The Valentine Surprise Part 1 by Cailom (South Africa) Part 2 by Todd Elliott (Canada) Part 3 by Martu, Agus, Jos (Argentina) A three-nation collaborative story

Part 1: Valentine’s Day arrives!

All morning long, we kids put our Valentine cards in the box on Mrs. Taylor's desk. The box was almost filled to the top before lunch.  We stayed busy the rest of the day finishing our class work and making special cards for our parents.  Finally it was time for our class Valentine's party!  I couldn't wait to pass out all those cute colourful cards, but when I went to the desk, I saw that the box was empty!  What could have happened to all of our Valentines!

Part 2: The missing box

  I thought the teacher might have taken them to a different room, but I wasn't sure which one it was. It suddenly dawned on me that she might have taken them to the staff room. I anxiously proceeded to the staffroom where I searched for the missing cards.  The cards were nowhere to be found and I began panicking. I was stumped. I didn't know what to do!  The party was in 5 minutes..

The time for the party had arrived and the teacher was busy setting everything up. I was scared that I wouldn't be able to hand out my Valentine's cards.  I sat in my desk sad and hunched over and I couldn't think of anything that I could do. But then it came to me! I could look in the Custodian's closet or the office.  I\ hastily made my way to the Custodians closet , but to my dismay I found nothing. I then made my way to the office. I couldn't believe my eyes!

Part 3: Who took the Valentine’s Day cards?

The cleaning man was eating all the chocolates and reading all the cards, but not only that, he was breaking all the cards in little pieces.  My secret love wouldn’t receive my valentine card, and I had made it with so much effort!!! But what could I do? I will call My headmaster and the cleaning man will be fired. I closed the door in silence and I went running to his office.  

When I arrived all the headmaster was having an afternoon nap! He suddenly woke up and asked me what I was  doing there, and to never tell anybody what he was doing. I told him all about the cleaning man. He rushed to the cabinet where his cane was hidden and we rushed to the scene. He took  all the cards from the cleaning man’s hand, and the chocolates that hadn’t been eaten yet, and gave them to me. I put them back into the box and rushed back to class.

When I arrived to the class I gave the teacher the valentine cards, and then she handed them out.

Mine went to my secret love!