School interlude

I went into the school today to make some copies for an upcoming after-school course. While I was in the office (I was there for a couple of hours), I saw both kids, and their teachers.

I saw Kate's class lining up for recess. She waved happily to me, and I waved back. Later she told me she wanted to come and give me a hug. So I gave her a hug.

I saw her teacher, Ms. Naselli, who has told us before that she loves Kate. (Kate loves her, too.) I asked how Kate's day was going. Ms. Naselli told me how they have a reading group, and Kate, after the group was over, was excitedly telling about how well a new kid had done with the reading. Ms. Naselli said to her, Kate, that's really nice of you to be so happy for him. Kate kind of gave her a strange look, like it was no big deal for her to feel that way. "Well, he did a REALLY GREAT job!" So, Kate's really nice.

I saw Jack lining up with his classmates for lunch. As usual, he was talking and laughing with a couple of them about something or another. I waved to him, he waved back.

A few minutes later I saw his teacher, Ms. Gullotta. Asked how he was doing, if she liked his new haircut (he got a buzzcut yesterday). She said it looked great, but apparently Jack got teased by a couple of older kids, 4th and 5th graders, that morning about it. She said he was a little sad then. That the other kids in her class weren't giving him any problems, they all liked it. That it was just older kids teasing, like seniors do to freshman. I told her to tell Jack he could come talk to me if he wanted. He did, and I asked how he was doing, what the kids were saying, so on and so forth. He said they were saying he was bald.

I said, No, I'm bald. You're beautiful. And he nodded and smiled and was OK, and went back to lunch. Later I saw him running around happily with his friends at recess. Kids tease. I remember.

Later, driving home with Jack after dropping Kate off, I said, so Jack, you're not too sad about the haircut, are you?

And he smiled and said, "No, we're twins!"

I love those kids.