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She shoved a handful of popcorn into her mouth. “Alright.”
“Just alright?” Garcia frowned.
She gave a little shrug and kept her eyes on the TV.
Garcia swiped back his popcorn. “No snacks ‘til you tell me how it went, woman.”
Stevie crossed her arms and huffed out a sigh. “Fine.” My eyebrows raised and I stayed quiet, hoping to hear what she’d say. “This stupid boy named Ryan from Miss Katie’s class said that Stevie is a boy’s name, and he said I’m not allowed to play soccer at recess because only boys get to play soccer. Then he pushed me and I got dirt on my new jeans.”
“He did what?” Garcia asked in a thunderous voice.
She just sighed again.
Tyler and Hassik walked in the apartment then.
“We got beef with a kid named Ryan,” Garcia announced.
“No.” I shook my head. “You can’t have beef with a child,” I said in a warning tone.
“Fine. We got beef with Ryan’s dad,” Garcia announced with a quirk of his eyebrow.
“What?” Tyler’s face cracked in confusion.
“Ryan in Miss Katie’s class is dead to us,” Garcia reiterated, crossing his arms.
“Yeah!” Stevie shouted, giving a mean mug to match Garcia’s.
I stepped in then. “Woah, wait a second. Maybe we should just try communicating with our words?”
“Oh, he used words!” Garcia said. “Little twerp said Stevie is a boy’s name and he won’t let her play soccer at recess, and he pushed her in the dirt. He had no clue who he was messing with,” he said, jutting an index finger to the floor.
“Yeah, he had no clue,” Stevie said, mimicking his motions.
Tyler puts his hands on his hips and ran his tongue over his teeth. “Okay yeah, we got beef.” He grabbed his keys again and started putting his shoes back on
“What? Where are you going?” I asked, alarmed now.
“Duh, we’re going to get a soccer ball thatRyancan’t play with. Let’s go, guys,” Tyler said to the rest of the crew.
“Yay!” Stevie yelled out, pumping a little fist in the air.
I turned on my heel. “Wait, Tyler, I’m not sure that’s the best way to handle this!”
But he was already walking out the door.
________
The next morning, I ran through my first three classes feeling extremely scatterbrained. At one point, one of my kids, Evan, held my shoulder and stared at me when I was answering a question for him.
My eyes narrowed to his in panic. “What?”
“You good, Ms. Petey?” he asked slowly.
“Yes? Why?”
His eyebrows popped up as he sighed. “Hate to tell ya this, but you’re helping me with number three, I’m on number six.”
“Oh,” I scratched my head as I stared at his paper. He was right. “Sorry, I’m a little off today.” All I could think about was little Ryan and the said beef with him. I just really didn’t want Tyler and Stevie getting into trouble.
