Guy won the Skittles.
He was somewhat of a math whiz, so he used strategy, estimating how many were in each layer and then multiplying. His guess was four-hundred sixty-two, which was, by far, the closest.
Second and third were David and Ben with guesses in the three and six hundreds. Hanna's guess was twenty-two thousand, and Guy had slapped his hand to his forehead when she said it.
All the runners-up got a bag of Skittles just for playing.
I bought some sugar free candy for Matt, figuring that he would already be eating a lot at the picnic—he graciously requested those and the Skittles. He was having the time of his life with all the food at the picnic. It was honestly precious how much he loved to eat. He stacked his burger so high that we took pictures of him trying to get his mouth around it. His mom was there to monitor his sugar and help him out, so Michelle got to relax and not give him such a hard time about his intake. Plus, it was his day… he was a senior, and the party was for him. Everyone decided to relax and just let him enjoy it.
We had played games earlier while Lance cooked the burgers. The egg carrying game was a bit chaotic, but the ring toss was a hit, and even now, after we had eaten and the games were officially over, some of the students and parents were playing with it. A few others wanted to walk over to the baseball fields to run the bases, so Lance, Ash, and my mom agreed to accompany them while Michelle and Abigail helped me clean and pack everything up.
"When's your commercial coming out?" Abigail asked as we worked.
Michelle didn't know anything about my commercial. She and I were close, but I was a somewhat private person and nervous about how it would turn out, so I hadn't mentioned it to her. She turned to Abigail with a look of confusion when Abigail brought it up.
Abigail pointed at me. "She sang on a big time TV commercial," she said.
Michelle gave me a questioning glance.
"It's not big time," I said. "I mean, I don't know how big it'll be… it's not even out yet. Lance heard me sing Barracuda at the aquarium. I was just joking around, but it gave him the idea to make a commercial with that song in the background."
"I don’t think it’s in the background," Abigail said. "Lance showed me a tiny clip of it the other day, and it was you, belting it out like Tina Turner."
I laughed at that. "I'm sure it wasn't like Tina Turner," I said to Michelle, who looked extremely interested and shocked that it was the first she had heard about any of this.
"It's gonna be really good," Abigail promised.
"What's it for?" Michelle asked.
"The store. Lance's store. All Things Fish."
"And it's it gonna be on TV?" Her expression was completely shocked, and I let out a nervous laugh.
"I think so," I said.
"It is," Abigail assured her, nodding. "It's a big deal. Lance said the marketing people have it scheduled to air on like five different stations, plus internet stuff."
I felt queasy at the thought. I was excited but anxious about it. I knew it was a little tongue in cheek and meant for comedy, but I was still really nervous about so many people seeing it—judging me, judging the store.
I just smiled and shrugged, trying not to let them see my insecurities. Weeks ago, when Lance and I had first started hanging out, I had told someone in passing that "It was my first time doing anything like that, and it might not be as good as if he had hired a professional."
On our way home from whatever we were doing, Lance had grabbed my hand and lovingly told me that, "I shouldn't admit defeat." I had asked him what he meant by that, and he said that even if I am insecure about something I should just keep it to myself—that people didn’t need to go into something thinking that there was already a problem. He said that I should let them judge the commercial for themselves, and chances were, they wouldn't be as hard on me as I was on myself—that they wouldn't even notice I wasn't a professional singer if I hadn't told them.
I took his words to heart.
I made a dessert to take to his parents' house. I thought it had turned out too sweet and I started to announce that to everyone as a disclaimer before they ate it, but I kept to myself, and the dessert was a hit.
"I can't wait to see that," Michelle said. "I didn't know you were gonna be famous."
I laughed. We continued talking about the commercial for the next few minutes. Michelle wasn't familiar with the name of the song, but once I sang a few lines, recognition dawned on her. She gawked at me wide-eyed like she had no idea I could sing. I had sung it quietly, so it made me laugh that she was doing that.
"When's it coming out?" she asked.
"I think it starts airing on Monday," I said. "We're having a viewing party at the videographer's house tomorrow. He's all excited about it and wanted to have us over to watch."
"Oh, my gosh, that's so exci—"
Michelle's sentence was cut off by the sound of crying—a loud, howling cry. We all looked in the direction from which it was coming and could see Ellie running toward us with Ash, Lance, my mom, and the others in her wake.
Ellie was the one crying, I could hear her and see her face buried in her hands.
"I made him bleeeed!" she wailed.
"It's fine!" Lance yelled. "I'm fine. It's just a little cut."
Ellie ran straight up to me. Some of their parents were there, but Ellie's weren’t, so I was her makeshift mom in her moment of distress. She latched onto me and buried her face in the crook of my neck. Being a junior in high school, she was nearly as tall as me.
"Are you hurt?" I asked, trying to look at her.
She shook her head, but otherwise didn't answer… she only gasped for air as she cried. The other students, along with Lance, Ash, and my mom, continued to approach, and I checked them all out with a look of concern on my face.
I focused on Lance who shook his head at me, telling me I shouldn't worry.
"Ellie threw a rock and hit Mr. Lance in the face," David said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Ellie squeezed me tighter when he said it. She gripped me so tightly that I had to squirm a little and pat her arm to get her to loosen up.
"He was bleeding a bunch down his whole cheek," David added, causing more squeezing to happen from Ellie.
Lance walked up to us with a gracious smile. He mouthed the words, "I’m fine," to me before putting his hand on Ellie's back.
I stared at him as he bent to talk to her. With the he way he was facing, I could see the right side of his face better than the left. I shifted to get a look at the other side, and sure enough, there was blood. I could see stains where some of it had been wiped away, but there was more of it beginning to drip down the side of his face.
My heart dropped. I wanted to yell at Ellie and ask her what in the world she had been thinking being so careless. I wanted to comfort Lance and not the person who had done this to him. I could feel blood rushing to my face as my temper flared. I had to take a deep breath. Lance had been saying something to Ellie, but I was so overcome that I hadn't heard any of it. She sniffled and nodded at whatever he had been telling her.
"You're bleeding," I said to him, mostly mouthing the words.
"Oh, you should have seen all the blood when it first happened," David said. Others were milling around, packing up and trying to give us some space, but David was completely tuned in to what I was saying.
"Ellie, you need to tell Mr. Lance you're sorry," I said. My tone was disapproving, but it was as mild as I could possibly be, given the circumstances.
"I di-i-i-d," she said, still crying.
"I'm really fine," Lance assured me, patting Ellie's back.
Michelle, who was also a registered nurse, walked up with a wet napkin. I watched as she wordlessly asked Lance if he wanted her to take care it or just hand him the supplies so he could do it himself.
"Thank you," he said, reaching out for the napkin.
She handed him something else as well. It looked like gauze or a bandage. "I have a whole first aid kit over here if you need anything else," she said.
He nodded. "I'm fine, Ellie. I'm gonna go to my truck, clean this up, and I'll be good as new in just a minute."
He took off, and Ellie slowly released me looking around as if she was mortified.
"I really hope that was an accident," I said, still working to contain my frustration.
"It was," David said. "She can't throw. She was trying to hit the pond, which was the complete other way."
"It was an accident," my mom said. "We were all right there. Lance just happened to be standing in the wrong place. None of us saw it coming."
Ash, Abigail, and the others finished the last bits of the clean-up effort. The bus had arrived, and it was time for us all to get on it and head back to the school. I knew Lance wouldn't come with us, so I jogged over to his truck to get a moment alone with him before we left. He was sitting in the driver's seat, looking at the side of his face in the mirror. He was holding the napkin to a spot on the edge of his eyebrow near his temple.
"She sent a bandage," he said. "But it's huge, and I hated to go back over there wearing it. I'm trying to get it to stop bleeding without it."
"I'm so sorry," I said, climbing onto the running board of his truck.
I put my hand on his leg and he turned to me with a smile. He was still holding the napkin in place on the left side of his face as he leaned forward to kiss me. "It's not a big deal," he said after placing a kiss on the side of my mouth.
I was shaken up, but his kiss had the capacity to cut through all that. I loved him. That's all there was to it. I hadn't come out and told him as much yet, but I did truly love him.
"Come over when you're done at school," he said. "I've got to go back to the shop for a little while, but I'll be home by four."
I nodded. "I'll go get Sheila and we'll come over."
Lance wanted to come tell the students goodbye, but his face still bled when he took the napkin away. He was reluctant to wear that huge bandage, so I ran over to Michelle and got a smaller one. I helped him apply it to his cut, feeling frustrated the whole time that it happened in the first place. It was pretty deep, and it was bleeding a lot. He assured me once again that Ellie had not meant to do it, and we laughed about what terrible aim she had.
Within minutes, we had told everyone goodbye, and Michelle and I got on the bus along with the students and parents to head back to school. Ellie felt terrible about hurting Lance, and thankfully, I was able to cool down and forgive her to the point where we were all laughing and acting like normal by the time we made it back to campus.
Aside from the rock-throwing mishap, the party had been a success. Everyone talked about different aspects of it when we got back. The kids loved Lance, and several times, they brought up things he said or did, including joking about being mad at Ms. Abigail about the food.
Once again, before we left, David brought up the rock incident. Ellie started to get emotional about it, but Hanna assured her that Lance would fix it up in a flash once he got back to the firehouse. (She was smart enough to know he wasn't actually a fireman by now, but apparently, she liked to think of him that way.) It made Ellie feel better, so I agreed with Hanna, saying that the firehouse was probably full of bandages and first-aid kits. Everyone else in the class looked at me like I had lost my mind, but I made a face at them behind Ellie's back, and we all went along with it.
I went home to get Sheila, and was on my way to Lance's when I ran into my mom in the hallway. She was taking out the trash.
"Where you goin?" she asked. "For a walk?"
"To Lance's," I said. "But yeah, we'll probably go for a walk."
Sheila was excited to see Mom, and she jumped up on the side of her leg as we meandered down the hallway. Mom slowed to pet her with one hand while she held the trash bag in the other.
"Thanks for coming today," I said.
"Thanks for letting me. I really enjoyed it." Her tone was sincere, and she glanced at me like she wanted to say more. "I'm proud of you," she added. "I heard some of the parents talking about you—how much the kids loved you and what a good teacher you are. You're really making a difference in their lives."
"Mom," I said, in a tone that told her to stop since her words were causing my eyes to sting with tears.
She touched me on the shoulder. "I mean it, Sidney. I don't tell you enough, but I'm proud of you. I don't know how you turned out so good."
That last part made me chuckle a little, and I leaned in for a hug. "Thanks, Mom. I'm proud of you too."
The wonderful part was that I truly meant it.