Waves of illusions

Chapter 9

this ones a bit of a filler :P

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Chapter 9

‘’no no darling, no candy if you don’t finish your lunch,’’ I scolded as I pried tommy’s hands away gently.

Even though we weren’t supposed to have favourites, I couldn’t help but like Tommy best. He had such a positive outlook on life even though he was a mute.

His lower lip quivered as he returned his hands to his lap.

‘’bud don’t cry, just finish your lunch and then you can enjoy your candy,’’ I explained.

 One of the morning volunteers had fallen ill so Matt and I came in to help out the morning classes. the morning session was a lot more hectic, children coming in late, crying for their mothers, refusing to leave their mothers side, taking a long time to settle, it was just very different from the afternoon classes.

He shook his head as tears spilled from his eyes. I swiped them from his cheeks and pulled him into a hug.

‘’don’t cry, how about you just eat one broccoli and I’ll let you off this time?’’ I said quietly not wanting to show the others that I had gone easy on him.

He nodded a smile spreading on his wet cheeks; he shovelled a broccoli in his mouth then chomped it. Then when he swallowed he grinned.

‘’there’s a good boy,’’ I said as I gave him his strawberry flavoured sweet. ‘’go join the others now,’’ I said waving to the assembly line the children had formed. He skipped over happily still sucking on his flavoured candy.

‘’you seem to favour tommy a lot,’’ Matt said as we cleared away the plates and cups.

‘’he’s a cute kid,’’ I admitted.

‘’don’t worry I have a favourite too,’’ he said as we scraped the food in the bin then popped them in the dish washer.

‘’let me guess, Jaime?’’ I asked with a small smirk.

I had noticed how he had spent more time with her than the others, I guess we were only human; we couldn’t help but have favourites.

‘’spot on,’’ he smiled. ‘’she’s so strong and trying, she has the heart of a full grown man,’’ he stated.

‘’she is,’’ I agreed as I remembered the young girl writing with her mouth. ‘’but I still like tommy best,’’ I whispered the last part before rinsing the grease from my hands and joining the end of the assembly line.

The week had gone by fast, today was our second last day with the kids, and we had so much fun and laughter together. Even though I was always worn out by the end of the day it was totally worth it.

We were making hand print pictures for our mothers when James asked me a question that caught me off guard. I had spent the last 30 minutes painting different colours of the children’s hands, helping them press it on their piece of paper firmly, and then scrubbing their hands clean.

Jaime used her feet instead, luckily instead of getting teased the others got jealous, this made Jaime feel special and happy to not be laughed at for once.

We were now decorating our hand printed papers with stickers, glitter and colouring. I squatted over James helping him squeeze out some splotchy glitter when his voiced piped up from underneath me.

‘’Soph Soph, are you dating Matt?’’ his voice innocent.

I had let the kids call me soph soph but the question caught me off guard. I froze for a second then relaxed.