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“It’s true, Keen. I know you always hated school.”
Keenan’s raven hair brushed his frowned forehead as he titled his head. He narrowed his green eyes and stared her down from his six foot three.
“You’re not helping here, Squirt.”
Tommy giggled.
“Why did Dad hate school?”
“Because he’d rather help grandpa Niall. He wanted to build houses instead,” Bree said, and smiled at the memory of a young Keenan walking around with a hand-me-down tool belt from his father.
Tommy grabbed his father’s arm and jumped on the spot.
“I want to go with you, Dad. I wanna build a house too.”
Keenan gave Bree a pointed look.
“Now look what you’ve done.”
But Bree wasn’t discouraged. “Do you know what your dad did?”
“No?” Tommy’s eyes went over from Bree to Keenan and back again.
“He sucked it up and went to school, and so will you.” Keenan grumbled.
“What did he do, Miss Bree?”
Bree smiled at Tommy, already picking up on addressing her with Miss.
“He made a lot of friends at school. And some of those friends are still in his life. And you know what? You’ll make a lot of friends here too. Think about all the play dates and fun you’ll have with some new friends.”
She never could tell a lie to save her life. So yes, school would probably suck sometimes and she wouldn’t tell Tommy otherwise. As a teacher, Bree brought the kids in her class up to speed with the alphabet or the difference between a square and a rectangle.
But what really brought a smile on her face were the moments she could help the kids whenever life threw rocks into their ponds to ripple the surface. She wanted to guide them.
Perhaps that’s the reason she’d become a teacher. To help other little Bree’s who need a listening ear and a soft guiding hand while growing up. Her dad sure hadn’t been around. And her mother? Well, ‘complicated’ and ‘demanding’ couldn’t begin to cover a description of her mom.
“That’s right, son. I’m still friends with a lot of kids from my school.” Keenan wanted to say something else, but his phone interrupted him. He glanced at the screen and declined the call.
“I need to get going, Tommy. Aiden’s calling to see where I am and I’m sure Miss Bree wants to start her class.”
Bree watched Kate take over her kids for a few minutes as she stood watch in the hallway and directed both classes to go take their seats. It often came in handy as their classrooms sat side by side.
“Come, Tommy. Let me show you to our classroom.”
* * *
Bree ploppeddown in her chair and kicked off her black pumps under her desk. Today had been a good day with a lot of small victories. Anthony finally asked Bree for her help with his alphabet assignment. And Tommy made a friend on his first day after an hour of sitting on the side, watching others play and work.
A soft knock on her wide-open door drew Bree’s eyes to her colleague Craig. He often checked in with her after school hours.
“Had a good day?” He walked into the classroom and perched himself upon two tiny desks in front of Bree’s desk. Craig resembled a linebacker, so it was probably for the best he divided his weight over the two desks.
“Yeah, I had the best day. And you?”
Craig’s eyes lingered on Bree’s hair when she tried to tuck another unruly strand of hair into her ponytail. Her bouncy curls were all over the place today and she remembered she needed to pick up some new curl creams.
He cleared his throat and said, “Yes. It was great. We had a lot of fun with the sensory bins.”
