Rain Check?

~74~

  "Miss Abrams?" the intercom bellows, interrupting Dempsey during her creative writing hour. "Yes," she answers only mildly agitated. 

  "Can you come by the front office at the end of the day?"

  Knowing that she usually goes through that part of the building to check her mailbox after school she tells the secretary sure and goes on about her lesson. 

  Ethan comes up to her at the end of the day while the other students are packing up. "Miss Abrams?" he asks quietly. 

  Dempsey lifts her head from editing the writing from earlier in the day. "Yeah, bud?"

  He walks around the kidney shaped table, coming to stand right next to her. Ethan wraps his arms around her neck, squeezing her tight. "I miss you," he whispers as she rubs his back. 

  "I'm still here, sweetheart. Every day. I'm still here," she assures him with soothing words. But when he pulls back with tear filled eyes, she knows he's not just concerned because of her recent absences from school. He's taken note of her lack in family dinners and functions. 

  "Hey, don't cry," she takes her thumbs and wipes away the tears that fall. "We've still got a couple more months til school ends and then you'll be on your way to being a big fourth grader. Lots to look forward, like Field Day, and the field trip to the Boston Symphony, the ice cream party and yearbook signing day. So many fun things we get to do together."

  "It's not the same," he mutters before stepping out of her hug. 

  She'd been wondering if he had known something was going on. Over the last week that she'd been back he hadn't given too much away, maybe understanding that she'd been sick and that's why she hadn't been around Lisa's house as much. But, this behavior was unlike him, leading her to believe that he knows more than  a nine year old probably should. 

  The bell goes off, alerting the end of the day, causing the students to rush and line up in their appropriate spots. Ethan doesn't move as quickly as normal, shuffling his feet over to the car rider line. 

  Dempsey walks the first set of kids to the busses, leaving them with the other teachers to make sure they get where they're meant to go, before walking the second group on to the car rider room. 

  Ethan hangs back choosing to be the caboose of the line when normally he'd be smack in the middle, his mouth running a mile a minute, but not today. Dempsey sits her hand on his shoulder, giving it a small squeeze before he enters the room.

  Taking a deep breath, her insides shaking over the heartbreak of the little boy. She passes a handful of teachers and students on her way into the front office. "Good afternoon, Stephanie!" she calls out, coming around the corner and into the secretary's office. "You wanted to see me?"

  Dempsey realizes Stephanie is on the phone, she presses a button before acknowledging her. "Not me," she points outside her door across the hall, "Mrs. Parks."

  "Lovely," she mutters under her breath.  Crossing the hall she knocks on the closed door, waiting for a response.

  "Yes!"

  She pushes the door open, "You wanted to see me," she comments cautiously, her head barely over the entry. 

  "Yes, Miss Abrams. Come in and take a seat." She clicks a couple of times through her keyboard, using the mouse to close out a window on her computer before opening up a new one. Dempsey sits, waiting patiently as the redhead continues to act as though she's not sitting in front of her.  "Alright, so," she turns her chair towards her, fiddling with a stack of papers on her desk. "I had Stephanie run the expenses for your classroom against what you had in your account, which included the funds from that fundraiser earlier in the year. It looks like you've not used almost three thousand dollars. Why is that?"