Notes: Thanks to Mari and Sammy for the literal squeal-inducing feedback! All aboard, ladies :-)
Huge thanks to SuperSammy for stepping in with the assist!
Readers and REAL McRollers - Apologies for the late posting. Might be a new REAL World record. Real life just got in the way today.
Thank you for your amazing support, as always. Can you believe this is the FIFTH visit to Jacob's class?! I have a feeling you're going to like the ending ... :-)
Hope you enjoy!
Commander Steve Goes to Fourth Grade (A McRoll in the REAL World Story)
"You're here!" Jacob's excited voice came from across the gym as soon as he spotted Steve and Catherine in the doorway. He ran toward them, dodging classmates who were already hard at work setting up their big class project. Skidding to a stop in front of them, he beamed, clearly overjoyed at their presence. "Mom said you had a bad case this week and you might have to come another day."
"We did have a case, but I texted your Mom and Cody that it was over and we'd be here as planned," Steve said.
"I know, they told me. But I thought maybe one of you'd want to stay home with Angie today, but you're both here!"
Steve smiled, ruffling the fourth grader's head. " 'Course we are, buddy. We promised."
"And Lifesize Candy Land sounded way too fun to miss," Catherine added, wrapping her arms around him when he gave her a hug.
Jacob grinned, turning back to the gym. "It's gonna be so awesome. See the Chocolate Swamp? That was my idea!"
"Lieutenant Catherine! Commander Steve!" Several voices chorused their names as familiar classmates of Jacob's joined them by the door.
"Keone, Sophia, Alani, hi," Catherine said, smiling warmly at the trio. "It looks like you all have been hard at work."
"We get to do Candy Land all day!" Alani exclaimed excitedly.
"Jacob said you might not be able to come," Keone said.
Steve smiled. "We're here, and ready to help."
"Hey, almost-fifth graders," came an affable male voice behind the kids. "This Candy Land isn't going to build itself."
"Mr. Rey! Look who's here!" Jacob said, pointing to Steve and Catherine.
"Looks like our latest recruits," the teacher said. "I'll get them going, you all get back to your stations." He looked at his watch. "T minus two hours till our first group of players and that includes lunch." As the kids scattered across the gym to continue with the Candy Land construction, he smiled at Steve and Catherine. "Great to see you as always, Catherine, and this must be the famous Commander Steve."
"My husband Steve McGarrett," Catherine said by way of introduction. "Steve, this is Anthony Rey."
"Nice to meet you," Steve said, shaking the younger man's hand.
"You, too. Thank you both for coming. As you can see, we've got our hands full."
"Looks like quite the project," Steve remarked, surveying the gym where students were working with parent volunteers to lay down a colorful game track interspersed with iconic Candy Land sights.
"I saw the idea online and thought we'd give it a shot," the first year teacher said. "I was a little worried Candy Land would seem to babyish to them, but the whole class got really excited about it. They've done nearly all of the planning and construction, and today's the day everything finally comes together."
"What do you need us to do?" Catherine asked.
"We're ready to put the Gumdrop Mountain up," Mr. Rey said, pointing to an area where a pile of fabric and cardboard waited. "Can you lead that group?"
"Sure."
"And Commander, we're having some trouble in Licorice Lagoon. Could you give that group a hand?"
"Licorice Lagoon," Steve repeated slowly.
Catherine pressed her lips together, fighting a smile. "Strangest place you've been deployed, Commander?"
"It's up there," he quipped. He nodded to Mr. Rey. "Point me in that direction."
"Are those pool noodles?" Steve asked when he joined the small group of students next to the hand painted sign for Licorice Lagoon.
"Yeah, we painted 'em black and red," Keone said, holding one end of a black noodle. "Don't they look like licorice?"
"Licorice is gross," Ameera cut in before Steve could answer. "At least the black licorice is. Do you like licorice, Commander Steve?"
"It's all right," Steve said noncommittally. "Don't really eat it very often." He looked at the kids. "So what's the plan with the, uh, giant licorice here?"
"They're supposed to be swamp trees, but we can't get 'em to stay up," Keone said, frustration evident on his face as he let go of the noodle and it flopped to the ground. "See? We thought we could keep 'em in place by taping them into boxes but it doesn't work." He gave the box at his feet a little kick.
"Maybe we should use more tape," Owen suggested.
"How's that gonna help?" Ameera said, one hand going to her hip. "They're not falling out of the boxes, the boxes are falling over."
"Okay, why is that?" Steve asked. "If we identify the problem, we can come up with a solution."
Keone shrugged. "The noodle's too heavy, I guess."
"Too heavy for an empty box …" Steve prompted.
"We can put something in the box!" Owen said excitedly.
"Yeah!" Ameera agreed, her eyes brightening.
"Do you think that'll work, Commander Steve?" Keone asked.
Steve smiled. "Only one way to find out."
Meanwhile, the Gumdrop Mountain was slowly rising from the gym floor. Earlier in the week, the mountain team had cut up cardboard from refrigerator boxes donated from a local appliance store. They were now working on arranging the pieces in the rough shape of a large gumdrop that was taller than Catherine.
"More tape over here," Catherine said as she held two pieces of cardboard together with Jadon's youngest brother Reggie.
Jacob ran over with the roll of duct tape and after a moment was able to rip a piece off and hand it to Reggie.
"Right here?" Reggie asked, glancing at Catherine for guidance.
"A little higher," Catherine said. "Right above my fingers. Maybe one more piece, Jacob."
"This stuff is hard to rip," Jacob said. "Are you sure we don't need scissors?"
"It's harder to cut with scissors," Catherine said. "And you get that tape gunk on the blades. Remember how I showed you. Give it a nice clean rip."
"Got it!" Jacob said, but in his exuberance, the tape ended up stuck to itself. "Oops."
"Oops," Catherine echoed with a smile. "Try again. I think one more piece will do it."
"There," Jacob said, handing the strip over more carefully.
Catherine stepped back as Reggie smoothed the tape into place. The trapezoidal structure held.
"All right!" Jacob exclaimed. "We did it!" He exchanged a high five with Reggie.
"Now we can decorate!" Ani, the fourth member of their group, said excitedly, holding up a large piece of bright green sparkly fabric.
"Yes! Let's do it!" Jacob said, moving to help her unfold it.
"I think this is definitely a four person job," Catherine said. She and Reggie joined them. "Where'd you get this anyway? It's a perfect gumdrop color."
"My mom found it on clearance at the fabric store," Ani said. "The lady at the store said to take a picture when we're done 'cause she wants to see it."
"Well, I think this is going to look great," Catherine said. "It's certainly big enough to cover the cardboard."
Working together, they maneuvered the fabric up and over their cardboard structure, then worked on arranging it so that it resembled a huge gumdrop.
They stood back to admire their work.
"That is definitely a Gumdrop Mountain," Catherine said, a broad smile on her face. "Great job, team."
Jacob gasped. "Aunt Catherine! I just got an idea!"
"What?"
"We should put gummy bears on Gumdrop Mountain! 'Cause Uncle Steve brought gummy bears last year when he came to visit with you, remember?"
Catherine smiled at the running joke from Steve's visits to Jacob's class, starting all the way back in kindergarten when one of the kids had insisted Steve should get Catherine gummy bears because she was his girlfriend.
"Yeah!" Ani agreed. "Bears live on mountains, right?"
"Some kinds do," Reggie, the resident animal expert, said.
"I bet Ms. Lee will let us print some pictures in the library, then we can color them and tape them on the gumdrop," Jacob said excitedly. "Can we, Aunt Catherine?"
"Let's finish these smaller gumdrops to line the path, then we'll ask Mr. Rey if there's time for the gummy bears," she said.
"Okay! Come on, guys!
By the time they took a break for lunch, the gym was completely transformed. There was a small house built out of cardboard and painted to look like Nana Nutt's near the doorway. Brightly colored balloons and large paper plates decorated with swirls and ribbons, wrapped in cellophane, and placed on long white sticks created Lollipop Woods. Gumdrop Mountain, complete with gummy bears, made for a striking landmark in the middle of the room, while smaller gumdrops in a rainbow of colors surrounded it. A dark brown piece of fabric was arranged over smaller boxes as the Chocolate Swamp. Large red and white candycanes on loan from a family's holiday decorations formed Peppermint Forest, white fabric on the floor to look like snow. The licorice team had succeeded it getting all the giant licorice to stay upright, curving around like vines with the boxes at their bases covered in tissue paper to disguise them. They circled a large piece of black fabric arranged to look like a licorice-colored lagoon. At the back of the gym stood a huge cardboard castle, it's spires and turrets decorated like ice cream cones. King Kandy's Castle served as the finish line of the colorful game track that wound through the entire room.
Despite having worked the entire morning to create the giant Candy Land game, the class of fourth graders was bursting with energy to show off their creation to the rest of the school.
"Class, I am so impressed with all your hard work," their teacher said as he stood in front of the assembled group. "This looks amazing!"
His words were met with cheers from his class and the adult volunteers who'd come to help.
"I'm proud of your teamwork, your perseverance, and your creativity, and you should all be very proud of yourselves and each other." He smiled at the group. "Now there's just one more thing to do before our first class comes to play … and that's to get in character!" He motioned towards several boxes lined up against the wall. "Find your gingerbread vests if you're going to be a gingerbread girl or boy, and those of you who are going to be a station character first, I've got all your costumes and props here."
As the kids excitedly began donning costumes, Mr. Rey approached the group of adults including Steve and Catherine with an armful of brown paper bags. "I've got extras for adults," he sing-songed, holding up one of the bags that had been cut with armholes and a slit down the center. Each bag had been decorated with construction paper "buttons" and "frosting."
Several of the adults took the vests goodnaturedly, including Catherine.
"How about you, Commander?" Mr. Rey asked, holding up a bag with bright yellow decorations.
Steve winced, eyeing the offering skeptically.
Catherine chuckled, nudging him with an elbow as she put on her own paper bag vest. "Come on, Commander. Could be worse. You could be Lord Licorice."
As if on cue, Keone dramatically yelled, "I am Lord Licorice, mwahahaha!" while holding his arms out to display a red cape. His antics dislodged the cartoon villain-style mustache on his face and he pushed the fallen side back up above his lip before laughing maniacally again. "Mwahahahaha!"
Steve nodded, taking the proffered gingerbread vest from Mr. Rey. "Gingerbread man it is."
The first players in the Lifesize Candy Land game were a class of kindergarteners who looked around the gym in awe. Jacob and Takisha stood on either side of the double doors in their gingerbread vests, handing out paper plate spinners to pairs of students.
"You flick the spinner and move to the color that matches where the arrow lands," Jacob explained, pointing to the large colored squares in the floor that formed the game track.
"Take turns using the spinner," Takisha said.
Jacob nodded. "Yeah, it's not fair for one person to do all the spinning."
"And if you land on the squares with licorice on them, you lose a turn," Takisha added. "So the group behind you might jump ahead."
"Follow the track all the way to the castle for a treat!" Jacob finished with a broad smile. He looked behind him at Catherine. "Did we remember everything, Aunt Catherine?"
"I think you got it all," she said. "Great job, you two." She looked at the first pair of kindergarteners and gave them an encouraging smile. "Okay, give it a spin and see what your first space is."
A girl with two long braids flicked at the spinner on the paper plate. She gasped excitedly when it stopped. "Two reds!" she cried, looking at her partner. "Come on! We're going to win!"
As they hurried off, Jacob looked at the next pair, handing them their own spinner. He smiled proudly. "Everybody gets to win in our Candy Land."
"Why didn't you bring Angie?" Ameera asked Steve as he adjusted one of the giant noodles in Licorice Lagoon.
"Angie would be trying to climb Gumdrop Mountain over there if she was here," he replied, nodding toward the green gumdrop structure.
"When are you going to have another kid?" she continued. "Angie needs a brother or sister."
Beside her, her best friend Kalea nodded. "Yeah. Or both."
"Yeah, both."
Steve quirked an eyebrow, having half expected the question given previous class visits. "We haven't decided to have another kid."
Ameera squinted up at him, thinking that over. "But you haven't decided not to, have you?"
"Well, that's true," he admitted. "We haven't decided not to, either."
At that moment, one of the kindergarteners passing Licorice Lagoon tripped over his shoelaces.
"Careful, DJ," his teacher called from behind where she was helping another pair of students with their spinner.
"You okay there, bud?" Steve asked the young boy.
DJ's eyes opened wide at the sight of the tall, imposing figure addressing him, but his face softened when Steve knelt down to his level.
"Looks like you've got a knot in your shoelaces," he said. "Do you need some help?"
The boy nodded, tentatively sliding his foot forward.
Steve swiftly loosened the knot then looked at him. "Do you know how to tie your shoes?"
DJ shook his head.
"He always needs help," his partner, whose nametag read Zion, said.
"Nothin' wrong with needing help sometimes," Steve said. "Here, watch me. We make a loop with each side of the shoelace. Then we wrap one around like that, pull it through, and tighten it." He smiled reassuringly at the kindergartener. "There. Just takes some practice. Make two loops, wrap one around, and pull it through. Okay?"
DJ nodded, a small smile appearing on his face.
"What do you say, DJ?" his teacher said, coming up behind him and placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"Thanks," he said quietly.
"No problem," Steve said easily as he stood. "You enjoy the rest of the game, all right?"
"And don't land on any of my licorice squares!" Keone called out. "For I am Lord Licorice, and you'll lose a turn! Mwahahahah!"
Steve chuckled, shaking his head as he glanced at the rambunctious fourth-grader. He turned back to the kindergarteners and nodded for them to continue.
"It's your turn to spin, DJ," Zion told him, passing over the spinner.
Steve smiled encouragingly. "Have fun."
DJ's smile grew as he took the spinner. He glanced up at Steve. "Okay," he said, his voice a little more confident.
Steve smiled as he watched the pair advance along the track, just avoiding one of the Lose-a-Turn licorice squares.
"You gotta work on your shoelace tying lessons before Angie gets older," Ameera commented, coming up next to him.
"Yeah," Kalea echoed.
"What's wrong with my method?" Steve asked.
"You should call 'em bunny ears, not loops," Ameera told him. "Little kids like that better."
Steve chuckled, glancing over to where DJ and Zion were pointing, slightly awed, to the Peppermint Forest where Mr. Rey, now transformed to Mr. Mint with a candy cane striped shirt and elf hat, stood ready to greet them.
"I'll remember that."
After a full afternoon of practically non-stop Candy Land players from different grades, Mr. Rey organized his class and the remaining volunteers into demolition crews.
"We'll save what we can and store it for future years," he said. "This was so fun, I know I'm going to want to do it again. But I don't know if anything will ever top this first year. You all did such a fantastic job!"
"And we only have a few suckers left," Jacob announced, looking at what remained of the prizes that a few gingerbread vest-clad students had helped King Kandy (aka Owen's grandfather) pass out when players finished. Everyone received a sucker with a strip of colorful paper around the handle like a flag reading, "You completed Candy Land!"
"How many?" Mr. Rey asked.
Jacob did a quick count. "Eleven."
Mr. Rey looked around at the whole class. "So that means how many people went through our Candy Land adventure this afternoon?"
Several hands shot right up.
"189!" Takisha said.
"Yes!" Mr. Rey said. "Because we got 200 suckers and the prize team made 200 of those awesome flags."
"I think everybody had a good time," Keone said as he spread his cape with a flourish.
"I think you're right," Mr. Rey agreed. "So give yourselves as well as your classmates and our parent, friend, and grandparent volunteers a big round of applause then let's get to work taking all this down."
"What was this year's lesson?" Catherine asked as she and Steve packed away the pool noodles in a large cardboard box.
He looked at her quizzically.
"Every year it seems as though you learn something new from the kids," she clarified. "I was just wondering what you learned this year."
"Well, for one thing I learned that I apparently I need to work on my shoe tying teaching method before Angie gets older," he said.
Catherine chuckled.
Steve placed the last pool noodle in the box and grabbed a roll of tape to seal it for storage. "I also learned that Ameera, who as you know is my go to authority on subjects like this, thinks Angie needs a brother or sister. Or possibly both."
He picked up the newly sealed box with a grin and headed towards the storage room leaving Catherine standing with a surprised smile on her face.
Hope you enjoyed!
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