‘Valentine Disaster!’

Oh, no! Valentine’s Day again. Last year was a disaster, like the sinking of the Titanic. It all began when Ms. Nakamura said, “Bring a valentine for everyone.” Mom works in the business office at the zoo, so she bought me Zoo-tines, valentines with photos of real animals saying things in bubbles over their heads.

“Ryan, you need to stop playing video games and sign your valentines,” Mom reminded me. I quickly signed, sealed them and went back to my game.

“Ryan, you didn’t write names on your envelopes,” Mom said. “Shouldn’t you have put a little more thought into this?”

“They’re just valentines, Mom. It doesn’t matter who gets what.”

But it did matter. It mattered a lot! We were opening valentines in class the next morning when Trudy burst into tears. She couldn’t stop crying, so Ms. Nakamura took her to the office. Her mom came and took her home. At recess, my friend Evan avoided me.

After lunch, I was called into the principal’s office. Trudy’s mother was there with my valentine. It was a photo of a hippo saying “I have tons of valentine wishes headed your way.” Trudy was the fattest girl in class, and she’d cried because she thought I was making fun of her. I tried to explain, but the principal sent a note home for my parents.

But before I could give the note to Mom, she told me she’d talked to Evan’s mother.

“Ryan,” Mom sighed. “You gave Evan the bald eagle card. He’s so hurt!” Evan had been doing chemo treatments for his leukemia, and all of his hair had fallen out. His head was bald. I felt terrible. I didn’t know what to say. I just looked at Mom.

“You need to think how you’re going to make this better,” Mom said.

“I did a sloppy job on the valentines,” I mumbled in front of class the next day. “I’m sorry if I hurt anyone’s feelings.” That night I asked Dad to shave my head. I wanted to show Evan how sorry I was. I thought people would laugh at me, but they didn’t.

By the end of the week, nine other boys and two girls had shaved off their hair. By the end of the next week, the entire class, including Ms. Nakamura, had shaved their heads! Our class made the evening news, and we got our picture in the local paper. We looked like a room full of bowling balls! But the very best thing was the good feeling in class: We were a real team, working together to help Evan.

And we teamed together to help Trudy. Her mom saw how much Trudy hated being fat, and they started meal planning and exercising together. Ms. Nakamura noticed that Trudy was losing weight and one day asked how much she’d lost. She suggested we clapped for every pound Trudy had lost so far, and then we did it every Monday. By June, we sounded like the audience at American Idol!

Now, it’s a year later and another Valentine’s Day. Evan’s leukemia is in remission, and everyone has hair again. Trudy looks good. We call her Twiggy. She came in third in the Kids’ 5K Race in September. But I especially remember what Mary Elizabeth said: “I cried when my head was shaved because everyone always admired my hair. But now people tell me how kind I am to help a friend, and it’s a much, much nicer feeling.”

Maybe it wasn’t such a disaster, after all.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Monday, Feb. 14 is Valentine’s Day.