Roomies (boyxboy)

After School

Picking Leah up from school was fine. Now that he was watching her, Cameron guessed he'd have to quit his job working at school in the afternoons. He kinda regretted that because he was trying to save for college. But whatever, he'd figure it out.

Leah was waiting by her classroom door, bouncing up and down. holding her teacher's hand.

"Sorry I'm late Kelly," he said. "I haven't walked here from the high school before. I think I might need to run if I need to pick Leah up on time."

Kelly James was the preschool teacher, and like always, Cameron had known her forever, or at least it seemed like it. She'd been hired when he was in junior high. She was a pretty, young teacher only 28 or so.

She smiled down at Leah and then looked up at Cameron.

"This little miss has had a good day. Don't worry about it Cameron. She's one of ours now. She can always hang out with me and be my big girl helper while we wait for you. Don't stress out. You're only ten minutes late."

"Cameron's here to pick me up! He's my new big brother!" Leah whispered the last part.  

"I know." Kelly whispered back to her smiling again at Cameron.

After helping Leah find her white sweater, Cameron said goodby to Kelly and quickly walked off school grounds. It would take them about 20 minutes to walk home. He wasn't in a rush, but if he stopped to say hi to all his mom's teacher friends, he'd be here all day. And although he could just wait another hour until his mom was ready to go home, and she could give them both a ride, he didn't really want to. He'd spent all his childhood at this school, and as much as he kind of loved it, he just felt like going home.

Leah chirped and gossiped all about her preschool day; the crafts, the games, the nice kids, the one mean girl who took her blocks. Cameron just nodded occasionally which made her happy. It was kind of nice to hold her hand as they crossed streets and the walk wasn't too far. The last little bit, Leah did start complaining, so he lifted her onto his back and carried her the rest of the way. She giggled and laughed. He laughed along with her. It was actually pretty cool to be a big brother, he thought.

At home, he got her a snack and let her watch some TV. He sat at the kitchen table and took out his backpack. No real homework on the first day of school. Just a few paragraphs about his summer reading for English, a worksheet in math, and the first chapter in Government. Nothing that took more than an hour. After that he guessed he'd have to entertain Leah and maybe make something for dinner.

"Hey, Leah! Want to help me make some chicken and broccoli for dinner?" he called to her.

She immediately ran to him, her little brown braids flying. "Yes! I can help. I'm a good helper! Miss Kelly said so!"

"Go wash your hands."

Rummaging through the cupboards, Cameron found an old box of cornbread mix. He and Leah cooked some frozen broccoli and baked some frozen chicken tenders.  Making the cornbread was fun, if messy.  Hopefully no one noticed a few egg shells that made their way into the mix.

Leah was folding paper towels and putting forks on the table when Jess came in around 5.

"Wow! What's all this?" she said throwing her stuff down by the door. She looked over at Cameron with wide eyes.

"I figured since we have Leah here an all, we should have dinner at the table, at least a couple of times a week." he shrugged. Usually they just sat in front of the TV, or Cameron ate on the couch with a book while Jess ate at the table while she corrected papers.