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She should be going home, it’s way past her usual time to stay after for work but here she is grading papers. She sits at her desk, flipping through her students' papers.
It was mid-way through the school year and Maren decided she wanted to have a little bit of fun with this assignment. She gave each student the possibility of writing, drawing, or whatever they wanted to wish for. She thought it would work out well because her students were quite a creative bunch. Also though they were quite chaotic too, especially being a group of kindergartners.
Nevertheless, she loved their energy.
She smiled as she saw wishes for rainbows, cookies, a new puppy or a pony. But one photo caught her eye.
One of her youngest students, Tony, drew a picture. The drawing is scrawled in blue and purple crayons. But at the bottom, it says My wish: to have an amazing birthday.
Maren’s heart breaks and her mind races. She looks through her paperwork and she notices Tony’s birthday is in three days. It’s barely enough time but she still believes it’s enough to make a tremendous effort.
She calls Tony’s mother, Allison with an idea.
“Mrs. Locks, I was looking at Tony’s assignment and it’s all about your idea of a perfect wish and Tony’s wish is that he wants the best birthday.”
“He should’ve thought of that when he broke my vase.”
“Um, your vase,” Maren says, very confused. The young boy's mother sighs; “He was tussling with his dog, Maxine, and then crashed into my vase in the living room.”
“Mrs. Locks, I’m sure it was an accident.” Maren pleads. The lady scoffs.
“Doesn’t matter, he missed it for himself and now he has to face the consequences.” Maren felt bad,
“Well, maybe, we can. ”
Then Click.
The mother had hung up on her.
Maren run a hand through her brown curls,
“Fine, I guess I have to do it myself.”
She almost beams when she sees Tony the next day, she loves the little boy’s energy, she sees him as the navy blue backpack makes his dark brown skin glow as he squeezes his backpack straps tightly.
“Hello Miss Maren.”
“Hi Anthony, ready to learn today? .”
He jumps excitedly, “Yes!”
She loves seeing his dimples.
He walks into class and joins the other students. She sees her other students, Josie, Alexander, Maddie and Isiah appear. She gives them high fives and hugs her other students. Once all her kids are in class and in their seats, she writes the lesson. The assignment of the day is color. What certain colors mean to you and why? The kids were excited, especially when she teased them by using M&Ms to display their favorite colors.
Purple flowers and grapes, green popsicles and green colored marshmallows from their favorite cereal. Red apples and blue skies. She hung some of the drawings around the classroom. A place that was already full of photos.
She even made a giant display in the corner of the classroom that resembled a refrigerador. She remembered racing home from school and showing her mother her grades, her A plus and gold stars. She smiles at the memory,
“Miss Yearly, she feels a small tug on her sleeve.
“Josie stole one of my orange M&M’s.” The small girl with the blonde pigtails, Kristen had her hands on her hips.
“Not true.” She heard Josie yell. She gives her students a fond look before being pulled along.
………..........
“Miss Maren, Miss Maren, look at my fishy drawings.” She sees Tony appear next to her desk.
She smiles at the young boy. She sees a brilliant blue picture, she sees a school of fish, starfish and little octopuses and turtles. She notices that the young boy favors blue a lot ….
“I’m gonna take it home to my mommy.” He exclaims.
“She’s gonna love it.” She says excitedly. She gives Tony a high five.
………
Once the day is finished she goes to the party store,
“I need all the blues you have.”
She leaves the store with streamers, party hats, and table cloths in various shades of blue. Navy blue, royal blue, periwinkle, teal, cornflower blue, and even Ibiza blue. Like what even is that?
“Mom. look at how big my cupcake is.” Maren sees a mother and her daughter exiting a bakery. They sit out front on a patio-type structure, eating some raspberry donuts. They gleefully eat their food. It looked delicious.
It was a brown building with a door in the middle, and two glass windows on the side. She sees some yellow roses placed in small pots around the front door. Maren hasn’t been there before so it wouldn’t hurt to try it out. The sign on the front says, “Just A Drop Of Sugar”.
She walks in and instantly is overwhelmed by the smell of chocolate and marshmallows. It's a pleasant and relaxing atmosphere. The inside isn’t very big but there’s a glass displaying a variety of treats: brownies, bread, muffins, donuts, croissants.
She walks over to the front register, she sees a plate of cookies. They were piping hot. There was a little sign: “Free Samples, please take one.” Maren takes a bite of the cookies, “Woah.” She says.
“Those are our double chocolate s'mores cookies.” A young girl with blonde hair says, appearing from one of the back rooms. She had hair in a tight ponytail held together by a blue scrunchie. Maren sees her name tag: Kayla.
“We just started selling them this week.”
“These are amazing.”
Kayla smiles, “It was my creation.” She beams, truly proud of her work.
“Kayla, I’ve told you to not invite your friends when- .” Maren hears a male voice then she sees red hair, red curls to exact. He’s a few inches taller than her and seems to be in his late twenties. The mysterious man walks over to counter, his name tag pined to his shirt says, Lee. Maren is surprised how bright his eyes are, an emerald green.
“I was just helping a customer.” Kayla replies, “You have such little faith I can do my job.”
Maren smiles at the two.
“Anyways, I was talking to…”
“Maren.” Maren replies.
“Maren, needs some help.” Kayla said.
Maren and Lee’s eyes met.
Kayla looks at them, rolls her eyes, and goes to check on the banana bread in the back.
“So, I have a student who's birthday is coming up. He really loves fish and the color blue. Do you think you could help me? She says rather quickly.
Lee nods, “Yeah, he walks along the glass display, “So, what do you think they would like, cookies, brownies, cupcakes-.”
“Cupcakes would be great.” Lee smiles, his green eyes are beginning to sparkle.
“Okay, you said blue right.”
“Yes, that's the theme.”
“Vanilla and Chocolate, or just one or the other.”
“Both please.” She says, “It needs to be done by Friday morning, we’re gonna have the party in the morning.”
Lee nods, “Understandable.” They discuss the theme some more, Maren likes talking with him. He seems sweet and eager to take challenges. He has a brilliant smile as well.
“Have you been here for a long time?” Maren asks.
“This was my mom’s place, she passed away last year so it’s run by my sister and I.”
“I’m sorry.” Maren replies.
He gives her a small smile, “Thank you, have you been a teacher for long”?
“Yeah, she brushes some curls away from her face, “It’s my third year.”
“I salute you, being around kids all day.”
“You don’t like kids?”
“I like them, " he quickly adds, “Just don’t always have the patience for them all the time.”
She giggles, it makes Lee sweat a bit. She has an adorable giggle.
“I get it, they do test your patience sometimes.”
Lee runs a hand through his hair, she sees a bit of flour in with his red curls. His curls really have a mind of his own because he keeps tucking them behind his ear.
Kayla reappears with a slight cough, “Um, did you figure out what you wanted yet.”
“Yeah, I think so.” Maren says happily. Lee smiles at her, his smile is warm like the cookies sitting on the counter.
“Right.” Maren continues, “So I will be back on Friday morning … around seven a.m.”
“It will be done way before then.” Lee teases.
She smiles, “I’ll hold you to that.” She gives a wave to Kayla, “Thanks for the sample.”
“Sure, come back soon.” Kayla smiles, “ For his sake.”
Lee rolls his eyes at Kayla.
Maren laughs on her way out, feeling excited for Friday.
She walks into work the next morning with a chocolate muffin and some tea. She waves at Janitor Patrick, and heads to her classroom. She sees a young girl, she recognizes Josie’s curly black hair, today it was in a ponytail. She found a blank coloring page in her desk was already half way done coloring.
“Josie, honey what are you doing here?”
“Mama dropped me off early.”
“Oh, did you eat breakfast”?
“Yes, Miss Maren, I had jelly toast.” Maren smiles at her matter of factness.
“Okay, so can you do me a favor.”
Her little fingers stop coloring.
“Can you help me set up the activity for today.’
Josie’s green eyes beam, “Okay.”
They spent the hour before school preparing shape pizzas. Construction paper represented dough, sauce, and five other topping that represent in different shapes. Using shapes such as circle, triangle, square, rectangle, and hexagon. The kids were going to be excited.
“Do you like the idea.”
“Yeah, it’s cool.”
Then at 8’clock on the dock. Her students came pouring in. They look around the room and then quickly sat down in their seats.
“Okay, class today we are going to learn about different shapes by making pizza shapes.”
The class cheers!
—------------------------------
Beep Beep Beep Beep!
Friday morning was met with rain. Maren groans waking up, the room was full of gray. But that wasn’t going to stop Maren for giving her students a great day. She puts on a blue sweater and a fainted blue jeans. She was so excited for the day. Maren eats some cereal and bacon, sitting at the front counter.
After breakfast, she heads to Just A Drop Of Sugar. Approaching the bakery she sees Lee decorating some sugar cookies. She smiles when she sees him, stepping inside.
“Hi.” She says, softly. Lee looks up from his work and there’s that warm smile again.
“Hey.”
“I got your order, right over here.” He walks over to one of the shelves and has two containers of treats. He places them both on the counter. he opens one. The first one are cupcakes, vanilla and chocolate with blue frosting with sprinkles and at the top were these bright blue cookies that had blue M&M’s as fins and colored a white and black one to represent an eyeball.
Then he opens the second box and there’s a box of cookies that resembled large blue fish. They looked incredible.
“Lee, this is incredible.” Maren says excitedly. They share a look.
“You’re amazing.” Lee quickly looks away, she smiles at his flusterness.
“It’s nothing, I just hope your student loves it.” Maren nods, “Oh, he will.”
Then her watch beeps, 7:00.
“I have to go.” She says, “I have to get everything ready.”
Lee nods, “Of course.” She grabs the two boxes. Lee quickly rounds the corner.
“Hey, I’ll carry the second box.”
The two of them manage to get two boxes in the truck of her car.
“Thanks.” Maren says, shutting the trunk.
“Sure.” He heads back to the bakery.
She heads to work.
—----------------------------
Maren quickly gets to work, clearing the tables and replacing it with blue table cloth. She hangs up the streamers at the front door, the Smart Board, the book shelf. She uses the arts and craft able as her main hub for the treats, keeping the box closed, placing utensils next to them. She puts cute fish stickers on the desks. Her time was fading quickly and sit up the party hats.
Then she hears footsteps, she looks at the clock. 7:50.
Of course, her kids are early of all days. Early as usual Josie appears at the door almost running into the streamers.
“What the-.” The wide-eyed girl steps inside, “Whose’s birthday is it.”
“Tony’s.”
“Oh cool, we’re having a party?”
“Yup, we have to wait until everyone arrives.”
“Okay, Josie walks over to the decorations, humming and gives nods of approval.
“I like it.”
“Thank you.”
Maren feels accomplished.
“Woah.” She hears a familiar voice, she sees Tony standing there. He takes a moment before running inside.
“Look at all the fish.” Tony exclaims, “And they’re blue!”
“A little fishy told me it was your birthday.” Maren says, Tony can’t hold back his smile.
“This is for me.”
“Yes.” He quickly runs over to Maren and hugs her tightly,
“Thank you Miss Maren.” She hugs him back, “Of course, sweetheart.”
Shortly after their exchange, the class is full of children. The party was in full swing as the kids enjoy the treats and mess around with their party hats. She can’t believe she did it in a week but nothing beats the smile on Tony’s face.
Mission Accomplished!
Lee hears a soft ding at the front desk. He quickly dusts himself off, he walks to the front. He sees those familiar dimples.
“You came back.” He says.
“Yeah, I wanted to come back and thank you again. You made my student’s day, truly.”
“Happy to help.”
He sees her shifting her weight from one foot to the other.
“I also wanted to ask you a question.”
“Yeah.”
“I was wondering if you would like to go out to dinner next Friday.”
Lee can barely hold in his excitement.
“Sure, let me, he looks around the counter, “Shit, there’s no paper around.”
He holds out a finger, “Be right back.” He quickly leaves, and she hears some commotion in the back.
Then Kayla’s voice, “Lee’s gotta date, finally.” She hears him curse, and say,
“You have some paper?”
He returns with some paper and she writes down her number. He does the same. She rips it in half, handing him the half that contains her number. Their fingers brush, a feeling of electricity. She likes this feeling.
“There’s a restaurant, on Lake Street that just opened.” She explains, “ I need someone to try it out with me.”
“Okay, sounds cool.” Lee is interested.
They stand there for a moment just staring at each other.
Lee starts, “So…”
“Right, I’ll text you,” Maren says, heading toward the door.
“Alright see you soon.”
“Bye Lee.”
Maren barely makes it halfway through the parking lot, when her phone dings. It’s from an unknown number,
“Hey, it’s Lee. Just wanted to tell you I’m excited for our date.”
“Me too.” She texts back.
Maren shuts the door of her car, leaving the parking lot with a smile on her face.
Here are the treats: Links down below!
https://yuminthekitchen.com/fish-cupcakes/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/50032245837740648/