Disclaimer: 7th Heaven and its characters are not my property, but I have used them in this not-for-profit work of fiction, which is my own creation.
***
PART ONE: JAKE
I used to think Valentine's Day was such a stupid holiday. You give a bunch of little pieces of paper with stupid love poems written on them to people you don't really love. Like everything else in school, it was all just a popularity contest to see who could get the most Valentines and be the biggest stud in the class.
February 14, 2002, started out the same. Like every year before, I got dozens of valentines from girls in my class, with all kinds of stupid mushy stuff written on them. "U R the 1 4 Me!" "I want 2 B with U!" So lame. I didn't want to be with any of the girls who gave me those stupid cards.
I wasn't expecting things to change as suddenly as they did. It was all my sister's fault. She was the one who called me that day, begging me to meet someone new.
"Come on, Jakey. It would be a huge favor for me. Pleeease!"
"No, Maria. I don't want to go to any stupid Valentine's Day party. I don't even know this Ruthie girl. And besides, I don't even like girls."
"Well, it's not like it will be just you and Ruthie. There will be guys there too, you know? There'll be a bunch of kids from your sixth grade class. You should really go and work on your social skills, because frankly they're kind of lacking."
"Shut up."
"See what I mean?"
"I'm not going to any stupid party."
"Jakey," she pleaded, "please, do it for me."
"No."
"I promise, if you go to this party with Ruthie, I'll do your chores for a week. And I'll pay you five bucks."
"Twenty."
"Ten."
"Deal."
I guess Maria was really trying to impress her boyfriend, Simon Camden, who she had, like, just met. His little sister didn't have a date to this sixth-grade girl Kim's Valentine's Day party, so Maria just volunteered me without even asking me first. Stupid Valentine's Day. It makes people do all kinds of stupid things.
So I waited at home for her to come pick me up, and she acted like such a dork when she got there. "Jake, you have got to put on a nicer shirt than that! And then I'll fix your hair."
She was making me feel like a pet show pony or something. But I just kept thinking about the ten dollars, and the week free of chores. It made everything more bearable. After way too much thread selection and grooming, she decided I finally looked "presentable" and we hopped in her car to roll to the party. Along the way, she kept trying to coach me.
"Jakey, be nice to Ruthie tonight, OK?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well, on the phone you gave me an attitude about going to the party with her. I don't want you to be rude just because you don't want to be there with her."
"I won't be rude, Maria. I promise."
"Good. Now, what are you going to talk about with her?"
"I don't know. Why do you care?"
"Because, Jake, I don't want you to embarrass me. If you say something to her about me, then it could get back to Simon and I don't want to ruin my chances with him, OK?"
"Whatever. I won't talk about you."
"Oh! I have an idea! Why don't you ask her to dance?"
"What? I'm not going to dance with her."
"Oh come on, it would be much easier to dance with her than to keep trying to come up with conversation."
She had a point, but I figured that I could milk her for some more cash by pretending that I didn't want to dance. Eventually I got ten more bucks out of her, and she got my pledge that when I arrived at the party I would ask Ruthie to dance.
Now, I had never really met Ruthie Camden before. I mean, we went to the same school and everything, but I hardly ever saw her. She wasn't in any of my classes, and she was always kind of…what's the word…aloof from everyone. But I knew what she looked like, and who she was. She was that curly-haired girl whose hair seemed to get straighter every year, who looked and acted older than she really was, the daughter of that preacher guy from the huge family that everyone in Glenoak seemed to know one way or another.
When Maria and I arrived at the party I saw Ruthie standing with her brother. Whatever. I really couldn't have cared less about hanging out with her at the stupid party until Kim and Frank started making fun of her for bringing Simon as her date. Ruthie looked so vulnerable and embarrassed; something snapped inside me. I don't know exactly what it was, but suddenly I hated Kim and I wanted to show her up at her own party. That's when I found myself asking Ruthie if she wanted to dance, not because Maria was paying me twenty dollars but because I wanted to do it. Kim stood in our way, telling us there was no dancing at her party. But I didn't care. Before I knew it, Ruthie and I were dancing together, and Simon and Maria were dancing, and then everyone else was dancing.
Suddenly, Valentine's Day meant something.