A/N: Ack! Sorry, I didn't get this finished until Tuesday night, and so it didn't get sent to thebookhobbit until it was a little late. I WILL get these done on time, I promise! If you've read the last oneshot, you should be fine for this one.
Once again, thank you to thebookhobbit!
Picture: John and Evelyn are fast asleep on the front porch swing (the usual kind, that look like benches only they're swings) still in their school uniforms; leaning on each other with books in their laps.
It was fall in Australia (which meant nicer weather than what they'd been having) and it was a beautiful day outside. It had been a pretty hot summer season, and everyone was rather happy about the cooler weather. Especially John, whose bedroom was in what had been the attic, and even with proper insulation, and making it into a normal bedroom, the air conditioner couldn't seem to cool things down in there as well as it could in the rest of the house. On the hottest nights, his parents had let him sleep in their room: for fear that he'd get sick again. And he really didn't want to miss any more school, he'd been sick enough already.
It was nearing the end of the school year, and John's kindergarten class had a book report to finish. Most of the class was on the same reading level, able to get through small chapter books on their own, for the most part; save for two people in the class: Evelyn, who, while speaking English pretty well, was still having trouble reading big chunks of it without help; and John, who was reading the same books as his older brother, Luke (who was in sixth grade) at a ridiculously fast pace (and begging his mom to let him have something a little more challenging to read.)
John and Evelyn had become good friends. Best friends, actually, since even though a whole school year had nearly gone by, they were still each other's ONLY friends. It worked out pretty well, really: John tried his best to teach her how to read better, and Evelyn, in turn, helped him get any kind of art work he had to do looking a little bit less like a three year old did it. John was having a little more success teaching Evelyn than Evelyn was teaching John, however.
And so, since the weather was cooler and Evelyn's parents were still at work, the afternoon found them on the swing on John's front porch. John had finished his book already, and he was helping Evelyn get through hers. Even though they still had the summer ahead of them, they couldn't help but feel that they were running out of time. About a month after school had started, his teacher had called a parent-teacher conference with his mom. And then they had started talking with Father Isaac's, a priest involved with the elementary, middle, and high school, and a friend of the family. Shortly after, John had had to take several tests, and had just finished taking them for a second time. Father Isaacs had gotten the results already, and the school had made the decision to move him up a few grades next year; he'd be jumping from kindergarten to third grade.
So they sat there, not even trying to get the porch swing to rock, and John helped Evelyn finish Peter Rabbit, and promised to help her whenever she needed it, no matter what grade he ended up in. They sat there for a little while, John making sure she knew what to put in her book report, when the warmth of the sun, and the gentle rocking as the swing was pushed ever so slightly by the breeze got to the two of them, and they fell asleep, leaning against each other.