Live in the Moment - Lashton

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

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Ashton floated around the class, checking on all the tables to see how they were doing. It was currently an English lesson, and the young children were matching different homophones to their meanings. Although Ashton was a huge fan of indulging in a little bit of Shakespeare and tearing apart the lines, he was still content with seeing the little smiles on the children's faces when they got an answer correct. Today they were even more eager to get each answer correct as he had told them if they did, he would give them a prize.

"That one's not quite right Aaron," he remarked as a blonde boy slid the wrong definition next yours. "This is your pencil case," Ashton prompted, picking up the boys pencil case, power rangers covering the fabric and filled with a bunch of lidless pens. He scanned the definition and pointed to a definition with a lack of certainty. "Well done!" Ashton praised him, watching all the other individuals on the table peer over to try and copy.

He walked back to the front of the classroom and grabbed some glue sticks. "Remember when you think you are finished, raise your hand and I'll come and check them. Then you can glue them in." He scanned the class for any raised hands. "And only glue the edges, we don't want glue everywhere!"

After about another five minutes of Ashton prompting and answering irrelevant questions, people began to put their hands up to get their work checked and then were handed a glue stick to carefully stick the poorly cut out pieces of paper into their books. Ashton thought the glue was the worst thing to give to six and seven years old as they would glue anything and anywhere, leaving the lid off so it dries up or pushing it up so high that it gets all over the lid. But he did not trust them with tape either.

Theo put his hand up from where he sat in the back left corner, next to a young girl. The pair had sat quietly, positioning the little cards on their table. Ashton had not changed the seating plan, he did not want to create even more change for the children as he thought to have a new teacher was enough. He had read on below the table where Noah and the young girl sat, that the teacher sat them there so they were not overwhelmed by the chaos of the rest of the class.

From quick a quick brief, he had learnt that the girl was quite shy and quiet, therefore her parents asked if she could sit somewhere quieter. When asking about Theo, one of the teachers said that they were friends and they got along well. Ashton knew that the small boy did not have confidence issues, therefore took their word.

"We did it together!" Theo exclaimed as he looked up at the teacher, showing him their work. Scanning them and muttering out definitions.

"Well done both of you! They're all right! Do you want to stick them in?" he asked, looking at the girl who nodded and then at Theo who nodded too. Ashton handed them both a glue stick and loitered for a moment, watching them stick them in their small exercise books. As Theo reached forward to get one of the paper squares Ashton could not help but feel concerned about the thin wrist that slipped out from underneath his jumper.

-

Ten minutes before the school day ended Ashton had collected up all of the books and placed them back in the box that had a label on saying English. He then silenced the class by counting back from 5, all of them respectfully looking forward and sat quietly with the occasional whisper of excitement.

"You all did incredibly well today!" he remarked. "Homophones are not easy, and you have all shown to me that you are budding grammarians — people who love grammar!"

"Ew!" one boy remarked, unimpressed by Ashton's joke.

The curly-haired man laughed and continued on. "Thank you, Kyle! Can anyone tell me what pair or trio you found tricky to define? Don't be afraid."

"Stair!" a young girl called out, not putting her hand up, but Ashton not minding. There was a hum of talk in the class before Ashton hushed them again.

"Yes, that one is difficult! But, as you use them more and more, you will not get muddled up with them and can swap and change them at any time. We will practise them again tomorrow, but for your hard work today I've got you each a chocolate bar." It wasn't pure chocolate, but a small biscuit covered in chocolate.

There was a loud roar of excitement as Ashton handed out one to each student, most of whom thanked him with a huge grin. When he got to Theo he noticed how nervous the boy looked. As he handed to the small brunette he said, "You've earned it." Theo shook his head and handed it back to the teacher. Ashton sighed and continued to hand them to everyone else in the class.

When he was done he said loudly, over the noise. "If you want to get your bags and coats ready for the end of the day, you can do it know!" He went back over to Theo and asked him if they could talk outside of the classroom.

Once outside he could tell that the small boy was sad. Ashton handed him the bar again, and this time he took it in his hands. "You are allowed chocolate Theo, it is not a bad thing in small amounts."

"Daddy said I am not ever allowed chocolate," Theo responded, looking down at the bar intrigued about why it was so bad. He saw everyone else eating it and he wondered what made him different.

Ashton nodded understandingly, he agreed that you had to listen to what your parents said, but he thought it was wrong that the young boy couldn't even accept the small bar. "Do you want the chocolate Theo?" he asked curiously.

Theo nodded eagerly. "I like chocolate!"

"Then you can have it. Everyone else is enjoying it, it's not fair that you don't. And this is a chocolate biscuit, so it's better for you.

"I'm not allowed biscuits," Theo added, however deciding to tear open the packaging, much to Ashton's relief.

Ashton stilled frowned though. "Just eat it, Theo, You've earned it."

"Daddy's going to be upset" he muttered, inspecting the brown block of food.

"He doesn't have to know Theo. You don't have to tell him."

"But that is lying," he argued. Ashton just sighed, deciding to give up as the boy's father had obviously engraved some strong morals into his mind.

"Okay," he whispers, patting the boy's shoulders and walking back into the class. Theo shortly follows taking a small bite of the chocolate and smiling. He wished his father would let him have it more often as it tasted a lot better than the vegetables and other boring food he was always given.

-

"There's my mum," Aaron yelled, as he got the front of the line. Ashton let him go off to his mother, as he did with every other child who had spotted their child.

When it got to Theo, he eagerly wanted to see what the boy's father was like. Theo pointed over to where his father was, leaning against a wall, waiting for his son. Ashton bit his lip slightly at the slightly younger man, from over ten metres away he could see his t-shirt clinging to his bones. "Go on then," he whispered, letting Theo walk over to the man. "Have a good evening!"

Ashton did not understand the relationship between the father and son, and what was going on. But, he really did want to try and help and make it work between the pair so that they were both content and safe.

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Thank you so much for reading.