My favorite red head.

Gifted Program

Mateo and Sofia were still here. They were staying for the week. Sadly, I still had to go to work. Sofia slept with me in my bed, while Mateo was on the couch. I tried my best not to wake the 2 up, but Sofia had always been a light sleeper.

"Nina?" She called out for me.

"Yea? What's wrong?"

"Can you make me some pancakes?"

"Pancakes? Uhhhh." I glanced around my kitchen. "You know what, how about we get some from Door Dash?"

"Ok." She smiled at me.

I placed the order and continued getting ready.

"Nina?"

"Mhm?" I answered, touching up my makeup in the bathroom.

"Can you braid my hair?"

"Uhm." I checked the time on my watch. I still had a whole hour and a half, but i liked being early. "Sure. Have a seat." I remember Sofia always being quiet in the mornings. There wasn't anything wrong with her, she just wasn't a morning person. But who could blame her?

I gave her a little braid off to the side, just to keep her hair out of her face, and popped a little rubber band on. Some time went by before i heard a light knock on the door. The lady gave me the Ihop bag, and I tipped her generously.

The smell of food was something that always got Mateo up. He woke up with his hair all messed up, asking where the plates were. I left a few addresses on a large sticky note, in case they needed anything, and went on my way. Sofia wanted to come with me to work, but I told her I would have to ask my boss.

Surprisingly, there wasn't as much traffic as normal. I got to the school in about 30 minutes. Melissa and I arrived at the same time. We greeted each other, and she walked in with me.

"Soo, did you enjoy the lasagna?"

"Of course I did. You know you don't need me to tell you that you're an excellent cook." I smiled at her. "Mateo and Sofia loved it too." I nodded. "Half the pan was gone by the end of the night."

She laughed. "Well, I'm glad you guys liked it."

She offered to walk me to my class, but I told her I had to speak with Ava. We cut our conversation short, and i watched as she walked to her classroom, her hips swinging boldly. "Damn," I muttered under my breath.

I went to the front office and spotted Ava, Janine, Jacob, and Barbara. Ava was introducing them to a new student.

"Good morning ya'll. This is our new student, Malcolm, He just moved to the area. He went to that smart private school, Elway Academy, with orchestra classes and everything. So he's like a baby Bethovem.

"My parents wanted me to go to school with other black kids." He nodded.

"Well, you are in luck because we are swimming in black kids. Malcolm got straight A's and he was in the gifted program." She bragged. The way she was talking about him, you would think this was her son, but everyone knows Ava hates kids.

We all welcomed him.

'Well you know, I was in the gifted program." Janine said enthusiastically.

"What were you gifted at? Being annoying?" Ava joked.

"No." Nene rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, Malcolm has a bright future ahead of him. I could already see him at the White House thanking Ms. Ava Eva Coleman, for turning him into the Oprah of science." She waved her hand around.

"All you ever have to be is the Malcolm of science, and that will be enough." Barbara told him.

"Thank you." He smiled at her.