Valentine: Chapter 4
Sam felt worse and worse about his half-truth as the day wore on. All it took was a glance across the way at Valentine, who periodically turned her melancholy gaze on David. David, of course, was oblivious, as usual.
“Hey Val,” Sam sidled up to the girl in the hallway where the class had lined up to go to the lunchroom.
Valentine's reply was very subdued. “Hi, Sammy,” she sighed.
Sam came clean right away. “Hey, I think I maybe made a mistake telling you David's got a girlfriend.”
Valentine brightened a little. “You mean that Lisa isn't his girlfriend?”
Sam had an embarrassed little grin on his face. “Yeah, well...if you were asking me 'cause you like David, you shouldn't worry. He's not really...he's just friends with Lisa...”
Val edged forward with the line until it paused again, because the 'buying lunch' kids always took forever choosing their food. “Really?”
Sam shrugged. “Yeah. I mean, she does call him her boyfriend, but it's just a joke, 'cause she's a lady, not a kid...and she's his godmother. I was just fooling around this morning.” He plastered on his most charming smile.
“So why'd you make all that up?” Valentine was frowning now. She'd turned around in line. There was a huge gap between her and the kid in front of her, now. Other kids started protesting. 'Move it along!' Somebody yelled.
Sam poked her in the shoulder and point ahead. “Move it, Val.”
When they'd gotten close to the cafeteria door, Val turned around again and looked at Sammy expectantly. “Well?”
Sam shrugged. “Just fooling around, I guess.”
“Well, you shouldn't fool around so much. It might have been a very serious matter. You should always tell the truth.”
Sam thought of something else that might get him off the hook. “I thought you were just curious. I didn't know you liked him.”
They were up to the actual food counter now. Valentine took a tray, and frowned at Sam to cover up her shock that Sam had guessed her feelings. “Who says I like him?”
Sam chuckled. “Well, you're always looking at him, and trying to talk to him. I bet EVERYBODY knows you like him.”
“Oh, shut up, Sammy Chu!”
“Sorry-sorry-sorry!” Sam exclaimed quickly. “I'm sorry - don't be mad.” He grabbed a tray for himself to hold one the two things he was allowed to buy to supplement his lunch nowadays - vanilla pudding. The other was just boring fruit. “Look, Valentine I just wanted you to know that David doesn't really have a girlfriend.”
Valentine picked the things she wanted to eat quickly. Half a tuna sandwich, fruit cocktail, chocolate milk, and a little bag of chips. Sam got his pudding, and both children waited their turns to pay.
“She's really a grown-up? Lisa?”
“Yeah. She's the boss of the hospital, and she's David's godmother. I bet David will probably get a great birthday present from her, 'cause hospital bosses have GOT to make lots of money!”
Valentine's eyebrows shot up a bit. “It's David's birthday soon?”
Sammy nodded. “Saturday. His parents are having dinner out, and I got invited. Lisa, too.”
Val shook her head in awe. Sam was so lucky!
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By Friday, Valentine was out of her mind with excitement over her crush's birthday. She and Violet had gone to the Hallmark store near their bus stop, and spent nearly 40 minutes choosing a card for David.
“It's got to be really nice and pretty, but something a boy would like, and it has to be less than three dollars,” She told her sister. “It can't be too lovey-dovey, 'cause I don't want to...uh...”
“Be too obvious,” Violet filled in for her.
“Right.” Val riffled through the birthday card display until she found the “From Friend” section.
“What's his favorite color?”
Val took a moment to think, and realized that she had no idea. “I dunno. Maybe red. He wears red tennis shoes on Fridays sometimes.”
“Well, never mind that,” Violet said decisively. “Red cards are stupid unless it's Valentine's Day...on second thought...”
“Shut up, Vi.”
The two girls pawed their way through until Valentine found the perfect card - light blue with a cake on the front. Inside, it simply read: “Happy Birthday to you, my friend!”
Ever the mommy surrogate, Violet placed a hand on her sister's shoulder. “Are you sure that's the one you want? You know that once you sign it, you can't bring it back.” She personally thought that the card was kind of bland and boring.
“Duh, Violet.” Valentine sauntered over to the counter to pay.
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On Friday morning, David was early. He didn't see Sam outside, so he went inside, instead of hanging around outdoors until the bell rang. There were three other kids in class, along with Mr. Burdette, who was lounging at his desk and reading to “set an example” for the early birds. Sammy's things - his backpack and coat - were at the seat next to David's, but no Sammy.
And there IT was. A white envelope with his name on the outside.
David frowned. Someone must have figured out that his birthday was tomorrow. Damn. He hoped it was either Sammy or Mr. Burdette. If anyone else, or the whole class knew, well, that would be very bad. He just wanted the day to to go by without drawing any attention to him and his stupid birthday.
David didn't get his wish.
He slipped the envelope quickly into the cubbyhole under his section of the huge circular desk, and tried to forget all about it. That only worked until Sammy returned to the classroom, looking sheepish.
“Thanks for the card,” David ventured in a whisper.
“What card?” Sammy whispered back.
Not from Sammy, then. David didn't respond, but accidentaly glanced down at his personal cubbyhole. Sam reached down and pulled the envelope out.
“Oh.” Sam took the envelope and started to open it.
“Hey!” David exclaimed.
Mr. Burdette and all the other kids - more than half the class was there now - looked up to see what all the commotion was about.
Sam shushed him, but didn't proceed with opening the envelope. “Don'tcha wanna know who it's from?” he whispered.
David shrugged. “I don't care.”
Sam ripped the card open. David steeled himself. What if it was one of those cards that the whole class signed, and now they were all going to make him stand up while they all sang to him. David put both hands under his thin thighs and pressed down on them. He clamped his mouth shut tight, and waited for nosy Sam to read the card.
“Hey, it's from Valentine,” Sammy told David. He stood the card upright in front of David on the desk. “That was nice of her.”
“Okay,” David murmured. By now, the entire class was present, and kids were noticing the blue card in front of David.
Clive, a big boy with a loud voice asked, “Hey, is that a birthday card? It it your birthday David?”
“Yeah, it is,” Sam answered for his buddy.
David went completely pale. “Shut up, Sammy,” He whispered through his teeth.
Before he knew it, nine children were gathered around David House, all cheerfully singing 'Happy Birthday' to him, and harmonizing quite nicely. It was, after all, a music school. Before they could get to the lame “and many more” that somebody always had to sing, David had lowered his forehead to the desk, and was clutching his prominent ears as if he were in pain.
“Stop it! Please stop,” the boy moaned, too softly for anyone but Sam to hear. But everyone saw his ashen face and his withdrawal. They ended before the last 'Happy Birthday,' and glanced around at one another awkwardly.
“Right!” Mr. Burdette clapped his hands together once, and started issuing orders. “Everyone get out your history books and start the reading assignment on the board.” As the singers dispersed to their respective seats, he made his way over to David, who was still in snail-mode. “Come with me, David,” he said softly to his youngest fourth-grader.
Out in the hallway, David's coloring started to return a little.
“Are you okay?” Mr. Burdette asked gently.
David shrugged. “I don't know.”
Mr. Burdette knelt down to his student's level. He adjusted his round, gold, wire-rimmed glasses on his very straight nose, and fiddled nervously with his very curly ponytail. “I'm sorry, David. Uh... Your Dad warned me that you don't like birthdays very much. He asked me to look out for you today, and that we would make you nervous if we made a big deal of it. I really had no idea that some of the kids already knew.”
David shrugged again. So one of his dads had actually thought to call and try to save him from being upset. It made him feel a lot better for some reason. “I guess it was an accident. Clive saw that card that Valentine gave me, then everybody started singing.”
“Yeah.” Mr. Burdette placed a hand gently on David's shoulder. “Do you want to take a break for a while? You could go to the nurse - she'll let you take a little break there, even though you're not really sick.
David glanced into the classroom. He really didn't want to go back in there, not now. “Okay.”
“Hang on - I'll get Sam to walk with you.”
Sam was uncharacteristically quiet at the beginning of the short walk to Ms. Biggams office, but his silence didn't last for long.
“David, what happened? Why'd you cover your ears like that?”
David didn't look at his friend. “I don't know,” he lied.
Sam thought hard about what had just happened, and tried to figure it out for himself. “We were just singing 'Happy Birthday.' Was it too loud or something?”
“I just don't like birthdays, Sammy.”
“Who the heck doesn't like birthdays?” Then Sam joked. “Or maybe they didn't have birthdays on the planet you came from.”
“That's it.” David turned the knob of the Nurse's office door and went inside before Sam could say anything or ask him anything else.
Nurse Biggam sounded disappointed. “Oh, Sammy! You've been doing so well... Did you get into the caffeine again?”
Then Sam was totally distracted by getting one up on Miss Biggam, since HE was the escort this time, and David was the sick kid. With a flourish, he produced Mr. Burdette's note, bowed solemnly, and exited the room, leaving David in her care.
David stayed in the nurse's office until after lunch. Miss Biggam decided, after having read Mr. Burdette's note, to just have the boy help out around her office, have half a “mental health” day, and give him a chance to ease back into his class at recess. She even sent a middle-schooler to Mr. Burdette to retrieve David's lunch for him. Between patients, Nurse Biggam tried to engage David in conversation, perhaps get him to talk about what had happened in class, but it was no use. David House was a silent Sam (unlike Sammy, who was an actual Sam, and could talk up a blue streak, even when he WAS sick), and if he didn't want to talk, he wasn't going to, not for anyone. It was a shame that the school's counselor was only part time, and had the day off. She released David after they ate to get his coat and go to the playground, where his class would be five minutes later.
When they were done with lunch, and were heading to get their own outerwear, Sammy and Valentine had a hurried, whispered conversation.
“He says he doesn't like birthdays, that's all,” Sam informed the little girl.
Valentine was flabbergasted. “But EVERYBODY likes birthdays. How can he not like...?”
“I dunno,” Sam admitted.
Valentine could not believe her bad luck. The one thing she thought would be a sure-fire way to be friends with David had backfired. She needed to talk to her sister. Violet would know what to do.
David was sitting at the top of the old-fashioned jungle gym. He thought that perhaps Sammy might join him, which would be okay, but surely Valentine wouldn't be interested in climbing while she was wearing a skirt. David thought that skirts and dresses were dumb; how on earth could you DO anything with cold air shooting up your butt? Why did girls put up with that? Then he thought of Lisa, who was a grown-up girl, whom he thought should wear nothing but dresses and skirts. He wondered briefly where that thought had come from, and why on earth he was thinking it, before he permanently erased it from his mind.
“Hi David,” Valentine said softly from two rungs below him.
'Crap,' he thought. “Hi,” he said meekly.
“I'm sorry about this morning,” she told him quickly. She climbed the rest of the way up the framework of metal cubes, and sat down on the bar that was perpendicular to his. In spite of being handicapped by the skirt, she had managed to climb up just fine, and had positioned her clothes modestly against wind or naughty sixth-grade boys. David thought that was just a load of unnecessary trouble, when a person could just put on pants.
David shrugged. “That's okay.”
“Sam told me you don't like birthdays,” she said softly. “I'm sorry; if I'd known, I wouldn't have given you the card.”
David frowned and glared around the playground to look for his friend. “Sam has a very big mouth,” he told Valentine.
She ignored that. “How come?”
“He's just a blabbermouth, that's all,” David replied cheerlessly.
Val shook her head. “No, no, I mean how come you don't like your birthday?”
David looked away, far across the small playground, and didn't answer.
“I mean, well...did you get a lousy present once?” the little girl probed.
David didn't say a word.
Valentine thought hard, and came up with, “Maybe somebody forgot your birthday and made you sad about birthdays.”
David startled a little, Val noticed. She must have guessed it, or at least gotten pretty close. “Who forgot your birthday, David?”
David wanted to climb down. He wanted to ignore the girl. He wanted to tell her to shut up. He even considered saying a curse word, to really shock Valentine, and maybe that would make her leave him alone, but he remembered that he'd promised Wilson that he would be polite to girls, and Wilson would
be mad enough to lecture him. David hated Wilson's lectures, because he felt terrible when he let Wilson down. With House, things were different. Daddy was easier - he'd understand the circumstances, while Wilson would always insist on good manners.
Val was sure that David was going to just continue to ignore her, and started thinking about climbing back down. “I'm sorry about the card, David,” she whispered softly. “I just wanted...” She took a deep breath. “I just wanted to be your friend, 'cause I like you.”
The boy Val liked best turned and looked at her, frowning slightly. “Why?”
Why? Valentine had never even considered why. “Because...because...well...”
David looked away again. Wrong answer, Val guessed. Why? She racked her brain, and came up with the only truth she could muster. “I just do.” She started groping for a lower rung with her right foot, preparing to climb down in defeat.
“There must be some reason, though,” David said quietly, in a matter-of-fact kind of voice.
Val sighed. “I don't really know,” she said. “Why do you like Sammy?”
David had to think a bit to answer that question, himself. He adjusted his position on the hard metal bar to stall for time. “Uh...he's fun...he's got good ideas for having fun. I like to do stuff with Sam.”
“Oh...” the little girl said quietly. She felt stupid, because David had a reason, and all she could come up with was 'I just do.' Stupid.
“...and... he's got cool teeth - only he'll have to wear braces to fix all that one day.”
Val frowned. “Teeth?”
David smiled slightly. “Like a vampire kid. It's cool.” Sammy's vampire grin always made him feel like smiling back.
Val smiled, too. “I like your glasses,” she said shyly.
David looked at the girl. “My glasses?” he thought that his glasses might be a strike against him, but so far, no one had called him four-eyes since back when he'd had those horrible plastic glasses that didn't fit his face.
“Yes. They make you look like a very nice, very smart boy.”
He took off his glasses. “Do I look the opposite when I take them off?” Part of him felt ridiculous for letting this girl flatter him, but mostly, David felt kind of good that there was something about himself that somebody else liked, even if it was only his glasses.
Valentine was totally unprepared for that. She had never even tried to imagine what David House would look like without his glasses. Wow. “And... and your EARS, too.” she whispered.
He had looked directly into Valentine's eyes, and, even though she was slightly out of focus, he saw admiration and astonishment and something else that David couldn't really name in her stunned expression. Valentine looked as if she were really, really, hungry, and David was a piece of chocolate. David's mouth dropped open. And he nearly lost his balance on the jungle gym.
“Uh... well... thanks... uh...Have a good recess, V-valentine.” David put his glasses back on, and started rapidly climbing down to the blacktop.
“Hey Val,” Sam sidled up to the girl in the hallway where the class had lined up to go to the lunchroom.
Valentine's reply was very subdued. “Hi, Sammy,” she sighed.
Sam came clean right away. “Hey, I think I maybe made a mistake telling you David's got a girlfriend.”
Valentine brightened a little. “You mean that Lisa isn't his girlfriend?”
Sam had an embarrassed little grin on his face. “Yeah, well...if you were asking me 'cause you like David, you shouldn't worry. He's not really...he's just friends with Lisa...”
Val edged forward with the line until it paused again, because the 'buying lunch' kids always took forever choosing their food. “Really?”
Sam shrugged. “Yeah. I mean, she does call him her boyfriend, but it's just a joke, 'cause she's a lady, not a kid...and she's his godmother. I was just fooling around this morning.” He plastered on his most charming smile.
“So why'd you make all that up?” Valentine was frowning now. She'd turned around in line. There was a huge gap between her and the kid in front of her, now. Other kids started protesting. 'Move it along!' Somebody yelled.
Sam poked her in the shoulder and point ahead. “Move it, Val.”
When they'd gotten close to the cafeteria door, Val turned around again and looked at Sammy expectantly. “Well?”
Sam shrugged. “Just fooling around, I guess.”
“Well, you shouldn't fool around so much. It might have been a very serious matter. You should always tell the truth.”
Sam thought of something else that might get him off the hook. “I thought you were just curious. I didn't know you liked him.”
They were up to the actual food counter now. Valentine took a tray, and frowned at Sam to cover up her shock that Sam had guessed her feelings. “Who says I like him?”
Sam chuckled. “Well, you're always looking at him, and trying to talk to him. I bet EVERYBODY knows you like him.”
“Oh, shut up, Sammy Chu!”
“Sorry-sorry-sorry!” Sam exclaimed quickly. “I'm sorry - don't be mad.” He grabbed a tray for himself to hold one the two things he was allowed to buy to supplement his lunch nowadays - vanilla pudding. The other was just boring fruit. “Look, Valentine I just wanted you to know that David doesn't really have a girlfriend.”
Valentine picked the things she wanted to eat quickly. Half a tuna sandwich, fruit cocktail, chocolate milk, and a little bag of chips. Sam got his pudding, and both children waited their turns to pay.
“She's really a grown-up? Lisa?”
“Yeah. She's the boss of the hospital, and she's David's godmother. I bet David will probably get a great birthday present from her, 'cause hospital bosses have GOT to make lots of money!”
Valentine's eyebrows shot up a bit. “It's David's birthday soon?”
Sammy nodded. “Saturday. His parents are having dinner out, and I got invited. Lisa, too.”
Val shook her head in awe. Sam was so lucky!
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By Friday, Valentine was out of her mind with excitement over her crush's birthday. She and Violet had gone to the Hallmark store near their bus stop, and spent nearly 40 minutes choosing a card for David.
“It's got to be really nice and pretty, but something a boy would like, and it has to be less than three dollars,” She told her sister. “It can't be too lovey-dovey, 'cause I don't want to...uh...”
“Be too obvious,” Violet filled in for her.
“Right.” Val riffled through the birthday card display until she found the “From Friend” section.
“What's his favorite color?”
Val took a moment to think, and realized that she had no idea. “I dunno. Maybe red. He wears red tennis shoes on Fridays sometimes.”
“Well, never mind that,” Violet said decisively. “Red cards are stupid unless it's Valentine's Day...on second thought...”
“Shut up, Vi.”
The two girls pawed their way through until Valentine found the perfect card - light blue with a cake on the front. Inside, it simply read: “Happy Birthday to you, my friend!”
Ever the mommy surrogate, Violet placed a hand on her sister's shoulder. “Are you sure that's the one you want? You know that once you sign it, you can't bring it back.” She personally thought that the card was kind of bland and boring.
“Duh, Violet.” Valentine sauntered over to the counter to pay.
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On Friday morning, David was early. He didn't see Sam outside, so he went inside, instead of hanging around outdoors until the bell rang. There were three other kids in class, along with Mr. Burdette, who was lounging at his desk and reading to “set an example” for the early birds. Sammy's things - his backpack and coat - were at the seat next to David's, but no Sammy.
And there IT was. A white envelope with his name on the outside.
David frowned. Someone must have figured out that his birthday was tomorrow. Damn. He hoped it was either Sammy or Mr. Burdette. If anyone else, or the whole class knew, well, that would be very bad. He just wanted the day to to go by without drawing any attention to him and his stupid birthday.
David didn't get his wish.
He slipped the envelope quickly into the cubbyhole under his section of the huge circular desk, and tried to forget all about it. That only worked until Sammy returned to the classroom, looking sheepish.
“Thanks for the card,” David ventured in a whisper.
“What card?” Sammy whispered back.
Not from Sammy, then. David didn't respond, but accidentaly glanced down at his personal cubbyhole. Sam reached down and pulled the envelope out.
“Oh.” Sam took the envelope and started to open it.
“Hey!” David exclaimed.
Mr. Burdette and all the other kids - more than half the class was there now - looked up to see what all the commotion was about.
Sam shushed him, but didn't proceed with opening the envelope. “Don'tcha wanna know who it's from?” he whispered.
David shrugged. “I don't care.”
Sam ripped the card open. David steeled himself. What if it was one of those cards that the whole class signed, and now they were all going to make him stand up while they all sang to him. David put both hands under his thin thighs and pressed down on them. He clamped his mouth shut tight, and waited for nosy Sam to read the card.
“Hey, it's from Valentine,” Sammy told David. He stood the card upright in front of David on the desk. “That was nice of her.”
“Okay,” David murmured. By now, the entire class was present, and kids were noticing the blue card in front of David.
Clive, a big boy with a loud voice asked, “Hey, is that a birthday card? It it your birthday David?”
“Yeah, it is,” Sam answered for his buddy.
David went completely pale. “Shut up, Sammy,” He whispered through his teeth.
Before he knew it, nine children were gathered around David House, all cheerfully singing 'Happy Birthday' to him, and harmonizing quite nicely. It was, after all, a music school. Before they could get to the lame “and many more” that somebody always had to sing, David had lowered his forehead to the desk, and was clutching his prominent ears as if he were in pain.
“Stop it! Please stop,” the boy moaned, too softly for anyone but Sam to hear. But everyone saw his ashen face and his withdrawal. They ended before the last 'Happy Birthday,' and glanced around at one another awkwardly.
“Right!” Mr. Burdette clapped his hands together once, and started issuing orders. “Everyone get out your history books and start the reading assignment on the board.” As the singers dispersed to their respective seats, he made his way over to David, who was still in snail-mode. “Come with me, David,” he said softly to his youngest fourth-grader.
Out in the hallway, David's coloring started to return a little.
“Are you okay?” Mr. Burdette asked gently.
David shrugged. “I don't know.”
Mr. Burdette knelt down to his student's level. He adjusted his round, gold, wire-rimmed glasses on his very straight nose, and fiddled nervously with his very curly ponytail. “I'm sorry, David. Uh... Your Dad warned me that you don't like birthdays very much. He asked me to look out for you today, and that we would make you nervous if we made a big deal of it. I really had no idea that some of the kids already knew.”
David shrugged again. So one of his dads had actually thought to call and try to save him from being upset. It made him feel a lot better for some reason. “I guess it was an accident. Clive saw that card that Valentine gave me, then everybody started singing.”
“Yeah.” Mr. Burdette placed a hand gently on David's shoulder. “Do you want to take a break for a while? You could go to the nurse - she'll let you take a little break there, even though you're not really sick.
David glanced into the classroom. He really didn't want to go back in there, not now. “Okay.”
“Hang on - I'll get Sam to walk with you.”
Sam was uncharacteristically quiet at the beginning of the short walk to Ms. Biggams office, but his silence didn't last for long.
“David, what happened? Why'd you cover your ears like that?”
David didn't look at his friend. “I don't know,” he lied.
Sam thought hard about what had just happened, and tried to figure it out for himself. “We were just singing 'Happy Birthday.' Was it too loud or something?”
“I just don't like birthdays, Sammy.”
“Who the heck doesn't like birthdays?” Then Sam joked. “Or maybe they didn't have birthdays on the planet you came from.”
“That's it.” David turned the knob of the Nurse's office door and went inside before Sam could say anything or ask him anything else.
Nurse Biggam sounded disappointed. “Oh, Sammy! You've been doing so well... Did you get into the caffeine again?”
Then Sam was totally distracted by getting one up on Miss Biggam, since HE was the escort this time, and David was the sick kid. With a flourish, he produced Mr. Burdette's note, bowed solemnly, and exited the room, leaving David in her care.
David stayed in the nurse's office until after lunch. Miss Biggam decided, after having read Mr. Burdette's note, to just have the boy help out around her office, have half a “mental health” day, and give him a chance to ease back into his class at recess. She even sent a middle-schooler to Mr. Burdette to retrieve David's lunch for him. Between patients, Nurse Biggam tried to engage David in conversation, perhaps get him to talk about what had happened in class, but it was no use. David House was a silent Sam (unlike Sammy, who was an actual Sam, and could talk up a blue streak, even when he WAS sick), and if he didn't want to talk, he wasn't going to, not for anyone. It was a shame that the school's counselor was only part time, and had the day off. She released David after they ate to get his coat and go to the playground, where his class would be five minutes later.
When they were done with lunch, and were heading to get their own outerwear, Sammy and Valentine had a hurried, whispered conversation.
“He says he doesn't like birthdays, that's all,” Sam informed the little girl.
Valentine was flabbergasted. “But EVERYBODY likes birthdays. How can he not like...?”
“I dunno,” Sam admitted.
Valentine could not believe her bad luck. The one thing she thought would be a sure-fire way to be friends with David had backfired. She needed to talk to her sister. Violet would know what to do.
David was sitting at the top of the old-fashioned jungle gym. He thought that perhaps Sammy might join him, which would be okay, but surely Valentine wouldn't be interested in climbing while she was wearing a skirt. David thought that skirts and dresses were dumb; how on earth could you DO anything with cold air shooting up your butt? Why did girls put up with that? Then he thought of Lisa, who was a grown-up girl, whom he thought should wear nothing but dresses and skirts. He wondered briefly where that thought had come from, and why on earth he was thinking it, before he permanently erased it from his mind.
“Hi David,” Valentine said softly from two rungs below him.
'Crap,' he thought. “Hi,” he said meekly.
“I'm sorry about this morning,” she told him quickly. She climbed the rest of the way up the framework of metal cubes, and sat down on the bar that was perpendicular to his. In spite of being handicapped by the skirt, she had managed to climb up just fine, and had positioned her clothes modestly against wind or naughty sixth-grade boys. David thought that was just a load of unnecessary trouble, when a person could just put on pants.
David shrugged. “That's okay.”
“Sam told me you don't like birthdays,” she said softly. “I'm sorry; if I'd known, I wouldn't have given you the card.”
David frowned and glared around the playground to look for his friend. “Sam has a very big mouth,” he told Valentine.
She ignored that. “How come?”
“He's just a blabbermouth, that's all,” David replied cheerlessly.
Val shook her head. “No, no, I mean how come you don't like your birthday?”
David looked away, far across the small playground, and didn't answer.
“I mean, well...did you get a lousy present once?” the little girl probed.
David didn't say a word.
Valentine thought hard, and came up with, “Maybe somebody forgot your birthday and made you sad about birthdays.”
David startled a little, Val noticed. She must have guessed it, or at least gotten pretty close. “Who forgot your birthday, David?”
David wanted to climb down. He wanted to ignore the girl. He wanted to tell her to shut up. He even considered saying a curse word, to really shock Valentine, and maybe that would make her leave him alone, but he remembered that he'd promised Wilson that he would be polite to girls, and Wilson would
be mad enough to lecture him. David hated Wilson's lectures, because he felt terrible when he let Wilson down. With House, things were different. Daddy was easier - he'd understand the circumstances, while Wilson would always insist on good manners.
Val was sure that David was going to just continue to ignore her, and started thinking about climbing back down. “I'm sorry about the card, David,” she whispered softly. “I just wanted...” She took a deep breath. “I just wanted to be your friend, 'cause I like you.”
The boy Val liked best turned and looked at her, frowning slightly. “Why?”
Why? Valentine had never even considered why. “Because...because...well...”
David looked away again. Wrong answer, Val guessed. Why? She racked her brain, and came up with the only truth she could muster. “I just do.” She started groping for a lower rung with her right foot, preparing to climb down in defeat.
“There must be some reason, though,” David said quietly, in a matter-of-fact kind of voice.
Val sighed. “I don't really know,” she said. “Why do you like Sammy?”
David had to think a bit to answer that question, himself. He adjusted his position on the hard metal bar to stall for time. “Uh...he's fun...he's got good ideas for having fun. I like to do stuff with Sam.”
“Oh...” the little girl said quietly. She felt stupid, because David had a reason, and all she could come up with was 'I just do.' Stupid.
“...and... he's got cool teeth - only he'll have to wear braces to fix all that one day.”
Val frowned. “Teeth?”
David smiled slightly. “Like a vampire kid. It's cool.” Sammy's vampire grin always made him feel like smiling back.
Val smiled, too. “I like your glasses,” she said shyly.
David looked at the girl. “My glasses?” he thought that his glasses might be a strike against him, but so far, no one had called him four-eyes since back when he'd had those horrible plastic glasses that didn't fit his face.
“Yes. They make you look like a very nice, very smart boy.”
He took off his glasses. “Do I look the opposite when I take them off?” Part of him felt ridiculous for letting this girl flatter him, but mostly, David felt kind of good that there was something about himself that somebody else liked, even if it was only his glasses.
Valentine was totally unprepared for that. She had never even tried to imagine what David House would look like without his glasses. Wow. “And... and your EARS, too.” she whispered.
He had looked directly into Valentine's eyes, and, even though she was slightly out of focus, he saw admiration and astonishment and something else that David couldn't really name in her stunned expression. Valentine looked as if she were really, really, hungry, and David was a piece of chocolate. David's mouth dropped open. And he nearly lost his balance on the jungle gym.
“Uh... well... thanks... uh...Have a good recess, V-valentine.” David put his glasses back on, and started rapidly climbing down to the blacktop.