have read the contents of the folder more carefully. The two-sheet printout, stapled together at the top, said: "Valentines: You will need to make or buy one for each of the following classmates so that it will be fair and everyone will have a good time. Please keep this handy checklist with you when you do your shopping and fill out your valentines because it is critical that no one feel Left out (but of course don't make one for yourself because that would be silly, also it would look like you perhaps like yourself a bit too much):
Annie Huit
Durinda Huit
Georgia Huit
Jackie Huit
Marcia Huit
Petal Huit
Rebecca Huit
Zinnia Huit
Will Simms
Mandy Stenko
P.S. For valentine-making purposes, your teacher's name is spelled Mrs. McGillicuddy. "
We blame Annie for what happened later. It was her job to see that all the Important Papers in the Tuesday red folders got read. Or perhaps we should blame the school secretary, for double-spacing between our names when single-spacing would have worked just fine—we are not, after all, stupid—meaning that the last few lines ran onto a second page, which we never saw.
Or maybe the real culprit was Love.
For during Will's speech about how people shouldn't favor the letter T and leave other letters out of things, eight hearts had gone sproing! in eight chests, and our eyes had filled with something as we looked at him.
And that something was love.
***
It was on the long bus ride home that we came up with our plan.
We didn't love riding the school bus. What we used to love was having Mommy drive us to school in the great big purple Hummer that she, being a scientist and also an outstanding inventor, had doctored so it was an environmentally sound vehicle. But Mommy was no longer around, and even though Annie had tricked Pete the mechanic into teaching her how to drive, she couldn't drive us to school every day, not even if she wore her Daddy disguise that she wore from time to time, because if she did then the People in Authority might catch on.
And that would be very bad.
But not everything in our lives was very bad, because now we were hatching a plan.
"I'm going to make Will the best valentine he's ever seen," Durinda announced.
"No, I am," said Annie.
"No, I am," said Georgia.
"No, I am," said Jackie.
"No, I am," said Marcia.
"No, I am," said Petal.
"No, I am," said Rebecca.
"No, I am," said Zinnia. Then she added, "Do you think he'll give us stupendous presents in return?"
We all glared at one another.
"Speaking of presents," Jackie suggested, "in addition to making valentines for Will, perhaps we should each buy him a special present too?"
But Durinda pointed out that Annie was the only one of us who knew how to use the checkbook and credit cards and forge Daddy's name in order to get money to pay for things.
"It wouldn't be fair," Durinda said. "Annie might only give each of us, say, five dollars to spend, while allowing herself far more. And how would we ever know?"
We all glared at Annie.
"No," Durinda said, "for this to be fair, we need to limit ourselves to each using her talents to create the best possible valentine for Will."
So that was our plan.
We were going to have a competition to see who could make the best valentine for Will.
So we could discover which one of us he loved best.
Once and for all.
CHAPTER TWO
We arrived home expecting to start on our valentines for Will right away.
What we hadn't planned on was arriving home to disaster.
"There's something wrong with the talking refrigerator!" Durinda called out to us from the kitchen, where she had gone with Jackie to make us a snack. Since Mommy had disappeared, it was Durinda's job to prepare our food.
We all raced in to see what she was talking about.
"Those look like drops of some sort of clear liquid. They've made a puddle on the floor in front of the talking refrigerator," Marcia observed. "There are so many of them!"
The talking refrigerator was one of Mommy's inventions. It
Annie Huit
Durinda Huit
Georgia Huit
Jackie Huit
Marcia Huit
Petal Huit
Rebecca Huit
Zinnia Huit
Will Simms
Mandy Stenko
P.S. For valentine-making purposes, your teacher's name is spelled Mrs. McGillicuddy. "
We blame Annie for what happened later. It was her job to see that all the Important Papers in the Tuesday red folders got read. Or perhaps we should blame the school secretary, for double-spacing between our names when single-spacing would have worked just fine—we are not, after all, stupid—meaning that the last few lines ran onto a second page, which we never saw.
Or maybe the real culprit was Love.
For during Will's speech about how people shouldn't favor the letter T and leave other letters out of things, eight hearts had gone sproing! in eight chests, and our eyes had filled with something as we looked at him.
And that something was love.
***
It was on the long bus ride home that we came up with our plan.
We didn't love riding the school bus. What we used to love was having Mommy drive us to school in the great big purple Hummer that she, being a scientist and also an outstanding inventor, had doctored so it was an environmentally sound vehicle. But Mommy was no longer around, and even though Annie had tricked Pete the mechanic into teaching her how to drive, she couldn't drive us to school every day, not even if she wore her Daddy disguise that she wore from time to time, because if she did then the People in Authority might catch on.
And that would be very bad.
But not everything in our lives was very bad, because now we were hatching a plan.
"I'm going to make Will the best valentine he's ever seen," Durinda announced.
"No, I am," said Annie.
"No, I am," said Georgia.
"No, I am," said Jackie.
"No, I am," said Marcia.
"No, I am," said Petal.
"No, I am," said Rebecca.
"No, I am," said Zinnia. Then she added, "Do you think he'll give us stupendous presents in return?"
We all glared at one another.
"Speaking of presents," Jackie suggested, "in addition to making valentines for Will, perhaps we should each buy him a special present too?"
But Durinda pointed out that Annie was the only one of us who knew how to use the checkbook and credit cards and forge Daddy's name in order to get money to pay for things.
"It wouldn't be fair," Durinda said. "Annie might only give each of us, say, five dollars to spend, while allowing herself far more. And how would we ever know?"
We all glared at Annie.
"No," Durinda said, "for this to be fair, we need to limit ourselves to each using her talents to create the best possible valentine for Will."
So that was our plan.
We were going to have a competition to see who could make the best valentine for Will.
So we could discover which one of us he loved best.
Once and for all.
CHAPTER TWO
We arrived home expecting to start on our valentines for Will right away.
What we hadn't planned on was arriving home to disaster.
"There's something wrong with the talking refrigerator!" Durinda called out to us from the kitchen, where she had gone with Jackie to make us a snack. Since Mommy had disappeared, it was Durinda's job to prepare our food.
We all raced in to see what she was talking about.
"Those look like drops of some sort of clear liquid. They've made a puddle on the floor in front of the talking refrigerator," Marcia observed. "There are so many of them!"
The talking refrigerator was one of Mommy's inventions. It
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