Jennifer Valentine

Written by: Lillie

The Greatest Story Ever Told is one of the latest contests to hit the No Nutritional Value board. Contestants are given requirements for each Chapter and must write an original short story fitting those requirements. All in the hopes of writing 'The Greatest Story Ever Told.'

The critics then review, anonymously, and rate each story out of 10. The person with the lowest rating is then eliminated from the contest, while the person with the highest rating gets their story published in the Pink Ink for all to see!

There are some fantastic writers on PPT and this is a chance for them to shine, I hope you come along and read their efforts here, and be sure to keep an eye out for future entries in the Pink Ink!

The challenge for the contestants was to write a story based around Valentines Day. It had to be under 3,000 words and contain at least 3 named characters of which they must be human.

The winning story this round was by Lillie.

Jennifer Valentine

Jennifer Valentine.

She was, to Jason's mind, the most beautiful girl in the whole school. In a school of about a thousand students, that would be roughly five hundred girls. He pounded along the deserted hallways towards Jenn's form room. It was after school now. It wasn't bad to be prettier than four hundred and ninety-nine other girls, he thought. The best thing about it all was that Jennifer never seemed to know this. She acted like all the other girls -- no, she was better. General opinion was that Jennifer was a nice girl, with a sense of humour and a kind, sweet heart. No wonder so many boys had a crush on her.

He did too. He was even going to give her a Valentine. At least five other boys had given her valentines already and she had accepted them all with a laugh and good grace, but explained that she was not allowed to date by her parents. Everyone knew this, so it hadn't been a big deal and she was still friends with them. Jason hadn't been planning on giving her a card as he was afraid of rejection, but when Jennifer's best friend gave a knowing smile and said, "Why not?" he thought, "Why not indeed?" The card he had made was little more than a white piece of folded paper with a note scribbled inside in red ink. He had managed to nick the red pen off somebody. Now he was going to give this to Jennifer. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but he knew he wanted to do this very much. As he hurried along, he spotted Marion by her locker. Skidding to a halt, he changed directions and headed towards her.

"Have you seen Jennifer?" Jason asked Marion, who was looking through her locker for something. A loud rustling ensued and it seemed that Marion hadn't heard, as she increased her rummaging at a vigourous pace. "Marion!"

Without turning around, Marion practically stuck her head inside, still searching earnestly for whatever she was looking for. "Have you seen Jenn?" Jason asked again patiently. There was a pause and then Marion gave a muffled "No."

"Oh, alright then." He was about to turn and walk away when Marion posed a question. "Why are you looking for her anyway?"

A rosy smile broke across Jason's face. "I'm giving her a valentine."

Marion said nothing at first. She was looking at something near the back of her locker, and then she turned around to face him. Jason was taken aback; he took a slight step backwards. Marion's face and general apperance shocked him. She had glistening eyes and a white face, with two tiny, bright red spots on her cheekbones. He had never seen her like this before and he wondered if she was very ill, but before he could ask, she started hissing.

"It's always Jennifer this, Jennifer that," Marion snapped. "What is it about Jennifer that you keep going on and on about her? She's nothing special! She's not good enough for you! She'll reject you and hurt you, or she'll pretend to be your girlfriend and cheat on you! What is there to like about her?"

Jason coloured bright red himself. What right did Marion have to be so mean about his Jennifer? What right did she have to accuse her of all these things? He realised, with a start, that he had just thought of Jennifer as "his". Until now he had never thought he had been good enough for Jenn, but today he wanted to give it a shot anyway. Jenn was a nice girl; she wouldn't hurt his feelings. Now feeling guilty and embarrassed for having thought of her as his own, Jason turned quite purple with rage at himself and at Marion.

Struggling to control himself, he finally found his tongue. "You have no right to say any of that," he said in a low, cold tone. The red spots in Marion's cheeks began to subside and a look of guilt passed across her face. Without stopping to ask her how she was anymore, Jason spun around on his heel and walked rapidly away, intent on searching the rest of the school for Jennifer.

He was, essentially, walking out of Marion's life and friendship, and they both knew it. He was never going to be more than civil to her again, not after what she said about both him and Jennifer. He had never thought that Marion was like that.

Jennifer would never do that, Jason thought, Jennifer's too kind to say that.

Jennifer Valentine.

It was all her fault, Marion thought bitterly, as she slammed her locker door shut. All Jennifer Valentine's fault for breaking up the friendship that Marion and Jason had had. If Valentine had never come onto the scene, everything would be perfect between the two of them.

She scooped up her bag, having taken nothing from her locker as she hadn't been looking for anything except maybe a way out of this situation. She hadn't wanted Jason to see her cry. Well, he wasn't around now, so it would be alright to cry.

So she did.

With tears falling down her face, Marion ran out the back entrance to the school, cursing Jennifer all the way.

Marion had known Jason ever since kindergarten. They had been the best of friends, or as close as a boy and a girl can get without being teased by their other friends. They'd remained great friends all the way through the different years of school until now. They'd been there for each other through thick and thin, through the time that no one wanted to be friends with Marion because of a false rumour and the time that Jason had got so sick he couldn't go to school. They'd been the only ones there for each other. No one could understand Jason as well as she could, Marion knew. But Jason didn't seem to realise this.

Ever since Jennifer Valentine had come to town, Jason, as well as the rest of the boys in the year, had been besotted with the soft-spoken, fragile-looking girl. She hadn't received immediate attention, but somehow or other, she had rapidly become popular. Marion didn't even know what was so great about Valentine. She wasn't anything special, with brown hair and brown eyes, and a too frequent smile. Looks are deceiving, boys, Marion thought bitterly. She's nothing like the angel you think she is.

Marion knew that Jennifer wasn't what she seemed to be. She was an attention-seeking girl who happened to look good. Well, good for you Jenn! Marion yelled at her silently as she stormed across the car park. You've stolen countless girls' boyfriends! It was true that Jennifer had not actually dated anyone since everyone knew her parents wouldn't allow it, but it was also true that many boys had dumped their girlfriends, only to reveal later that they had a crush on Jennifer Valentine. Why, Jennifer had received ten valentines today. Ten! While Marion had received none.

But worst of all, Jason was in love with Jennifer. Marion didn't even know when the two had become friends, but it was probably Jennifer who had bemused the boy and cast a spell over him. Witch. Ever since then, Jason had been drifting farther away from Marion and closer to Jennifer. Now Jennifer had all the friends she could possibly want and Marion -- Marion had no one. The one person she really cared about was never going to be hers again. He was going to give Jennifer a valentine. Marion usually found a valentine from Jason in her locker, but she had checked it every breaktime today and found nothing. It was when Jason had told her that he was giving Jennifer a valentine that she understood: he had forgotten about her. She hated Jason for forgetting; he knew how much it hurt her that she never got a real Valentine. She didn't want Jennifer to take Jason away from her. She wanted to hurt him, because she had been hurt. But the person she really wanted to hurt was Jennifer, not Jason.

It was all Jennifer Valentine's fault.

I wish, Marion closed her eyes tightly, I wish Jennifer was dead.

Jennifer Valentine.

How she hated that name right now. When she was younger she really did hate it because people were always teasing her and making jokes about it. Worst of all was when Valentine's Day came around. It was the peak of teasing. She remembered how often she had cried when people had said, "Will you be my valentine? Oh, but you're already a Valentine! You don't need one!" It was only later that she had learned to forgive her father for having such a name. It was also around the time people had stopped teasing and started admiring the unique quality of the name.

Today was not one of those days. First of all, it was Valentine's Day. She had received twenty valentines, but none of them were from the one boy she really liked. Secondly:

"Jennifer Valentine, eh?" the examiner had winked at her. "Be my valentine?"

Of all things, to have the examiner ask you to be his valentine on the day of your driving exam. What were you supposed to say without offending him and thus failing the exam? Somehow or other, Jennifer had managed to wriggle her way out of this situation, but she did wish that examiners weren't so prone to asking awkward questions. She had passed, thankfully. Apart from receiving valentines, she had received many congratulations when she went back to school in the afternoon after the exam. It was a relief to have it over with, but she elected to walk home. She didn't feel like she could handle a car right now.

In her bag were all the gifts she had been given, carefully packed. It was nice to be cared for, she reflected. It was really a very lovely feeling. However, she knew that many girls had not been too happy about this, especially the one called Marion, who seemed to avoid her like the plague. Jennifer didn't understand what Marion had against her; she had never even spoken to her yet. She had once tried to, but Marion had walked right away before Jennifer had so much as opened her mouth. In the end, she had simply kept out of Marion's way so that Marion wouldn't have to trouble herself by taking detours all the time. All the same, Jennifer praised herself on the fact that she had managed to hide half of the valentines she had received. At least there would be less resentment.

Only I wouldn't mind in the least if all the other girls had these boys, Jennifer thought. I only want Jason's.

Jason was a wonderful friend. He was one of the first friends Jennifer had had when she first arrived in school, still timid and unsure of herself in a new place. Jason had taken her under his wing and looked after her, showing her around school so thoroughly that she knew her way around within a week. They had become fast friends and he was really one of the most wonderful guy friends she had. He was, to her mind, the best guy she had ever met.

And he didn't seem to care for her in any way other than as friends. Jennifer didn't dare jeopardise the relationship by telling Jason how she felt, as her new best friend had suggested her to. He might no longer want to be her friend and avoid her. She didn't think she could take it if he was going to avoid her.

I wish he wouldn't avoid me, she sighed as she headed towards the bus stop, and I wish he loved me.

Jennifer! he thought, running towards the brown-haired girl. Having searched the whole school, he had not found her. Here she was.

He glanced quickly around the road -- no cars. He raced across. The girl turned around. It wasn't her. He stopped dead in his tracks.

Jennifer!

Did someone call me? Jenn turned around, but saw nothing. She looked ahead and saw Jason running across the middle of the road. Her heart leaped when she saw him. He stopped suddenly and stood staring. Then her heart stopped too.

A car, evidently speeding.

Jennifer!

Wasn't that Jason? Marion's head jerked up. She had been walking in the park near the bus station when she thought she heard his voice.

She saw the car hit him. He fell. He didn't get up again.

Running towards him, the two girls had only one thought in their mind. "Jason!" Jennifer cried out, at the same time Marion did. Marion stopped, hearing Jennifer's voice. She found she could no longer move, even though she wanted to. Somehow, she knew it was no use her being there. Some pedestrians came running towards them, some of them calling for the ambulance on their mobile phones.

I didn't want to hurt you, I didn't want you to die, she thought wildly. It was supposed to be Jennifer, not you.

Jennifer slipped her hand around his. He was holding a note tightly in his hand. With the other hand, she extracted it and read it. It was addressed to her.

Dear Jennifer V,

Will you be my Valentine?

Jason

That was when Jennifer cried.

Later on, they found the note in his pocket.

Dear Marion,

I know you don't like Jenn, but I wish you would be friends. Happy Valentine's Day! I know someone who's dying to give you a valentine, but he's a wuss. Don't worry. I'll get him to send you one by next year!

Jason

That was when Marion cried.