Page 12 of Candy Cane Dreams
Chapter Five
"All right, children, take out your math books and go to page 57," Miss Jones stood at the front of the classroom, pulling out a marker for the whiteboard while waiting for the children to follow her instructions.
Kate stood at the back of the classroom, unobtrusively observing. She found her eyes kept being drawn back to Lilly, who sat in the second seat from the front, following her teacher's directions precisely.
The child was excellent. Not a troublemaker at all. Although Kate had not expected her to be. She seemed happy too. Not sad or morose or unwilling to be involved in whatever was going on in the classroom. It wouldn't have shocked Kate had that been the case. After all, the trauma that she had been through might have caused her not to talk because she was depressed.
But Lilly didn't seem depressed.
She carefully observed as the teacher went over the homework from the night before, calling on various children to answer questions.
When it was Lilly's turn, Lilly rose from her seat and went to the whiteboard with her paper, writing the answer on theboard without asking permission, as though that had been the protocol.
Everyone seemed completely at ease with that, like it was normal and they were used to it.
"That is correct, Lilly. Thirty-two." Miss Jones looked over the classroom. "Did everybody get that one right?"
Heads nodded, and Miss Jones said, "Very good, Lilly. That one was difficult."
Lilly smiled, put the marker down, and went back to her seat.
There was still a little grin along her mouth as though she were proud that she had gotten such a difficult problem correct.
Miss Jones began explaining it for the kids who didn't get it, and Kate allowed her words to wash over her while she continued to watch Lilly.
The child took her seat and then paid attention to the teacher.
Losing her mother had to have been a very difficult thing for her to go through, but maybe there was something else involved. Some other reason why she wasn't talking. Could there be?
Or maybe she just needed some help to work through whatever it was that she was hanging onto.
Kate rolled those ideas around in her head as the day progressed.
It was the last class of the day, and the kids were soon getting ready to go.
Miss Jones had given them five minutes of free time to talk to their friends before the end of school, and she came back and stood beside Kate.
"What did you think?" she asked with a smile. "Anything strike you?"
"I love Tyler's sense of humor. He tries so hard to be good, but it's just tough for him to sit still."
"Yeah. There have been a couple of days where it's been a real struggle. Once he actually wiggled himself onto the desk, and I had to remind him that he had to stay in his seat. You should have seen the look of surprise on his face when he realized he was actually on his desk. I don't think he even knew." Miss Jones laughed.
"My goodness. But it sounds to me like that's just a matter of too much energy, and not a discipline problem."
"No. Tyler is a good kid. And you can tell a lot by the way a child treats other children. He is very considerate and kind."
"That was the impression I got too," Kate said honestly. Tyler had struck her as someone with a huge sense of humor. He was probably going to grow up to be the class clown, although it was possible he would be the valedictorian too. He was very intelligent. He just needed to get his limbs under control.
"What did you think about Lilly?" Miss Jones asked, lowering her voice a notch as she stood shoulder to shoulder with Kate, looking out over the classroom.
All the kids were getting their things together and chattering with each other. Lilly was a little off by herself, slowly putting her math textbook into her book bag. It was pink and, interestingly, had candy canes on it.
Did Lilly like candy canes? Or was it because her family had the shop and she had no choice about what kind of backpack she was going to have?
The question was interesting, and Kate filed it away to ask later, if she ever got a chance.
"I can't quite put my finger on what it is about her that draws me. She seems very smart."
