The Valentine Star

Emily Arrow raced across the schoolyard.

“Come on, Uni,” she said. She held the little rubber unicorn up high.

She jumped over a clump of snow.

“Faster,” she yelled. “Faster.”

“Wait up,” said a voice behind her.

“Fastest in the world,” Emily said.

“Hey,” said the voice.

Emily looked
back.
It was Sherri Dent.

“How about playing something?” Sherri yelled.

Emily shook her head. She wanted to run with Uni.

She raced to the highest snow pile. It was the one near the schoolyard fence.

They weren't supposed to climb on it.

But she was running fast. Too fast to stop.

She galloped to the top of the pile.

Then she raced down again.

Just then Ms. Rooney blew her whistle.

Recess was over.

Emily dashed across the yard to her line.

Sherri Dent was there ahead of her. She stuck her tongue out at Emily.

Her tongue was as pointy as her face.

Emily stared at her.

She opened her mouth.

Then she closed it with a pop.

‘
‘Fish face to you, Sherri Dent,” Emily said to herself.

Sherri's hand shot up in the air.

“Let's hurry,” said Ms. Rooney. “I have a surprise.”

“Ms. Rooney,” said Sherri. “Emily was playing on the snow pile.”

Ms. Rooney frowned at Emily.

Emily ducked her head. She hated it when Ms. Rooney frowned.

Ms. Rooney led the line toward the door.

Emily poked her head around Jason Bazyk.

She could see Sherri in front of the line.

Too bad she wasn't closer.

She'd like to give Sherri a kick in the shins.

She'd like to pinch her skinny neck that looked like a pole.

Inside Emily hung up her jacket quickly.

She put Uni inside her desk.

“Is everybody ready?” asked Ms. Rooney.

Emily sat up straight. She remembered Ms. Rooney's surprise.

“This is February tenth,” Ms. Rooney said. “Who can tell us what happens in four days?”

Dawn Bosco raised her hand. So did Emily.

“Dawn?” asked Ms. Rooney.

“Valentine's Day,” said Dawn.

“Right,” said Ms. Rooney.

Ms. Rooney pulled out a box from underneath her desk. It was covered with shiny pink paper. It had a big red heart on it.

‘This is our Valentine mailbox,” said Ms. Rooney. “I'll leave it in front of the room.”

Emily raised her hand again. “Are we going to make Valentine cards?”

Ms. Rooney smiled, “We've worked hard on rhyming words. We'll make cards with poems.”

“I know a poem,” Matthew Jackson said. “Roses are red. Violets are blue. If I were you I'd go to a zoo.”

Everyone laughed. Even Ms. Rooney.

“I know one too,” Dawn said. “You are the best. Of alUhe rest.”

“I think she means me,” Emily's friend Rich ard Best said. He made believe he was falling out of his seat.

“I did not,” said Dawn. Her face was red. “I said it because it rhymes.”

Emily laughed. Richard was a funny boy. Everyone called him Beast.

“You'll make wonderful cards,” said Ms. Rooney. “But don't sign your names.”

“Just ‘Guess Who,’” Emily said.

“Right,” said Ms. Rooney.

Next to Emily, Dawn took out her pencil box.

Dawn had the best pencil box in the class.

“I have a box of stick-on stars,” Dawn whispered. ‘Tm going to make a great card for Ms. Rooney.”

Emily looked out the window.

She wished she had some stick-on stars.

The kind Dawn had. Red and green and gold and silver.

Dawn was a lucky girl.

Dawn pushed the box over toward Emily. “Take some.”

Dawn was really a nice girl, Emily thought. She reached for the box.

She took four red stars and two gold ones.

Sherri Dent looked back at Emily and Dawn.

She raised her hand. “I can't think with all this noise,” she told Ms. Rooney.

Ms. Rooney shook her head at Emily and Dawn.

Emily waited for Ms. Rooney to sit down at her desk.

Then she stared at Sherri.

She couldn't wait for Sherri to turn around.

She'd make a fish face at her.

She'd stick out her tongue and cross her eyes.

While Emily waited she took out paper.

She'd draw a Valentine card for Mrs. Paris, the reading teacher.

She'd put a nice red star on top.

After lunch Ms. Rooney pointed to a picture.

“This is Abraham Lincoln,” she said.

Emily looked at Abraham Lincoln. He had on a big black hat.

“He was a president,” Linda Lorca said.

“Right,” said Ms. Rooney. “His birthday is February twelfth.”

Emily could see that her friend Richard was drawing a picture of Abraham Lincoln.

“Who can tell us more?” Ms. Rooney asked.

“He's on a penny,*’ Wayne O'Brien said.

“What about his life?” asked Ms. Rooney.

Timothy Barbiero put his hand up.

Emily wished she could put her hand up too.

But she didn't know one thing about Abraham Lincoln.