Both Sides of the Story [cake au.]

four

a/n: switching back to past tense cause I can't do this - also, none of y'all noticed the last chapter was in 1st person. I fixed it up but guYS TELL ME THESE THINGS

It has nearly been a month since school had started, and Calum was nowhere closer to getting to know the blond man he seemed to be infatuated with.

He had learnt that his name was Luke, but that was about it. He wanted to know more - and he wanted to be able to say that without sounding like an absolute creep.

But for now, he had other things to do. Such as getting his students to settle down after their lunch break.

"Alright! So today, with the photos you brought in, we're going to be doing something that many of you have probably already done before," he explained, before gesturing to a plastic basket with coloured paper in it. "Raise your hands if you've made a family tree before!"

Surprisingly, only four students (out of his class of eighteen) had made one before. "Oh! Well, I guess not that many of us have made them before. Who-"

"Have you made one before, Calum?" one of his students asked.

Calum looks over at the curly haired boy, nodding. He couldn't even get mad at him for interrupting, really. "Yeah, I have! I love making family trees. So, does anyone want to explain what it is? Yes, Laura, go ahead."

While the girl explained, quite animatedly, that a family tree was "a drawing of a tree with pictures of your family members on it!", Calum made sure he had all the supplies out and ready to go for his students.

"That's right!" Calum agreed when she finished explaining, uncapping his whiteboard marker and walking over to the board. He quickly drew out some lines and stick figures, explaining how he had two parents and an older sister. "You can also add your grandparents and your cousins, and maybe some of you have great-grandparents! You could add them, too!"

Once he was sure everyone knows what they had to do, Calum started handing out sheets of coloured paper and glue sticks to the kids. They got to work excitedly, laughing and comparing photos all while drawing out big trees on their papers. Some of them were really elaborate while others were much like his, very simple and looking more like a cloud than an actual tree.

"Is this good?" a little girl asked, and he crouched down to look at what she was drawing. She had placed the photo of herself in the middle, beside her parents, which made him chuckle.

"It's looking good! But you and your parents aren't the same age, right? Otherwise you'd be super old!" She giggled, and Calum smiled as  he reached over and slid the photo of her down the page a little. "See, try to put it by age. Your grandparents are the oldest, so they go right on top. And you're the youngest, so it goes right on the bottom!"

"Oh okay!" she answered, reaching for the glue stick. Calum ruffled her hair as he stood up, continuing to walk around the room. Everything looked good, so he was about to head back to his desk when he heard someone call his name.

Turning around, he noticed it was Charlotte. She had one hand in the air - well, more like bent over the top of her head - and a confused look on her face.

"What's up?" he asked her, crouching down beside her as well.

"I don't know what to do." She pouted as she continued, "I don't live with my daddy and my mummy anymore. Do I still put both of them in my tree?"

"Yeah!" He smiled. "She's still your mummy, right?"

"Yes." She nodded firmly, but within seconds she stopped looking so sure. "Well, I don't see her very much. But she's still my mummy."

Noticing her distress, Calum tried to ease her confusion. "Hey, okay. Tell you what. You can keep or take out whoever you want. You don't have to put a line to connect your mummy and daddy if you don't want to, or you can take out your mummy. Don't worry! It's your tree. There's no right or wrong."

"Okay." She grinned toothily at me. "Thank you Calum!"

He just chuckled, telling her and her neighbour that they were doing a good job before standing up.

As he began to help another student glue down a photo, he realised that he was going to have to give Ashton the satisfaction of winning the argument this time around.