My Best Valentine's Day Ever

   I was in 5^th grade. In yet another new school. I had a few friends. One of which I knew before moving there. Monica. She was my best friend. We spent all of our time together outside of school. In school I barely saw her due to us being in different classes.

  Valentine’s Day in 5^th grade. I showed up with my box of store bought cards with whatever cartoon character that was popular at the time ready to pass out to my class.

   It was morning recess. Ruben came up to me and said Noel told him to give me my card early. I took the card from Ruben as he ran away laughing. It was a normal little kids card. Nothing exciting about it but I couldn’t help but wonder two things… 1. Why did he want me to have it before the party our teacher had planned and 2. Why was Ruben laughing? All questions that would be answered later on in the day.

    The bell rang and we all lined up for class. Standing in line someone else came up to me with another card from Noel. Again they left in laughter as I stood there holding just a normal card. I glanced at the back of the line to Noel and he just smiled.

   Through out the day I received enough valentine’s cards for three 5^th grade classes all of them signed “From Noel”. By the time our class party started I had more cards than I had time to count. At our teachers queue we were all able to get up and pass out our cards we had for our classmates. When I got back to my desk the “mail box” I made that was covered in red and pink hearts was stuffed full of more cards. Not just from classmates but from Noel.

    I looked over and Noel and just smiled shaking my head. While all of my classmates laughed because by now everyone including my teacher knew what had been going on all day.

   The school day finally came to an end. Noel, Ruben and Monica met up with me as we all started to walk home. Monica and I went our own way home opposite of Noel and Ruben Noel gave me a big envelope. I opened it and it was full of more cards. With flushed cheeks he said to me “These are what’s left. All for you.” I asked him why he went through so much trouble. He said he just wanted to do something nice for me and make me feel special.

   I think about Noel every year on Valentine’s Day. To think that a young 5^th grade boy had put that much thought and effort into making a girl, the new girl feel special still amazes me. A lot of adult men don’t even take the time to make their girl feel that loved. I’ll always remember that day and smile. I hope that Noel is still that sweet and romantic and is somewhere making some girl feel special.

Retro cards Photo credit: merging✿little dear via Visualhunt / CC BY-NC-ND