Elm Creek: A Readymade Family, Volume 2

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NINE

The next morning after breakfast, Charity stepped outside to find Matt waiting for her with Jake and Missy, even though he hadn’t mentioned he wanted to walk to school together again. The instant her eyes landed on him, she recalled yesterday’s conversation with Missy and Jake, and her face flooded with color.

As if reading her mind, Jake and Missy took one look at her blushing face and snickered. To her relief, they didn’t say anything that would embarrass her in front of Matt.

If Matt noticed her embarrassment at all, he didn’t say a word about it, merely smiling brightly in welcome as she came down the steps to join them. “Good morning.”

“Morning,” she answered.

The group of four then set off for school with Jake and Missy in the lead, while Charity and Matt followed. Every once in a while, Charity would dare a glance at him and would find him looking back at her. As soon as their eyes met, Matt flushed and looked away. The heat that spread across her face despite the chill in the air told Charity she was blushing, too. Thankfully, Jake and Missy were too immersed in conversation to notice, or they would have probably teased them.

When the group reached school, they discarded their bags among the ones left on the side of the main building to join the other children on the playground. Matt joined the group of boys he usually played with, Charity joined a group of kids taking turns on the monkey bars with Jake, and Missy headed toward the swings.

When the bell rang several minutes later, Charity dropped from the monkey bars, ran through the accumulated snow on the playground, and grabbed her bag and lunch. Then she joined the line filing into the building and heading toward the classrooms. She doffed her mittens, coat, and hat when she entered her class before sitting down at her desk.

Throughout the day, Charity was conscious of Matt watching her from his seat across the aisle. When the bell rang for lunch, he was at her desk before she finished putting her things away.

“Let’s eat together,” he said, his lunch bag in hand.

Charity nodded as she watched the other kids pour out of the classroom. By the time she’d packed her books and pencil bag back into her school bag and grabbed her lunch, most of their classmates were gone. She and Matt left the classroom together.

They joined the table she shared with Jake and Missy like yesterday. Matt generously offered her half of a chocolate cupcake in his lunch. As she accepted, she couldn’t help noticing Missy and Jake exchanging looks and amused smiles. Realizing they were watching and analyzing her and Matt’s every move, she flushed with embarrassment. For the rest of lunch, she kept her eyes on her food to avoid her friends’ looks.

When she finished her food, she returned her lunch bag to her class, put her coat back on, and went outside to join the other children on the playground. Not long after she’d stepped outside, Matt, Jake, and Missy joined her.

“Let’s play on the monkey bars again,” Jake suggested.

“No, thank you,” Missy said. “I’m going to play hopscotch.” She walked away to join the group of kids already playing the game.

“I’m not very good at climbing,” Matt said uncertainly.

Jake shrugged. “Who cares? It’s just for fun. Come on.”

As Jake set off toward the monkey bars, Charity followed. Matt’s reluctance made her think he might seek out another activity instead, but to her surprise, he trailed after them.

“I’ll go first,” Jake said as they reached the monkey bars. Without waiting for a reply, he started to climb the ladder behind the boy who was already swinging across the bars.