Page 21 of Single Teddy
“It’s not our fault he’s nuts!” Niko said and stepped closer to his brother.
“Okay, all right. Everyone, be quiet.” I put my hands up and addressed the rest of the class, who were starting to interject. My wrist stung from the movement, but I ignored it for now. “Can we stop calling people nuts, crazy, and stupid? They’re not nice words to callanyone. Now, everyone, please return to your desks.”
They did as told, but when the twins and Bear tried to do the same, I held them back.
“Sit, please,” I instructed, pulling some chairs around. “Now, tell me what happened. Without any name-calling!”
“I took a crayon from the desk, and he pushed me!” Valentin said.
I turned to Bear.
“Is that true, Bear?”
Bear grimaced and cast a frustrated glance at Valentin.
“It was my crayon.”
“No, it was—” Niko started, but I put my hands up and cut in.
“Please, talk to me, not to each other. Okay?”
Three heads nodded at me, and I smiled.
“Thank you. Now, Bear, you know the crayons belong to everyone, right? We all share them.”
“But I was using it!”
“No you weren’t. You were using the red.”
“I was going to use the blue one next!”
“Boys!” I said again and took a deep breath. “I see where the confusion might have happened. Am I right to assume you had the blue crayon next to you because you were about to use it?” Bear nodded. “So the blue wasn’t in the crayon box?” Bear shook his head, and I turned to the twins. “Now I know it wasn’t right of Bear to push you, Valentin, but I think Bear got upset because you didn’t ask him if you could borrow it. Do you think you can do that next time?”
Valentin’s head dropped, and he pressed his lips together, nodding.
“Thank you. Bear, do you think next time you’re upset, you can take a deep breath and say aloud ‘I’m upset. Don’t do that?’”
Bear shrugged, but his head also dipped.
“Great. Thank you, both. And, Niko.” I turned to the last boy. “It’s really admirable that you stood up for your brother, but remember, we don’t respond to violence with more violence, okay? Next time something like that happens, you can instead put your hand up and call for help. When we let our emotions guide us, we can make silly little mistakes that escalate, which means making things worse, and when we do those things, we can hurt people. And we don’t want to hurt people, do we?”
The kids shrugged, and I pursed my lips.
“Do you like it when someone hurts you?” I asked them. They shook their heads. “So why would you want to hurt someone else the same way?” I let my statement rest with them for a moment before I dismissed them and returned to the front of the classroom so we could tackle an easier subject. Math.
By lunchtime, things were back to normal…except for my wrist, which had fully bruised and ached like a mother.
That kid had quite the pelter.
“What’s wrong with your hand?” Monica asked.
She was another teacher at the school. We’d become friends, mainly because we had started around the same time.
“Oh, that?” I looked at my wrist. “It’s nothing. Just a misunderstanding.”
Monica’s eyebrow poked up from her cat-shaped glasses at a sharp angle.
“With?”
