Kindergarten

Age: 5

"Are you sure you don't want to have them stay over here?" Stilinski asked over the noise of Scott and Stiles banging around somewhere overhead.

"Really, we don't mind at all," Claudia insisted. "Scott's such a sweet boy, it wouldn't be any trouble."

"No, I still think it would be better if Stiles came over," said Melissa. "Scott is really excited about it, but I don't think he's ready to spend a night away from home yet. He gets homesick really easily."

Scott had been talking nonstop about wanting to have a sleepover with his new best friend, Stiles Stilinski, for weeks. From the way he talked about him, it would seem as though Stiles hung the moon. Every day after school, Melissa was treated with yet another story about what Stiles had said or what Stiles had done or a new idea that Stiles had had. So after several weeks of constantly pestering, Melissa had finally given in and called the Stilinskis to make the arrangements. She had been friends with Officer Stilinski for years from seeing him at the hospital. They lived relatively close and so the police officer often came by to let Melissa know if anything was happening in the area. However, he seemed very reluctant to let his son spend the night at her house.

"Alright," Stilinski said with a sigh. "It's just… Stiles has a lot of energy, as I'm sure you've noticed."

"Yes," Melissa laughed. "So does Scott, as I'm sure you've noticed," pointing overhead where the boys' shrieks and scuffling could be heard.

"I mean it," the officer warned. "He can be a handful."

"I'm sure I can handle it," Melissa answered stiffly.

"I'm sure you can, too," Claudia said, shooting her husband a look. "But don't hesitate to call if things get out of hand. I'll go see if they're ready to go."

"I'm sorry," Stilinski mumbled once his wife had disappeared up the stairs. "Stiles is a good boy and I'm sure you're a wonderful mother, but he can be pretty wild sometimes. I don't want you to regret letting him come over."

"It will be fine. After working at the hospital as long as I have, I think I can handle anything."

"I certainly hope so."

The five minute drive back to the house had never seemed so long before. After racing Scott to the car and throwing himself haphazardly into the backseat, Stiles never shut his mouth. "Do you like Kim Possible? Have you ever seen Kim Possible? I really like that show. I like Rufus. He's a naked mole rat. But guess what. He's not a mole or a rat! He's something else. I don't know what it is but he's pink. Did you know it has its own movie? I want my own movie. I have it in my backpack so we can watch it tonight. It's so cool. This new guy shows up at Kim's school and Ron doesn't like him but Kim does and it turns out that he's Dr. Drakken's son but he's not really his son and then they melt him! It's so cool! Hey, I know! We could play Kim Possible at recess next time! I wanna be Kim. Wait, no. Maybe we can get Lydia to be Kim 'cause they have the same hair. And Allison can be Shego. You have to be Dr. Drakken because I have to be Ron. He's not as cool as Kim but if Lydia's Kim I have to be Ron. Do you think she'd play with us? Maybe if we ask Danny he'll ask her for us. Who could Danny be though? He could be Rufus, I guess. What do you think, Scoot?"

"Okay, we're here!" Melissa called over Stiles' constant chatter as she pulled into the driveway. She got out of the car quickly and gave herself a second to breathe before letting the kids out. Stiles rocketed out of the car and ran to the door, yanking on the handle.

"Is it locked?" he asked loudly.

"Yes."

"Can you unlock it, please?"

"I'm about to, hold on. Did you get everything from the car?"

Stiles spun around, looking over his shoulder at his bright green backpack. "Yep!"

"Good," Melissa opened the door and the two little boys shot by her.

"Is your room up here?" Stiles yelled as he thundered up the stairs, Scott right behind him.

Melissa threw herself on the couch, already exhausted.

"This is my room," Scott said as he opened the door for his best friend. His mom made him clean his room up really good before they went to pick up Stiles and Scott couldn't help but be kind of proud of it. All of his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures were dusted and lined up on his shelf next to his small collection of Hot Wheels. His mom had even come in and helped him hang his model fighter jet from his ceiling so it looked like it was actually flying.

"Wow, Scoot." Stiles threw his backpack down and flopped on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle themed bed spread. Scott crawled onto the bed and laid down next to him. "Your room is so clean. My room never looks like this. My mom keeps telling me she's going to throw away my stuff if I don't pick it up, but she never does. Cleaning is so boring."

"Yeah, I guess," Scott said. He'd never really thought about it that much. He liked things being neat.

"Oh, cool! You have the Ninja Turtles!" Stiles launched himself off the bed and grabbed an action figure from Scott's shelf. "Who's your favorite? I like Mikey a lot, but Donatello's cool, too."

"I like Leonardo," Scott picked up the blue-masked turtle.

"Well, yeah. Everybody like him."

"What do you want to do?" Scott carefully put Leonardo back in his spot on the shelf.

"Do you have anything to do outside? I heard Lydia has a pool. Do you have a pool? I didn't bring my swim trunks."

"No, but I have a trampoline. We have to ask my mom if we can jump on it, though."

"YOU HAVE A TRAMPOLINE?!" Stiles shouted, Michelangelo dropping from his hand, instantly forgotten.

"Yeah. Do you wanna ask my mom if we can go play on it?"

"Yes!" Stiles was already heading down the stairs. "I'll ask her for you."

Melissa was still lying on the couch with her eyes closed when the boys came back into the living room. "So, how do you like Scott's room, Stiles? Doesn't it look nice?" she asked without sitting up.

"Mrs. Scoot's Mom?" Stiles stood with his face directly over Melissa's, ignoring her questions completely. "Can we go jump on the trampoline?"

Melissa opened her eyes and was startled to see Stiles so close. "Oh, God, Stiles. You scared me. Back up and let me sit up. Now, what do you want to do?"

"Jump on the trampoline," Scott chimed in. "Can we, Mom? Please?"

"Sure, baby. Just make sure you take your shoes off and leave your socks on."

"Yay!" Stiles screamed as he and Scott ran through the kitchen to the back door.

"Thanks, Mom," Scott yelled before he slammed the door behind him.

Melissa groaned when she stood up. It was only 5:30 and she was already spent. Maybe Stilinski had had a point. Maybe it would have been better to leave Scott there instead. Oh well, she thought. At least they're outside now. Maybe I can convince them to stay out there until bedtime.

She gave them a few minutes outside by themselves before going out to check on them. She wanted to let Scott have some privacy with his friend. He was always so good about obeying the rules she set that she didn't worry much about what he was doing without her. Honestly, she was just relieved he was making friends at all. She and her husband had been so worried about him starting kindergarten. Scott was always so quiet and sensitive, she was afraid he wouldn't be able to open up enough to make a friend. Scott's silence didn't seem to be much of a problem with Stiles Stilinski, though. He seemed to do enough talking for the two of them.

After about fifteen minutes she went out the check on the boys. Scott was standing underneath a tree, looking up into the branches.

"Baby, what are you doing? Where's Stiles?"

"I'm up here!" a voice called from the tree.

"Why are you in the tree?"

"I'm not stuck!"

"That's not what I asked. Scott, why is he in the tree?"

"Well, we were jumping on the trampoline, but then Stiles saw the tree and wanted to climb it. I told him that I couldn't climb it because it was too high up, but he said that he could and then he climbed the tree."

Melissa sighed and pressed a hand to her forehead. "Stiles, get out of the tree please. I gave you permission to jump on the trampoline, not climb the tree. It's my day off, I'm trying to avoid some broken bones here."

"Okay, okay," Stiles said from above. "Hold on." The leaves rustle and Melissa heard him grunt as twigs snap and fall to the ground. She crossed her arms as she waits. And to think that she imagined having a quiet evening.

A moment later, Stiles fell out of the tree, landing on his feet before falling backwards onto his bottom.

"Are you okay?" Scott asked, running over to his friend to help him up.

"That was awesome!" Stiles answered, apparently unscathed. "I think I cut my arm."

"Let me see," Melissa took the arm he presented and looked it over. There was a long, thin scratch trailing from his elbow to his wrist. "It's just a scratch. You'll be fine."

"Sorry about climbing the tree, Mrs. Scoot's Mom," Stiles apologized, looking genuinely sorry. "You're not going to send me home, are you?"

Scott looked at her, stricken. "Don't send him home, Mom! He just got here!"

"I'm not going to send you home," said Melissa. "Just stay on the trampoline for a while, okay? Don't climb any more trees without asking me first. Deal?"

"Deal!"

"Good. Now, who wants pizza for dinner?"

Melissa stood in the kitchen later that night, her phone pressed to her ear. She'd gotten the kids into bed a while before and had to wait a good 45 minutes before their excited whispering and hushed giggling quietened down as they fell asleep. She had let them eat their dinner in the living room while they watched the movie Stiles brought with him. Stiles was so excited about getting to eat while watching TV that he had a hard time sitting still and kept bouncing up and down on the couch while he ate. After the movie was over, Melissa sent them outside to run off the rest of their energy before trying to get them to settle down.

She twisted the phone cord in between her fingers nervously while she waited for someone to pick up. It's too late for this, she thought to herself. I could just wait and tell them in the morning. She had almost made up her mind to hang up when she heard the line pick up.

"Hello?" Stilinski answered sleepily.

"Mr. Stilinski. Hi, this is Melissa."

"Oh, God. What's wrong?" he asked, suddenly wide awake. "Did Stiles get ahold of matches again?"

"What? No, no. Nothing like that. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry you. I just wanted to let you know how things are going."

"Thank God," Stilinski breathed over the phone. "How's Stiles behaving? Any problems?"

"He's been pretty good. He's very … energetic."

Stilinski laughed. "Yeah, you're telling me. Try dealing with that all the time."

"Yeah. Look, um," Melissa braced herself for what she was about to say. "I know it isn't really my place, but I think there might be something more going on with Stiles than just having high energy. Have you ever had him tested for ADD or ADHD?"

"No, of course not. He's just a little kid. All little kids are energetic."

"It's not just the energy. Stiles seems to be really easily distracted. When he was playing with Scott tonight, he couldn't focus on one thing for very long before moving on to something else entirely. He could barely sit through his own movie that he brought over. I sent the boys outside to play on the trampoline and he's only on it for a few minutes before he's climbing a tree or running around the yard. These are all signs that he has trouble focusing on any one thing."

"So what are you saying? That I need to medicate my five-year-old?" Stilinski angrily demanded.

"No, I'm just saying that maybe you should have him tested. There are other treatments besides medication. There's behavioral therapy and things you can do together. I'm only saying something because I can tell that Stiles is a very bright kid. I would hate for him to struggle in school or anything else because he can't focus."

The line was silent for such a long time that Melissa started to think that the call had been disconnected when she heard Stilinski sigh. "You really think he's attention deficit?"

"I'm just saying that it's a possibility."

"Would… Would you be willing to talk to me and Claudia about it more when we pick him up in the morning? I don't want him to have problems in school or anything else if there's something we can do to help him."

Melissa smiled. "Sure. I'd be happy to."

"Well, thanks for the heads up. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Right. Good night, sir."

"Have a good night."

Melissa hung up the phone and sank into one of the kitchen chairs. She was surprised that she had gotten the police officer to listen to her so easily. He must have suspected that there was something going on with his son for him to accept her diagnosis so quickly.

"Mom?" a voice called softly from the hallway. Scott wandered sleepily into the kitchen, bleary-eyed and yawning.

"What's the matter, baby?"

"Can I have some water?"

"Sure, let me get it for you." She crossed to the dishwasher to pull out a clean cup and Scott climbed into her vacated seat at the table. "Is Stiles sleeping?" she asked, handing him his blue Ninja Turtles cup.

"Yeah. I almost tripped over him when I left my room."

"Uh-oh. At least you didn't wake him up. So, did you two have a good time tonight?"

Scott nodded and wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his pajamas. "Yeah. Thank you for letting him come over. It was really cool."

"Having a sleepover?"

"Having a friend." He smiled and handed his empty cup back to his mom. "I'm gonna go back to bed."

"Okay, sweetheart." She kissed the top of his head. "Love you."

"Love you, too."

She put his cup in the sink once he had gone back upstairs. She looked at the window to the backyard and saw her reflection in the dark glass and smiled to herself.

A/N: As always, please read and review if you have time. We really do look forward to reading what you have to say. Thanks!