Annmarie sighed and did her best to ignore the renewed giggling and pointing from her kindergarten class as she picked up the contents of her desk, knocked off by the ridiculous hooped skirt of her Scarlet O’Hara costume. She wondered, for perhaps the millionth time in the last month, why she couldn’t have chosen to major in business instead of elementary education.  Annmarie fantasized about a quiet office, decorated in soothing shades of tan, her work a tidy set of typed documents.  She placed the last pencil back into the holder and began the sit and be quiet ritual when Franklin burst through her door dressed in his best blue suit and a Richard Nixon mask.

            “Hey pretty lady; want to combine forces for recess today?”

            Annmarie looked at her wiggling, squiggling students, dressed in their trick-or-treat costumes and decided recess on her own, especially today, was definitely a bleak prospect.

            “Ordinarily, I’d never agree to this sort of thing, but you’ve got an honest face.” She drawled in her best Scarlet O’Hara voice. 

            Working in tandem, the two teachers managed to get both classes lined up, marched to the doors and turned loose on the playground with only slightly less noise than the mosh pit at a rock concert.  They took their places in the center of the playground as their over-excited students ran helter skelter between the swings and kick ball court. 

            Franklin looked Annmarie up and down insolently.  “You are looking quite fetching today Miss Scarlet.  I do believe I saw the principal driving off to her meeting which means there’s nothing stopping me from tossing you down right here and having my way with you.”  He slid up next to her and tickled her waist. 

            “Back off, mister.  I don’t get paid enough to deal with these kinds of shenanigans.”  Annmarie turned her back to him and strode across the playground closer to the little group of children she saw forming under the monkey bars.

            “Ah come on, Annmarie, you aren’t still mad because I forgot your birthday?”  Franklin whined as he trotted along after her.

            “Of course not, but I am getting a little tired of your inappropriate comments at school.”  Annmarie stopped and stared sadly at the black top, “I just hate holidays since I became a teacher.  The kids are wound up and uncontrollable, we get stuck in stupid costumes.  Richard Nixon?  You couldn’t do any better than that?”

            “The costume shop was all out of super heroes!”

            Annmarie shaded her eyes from the bright October sun and tried to see what the steadily growing crowd of kids were looking at.  “Uh Oh, something is going on over there Franklin, we better go find out what’s up.”

            “You’re kidding, aren’t you?”  Franklin adjusted his mask and peered at the group with worry.  “It’ll take James Bond to break up that huddle.” 

            “Roger Moore or Sean Connery?”  Annmarie asked flippantly.

            “Sean Connery, of course.  Roger Moore couldn’t fight his way through a troop of girl scouts, much less a crowd of costumed kindergartners hyped up on cupcakes and kool-aid.”

            The two teachers kept a wary eye on the group as they slowly moved closer in an attempt to determine what they were doing. 

            “Everybody gets frustrated with their job from time to time.”  Franklin said, returning to her earlier comment. 

            “It’s more than frustration; I can’t even remember why I wanted to be a teacher.  I don’t think I’m reaching them.”  Annmarie said sadly.  She peered closer toward the milling children.  Between the jostling bodies, she could just see what appeared to be a fairy princess and Batman kneeling side by side over… something. 

            “I think we better go find out exactly what those kids are up to.”  Franklin said.  “Do you see that cute little Princess there in the middle?  She’s left tacks on my chair, torn every paper off the bulletin board and once she cut her desk mate’s shirt with their safety scissors.”

            “I can’t even cut paper with safety scissors, how did she manage fabric?” Annmarie asked as she picked up her skirt and scurried after Franklin. 

            “I don’t know, but trust me, the child bears watching.”  Franklin blew on his playground whistle, successfully getting his class to look up and scattering Annmarie’s to all four corners of the playground, except for Batman who remained resolutely beside his princess.

            Annmarie could see something on the ground at the feet of the two children.  From where she stood, she couldn’t make out exactly what it was, something dark, with splashes of red.  Before she could reach the children she saw Batman reaching for the object on the ground, the princess grasping his arm as if in restraint.  Annmarie’s heart pounded harder, what if it was a dead animal?  A bomb?

            “Danny, for God’s sake, do not touch that!”  She screamed, startling the kids and Franklin.

            Danny blinked at her, his face still sporting the red kool-aid mustache he’d acquired during their party, both hands covered in chunks of something black oozing with red.  “Look teacher, I made you something!” 

            Annmarie and Franklin stared at the mess at his feet.  Painted on the browning grass in bright red finger paint, decorated with the squashed and crumbling remains of the chocolate cupcakes they’d eaten at their party, was the sentiment:  I love Miss Benning.

            “Apparently you have an admirer, teacher.  I suspect the paint came from my room, but we had vanilla cupcakes, so your guy had to have smuggled out the baked goods.”  Franklin said wryly. 

            Annmarie stared through mist at the smiling little boy and the mess behind him. 

            “Look Franklin, he spelled my name right.”  She smiled back at Danny and his Princess and then looked around the playground.  “I think we’ve let them run off enough energy, let’s get back to the classroom, we have reading to do!”