The Rose

As Friday was a holiday, our Thursday became the Valentine's celebration on campus. In the pouring down rain. 

I didn't think much of this. I tend to not think of the day at all. 

It was third period. World history. We were reading out of the textbook. There was a knock on the door.

It was the singing Valentines. Every year, the choir does a fundraiser thingy. Various kiddos form groups, and they go and sing for students. They sing a snippet from an appropriate song. Give a card and a rose. Students can choose which group they want to sing for their sweetie or friend. I don't remember how much it costs, but it's not very expensive. Five dollars? Something like that. 

They asked if they could perform. I always say yes. No reason not to. I wondered which student it was for.

It wasn't for a student. It was for me. 

I was stunned. 

I've never gotten one of these before. I looked at the card. It wasn't signed. 

Hmmm. 

One of the students in the group was one of "my" students. (They get permission to be out of class on this day.) 

Later, Ms. S told me she had sent it. She realized she had forgotten to sign it. 

That was so nice of her. No one's ever sent me one of these before. (Usually I'm day-to-day subbing, so no one would know where to find me, anyway.) 

And we all got to see our student (and their classmate) perform. 

I may not be around today or this weekend. I'll catch you all next week.

The Gram

Valentine's Day. Fourth period world geography. 

On Valentine's Day, the school choirs do a fundraiser where various groups of students deliver singing Valentine grams. They audition for this. The groups are three to seven students, and each group has a part of a song they perform. Then the recipient gets a card with a message and a balloon or a flower (depending on how much the giver spent). 

I've been subbing a lot of years. That means I've seen a lot of Valentine's Days. I know the drill.

A group showed up looking for Charlie. He was identified. The group surrounded him and began the song.

The boy in front of the gram recipient, Gary, got up and got out his phone. He recorded the performance. 

The group finished, said "Happy Valentine's Day," and departed. 

Charlie looked at the gram.

Gary had sent it. 

Apparently, they had had a conversation. Gary said he was going to send Charlie a gram. Charlie didn't believe him. So, Gary had to prove that he was going to do it.

I didn't get the impression that there's anything going on with Charlie and Gary. Charlie was more embarassed than anything. And I think that was the point. Charlie wasn't expecting a gram. And while it wasn't mean-spirited, Gary sending the gram was kind of a prank.

(There are openly gay students on campus. A boy sending another boy a Valentine's gram would not have caused a stir.) 

Moment over, the boys went back to working on their assignment. (The day's topic was weathering and erosion.)