Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ A Teacher's POV - Valentine's Day ❯ One-Shot

A Teacher's POV - Valentine's Day

By Time Lady

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Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. I just own the teacher.

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Why couldn't Valentine's Day be on a weekend? Or even a Friday? Nope. This year, it's smack dab in the middle of the week. Joy of joys. . . . If it was the weekend, we might avoid the mess of a party. I could also spend the time being depressed over my oh-so-recent breakup with my online boyfriend, locked in my apartment with a really bad movie, a bunch of stuffed animals, and several quarts of Haagen Daas. But noooooo. . . . this year, it just had to be Wednesday.

I could already see the anticipation of the required V-Day party as the kids came in to homeroom. Some of them, the ones who had me for last period, had trays of pink and white cupcakes, bags of chips, and drinks. I directed them to my back table. From the growing piles of plates of iced cookies and frosted cupcakes, I knew I was in for a sugar buzz.

"Sensei?" I turned and saw Amano next to me, holding some flowers. "For you."

"Thank you Amano, they're lovely," I said with a smile. It was a bouquet of daisies with some babies' breath. "I'll find something to put them in."

A few more students, ones I wouldn't see the rest of the day, brought me heart shaped boxes of candy, cards, and more flowers. With the amount of candy I was receiving, I would probably achieve my sugar buzz a lot earlier than expected. Akemi flounced in (if you can actually describe a rather happy female wrestler in that way) almost expectantly. I wonder if she was thinking about a certain spiky haired soccer player.

As usual, Takeru and Hikari walked in together, hand in hand. I heard a few of the girls muttering about "lucky Hikari." It's strange though. You'd think more girls would be interested in Daisuke than just Akemi. I mean, he is on the soccer team. It must be the hair. Or maybe those dopey goggles. Though that weird pet of his might also have something to do with it. How do you explain something that looks like Chibimon to a girl?

Ken entered shortly. Several of the girls sighed. I guess they haven't figured out yet that he's taken. Moose wasn't far behind. He looked at Akemi and Daisuke face went red. At last count, my homeroom's "love triangle" went something like: Hikari likes Takeru. Daisuke likes Hikari. Akemi likes Daisuke. Moose likes Akemi. Hopefully it ends there. Otherwise I'll never be able to keep track of this. I don't know, but when I was their age, romance was the _least_ of my worries. But then, maybe if I worried about it then, I wouldn't be in the state I am now emotionally. Sigh. . . .

The bell rang just as Satoshi slid into the room. I looked outside the room and waited a minute before closing the door. There was no sign of Daisuke. Akemi slid down in her seat, a sad look on her face. I hoped Daisuke wouldn't be stupid enough to fake being sick to get out of seeing Akemi on Valentine's Day. I wouldn't say anything to him. But you do _not_ want to anger a female wrestler. Moose actually seemed happy. No accounting for some people.

I spent the morning intercepting early love notes and cards being passed in class. "Keep the Valentine's stuff for your end of day party," I said. I had also begun devouring one of about 6 boxes of chocolate I had received.

With all the chocolate, lunch time I was still hungry. I made my way down to the cafeteria to see if anything was edible. At one table, Ken sat next to Miyako, who appeared to be hanging on his every word. Beside them were Takeru and Hikari, talking in their own little world. Iori seemed very out of place at the table. One seat was empty, probably for Daisuke, who was still missing. At the next table, Moose was having lunch with Akemi, who still looked down. His attempts to cheer her up were going unnoticed by Akemi (but were definitely getting strange stares from everyone else).

The vegetable rice looked edible, so I hazarded a bowl. Just so I wasn't eating _only_ candy. As I walked by, Iori waved me over. "Your table seems a bit empty," I said.

"Yeah," said Takeru, "Daisuke's still not here."

"That's not like him," said Hikari.

"He hasn't been sick a day this year," added Miyako. "He was fine yesterday." She glanced over towards Akemi. "You don't think he'd. . . ."

"Daisuke may not be bright, but he's not suicidal," said Hikari.

"He better have a note from his mother if he wants to survive Akemi," said Takeru.

"You know," said Ken, "in a way, Daisuke and Akemi are a lot alike, from what I've seen of Akemi."

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"They just don't know when to give up," said Ken with a chuckle.

"Well, I'll see all of you in class this afternoon," I said.

"Sensei, are we talking about Cupid in class this afternoon?" asked Iori.

"Of course," I said. "Lessons before party as always." The others groaned. "Of course, if I don't have to waste 15 minutes getting everyone settled down, we'll finish the lesson sooner and start the party sooner," I said, dropping a not too subtle hint.

"Yes Sensei," they said.

By the time my last class rolled around, I had quite a sugar buzz going. I did exercise enough self-restraint to keep myself to the candy, cookies, and cupcakes students gave me. Even though there was a deliciously high number of very fattening, very sugar laden treats waiting back on the back table.

Students for my last class began filing in. I think someone must have spread the word that I said the sooner everyone was ready, the sooner we could get started, the sooner we'd party.

Suddenly, as I was closing my door, Daisuke slid in. "Well, glad you could join us today."

"Sorry," he said, handing me a note. "Mom dragged me and my sister to the optometrist this morning. She wanted me to get my eyes checked. She thinks it's weird that I wear the goggles all the time."

"She's not the only one. Now sit down so we can get started." My table monitors had already passed out the books. I opened my copy, then directed my students to the story of Cupid. Not that I really wanted to read about the god of love. But it was Valentine's Day and it was the most appropriate topic.

"Now, the image we associate with Valentine's Day and Cupid isn't exactly what the Romans had in mind. Meaning the big winged baby is actually an adaptation from another culture," I began. "Cupid, known by the Greeks as Eros, was actually a young man, the son of Aphrodite, goddess of love. Somewhere along in history, the cherub, a baby angel of Christianity, became synonymous with Cupid. The story you are going to start reading today is the story of Cupid and Psyche. In summary, Cupid gets sent by his rather jealous mother to do away with the beautiful Psyche. However, he sticks himself with one of his own arrows of love, and falls madly in love with Psyche instead. In a way, this is the proverbial "love conquers all" story. Start reading."

Iori raised his hand. "Yes Iori?"

"Sensei, how much candy have you had so far?" asked Iori.

"Two boxes."

A ripple of gasps spread through the class. "Be afraid. . . be very, very afraid," whispered Moose.

"Teacher on sugar alert," whispered Satoshi.

"You're wasting time, if you want to start the party and not have a time crunch," I said. "Now get started!" While the students read, I bustled around getting my table set up. The sugar apparently began to kick in. I heard whispers of "I never saw her move so fast," popped up from time to time.

After 5 minutes Daisuke raised his hand. "Sensei, it's hard to read. The drops haven't worn off yet."

"All right. Then get back here and give me a hand. I expect you to get your reading done tonight."

"Yes Sensei."

I made the kids read for a good 15 minutes while Daisuke and I set up the food trays and valentine bags. I could tell he was being extra careful to not knock anything over. Several times I had to tell Akemi to turn around and get back to work. While Daisuke was setting out paper plates, I passed out the sheets. "These are for homework tonight. Answer in complete sentences. Take your books home tonight. Bring them back tomorrow under penalty of severe punishment." I heard a few "eeps" as I passed out the papers. "Oh come on. It's only 10 questions."

Once the setup was complete, I started letting the kids file past to distribute the generic valentines. I noticed a few people had large envelopes on their desks. A few others were pulling boxes of candy and flowers out of their backpacks. Including Daisuke. I had to wonder who it was for, Hikari or Akemi. He couldn't be _that_ stupid, could he?

About 15 minutes later, he proved he could. Takeru was in the back of the room getting seconds on his drink. Akemi had gone out to the restroom. Daisuke walked over to Hikari with a large bouquet of carnations and babies' breath. "Hikari, these are for you," he said. "Please, read the card."

Hikari looked at Daisuke strangely, then read the small card out loud. "To the sweetest girl in the world. Thank you Daisuke, but. . . ." Before Hikari could say anything else, Takeru walked up and Akemi returned. Daisuke decided to move into one of the groups of boys congregated around the potato chips remains.

"What are you going to do?" said Takeru in a low voice. "Akemi will be crushed."

"I'd like to give Daisuke a piece of my mind," returned Hikari. "But I have a better idea." She picked up the bouquet Daisuke had given her, then looked around. He was in the middle of talking to Iori and Ken. Hikari approached Akemi, who was wiping up some crumbs from her desk. "Akemi," began Hikari, "Daisuke was a little shy about this, so he asked me to give these flowers to you."

"For me?" said Akemi as I struggled not to start laughing.

"Open the card," said Hikari.

"To the sweetest girl in the world," read Akemi. "Love Daisuke." She looked at Hikari. "He really likes me!" Like me, Takeru was trying not to fall out of his seat laughing. Suddenly, Akemi dashed to the back and grabbed Daisuke in a stranglehold. Iori backed away cautiously. Ken glanced toward Miyako, who shrugged.

Before Daisuke passed out from lack of oxygen, I announced "Everyone back to your seats. I'm going to pass out the Valentine bags." Good thing Akemi's seat is no where near Daisuke's. Daisuke was still somewhat dazed as I passed out the bags of valentine cards. There was still a good 10 minutes before the class was supposed to be over.

Students began to tear into their bags. A few kids had put candy hearts, lollypops, or little chocolates with their cards. And others had gone for the typical box of 30 cards for a few yen route. One of my students who was either an overachiever or very cheap made cards for the entire class by hand.

I think Daisuke was still trying to figure out how Akemi got the flowers while Takeru had given Hikari a small box. Inside was a cut glass pendant with an angel carved into it. Amano gave Yukari a long stemmed red rose. Satoshi gave Kasumi a mini box of chocolates with a stuffed Pikachu toy on top. Miyako was talking about how Ken was going to take her to dinner tonight. Moose had also given Akemi a stuffed toy moose. Go figure. A couple of students were disappointed to not get more than a paper cutout from people they thought were interested in them.

"Open your bag Sensei," said some of the students.

"Is it more candy?" I asked.

"You don't need any more candy," said a few others.

"All right," I said. Inside my bag, aside from a bunch of cards and a couple of small pieces of candy, were a little ceramic box from Miyu, an official "Possum Lodge" badge from Moose, a stuffed toy dog from Toya, a little bear from Hikari and Takeru, and a box with an enameled pin in the shape of a rose from Iori.

"How sweet," I said as I put the pin on and set out the other items. "Thank you all."

The bell rang. My class was just too wired from all the sugar, and so was I. "Anyone who stays to clean up gets to take some of the leftovers," I announced. "Dismissed!"

Daisuke muttered something about soccer practice and dashed out of the room as fast as he could. Akemi looked disappointed, but then, she had wrestling practice. In fact all of my sports people were out of the room. A few of the girls stared as Moose and Satoshi set about devouring the remaining food. We did manage to make a tray and send it down to the teacher's lounge for the custodians. Once my room was clean, the remaining students disappeared. I gathered my things. Outside, Hikari, Ken, Miyako, and Iori were waiting. Probably for Daisuke and Takeru to finish practice.

"Now what was going on with Akemi?" asked Ken.

"Yeah. That was weird, even for her," added Miyako.

"Well, Daisuke gave me the flowers. But he didn't put my name on the card. So I gave them to Akemi and said they were from Daisuke, but he was too shy to give them to her himself," explained Hikari.

"I never knew you had such an evil streak," said Ken.

"Look who's talking," said Iori. Before Ken could reply, Iori saw me and waved. "Are you going home Sensei?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said as I walked over to them. "I figured I might walk home instead of the bus today, then go clean my apartment, then maybe run around the block a few times."

"You've had way too much sugar," said Miyako. Grinning, I waved and walked outside.

I may have had too much sugar, but compared to other Valentines Days I've had at school, this one wasn't half bad.

The End