"Who was the first Black president of the United States.....?"
THE EASIEST QUESTION EVER.
Aaron hit the buzzer first and won. Jabez had studied for weeks and Aaron had studied for ten minutes. It was always this way. Aaron can't help it that he's smart as fuck, but I know Jabez gets sick of coming in second to his best friend. Jabez lifted his chin and took the defeat with maturity, but I could tell he was about to cry.
"Is that an iPhone....one?" Mahdi asked randomly, a wicked look in her eye while she tried to take a dig at me.
"Are you walking with us today?" Victor asked when we reached the top of the hill. I started to ask him and James if they wanted me to, but realized it was a stupid question and answered 'yes'. We walked away from the school and toward their house. As we neared it, angry mom's car roared up. I clutched my iPhone One, ready to call someone, anyone, if she attacked. Almost simultaneously, James' muscular brother pulled up again and the boys jumped in and he whisked them away.
The first graders continued to stare at the photo on my work ID.
"It's like a jail picture....." one mused.
"It's like, the evil version of you....." another mentioned.
"You look like a bat." a third offered.
"Aaron, I have a hard question for you. How would you feel about letting Jabez represent our grade in the Black History Bowl and you being our runner up if he can't be here?" I asked nervously.
"I agree with that. He is better prepared and that Obama question was easy. He knew that Colin Powell was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff."
"That is really kind of you." I answered.
"But, I want the same gift that he gets for winning." Aaron responded.
"Fair enough."
As I walked through the school lobby, a student screamed, threw her stuff on the ground and ran from her father. He chased her across the room.
"Sir, you have to stop....you can't be in here....you don't even have a mask...." a teacher sputtered.
"I'm gonna get her mother!" he yelled.
"Because me, I'll snatch her up!"
He went to the front door, opened it and screamed:
"COME GET YOUR CHILD!!!" across the carpool lane in front of the school.
"Imagine you had to describe this scene...." I mentioned to Baby Gustavo, trying to help him understand some random thing I can't even remember now.
"You'd probably say you see a teacher and a student at a table...." I continued.
"Or a mean person would say a student and an old lady." he added, while writing in his workbook.
I walked into the Center with the gifts. Jabez chased me around, eyes bright, asking over and over about what was in the bags. Well... there were expensive chocolates, big bags of blue Taki's and an alternate version of Uno called "Dos". They always complained that I would only play the original Uno with them and I had brand new Dos decks for each of them.
I tried to stare straight ahead, pretending not to see, when one of the first graders kept raising their hand while I was on lunch duty. Finally, I went over there.
"He's messing with me!" she howled, pointing at some other kid, while waving a club sandwich around.
"He said eatin' bacon will make me turn white!"
"Um, I can tell you for a fact that that's not true." I replied.
"It IS turkey bacon." one of my co-workers mentioned.
"Well, that would probably do it." I responded.
"Probably with a side of kale."
Nelson and I watched the other kids proceed down the sidewalk. He's a big kid and often takes a little rest at the top of the hill before making his way the rest of the way home. A janky little second girl ran off ahead of us, her pants half falling down. Nelson burst out laughing.
"Cassi be saggin'!" he exclaimed.
"Wanna come by my house and eat some chips?" he added.
"Thanks for the invite, but I have to get back to work. See you tomorrow." I responded and headed back down the hill.
"IT IS THE WORST GAME EVER. BORING. AND STUPID." Aaron said loudly, swinging the gift bag around and looking over his shoulder, just to make sure that I heard him.
"Thanks for the chocolate, Ms. Wagner." he added sarcastically and walked out of the door.
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