Love is in the air! To the guest reviewer, the series didn't end in 1999, plus I'm treating this as if it was 2014 so stop criticizing my stories! Thanks for reviewing, The J.A.M Numbuh i (keep in mind that it fits with Nicole knowing more than she should), Joyce LaKee (I discovered it, and can't stop writing them, plus it's easier to describe the characters) and xFilms (yes I thought so, just wasn't sure).

Finally, Valentine's Day arrived, and it might've been fifth grade, but we were still set to making Valentine cards, the way people did every year.

I never made a big deal out of the day, and even though I was in a relationship, I still wasn't planning to do so. At ten years old, declarations of love were going to be few (unless Helga decided to throw caution to the wind or Curly quit the subtle approach), but I still addressed my Valentine to Sid, and I signed it "your girlfriend, pretending to be anonymous". After lunch, we all slipped the Valentines into the lockers of our classmates.

I found four cards in my locker by the end of the day. The first one read "Happy Single Awareness Day to you single ladies, and Happy Valentine's Day to us pairing up. Sorry the message isn't personalized." A very carefully drawn signature was underneath it, but even if I hadn't picked out the initials in the signature, I would've known from the language that Rhonda wrote it. She had probably sent the same one to every girl in the class – just a friend Valentine

I also found a friend Valentine from Arnold. Knowing him, he'd probably written one to everyone in the class, since he was friends with everyone. If he'd found time. The third card was from Sid, I could tell, although he hadn't signed it. He made it pretty clear in the message.

He'd written: "Nicole, I'll be waiting for you on the steps after school again today. You're not still mad at me about letting that quote slip, right? Will you be my Valentine? I'm still so happy when I think of you as my girlfriend – you know how I feel. And I still think you're the prettiest girl in school." It was a little awkwardly worded, but quite sweet all the same.

The fourth card was one I could take a guess at. It read "Just saying thanx 4 all the love advice! My Rhonda is still a bit shy about it in school, but when we're alone together, we're in heaven. You deserve some love too, so hope your own boyfriend can show you a good time. BTW, I consider you a friend. We can hang out sometime, right?" I sighed. It was obviously from Curly – and like I said, I didn't consider him a friend. But when I discussed it with Lila the day after, she'd told me that I ought to be friends with him, and I decided to give it a try – but only when I'd finished exacting revenge on him for starting the still-strong rumour about me.

I asked Sid that afternoon. We'd decided to hang out in the Mighty Pete treehouse. Most of the class didn't go there so much any more (although a group of the boys hung out there occasionally and sometimes a few girls went up there), so it was a good place to go to be alone.

Sure enough, it was deserted, so I explained what I was thinking. "You said Curly started the 'spy' rumour, right? Well, as you know, that rumour is still going around and I'm seriously going to make him pay for it. The difficulty is, it's Curly of all people. I have to be really sneaky with it so he doesn't find out it's me."

Sid shivered. "I don't blame you on that. He's seriously scary when he snaps."

"He just won't stop at anything." I agreed. "On that page of tropes, he had things like Ax-Crazy, Creepy Child, Beware the Quiet Ones, Laughing Mad...you get the idea. On the other hand, he sent me a card to thank me for helping him out with something last year, and he even said he considers me a friend. Does he even have any friends?"

Sid shrugged. "Not really. He's on his own, most of the time. When he's not, he's usually one of the geeky group. You know, Eugene, Sheena, Brainy..."

I nodded. "I know the group. I thought I saw him mostly being on his own. I'd already thought of what to do – fighting fire with fire. But I need to do it in a way that Curly won't be able to find out that I started the rumour." I grinned. "Remember I said you have to help me? That's where you come in."

"Look, Nicole..." Sid began, looking nervous. "I said I'd help you get out of this thing, but when it comes to Curly, you're on your own. I had to negotiate with him last year, and it was one of the most nerve-wracking things I've ever done."

I scowled. "You can't be serious! I remember that time, and Curly had calmed down a bit by the time you talked to him. Besides, you weren't alone with him. Curly wasn't going to do anything with Arnold being there – he got Curly to talk rationally about it in the first place. Anyway, what was your plan to get this rumour dispelled?"

Sid shrugged. "I hadn't thought of it yet."

"Wait, I thought of something!" I exclaimed. A couple of words had come to mind – two words that I knew would help me. "OK, ditch any of the ideas you've thought of. You need to think of a rumour that I can use about Curly. Close to the truth. Nothing too bad, I don't want to have people turned off entirely...just something juicy. On the other hand, I need to ask Gerald about something."

Sid looked adorably confused.

"So...do you know if he has a date with anyone?" I asked. "If he does, I won't interrupt him, but if he doesn't, I'll go find him now."

Sid shrugged again. "Maybe. I think I heard him talking about going somewhere with someone...don't know who it was, though. I don't even know if it was a girl or not."

I leant back in my chair. "Well then, looks like I'm free for the afternoon. Lila's playing Lonely Hearts with her family, since her dad's a widower and she got billions of Valentines from people who she only likes as friends, so she couldn't hang out with me. Most of the girls are out with someone else, in fact. And Arnold's probably asked He-" I stopped. "He's got plans."

"What were you going to say?" Sid pressed. "Were you going to say Arnold asked someone out?"

I groaned. "I promised Arnold I wouldn't tell anyone! I know what you're like, you'll find it hilarious and tell anyone and everyone...and even if you keep it back from everyone except one person, they'll find it just as hilarious and tell everyone they can find."

"Aw, Nicole, I can keep a secret!" Sid protested. "I won't tell, honest! Besides, Arnold's a good guy, I wouldn't betray him by telling one of his secrets. "

I sighed. "Like the time you didn't tell everyone that you got from Arnold that Iggy wears bunny pyjamas?" I questioned. "And on top of that, you do have a tendency to want to tell everyone stuff that you think is funny."

"Why would I laugh at it?" Sid asked insistently. "Is it about who Arnold has a thing for? Who is it? Is she in our class? Does she know he likes her?"

I groaned again. "I'm not telling you who she is." I snapped. "I'm not telling you whether she's in our class or not because that narrows down the suspects, but she does go to our school, yes, she knows Arnold likes her, and she's liked him for ages. There, that's enough."

"You're no fun." Sid complained. "I want to know."

I grinned. "You don't like a mystery, do you?" I laughed. "Well, all will be revealed. Arnold's been talking to her, and they've agreed to let everyone get used to them as friends before they become openly official. They're taking things slowly. She's quite shy about her feelings."

"Come on, you can tell me." Sid wheedled. "I won't tell anyone, I swear!" He paused, then said with a devious smile, "Can you at least tell me some of the tropes she has?"

I thought about it, and then smiled. "Sure." I said. "Breakout Character. Unknown Rival. Single Woman Seeks Good Man. In Love With Love. Antihero or Antivillain." I grinned again. "I'm not saying any more. If I did," like Little Miss Snarker, The Nicknamer, or maybe even She Cleans Up Nicely, "I'd be breaking my promise."

"She's a breakout character?" Sid said in amazement. "You mean – she's the most popular character? People like watching her best?"

"You got it." I said. "Doesn't mean people don't like the rest of you, though. Some people I saw seemed to love you a lot. One girl did a meme where you were her second favourite character. She was meant to draw herself in her favourite character's clothes, and she decided to wear yours because she didn't like her favourite characters'. And you didn't mind because she didn't steal your boots."

"As long as it wasn't all my outfits..." Sid admitted.

Sid finally admitted defeat, and we spent the rest of the afternoon talking about us – although tropes kept sneaking into the conversation. Valentine's Day, overall, was pretty good.

Sorry about all the tropes – they're stuck in my brain! Please review!