Page 27 of Of Pucking Course

Dakota smiles at her. “So much fun, right? And hey, Imade sure to put aside your favorite toys for the water table. Remember those pink fish you like so much? The ones with the sparkly fins?”

Charlotte nods. Dakota grabs a tissue from the table nearby and dabs at the little girl’s plump face. “You can play with them the whole afternoon. And after you’re done playing at the water table, we’re having cupcakes for Riley’s birthday today.”

Charlotte’s face lights up, and she starts to smile.

“Does that sound fun?” Dakota asks with a big smile.

Charlotte beams. “Yeah!”

“Yay! How about you go and grab your fish toys from the basket over there and show them to Matilda?”

Charlotte runs off. Dakota smiles up at the girl’s dad. “She’ll be okay.”

The dad tells her a relieved “thank you” before he leaves. I stand there, in awe of how well Dakota handled that.

Just then, a little boy runs over to her.

“Miss Richards, Henry knocked over my blocks.”

Dakota stands up and takes the little boy’s hand in hers and walks with him over to where another little boy is playing with a dinosaur on top of a pile of blocks.

She kneels down on the floor next to the kid. “Henry, Elijah just told me that you messed up his blocks. Is that true?”

Henry looks up at Dakota, his eyes wide. He shakes his head.

Instead of scolding him for lying, Dakota just offers a gentle, serious look. “You’re my good boy, remember, Henry?”

She offers that same soft, sweet smile from earlier when she was comforting her little girl student.

She reaches out and holds his hand. “Good boys are nice, right? Good boys help clean up, like you helped me yesterday, remember?”

Henry nods, that wide-eyed look still on his face.

“Good boys share their toys, like you did with Willow earlier this morning.”

Henry nods again, standing up a little taller, looking more excited. “Yeah, I shared with Willow. I’m a good boy.”

Dakota chuckles. “That’s right, buddy. Good boys help their friends too, right?”

“Yeah!”

“Why don’t you help Elijah fix his blocks, okay? And can you say sorry for knocking them down?”

Henry steps over to Elijah. “I’m sorry.” The two little boys walk over to the blocks and start playing together.

I stand there and stare at Dakota, blown away at what a natural she is with kids. She knows how to comfort them in such a caring way. And she knows how to settle conflicts so easily. If I had to take care of this many kids at the same time, I wouldn’t even know where to start or what to do.

“Miss Richards,” Abby says.

Dakota looks over to the door and sees Abby and me standing there. She looks surprised at first and then smiles. She walks over to us.

“Look who I found at the front office bringing you lunch,” Abby says.

Dakota’s cheeks turn a light shade of pink as she smiles shyly at me. She looks down at the container in my hands.

“Thank you,” she says to me.

“I’ll watch your class for you while you two chat for a sec,” Abby says.

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