Scott is sitting at his desk grading papers and listening to the sound of children playing outside. He also worked with his windows open. The sounds of the kids laughing made him forget that nearly all of them had their pasts, some were even worse than his. He was sitting there not really paying the papers much attention, when there was a small knock at the door. Scott nearly jumped out of his seat before turning to look at who was at the door. Chris stood there holding notebook, with a timid look upon her face.

"Mr. Scott are you busy?"

Scott laughed at her choice of what to call him. "No Chris what did you need?"

"I really don't understand the class work that you gave us today. Could we go over it again?"

"But you turned in the right answer?"

"I know. But it just sort of came to me. I don't know where or how. I just know that it doesn't make sense."

"Here have a seat. We look at it."

Scott and Chris work together for nearly half an hour. Even after she understands how to get the answer she isn't satisfied. Chris wants to be able to go backwards from the answer to the problem. Scott spends nearly twenty minutes trying to convince her that would be entirely too advanced for her age.

"Chris you have this. Why are you still worried about it?"

"I wanna make sure I can do it on my own and with different numbers."

"Chris you are only 8 years old. Go outside play some ball with the other kids. Go play with your sister. You have plenty of time to study."

"Going by your reputation that does not sound like something you would say."

"Normally it isn't. But you are wearing me out. I never thought there was anybody more particular than I am. Why are you so mature? I know that you have had a rough time, but so has Cadie."

"I have to protect her. She is my little sis, even if only by minutes. Cade tends to get into trouble. I get her out of it. That is the way we have always been."

"Well to me it sounds like you have gotten the bad end of the deal. Maybe you should start letting Cadie worry about her. And you try acting your age."

"Maybe. The only problem is Cade has a short fuse and doesn't think things through. I do. SO it only makes sense that I take care of her. Besides whenever it is anything physical she takes care of me."

"What do you mean?"

"Like in kickball at school, I always get picked last. That is until Cade got put into the same gym class as me. Then I always got picked first. Also whenever one of the kids would pick on me, Cade would take care of things. Sometimes she would threaten them; sometimes she would just glare at them. It was so cool. So I take care of her. I smooth things over when she runs her mouth. I talk the parents-"Chris paused looking down for a second "into things that she wants. I help her with her homework. See it is fair."

"I promise here you won't have those problems. If anybody tries to make fun of you or pick you last just let me know. I will take care of it. If you promise to start making your sister handle some of her own issues. She needs to grow up and you need to be a kid. Deal?"

"Deal." Cadie says shaking Scott's hand and smiling.