*NICO*

I’m standing behind my desk overseeing the kids after handing out some work for them to do.  As I’m looking around to see if anyone looks like they need help there is a knock on the open classroom door.

I glance over to see Thais standing there with Zainey.  Looks like Zainey finally got out of the hospital.  That’s good, but in a way I’m kind of sad because that means I won’t be spending as much time with Elijah anymore.  He’s so adorable I can’t even put it into words.  I’m half way across the room when I see Devin raising his hand trying to get my attention.  He is one of my brightest, most inquisitive students which makes him one of my favorites. 

“Yes Devin?”

“Teacher?  Who’s that at the door?”  I smile to myself.  See?  He’s a curious little thing.

“That’s a friend of mine.”

“No, I mean who’s the kid with him?”

“Ah, that’s one of his sons, why do you ask?”  Hmm, I wonder what’s going on in the little head of his.

“He’s cute, that’s why.”  Oh my I didn’t see that one coming, I hold in my laughter.  Well I guess we already know one kid who is gay.  I hope the road ahead won’t be too rocky for him.

“Yeah, he is.”  I raise my voice a little to address the whole class now.

“Kids, I’m going to step outside for a minute, I’ll be right back.  If you need me I’ll be just outside the door.”

I step outside and shut the door behind me to keep curious little ears from hearing and as not to disturb the ones that are actually working.

“Hi, I wasn’t expecting to see you today.”  Thias stands there looking a bit sheepish while Zainey just stares at the opposite wall looking uninterested.

“Yeah well, I wanted to stop by and see you while we were here.  Zainey just got out of the hospital so I came up to get Elijah so he can spend some time with him.”

“He’ll be happy to see Zainey I’m sure.”  I mutter mainly to myself.  Thias lifts my chin up and gives me a good long look as if he’s trying to figure something out.

“Hey, he’s been talking none-stop about you all week.  I’m glad you were there to distract him from Zainey.  No matter how excited he’ll be to see Zainey, I’m sure he won’t forget about you.  He adores you.”  How is it he managed to pinpoint the problem when I barely knew what it was myself?

“Besides” he goes on.  “You are always welcome at our place so you’ll see him again.”  At this Zainey looks over and gives a tiny scowl like he’s not too sure what to think of that.  Matthias just ignores him and goes on.

“Anyway if I’m not mistaken you have plenty of other kids to deal with….”  He trails off as he looks at my classroom door and gets a puzzled look on his face.

I spin around to see what he’s looking at, only to see a little boy’s head peeking out from the window.  A window mind you that is too high for an 8 year old to reach, and this isn’t just any boy either.  I sigh realizing I have to go in and take care of this real quick, but at the same time I feel like suppressing a laugh.

“Hold on a second I’m going to go talk to him.”

I open the door to see that Devin had dragged my chair all the way over to the door just to get another peep at Zainey.  He evidently was so absorbed watching the other kid that he didn’t realize I saw him.  He startled when I opened the door.

“Devin, please go sit down.”

“B-but…”

“No, please just do it, you should still have work to do anyways.”

“Do I have to?”

“Devin.”  My tone lets him know he there is no room to argue, though it is hard to keep a straight face and be stern with a kid like him I must say.  He sighs in defeat and goes back to his seat but not before I notice him give a last quick glance to the door.  I really do smile this time.

I turn around so I can go back to Thias, Devin haven been taken care of for now. 'When I shut the door again I see Matthias just standing there still with the puzzled look on his face.

“What was that all about?”

“I think Devin might have a crush on Zainey.”

“WHAT?”

This time I give in to the temptation and actually do laugh.

A/N Sorry. I didn't realize it would be so short when I posted it, but it seemed a good place to leave it.