Jailbird

~Chapter 3~

"Ms. Sienna, Luke won't stop touching me!"

"Luke, corner. You know Tim doesn't liked to be touched. I'm tired of having to tell you." I snapped at the rude five year old who had troubles with boundaries and personal spaces.

While Luke kept his forehead cool with the wall of the corner he was standing in, I turned back towards the small class and started setting out the utensils for the activity.

"Now, you all know Valentine Day is around the corner, so we're making our own Valentine for our special someone. It can be your mommy, daddy, grandma, grandpa, best friend, sister, brother, cousin -- anyone! Just make sure that someone is special to you." I finished.

When my hand sat down the bucket full of crayons, the eight kids went wildly creative. I was greater up to have the ten minute breather.

Last year around the start of summer, I applied for the daycare position at the community center near my house. I had done a few babysitting jobs, so to me it was a walk in the park. I actually had only applied for the summer daycare program, but they claimed I was so fantastic with the kids, that they wanted to keep me yearly. Now I actually have a full-time job here and despite the few rude kids I get every now and then, I love it.

Glancing up at the clock, I felt my stomach flip as it was ticking closer and closer to daycare being over. I just kept thinking about how after I was done with the work day, I would go and take Zedlin shopping.

For some reason, I felt myself becoming infatuated with him. I wasn't quite sure if it was because he screamed trouble, but then again I had a good enough feeling that that was the exact reason why.

To take my mind off of the shopping trip to come, I glanced at the corner Luke was keeping company and made my way towards him. He was drawing imaginary shapes on the walls next to the creases of the corner.

"Are you ready to join your friends?" I asked; my arms crossed tightly over one another.

Luke didn't look up at me, but instead just nodded his head.

"I need words, Luke. You're a big boy, so use your words like one. Are you ready to join your friends?" I asked one more time.

After a bit of hesitance, he resigned. "Yes."

"Good. Go on." I gently nudged his shoulder and he soon whirled around and trotted towards his seat at the table. I watched him jump into the activity as if he was never absent for the first five minutes.

Luke was a good kid, he just had some weak points when it came down to treating people how he'd want to be treated. One thing about working with kids is that they each are different and most don't know the right way to things; which is where the teaching part of the job kicks in.

Some of them just need a little help.

Forty-five minutes later and I was giving the kids instructions to get on their jackets and shoes. If they had on socks, I allowed them to play inside with their shoes off. Being shoeless makes kids a little more comfortable sometimes.

One by one, parents and family members started retrieving their rightful kid. Fifteen minutes after the pickup time, I was left with two kids. A sweet African American little girl named Jasmine and then Luke.

Luke, majority of the time was always picked up late. His behavioral issues reflected in his family. Every day his family picked him up late and it was never guaranteed that it was the same person coming to pick him up.

Today, it happened to be his older brother, Mason. Mason, I met when he first started picking Luke up during the summer. His parents added him to the pick up list and he was only too willing, because he had me to talk to.