The two spent most of the day at the center.  Laura had just expected JC to drop her off and leave, coming back to pick her up later, but to her surprise he stayed.  She wasn’t sure what he was doing in the office, but he had spent the majority of the day in there, away from the kids. 

“Hey JC, man, can you go in the gym with Laura?  I need to run a couple of errands and she can’t be in there by herself.”  Adam stuck his head in the door to call over the partition to JC.

“I was actually just getting ready to leave myself.”

“Please, I really need to get some stuff done and this is the only time I can do it.  Laura will handle any problems, but she can’t be alone with all those kids in case something would happen.”

JC let out a heavy sigh, “Yeah, I guess I can stick around.”

“Thanks, man, I owe you one.  Beside you were going to have to come back and pick her up later anyway.”  Adam shot out the door as JC trudged to the gym door and peered in.  Laura was watching a basketball game from the sidelines, but then moved through the crowd laughing with the kids as she passed.  She headed toward the stage, where she took a seat so she could see the whole floor.  JC meandered uncomfortably through the kids on his way to the stage. 

“So Adam roped you into hanging out, huh?”  She asked without looking at him. 

“Yeah.”

“You don’t have to sound so excited about it.”  She said with a wry grin.

“Don’t tell anyone this, but I’m not exactly comfortable around kids.”

“You?  Shouldn’t you be used to screaming kids by now?”

“Screaming teenage girls, yes, but that’s what security was for.”  He had a smug grin on his face. 

“I see.”  She laughed then immediately became serious as she called out to one of the kids playing basketball.  “I saw that Jimmy, knock it off.”

Suddenly a little girl about 6 or 7 years old came running up to them.  “Can you tie my shoe?”  She hopped up to sit on Laura’s lap.    

Laura responded with a laugh, “Sweetie, I can’t even tie my own shoes.” 

Laura brushed the hair from the girls face, uncovering her nametag as Beth asked, “How did you get your shoes tied this morning?”

“I didn’t untie them last night.”

“So what are you going to do when they come untied or loose?”

“I don’t know, get someone to tie them for me I guess.”

“What about him?”  Beth asked pointing to JC.

“I don’t know, do you think he can tie shoes?”  They both looked at JC, while he tried to hide a smile. 

“Ok, I’ve got it!  Why don’t you ask him to tie your shoe, really nicely, and then you can let me know if he did it right so I’ll know if I should ask him to tie mine, ok?  How does that sound?”

“Can you tie my shoe?”  She reluctantly lifted her foot as Laura prompted her.  “Please?”

“Sure, give me your foot.”  He quickly tied the shoe then Beth turned to Laura. 

She moved her foot back and forth, checking out the bow.  “He did ok, he can tie your shoes.”

JC and Laura laughed as JC responded indignantly.  “Well thank you very much for your faith in me!”

“So Beth, how was school today?”  Laura asked, still surveying the room 

“Good.”

“Did you learn anything?”

“No.”

“Nothing?”

“Nope.”

“I’m glad you went then, huh?”  Laura shot a look over Beth’s head at JC’s chuckle. 

“Who are you?”  Beth asked JC, she had been studying him throughout their conversation. 

“My name is JC.”

“Are you rich and famous?”

Laura gasped and she turned Beth to face her.  “Beth, that is very rude, you don’t ask questions like that.  You need to apologize.”

“I’m sorry.”  Beth mumbled.  “Those girls over there think you’re cute.”  She pointed to a group of teenage girls who all jerked their heads in different directions, embarrassed to be caught staring. 

JC smirked as he said, “Do they?”

“Yeah.” Beth wiggled to get down, “I’m gonna go play.”

JC started to say something but stopped when Brandon slowly came over.  It was the first time Laura had seen him since she had broken her arm. 

“Hey Brandon, how’s it going?”  Laura asked. 

“Alright.”  Brandon looked down at the floor.  “Look I’m sorry about your arm.  I didn’t mean for you to get hurt.”

“Thank you Brandon, that means a lot.  It takes a real man to apologize, do you know that?”  He scuffed his shoe on the floor. 

“So we cool?”

“Yeah, we cool.”  Laura raised her fist to bump against his raised one.  “Wait a sec, how’s your art coming, do you have anything on you?”  She stopped him as he started to walk away.

His eyes immediately lit up as he dug nonchalantly in his pocket.  “Yeah, I got something.”  Pulling it out, he handed it to Laura, studying her under lowered lashes, waiting for her reaction. 

“Oh, Brandon, you are extremely talented, this is wonderful.”  The scrap of notebook paper had been transformed into a beautiful graffiti picture.  “What are you going to do with this?”

“I’m just playing around right now, trying to design my skateboard.  I don’t really like that one though, I’m probably going to just toss it.”

“Don’t do that, I’ll take it if you ever decide to toss it.  You need to start a portfolio and put this it in so colleges can see what you can do.”

A quiet pride entered his eyes though he tried desperately to hide it.  JC observed all of this interaction silently.  Laura handed the page to JC.

“Really, it’s good enough for college?” 

“You know, I’ve got friends who are always looking for art for their albums, do you have more at home?”

Brandon’s mouth dropped open and he was speechless for a minute just staring at JC.   

“You alright, man?”  JC asked when Brandon just kept staring at him. 

“You mean that?  I’ll bring some stuff tomorrow.  Wait until my mom hears!”  He rushed off still rambling in excitement, forgetting his drawing. 

JC looked over at Laura when he felt her stare.  “What?”

“That was a very nice thing to do.  You know he’s going to run home tonight and spend hours and hours trying to come up with something that he thinks you’ll approve of.”

“What can I say, I’m a nice guy.  The kid has talent.”

A commotion in the corner prompted Laura to hop off the stage, cutting off their conversation. 

Adam never made it back that evening so Laura and JC had to close up the center themselves.  Together they made short work of getting the youth signed out and on their way and checking to make sure all the doors and windows were locked before heading out themselves. 

They drove through and picked up some fast food for Katie on their way back to JC’s house.  The evening was full of laughter between the new friends.  Katie excused herself for the evening and bid them good night, but neither noticed that she stood for a moment and watched them together.  You could almost see her thoughts as a smile broke over her face.