Color Outside The Lines || l.t.

Chapter 2 - The Bucket List

It was a Friday; my first week of school had finally come to an end. And my dad was late every day, so I was usually the last kid to leave. Today was no different. Ms. Carter and I stood by the gate, as we had for the last four afternoons.

“Your dad sure has a habit of being late,” Ms. Carter commented.

“He also has a habit of not taking the crust off my sandwiches,” I grumbled, looking up to see Ms. Carter smile.

“Well, you can’t blame him. He seems like a busy man,” she said as she looked at the road.

A car stopped in front of us. It wasn’t the black Mercedes that pulled up in front of us the last few days, but it was just as familiar. A woman with long, brown hair stepped out and stood facing us with a smile.

“Grandma!” I yelled, opening the gate and running toward her.

She kneeled down and scooped me into a hug. “Hi Tommy,” she said, “How’s my favorite grandson doing?”

“Grandma, I’m your only grandson,” I said with a slight eye roll, “What are you doing here anyway? Where’s Daddy?”

“It’s Friday, sweetie. Even though you go to school now like a big shot, you still have to hang out with your boring, old Grandma,” she said with a twinkle in her eye.

“Aw, Grandma, you’re not boring.”

She smiled and planted a quick kiss on my cheek. “Aww, thanks Tommy.” She got up and walked over to Ms. Carter, her hand still firmly gripping mine. “Hi, I’m Tommy’s Grandmother Johannah.” she said with her free hand extended towards Ms. Carter.

“Naomi Carter, Tommy’s teacher” she said as she shook her hand, “Pleased to meet you.”

Grandma smiled again and then looked down at me, “Ready to go, Tommy? I have some freshly baked cookies with your name on it.”

“Aw, sweet!” I exclaimed as I skipped back to her car, “See you later, Ms. Carter!”

“Have a good weekend, Tommy,” she said as she waved at me.

She watched us drive away before walking back into the school building. She stepped into our dear, little classroom and started to hang up the finger paintings we did earlier that day. As she was putting the chairs on the tables, my flustered dad nearly ran into the room.

Naomi stopped what she was doing and looked at him. “Oh, hi Louis…”

“Tommy,” he said, though he was a little out of breath, “Where is he?”

“Uh, your mother came to pick him up.”

“Oh thank God,” he said, letting out a sigh of relief, “I didn’t see either of you out there, and I completely forgot it was Friday, and my mind was jumping to conclusions, and…”

Naomi shushed him, “He’s fine Louis. He’s probably eating cookies as we speak.”

Louis smiled as the fear drained out of him. “Sounds like Tommy.” He watched as she just nodded and went around the room, picking up the scattered blocks and closing the Play-Doh lids. His hand went to the back of his neck before he said, “So, you know I was thinking… you’re here, I’m here; do you… err, would you like to go get a coffee or something?”

Naomi walked up to him. “I’m actually not a big fan of coffee… ” she said. Louis’ face deepened as the rejection sunk in and she continued, “But I’m a sucker for Starbuck’s hot chocolate.”

Louis blinked a couple times before a small smirk appeared on his face, “You know, it’s funny, I don’t like coffee either… I just sort of assumed you did.”