The days following their defeat of floor three went by in a blur. Alex apparently wasn’t kidding about the nightmares because Ethan was woken up more than once by his roomate violently yelling in his sleep. Aside from that hiccup though things were going smoothly for Ethan.

He felt his school work was showing him in a much better light this semester and he even was doing a better job of putting up with Ms. Phelen’s constant need to put him down in front of the rest of the class. Sure he had the occasional fantasy about punching her in the face but that was hardly indicative of Ethan becoming a terrible person. Who wouldn’t have those fantasies with the amount of abuse she gave to him.

The Diving Club briefly checked out the fourth floor last Sunday before ultimately deciding to take the day off. It’s not that it looked atrocious by any means, it’s just that they weren’t all that motivated currently.

Alex was still reliving the terror of the third floor everytime his mind wasn’t occupied and Bella and Ethan were mentally exhausted. The dungeon didn’t just push you physically but mentally as well. How many times were they going to come close to death before finally getting killed by the place?

The Black hadn’t been seen in months and it was beginning to feel like the whole ordeal with James and the Black was part of a different lifetime. Whatever the Black was doing, it certainly wasn’t threatening the kids at school because everything seemed normal. Well as normal as the town of Misty Oaks ever got.

Ethan was far to preoccupied with the coming holiday to put too much thought into the dungeon. Valentine’s day was only a couple days away and lately he felt more confident with Jenny. They’d spoken amicably a few times in Computer Science and she even laughed at some of his lame jokes. He was hopeful she’d forgotten his whole getting beaten by Stewart and that maybe if he played his cards right she’d want to spend some time with him on Valentine’s day.

For most of his life, Ethan hated Valentine’s day. Actually, he still hated the fake, commercial holiday, but this year perhaps it could serve a purpose by bringing Ethan and Jenny together. With her blonde hair and her beautiful face she looked like she belonged in a hollywood movie to Ethan. Admittedly she was way out of his league, but if he was going to aim for something he might as well aim high.

Still he hadn’t quite figured out how to broach the subject with her. Should he just walk up to Jenny and ask her out? Maybe he should buy her a Valentine’s day card or some chocolate? What if she shot him down again? He didn’t think his reputation on campus could stand another hit like that. He still occasionally overheard the story of his beatdown after all.

“Let’s see who was paying attention during the lecture,” Mr. Darnell said in the delighted tone he always used when discussing history. “What was the name of the telegram that helped in pushing the United States towards entering World War I? Let’s see… Mr. Russell how about you?”

What if he bought her some flowers? Girls liked flowers right? Ethan didn’t quite get the attraction of them. Sure they were pretty to look at for like a second but what purpose did they serve? Still men bought flowers for women all the time and women seemed to like it. No that’s not an option, he thought sighing. He had no money after all.

“Mr. Russell?” Darnell asked louder with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Ethan bolted upright as his name finally registered in his brain.

“Yes sir,” he said more stiffly and louder than he’d intended.

“Well, do you have an answer for me?” Mr. Darnell asked his eyes glinting with mischief now.

Scrambling Ethan racked his brain trying to find the question, but it was like looking for a book on an empty bookshelf, completely pointless.

Finally after a few moments he said, “I’m sorry sir, I wasn’t paying attention, can you repeat the question,” Ethan asked with embarrassment in his voice.

“Now what would have a young history buff like yourself daydreaming in my class instead of paying attention,” Mr. Darnell asked fingering his chin. “It wouldn’t happen to be a certain holiday coming up in a couple of days would it?”

Ethan blushed furiously in response to this. God why was Darnell so perceptive. He wished he could just disappear right now.

“Oh ho, so that is it,” Darnell said smiling. “There must be a lucky lady out there, perhaps even in this class. Well in honor of Mr. Russell’s soon to be excellent love life let’s go off topic and talk about Valentine’s day. Contrary to popular belief it was not in fact created by Hallmark. February 14th is the feast day of St. Valentine or Valentinus of Rome. He was a martyr of the early Catholic Church known for marrying early christians who were persecuted in rome at that time. Among the many legends about him is one where he is said to have healed a blind woman. Can anyone tell me, for five points of extra credit who is rumored to have sent the first “Valentine’s Card”?”

Ethan had no idea, but more than that, he was just happy that the conversation moved past his love live and back to history even if it was focused on Valentine’s day still.

As usual Alex’s hand shot up.

“Yes Mr. Ishida,” Darnell said pointing at him.

“St. Valentine himself is said to have sent the first Valentine on the eve of his execution,” Alex stated. “The legend says he sent it to the very woman who’s eyes he healed and signed it Your Valentine. Though, I should add that this is likely a myth.”

“Correct as usual Mr. Ishida,” Darnell said delighted. “And yes it is likely an embellishment, but a fun one if I say so myself.”

“You’re lucky Darnell is so cool and likes you,” Alex said as the two of them walked back together after class. “I know for a fact that some of the other teachers would not take so kindly to your daydreaming about Jenny.”

“Oh shut up,” Ethan said. “I just wasn’t paying attention.”

“Whatever you say,” Alex replied with a knowing smile.

The campus bookstore, like any good business, saw an opportunity and sold cards, chocolate, flowers, and other Valentine’s day gifts in the lead up to Sunday. On Saturday morning Ethan briefly considered stopping in to get a card for Jenny, but what would he right? Ultimately he was deterred by his own indecision and the line that stretched across the walkway almost to the dining hall.

He paid about as much attention in Biology that morning as he did in History but with worse results. As much as Thorton liked him, and Ethan was pretty sure he liked Ethan a lot, Thorton was not one to put up with inattentive students like Darnell. He snapped at Ethan and ultimately assigned him so much extra homework, Ethan was worried he’d spend the entire weekend working on it.

P.E. didn’t go much better. Sure, it was easier to get away with not paying attention especially when you normally excelled at the subject. Rockfort also usually spent much of her time trying to coax Gavin into giving more of an effort and failing.

Today the were playing flag football in the gym which wasn’t Ethan’s favorite game to begin with but with less than a day left before Valentine’s day his heart really wasn’t in it. Lee was playing quarterback while Ethan and most of the rest of the team ran routes as receivers. Unsurprisingly, but unfortunately Lee passed the ball to Ethan who reacted instinctively and caught it before turning to run towards the end zone.

He was met and leveled by the destructive force of nature that was Quin. Instead of grabbing one of the two flags around his waist she straight up tackled him driving him down into the solid hardwood below. Smooshed between Quin on top of him and the unyielding floor he felt like he’d run into a brick wall.

His face smacked the hardwood briefly causing him to drop the ball and grab for his nose which he was pretty sure was bleeding. His shoulders and chest ached from the impact and he was all but certain he would have some nice bruises by tomorrow.

Ethan cursed Quin in his head with a few choice words that would have made his mother blush. Honestly he wasn’t proud of it, but he was pissed at her. He felt like his eyes were going as red as the blood dripping out of his nose. Why couldn’t freaking Quin just play normally? Why did she always have to hit him as hard as possible?

A whistle blew and Rockfort came running over yelling, “Quincy Phillips to the bleachers now. This is flag football not tackle. Unbelievable. Up now, get off of him.”

Ethan felt her weight get off of him and heard Gavin yell, “Fatality. Xena pulls off her trademark face smash and now all that’s left of Ethan are a few lumps of flesh and a--.”

“Stow it Lloyd,” Rockfort snapped before asking more gently, “Russell are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Ethan said after sitting up. “Just will be a little sore.”

“Damn it, you’re nose is bleeding,” Rockfort said sighing. “Tavarez take Russell to the nurse please.”

“Ethan, can you get to your feet or do you need some help?” Bella asked him a moment later.

“I’m fine, I can stand,” Ethan said annoyed. “It’s just a nosebleed. It's no big deal.”

Standing up he glared around the room before staring at Quin for a second. She looked a little remorseful but he wasn’t about to forgive her that easily. In fact if she wasn’t a girl he’d have gone over and punched her right in the face.

“Come on Bella, let’s go,” he muttered turning and walking angrily towards the exit.

“Ethan, wait up,” Bella said jogging to keep up with him. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m fine,” he replied stubbornly.

The two of them walked in silence the rest of the way to the nurses office. He wasn’t mad at Bella and part of him knew that but he just couldn’t bring himself to say anything that wasn’t mean to her so he kept his mouth shut. She must have realized this too because she didn’t try to make conversation but just settled for the angry silence that emanated around her friend.

“Ah, my favorite customer,” Ms. Watanabe said upon seeing Ethan walk into the nurses office with his bloody nose. “What have you done now?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Ethan said sourly. “Someone tackled me in the gym.”

“Well come on let’s get you patched up,” she said guiding him back into the office proper.

He came back ten minutes later with two circular pieces of gauze sticking out of his nose and a left eye well on it’s way to turning black. If he’d been worried before about how Jenny would react to him, he now knew that she would be disgusted just by looking at him.

“Feel better?” Bella asked standing up from her chair in the waiting room and smiling at him.

“No,” Ethan replied narrowing his eyes at her. “I look like I got into a fight with a raccoon and lost.”

“Oh come on you’ve got that whole appealing tough guy look going on,” Bella said in a tone that betrayed her words.

She was trying to be nice and deep down Ethan appreciated that, but it wasn’t exactly helping him feel better. His mood was now as bad as his face looked and all he was going to do for the rest of the day and the next day was going to hide in his dorm room and play video games. Hopefully he’d have healed some by Monday.

“Do you want to get lunch?” Bella asked him still trying to cheer him up.

“No, I’m not hungry,” he replied dismissively.

“Want me to try and find out how Jenny feels about you?” Bella asked smiling at him.

“No don’t do that,” Ethan answered quickly with part of him panicking.

“Why not?” Bella asked. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Just don’t okay,” Ethan snapped at her. “What would she want with an ugly shipper like me anyways? I’m going back to my dorm, I’ll see you later.”

“Ethan wait,” Bella called running out the door after him.

He didn’t stop. In fact he picked up his pace almost running across the quad on his way to Salamander House. He expected her to call after him again, but she didn’t. Either she wasn’t fast enough or finally figured out that he wanted to be left alone.

Upon reaching his dorm he slammed the door shut and collapsed in a chair in front of the TV. Grabbing the disk to a fighting game he slide it into Alex’s new console and booted it up. He needed to take his anger out on something and figured this game might be a good place to vent his frustrations.

For the next few hours Ethan was soundly beaten again and again by his computerized opponents. He felt like he should be getting frustrated and pissed off but the beatdowns were oddly therapeutic and took his mind off of the stupidity from that morning.

Finally relaxing, he realized he wasn’t even that mad at Quin. Yes, she needed to stop trying to overpower him in every sport that wasn’t soccer but it’s not like she was trying to hurt him. Hell, Quin probably saved him from embarrassing himself with Jenny anyways. She’d never be interested in someone like him anyways.

He should also apologize to Bella and try not to take his frustrations out on her. She was a good friend and only tried to help. She shouldn’t have to take the brunt of his bad moods. He needed to get better at controlling his anger and not lashing out at those around him.

The door clicked behind him and he turned to see Alex walking in smiling.

“Wow, she took it that poorly did she?” he asked laughing.

“Shut up,” Ethan said throwing a controller at him and cracking a grin.

He caught it and dropped his backpack near his bed before pulling up the other chair.

“I mean I knew she was out of your league, but I didn’t expect her to beat you,” Alex said still grinning, “though it could be worse.”

“Oh yeah?” Ethan asked sardonically. “How could it be worse?”

“She could have turned into a giant freaking spider and tried to eat you,” Alex replied like it was obvious.

“That’s actually a good point,” Ethan said laughing, “though you know Jenny didn’t do this to me.”

“I know, and they are still replaying it out there,” Alex said shrugging. “Gavin had Quin using a couple baseball bats on you in his version before he left. Quin actually looks a bit embarrassed about the whole thing, which is an odd look for her. Wow you suck worse at this game than you do at the other one.”

He said the last part after finally noticing the stats on the screen near Ethan’s health.

“You’re just such a good friend,” Ethan muttered sarcastically shaking his head.

“No need to tell me things I already know,” Alex retorted. “Now back out to the main screen so I can jump on.”

Ethan did as he was told allowing Alex to jump on as the opposing fighter which turned out to make the game even more difficult. If he thought the computer was tough, Alex was on a whole different level. How in the hell did he get so good at this?

Finally after about thirty minutes Alex sighed and paused the game.

“I was going to give you this as a reward for beating me, but I think we’ve officially verified that that’s never going to happen,” Alex said pulling out a pink envelope. “It was by the door with your name on it. I think you might have a chance with her after all.”

Grabbing the envelope gingerly, Ethan held it like it was the most precious thing in the world. Freaking Bella must have talked to her, Ethan thought staring at his name on the front. It was unmistakably his and written in neat block handwriting.

After a few seconds Alex asked, “Are you going to open it? Because if not, I’ll unpause the game.”

Slowly, ever so carefully Ethan slide his finger under the seal and began working the envelope opened. Inside there was just a single piece of stationery with the same neat block writing on it.

Dearest Ethan,

His hair is red,

His face will turn blue,

He’s waiting down on five,

He’ll be dead soon without you.

Sincerely,

Your Football Buddy

Ethan’s heart which had already been in his throat as he opened the letter rose even higher, but this time for completely different reasons.

Rereading the poem several times he finally started to feel the panic when he said, “Alex, you need to read this.”