The Unlikely Daddy

• 20 •

Mr Preston was browsing his emails during his lunch break when one came through from Alfie's mum. It was the signed consent for stating that she allowed Mr Preston to give Alfie addition support with changing his pull-up if he required it. Mr Preston got this printed off, placing it on his desk to give to Alfie to sign when he came back that afternoon.

Admittedly, Mr Preston was nervous about taking on the care and education of Alfie. Most of his students in the past had had behavioural problems, meaning they were too disruptive and naughty to be kept in mainstream lessons. Alfie was the complete opposite. He never did anything to get himself in trouble or that warranted sanctions from his teachers, so this made the situation all the more complex.

Mr Preston took out a pen and a piece of paper and decided to making a general plan for how Alfie's days were going to go in his class. He carefully structured the day with several opportunities for Alfie to go to the bathroom to try and ensure that he would avoid having accidents. He then took a second piece of paper out, as well as a ruler, and began making a chart for Alfie. The chart allowed for Alfie to put a sticker down if he made it to the toilet, as well as a black mark if he had an accident. Mr Preston believed this would help give Alfie a visual representation of how well he was doing as well as allowing himself to track any patterns that Alfie was presenting regarding going to the bathroom.

As Mr Preston drew the last line of his chart in the school bell rang, indicating that lunch break was over and the students would be moving on to their afternoon lessons. Mr Preston got Alfie a new book for history, writing his name on the front and placing it down on his desk.

By the time Mr Preston had sat himself back down at his own desk Alfie was hovering by the classroom door.

"Come in, kiddo" Mr Preston smiled, gesturing for Alfie to come inside.

Alfie shuffled in, not knowing whether to sit down or stay standing up.

"I thought we would quickly go through some things before we started your history lesson" Mr Preston said, pulling Alfie's chair out to signal to him that it was okay for him to sit down.

"Okay" Alfie said shyly.

"So, firstly I have this consent form. I'll let you read it yourself, but what it is basically saying is that if ever you need my support when you've had an accident that you're okay for me to give you that" Mr Preston said, handing the sheet of paper over to Alfie that his mum had already signed.

"I don't need any help" Alfie stated, not impressed by the idea of Mr Preston invading his personal space on that level.

"And that's absolutely fine. If you don't need my help then I will let you do it on your own, but if it turns out that you do need my help I can only give it to you once this has been signed by you and your guardian" Mr Preston tried not to scare Alfie by the idea.

Alfie noticed his mum had already given her consent, so he felt obliged to too. He quickly wrote his name on the bottom of the form and handed it back to Mr Preston.

"Thanks, kiddo" Mr Preston said before filing the form away for safe keeping.

"Hopefully we don't need to act on what the form describes, but it's just important that we have your consent written down" Mr Preston continued.

"Uh-hu" Alfie mumbled, wanting to move on as quickly as possible.

"Okay, so this is also something I'd like you to have a look at" Mr Preston said, handing the daily schedule he had just written to Alfie.

Alfie scanned the page, noticing that Mr Preston had written in for him to go to the bathroom six times throughout the day.

"See where I've written 'try the toilet'?" Mr Preston pointed to the sheet of paper.