~ 8 year old Denny

“Daddy, come let me tell you about what happened today at school,” he says as he walks into the kitchen while I prepare supper.

I motion for him to sit and he does, “What?”

“Today at school, Mrs B showed us a painting of a brown reindeer she did for Christmas and told us to name it, then she made us say names,” he says while looking at me under his eye lashes.

“And then?” I asked since he stopped talking and looked at me expectantly.

“We started shouting out names in an orderly fashion,” he says while I mentally stab myself with the knife.

“Okay, so what name did you give it?” I ask and he leans back on the chair and places his hands under his shirt.

“Chicken,” he says bluntly with a grin tugged at his lips.

Sighing I asked, “Okay, so what did you children name it?”

“She picked the name Oreo that this other girl chose,” he says with a roll of his eyes.

“What else?” I ask since he’s taking his motherfucking time to get to the point.

“I was sitting like this in class listening to everyone,” he says as he leans forward, placing his chin in his open palm leaning against the breakfast bar.

“So…” I trail.

“This girl not too far from me called out the name Red Nose and I turned to look at her. She looked back at me and started crying afterwards,” he says and starts laughing.

I stifle my laugh just because and ask, “Why did she start crying?”

“I don’t know. When the teacher asked her what’s wrong, she said I said it’s a stupid name but I didn’t say anything, I just looked at her,” he says.

I start laughing because I know that he has this look on his face that judges you and looks at you like you’re an idiot – that poor girl.

After catching my breath I ask, “And then? What did your teacher say?”

“That ugly old woman said I wasn’t trying to be naughty and she was watching me the whole time,” he says with a frown.

“Don’t call your teacher ugly Denny,” I say and he rolls his eyes at me.

“Whatever you old man!” he says and fucks off to mess up his room again.

This fucking child!