Meet me at recess, by the flag pole.

^^ you're probably wondering who this young boy is, that I have a photo of on my blog. no, it is not one of my students. yes, it is the small child that played young mark whalberg in the italian job. i'll get to that in a minute. ^^

A couple days ago, I quickly finished my lunch and ran out to the playground with my whistle in hand to bring the little kiddos in from recess on time. I blew the whistle, and in they all ran, a little faster than their short legs can carry them. Henry* came first. An honest kid, good heart, stylin' blonde hair and glasses, and a pokemon card collection of many other kids dreams.

So while Henry is standing right in front of me, and the other children are lining up behind him, this tiny little second grader with more swagger than Justin Bieber walks right up to him with determination on his little face. "Hey," he says cooly, "do you have the aksdhofieaoihr (insert random pokemon card here) card?"

Henry sizes him up and then calmly says, "yeah."

"Will you show it to me?"

Henry pulls it out protectively, cradling it with both hands.

"huh..." that's all he says. just a "huh" and walks away.

Henry and I resume waiting for the rest of the class to show up. Just when we're about to head in, the jaunty little second grader returns, prepared for battle. "where did you get that card from?" he demands. "because I had one and I thought I might have drop..."

"I bought it in a pack with my own money," Henry cuts to the chase.

"Oh. Right. Will you trade for it?"

Henry, knowing we're about to go back to class, and not being super into this smooth talking second grader says, "nah... I don't really want to trade right now."

The kid won't give up, "will you take a dollar for it?"

Looking flustered, Henry says, "no, I don't take dollars."

Like second grade Charlie Croker straight from the Italian Job, second grade man whips out a fat wad of cash and waves it lazily in the air. "Are you sure?"

Henry looks flabbergasted, "I'm sure. I don't want any money."

"You're making a mistake, man. You could have tons of dollars for those cards!"

"I don't take dollars!"

"Alright," my teacher mode kicks back in, "let's go inside." Henry gratefully follows me in to the distant call of "you're making a mistake!!!!!"

* names have been changed, because it's the right thing to do, but this is a true story.

p.s. sometimes, i absolutely love being a teacher simply because of things like this story. Happy friday!