The Valentine's Surprise

The Valentine's Surprise is the nineteenth episode of Sodor High School: Thomas and Friends Tales.
==Synopsis==
With Valentine's Day approaching, Thomas wonders whether he should ask Emily to be his valentine.
==Plot==
It's a few days before Valentine's Day, and Sodor High has been decorated with red and pink heart-shaped decorations. As Emily expresses her love of the holiday to Thomas, a yellow-haired girl shares Emily's joy as she sets up some streamers. The girl introduces herself as Flora, whom Emily remembers is the name of Toby's younger sister. After the girls exchange plesantries, Flora greets Thomas saying it's the first time they've spoken in a year. They tell Emily about how during the one year anniversary of Great Waterton's re-opening, Flora had sprained her ankle during the marching band's practice runs so Thomas assisted her while she played during the parade. After thanking Thomas again for helping her, Flora departs to put up more decorations while Thomas and Emily head to lunch.
Later at the Brighton home, Emily is laying on her 'temporary' bed thinking about Valentine's Day when Annie and Clarabel walk into her room and question her until she snaps out of her thoughts. She asks where Thomas is and the girls say he went to Victor's shop to prep his bike for spring. When the girls ask what she was thinking about, Emily tells them that for her, past Valentine's Days were lonely since she didn't have friends to spend them with, her parents being wealthy enough to hire a private tutor and homeschool her. That changed when she got enrolled in Sodor High and met all of her friends, with Clarabel noting the irony in Thomas being Emily's first friend and always wearing a shirt with #1 on it. Emily proceeds to say how happy she's been since she met Thomas and looks forward to spending the holiday with him, hastily saying "and the rest of my friends too" when Annie and Clarabel give her strange looks.
At Victor's shop, Thomas talks with Oliver and Percy while Victor fixes up his bike. Oliver tells the others about his visit to the Bluebell Railway and seeing the engines Stepney and Bluebell when a loud noise emits due to Kevin dropping a crate while moving them. Victor explains what occurred to the boys before telling Thomas his bike will be ready once he put new chains on it. The boys start to talk about the Valentine's Day dance, Percy saying he's going with Molly and Oliver surprising the others by revealing Rosie asked him out despite her attraction to Thomas being well-known. Oliver then asks who Thomas is going with, but Percy corrects the question to "will Thomas be going at all", given how he stays home every year. Kevin passes by openly wondering if he'll go with Emily, which leaves Thomas unresponsive and looking away from Percy and Oliver until Victor brings out his bike, and Thomas walks out of the shop. Percy and Oliver chuckle, figuring Thomas was blushing and confirming he has feelings for Emily, hoping they go to the dance together.
That evening while Thomas slept, he dreams of dancing with a long-haired girl whose face was hidden behind a mask. When Thomas asks for her name, she says he already knows who she is. Thomas questions if it's Emily but before she can answer, a metal claw comes out of nowhere and takes the girl away. The claw belongs to Diesel 10, who taunts Thomas for failing to protect Sir Topham Hatt's daughter before knocking him down with his claw hand. Raising his claw, Diesel delivers the final blow, and that's when Thomas wakes up in a cold sweat, wondering what his nightmare meant. Emily enters the room to check up on him and he explains his dream to her, assuring her he's okay and apologizing for waking her, which she brushes off. After a bit of silence, Thomas plucks up courage and asks Emily to the dance as his date, which she accepts. Emily heads out to return to bed winking at Thomas before exiting the room, Thomas smiling before he goes back to sleep.
A couple of days later, Emily, Annie and Clarabel go off to buy some Valentine's Day cards while Thomas hang outs with Toby and Percy at the arcade. When he gets there, he only finds Toby since Percy's gotten the flu again. Thomas hopes he gets better before tomorrow night, or else Molly is going to be disappointed. They talk about their attending the dance and Toby questions why Thomas is taking Emily instead of Rosie due to how close they were becoming to him. Thomas firmly says they're just friends but when Toby asks if it's the same for Emily, he falls silent. Toby apologizes for overstepping boundaries, and Thomas accepts it before saying Emily's just a friend as well.
Next morning, Thomas comes out of his room to find a small box of chocolates and Valentine's Day cards to the left side of his door. Two identical cards he knows are from Annie and Clarabel and one is Emily's, which says 'To My Valentine, Love Emily', making him smile. As if on cue, Emily walks out of her 'temporary' room and wishes Thomas a happy Valentine's Day before going downstairs to make breakfast for everyone. Once she does, Annie and Clarabel exit their room and Thomas thanks them for the cards and chocolate, but they say the chocolate is from Emily.
In the kitchen, Emily is about to start cooking when someone knockks on the door. Before she can answer it, Thomas reminds her that they have to be careful and goes to open the door himself. To their relief, it's Percy and they invite him for breakfast. After they finish and start eating, Thomas mentions Percy having the flu, to which the green-haired boy says he recovered fast and will be keeping tissues on hand for the dance just in case. Once they finish eating and Thomas and Emily di the dishes, all the teens catch their bus and head to school.
The school day seemed to drag on for the students, but at three in the afternoon, everyone eagerly rushed home to get ready for the dance. Upon arrival Emily immediately searched through her 'temporary' closet for her red dress and and matching high-heels, one of many kinds of formalwear she bought between Christmas and New Year's Eve. Thomas, on the other hand, was going to wear his dark blue suit. Once Thomas and Emily are ready (and they take the time to compliment how the other looks), they get their coats and boots on and head for the dance.
After arriving at the school, the two teen enter the gym and were amazed by all the decorations. Most of their friends were already dancing, but Emily can't find James and assumes he didn't come until Thomas spots him with Henry and Gordon. Soon, Thomas and Emily find Percy while he's dancing with Molly. They both can tell he's nervous and when they ask him after the song's over, Emily pulls Molly aside to talk while Percy speaks with Thomas about worrying he'll make a fool of himself in front of Molly. Thomas assures him that he just needs to be confident that he won't mess up, and this is enough to help him. Once Percy and Molly are back on the dance floor, Thomas and Emily follow suit, spending the entire night dancing to almost every song.
When they returned home, they were exhausted and immediately went to bed. As Thomas slept, he dreams of dancing with the same masked girl again, but this time Diesel 10 doesn't appear; instead, the girl kisses Thomas on the lips and thanks him for giving her a Valentine's Day to remember. When Thomas wakes up, he says to himself that was a good dream before returning to bed. What Thomas doesn't know is that the kiss was real, Emily having entered his room and actually given him a kiss. The emerald-haired girl is stunned and flustered by what she did, but is unable to admit her feelings for her friend out loud yet, so she quietly returns to her room.
==Characters==
* Thomas 
* Emily 
* Percy 
* Toby
* Annie and Clarabel 
* Oliver 
* Victor 
* Kevin 
* Flora 
* James (does not speak)
* Molly (does not speak)
* Gordon (cameo)
* Henry (cameo)
* Diesel 10 (dream sequence)
* Rosie (mentioned)
* Sir Topham Hatt (mentioned)
* Mavis (mentioned)
* Lady Hatt (mentioned)
* Brad (mentioned)
* Stepney (mentioned)
* The Collet family
** Mr. Collet (mentioned)
** Mr. Collet (mentioned)
==Cast==
==Trivia==
* This episode serves as the Valentine's Day episode of the series.
* Emily kisses Thomas for the first time but because he was asleep, he assumes it was a dream.
Category:Thomas and Friends
Category:Sodor High School
Category:Episodes
Category:Fan Fiction