Two days ago, Jenna asked her 5-year-old daughter, Tanya, how she would like to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The child said she wanted her mother to pick her up from school immediately when class was over that day so they could spend the rest of the afternoon and evening together doing their favorite things.

Therefore, Jenna was driving in her SUV, going round and round about the school’s parking lot looking for an empty parking spot. She glanced at the clock on her car’s dashboard which was showing 2:27 pm, she felt rather odd. For the last three years, Jenna had not left her workplace before 5 pm.

After driving around the school parking lot three times, frustration crept into her veins when nothing was available. Another reason was because half her brain was still thinking about the consequences she had yet to face for the work she had left behind at the office almost half an hour ago. But when she recalled the sad expression on her daughter’s face two days ago, she let a spirit of calmness settled inside her and said a silent prayer that someone would soon be heading out so that she could park her car and head into her daughter's classroom to pick her up.

After another 30 seconds and still no sign that her silent prayer would be answered, her thoughts took her to wonder which man was responsible for making her daughter cry her heart out two days ago. That awful man had insinuated that she didn’t care enough about Tanya to pick her up after school. Her poor daughter was traumatized by the statement and the after-school program coordinator had to call Jenna at the office when Tanya hadn’t stop crying for two hours. The very next day, Jenna called up Tanya’s teacher and was told that the particular parent didn’t mean anything by it. He was just trying to make child-talk conversation with Tanya. Of course, the teacher wouldn’t identify who the man was, but Jenna would still like to punch him in the face for two reasons. The first was for saying such a mean and terrible thing to her child, or any child for that matter. The second reason was for putting her in such a predicament. In order for her to leave work early today, she had to promise her boss to have dinner with him tomorrow night.

Sitting in her car, she was conjuring how to get that idiotic parent into a secluded corner, out of sight from the children and the teacher so she could give him a piece of her mind; then she realized she had to find out who that man was first. Well, her thoughts were interrupted when someone came out from the school’s front door and gestured to her that she was heading to her car which was on the other side of where she was waiting. After thanking the woman with a wave, Jenna started driving so she could get to the other side of the parking lot where the woman was walking towards.

Just as she turned her car around the corner, a van pulled up in front of her. She was just split seconds away from signaling when she noticed he was flashing the signal for the same spot. Jenna drove closer behind the van, honked and made all kinds of hand gestures to the driver to say that she was here first. Just by looking at the van’s rear view mirror, Jenna could tell the driver was a man. She was certain he knew what she was trying to tell him because he made a smirk with his eyes, then shrugged and stretched his two arms out. It looked as if he was trying to tell her “I don’t know what you’re saying.” But Jenna could read his body language that what he really meant to tell her was “Too bad! I got here and signaled first!”

That got Jenna’s blood boiling and raised her body temperature ten degrees higher. And for once, she wished she had the tenacity to give him the finger! She would never though. Perhaps because of that, God stepped in just in time when the driver in the car next to her honked to let her know he wanted to reverse out of his spot. Jenna didn’t realize there was a driver in the car but she was happy to move her car to let him reverse out.

After she parked her SUV, she noticed Smirky man was still waiting for the spot because the woman was taking her sweet time before starting her car engine. As she got out of her car, Jenna took a good look at Smirky man. When he finally glanced at her, she gave him a cold stare and walked away. A cool satisfaction settled inside her and a slight smile appeared as she walked through the front door into the school.

Jenna entered the kindergarten classroom and spotted her daughter who was still collecting Valentine cards from her classmates. She was only collecting because she had given hers out yesterday. Jenna was trying to train her child to never leave things till the last minute, so she made sure her daughter had all her cards completed by Wednesday night so she could bring them to school yesterday. Tanya caught sight of her mom and waved excitedly at her. Jenna nodded and waved back with delight and gestured to her daughter that she was going to the side of the room to collect her jacket and school bag.

When she got there, she noticed a small boy sitting at the corner looking sullen and sad. He was holding a rather unique Valentine card in his hand. Jenna thought the card looked rather plain, unlike the ones being sold in the stores. She was pretty sure it was hand-made, and even bet her annual income with herself that it was hand-made. Jenna didn’t think it was possible anyone would sell such a plain valentine card, not even dollar-stores. The boy didn’t bother to look her way, so she tried to get his attention.

“Did someone give you that Valentine card?” Jenna asked with a soft voice.

The boy finally looked up at her, but the expression on his face told her that he was in no mood to talk. In fact, Jenna thought he looked as if he hated the whole wide world. So he ignored her and held up the card in his hand. Jenna reconsidered her earlier suspicion and came to think that maybe the boy only had hatred for women. Feeling a bit shunned by the little boy, she said to herself. 'Okay. I guess not.'

The boy continued to ignore her presence causing Jenna to shake her head and thought silently. 'No wonder you’ve only gotten one card. Guess you are not Mr. Popular!' Immediately, Jenna reprimanded herself for thinking such thoughts, but she was also quick to forgive herself the next instance. She just couldn’t help it, guess she was being her own judge.

“Hey Buddy! You ready to go?” Suddenly, a man entered the room from the opposite door and was walking towards the boy. As soon as Jenna realized it was Smirky man, she took a step back so he wouldn’t be able to see her.

“Daddy!” Sighting his father, the boy got up and ran to him. He buried his face against his father’s chest and started crying.

The scene was of such tender loving affection between the boy and his father; it caused Jenna’s heart to sink to her stomach. Her eyes were starting to mist a little as she listened in on the father and son conversation.

“What’s wrong, buddy?” Smirky man looked at his son’s teary face. His son held up the Valentine card. Smirky man noticed the name on the card and vaguely recalled his son’s best friend was named Tanya. “Aren’t you giving your card to Tanya?”

The boy shook his head and let out another sob. “She said it’s ugly!”

“Little girls can be so mean!” Jenna thought to herself and understood why the little boy gave her such an antagonizing look earlier. She couldn’t blame him now. She thought the card was plain, but it was not ugly. But she knew it was not the ‘pretty in pink’ card most little girls would be expecting. Then her thoughts suddenly came to a halt. “WHAT? TANYA? My Tanya said it was ugly? No, it can’t be!”

“It’s not ugly, son.” Smirky man embraced his son once again. “It’s a beautiful card because you made it with your heart. Tanya is not worthy to have it!”

“That’s right!” Jenna thought to herself and was proud of how Smirky man was handling the situation. Jenna knew there were three girls named Tanya in the class. She was pretty sure her daughter would not say such a thing, but a bit of doubt came to her. “She had better not!”

Smirky man held the card between his fingers and flipped it back and forth. Then he led his son to stand where there was a view of the classroom and said to his son. “Show Daddy where Tanya is.”

The boy pointed to the corner where several girls were hovering over their teacher’s desk. Smirky man took notice of one little girl who resembled the woman from the parking lot. For some unknown reason to him, her image had left a deep impression on him. Though he would never admit it to himself in a million years, he was attracted by her appearance at parking lot when she gave him the stare just before entering the school main entrance. Therefore, Smirky man came to a conclusion of his own that the girl had to be Tanya, and that the woman in the parking lot would most likely be her mother. He sighed and turned back to his offspring.

Though Smirky man wasn’t certain which of the five girls his son was referring to, it didn’t matter because the damage was done. He decided he wasn’t going to confront Tanya, mainly because he didn’t want to risk the chance of running into the woman from the parking lot. But just to satisfy his own curiosity, he took his son’s small hand and asked. “The one in the pink dress, the one talking to Mrs. Ingrid right now, is that Tanya?”

The boy looked towards his teacher’s desk and spotted Tanya speaking with their teacher. So he nodded.

Smirky man let out another sigh and then began giving his son some words of wisdom. “Son, remember this, most beautiful girls are …..”

“Sluts, materialistic and money-minded!” The boy interject with gust which surprised even Smirky man himself. He was going to say most beautiful girls were funny sometimes. They could like something one moment and hate it the next moment.

At the same time, Jenna looked into the classroom from where she was hiding. Her eyes shot out and her ears stood up. She felt as if her hair had been pulled straight up. Her daughter was the only girl in the classroom wearing a pink dress and was the only one who was talking to Mrs. Ingrid.

Shocked by his son’s statement, Smirky man could only smile. As he gathered his son’s belongings, he tried to cheer him up. “Especially those who don’t know how to appreciate the valentine card you made!”

As they stepped out of the classroom into the hallway, his son was on a roll now. “Yup! Tanya is a slut. She is materialistic and money-minded! She only likes store-bought Valentine Cards with sparkles!”

Jenna stepped into the hall and faced Smirky man and his son as they were walking towards her direction. Smirky man recognized her to be the woman in the parking lot right away. He knew he should apologize to her for taking the parking spot. When he noticed her upset facial expression, he thought she was going to yell at him for taking her parking spot. But he certainly wasn’t expecting this.

“What kind of idiotic father are you? You let your son call my daughter a slut?” Jenna fired at him like a mother hen who was about to attack the rooster. “What kind of moron father are you?”

All apology vanished from Smirky man’s head upon being called an idiotic and moron father in front of his son. He collected his composure and retaliated. “I guessed right! So Tanya is your daughter! Goes figured!”

“And you were the one who made her cry two days ago, weren’t you?” Jenna noticed there was no one in the hallway and figured this was the perfect opportunity for seeking vengeance. She didn’t care his son was there, she figured he could learn a lesson from all this. Anyone who dared to call her daughter by such derogatory terms and get away with it deserved to watch his father get punched in the face!