The Valentine’s Day that I remember most was my sophomore year.

I was in my Photo 1 class working on some prints in the dark room when a small group of girls rushed in to tell me that I got a Valentine’s Day gram. They said that they didn’t know who it was from so I had to go check. I was super excited because the only time I ever got one was in elementary school when my mom would send my brothers and I a little flower or candy bar at school almost every year.

This could mean that one of my friends actually liked me enough to do something like that for me. There was also the unlikely possibility that the boy I had a crush on sent me a Valentine’s Day gram (!) so I was trying to act cool and said, “Oh, really? Ok, well I have to put this photo in the fixer before I go check but I’ll be there in a few minutes.” I knew that I was just going to throw that one away because it was perfectly black anyways, but I didn’t want to be lame and rush out to scour the piece of paper for a boy’s name.

So after I put my photo in the fixer for not long enough, I threw it away and exited the dark room.

I walked slowly to my desk which was surrounded by the same girls who told me I got a Valentine’s Day gram, so I assumed they were waiting to see if it was from a boy.

I looked at the cute pink and red balloons and tried to not cry as I got closer to what I thought could be the most important balloons and candy combination of my life.

I tripped a little which may have triggered a tear of embarrassment but I hid it with a small, still cool, smile.

Then, I sat in my seat and unfolded the note to see that every class I had was listed at the top. Someone paid enough attention to me to know all of my classes?!

Below that I read the small note that said “From a secret admirer” and I held in the squeals of excitement because I knew they didn’t let people send these things anonymously because I had kind of planned on doing that. So, I looked at the name at the bottom to see that it read, “Love, Mom.”

As soon as I groaned, the girls all started giggling and told me that they knew who it was all along; they just wanted to see my reaction.

I acted really embarrassed about the whole thing and rushed back into the dark room so I could get away from them. There, I admitted to myself that I knew it wasn’t from some boy and I wasn’t really a good enough friend to any girls to deserve something from them. I was really glad my mom sent it to me because for some reason girls walked around school carrying huge teddy bears every year to show that someone had huge teddy bear-sized love for them and it was intimidating. For once I could carry something around and feel good that I got a gift that year. No one had to know it was from my mom.

And maybe that boy who I liked so much (and always had math classes with) turned around in class to see that I had balloons and had his friends pester me about who it was from and I just smiled slyly and ignored them.

MY MOM IS AWESOME.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

If you want to read some of my other posts about high school, here you go:

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – pee pee