some dreams come true

“oh, lord no.  they ain’t takin’ care of little flynn!” she laughed, shaking her head at the thought of sending the gecko home with the kids for a weekend or something and having to hear about the parents dealing with the animal, “i got the kids a stuffed animal to take care of.”  she explained before opening her phone up with a picture of the gecko and the stuffed lizard next to each other.  

“oh lord, don’t get me started on slime.  i’ve had kids come in with it and let me tell ya, that ain’t easy to get rid of.”  kelsi made a face at the thought, slightly cringing as she thought about the time, recently, where she’d spent nearly forty five minutes getting left over slime off of her blazer after work.  a cut and color?  kelsi froze momentarily--she wasn’t opposed to it.  but she didn’t want anything too dramatic.  “so long as you’re not gonna tell me one thing and then have ‘em do somethin’ else.  i don’t really want to wind up with, green hair.”  kelsi said, coming up with the first color she could think of.  she looked down at her hair, which was just longer than shoulder length and then she tilted her head and put her attention back on lyla as she spoke and explained her thoughts.  “a bob?  how short are you talking?”

kelsi scrunched up her nose as she sighed, “nope.  no big plans.”  she answered with a nod of her head.  kelsi was glad she had a couple of days of a break for grading any homework--not that there was ever too much to seriously grade in kindergarten homework.  “we can go now, i’ll even treat for dinner or somethin’ too.”

kelsi quickly followed him and smiled when the notebook was retrieved.  the brunette took the book and flipped through it quickly, nodding her head.  thankfully, it was her notebook.  “i musta kicked it out of the car when i came inside.”  the girl explained.  she shrugged--not that there was anything too interesting on the pages.  she had notes for her class, upcoming unit ideas, and some really awful doodles ( she could kind of draw some flowers, but that was about it ).  “i’m glad it was here, though.  otherwise i’d have found it somewhere else...probably not as quickly though.”

“more formal?”  kelsi questioned with a slight laugh.  “yeah, i don’t think formal is gonna be needed.  unless you’d like to call me your highness, i did always want to be a princess.”  it was a joke, clearly.  she didn’t have much to go off of.  teaching the kids of people she knew was tricky, because she wanted to be seen as a professional but sometimes it wasn’t that easy.  

kelsi handed smee over and the dog greeted annie with a soft huff--not really a bark--and his tail wagging.  “oh thank god.  i don’t think i could eat all of the cookies alone.”  kelsi giggled, closing the door to the house once annie was inside and heading back toward the kitchen and heading to wash her hands in the sink.  

“yeah, but you love me enough to counteract the hatred for malls, lils.”  kelsi spoke with a chuckle, shrugging her shoulders and hoping she was right.  it wasn’t like she ever really liked going to the mall to go crazy shopping.  she liked looking around and getting out of the town, really.  “i dunno.  whenever’s good for you.  i need a break, i’ve been planning too much schoolwork lately.”

“sometime next week?  when it woulda been past my birthday?  my special day?”  kelsi held her hand to her chest as she gasped, shaking her head as she sighed at the thought.  but this was why she did what she did--so her cousin couldn’t cop out and forget completely about her birthday on the actual day.  kelsi handed him the bag with his name on it, filled with his favorite candies.  she shook her head.  “you’re a literal child sometimes.”  she laughed as she said it.  “if i’m fifteen does that make you five?”  

kelsi shook her head, “not in that phrasing i don’t think.”  she shrugged, chuckling softly.  she didn’t think that, or see how other could either.  she just did what she did to help other people out and make them feel better--that’s what she’d always done.  “oh, he is?  i can’t really fight anybody, but do you need me to knock some sense into him?”  she questioned, taking a bite of her own cake that she’d taken out for herself.  

kelsi scrunched up her nose at the comment and shook her head.  “they’re gonna like you, ‘cause i like you.”  she assured him.  her grandparents were simple like that.  usually the people who kelsi who brought home--her friends and everybody--they tended to like.  though they were also honest if they had any questions or concerns.  but she was fairly certain that her nana and pops would like nash.  once she steps inside, she slides her hand down his arm to take his hand and calls out, “alright.  we’re ready for cake.  you can come out of the kitchen.”  she grinned and almost immediately her grandmother stepped out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron as she shook her head.  “not like i was spyin’ on ya or anythin’ dear.”  susanna said, but she was quickly followed out of the kitchen by darwin who was shaking his head behind his wife, “she was snooping.” the white haired woman, kelsi’s nana, gently smacked her husband’s shoulder and then gestured back to the two standing in the doorway still.  “oh hush, darwin, and offer them some drinks.”  and the woman gestured for everybody to follow her back into the kitchen where the cake still waited.

kelsi blinked at the automatic response that lyla just had right on hand.  it was something the other didn’t even need to think about.  which was so different than kelsi’s whole existence.  “well it’s kinda hard to tell the kids no glitter.”  kelsi explained with a shrug of her shoulders.  working with the kids every day, it was interesting to see how they handled themselves and how they learned.  but even if they were getting better, they were still a bit of a mess when it came to clean up ( and that didn’t always get better with age ).  kelsi hummed, “say i did a new look.  not that i’m plannin’ on it.  but just...what if.  what would you suggest?”

kelsi shook her head, “no worries, mais!”  kelsi had spent a lot of time during the festival trying to meet up with people.  since it had been around her birthday she’d been looking forward to hanging out with her friends.  but she’d also understood that it didn’t always work out like that.  “oh, it’s great!  i’ve got a class pet and we’re doing a color wheel now.”

“’m more of a baker, honestly.  i make these really great muffins and i can make cupcakes well too.  but i love to cook too.  i’ve got a whole buncha cook books, all filled with recipes i love to make.  got ‘em all marked and everythin’!  it’s real fun spending a whole lotta time in the kitchen.  but sometimes it’s lonely work, so i wind up blastin’ my music and singing along.  one time i accidentally hit somebody in the eye with a spatula because i was distracted.”

kelsi turned her attention toward lily with a shrug of her shoulders.  “can we go down to the city soon?  i’m thinkin’ we should go to the mall or somethin’.”  honestly, it would be good for kelsi--for both of them--to get out of town for just a couple of hours.  kelsi took a sip from her sweet tea and nodded.  “i promise it’ll be fun.”

kelsi turned her head toward the doorway, “hey!  sorry for calling you out of the blue, but i found this in the classroom and figured he might need it for homework.”  kelsi didn’t give much homework, but there was an upcoming spelling quiz that chandler’s son would need his notebook to go over things for.  she held out the notebook and turned to look at him with a smile.  “i didn’t see it ‘til after pick up, otherwise i woulda made sure he took it with him.”