Awol Beh-Bays!

I know you're not supposed to have favorite students. Or favorites classes, for that matter. But I have to say, the Senior Infants (the 5 year olds) have totally stolen my heart ♥. Both the Junior Infants (4 year olds) and the Senior Infants are ridiculously cute. I'd forgotten just how small and precious four and five year olds are! And what's not to love when 20 adorable little kids run to you, latch onto your legs, scream your name at the top of their lungs, and tell you that they love you :)

One day I was helping the Senior Infants learn the Primary Colors (gah! I miss pre-school!) when the teacher suddenly had to leave the room to talk to a parent. She asked me if I could quick have all the kids sit on their carpet squares (bright, beautiful carpet squares!) and read them "a big book." And a big book it was indeed. I sat on a "grown-up stool" with a gigantic picture book on my lap called Owl Babies. And let me tell you what - never have I EVER seen anyone as happy as these five year olds were while I was reading Owl Babies. As I was getting ready, they kept cheering "Awol Beh-Bays! AWOL BEH-BAYS!" in their adorable little Irish accents. These kids went ape shit for Owl Babies. I thought I was going to implode from cuteness overload. And what a happy little implosion it would have been.

For the past few weeks, every time Boss has started to seriously stress me out, I've stopped and pictured 20 adorable lil' babies yelling "Awol Beh-Bays!" And it has made me smile every single time. I'd give anything to read Owl Babies to those kids every day for the rest of the year ♥.

Another highlight every week has been getting to play with a little boy named Kemal in the Junior Infants class. This little boy is the living, breathing, human embodiment of Gus-Gus from Disney's Cinderella in every way, shape and form. First of all, he was adorably slightly pudgy, rocking the healthy-but-round little tummy that only four year olds can pull off. Kemal even sounds like Gus-Gus when he talks. And when he plays, he teeters around the room, literally singing duh duh det da, just like Gus-Gus. On my last day at work, I actually used my camera to film a little clip of him playing, for the sole purpose of showing people back home that I had met Gus-Gus in human form.

I have also come to love and adore this hilarious boy from the Sixth Class named Cillian. The first day we met, we somehow struck up a conversation about our mutual obsessive love of Harry Potter. From that moment on, Cillian has bombarded me with a barrage of HP Trivia every time I've seen him. We try to stump each other, but in truth, I think he stumps me more often :) Another reason why I adore this kid? Every single time I walk into the classroom, or see him in the halls, or make eye contact with him during a lesson, he performs the Killing Curse on me ♥. It doesn't matter if his teacher is in the middle of lecturing - if Cillian can catch my eye, he'll wave an invisible wand at me and mouth Avada Kedavra. I've taken to counter-cursing him by casting a Patronus Charm, which, he accurately protests, would not really help me in this situation.

Cillian (mouthing at me from across the classroom): "Avada Kedavra!"

Me (holding up a sign I made, which reads): EXPECTO PATRONUM!

"You can't do that!"

"Can't do what?"

"Cory, you can't use a Patronus Charm on me. I'm not a dementor."

"Yeah, but you just tried to kill me. And killing people is really evil. And dementors are totally evil. Therefore, if I can use a Patronus to protect myself from a dementor, I can use one to protect myself from you."

"It doesn't work that way. And you know it."

"You're... you're right."

"So, I killed you!"

"Yeah, about that... you would have maybe killed me, if I hadn't performed the Imperious Curse on you earlier when you weren't looking."

"What!?! No you didn't, I would have known it!"

"No you wouldn't. And you didn't, because I am sooooo good at the Imperious Curse. I made it so that if you ever tried to use the killing curse on me, you would subconsciously, automatically botch the spell, and thus never be able to kill me."

"But wait! The Imperious Curse is Unforgivable, and so upon performing, you were sent to Azkaban and it was there that the dementors attacked you and so you really DID die in the end! SO I WIN."

"Dementors? What dementors? Oh, you mean the ones I used my well-practiced Patronus Charm on, right before I escaped from Azkaban forever and ran away to the British countryside where I'm now living a life of freedom? Did you mean... those dementors?"

"What? Nooo! How could you...?? WAIT. None of that actually happened because BEFORE you tried to use the Imperious Curse on me, yesterday I waited until your guard was down and I Imperious-ed YOU."

"Yesterday? Oh I remember that... you tried so hard... Sorry that didn't work out for you."

"What?! You didn't block my curse!"

"Yes I did."

"HOW."

"Occlumency. I've been taking private lessons from Snape. Since the beginning of time."

"CORY. Occlumency does not protect you from the Imperious Curse. It is only used to -"

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!!!!!!!!!!"




Annnnd, repeat the entire conversation at least three more times. Sometimes I actually relent and let him kill me, dropping dead on top of my desk much the way Jim Halpert used die of boredom when he knew Pam was watching.




...Did I mention how much I love the kids at this school?

♥♥♥