Page 110 of When I Thug You Like That

Me: I’m about to make you look so good. Any color?

The bubbles appeared.

Jay: Black, baby.

Me: Works for me.

Jay: That’s it? I don’t have to do no convincing?

I laughed.

Me: Nope. If you want me there, I’ll be there.

Jay: You know they say good sex will have you feeling different.

Me: Lmao. Here you go. Bye, Jamison.

Jay: Have a good rest of your day, beautiful. I’ll hit you with more details for the party later.

I locked my phone and slid it into my desk. The smile on my face lingered long after the text exchange. Not even a meltdown could ruin it.

We were forty-five minutes shy of dismissal when I got a call from the front desk.

“Ms. Jai.”

“Yesss,” I sang into the phone.

“Jamison’s mother is here for early pick-up. Should I send her back to get him, or will you bring him up front?”

I glanced toward the clock and checked my weekly calendar. I hadn’t written a note down about early pick-up, and Jay hadn’t mentioned it. There wasn’t a notification in the school app either.

“Okay. I’ll bring him up front.”

“No problem.”

Pressing the end button on the phone, I looked across the classroom at Jay, who was deep into his arts and crafts project. He was strategically glueing the leaves on a tree, quiet and focused. Ideally, notice before early pick-up was always encouraged to avoid a possible meltdown. At the same time, I couldn’t tell the parents what to do. It wasn’t my job. Suggestions and assistance with best practices was.

“Hey to my friend, Jamison,” I called out to him the way I did when I needed a student’s attention.

He looked back at me and waved. “Hi, my friend.”

Smiling, I walked over to him. “Mommy’s here to take you home early.”

“Not done my picture.” He pointed to the activity.

“That’s okay,” I assured him. “We can put it in your bag for you to finish with Mommy at home. Is that okay?”

“Okay.”

He pressed his thumb against the side of his index finger. I gave him a second before placing my hand over his.

“It’s alright, Jamison. When you finish this at home, you can bring it back to school to show our friends. Right now, we don’t wanna keep Mommy waiting.”

“Okay, Ms. Jai.”

He got up and went to grab his bookbag from his cubby. I neatly placed his activity sheet inside the sleeve of his folder and slid it into his bookbag. This was progress. There were no tears or outbursts, just processing and following instructions. Once we had everything together, we made our way out front where his mother seemed to be waiting impatiently by the look on her face.

“Mommy!” He speedwalked to her.