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June 21st.
The last day of school. It was her school’s festival day. A day the kids have been waiting all year for. The morning was full of sweet goodbye cards and reminiscing over teddy bear theater. Maren made sure to put little pencils, erasers and stickers in prep for next year.
She did the best she could and knows she put them on the path for greatness.
She is going to miss them terribly.
She leaves her jean jacket in the classroom, leaving her arms bare. She wears a bright yellow dress that stops at her knees, she then switches her shoes for sneakers. It was almost eighty degrees, the sun was high in the sky, unfortunately there were no clouds.
She hopes she doesn’t start sweating buckets or worse the kids complain they are too hot. But she pushes those thoughts aside and gets the kids for the second part of the day.
Maren lines them up (they can barely stand still) and leads them outside. Finally they make their way to the grassy fields. There are already a few classes out there, so Maren moves them along to the field #1, the kids can play soccer and make dye shirts.
Before they can decorate their shirts, she sits them down in a circle under a shady tree. Like clockwork, they sit criss-cross applesauce in the grass and wait for instructions.
“Alright, there are four designs you can do.”
She laughs at the way the kids all lean in carefully. She holds up some shirts that are already dry.
“Okay”, she says, clapping her hands, “We have the starburst, a heart, the pinwheel and the spiral.”
“Can we choose any color, Miss Maren?” Joey, one of her students asks.
“Yes, Jo, any color you want.”
Joey gleefully does a fist pump. He leans over to his friend, Chris and they begin whispering ideas.
“Miss Maren, what if we mess up, will someone help us.” Daphne asks, her green eyes brightening up.
She loves how Daphne is never afraid to ask for help.
“Yes, there will be teachers to help you.”
“Alright, everyone let’s get in line.”
The kids spend fifteen minutes looking at various colors. With the help of other teachers, their world is full of pink, red and blue, orange, purple and green. Combinations that she thought wouldn’t ever work on paper but they blended quite nicely. She watches as their eyes light up seeing the beauty of seeing their creations come to life. It warms her heart. Their glee is infectious as she sees students show off their shirts to their friends, and compares them.
“Miss Maren, Miss Maren.” Maren is sitting down reading her book when she hears Nova with her bouncy brown curls runs over to her.
“Look at my heart.” She gleefully grips the shirt in her hands, the pink and green paint staining her palms.
“Looks amazing, sweetheart.”
Nova jumps with joy, “Miss Maren, come make a shirt with me.”
“Sure.”
Before they move on to field #2 (the bouncy houses), they eat ham and cheese sandwiches and lemonade. While her students are talking amongst themselves Maren gets a text from Lee.
“Hey baby, I’m on my way.”
“Awesome, we’re out front.” She texts back.
Maren feels her cheeks warm, her boyfriend is so sweet. Lee was granted permission by the school to serve ice cream to celebrate the last day of school. After a few months of dating Maren had advocated for Lee to serve his desserts, the parents, the staff and the students loved his sweets and him so it was a perfect match. Flash forward three years later and her and Lee are still going strong. They even live together. She can just melt just thinking about it.
The last few months has been Lee had been crafting the perfect menu. Maren had even got her students to vote for what ice cream should be included. They had spend hours trying various combinations, she had still taste the butterscotch on her tongue.
“Ice cream!” Someone squeals and like a bee loves honey, it’s like every kid on the field comes running.
She sees Lee with a big mobile ice cream cart stop in the middle of the field. Thankfully the kids don’t completely swarm him. He watches as they walk around the side and start pressing their fingers to the grass, asking for their ice cream. She sees his cute little ice cream baseball hat with A Drop Of Sugar I’m bold bubble letters on the front. His brown curls still sticking out of his hat. He’s wearing a short sleeve black t-shirt with orange and gray stripes on the front and dark colored jeans. Once he serves some students and teacher their icecream Lee pushes the cart toward her way. Maren gets up and meets him halfway.
“You have to be burning up,” Maren says. Lee shakes his head, his curls pressing against his forehead.
“Nah, I’ve been in a freezer for like three hours thinking of last minute ideas.”
She smiles, “Okay.
“Hello Mr. Lee.” Nova and Daphne ask.
“Hey, he ruffles Nova's hair and gives Daphne a fist bump. Lee had been attending various school play’s helping out with concessions. One time he sold kettle corn, drizzling caramel and chocolate on sweet buttery kettle corn. The kids nearly ate his whole supply when the play was over.
“Do you have kettle corn today?” Daphne asks.
“No, not today, but I do have ice cream.”
“Yay, what kind?” Nova says,
“Please have strawberries, please have strawberries.” Daphne says underneath her breath. Lee chuckles.
“I have strawberries but with a special twist.” He watches as Daphne leans in, pressing her nose against the glass, her brown eyes sparkling.
“Wow, strawberry cheesecake.” Daphne yells. Nova covers her ears.
“I want to try that one.”
Lee gets his scoops and scoops of strawberry cheese cake into a small plastic bowl. He gently places the bowl into her hands, “Here, enjoy.”
Daphne smiles, she lifts her chin, the light hitting her nose just right so you can see her freckles.
“Thank you, Mr. Lee.”
“I want… um, Miss Maren, how do you say this?” Nova asks, she points to the icecream in the far corner. Before Lee had shown up, he made sure to stick a piece of tape for the ice cream flavors in front of each tub of ice cream.
“Animal Cracker Apple Pie”
“Ahhh… Animel Crack pple pie”
“Close.” Maren says, “It’s a bit of a mouthful, try again.”
Nova huffs, “Animal Cra-cker Apple Pie.”
“Good job.” Maren beamed.
Lee scooped some ice cream into a bowl and placed it into her hands. It was barely in her hands for three seconds before she gave her scoop a giant lick. Lee loves how his sweets can bring so much giddiness.
Nova skips off, meeting Daphne in the middle of the field. Maren watches as the kids run around and enjoy their ice-cream. She reaches over and grabs Lee’s hand, she gives him a small squeeze. Not a second a later he squeezes her hand back.
The end of the day rolls around and she folds up all of the student’s tye dye shirts and put them in zip lock bags. The buses had rolled into the bus loop. Maren lined up her students one last time and one by one they disappeared onto their bus.
Maren can’t lie, her heart aches a bit.
“Bye, have a great summer.” She gives Joey a big hug. Joey with his strawberry blonde hair and his green eyes gave her a big wave before disappearing on the bus.
Maren turns to her last student, Nova. Nova stands there,with her big brown eyes and her light up pink and gray sneakers, she has tears running down her face.
“Oh Nova.” Maren kneels down in front of her. She immediately wraps her arms around her.
“I wanna stay with you and our class.”
“I’m sorry honey, this is the hard part, we had so much fun together, but do you wanna know a little secret”?
“What.”
“You are now a first grader, you have such a beautiful world in front of you, you’re gonna have a new teacher, so many new friends, and learn so much.”
“But I want you as my teacha”
“I’m sorry it doesn’t work that way, she ruffles her hair, “But next year you can visit me whenever you want.”
She sniffles, rubbing red rimmed eyes, “Okay.”
Maren hugs her again then she pulls back, “Alright, it’s time for you to get on your bus.”
Maren grabs Nova’s hand, guiding her to her bus. Nova brudgedly gets on her bus and at the top of the stairs gives a small wave. Then she’s gone.
Once the buses are gone, Maren makes her way back to Lee. She swifts takes off his hat and plants a kiss on his lips. He immediately responds by wrapping his arms around her waist. His lips are soft and taste like chocolate, she runs a hand through his hair. They break apart, a big smile forms on their faces. Lee takes his hat and puts it on the top of her head,
“Looks good on you.”
She laughs, and it’s like music to Lee’s ears.
“You think so.”
“Yup.”
He gives her hips a squeeze before retreating back to his icecream cart. He has his cart on the backtop now, he’s fishing through the side compartments. She walks over and peers over the side, but his head is in the way so she can get a clear view of what he’s looking at. Then he pulls out a large silver dish, in that dish is two bananas ontop are three scoops of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry icecream. The icecream is soaked in a rich chocolate and strawberry syrup. The ruby red cherries are already sliding down the side of the ice cream mountain.
Maren looks at him with such fondness. She can barely contain the butterflies in her stomach.
“Lee, what’s this for?.”
“To celebrate.” He replies gleefully, “Another successful year.”
“Babe, she kisses the top of his head, “You’re the sweetest.”
They sit down on one of the park benches. She takes a swipe of chocolate ice cream and pops it into her mouth.
She’s been in the scorching sun all day but when this ice cream just sent a chill down her spine.
Once they settle down, Maren discusses her next steps, cleaning out the classroom, buying supplies and planning for next year.
But first she wanted to relax.
Maren wanted to take a roadtrip to her mother’s summer home. It was located in a quant little town in Western New York.
“You think you could take off for a few days.” Maren asks, taking a break from the icecream. Lee makes a soft hum. He’s too preoccupied playing with her fingers, her ring finger specifically quickly moving to draw small circles in her palm.
Maren continues,
“We can spend a few days, just doing nothing even try that maple cinnamon pancakes at Sweet Stacks.”
“Sounds good.”
He’s still playing with her hand.
“You okay.” Lee looks up now, he met her gaze for a second before looking away.
“Yeah, I’m good, I’m listening.”
He pops the last cherry into his mouth.
“Uh huh, she chuckles, “Anyways I’m thinking early July, maybe we can go for the fourth, the summer home has a great view for the fireworks.”
She and her mom had been going up to the summer house every year since she was seven years old. However, when she moved for her job, the trips became less and less frequent. She missed going. It was a place she had some her most cherished childhood memories. She loved being there and she wanted to share that with Lee.
“Last year was the baking competition in Nashville so we can finally go.”
“Sure.”
“They do have the best pancakes.” Maren teases.
“Oh really, Lee’s lips curl up in a wicked smile.
“Hmmm, and we can eat them while snuggling by the fire.”
“Sounds good .” He replies.
“Great.”
At point the icecream gone, their bellies were filled with sweetness, and Maren couldn’t be happier.
“I’m going to get my bag, be right back.” She turns to lift her leg over the side of the bench but Lee grabs her arm.
“Hey, wait a second.”
Maren stops and turns to face him.
“Okay”. She leans forward waiting for him to talk.
Lee stands up, and around the bench and stands by her.
“Shit, I thought I planned this better.”
Maren, who is sitting there, as comforting as ever says, “Tell me the first thing that pops into your head.”
“I love you, " he says earnestly, “You’re my best friend, someone I can always confide in.”
“You’re the only one who answers my calls and listens to me thoughts about strawberry jam and white chocolate at 4AM.”
He sighs, he shutters, the coldness of the ice cream finally seeping his bones.
“When you walked into the store that day, as cheesy as it sounds my heart was beating so fast.”
He breathed in deeply.
“I couldn’t believe that we’re here right now, it feels like yesterday we were on our first day.”
“You are so beautiful, you have this light that everyone is drawn and you are as sweet as the sugar I put on my sprinkle sugar cookies every morning.”
That sediment makes Maren laugh, her laugh makes his shoulders feel lighter.
“You make me feel like I can do anything, this especially, he digs into his pocket, there’s a small box. He gets down one one knee,
“Maren Yearly, will you marry me?”
Maren brushes her curls behind her ears, she’s smiling so hard, her mouth hurts. She gets on her knees too, placing her hand on Lee’s bent one. Lee’s knee begins to slightly bounce in anticipation. Lee, with usually all the confidence in the world, is scared to death. Afraid of what she might say, what she might do next. Has it been seconds or minutes, maybe years….
He can feel the blood rushing to his head before he hears yes. Damn, he is so grateful. Lee runs a hand through his wind ruffled hair, tears pool in his eyes before they start to stream down his cheeks.
“Oh honey.” Maren presses her forehead against his, he takes a look at her face, her big brown eyes boring into his. Trying to ease his doubts, she says “Of course I will marry you”.
Overwhelmed with emotion as well, Maren cups his face, her thumbs rubbing circles into this cheeks. He smiles, and before Maren can even say anything else he’s hugging her and kissing her cheek.
After a few minutes, they pull back but still have a firm grip on one another.
“You definitely surprised me.” Maren says, as he slides the ring onto her finger.
“I’ve been hiding this in the shop, knowing the one place you’re not going to look.”
”The jelly bean jar.” They both say, and Maren laughs and laughs, till the point she can’t breathe. They are soon silenced by Lee’s lips and all that’s left in the world is them, love and everlasting sunshine.