My seventh grade students are the noisiest,

making 4th Period Reading Block difficult.

I enforce silence with 

"mandatory individual reading".

Thirty minutes of bliss.

Some kids are your favorites. That happens.

One of my favorites is Oliver.

  The kid is intelligent and hilarious.

I catch him staring my way during quiet reading

and I've assumed he has a crush on me.

It's cute, I guess.

One day during Winter term

Oliver approached my desk, at the end of class.

He quietly tells me;

"My big sister has marks on her arms like you do."

I look at the places where

  razors kissed my skin

and saw sadness

in a little boy's face.