Crayons

Adam was very surprised to see how much energy Emily had that day. Usually, she was calm and nearly lethargic, but on Fun Friday she was almost hyper. It was amusing.

“Hey, Em. You have way too much energy today!” Adam exaggerated. He loved how her cheeks would turn pink when he spoke directly to her.

“I’m excited.” Emily mumbled, smiling.

“I am, too. But I think we need to get rid of some of this energy.” Adam picked up the two chairs in the meeting area and moved them aside. “Let’s do jumping-jacks!”

Emily was really confused. What were “jumping-jacks” and how did youdo them? She wondered.

Adam noticed Emily’s sudden change. Instead of the excited fidgeting she had been doing since she got there, she was still except for her fingers which were moving around each other. They were nervous movements this time.

“Do you know what jumping-jacks are, Emily?” She shook her head, sadly. “That’s okay, I’ll teach you.” He winked at her and she giggled, pressing the tips of her fingers to her smiling mouth.

Adam walked over to Emily casually, but inside he was nervous. He felt a little uncomfortable touching Emily because he liked it too much. He did so, anyway. Adam took Emily’s wrist and showed her how to make a ‘star’ shape with her body. He then told her to hop, and moved her arms and legs back together to make a ‘line’, as he called it. Once she understood, he stepped away, and they started their jumping-jacks.

Emily wasn’t graceful. She stumbled and her movements were delayed. Adam watched her as he did the same movement she did, though more practiced. It wasn’t as amusing as it was cute. Adorable. He sighed as he rounded his tenth jumping-jack. It shouldn’t be cute to him.

But it was.

-

“Making ice cream has a lot of adjectives.” Adam told Emily. He pulled two Ziplock gallon sized bags from the box as handed on to Emily. “Do you know what adjectives are?”

Emily nodded happily. “They’re….they describe things.” She told him, opening the bag in her small hands they same way he did.

“That’s good, Em. Can you think of some for making ice cream?”

Emily bit her lip thoughtfully. She looked at all the ingredients. She saw lots of ice, some big salt chunks, milk, and chocolate sauce, and thought of three good adjectives. “Cold.” She grinned.

Adam chuckled with Emily’s high-pitched giggle.

“Tasty.” Emily pointed to the chocolate sauce bottle. “And fun.” She guessed.

Adam raised a hand and they high-fived. “Let’s get started, shall we?”

Making ice cream consisted of two bags. In the first, they shoveled the big salt chunks and ice. In the second, the milk and a little sugar went in, along with lots of chocolate sauce. The second bad went into the first bag.

“Emily, do you have an Mp3 player?” Adam asked, hooking his own blue one up to a stereo system on his desk.

Emily shook her head. “No. I have an old iPod Nano. My cousin gave it to me.”

“Fancy.” Adam wiggled his eyebrows and Emily giggled again. Every time she did furry moths exploded in Adams stomach. He always cursed at them under his breath.

“I found a few songs that would be appropriate for today.” And for you. Kind of.

Adam had really just hacked into his older cousin’s daughter’s computer (with her father’s permission) and downloaded a few of her songs. He couldn’t find any of his that didn’t have cussing or obvious innuendos in the lyrics. He definitely didn’t listen to the stuff he downloaded, (except for the week after he got it.)

He pressed the play button on the stereo, and Metro Station’s Shake It rang out into the room. Adam turned the volume up a few notches, and then left his desk to walk back to Emily.

She had the bag of unmade ice cream in her hands, smiling softly. She never listened to music like this before. Heck – she hadn’t really listened to music at all. The iPod her cousin gave her was still in its gift box, untouched in her desk drawer.

Adam told Emily that she needed to shake her back for at least two whole minutes. So she did.

They both shook their bags, jumping up and down with the music, dancing around. Emily was grinning, giggling, laughing, and squealing. She couldn’t remember the last time she had so much fun.

After the song was over, the two minutes were up. Adam flicked the stereo off and ran a hand up through his wild hair.

“Ice cream!” Emily suddenly shouted, startling Adam and he looked at her. She was holding the bag up in the air, staring it in wonder and poking it. “It turned into ice cream!” she giggled.

Adam chuckled, taking the bag from her hands and opening it up. He took the smaller bag out from inside and threw the bigger one away. He did the same for his own bag and took out two cups, filling each with ice cream and one spoon. “Ready for the movie?” he asked Emily, who nodded eagerly and lifted the coated spoon to her mouth.

Adam made some popcorn in the teacher’s lounge, and took two bean bags out of storage.

Finding Nemo was the best movie Emily had ever seen.