Teach Me To Wait
I poked James gently in the side again. He shifted, turning to face the opposite direction of me. Great. Just great. I had gotten up early because I had a morning shift today, without it occuring to me that James might be asleep. I guess I thought James never slept and always sat in that corner everyday.
"James." I whispered. Wait, why am I whispering? "James!" I shouted, causing some passing people to stare at me through the window. I ignored them, watching as James turned to face me and his eyes opened.
"What are you doing here?" James asked, sounding kind of irritable. I scoffed.
"Good morning to you too," I responded in a sarcastic tone, but laughed to show I was joking. "I have a longer and earlier shift today, so that means I can start teaching you and the-"
"I have to eat breakfast first."
I stared at him. Right. Breakfast. So I get an early shift, only to get to watch James chow down on leftover eggs and milk cartons? Lovely.
I sighed. "Alright then. Who's supposed to bring cafeteria breakfast to you? The cafeteria ladies? The nurses?"
"Nope."
"Then who?"
"You. You're my new mentor now, so I'm you're responsibility. So here's what the nurses usually do: go down to the employee break room and make me a mug of Brazilian Hazelnut coffee with 2 tsp. of creamer and sugar. And then get the tray from on top of the fridge and put the coffee and a plate on there. Now open the freezer and take out the Eggo waffles. Heat 2 of them, and top it with chopped strawberries and maple syrup. Ooh, and also add a cute little note on the napkin like the nurses do." James smiled sweetly at me like his request was the simplest thing in the world. He's lucky he's cute.
"Wow. Since when was breakfast so high maintenence?" Was all I could think of saying after receiving those lovely instructions.
"Like I said, I'm a special case." James said chuckling, waving his hand, signaling for me to carry on. He's lucky he's really cute.
I opened the door, only to run into Logan, who was all smiles while I was scowling and grumbling to myself.
"Hey buddy!" Logan called cheerily. He's been moody lately. One minute he loves me, the next minute he's trying to kill me for accidentally making his toaster explode. (Again, long story.)
"Not now, Logan. I have to get breakfast for Mr. Get-Me-A-Really-Complicated-Breakfast-Because-I-Say-So."
Logan shakes his head. "Aw, that's too bad. Camille called me over in a panic because they were having trouble with this guy's brain operation, and guess what? I saved him. And Camille kissed me! Can you believe it?" Logan ranted, absentmindedly walking down the hallway away from me. No wonder he was so happy. I headed for the break room, trying to remember James' instructions.
...
Okay, James' breakfast preparation took like 2 days. Well, that's an exaggeration, but it took a really long time. First of all, the coffee brewer is really slow. And the Eggo waffles were like rock solid so I had to heat them for like 3 hours. (Again, an exaggeration.) And let's just say I'm not the best at cutting fruit and the maple syrup bottle had trouble cooperating. In the end, I was so frustrated I didn't even bother to make the note cute in any way. I just wrote, You better enjoy this.
I balanced the tray on one hand while carrying my paperwork binder with the other, and I was quite proud because I didn't drop it. Last time I tried balancing stuff like this, I dropped a tray of "special chemicals" on Dr. Stetson's foot, and he had to give himself an operation. That's what happens when people don't tell me what I'm dealing with.
I pushed open the door with my shoulder and saw that James was laying on his stomach on the bed, doing something in his notebook. I set the stuff down quietly, trying not to disturb the boy. Which made no sense, because I was about to disturb him anyways.
"Hey James, what you doing?" I asked politely, standing beside his bed and trying to look over his shoulder. I caught a glimpse of a drawing. James looked up at me and shut his notebook, hiding it under his pillow.
"Nothing. I'm just starting my observations. It's a private matter. Only Dr. DeLouise can read them." James said urgently, obviously trying to weasel his way out of showing me the notebook. Before James could protest, I pulled the notebook out from the pillow. He tried to grab it, but I held it up in the air, out of his reach, like the big kids used to do with basketballs in school.
"Carlos, that won't work. I'm taller than you." James said matter of factly, standing up to show how he towered over me. Oh yeah. Oops. Before he could reach above me and grab the notebook, I turned my back to him as he gave up and sat on the bed. I grinned a crazily and opened the notebook, flipping through until I saw the drawing I had seen a little bit of. I couldn't believe my eyes.
On the page was a drawing-and an amazing one-of two boys, one with short hair and one with long hair,kissing...now I was absolutely positive James was lying when he said he wasn't crazy. The drawing was so good in detail that I could almost immediately figure out who the people in the drawing were. It was me and James. Kissing. And James had drawn it. I stared for a little bit, starting to imagine how it would feel to kiss James like that, but I snapped out of it. Blushing red, I closed the notebook and turned to James-who was also blushing-and handed it to him.
"Um, here." I said quietly to him, not feeling like a mentor to him anymore. This was awkward. I cleared my throat. "Anyways, while you eat breakfast, we should probably get started on lessons. So, eat your breakfast while I find the right materials." I rushed my words, trying to find an excuse to look away from James' and get away from all of the awkwardness. I absentmidedly thumbed through the paperwork binder.
"What breakfas-oh, right. I'll eat."
I reached in and grabbed a blank sheet of notebook paper and attached it to my clipboard, just doing random stuff until I was sure my blush had faded. I turned back to James, who was sitting up and staring at me, awkwardly eating his waffles.
"So, um..." I cleared my throat. "Um, today I was thinking we could start lessons. And since you're new at this, I decided you can pick whatever subject you want to know about."
James took a big dramatic Eggo waffle gulp and blinked. "Uh, well, I've always wanted to learn about the evolution of mankind. Like how did we come to be like this? What was the world like before?-"
I gave him an impressed look. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Vocabulary, man."
James took a sip of his coffee. "Uhh...sorry?"
"No!" I exclaimed, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him. "Don't apologize, this is great progress. I mean, like, wow you have great vocabulary skills. And deep questions, man! That's it, I'm giving you extra points for this." I don't know why I was so excited, but hey, that's what teachers are for. They overeact to everything you do. I wrote down notes on my clipboard and grinned at him. He was kind of looking at me like he thought I was crazy.
Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't.
"So let's start the lesson, shall we?"
James nodded slowly, looking a bit uneasy. I smiled and began to talk.
"So long ago, before there was men, women, and even McDonalds, strange creatures roamed the earth in the days when everything was mushed together in a country called Pangaea..."
Sorry for taking so long! I wrote the first half of this a while ago, but I JUST now finished it. My bad.
I'm pretty stressed because I have planned the WHOLE rest of the story, and there's like 15 chapters left to write. I'm writing too many stories at once!
-datsRUSHERiffic