Justin and Bethany (a short story)

Before we begin, this story takes place in Narnia High, before the Exchange Student Program with EAH. It was written by the weird awkward one.

Bethany hated this day; Valentines Day. Who makes a day to spellebrate love, anyways? Then again, that meant their would be a lot of romance novels on sale at all of her favorite bookstores.

Still not worth it though. Everyone being all lovey-dovey was driving her nuttier than Walt Nut the squirrel. And the worse part was, Bethany wasn't even brave enough to tell Him how she felt.

Justine liked Valentines Day. Couples meant gifts, gifts meant cards, and cards meant people would buy homemade ones from him. But he wished he didn't have to spend it alone with only his paint to keep him company.

Right now, he was making a card for Walt Nut to give to his girlfriend, Hazel Tree, another squirrel. Once again, he glanced at the card he had made earlier in the week. On the front, was a badger. She was barely peeking over the edge of a book, but you could tell she was smiling. On the inside, it read , '*I can read you like a book, so won't you be mine? Love your Valentine' .*

Justine had spent so much time working on it, but he knew he wouldn't have the guts to give it to the one it was meant for.

"Please don't tell me you're going to write **I'm nuts for you** on there," a quiet voice said. Justin looked up and saw clever black eyes behind silver reading glasses.

"Oh, hey, Macbeth," Justine said, trying not to fidget. He always got nervous when She was around. "And seriously? I've got more than an ounce of creativity!"

"You were going to write it, weren't you." Bethany Badger said, smiling shyly.

"Yeah, I was," Justin confessed.

"Well, I can't be totally sure, but I think Hazel would maybe like that, as long as you make it sappy and romantic," Bethany said. Justin laughed. It was probably true. Hazel was the captain of the cheerhexing team and a hopeless romantic.

"Well, it will be, don't worry. Besides, it's not like they can get Valentines Day cards anywhere else." Justin said. Bethany nodded.

"We really need to talk ... whoever's in charge into making a Wal-mart or Halmark or something." she agreed.

"Speaking of which, who is in charge?" Justin asked. "I mean, we have Aslan, but then we have the Pevensies, and King Caspian. So, in a way, don't we have six rulers?"

"Yep. And then if you count Lucy and Susan's husbands and Peter, Edmund, and Caspian's wives, that brings us to-" Justin took a break to count on his fingers.

"To eleven!!" Bethany said. Sometimes she found it crazy how bad Justin was at math.

"Yeah, right, that!" Justin agreed. "So, who's in charge?" he asked.

"Well, considering Aslan created the place, I'm gonna go with him being in charge," Bethany pointed out.

"But what about when he goes to one of his other countries?" Justin asked, shading a heart-shaped acorn.

"Well, Ariel will probably take over officailly take over when she's old enough, but for now, I think we kinda treat the others like a council and follow the laws they agree on." Bethany said.

Bethany was walking home after school. Her books were hanging in a bag, but as usual, she was reading one. It was fairytales from a place called Ever After.