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Tomorrow was Valentine’s Day, every kid’s (third? fourth?) favourite day of the year — or, at least, it had been Janine’s back when she was at school. It was one of the few days a year that you could get away with doing nothing in class but arts and crafts, and whatever you made had to be accepted by whoever you gave it to. Honestly, a win-win for those who didn’t always have people around to give gifts to, and the best way to show off your creative prowess to everyone else in your class.
Yes, on the day before Valentine’s, Janine was getting her class to make cards.
“Now, these cards can be for anyone you love, and not just someone in the class that you have a crush on,” she explained to the kids as she walked around, looking over what everyone was making. She had to bend down and pick various things up from the floor, from glue sticks and sticker sheets to scissors and tape, but overall everything seemed to be tidy, and all of the kids seemed to be enjoying themselves. For the most part.
“Who are you making a card for, Miss Teagues?” one of the kids called out, and Janine felt her cheeks heating up before she could stop them.
“Oh, I’m not making a card,” she laughed off quickly, her mind wandering to… the other gifts she had planned for Valentine’s Day.
That, unfortunately, was not a good enough answer for the kids in her class.
“What? Why?”
“You should make your boyfriend a card, Miss Teagues!”
“That’s so mean!”
“How could you not make your boyfriend a card?”
Whilst part of her was tempted to point out that she could very easily go and buy a card, she realised that that answer was not going to please the kids in the slightest — if anything, it would upset them more that she was buying a card instead of making one, like the rest of them.
In other words, she was stuck.
“Well, I hadn’t planned it!” she tried backpedalling, giving the kids a little shrug. Before they could argue more, she held up a hand. “But! If anyone makes a really cool card, you might just convince me to make one for tomorrow.”
There were a few moments of silence as the kids seemed to consider this, whether they would really be able to convince their teacher to also make a card, and then they all collectively decided that it was, apparently, worth a shot.
One of the girls on the tables closest to Janine put her hand up.
“Yes?”
“You have to make one if you see one of ours that is really cool,” she pointed out, giving Janine a look.
Janine watched her carefully, wondering if there was any way out of this. Whilst she could just claim that she didn’t see any cool cards, she knew that wouldn’t be true — she loved all of her kids, and she loved how creative they were, so she knew that inevitably she would find a card that she would consider cool and have to make one herself.
“Absolutely,” Janine smiled.
Making his way over to Janine’s classroom, Gregory gave a gentle knock on the door to signal his arrival. It was after school, the kids had all long gone, and it was officially the weekend. They didn’t have to stay behind to do any work that they could just come in early on Monday to finish off. Sure, Gregory knew that he and Janine liked to stay behind that little bit longer to get things done, but this was Valentine’s weekend. They weren’t supposed to stay too long. He had a dinner to go and cook for her (because every single restaurant they had tried calling was booked, and this was also a lot cheaper) and they had a wonderful evening to enjoy in each other’s company tonight, only to do it all again tomorrow. He didn’t want to waste a single second of it.
So when he arrived and she was at one of the kids’ tables, seemingly drawing something, his eyebrows rose. “Uh… Janine?”
“Just a second!” She held up a hand before going back to whatever she was doing.
Gregory took that as his signal to head into the room, setting his satchel on her desk before heading over to her. He took a peek over her shoulder to see what exactly she was doing, and the eyebrows that had just about settled back into their usual place rose again. “Janine, is that—”
“Gregory!” She turned quickly, covering up her work. Like it was meant to be hidden. Her smile looked forced. “I didn’t hear you come in!”
“I literally knocked on the— What are you doing?” He tried to lean past t get a better look, and Janine leaned more to obscure his sight.
“Something.”
“Something you can’t do at your own desk?” He looked around the table and recognised the pink glitter, card, glue and stickers that his own class had been using earlier on that day. A small smile grew on Gregory’s face. “Are you making me a card?”
Janine hesitated, clearly acting as though she had been caught, before slowly getting up, hiding something behind her back. “I’m not exactly done, I just need to put on the finishing touches, but…” She slowly held up what she was hiding behind her back, looking bashful.
A cute little Valentine’s Day card, covered in stickers and glitter and all sorts of cute stuff that they’d given to the kids to use. And in the middle, there was a giant pink heart — hand drawn, with the initials “JT + GE” written in the middle.
Gregory didn’t even try to stop the smile that grew on his face.
Janine was looking at him expectantly, nervously. “…Do you like it?”
Gregory’s gaze turned from the card to her, and he used his free hand to tilt her chin up before planting a soft kiss on her lips. “I love it,” he murmured softly.
She hummed softly, smiling. “I’m glad.”
He pulled away and took a better look at the card as Janine began tidying up — she may have needed to put the finishing touches on it, but she knew why Gregory was there. The heart with the glitter and the stickers — it was all so ridiculously Janine, he couldn’t help but love it.
And he couldn’t help but love her.
“You ready?”
In his time looking over the card, he hadn’t realised that Janine had cleared everything away, leaving her classroom in a… reasonable state until Monday morning, when she’d clean it up.
When they’d both clean up their classrooms.
He walked over to her desk, picking up his satchel and throwing it over his shoulder. As soon as she picked up her bag, he took it from her, kissing her again softly as they headed out of the classroom. She switched the light off as they left, and looped her hand through his waiting arm, the two of them slowly leaving for the day with soft smiles on their faces.