Room To Grow (Frerard) (Completed)

2-Shit Shit Shit

The sound of an infinite number of children began to travel down the hallways of the school, foreshadowing the approach of the many students who would soon be entering the classrooms. Frank found himself staring at the door in anticipation, awaiting the entrance of the first student with fear.

When the first student did arrive, he stood in the doorway of the classroom and returned Frank's stare. "Ms. Way?" he asked in an obnoxiously high-pitched voice. "Who the hell is he?"

Frank's eyes widened at the small child with close cropped black hair and a toothy grin. Meanwhile, Ms. Way sighed heavily. "Peter Wentz, where on earth did you learn language like that?"

"My daddy," the little boy said in a proud tone. "He said it yesterday. Mommy says hell is a bad word but daddy is a good person, so it can't be that bad. Who is he?" He eyed Frank suspiciously again.

"This is Mr. Frank," Gee said, gesturing for Frank to stand up, which he did. "He's going to be helping me teach this class."

"You're not very tall," the child said, before putting his backpack in a cubby on the side of the classroom and then walking to his spot on the rug.

Frank shot a panicked glance at Ms. Way, who just giggled in response. "Pete, that's not a nice way to talk to Mr. Frank," she said, but Pete wasn't listening, or just chose to ignore her. And then Ms. Way was distracted by the two girls who walked into the classroom.

"Good morning, Ashley. Good morning, Hayley."

"Good morning, Ms. Way," the two girls chorused in unison.

The smaller one smiled sweetly at the teacher, one of her front teeth missing and giving her a slight lisp. "Your skirt is very pretty, Ms. Way."

"Thank you, Hayley," Gee said, grinning affectionately at the child.

Frank rolled his eyes. "Teacher's pet," he mumbled.

Pete gasped and turned around, "Hayley, Mr. Frank just called you a teacher's pet!"

Hayley, who had been putting her Powerpuff Girls backpack into a cubby, looked at Pete with wide eyes. "Who is Mr. Frank?"

Pete pointed to Frank, "He is. He's really mean."

Ashley walked toward Frank from the cupboards, her head held high as if she was royalty. "He doesn't look mean. He looks like a teddy bear." She embraced Frank, resting her small head on his stomach and startling the man, who looked to Ms. Way for assistance, only to see her out in the hallway with some of the children.

"Hi?" Frank said, and gently attempted to remove the child from his chest.

Pete wrinkled up his nose, "Gross, Ashley, you're gonna get cooties."

She shrieked into Frank's ear, causing him to wince in pain, and recoiled. "Mr. Frank has cooties?"

"I don't have cooties, they're not even a real thing," Frank said, but he was ignored by the children who were still chattering.

"Dunno," Pete said with a little shrug. "He could."

A small hand rested on Frank's back and he turned around, startled. "He doesn't have cooties," the dark haired girl said sincerely.

"How do you know that, Elisa?" Pete asked indignantly.

"His heartbeat is normal. So he doesn't have cooties."