about flowers? Since it’s winter you can’t pick any. You’ll have to buy them.”

  “I don’t think I have enough money for that,” I replied…. “Hey! How about paper flowers? That would be so, so special. You know why?”

  “No. Why?” asked Hannie.

  “Because when Ricky asked me to marry him, he gave me a paper flower.”

  “Perfect!” said Hannie.

  “There’s just one problem,” I went on. “Actually, there are three problems: Pamela, Jannie, and Leslie. I know that Ricky and I decided to invite our whole class, but I’m worried that Pamela and her friends will come to the wedding and ruin it. Or laugh at us.”

  “Maybe you can un-invite them,” suggested Hannie.

  “I
don’t think that would do any good. It’s a free playground. They’d just come anyway,” I said. “Maybe we could tell Pamela that the wedding was changed to Tuesday. Then we’ll hold it Monday, some-place where they won’t see us.”

  “That sounds sort of complicated, Karen.”

  “I know. I guess we’ll just stick to our old plan.”

  “Maybe Pamela won’t want to come to the wedding,” said Hannie.

  “I hope not. But maybe she will. And maybe she’ll make everyone laugh or something.”

  “Or maybe she’ll come and behave herself.”

  “I don’t know. She likes Ricky. I think she’s jealous that he’s marrying me.”

  Finally, Hannie and I decided just to hope that Pamela would not show up.

  Then we started making paper flowers.

  “Weddings take lots of flowers,” said Hannie wisely.

  So we made a bouquet for me to carry. (The stems of the flowers were pipe cleaners.) We made a flower to pin to Ricky’s jacket. And then we made a lot of other flowers.

  When we were finished, Hannie had to go home.

  Bridesmaids and Violins

  After Hannie left, I realized I had a lot more planning to do. We had made flowers. We had chosen my outfit. But I still needed bridesmaids. (I would ask Hannie and Nancy, of course.) And Ricky needed … brides-men? I was not sure what they were called. But he would need some boys to stand next to him while we were getting married. And he needed the same number of boys as bridesmaids.

  We also needed music. Plus, I had to make sure that Ricky would wear a suit. And I had to make sure that Ricky had a ring for me. (I had found one for him. It was very beautiful. I had gotten it out of a gumball machine.)

  Plus, we needed someone to marry Ricky and me.

  I decided to call Ricky. If he was going to be my husband, he should help make these decisions. We should be a team.

  “Ricky,” I said when he got on the phone, “I need to talk to you.”

  I must have sounded very serious, because Ricky said, “You don’t want to get married after all, do you.”

  “Oh, no! It’s not that,” I exclaimed. “Of course I want to marry you! But we have plans to make. Hannie and I already decided what I should wear. And we figured out the flowers. But you and I need to talk about some other things.”