Pupil {Muke}

Half

Obstacles, of course, are developmentally necessary: they teach kids strategy, patience, critical thinking, resilience and resourcefulness. ~Naomi Wolf

Michael's POV

"So, class," I said as the period started. "I am not going to be here for class today. Yesterday I went and talked to some of the teachers at Stepping Stones Preschool and now I have to go and talk to them again, so you will have a substitute. I expect that you will all behave and you have plenty to work on."

"You actually talked to one of the teachers?" Mariah asked and the students seemed slightly shocked that I did.

"Did you not want me to?" I asked.

"No, I just, well teachers usually don't follow through with that kind of thing, I feel." Mariah said. "I don't think we really expected this to happen."

"Well, fortunately for you, I am not the rest of your teachers." I smiled. "I intend on keeping promises. Just promise me that you all can behave while I'm gone."

"We promise Mr. Clifford!" The class responded. I left them with the substitute and found myself walking through the sun, a short distance over to the building where the preschool was. I walked inside and instantly back to where Luke's classroom was. When I tapped on the door as I walked in the students turned to me as Luke gasped and smiled.

"Am I interrupting something?" I asked with a smile.

"No, no." Luke shook his head. "Kids, this is Mr. Clifford, he works over at the high school where some of you might attend school in a few years. Who knows, you could end up having him for a teacher! Everyone say hi to him."

"Hi Mr. Clifford!" The children said to me.

"Hello." I said.

"So everyone, Mr. Clifford is going to spend some time in our classroom and do you want to know why?" Luke smiled.

"Why?" The group of students asked.

"Because the big kids from the high school are going to come and hang out with us!" Luke clapped his hands together. "What do you all say to that? Won't that be exciting!" There was an uproar of excitement and Luke smiled at all of the children. He lit up as he interacted with them. "But let's start with making sure we include Mr. Clifford, then we can meet all of our new friends soon!"

"Mr. Clifford, you can come sit next to me!" A small girl smiled at me. She was blonde and wearing a bright blue dress that matched her hopeful looking eyes.

"Go on, Michael." Luke smiled to me as he saw my unsure look. I walked over and sat between this girl and one of her friends. "Oh my goodness guys! We forgot to do something important, do you know what it is?"

A bunch of students raised their hands.

"Annabella, what did we forget to do?" Luke asked the girl whom asked me to sit with her.

"We didn't introduce ourselves to Mr. Clifford." She smiled. Luke nodded his head. "Can I go first?"

"I don't see why not, go ahead." Luke smiled.

"Hi Mr. Clifford, my name is Annabella!" She smiled and held out her hand as if she wanted me to shake it. I reached out and shook her hand and she smiled.

"Nice to meet you Annabella." I smiled.

The next five minutes went on like this, Luke seemed ecstatic with these children, and I could see why. They were all really good to him, and I thought my students were good to me.

"Okay guys, we're going to do some math, so go sit at your tables please and thank you!" Luke smiled and the students all stood up, Luke looked to me with that same smile. "Are you having fun yet, Michael?"

"This is insane." I laughed lightly. "You really love these kids it seems."

"I treat them like I would my children," Luke said. "If I had any." I smiled what he said, as it was an endearing thought. "You can go sit with Bryan over there at his table." Luke pointed towards the empty seat. "The student that usually sits there is missing today. Poor little Nina caught the cold."

Luke and I stood up off the floor and I walked over to where the empty chair was. "Hi, Mr. Clifford!" A small red-headed girl smiled at me. "Do you remember my name? It's okay if you don't." Before I could say anything she continued. "My name is Holly!" She extended her hand out to me and I shook it.

"Do you want to know what my first name is?" I asked the kids at the table and they all seemed overcome with joy about it. "My first name is Michael."

"Really? You don't look like a Michael!" Holly laughed. "Did you know Mr. Hemmings first name is Luke?"

"I did." I smiled.

"Michael stop distracting my kids." Luke laughed from the front of the classroom, the students erupted into their own laughter. "Holly, just for that I want you to show Mr. Clifford your best counting skills. Can you go up to ten for me?"

And she slowly, yet surely, counted her way up to ten and Luke clapped his hands. "Very good, Holly. Now a challenge. Does anyone think that they can start at ten and go backwards to one?" A few hands shot up. "Okay mister Aron, go ahead!"

He counted back down to one - but skipped four - and smiled wide. The whole class clapped. "Very good, Aron, but you forgot poor little lonely four. However, I still think you deserve a gold star for taking the challenge, what do you think class?" The students clapped along and agreed as Luke handed a sticker with a little sparkly gold star to Aron.

They did a bunch of exercises like this, and eventually Luke looked at the clock on the wall and smiled. "Okay! Class why don't we show Mr. Clifford our poems?"

"We've been writing poetry lately, it's really good Mr. Clifford." Bryan told me. "Oh! Mr. Hemmings!"

"Bryan, please remember to raise your hand." Luke gave a warning smile to the boy. "What do you need?"

"We should have Mr. Clifford write us a poem!" Bryan smiled wide and Luke turned to me with a devilish grin.

"Bryan, I don't know how to write poetry." I said.

"Well, we can teach you." Bryan smiled.

"Excellent idea, Bryan. Why don't we all work together to help Mr. Clifford write his very own poem?" Luke smiled. "So who wants to start with the first phrase?" Hands shot up into the air. "Go ahead, Janna."

"It was a bright and sunny day at school." Janna smiled as she watched Luke write it on the board.

"Very good, Janna." Luke said. "Now, can you tell Mr. Clifford what he has to do?"

"Mr. Clifford, next you continue the story but you have to have your phrase rhyme with school!" Janna smiled. "If you need help you can just ask."

I laughed and shook my head, at first thinking how ridiculous this way, but in the end caving into it. I glanced over to Holly and gave her a grin. "Holly had bright red shoes and she felt super cool."

Luke laughed at it and wrote it on the board. "Holly why don't you do the next sentence?"

"Mr. Clifford showed up and came to have fun!" Holly said. The class was adoring the entire exercise. "Now Mr. Clifford you have to rhyme with fun!"

"Okay," I nodded my head. "And he listened to Jacob count back down to one."

We continued the entire poem until it was done and the students left the room to go to lunch, leaving Luke in the classroom. He smiled after them, ensuring that each and every one of them had their lunch and that he would be in the cafeteria soon enough.

AUTHOR'S NOTIFICATION; Ariana

I f**king love children.

Hugs, Kisses, Cuddles and Serenades xX