Dolphins are Rapists

I walked into school, trying to look cheery, and greeted the school nurse, who has a duty station close to mine.  The first time I met her, she told me that this was her last year before retiring.
"Good morning, Ms. Warner!"  she said with a big smile, like she always does.  I never remind her that my name is not any of the versions of W that she calls me.
"I want to go home...." she said lowly, when I got a little closer, her eyes narrowing like slits.

I stared at a wall while I administered the Georgia Milestones test to one student, my second round of proctoring the hours long test and my third day in a row.  The trailer smelled weird.  An oddly familiar, sweet but musty, William S. Burroughs kind of smell an old apartment of mine used to have.  I looked at the time-out area the teacher-occupant of the trailer had set up.  A desk faced a rusty, but live, fuse box that advertised "WARNING.  POTENTIAL ARC FLASH HAZARD" and featured a drawing of person being thrown backward by bolts of electricity.

A movie was playing for the kids at the Housing Authority.  I opened up my work laptop while a few of my kids worked nearby, hoping to catch up on a few things.  Mahja cruised by, fresh from walking over from the middle school.
"Hey!  Your work Chromebook is the same kind they gave us at school!"  he said brightly, referring to the student Chromebooks the kids receive.  He hit a little circle in the bottom right corner.
"That's how you give yourself a nicer desktop!"  he added, putting a mountain scene for wallpaper on the desktop of my shitty faculty computer.
We looked for a new movie for the kids to watch.
"What about this dolphin thing, do you think they would like it?"  I asked a co-worker.
"Nah.  Dolphins are rapists.  Google it.  They won't even put males and females together at Sea World because no one wants to see that."  she responded.

The little ones were acting up.  Their older sister, one of the homeless kids I monitor until their bus comes after school, was talking to me.  She had been doing that a lot lately.
"I am getting glasses like yours, but red!"  she told me.
"Those will look great on you," I answered.
"Red was a good choice."
"When do you think they'll come?"  she asked.
"Maybe in like a week?"
"They said four to six weeks."  she answered.
"That seems like a really long time...."
"LeGary!  Stop it!"  she yelled at one of her little brothers.
I didn't even see what he had done.
"You ain't gotta talk to me that way...." he said lowly, eyebrows knitted together and chin down, with vampire-like laterals bared around his missing front teeth.
"I'm done here." she responded.
"I'm done going soft on you.  I've treated you soft because you're young but no, not anymore.  What do I get, I get this..." she continued, a harsh mother's voice and speech emanating from her lips.
"You ain't soft on us!  You hit!"  he hissed.
"And I can fight you!"
"Who taught you how to fight?"  she asked.
"Roassst...." the other kids murmured.
"I did.  You was using just your feet and you know what?  Feet don't hurt anyone.  I taught you to use your fists.  And I ain't going soft on you anymore." she continued.
"Yeah...." the peanut gallery continued.
"I will give you a black eye."
She clicked her long, false nails together and the boys got silent.  She is ten years old.

"I have a prediction."  Alejandro volunteered.  I was stunned.  I have been trying to get my students to use these reading comprehension techniques and I hadn't even asked for one, yet my quiet boy was volunteering.

"I think Ivan and Ruby will be friends.  I saw it on the cover of the book...."