Love Me on Valentine's Day || ✔️

0.1 // an ocean of invites

0 . 1 / / a n o c e a n o f i n v i t e s

AN IMPORTANT tradition at Green Height Secondary School was the Valentine's Day dance. It was the one event in the school year that the whole student body looked forward to, and not dismissed as "cheesy school events."

The Valentine's Day dance went back to the class of '99. Each senior class left behind one thing, a legacy. '99 decided to leave behind a tradition that would be celebrated and followed years later. The school went all out, almost as if it was prom. They hired a DJ, student council came up with a theme and decorations, there were drinks (non-alcoholic of course, though a few spiking occurred over the years), and there were after-parties hosted at someone's house that the teachers and parents pretended didn't happen.

However, the most important part of the tradition—and most of the student body agrees with this—was the unique way of asking out a date. You see, class of '99 recognized the agony of having to actually go up to someone and ask, the cost of a proposal, public embarrassment and humiliation, etc. So, they created a system that got rid of all the nuisance of that, but still made it possible for people to get dates.

It was called The Invites. For a dollar, a student could purchase an invite (a piece of white paper cut into a square by a hurried and over-worked student council teacher), write down who they wanted to ask, write down the question, their name, and give it to the committee, who had the fantastical job of locating said student and giving them the invite. Then, they just send the invite back with their response. Or ignore the whole thing. It saved people the embarrassment and added anxiety of asking someone to their face.

The Invite was widely celebrated in the school, and had saved several introverts from missing out on getting dates. Many relationships blossomed that would not have been possible if not for the existence of The Invites. Students worship it and the class of '99.

Alexandria Benson liked The Invites as much as the next person in the school. Over the past two years, she had gotten one or two Invites, and it led to some pretty decent dates. She expected the same this year as well. What she didn't expect was what happened.

As Alexandria was working through her set of math problems, a knock sounded on the door of the classroom. Several students from the committee entered to give out Invites. Students chattered excitedly between each other. Alexandria tried to appear nonchalant. She didn't want to get her hopes up just to have no one ask her.

"Alexandria?" a girl asked, and Alex raises her hand. The girl smiled and came over to her. "Someone's popular," she mused, dumping the stack of papers in her hand on Alex's desk.

Yup. Alexandria Benson received ten invites to the Valentine's Day dance.

Ten. Invites.

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Hi, everyone and thank you for reading!

Love Me on Valentine's Day is one of the first stories I've written in years, and it's so good to get back to writing. I'm almost done writing the whole book, so you can expect frequent updates (aiming for multiple daily). Short waiting time!

This is a cute, short story that I hope you'll love as much as I do. If you did, vote, follow, and add to your reading list!

See you next chapter,
Sage