Triss and the Not-So-Funny Valentine

“Good morning, Apollo, happy Valentine’s Day!”

In entered my Peophin, Triss. Her sweet, harmonic voice shattered the silence of the morning, but in my home, silence never lasted long.

“You’re up early,” I yawned.

She only smiled, all of her perfectly white teeth showing. “I’m going to school early today to finish up my valentines for the class exchange.”

“Why couldn’t you finish them here?”

“You didn’t buy any of the sparkly stuff like I asked,” she explained, “but it doesn’t matter. There’s plenty of that stuff at school.”

“Okay, I’ll let you leave early, but have something for breakfast first,”

Triss sighed and grabbed an apple. She held it between her teeth and hoisted her stack of unfinished valentines.

“That’s not very lady-like,” I teased.

Triss only rolled her eyes and walked out of the kitchen into the hallway. As she was about to leave the house, she spotted her reflection in the mirror. Never one to overlook her appearance, Triss trotted over to the mirror, took a nibble on her apple, and gazed at herself admiringly.

Her blue complexion gave her a very radiant-like apparel, and her beautifully groomed mane accompanied it like a harmony. Her green eyes were always big and shining; she was told that they were her best feature.

Suddenly, Triss gasped. She had spotted a pimple on her forehead. Carefully, she placed her apple down on the table and shifted her bangs so that they covered it.

Feeling triumphant, Triss smiled back in the mirror. With all of her wonderful white teeth showing, she knew she looked great. The Peophin then tossed her nibbled on apple into the trashcan and exited the house. While whistling the latest M*ynci hit, she trotted to school with her valentine stack in hand.

*****

The back door opened with a creak and shut with a band. Triss came in, all smiles. A valentine box made from a shoebox was overfilled with paper hearts and sugary candies.

“There’s a valentine’s Kiko plushie in there,” stated Triss before I could ask about the exploding shoebox.

Triss headed into the living room, and sat down next to her yellow Moehog brother on the sofa. She set her shoebox down on the coffee table and lay back on the sofa relaxingly.

“They’re from the class’s valentine exchange,” said Triss quite happily referring to the valentines.

Japeth looked up from his book and stared at her. He just nodded without even shifting a glance towards his sister’s valentines. Triss had hoped he would.

Ignoring her humdrum brother, Triss lifted off the top of the box and began to read each of the valentines. Triss, will you be my valentine? Some were more creative, however. Triss, you are the sugar to my sweet tooth. No matter how cheesy they were, each one brought a smile onto the Peophin’s face.

“You’re going to get a visit from the Tooth Faerie if you keep eating all of that candy,” replied Japeth without looking up from his book. Triss would have said something, but her mouth was stuffed with a lime jelly Usul from a valentine. She simply rolled her eyes instead.

Eventually, Triss got down to the very last valentine. Before reading it, Triss glanced at Japeth’s valentines sitting in the corner of the room. He had only received three, not counting the one Triss herself had given him. (They were in the same class.) His were a dull red; hers were pink with laces and sparkles. She felt a rush of pride flow through her. All of the attention she received in small doses each day just exploded on Valentine’s Day. She knew she was the most popular girl in her class, and she loved it.

Dear Trissta, she began to read the last valentine to herself, but paused. How did they know her formal name? Ignoring her curiosity, she began to read it again from the beginning.

Dear Trissta,

You are the biggest star in our classroom, but you’ve got some competition. Do you know what’s bigger? Your pimple today! Haha! Oh, did you get my candy for you? It fits, don’t you think?

Sincerely, Anonymous

Triss paused in shock. An almost gummy rat was taped to the valentine. Were they calling her a rat? “Japeth!” she shouted, “Look at this!”

Japeth gently took the valentine out of his sister’s fidgeting hands. When he finished reading it, he just stared at her with wide eyes.

“It’s awful!” cried Triss despairingly, “I’ve done nothing to deserve this! What have I ever done to anyone?”

Japeth opened his mouth ready to say, “Sure, you’re a little stuck up sometimes…” but decided against it noticing his sister was close to tears. “Who could have done this?” he asked instead.

“I don’t know!” cried Triss, “I got a valentine from everyone in the class, I… I just don’t know…” she was stammering.

“Calm down,” said Japeth quietly. He was trying to comfort poor Triss.

“Calm down?!” shouted the Peophin, “Do you know how hard I’ve worked to get to the high social standards I am?!”

She was right. Believe it or not, neoschool is very socially competitive. Should you phrase a word wrong or do something on accident, your best friend forever can become your greatest enemy. It was hard to tell who was being true and who was faking it. Triss had worked very hard to become socially secure about herself only for a valentine to bring her down like a rock.

Triss’s lip began to quiver and a single tear rolled down her face. She muttered something, but it was covered by the sound of her own sobbing.

“Please,” repeated Japeth, “try to calm down. Whoever did this probably just realized how dumb that they really are.”

She would have exploded on him but his voice was comforting to her. His gentle smile made her feel better. Triss closed her eyes and hugged Japeth.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you...”

Japeth sighed, “A lot better…”

*****

“Figure out who sent you that valentine yet?” asked Bryce, my blue Gelert. He was sitting in a chair around the kitchen table with a smug smile.

“Nope,” answered Triss as she came down the stairs into the kitchen. “Hey, how did you know about the valentine? I didn’t tell anyone…”

Her voice trailed off as Bryce slid Triss’s dairy across the table. “You little sneak…”

Bryce only smiled. “I’m the oldest. I know more about this house than anyone. That includes the location of your diary. I also know where Cairo’s, Japeth’s, Kaori’s…”

“Japeth has a diary?” asked Triss. She sounded intrigued.

“Yeah, but he prefers to call it a journal. Everyone in this house has a dairy, except Kolton, because he’s too dumb to write.” Bryce paused. “Look under his bed if you want to read it. There’s something about the valentine…”

Triss dashed up the steps and to her brother’s room. She reached her hoof under his bed and felt around for the dairy. She grabbed it, raced to her room and shut the door.

Triss opened the book and flipped through dozens of pages while sitting on top of her bed. Triss then saw the last entry that Japeth had written.

Dear Journal,

Well, now I’ve done it. Triss is upset and it’s entirely my fault. I don’t know what came over me. Remember yesterday when I told you I’d play a trick on Triss for fun? Well, I pulled it off, only it wasn’t so funny. She got so sad over my “funny valentine” that I couldn’t bring myself to tell her it was me. I realized that I didn’t do it for fun though; I did it out of jealously. Triss has so many friends and I barely have any. I just thought it would make me fell better about myself. I guess just sometimes she’s a little mean and selfish…

“Triss,” Japeth called as he opened Triss’s bedroom door. Startled, the Peophin closed the journal and sat on it. Japeth took a step into the room.

“Listen,” Japeth said looking down, “about that valentine…”

“Yes,” said Triss cutting him off, “about that valentine. You see, I appreciated it. Japeth shot her a puzzled glance but she continued. “If I would have been nicer to one person, just that one person, I wouldn’t have gotten that valentine. I need to learn to be less self-aware and care about others. I shouldn’t be thinking so much about myself, and be nicer to everyone, not just people that will help my appearance.”

Japeth look a little confused, but Triss sensed that he was secretly relieved.

“So,” said Japeth, “now that the valentine is settled, do you want to get some pizza? I’ll buy!”

Triss suddenly remembered the journal. “Erm… no thanks, I think I’ll just sit here for a while…”

Author's Note: This story was my first story ever written about O_Trissta_O on my second account. I would really enjoy feedback so I may get another story in again.