It's Okay to Cry

Chapter 25

9/18/16

SPNDallas

4:30 Hailee Padalecki

"Holy Fellowship, I get my own panel," Hailee's eyes widen as the cheering dies down, then she turns back to the curtain, "None of y'all better crash me, this is freaking amazing."

"We love you Hailee!" a few teens call.

"Man I love y'all too," Hailee grins, then does a double take.

"Oh my Valar, hello child," Hailee jumps off the stage and runs out into the audience.

"What's your name?" Hailee kneels down by the child.

"Ruby," she says shyly.

"Ruby? That's a beautiful name. And how old are you?"

"Six."

"You're six? Wow. Does that mean you started school?"

"Yeah. I'm in first grade," Ruby says proudly.

"That's awesome. My little brother is only in preschool."

"What grade are you in?" Ruby asks, now more confident.

"I'm in tenth grade. Do you know how many years older I am?"

Ruby shakes her head.

"Well, let me help you. First grade is one. And tenth grade is ten, right?"

Ruby nods.

"So do you know what we need to do to find the difference between numbers?"

Ruby shakes her head.

"We subtract. So ten minus one is..."

"Don't know," Ruby whispers.

"Well, can you hold up ten fingers? One. Two. Three. Four. Five- uh oh! You only have five fingers!"

Ruby laughs, "I have two hands!"

"Oh, okay. Well, how many fingers are on this hand?"

"Five!"

"Uh oh. Ruby? We have a problem. We can't count to ten, because you only have five fingers on each hand!"

Ruby shakes her head, "Use both hands!"

"Use bo- ohhhhhhhh! So... what's five plus five? How many fingers do you have on both hands?"

"Ten!" Ruby grins.

"Ten! Well that's just what we want! So you have ten fingers up... put down one... That's ten minus one. How many is that? Can you count with me? One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine! Woah, so I'm in tenth grade and you're in first, that means I'm nine years older than you!"

Ruby nods, giggling.