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I wanted to spend time with her, and the best way to do that in the moment was to play teacher with her. It was her class and she was the one with all the training, but I could talk to little kids.
And what better way to show off to Harper than to give her a hand with her own work?
Any way I could impress her, I was doing it. Things with Harper were so easy, it wasn’t like I ever had to try hard. But, I also didn’t want to even risk her being snagged by another guy. I wanted her to think about me and only me as much as possible.
So any time I could do anything extra for her, I made a point of doing it.
And I got the feeling it was working.
So, I’d stay as long as she needed.
FOURTEEN
Harper
I had to admit,I was rather impulsive with asking Trevor to speak to my kids for me, but I did have homework I had to catch up working on, and I was happy to find a way to incorporate him into my world.
It wouldn’t be for too long. That was the bit of justification I told myself when I had the initial wave of questioning whether this was a good idea. But then, as Trevor took his place at the front of the classroom and started talking, I realized I was going to need to pay attention to what he was saying to the kids more than I thought.
I wanted to take the time to be able to catch up on some of the other things I had to do, but when he kept using words that were far too big for them to understand, on top of talking about things that I felt were beyond their age group, I had to keep looking up from what I was doing and stopping him.
“Sorry,” he said. “I forget that I’m not talking to college kids.”
“Technically, you are. We’ll go to college one day,” one of the kids piped up.
“Remember you have to raise your hand before you speak,” I reminded the little boy. He sat back in his chair and pouted his lower lip, but Trevor continued with his lesson. He was doing his best to explain how he helped people who were sick get better, but he kept getting stuck with the kids on the fact he helped people who were sick on the inside. Sickness that couldn’t be seen.
The kids were all asking about broken bones and women having babies. Poor Trevor didn’t know how to respond to many of the questions, and I had to keep directing the kids to talking about things that had to do with what Trevor was saying. It was my normal day, and I didn’t mind in the slightest. It was Trevor who seemed to be overwhelmed.
I didn’t abandon him to the kids, however, sticking with him through his lesson, then taking the time to talk about my own mom and how she was doing with her health. My class all knew my mom was sick, and there were days when they had to have a substitute teacher because of it.
But, I was happy to be able to stand with Trevor and tell the kids that my mom was still alive because of the things he did. He wasn’t always my mom’s doctor, but he had been there for her ever since her normal doctor retired.
“Is your mom all better now?” little Samantha asked in her small, shy voice.
“She’s better right now,” I said. “That’s the hard thing about cancer. You don’t know if it’s going to stay away, or when it will come back, but with Dr. Hall being the one who takes care of my mom, I’m happy to know even if it does come back, she’s in good hands.”
They kids all cheered, and I walked them through the things we did at the end of the day. I was shocked with how quickly the rest of the afternoon had gone since Trevor showed up, and I wished that all the days I had at the school went that well.
But then, I hadn’t gotten to the paperwork that was waiting for me to take care of, and I wasn’t sure Trevor would want to risk coming by again out of fear he was going to get roped into teaching the class for the afternoon for me. But, it had also been one of the best afternoons I thought we’d had in a long time. Even if I did have to keep the kids coming back to what we were talking about and censoring Trevor on what he could say to the kids, it was fun.
The kids were all laughing and happy when they left the classroom, which wasn’t unusual for my class, but Trevor still looked at me with surprise in his face.
“I don’t remember school ever being that fun for me when I was a kid,” he said.
“Why do you think I became a teacher?” I asked. “I knew things had to be better, and if I wasn’t going to get to enjoy it, then I would be the one to make the change. I think my students have a good time.”
“I think so, too,” Trevor said.
“And you learn better when you’re happy. I don’t know how those poor kids who get yelled at for not knowing their lessons ever manage. I don’t know how you could be expected to remember anything when you have someone breathing down your neck every second of the day, and if you make one mistake, you have hell to pay.”
“I thought that was an old-fashioned thing, like before you and me even,” Trevor said, and I relaxed with a small smile.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean that kids still get whipped or anything. I just meant that I remember dreading school because I wasn’t a fast learner, and it was only made worse when the teacher would yell at me and tell me I had to work harder,” I said.
“It seems like all that hard work paid off. Look at you now,” Trevor said with a smile.
I blushed in spite of myself.
