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'My Sticky Valentine'

By Hugo Martin
February 8, 2009

source: Los Angeles Times


"Happy Valentine's Day," I heard my sister's voice say in another room. I was sound asleep in my bedroom but the words woke me and filled me with terror.

"Today is Valentine's Day?" I asked myself as I threw the blankets off my bed and jumped to my feet. How did this happen? How did Valentine's Day creep up on me so fast?


In a panic, I began to dig under my bed, looking for art supplies to make one special Valentine's Day card. But the school bus would be here in an hour. How in the world was I going to do this? I only had time to make one card and I knew exactly who it was for.


Anna was in my fourth-grade class. She had blond, curly hair and big brown eyes that always seemed to sparkle. Last year, I gave her a store-bought Valentine card but it ended up buried in a heap of other cards that had piled up on her desk. But I told myself this year I would make a card that would get her attention. That, of course, was before Valentine's Day snuck up on me without a warning. Now I only had an hour to make the card and get dressed for school. I found white construction paper and folded it in half for the card and cut a heart shape out of red paper with my scissors. I wrote "To Anna" on the front of the card and on the heart I wrote "With all my heart." But as I scanned the mess on the top of my desk, I panicked. How was I going to glue the heart to the card? There wasn't any paste left! And where was my glue stick? I rifled through my desk drawers. I found paper clips, envelopes, rubber bands and postage stamps but no glue. I began to freak out. I started emptying drawers onto the floor of my room.


My sister, Lila, heard the commotion and poked her head in my room. "What's all the hubbub, Bub?" she asked with a grin. Lila scrunched her mouth, puffed out her cheeks and blew a giant bubble gum bubble. My sister always chewed bubble gum. Mom told her it would rot her teeth but that never stopped her.

"Glue," I yelled. "I need glue. I have to stick the heart on this Valentine card. My bus will be here in a few minutes."


Lila stared at my card and then at me. She looked around the room, popped another bubble gum bubble and slowly smiled. "Gimme the card," she ordered. Lila reached into her mouth, took out a piece of chewed bubble gum and stuck it to the card. She then grabbed the red paper heart and pressed it against the wad of gooey gum on the card. "Problem solved," she announced.


"Gross," I hollered. "I can't give that to Anna! It's got pre-chewed gum on it!"

"It works, doesn't it?" Lila said with a shrug. "You'd better hurry if you want to catch your bus."

I had no time to argue. I dressed quickly and ran to the bus stop, clutching the bubble-gum Valentine card in my hand. When I got to my classroom, all the other kids had already passed out their Valentine cards. Just like last year, a pile of cards towered over Anna's desk. I thought about throwing my card away but after all I had been through, I decided to put it on her desk and hope for the best. Afterward, I slunk to my desk and put my head down in my folded arms, wishing the day would end quickly. A few minutes later, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I lifted my head and looked into Anna's big brown eyes.


"Thanks for the Valentine card," she said with a smile.

"The card?" I stammered.

"I got lots of cards this year," she said. "But yours is my favorite."

"Mine?" I asked. "Why mine?"

"Your card smells like bubble gum," she said with a grin. "How did you know I love bubble gum?"

"A lucky guess," I said with a grin.

Visit latimes.com/kids. kidsreadingroom@latimes.com. Martin is the author of "Pablo's Christmas." To find out more, visit pabloschristmas.com.