Mommy!" Finnick called as we walked through the door of their house. It was four o' clock and he was right on time as always. It always made Mrs. Odair jealous that her son walked home from school by himself, but she couldn't leave the house with her ankle injury, and she hated to bother Mags who had much better things to do than walk a six year old home.
"How was your day, Sweetheart?' she asked as he stepped into the doorway between the foyer and the living room. He was an adorable little boy. He was quite tall for his age, his hair was bronze mixed in with some blonde streaks from the sun and it was getting curlier as he aged. His two front teeth were missing and it gave him a bit of a boyish charm as he smiled widely at his mother.
"Fantastic, Mommy," he beamed, walking over to his mother and sitting carefully next to her so he wouldn't knock into her and hurt her ankle.
She smiled. He was such a ray of sunshine in their house. "What made it so great? What did you do?"
Well," he started, taking a deep breath so as to prepare himself to tell this exciting story. "It started off with the freedom of walking myself to school. Everyone was so upset because I was by myself and they had to walk with their I got to school and we made macaroni art which I will show you tomorrow once it dries. Then I showed everyone the stitches I got in my foot from cutting it on the coral when I was fishing over the weekend and Miss Shelley thought I was very brave and gave me a sticker. Then we read a story and Miss Shelley even gave us seaweed bread for snack! We never get seaweed bread for snack!"
That's great, Honey." Mrs. Odair said, ruffling her son's hair.
"That's not even the best part," he exclaimed.
Mrs. Odair laughed. "There's something that tops seaweed bread and stickers?
He nodded. "Annie Cresta's father didn't come to pick her up because he had to work late, so Miss Shelley asked me to walk her home and we held hands the whole way home." Finnick beamed, and his slightly chubby cheeks brightened with a light pink blush.
"Finnick?" Mrs. Odair asked her young son in a serious yet lighthearted tone. "Do you like Annie Cresta?"
"Of course I like her, Mommy. She's my friend."
"That's not what I meant…" She trailed off. How would she explain a crush to six year old? "Don't worry about it, Honey. That sounds like a great day."