“Shit,” Haddie hissed under her breath. “That’s the second marker he’s used as lipstick today. I wouldn’t care so much if it didn’t dry the damned thing out so quickly,” she added in a stage whisper, then turned over her shoulder. “Christopher! Your pod’s rainbow needs to be on the paper towel, not on your mouth, for the experiment to work!”
Levi’s eyes widened in horror as Haddie pivoted back to face him. “Isn’t that, like, toxic or something?” he asked.
Haddie snorted. “They’re not Sharpies or paint pens,” she assured him. “Washable Crayolas are nontoxic, but I’m still going to have to do some explaining to Christopher’s parents. Again.”
A small hand tugged on Haddie’s pinkie finger. “Miss Martin, I think the big man should help us grow a rainbow so you don’t have to work so hard.”
Piper stared up at Haddie with a smug expression that told herteacher she knew Haddie was reaching the end of her rope with their growing-a-rainbow activity, something that had looked like pure fun on one of her favorite teacher Pinterest boards and that was, instead, pure chaos.
Haddie sighed, her shoulders relaxing as if Piper had just presented her with the answer to all of her problems. True, Levi probably knew less about first grade science than he did about coaching soccer, but this was an all-hands-on-deck sort of situation, and Levi was standing right there, sporting two perfectly capable hands. For science. Capable hands forsci-ence.
“You do have an extra free period,” Haddie reminded him with her brows raised. “Want to join us?”
She didn’t have to warn him that first graders were way different than high schoolers, did she? Just as she was about to open her mouth to explain as much, Levi crossed his arms and declared, “Sure! Why not?”
Piper changed her grip from Haddie’s pinkie to Levi’s and gave him a soft tug. “Comeon, Mister. My table is almost ready to go. We’ll show you what to do.”
Haddie huffed out a laugh and shrugged as Levi let Piper lead him to her seat where, despite the empty, miniature-sized chair where Haddie had just been perched, Levi opted for kneeling, which she appreciated since there was no way the chair would survive an attempt to support Levi’s full body weight.
“Here’s what we’re doing,” Piper began, and Haddie grinned, letting out a breath of relief just as she bent down to whisper in his ear.
Were those…goose bumps on his neck? Maybe theair-conditioning was set cooler than normal. It wasn’t as if she could tell. She’d been perspiring since the activity began.
“You’re in good hands,” she assured him, and then strode past him to Christopher’s pod, dropping down next to her student who she could only describe as looking like a vampire who’d just feasted on Smurf blood. That was, of course, assuming Smurfs bled blue.
“Come here, buddy,” she said to Christopher and then pulled a wet wipe from the dispenser in the center of their pod and used her time scrubbing Christopher’s lips once again as an opportunity to eavesdrop on the pod behind her, Piper’s pod.
“Are you listening, Mister?” Piper asked, and Haddie’s shoulder’s shook with silent laughter.
“Are you laughing at my bwoo wips?” Christopher asked, and Haddie shook her head.
“Of course not,” she assured him. “Want to know a secret?”
At this, Christopher beamed and nodded his head.
Haddie stage-whispered, “I don’t think Mr. Rourke knows what he’s doing, so it’s funny to watch him try to figure it out…or watch Piper tell him what to do.”
“Piper tells evweeone what to do,” Christopher replied. “She’s bossy. Like you.”
Haddie heard a snort from behind her—a very masculine snort.
“Well,” Haddie replied, holding her head high. “Then I guess if she wants, Piper can be a great teacher someday.”
Christopher nodded like,Ah yes. I see what you did there, Miss Martin.
“Misterrrr!” Piper called again. “Are you even listening to me?”
This time Haddie had to repress a snort. She glanced over her shoulder to find an exasperated Piper, hands on her hips, staring through narrowed eyes at Levi.
“What?” he asked. “ I mean, no. Sorry, Piper. I was distracted,” he admitted with a sigh. “Sorry. I was distracted by Christopher’s artistic expression,” he told her, but Levi’s eyes caught Haddie’s instead of Christopher and his painted lips.
“He’s just doing it to get my attention, butI’mnot gonna look.” Piper groaned. “Are you sure you’re not looking at my teacher? Because it looks like you’re looking at my teacher and not Christopher.” Then Piper giggled. “Are you going to paintyourlips so Miss Martin will pay more attention to you?”
Levi coughed and then replied with an emphatic “No.”
Haddie turned back toward Christopher and his rainbow while silently willing Piper to continue her line of questioning.
“No you’re not looking at Miss Martin, or no you’re not going to paint your lips to get her attention? Do you think Miss Martin is pretty?”
