Okay, I know I talk about this kid all the time, but I can’t help it. He’s the most ridiculously challenging child but I have a huge soft spot for him. Every day is a new battle and at the very least, he knows how to keep me on my toes.

Like last week, when his decent behavior in my class finally snapped. The kids won five minutes of free time (UNHEARD OF in my classroom) and he got mad at something. This resulted in him kicking over a desk and yelling, “I don’t f***ing care!” I feel like everyone at schools like mine has some stereotypical story about violence with furniture, and I didn’t have one yet. I think now I’ve finally arrived as a teacher. (To the kid’s credit, he picked up the desk before I even had to say anything.)

Today, I was in the copy room and he came to find me. He wanted to tell me that his dad was in the office, and ask if I’d ever met him. You could tell, by his actions and his face, that he really wanted me to meet his father, but he immediately felt silly and started pretending like he really didn’t want me to follow him. I went with him anyway, and introduced myself to the dad and said a couple nice things about the kid. When I left, the two of them went to the supermarket to buy things for a science fair project.

I went back to work, beaming about the adorableness of this student so eagerly wanting to introduce me to his family. But sometimes there’s no such thing as a nice story. Of course, the two of them ended up in a hateful battle at the supermarket and the kid had to walk back to school. He was infuriated and cussing his brains out when he got to my class.

Poor thing just can’t catch a break.