Last, and certainly not least, was Claire Li – Chinese, slender, and no more than 5-6, with a smallish – but still noticeable – bust.
Since my class at the school was more popular with the boys – just as Kelly's was a favorite of the girls – I didn't recognize any of the names or the girls. But I was politely friendly with all of them, and asked them to have a seat. All of them seemed exceptionally nervous – the feeling I got was that they were all more than a little in awe of me. I was still (in)famous at the school as the person that had gotten the previous administrator fired after involving the Bishop and threatening to sue the church. Nobody at the school knew quite what to make of the fact that the Bishop and I had gone on to become friendly, or that Kelly and I were teaching classes there.
When they were seated, Kelly went to get some drinks for all of us – sodas for the girls, coffee for me and her – as I chatted with them, trying to get them relaxed. When they realized that the rumors they'd heard about me just might be a trifle exaggerated, they settle down considerably. By the time Kelly got back, I'd even managed to draw a laugh from them.
Once everybody had something to drink available, Kelly was the first one to speak up by telling them 'I know the five of you are probably a little nervous about being here' – getting nods from all of them – 'but there's nothing for you to worry about. I know Dan has a little bit of a reputation at the school as some kind of big, mean monster – but you've probably already figured out that he's not like that. And you already know what I'm like.'
The five of them shared a look before Evelyn told us 'We were a little scared about being here – I mean, we've heard about what Mister Marshall is like in classes, but we also heard about him and the Bishop and everything, so we didn't know what to believe.' She graced me with a smile and added 'I think I believe the things I hear from the kids in his classes more than I do the rumors – I think he's pretty nice.'
Kelly smiled and told them 'That's right, he is. That's why he's here – because he agreed when I asked him if WE could be the ones that you talk to about all the things that you told me about last week.'
I added something to the conversation by telling them 'You don't have to call me 'Mr. Marshall' either. None of you is in any of my or Kelly's classes, so you can just call us Dan and Kelly. I think that would be easier on all of us, if we're going to have the kind of talks that I expect we'll be having.'
Bonita spoke up then, telling me 'I don't mean to sound ungrateful or anything, Mr… I mean, Dan, but the things that we wanted to talk to… Kelly about were, uh, pretty much girl kinds of stuff.'
Kelly answered for me by telling them 'You don't have to be afraid of talking with Dan. In fact, I think you'll find out that he's one of the best people you can talk to – about anything. In fact, he's the one that I went to, to help me learn about the same kinds of things that you were asking me.'
Seeing the looks of doubt on their faces, she told them 'Really, its true. When I was your age – and going to the same school! – there were several of us that were having the same problems and same questions you do. It was because Dan was the adopted uncle of one of those girls that the rest of us were able to meet him. Before that, though, he helped that girl start learning things – and she began telling us. So by the time we met Dan, we already had a pretty good idea of who he was and what he was like.' Kelly laughed, and continued 'It wasn't a good enough idea, though – he still surprised the hell out of us by the things that he said; and more importantly, by the things that he did. All of us started thinking about what he'd said, and finally decided that he was right. Once that happened, all of us were willing to ask him all kinds of things because we knew that he wasn't going to laugh at us, make us feel stupid, or anything like that. If you think that I'm smart, and really understand what's happening with you now, its only because Dan helped me get this way. So you most certainly shouldn't be afraid or embarrassed about having him here. Besides, from what you said to me, a lot of what you want to know is about boy-girl stuff; can you think of anybody better to ask about what a guy thinks than a guy?' That last part made all of them smile a little bit.
I followed what Kelly had told them by adding 'The only rule about what happens here between all of us is that it stays between all of us. Kelly and I aren't going to talk to anyone else about what anyone here says or does, and we expect you to keep that trust, too. You can talk about it with each other, but no one else. If you can't do that, or don't think you can, or you don't think that's fair, then Kelly and I will ask you not to come back again.'
Again, the five of them looked at each other before Crissy (Sheri?) spoke up, telling us 'I don't have any problem with that, Dan and Kelly. If you're willing and able to talk to me, and answer questions and such, then I'm not going to do or say anything about it to anyone else. Besides…'
'if you're not going to talk to anyone else about us, we shouldn't be talking about you to other people – that's only right', the other twin finished. Right then, I had a suspicion that having the two of them there for any period of time was going to prove to be 'interesting' For their parts, the other three simply nodded their agreement. Well, it was a start, anyway.
Kelly told them 'I know that it's going to take a little while before you're really comfortable enough to feel like you can ask the kinds of things that are on your mind. So what I was thinking was that this first time, why don't you tell us a little bit about how all of you got together?'
The five of them all laughed before Claire spoke, telling us 'It actually kind of got started in grade school with Evelyn and me. She was the only Black girl, and I was the only Oriental, in our whole school – so it seemed pretty natural for us to become friends, way back in third grade.'
Bonita chimed in then, telling us 'My family moved here from Louisiana when I was in sixth grade. With my accent and everything, the other kids didn't seem to know what to make of me, so I kind of got folded in with Evelyn and Claire. Then when we got to middle school, we met Crissy and Sheri.'
The twins looked at us before one of them said 'Me and my sister, we've always been real close. We even'
'finish each other's sentences, a lot of times.', the other said. They looked at each other, and the first one said 'That kind of scares a lot of people, I think.'
'But it shouldn't, because we've heard that a lot of twins do that.' the other said, then added 'And people always seem to get us confused, even though we know who we are'
'they shouldn't be confused because we don't look exactly the same. But it still' the first told us before the second finished 'seems to bother people.'
Bonita saw the expressions on Kelly's and my faces, and laughed before telling us 'And that's why they got hooked up with us. Other people couldn't handle them, while it didn't bother us, what with the three of us being so different already, anyway.'
I smiled at the twins and asked 'Okay, I'll play – how do I tell you apart, then?'
A little surprised that I'd just come out and ask like that – and that I wasn't visibly bothered by the stereo effect they must have known they had on people – I was told 'I'm Crissy – if you look at my nose, you can see that my freckles come up a little higher than Sheri's.'
Taking that as permission to move closer and really look at them, I did just that: sure enough, there was a difference – of what appeared to me to be about 3 freckles that added up to maybe a sixteenth of an inch. But it was there, and they waited patiently as I obviously memorized the way each of them looked. When I sat back again, Kelly moved in to see for herself. Both girls seemed mildly surprised, then appreciative, that we would take the time.
From there, it didn't take much for Kelly and I to get the five of them talking – about themselves individually, and as a group – and learning what kinds of things they thought about. We learned what kinds of careers they wanted, what they liked in music, school subjects, and so on. For our part, Kelly and I told them about ourselves, and how it came that we were teaching at the school. The girls were suitably impressed, then amused, then impressed again when they heard the real story of how I'd come to Kelly's 'rescue' when she'd been chosen Valedictorian of her class, only to have her speech disapproved – and the resultant changes that had happened at the school. Then they learned that not only were Kelly and I married, but actually worked at the same place: my engineering company. Shortly after that, it was necessary to give them a tour of the house, showing them the different things that Mabel, my home control system, could do.
When it finally started to get a little bit late, it was Evelyn that told us they had to be leaving – that none of their parents wanted them to stay too long and become nuisances. Kelly and I assured them that they weren't any bother, and would tell their parents so if they wanted to call. On the heels of that, Evelyn called her father who said that he would be there shortly to collect them and take them to their respective homes in his van.
When he showed up, I invited him in. He expressed pleasure at finally meeting the teacher that the kids had always spoken so highly of, and Kelly thanked him for the compliment. When the girls got up to leave, Kelly gave each of them a small hug, and told them that it had been nice talking to them, and asked if they'd like to come
