To my surprise, instead of pestering Jade or getting angry at her, she went and knelt at her side.
“Hey, Jade,” she said in a soft voice. “I know you’re used to seeing me at school. But school is over now, and I’m going to be here instead. And I want to know what you like to do in the morning, but I can’t do that unless you help me learn how.”
Jade didn’t look at her, but I could see her wheels turning as she stared out at the window. “Why?” she finally said.
Jessie smiled. “Because I missed you so much I wanted to see you here, too, instead of waiting all summer for you to come back to school.”
Jade slowly turned to look at her, and Jessie’s smile grew. It was a sweet smile, nothing like the pinched grimace she’d given me. “Now,” she said, “Can you tell me which cereal is yours?”
I had to hand it to her. She was better than I’d expected, particularly for a first-year teacher. But as Jade slowly pointed at the green box, and Jessie immediately found a bowl and began to pour, I nearly grinned again. This was the part where I knew I should probably tell Jessie that Jade was going to erupt in less than half a minute. But no. I could play this in my favor after all.
Sure enough, the moment Jessie put the spoon in front of her, Jade scowled at the bowl and pushed it back. Crossing her arms in front of her, she leaned back and mashed her lips together.
“Jade,” Jessie leaned down again, “you told me this was the one you wanted. What’s wrong?”
But Jade just made another face at the bowl. “No!”
And it all went downhill from there until Jade was screaming, and Jessie looked like she was getting a headache.
“Jade, I don’t understand—”
“No! No cereal! No!”
I had planned to let the fit play itself out, for no other reason than to show Miss Teacher that I was indeed more necessary than my mother said. But when the kicking began, I went to the spice rack and pulled down the cinnamon. Before using it, though, I made sure to catch Jessie’s gaze and hold it as I sprinkled it all over the cereal, stopping only when Jade quit screaming.
Once her cereal was covered in cinnamon, Jade began to eat as if nothing unpleasant had happened, and I moved in to pour myself a bowl as well. I grinned at Jessie as I spread cinnamon over my own cereal.
“Really?” Her voice was tight and pitched a bit higher than before. “We have to leave in twenty minutes, and you couldn’t have done that sooner?”
I stuffed a spoonful of green cereal into my mouth and shrugged. “I wanted to see how you handled stress.”
Her green eyes narrowed. “The day I’m supposed to find her therapy center, you decided it would be a good time for that?”
“Pretty much.” I swallowed. “But don’t get all bent out of shape. I’ve already moved her car seat to my truck. She just needs to get dressed and brush her teeth and hair, and she’ll be ready to go.”
“So you’re driving us.”
“Obviously.” I shoveled another mound of cereal into my mouth.
“Don’t you have somewhere you need to be?”
“I had last night off, so I got ten hours of sleep.” I stretched. “I feel fantastic.”
If looks could kill, I’d be on death’s doorstep by now. She glared at me for so long I was sure she might pop a vein. But instead of retaliating, she finally closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath through her nose. Then she turned to Jade, who was focused on her food.
“Jade, I’m going upstairs to find your clothes. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Please try to focus on eating.” And without a single glance at me, she whirled around and marched out, after which Jade paused and looked up at me, her eyes bright.
“Nickleby mad.”
“Yeah, she sure is. But she’s right. We need to go soon. Eat your food so you can go see Miss Gina.”
Jessie returned a few minutes later with Jade’s clothes in hand. As soon as Jade was done eating, Jessie had her dressed so fast that even I was impressed. Then Jessie grabbed their bags and practically dragged Jade out the door. She reached my truck and stopped before picking Jade up and turning to the vehicle. I smiled as she tried to pull the handle with the hand under Jade’s legs. It didn’t work.
“She can walk, you know.” I sauntered over to them.
Jessica turned to glare at me. “We’re in a bit of a hurry if you haven’t noticed. Her lesson starts in—”
“I’m aware of when her lesson starts. Now let me put her in and go get settled in the front seat.”
