CatWalk

Thirty

Emma looked at the chalk drawing of Ladybug that a quiet kid in a class below her was drawing on the blacktop.

"That's so pretty! Can you draw me next?" Emma exclaimed startling the red-headed artist.

"Your that scary girl from the Ladybug party." He said feeling anxiety build up. He didn't like confrontation, especially from a girl.

"I'm not scary. I'm friendly" She said pointing at her dimples at each end of her smile.

"Your weird." The boy stated as he drew what appeared to be Ladybug but with a male body.

"Are you drawing yourself as Ladybug?" Emma questioned as she admired his work. For his age he was quite gifted. The art talent was a quality that he inherited from his father, Nathaniel Krutzbreg. The famous comic illustrator and spray paint artist.

"Yes." He mumbled annoyed with Emma's presence.

"If you're Ladybug you need a ChatNoir." Emma stated as she took a piece of green chalk from Ezra's personal bucket of multi colored chalk. Her green stick figure with cat ears and tail compared poorly to Ezra's work.

Ezra watched as she took some blue chalk and gave her stick figure a ponytail and then she started on making a Ladybug with pink chalk. Then she grabbed some yellow and gave her Ladybug some blonde hair.

"That's me and my Ladybug." Emma stated proudly pointing to the stick figures.

"Who's your Ladybug?" Ezra questioned.

"Charlotte of course! She would make a perfect Ladybug! She's going to be my Ladybug for the play my class is having. I hope one day when we grow up she'll be my Ladybug for real too." Emma smiled. She really liked Charlotte even know Charlotte was quiet but seemed popular nonetheless. She wanted to be friends with Charlotte since she was a nice person.

"Can you be my ChatNoir too?" Ezra asked. He thought Emma's loyalty would make her the perfect person to be his ChatNoir.

"I'm sorry but a ChatNoir can only have one Bugaboo." Emma said patting him on the back.

"But I promise to help you find your ChatNoir." Emma added. She was a stubborn person and always kept her promises.

"Thank you." He mumbled as he turned back to his drawing.

Miss Darling, Emma's teacher was going to tell Emma it was time to go inside for class when Mr. Hendricks (the special education elementary teacher) intervened.

"Cameron?" Miss Darling questioned Mr. Hendricks.

She was a little confused on why he stepped in front of her. He was a very respected teacher in his late thirties with  a teaching degree and a child psychology degree. If a child in the third grade had disabilities, behavioral problems, or was socially behind they were put into his class. He would figure out not how not to fix the problem but how to work with it. As an added bonus parents seemed to like his approach because he helped them to understand their child.

"Sorry, Ava but you see Ezra is one of my students and he doesn't socialize with anyone. He doesn't participate in group projects or come up and asks questions. He has been a more challenging student. I think it would be for Erza's best interest if he attend Art class with your students today as a experiment."

"Your sure that would be a good idea?" Miss Darling questioned.

"Erza uses art as a form of communication as you can see he seems to be talking about his chalk drawing to another student. This is the most interested I've seen him show for another kid ever since he started elementary school." Mr. Hendricks explained.

This is the first time he had ever seen him interact with another kid let alone share. Ezra was normally protective of his art supplies. Not only was he antisocial but he  would shut down and would lead to Mr. Hendricks to call Erza's parents which is always Mr. Hendricks's last resource. Mr. Hendricks had suggested to Lila and Nathaniel Krutzbreg that they should think about homeschooling their son if he showed no progress by the end of third grade. But homeschooling added the risk of Ezra's social anxiety escalating to where he couldn't communicate to anyone outside his family.

"Ezra would you like to go to Art class today?" Mr. Hendricks calmly asked his student who shyly nodded 'Yes'.

"I'm going to Art class too!" Emma excitingly stated as she helped Ezra pack up his chalk. Emma was confused on why Erza's teacher wasn't helping pick up the chalk. Usually teachers helped their students but Mr. Hendricks had attempted many times in the past to help clean up but Ezra would go into a tantrum if someone touched his art supplies.

"Erza this is Miss Darling and for today you'll be going with her class. Okay?"

Mr. Hendricks waited for a response. Emma grabbed Erza's hand and pulled on it towards the direction of the art classroom.

"Emma! Don't drag him!" Miss Darling scolded.

"She seems like a handful." Mr. Hendricks teased. Seeing that the little girl just had an outgoing personality that would probably benefit Erza even more.

"She's a nice girl that has to be friends with everyone and if someone doesn't like her she has to know why."

"Sounds like she'd be good for Erza."

"They're polar opposites. They're not going to get along like you think." Miss Darling stated knowing that Emma was probably going to worsen Erza's anxiety.

"Did you look at the chalk drawings?"
Mr. Hendricks questioned.

Emma had drawn two more stick figures one with red hair and one with blue and they were holding hands. The word 'friends' was underneath of the drawing but it was spelled wrong but Erza had crossed it out and spelled the word correctly.