A/N: I haven't worked on this story for a while! I apologize. I was mostly working on stories for challenges and a new story about NERDS (which already has two devout fans as opposed to this story's big fat zero.)

Please R&R!

"Back again, I see. You're quite the charitable type, aren't you, dear?" said Wayside's ancient secretary, Ms. Day, as she logged Dameon in under "Guest" for the hundredth time.

"Well, you could say that," Dameon replied. "It's mostly out of sentiment. I really do miss this place," he said, sighing.

"You can't miss a place if you never leave," Ms. Day mumbled as she handed him his volunteer badge.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. The class is waiting for you as always."

"Great. Thank you!" Dameon waved to Ms. Day as he left the office and began his usual 30-story trek up the Wayside stairs. He found it very interesting how much he looked forward to climbing these stairs now, considering how much he had dreaded it when he first began attending Wayside as a kid. After climbing them every day from fifth grade through high school and now climbing them three days a week for volunteer work, they didn't tire him out anymore. In fact, he could jog all the way up them now without even breaking a sweat. He hadn't been to the gym in five years. He got enough aerobic exercise doing this.

At the first sound of the classroom door opening, Mrs. Jewels's students knew who it was. "Dameon's here! Dameon's here!" they shouted, eager to get out of their arithmetic lesson.

"Hey, guys!" Dameon said, glad that his appearance garnered so much excitement. He kept eye contact with a few of the kids, but his gaze kept turning back to Mrs. Jewels.

A girl got out of her seat and ran over to him. "Will you play with us, Dameon?"

"I'm sure Dameon would love to play with you, Sarah, but we're in the middle of an arithmetic lesson," Mrs. Jewels scolded.

Sarah frowned and went back to her seat between her two best friends, Sarah and Sarah. The three of them collectively said, "Aw man!" and crossed their arms.

Mrs. Jewels turned to Dameon and smiled, which, after all these years, still made Dameon's heart flutter. "Mavis is sorting some papers in the back. You can help her out with that while we finish up the lesson."

Dameon smiled back sheepishly. "Sure! Sure, I'll help with that." He turned around to walk towards the back table where Mavis was working, but not without tripping over his own two feet, eliciting giggles from the students.

Dameon didn't have a girlfriend. He hadn't been in a committed relationship in quite a while. It wasn't because he was ugly or had a bad personality. Oh no, he was a very attractive and kind man. It was because he couldn't find the person he was looking for. He went out with plenty of women, but he always broke it off relatively quickly. He was holding out for someone exactly like Mrs. Jewels – just without the gray hair, the husband, and the grown-up daughter. And since the closest thing to that was Mrs. Jewels herself, Dameon was stuck.

Since there were fewer kids in the 30th story classroom now, what used to be Kathy and Sharie's desks had been replaced with one big desk. Mavis often sat at it when she was helping out in her mother's class. And she was sitting there now, staring out the window wistfully, ignoring the papers she was supposed to be sorting. She had jet-black hair down to her shoulders and a face nearly identical to her mother's, and she would have been a lovely young woman if it weren't for the ripped jeans, the various facial piercings, and the rebellious attitude.

"So, what's the story today? Spelling tests? Homework? Permission slips?" Dameon said as he slid into the chair next to her.

"None of that. Just shut up and put them in the right piles," Mavis snapped at him, not even turning around.

Dameon didn't think much of this remark at first. Mavis never held the record for "Nicest Person Ever." "Oh. History papers," he said to himself. That was when he heard quiet sniffling and gasping noises coming from the girl sitting next to him.

"Hey, Mavis," he whispered. "Are you okay?"

Mavis whipped her head around, revealing the tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "What's it to you, bastard?"

"Whoa! You know you're in a room full of third graders, right?" Dameon replied, surprised, looking around the room making sure that none of the students had heard her. They hadn't.

"Oh thanks, Captain Obvious. I didn't notice." Mavis began to cry suddenly, right then and there. It was almost inaudible, but there were tears, and lots of them.

"I'm pretty sure that there's something wrong here, Mavis," Dameon said matter-of-factly. He placed his hand on hers to calm her down, but she instantly swiped it away.

"Don't you dare touch me again. Not you, and none of your stupid male friends, either," she whispered fiercely.

Well then. This is a guy problem, isn't it? Dameon thought.

"Oh, come on! Just tell me what's wrong. Did your boyfriend cheat on you or something?" he inquired, slowly becoming uncomfortable.

"He did if it's possible to cheat on your girlfriend with a whole religion," Mavis admitted. "All of a sudden, Ray just started to become obsessed with God and Christianity. And he dumped me just because I didn't go to church every Sunday or 'admit that I hath sinned' or anything like that." Her voice caught on the last few words and she began crying again.

Dameon had no idea what to say. This isn't what he volunteered at Wayside to deal with. All he could think of was, "Yeah, but not all men would do something like that. I know lots of guys who don't go to church every Sunday. I don't go to church every Sunday!"

Mavis scoffed at him. "You don't get what I'm saying, do you? A guy will tell a girl that he loves her, and just when she starts to believe him, he'll find someone – or something – that he loves more."

Dameon opened his mouth to protest, but he was cut off. "You're going to try and defend yourself, aren't you? Because I know you. I know that you've broken it off with every girl you've dated because they weren't enough like my mom."

Dameon was speechless. She was absolutely right. He acted like a real jerk to girls sometimes. But whether it was true or not, their conversation was beginning to feel very awkward and he could see that the three Sarahs had all turned around and were watching him and Mavis in fascination. So he went back to sorting the social studies papers.

He worked in silence for five minutes. Mavis continued to stare out the window, now not so much in sadness but more in anger.

Finally, Dameon decided that he couldn't let things between him and Mavis be bad. How would he ever be able to volunteer at Wayside again if he knew there was someone there with whom he was on terrible terms?

So he decided to shed some humor on the situation. "So . . . you said your boyfriend's name was Ray?"

"Yeah," Mavis replied coldly.

"Yeah, guys named Ray are always bad news. You remember that girl named Bebe? She pretended to have a little brother to keep herself out of trouble once, and she named him Ray to make him sound more intimidating," Dameon said cautiously. Mavis showed the slightest trace of a smile and a laugh, but it was gone as quickly as it came. Still, she didn't look angry anymore. Just indifferent.

Dameon was relieved that she wasn't too mad at him anymore, but it still wasn't good enough. He knew he had to say something else to lighten the mood, but he really didn't think it through enough. What he eventually did say was, "You said that I wouldn't date anyone who wasn't enough like your mom, right? Well, you're her daughter. You're a lot like her. I probably wouldn't dump you if we were going out."

This caught Mavis's attention. When she turned around, she actually looked happy. "Really?" she asked.

"Oh . . . " It dawned on Dameon what he had just said. "I didn't really mean that. I was just kidding around. You know, to lighten the mood?"

"Oh." Mavis sank back into her chair. "That's just like me. Believing any guy who promises something like that. It's probably all for the best. Mom would kill me if I went out with someone 11 years older than me." She laughed a little, as did Dameon.

"What do you say? No hard feelings?" he said.

"Oh, fine."

Dameon felt someone tugging on his shirt sleeve. He turned to see none other than Sarah Fry standing next to him with an eager look on her face. "It's time for recess now! Are you going to play with me?" she chirped.

"Definitely," he answered cheerfully.

"Bye, Dameon!" Mavis called as Sarah dragged him across the room towards the door.

Dameon waved back at her. Then, he turned around to see Mrs. Jewels standing right in front of him. "Thank you, Dameon, for cheering Mavis up. She's been moping all day and I've tried everything to make her stop. But now – oh, just look at that smile," she said.

"Oh, well, um, you're welcome, Mrs. Jewels," he replied. Sarah was urging him very strongly to hurry up, but before he succumbed to the little girl's pleading, he took in one last glance of Mavis. Her smile was just like her mother's.

A/N: R&R!