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“Jesus, you scared me.”
He looks at me with an unamused expression on his face. “It was a guy, wasn’t it?”
It’s not a question. His little perceptive brain is already connecting dots he should be too young to connect.
“Yes, it was.” Honesty has always been my hard and fast rule for us. If I don’t follow that rule myself, why would Cody respect me enough to follow it, too?
“Who is he?”
“Right now, he’s a good friend.”
“And later?”
“I don’t know yet. I haven’t given him a chance to be more than that.”
He furrows his brows. “Why not?”
“A lot of reasons. But mostly, I don’t want to mess with what you and I have. We’ve created a great space of safety and positivity. If I bring someone new in, it could mess with everything we’ve worked hard to build.”
Cody wraps his arms around my shoulders. “I just want you to be happy, Mom. And you never know, it could be fun to have an extra person around. Then you wouldn’t be so obsessed with me.”
I gasp. “You little turd.”
He giggles hysterically as I tickle his sides in retribution.
“I’ll have you know it’s my job to be obsessed with you.”
Cody rolls his eyes. “Yeah, okay. I gotta go, Mom. Have a good day.” He pulls away from me to walk to the door.
“I love you. Have a good day!”
Minutes after Cody walks out, students start to rush down the hallways, their voices loud with excitement. I stand in my doorway to wait while my students line up. Each one gets to choose how they greet me, whether it’s a hug, a high-five, or a wave. It’s my way of connecting with my students and getting a measure of how everyone is feeling each morning.
The excitement of being back at school is contagious, though a little draining, and before I know it, the day is almost over.
“All right, class, you’ve got a few minutes before our bus riders need to line up. Please, keep the noise level down. Some of our friends might need a bit of quiet time after our busy day.”
I turn to my planner to make adjustments to my lesson plans for the week. We got even less done today than I anticipated, which means we’ll have to make it up at some point.
“These are pretty flowers, Miss Cole.”
I glance up to find a little blonde girl gently running her finger over the petals. “Thank you, Sophia.”
“Did your boyfriend bring them for you?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend, darling girl.” I refuse to admit that the idea of Nolan being anything to me makes my stomach flip.
She leans in close. “I want Brady to be my boyfriend.”
I raise my eyebrows at her. “Is that so?” I glance over to, admittedly, the most adorable boy in my class. “Does he feel the same way?”
“I don’t know. I’m too scared to ask.”
“Fair enough.”
“I’m really glad you’re my teacher this year.”
“That makes me very happy to hear.”
