Chapter 5 A Bundle of Nerves
Wendy stared at her classroom. On the left hand side of the room, right next to the door, were the perfectly arranged cubbies. A fuzzy blue carpet with multi-colored polka dots rested in front of one the walls. Uniquely shaped tables laid scattered around the room, and windows decorated the right hand wall. This allowed Wendy to see the city outside. A desk designated for the teacher rested right next to a closet. On it was a notepad, a picture, and a container of disinfectant wipes.
Wendy's heart fluttered like hummingbird wings. She forced herself to take a step into the bright, colorful classroom. She gulped down a lump that was accumulating in her throat. She could practically taste her own fear as she stared at the tables where the little kids would sit.
Little kids. Why did it have to be little kids?
Wendy nervously stepped over toward the desk. As she slowly moved her shaking hand over toward the container of wipes, she got a glance at the picture resting on the desk. It showed the teacher; a smiling, bright eyed dragon koopa woman. In her arms was a laughing, four year old child. The child's eyes seemed to bore into Wendy's heart. They looked at her with the menace of a super villain, the malice of a spider ready to eat her.
Wendy quickly swallowed another lump.
As she cleaned the tables, wiping them down of any grime or crumbs, Wendy began to think. Why did Kamek and Bowser choose this as her punishment? Last time Wendy checked, punishments weren't supposed to be torture. She scrubbed the table, her own nerves causing her other arm to freeze. She stared down at the shiny surface of the table. The shiny surface reflected a very nervous Wendy.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Wendy cleaned the table. The blue painted surface sparkled under the light. It actually looked quite nice. It was just too bad that it wasn't the only table Wendy had to clean. As she looked at the other tables, Wendy let out a whimper.
"This is never going to end," she said out loud.
"Never say never, sis!"
Wendy was completely taken aback. She turned toward the door to the classroom and was shocked to see Larry and Morton. Both of Wendy's younger brothers were smiling at her, although Larry was doing it more brightly than Morton. Both of their eyes playfully twinkled as they approached their sister.
"How dee doo, Miss Teacher Person?" Larry asked with a giggle. Wendy stared at them, her mouth hanging slightly ajar.
"What are you guys doing here?" she asked.
"Bowser told us to come here," said Morton. "He wanted us to supervise you to make sure that you did your job."
Wendy's heart sank a little. She lowered her head to the ground.
"Oh. That...that makes sense." Larry got into her line of sight. The smile was still plastered to his face.
"Hey, chin up, Wendy!" He laughed. "The preschoolers haven't devoured your soul quite yet."
Wendy gently elbowed Larry in the arm, causing the youngest Koopaling to laugh like a crook. Morton just rolled his eyes. He scanned the classroom.
"I see that you are cleaning the tables," he said. "Would you like some help?"
"Uh...sure," Wendy replied. With that, Morton got a hold of the container of wipes and started to scrub the second table, which just so happened to be shaped like a red heart. Larry, however, just stood stock still. Wendy glanced at him.
"Aren't you going to help out, too?"
"Heck, no! I came here to supervise, nothing more!"
Wendy cast him a glare. Her eyes stayed locked onto him as she went to continue on with the cleaning. As Morton cleaned the tables, Wendy got a vacuum out of the closet and started to go to town. As she did her best to not leave any spot in the room dirty, Larry came up to her with a goofy grin.
"So, did you really throw a party?" he asked over the noise. When Wendy nodded, Larry snickered. "Sweet! I wish I could have been there."
Wendy shook her head.
"Trust me, you really don't." She turned off the vacuum, a grouchy feeling starting to claim her insides. "It would have landed you here."
Larry scoffed.
"I'm already stuck supervising you! Besides, I've never been to a real party before! And no, kidnapping missions don't count."
Wendy rolled her eyes just as Morton started to wipe down the third and last table.
"I don't think anyone was saying they did," he said quietly. Wendy laughed as she picked up the vacuum and put it back in the closet.
"Well, next time I want to get myself in trouble, I'll be sure to invite you, Larry."
A moment of silence befell the room. Wendy got out a bottle of spray and a roll of paper towels from the closet and started to wipe down the windows. It felt like the task was shaving a few decades off of Wendy's soul.
"This is a preschool classroom, right?" Larry finally asked. Wendy nodded. "Why in the Mushroom World would Bowser ask you to operate a preschool classroom? That is much more Lemmy's territory."
"I know," Wendy said with a sigh. "Trust me, I don't understand why he did it this way either." She clutched the dirty paper towel in her hand as she turned toward Larry. Her heart was starting to flutter again. "I mean, I don't know the first thing about little kids! I don't know what they like, what they don't like, how to handle them when they get fussy... I mean, what am I supposed to do with them? Am I supposed to just hand them toys and call it a day?"
Morton snickered as he wiped at a very specific spot on the table.
"If it were that easy, then my childhood would have been a breeze," he said. This just caused Wendy more concern.
"Larry," she said to her youngest brother. "You were a little kid more recently than I was; what do you think I should do?"
Larry thought about this before shrugging.
"I don't know; maybe you could just be friendly to them?"
"And what would that look like?" Wendy asked.
"Well..." said Larry. "Why don't you try smiling?"
Wendy thought about this. Smiling was a good start. It would provide her a good mask when she was in front of the kids. With this thought in mind, she slowly curled her lips upward. She allowed her teeth to be seen by anyone within a ten mile radius. She smiled so widely, in fact, that it felt like her mouth would fall off its hinges.
"Ehhh," Larry said with a very visible cringe on his face. Wendy kept the smile on her face.
"Is this good?" she asked through her gritted teeth. When Larry didn't answer immediately, her mind started to race. "Come on; say something!"
Larry finally seemed to exit the cringe position. However, when he spoke, it sounded like his voice was walking on eggshells.
"It...needs work."
"How much work?"
"Enough so that you don't look like you want to kill me." Wendy let out a sigh and allowed the smile to fall away.
"I can't even get a smile right?" she asked. She walked over to the table and took a seat in one of the chairs. "How am I even going to survive tomorrow?"
Morton walked over to her and gave her a comforting smile.
"I don't think you're looking at this the right way. Don't think of it as surviving. Think of it as...allowing yourself to grow and mature into a beautiful, confident woman."
Wendy looked up at her younger brother. When he put it that way, it actually sounded like this experience could be good for her. She slowly smiled.
"Thanks, Morton."
Somehow though, that thank you did not ease her nerves in the least.
