On Valentine's Day, all but one desk in Garrison's home room class had candy and cards from friends and admirers on them. Three students had separately decided to amend this oversight, and were surprised to encounter one another at their class room after sneaking away from the cafeteria.
"It's the principle of the matter. As Class President, it reflects poorly on me to allow for even one of my class mates to go without receiving anything."
Wendy opened the door, leading the two behind her.
"He got me something, so I ought to pay him back."
Kyle was pretty sure it was Cartman who had put the present in his locker. The handwriting on the note was squashed and dotted with hearts like Cartman's, and who else had the audacity to give him a bag of chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil? Stan knew to get him Ferrero Rocher, and Kenny always fell back on those terrible chalky heart candies. Since he'd been snacking on chocolate all morning, he hit the student store as soon as lunch started to buy what he would need to repay his debts.
"I tried to give him my present at lunch, but I couldn't find him anywhere…I hope his feelings weren't hurt bad."
Butters had to wait until lunch time because he wanted to give Cartman cookies fresh from home were rapidly cooling down on a plate held in his hands, spotting his card with grease.
Wendy loitered by Cartman's desk with the mini pack of Oreos she had brought. "Well, as long as he has at least one present, maybe I'll keep these for myself."
Kyle adopted the same aloof stance as Wendy, withholding the gummy bears he had bought last minute.
"Yeah, one sends the right message, probably…" Kyle trailed off before correcting himself, realizing that just a gift from Butters was the same as getting nothing at all to someone as egotistical as Cartman. "No, three is probably his lower limit." Kyle set the candy and card down, quickly adding Stan and Kenny's names next to 'From: Kyle' as a buffer.
"Gee whiz, it's not like Cartman didn't get you guys anything…" Butters frowned, setting the plate of cookies on the desk.
"He got me something?" Wendy had thought her Oreos were a good choice until they were placed next to real baked goods.
"Whoops! I wasn't supposed to tell…" Butters wrung his hands and looked out the window at the birds flying by.
"Well, he didn't put anything on my desk or in my locker," Wendy said.
Butters wouldn't give up any more than he had already.
"After the grandstanding he pulled last year, I was hesitant to get him anything, but a year is a long time." Kyle hoped the years would do his misguided friend well if he'd just commit to being a better person.
As mentioned, last year's Valentine's Day grandstanding was not an indication of Cartman changing for the better. He used the winnings of a poetry contest to send himself candy-grams from a "secret admirer" for the entire day and he wouldn't share with anyone. Each delivery had a big, taunting song and dance to it that interrupted class time and stopped anyone else's candy from get delivered by overwhelming the system with his requests. The amount of complaints drove the student government to ban candy-grams all-together. Now everyone had to deliver candy themselves, and this year's backlash had nearly left Cartman's desk bare like the year before last.
"Guess we better get back to lunch?" Butters had left his lunch with Kenny and figured there might still be some left. Kyle was fast to follow, but Wendy stayed behind. She picked through the modest pile of gifts on her desk. Over the last few years of her waning popularity, she had re-adjusted her expectations.
A stuffed rabbit from Bebe, a candy necklace from Stan (with a very 'just friends'-oriented card), and an anonymous package of limited edition red velvet Oreos. Being an entire package, she thought it had been entrusted to her to share among the class. She sat down and peeled up the resealable packaging of the cookies. She had not been sure of who got her cookies until she looked inside. Some of the cookies had already been eaten, but more telling than that, a quadruple-stuffed red velvet Oreo had been neatly constructed and left inside for her to find.
She ate it, knowing full well it was not good for her. It was filling and sweet and it briefly made her happy. Licking the corner of her lips, she tapped her boot on the floor and frowned as the package tempted her further.