Hearts and Scribbles
[One]

.

As if some little Arctic flower,
upon the polar hem
Went wandering down the latitudes
until it puzzled came
to continents of summer

to firmaments of sun
to strange, bright crowds of flowers,
and birds of foreign tongue!
I say, as if this little flower
To Eden wandered in—
What then? why, nothing, only
Your inference therefrom!
– Emily Dickinson

-/-

Saint Valentine's Day of 2013 came with bursts of glowing pink and red ribbons and lacy hearts. Really, that was just for the lower, elementary grades, but that didn't mean that the teachers of Bokaroido* High didn't try to hammer the memory of Saint Valentine into their pupils' heads.

So that was what the teachers did, except they never really got their students to make anything for Valentine's Day. By the time February came, the high school's hallways were abuzz with excitement, so the teachers just decided to encourage it.

Really, it was not a problem. The girls whose hearts had been broken before Valentine's Day didn't complain; they dutifully cut out hearts for family members and friends, or otherwise didn't show up to class, particularly art class. The guys still walked with the same step, as if the fancy holiday hadn't bothered them a bit, although as a Student Council member, Iroha Nekomura could easily see that many were swayed by it. Some often stopped by the room reserved for Student Council to buy carnations.

Carnations…

Last year, it was candy grams, and the year before, self-made cards. Whatever year it was, Student Council always managed to think up something that was slightly different from the year before but still pertaining to the Valentine's Day theme.

There were two types of carnations. White meant "I like you," or otherwise friendship, and pink meant "I love you" or "We are bound together." There were blank paper cards to go with the carnations as well. Each carnation, regardless of color, was one dollar each. Student Council members got one carnation free, and the leftovers if there were any.

From the way the sales were going, the school would be rich and there would be hardly a petal left, Iroha observed wryly.

The bell that marked the end of school had just rung, and a flurry of activity was going all around her. It was the twelfth of February, Tuesday, the second-to-last day to cram all Valentines in before the actual day. Student Council was expecting a bunch of sales.

The green door was pushed open slightly, and as Iroha entered, the familiar smell of rusted iron and oily paint welcomed her in. The President of Student Council had already set out everything on the tables. Iroha slipped her bag onto the back of her metal chair, and sat down to wait.

Personally, she was panicking. This year, carnations were too clichéd, and she didn't want to use anything from the past, either. Iroha was looking for something to offer to her best friend, SeeU.

It was childish, yes. But Valentine's Day meant optimism and love and happy-go-lucky and all that, and for once, tsundere Iroha wanted to get in the mood.

Although SeeU always waited by the bicycle racks, doing her homework to pass the time, after school for an hour—or however long Iroha might take—to bike home together, she adamantly refused to come in and help. SeeU claimed that she didn't like carnations, although Iroha suspected that it might be something else. SeeU was a popular target for the males to tease, and they often taunted her that she was a homosexual, that she was having an affair with Iroha…

"Evaluating something troubling, Iroha?" President Aomori Miki said sympathetically, dropping into a chair next to Iroha. The girl gave a start.

"The sales haven't begun yet?" was Iroha's way of a reply.

Miki shook her head. "They will, though. There's five more minutes. We're waiting for the rest of Student Council to come."

Miki was everything that Iroha wanted to be. Polite and firm but always willing to strike up a casual conversation. Her appearance was perfect, too: glossy red hair with energetic ruby eyes, and a slim, wiry figure.

Still, Miki was a little stiff for Iroha's liking. Iroha could never imagine Miki laughing out loud or even giggling; it was always a chuckle. She wanted to have a friend who would be perverted with her, who would have an obsession over the stupidest things… and SeeU fit exactly into the category.

"Iroha?" Miki placed a hand on said girl's arm.

Iroha nodded. "I'm fine." She really was. If she wasn't, she would be.

-/-

"Hi, Ironeko!" SeeU said brightly, looking up from her notebook and capping her pen. She sat crosslegged on the ground, with her backpack beside her, and papers strewn all around her. Rocks served as paperweights against the windy gray sky, which may launch a gale if it wished. "Ironeko" was SeeU's nickname for Iroha, a mixture of Iroha's first and last name. Upon Iroha's arrival, SeeU began to stuff papers back into her backpack.

"Need a hand?" Iroha offered, and not waiting for a reply, she bent down to help SeeU straighten out her homework.

"Sorry," SeeU said apologetically. "Your Valentine's Day sale lasted longer than usual, so I got a little immersed in the life of Genghis Khan. You can see… I took copious notes on him, but then, I'll be ready for the test!"

Iroha winced. "Yeah."

"Why, Ironeko? Do you not like him? Well, he was a pretty odd guy, but…"

"The test," Iroha said, "is tomorrow, SeeU."

"Of course! That's why I'm studying for it."

Iroha went into the bikes' rack and unhooked her bicycle. "You didn't study before?"

"Well," SeeU replied exasperatedly, following her into the little fenced-off area, "I have to, don't I? My grades are going to slip if I don't. The three question tests that our history teacher gives, they're going to mark the end of me, someday."

Iroha laughed. "Oh sure. You're much better than me at studying, SeeU."

"And yet you were the one who got into Student Council." SeeU swung her backpack onto her bicycle's handles, and grinned over her shoulder. "I'll race you to where the lane forks."

"Okay," Iroha replied, as lightheartedly as she could.

-/-

SeeU brushed a chunk of blonde hair out of her face. Biking down and up swells and crests in the earth in the sharp February air had given both of them a great exercise. Still, SeeU magically pulled ahead—like always.

"I win!"

"I lose," Iroha sighed automatically.

"I can lose if you want me to," SeeU suggested, not realizing that Iroha always lost because usually when Iroha biked, she contemplated her life, or thought about things that would slow her down.

"It's okay. See you tomorrow, SeeU!" And they split ways.

-/-

The screen glowed blue. Iroha blinked her tired eyes, reloading her page over and over to see if she had any new emails.

None.

She had sent out an email to her fellow Student Council members earlier, asking about ideas for a Valentine, but none replied.

She was irritable and annoyed. Once the night passed, there would be only one day left to get SeeU a Valentine, and if she knew anything, it was that she had close to no time to make a Valentine by hand.

Earlier, Iroha and SeeU were chatting on Gmail, but since Iroha often was distracted while chatting, SeeU had to cope with her involuntary bursts of silence quite often. SeeU was probably miffed by that, and Iroha's replies to SeeU's torrent of news and chatter were probably in the range in which it sound like she snapped.

In all of the years Iroha knew SeeU, the former had never failed to give SeeU a Valentine, and the latter had never failed to return the favor.

Iroha was determined to keep the tradition. But perhaps this year… this year, it might change.

She didn't want that.


*Bokaroido (ボカロイド)— "Vocaloid"