Friday would be Valentine's Day. Jane spent the rest of the week dreading its arrival. In elementary school, Valentine's Day had been no big deal. Everybody gave valentines to everybody else because all the mothers made sure they did. There was a party at school, with pink-frosted cupcakes and red punch. Jane threw away her valentines as soon as she got home, first taking off any candy that was glued to them. Then she ate the candy. End of Valentine's Day.

Jane didn't know what to expect from Valentine's Day now. There wouldn't be a party this year. She knew that much. But this year there would be Lucy. Jane had never before had someone in love with her on Valentine's Day. The day was bound to call forth from her some loveress-like impulses.

And this year there was Grace. Jane had never before been in love on Valentine's Day, either. Should she give her a valentine? It seemed to Jane that it would make a mockery out of her feelings to buy Grace one of those dumb, icky-sweet valentines in the card aisle at the supermarket...as if what she felt for Rapunzel could be captured by a card. But was Emily going to give her something? Maybe Jane could make Grace a valentine. That would have a little more meaning, at least, than buying one.

Thursday night she wandered into the family room. Her father was watching a basketball game on cable with headphones, and her mother was reading a mystery novel.

"Um, Mom? You don't have any construction paper, do you?"

"It's in my crafts closet," she said. "Reams of it. What color do you need?"

"Any color," she lied. "Just want to use it for my project."

In the crafts closet, she found a whole packet of red construction paper and took one sheet, hurrying to her room with it so that Caroline wouldn't see. Then she had to go back downstairs to borrow the kitchen scissors. But just as she was about to cut the paper into a big red heart, she realized that she couldn't go through with it. She put the scissors back in the kitchen drawer and hid the red construction paper in the mess of math papers on her desk. What she felt for Ms. Anderson couldn't be put into a homemade valentine, either.

Friday morning came too soon. "Good morning! Happy Valentine's Day!" Mr. Monroe read over the P.A system at the start of homeroom. The principal's cheery words gave Jane a sensation of nameless dread in the pit of her stomach. If her life were a horror movie, this was where the creepy music would begin to play.

On her way to science class, Jane saw Mary. She was wearing red heart-shaped earrings and a sweater with pink hearts embodied in it. Mary was the kind of girl who welcomes the V-day with open arms every year. She had a sheaf of small white envelopes in her hand, obviously valentines. Jane couldn't tell if they were all for Mary or from her—or all snatched away from somebody else.

"Jane," Mary said when she saw her just outside the science room. She sorted through her pile of envelopes. "I have a valentine for you."

Jane took it. Better a valentine from Mary than a valentine from Lucy.

"Guess what?" Mary said, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper again. "She sent it in. Lucy sent in a poem for the contest. Jonas's cousin called him from Washington last night to tell him that it came in the mail yesterday."

Jane paled. She felt sick like when Ms. Reeds accused her of cheating on the report book.

"What kind of poem?" Jane said.

"It wasn't a love poem. It was about birds. I think it was called, 'Snow Bird'. Not that it matters. It's going to win a first prize anyway." Mary laughed snidely.

But the more Jane thought about Lucy's actually entering the contest, actually putting her poem so hopefully into the mail, the worse she felt about herself. Nobody deserved to be laughed at for having a dream.

Ms. Anderson wasn't wearing any special Valentine's Day clothes, but her hair was down. Maybe Jane should have made her a valentine, after all. She wouldn't have had to sign her name to it or anything. She just wanted to give her something. Like a single long-stemmed red rose. Why did this idea pop into her mind so late? Jane sighed. It would just be so perfect for the young teacher to glance down at her desk and find it lying there. Rapunzel would look up then, surprised, and her eyes would search the room, and when they fell on Jane, but Jane would pretend to look at something else.

Jane glanced down at her own desk. A folded sheet of paper lay there, with "To Jane" written on it. It must be from Lucy. When she had passed Jane in the hall on the way to class, she had looked even more intense and strange than usual, if that was possible. Her hair had seemed even wilder.

Quickly Jane stuck the paper, unread, into her backpack, next to Mary's unopened valentine. Who had seen Lucy deliver it? Jonas? Mary? Grace Anderson?

Emily slipped into her seat next to Jane. She leaned towards Jane's desk and whispered, "I bought her a valentine. A real Hallmark valentine. It was costly."

"Did you give it to her yet?"

"I dropped it in her mailbox in the office. There were eleven other valentines there." Eleven dull blows at Jane's heart. "I counted them. And two boxes of Swiss and Italian chocolate."

More than ever, Jane wished she had a rose to give her. She would have been the only rose.

"Good morning!" Ms. Anderson said. If Jane had been blind, she would have loved her for her voice alone. "Today we are going to begin a series of experiments using the bunsen burners on the lab tables at the back of the room. Mr. O'Hara has told me that this will be part of your test, so I want to talk to you for a minute about bunsen burner safety."

The class moved to the lab tables. Jane and Emily grabbed a lab table together in the back row. Mary got stuck with Lucy, right in front of them.

"When we use a bunsen burner, we always wear plastic safety goggles, so please put them on," Ms. Anderson said. Everyone knew that, but nobody minded listening to her giving extra instruction. She picked up a pair and put them on as an example. Everyone else did, too. No one giggled at how anyone else looked in their goggles, because Ms. Anderson looked so smart and beautiful in hers.

"We always use wooden safety matches to light the burners," Ms. Anderson said. She held up a box of wooden matches. "First you strike the match, and then you turn on the gas."

She struck one, held it to the burner, and carefully turned on the gas. A bright flame appeared. In front of Jane, Lucy gave a small gasp as if she had never seen fire before.

Ms. Anderson extinguished her burner, then lit it again.

"Does everyone understand the procedure?" she asked. "All right, I'd like each of you, one at a time, to light your burner for me, so I can check you on to maintain the safety."

Jane heard Lucy say to Mary, "I can't. I've never lit a match before. I can't."

Mary's face screwed in disbelief. "Anybody can light a match."

When Jane's turn came, she lit her burner smoothly. She wished Ms. Anderson had asked her to do something more impressive, like walking barefoot over hot coals. Emily dropped the first match she lit. She gave a forced laugh, which came out more like a squeak. But she managed to light the burner on her second try.

Mary lit her burner. Then it was Lucy's turn. Lucy's hand shook as she struck her match. Nothing happened. She struck it again. This time it burst into flame. As everyone watched, Lucy stood, paralyzed, starting at the burning match between her thumb and forefinger, making no move to turn on the gas.

"Lucy, turn on the gas for your burner," Ms. Anderson said quietly.

"Turn it on, stupid," Mary hissed.

Lucy didn't move. The flame on the match burned closer to her fingers. Still, she stood there, motionless in fear. Jane couldn't take it anymore. She leaned over and blew out the match. Lucy burst into hysterical tears.

"It's all right, Lucy, it's all right," Ms. Anderson said and came to hold her. She sounded shaken herself. Probably nothing in her teacher training at the university had prepared her for Lucy Adams. "When we do our experiments, your lab partner can light your burner. David, you're next. Remember match first, then gas."

Lucy was still crying.

"What an idiot," Mary muttered to anyone who was listening. Jane felt a sudden unexpected pang of pity for Lucy. The rest of the bunsen burners were lit without any mishaps and the experiments began smoothly. Then the class period was finally over.

"Jane," Ms. Anderson called out over the ringing of the bell, "please stay for a minute."

This time Jane didn't ask Emily to wait for her. But Emily did. Jane tried to pretend that Emily wasn't there, lurking outside the science-room door. She turned to Ms. Anderson. No one from the next class had come in yet. The two of them were alone.

"Jane, that was a quick thinking on your part," Ms. Anderson said, looking at Jane like she had just put out the fire from an entire village. "I have to admit that I wasn't expecting anyone to react quite as Lucy did. I should've known that some people have a fear of fire and even other things that seem normal to us."

Jane tried to shrug nonchalantly, but she could feel an idiotic grin spreading across her face.

"Lucy is an unusual but amazing girl," Ms. Anderson went on. "I know that some of the members of our class haven't been particularly kind to her. Thank you, Jane, for not being one of them."

Ms. Anderson smiled at her again. The same smile she gave her on the first day. Jane tried to smile back, but now she wasn't sure if she was worthy of her admiration.

Other students began coming in.

The moment was over.