Teacher's Christmas Cowboy (Trinity Falls Sweet Romance - Icicle Christmas #5)

She wished she could take the question back as soon as it was out of her mouth. Kids Sylvester’s age didn’t have good impulse control. He might not know exactly why he had done it.

“Susannah lost her hat,” he said right away. “And no one else would listen or help her look. So I jumped up on my desk and then they all turned around to look at me. I told them to find Susannah’s hat.”

Cora had to try to hide her smile. From what she was told, working in elementary school classrooms was like herding cats. The teacher herself probably wanted to jump up on her own desk to get the kids’ attention sometimes.

“We found her hat,” he said softly. “But I know I’m not supposed to get up on my desk like that.”

“So you wanted everyone’s attention to get help for a friend,” Cora said thoughtfully. “That reminds me of someone we know, someone who jumped up on a chair recently.”

“Jared,” Sylvester said happily.

“And Jared also gave his brother a noogie, didn’t he?” Cora asked.

Suddenly, Sylvester’s happy smile was fading.

“Does it seem unfair that a grown-up gets good attention for doing the same things that are getting you in trouble at school?” she asked carefully.

“Maybe,” Sylvester ventured, looking up at her worriedly as if he were wondering if it was okay for him to say so.

“Well, there are two things I can tell you that might help,” Cora told him. “The first is that there are rules for us, wherever we go. And the rules are different in different places and for different people.”

Sylvester frowned.

“In school, the rules have to be very strict,” Cora said. “Children are learning, and you’re away from your parents. So it’s very important to keep you safe. Things like climbing and jumping and roughhousing, things that might be okay at home, are not okay at school.”

“Roughhousing,” Sylvester echoed.

“That’s the kind of very physical playing around that siblings and kids who are good friends sometimes do,” Cora explained. “Like when Jared gave his brother a noogie. That’s okay to do at home, if it’s okay with your parents. But you can’t do it at school. At home, if you break something or set a bad example for a younger child, your parents have to help you make it right. But the teacher can’t do that for you at school and also teach you. Okay?”

“Okay,” he said, nodding.

“And jumping up on the desk just isn’t safe,” Cora told him. “I know Jared jumped on a chair, but I’ll bet if his mother had been there she wouldn’t have liked it either.”

A smile finally broke out on Sylvester’s face and he looked like he was trying not to giggle. She felt a burst of gladness in her heart that he was feeling better enough to smile at a silly idea.

“Desks and chairs are for sitting at, not standing on from now on, okay?” she said with a smile.

“Okay,” he told her. “I’m sorry.”

“I accept your apology,” she told him solemnly. “Now I think you know what you’ll need to do tomorrow.”

“I need to tell Miss Sullivan I’m sorry,” he said, looking down again.

“That’s going to make her so happy,” Cora told him encouragingly. “Especially if you can tell her you learned why you can’t do that stuff at school.”

His little face popped back up and he looked happier at the idea of being able to tell the teacher that he learned something.

Cora was pretty sure that Miss Sullivan had already told him everything she had just said. But Sylvester had probably panicked at the idea of being in trouble and just stood there feeling ashamed and unable to take it in. That was why Cora had needed him to relax into his routine a little and know she wasn’t mad before they had their talk. She was pretty sure he understood enough now about why everyone had been unhappy that he would be very unlikely to do anything else that might get him into trouble like that again.

With the unpleasantness over, she told Sylvester to go wash up while she heated up some dinner.

While they ate, he told her all about some fun games he and Donny had made up and played on the playground today, and by the time he was in his pajamas in bed with a book, he seemed as cheerful as ever.

“Can you read to me tonight?” he asked her when she was about to go.

“It would be my pleasure,” she told him.

He probably just wanted her there for reassurance after he’d been in trouble, but she would take as many of these sweet memories as she could get.