Feisty by Julia Kent

Author:Julia Kent [Kent, Julia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Julia Kent

Chapter 9

We're settling in for morning circle, the children in their slippers, Jahra and Janelle ready to start passing the sacred stone, when Mattie looks at me innocently and asks, “Miss Fiona, are you going to marry my Uncle Chris?”

“Huh?” I'm finishing my sip of tea as Mattie asks. Nineteen children turn to me, eyes curious.

Michelle and Ani's eyes have questions.

“My mommy told Uncle Chris that he should kiss you again. When people kiss, it means they want to get married. Are you going to marry Uncle Chris?”

“If she does, then Miss Fiona will be your cousin,” JoJo says with the gravity of someone who is completely wrong but has no idea.

“Not cousin. Aunt!” Myles calls out.

Half the students look at him in amazement. He's saying something unscripted.

And it's correct.

“I am not,” I say, a frog in my throat, “I am not going to talk about my private life.” Unfortunately, I’m not really ready to explain what that means to a group of four-year-olds.

“Is that like our private parts?” Jahra asks, looking at her lap with narrowed eyes.

“No, I don't mean–”

“Did Mattie's uncle give you a safe touch or an unsafe touch, Miss Fiona?” Janelle is in fiery warrior princess mode.

“He–”

“Private is personal! Adults don't touch you in your private places!” Myles shouts.

Michelle and Ani exchange a look.

I wave my hands. “All eyes here,” I declare, and they follow my command, which makes me feel, for a shred of a second, like I have some sliver of control. “We are not going to talk about me, or Mattie's uncle. We are here to learn about ferrets and pineapples today.”

“Do ferrets eat pineapples?”

“Are ferrets from Hawaii? My grandma went to Hawaii and ate pineapples.”

“When I eat pineapples, my tongue falls off.”

“Does not!”

“Does too!”

“Then how can you talk? I see your tongue!”

As the standard bickering begins, I breathe a sigh of relief. Whew. Saved from four-year-old curiosity by four-year-old arguing.

Michelle takes the peace stone gently from Janelle, who has dropped it unceremoniously next to her foot so she can enter into the fray, and says in a calm, authoritative, nonjudgmental voice, “I have the stone.”

The class goes quiet.

We spend the next two hours moving through work cycles, a group effort to test the hypothesis that ferrets don't lose their tongues when they eat pineapple. Myles's mother helpfully lent me their family's pet ferret for this lesson, though I hadn't planned to feed it pineapple. I've done enough research to explain to the children that ferrets are carnivores and cannot digest fruits easily.

“But can he have a taste? Fairy the ferret really, really, really wants some!” JoJo squeaks as the animal wiggles in my hands.

“No!” Myles says, gleeful and excited to know something he can contribute. “He will be sick! We want him to be happy! Sick is not happy!”

“But I am happy when I eat pineapple,” JoJo argues.

“You're not a ferret,” Ani reminds her.

“I could be!”

Tap tap tap

Every student looks up, so startled as a group that two empty chairs behind standing children pitch backwards and fall with a muted thump on the braided rug.

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