Harvey's Secret Admirer

Harvey took off his coat and hung it up in his locker, the halls had been decorated with red, white and pink hearts for Valentine’s day and he had half expected some type of card stuffed into his locker, it was empty however. He put his backpack in the locker and only took the books he would need for first and second period out of his bag. He also grabbed a red envelope with the name ‘Jessica’ written on the front of it. His classmates had stopped handing out Valentine’s a couple years ago but he wanted to get Jessica’s attention with a special card. Walking into his classroom, it also had red and white hearts decorating it, his teacher always loved to switch up the design for the holidays. He placed the red envelope on Jessica’s desk, she hadn’t arrived yet which meant he didn’t need to awkwardly hand it to her, some classmates pointed at him and started smiling. He blushed a little and headed to his own seat in the back. He sat in the back of the class with his friends Jaimie and Tom, they were both already sitting down, he also noticed Billy was already here as well.

“Looks like the lover boy finally made it!” Billy announced to the class and nodded to his desk. Sitting on his desk was a red fluffy teddy bear with a pink envelope in it’s lap. Harvey blushed as he saw the stuffed toy.

“Who left that there?” Harvey asked them.

“It was there when we got here.” Tom told him.

Harvey sat down and picked up the envelope, he immediately noticed the envelope was scented with lavender, making him blush even more. He pulled out a glittery card which depicted a cartoon teddy bear with a speech bubble saying ‘Will you be my valentine?’ on it, it was addressed from ‘his secret admirer’.

“So who gave you a new teddy bear?” Billy asked him.

“It doesn’t say, just from a secret admirer.” Harvey told them.

“Well isn’t that cute, are you going to sleep with your new teddy bear then.” Billy teased him.

Harvey looked at the bear, he had a smile on his face and little hearts on his paws. “It’s just a gift for Valentine’s Billy, it sounds like you’re jealous.” He retorted. “Do you think Jessica left this?”

“What are the odds the one girl in the class you brought a Valentine for also got you one, she isn’t even here yet.” Jamie told him.

Harvey frowned a little since he was right, just then Jessica stepped into the room. It was possible that she had come in extra early and placed the gift on his desk before anyone had arrived. Harvey staring at Jessica started thinking about all the different possible ways she could have gotten the gift on his desk.

“Earth to lover boy!” Billy called out. Harvey snapped out of his daydream and looked at Billy. “You’re staring at her!”

Harvey noticed that Jessica didn’t even open the card and chose to slip it inside one of her notebooks instead. “Yeah, sorry about that.”

During class their teacher gave the students an opportunity to exchange gifts in person, both Jamie and Tom had received a few cards from girls in the class. Jamie was excited to receive one from Madison who he is always following around, Tom on the other hand was bored and annoyed Sara didn’t give him one even though he had gotten one for her.

The bell rang and Harvey picked up his books, their teacher had a strict no backpacks in the classroom policy so he placed the bright colored stuffed toy on top of his books, on display for everyone to see. Tom, Jaimie and Billy told him to meet them in the cafeteria while he made sure his new stuffed friend was safe in his locker.

At lunch the four boys were sitting together in the cafeteria, Tom and Jaimie were going on about all the cards they had received earlier. Billy was looking at Harvey and smiling. “Still thinking about Jessica?”

Harvey blushed and averted eye contact. “I was just wondering if she opened my card.” He said.

Billy laughed at him, for some reason Billy always tried to tease Harvey about everything.

The group of boys were approached by members of the student council carrying a tray of Valentine’s Day items, they were raising money for one of their dances.

“Well, well, well Harvey it looks like someone bought you a gift!” Liam from the student council told them. He pulled out a bright orange teddy bear, identical except for the color from the one this morning, then added a large red candy heart and placed it in front of him. Harvey’s cheeks started glowing red at receiving a second teddy bear, this time infront of even more onlookers. “We also have some candies for Tom and Jamie.” Liam started piling more candy hearts in front of them, to their delight.

Harvey picked up the bear and hid it on his lap underneath the table, he looked at the student council and asked. “Who sent me the bear?”

Liam grinned and pulled out a list of names. “It looks like your gift was given by someone who chose to remain anonymous, so a secret admirer, lucky you.” Liam and the council then headed to the next group of people.

Billy was grinning from ear to ear as Harvey sat there abashed, he didn’t even know why he felt embarrassed to receive gifts on Valentines Day. “Looks like you are starting to collect a little bear family!” Billy teased him.

“Yeah, I wonder who keeps sending me these things.” Harvey mumbled shyly.

“Why are you so embarrassed, you shouldn't be, it just means someone likes you! Maybe it’s Jessica, all you do is think about her.” Billy continued trying to embarrass Harvey, which worked as his face started turning red.

Harvey quickly finished lunch and decided to put the second bear in his locker, he would have to shove them in his backpack at the end of the day. Tom, Jamie and Billy all followed him to his locker as Harvey carried his plush bear through the school. Approaching his locker he saw a small crowd of classmates near it, mostly the girls leaning against the lockers. Then he heard a small piano playing, the closer he got he recognized the tune but couldn’t pick out the song, it was a soft romantic melody.

“Hey Harvey, what’s playing in your locker, it’s a cute song!” Jessica asked him who was with Sara and Madison.

“I don’t know, there shouldn’t be anything.” He said confused, then realised he was still holding the bear in front of Jessica and quickly hid it behind him. “Let me open it up.”

Harvey spun his fingers over his lock with muscle memory of the combination and unlocked it and opened it up. He found a small heart shaped box the music was coming from. He looked around at the other six students and turned and blushed.

“This isn’t mine!” Harvey said, holding just the music box and orange teddy bear. The girls and boys all started snickering as someone had clearly pulled a prank on him. Harvey turned off the music and placed that in his locker, when he noticed a third teddy bear sitting on his shelf holding another envelope. He put the orange bear beside the red one from the morning and picked up the new yellow teddy bear and card.

“How many bears have you got now lover boy.” Billy jested, his own cheeks blushed from laughing.

“This is the third one now.” Harvey mumbled. He took the red envelope and placed the yellow bear in a growing plush pile in his locker. He opened the envelope and this time it was a handwritten note, still scented with lavender, it read. ‘You are the music in my heart.’ It was signed by ‘your secret admirer’. Harvey groaned wondering when the day would end.

Harvey gathered his books for the next class and followed the others. Walking into the class the other students started giggling and parted for Harvey to take a look at his desk. Carefully sprinkled on his desk and chair were red rose petals with a green teddy bear sitting on top, he was holding yet another red envelope.

Harvey looked at his classmates. “Who is doing this?” He asked.

Tom and Jamie just shrugged and Billy was too busy giggling. He looked at the girls who were smiling at him, Madison smiles and mockingly says “Whoever it is must really love you!”

Harvey marched over to his desk and grabbed the envelope it read. ‘Roses are red, this teddy is green, want to know who, meet me in the garden unseen’. Harvey stared at it in confusion. “This poem doesn’t make any sense, it’s not even a good poem.” Harvey said sarcastically.

Jessica grabbed the scented card from him and read it over. “I think your secret admirer wants to meet you in the garden.” She told him.

Harvey’s eyes lit up and he smiled. “Oh yeah, how can you be so sure?” he questioned.

Jessica’s check flushed a little pink “Well, it’s obvious isn’t it.” She said, giving him the rose scented card.

The three other boys were smiling at Harvey. “You better clean up your desk, lover boy,” Billy teased him.

Harvey swept all the rose petals into a pile and decided to just toss them in the trash, the green teddy bear sat in front of him for the rest of the class. Harvey’s mind was preoccupied with meeting his secret admirer and kept looking at Jessica, he had a feeling that it must be her who is setting all of this up.

The third period bell rang which meant he needed to get ready for gym, once again he collected his things and headed to his locker and added the green bear to the pile with the other three. He grabbed his gym clothes and followed the other boys to the gym’s boys changing room. Harvey changed quickly and folded his clothes and put them in the changing room cubby. He was relieved that the gym class was just some rounds of volleyball and didn’t involve any Valentines day surprises. His mind would wonder and would end up staring at Jessica too long, that is until a volleyball smacked him in the face.

The teacher eventually blew their whistle dismissing the students from class, this was the last class of the day and Harvey could finally set out and learn who is behind the teddy bears. He followed the boys into the changing room and heard laughter from the group.

“Here he is now! It looks like you got another bear!” Tom shouted at Harvey.

Harvey sighed and stepped into the changing room, sitting on his pile of clothes was a blue teddy bear. “This is getting ridiculous, how am I supposed to fit all of these in my backpack?”

“I’m sure you will figure something out, lover boy!” Billy mocked him.

Harvey grabbed his clothes and the bear and noticed an additional piece, white briefs with red hearts all over it. His face went a deep shade of red and before he could hide them Billy shouted to the other boys “It looks like our lover boy got a new pair of undies”

His classmates all looked at him holding the heart adorned briefs and started laughing and snickering.

“You should put them on!” Billy demanded.

“No way! Why would I do that?” Harvey questioned him.

“Come on, they were a special gift from your secret admirer,” Billy continued. “Put them on! Put them on!” Billy started to rile up the other boys and pretty soon they were all chanting ‘put them on’

“Fine! I’ll were the stupid under wear!” Harvey said, trying to get them to stop. Harvey took off his gym shorts and his blue boxers and stepped into the briefs and pulled them up. “Are you happy?” he said while putting on the rest of his clothes. This was met with so much laughter that their teacher knocked on the door signalling them to calm down. Harvey’s face was beat red as he carried his gym clothes and blue teddy bear back to his locker.

Harvey marched through the halls not waiting for his classmates to catch up and headed for his locker, his face brightly flushed from the change room. The halls were filled with students since the final bell had already rang. As he opened the locker the teddy bears tumbled out of it, to the watchful eye of onlookers some of which giggled a little. Harvey tossed his gym clothes into the locker and pulled out his backpack. He unzipped the bag and started to roughly shove the bears into the bag, he had five total in a rainbow of colors. Only three of the bears actually fit in his backpack even with him cramming them in as hard as he could. He looked around at his classmates watching the scene and they laughed even harder at him.

“Too bad you can’t wear these under your pants as well.” James teased him, the remark causing Tom to giggle.

“Dude just carry them, everyone knows they are yours anyway!” Tom suggested through his toothy grin.

Harvey zipped up his bag and picked up the remaining bears, the blue and red ones. “Yeah you’re probably right.” He closed his locker door and tossed his bag on his shoulders. “I suppose it’s time to find out who my secret admirer is then.”

“Whoever it is has a weird sense of humor.” James mentioned.

“I thought it was hilarious!” Tom interjected.

Harvey quickly walked out of the school with his bulging backpack and a teddy bear under each arm, the cold February air briskly kissed his cheeks as he headed for the school’s garden. The garden was just a few mounds of dirt with a couple benches near it. During the warmer months it was a nice spot to hang out, however there wasn’t much to see in the winter. Harvey sat down on one of the benches and waited for his secret admirer, he was pretty convinced it was Jessica as she was the one who suggested the garden in the first place.

“Hey lover boy.” Harvey heard, he looked up and saw Billy with his hands behind his back.

“What do you want, Billy?” Harvey hissed at him. “I’m waiting for my secret admirer.”

Billy’s cheeks flushed as he revealed from behind his back a purple teddy bear. “Well, that would be me. So what do you say?”.

Harvey was speechless, Billy had been teasing him all day about the gifts and had even got everyone to convince him to put on the new underwear. “W-what?” He stammered.

Billy looked a little annoyed and stepped closer to him and handed Harvey his sixth teddy bear. “Will you be my Valentine?” He said averting eye contact.

Both Billy and Harvey’s faces were rosey red and not from the cold. Harvey finally stood up and looked around, still holding the purple teddy bear. He thought about the day, yes the teddy bears were embarrassing but now seeing the rainbow complete it was a cute gesture.

Harvey took a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll be your Valentine.” he said.

“Thanks lover boy.” Billy started smiling from ear to ear. “Can I walk you home?”

“Yeah but you are carrying the red and blue bear, I’ll take the purple one.” Harvey told him.

Billy and Harvey collected the bears and started to head through the park towards Harvey’s house. After a few moments Harvey reached out his hand to Billy indicating he wanted him to hold it, which he happily took.