Disclaimer: I own nothing of CSI
The Mall
"Hi guys." Jackie greeted her students as they walked into her classroom.
"Hi Mrs. Stokes." Some responded, while others just smiled.
The room got somewhat crazy, as it did every morning when the kids first came in. For Jackie, the craziest parts of every teaching day was the very beginning of every day and the very end of the day, because the students were all rushing around.
"Here you go." One of her students said.
"Oh, thanks Christian, you're buying me lunch." Jackie said with a grin as one of her students handed her a five dollar bill.
"No, it's not yours, it's my lunch money." The little boy said, sounding surprised.
"Oh, really? I thought you were buying me lunch." Jackie replied with a laugh.
"No, you're a silly teacher." The little boy replied with a grin and a shake of his head.
Jackie laughed.
"Where does that need to go?" She asked the little boy.
"Up on the lunch shelf, but first I have to write my name on the lunch money paper so you'll know it's mine." He replied.
"You would be correct." She told him.
He grinned at her and went and put his lunch money where it needed to be.
A few minutes later the craziness had died down as the students had gotten settled into their seats and begun to work on their morning work sheets. Jackie looked around her room to see who was absent so she could take attendance.
When she looked across the room she noticed one of her students was sitting at his desk glaring at her.
"It's going to be a long day." Jackie thought to herself with a sigh.
"What's wrong buddy?" Jackie asked as she walked over to his desk.
"I saw you at the mall yesterday and I said hi and you didn't answer me, you just walked away." He told her, sounding more hurt than angry.
"Sweetie, I wasn't at the mall yesterday." She told him, she was confused.
"Yes you were, I saw you." He protested.
"No, yesterday I took my daughter to her piano lesson and then my whole family went to a friend's barbecue, I didn't go to the mall." Jackie insisted.
The little boy looked at her as if he seriously doubted her story. Just then a thought crossed Jackie's mind.
"I bet you saw my twin sister and thought it was me." Jackie told him.
"You have a twin sister?" He asked.
"Yes I do." She said.
"That's cool." He said excitedly.
"Yeah, and guess what, she's a teacher too." Jackie told him.
"I've never seen her at school before." He said.
"Well she teaches at a different school."
"Oh, ok." He replied sounding as if everything now made sense.
"How about I call her tonight and ask her if she was at the mall yesterday. Do you want me to do that?"
"Yeah." He told her.
"Ok, I will. But bud do you really think that if I saw you at the mall I would just ignore you?" Jackie asked.
"Yeah I do." He said.
"Now come on, you know I'd never do that. Don't I always say hi to kids in the hallway when they say hi to me?"
"Yeah, you do." He admitted.
"Ok then." Jackie said with a smile before she walked back to her desk.
Kids she thought to herself.
The rest of the day was typical and when she got home that night she called Carissa.
"Hey, question for you." Jackie said.
"Ok, what?" She asked.
"Were you at the mall yesterday?"
"Yes, why, are you switching to your husband's career and so you're practicing your interrogation skills?" She asked.
Jackie laughed "No, I'm sticking with teaching but one of my students saw you at the mall yesterday and he was very mad and upset that I didn't say hi to him."
"Oh, sorry, poor little guy, he thought his teacher just ignored him?"
"Yeah and he was really pissed about it too, you should have seen the look he gave me this morning. I told him I wasn't at the mall but he was so insistent about it, it finally dawned on me that he probably saw you, I promised him I'd call you tonight and find out. He actually thought it was neat that I had an identical twin."
"I do to." Carissa said.
"Me too." Jackie agreed.
The women talked for a few more minutes before Jackie said "Well Carissa I have to go start dinner, I'll talk to you later."
"Ok, bye Jackie."
Jackie went to start dinner, happy that she could tell her student that he had in fact seen her twin sister, so he would have absolutely no reason to feel like Jackie had ignored him.
The End!