Boys Will Be Boys

By K.K. Shaulis

Boys will be boys, I guess. She frowned down at the skinned knee and then up at the face of the person to whom both were attached. “I would think at your age that you would be above participating in such stunts,” she fumed and shifted her frown back to the skinned knee. It was a warm spring day and the sounds of birds and happy children playing outside in the schoolyard filtered through the open window and into the classroom where he and she were the only occupants.

The owner of the knee and the face adjusted his position slightly as he sat on the top of the teacher’s hard wooden desk. In addition to his leg, he had managed to do a little damage to his backside in the spill but he was not about to let on. Not after she dragged him by his arm inside lecturing him as they went about his responsibilities and his inexplicable actions and plopped him down on her desktop. He took a deep breath and sighed. “Frankie was afraid to do it so I was just trying to show him that it was easy. That’s all.” He smiled down at her as she kneeled on the floor to tend to his injury.

She frowned up at him again. “So if Frankie wanted to take a leap off Pike’s Peak, then I guess you would be the first in line to show him how to do it?” she uncorked the dark brown bottle of tincture of arnica and poured some of the bottle’s contents onto a small square of cloth she had already cut from a longer length.

“I think there would be little danger of that since we’re at least 750 miles from there,” he stated matter-of-factly and smirked down at her.

“Still that doesn’t say that you wouldn’t be there ready to demonstrate just how it should be done,” she began to dab some of the tincture on his scraped body part. “You should really know better at y…”

“Ouch! Not so hard!” he grimaced jerking slightly when the medication began to work on his open wound.

She immediately pulled her hand away thinking that she may have been a little too rough with him as she cleaned off his damaged skin area. However, one glance at his face caused her to conclude that he was being overly melodramatic in his response to her nursing technique. “What a baby, you are!” she scolded softly shaking her index finger at him. “I’ve had five year olds act better. Now, are you going to behave yourself so I can finish this?” Her tone told him that she would brook no further nonsense from him.

“All right,” he finally agreed. He then braced himself as she once again began to swab his skinned knee. “No one got hurt, you know,” he thought he needed to say something more in his defense as she worked.

“Except you…” she reminded him, blowing on his knee to alleviate the stinging sensation caused by the witch hazel in the tincture.

He smiled to himself noting the contrast between her scolding tone and her soothing actions.

She then picked up a roll of bandage and began to wind it around his joint. “I normally send a note home when something like this happens, you know…”

“You do, huh?” he watched her intently as she cut the cloth with scissors and then expertly tied it off.

“Then the parents can take what ever action they think is needed to correct the problem,” she pulled his pants’ leg back down and started to get to her feet with her first aid supplies.

Immediately he jumped from his perch on her desk and -- like the gentleman he was raised by his mother to be -- helped her to a standing position. “Couldn’t I just clean the chalkboards or clap the erasers together?”

“The punishment has to fit the crime and those activities I reserve for minor offenses,” she opened her bottom desk drawer and stashed the medical paraphernalia inside. “No, I think I’ll just have to send a note home.”

“There’s no way I can talk you out of it?”

“No,” she shook her head.

“I could write lines?” he looked at her hopefully. “’I will not leap off Pike’s Peak if asked?’” Then he laughed.

“You think this is funny?” she raged. “You scared the life out of me!” she shook her index finger in his face again. “You could have broken your neck or something worse! And you think writing lines is all you deserve, mister?” she moved so she could stand toe to toe with him. Her chest was heaving up and down, her true feelings finally surfacing. A lot more emotion than she had showed before was coming through in her voice also and her big blue eyes began to tear up.

He would have had to been blind not to recognize her distress. “You know, maybe I was just trying to impress a certain young lady,” he thought it best to get on with his purpose for being there at the school in the first place. “Some things you just have to do to stand out in a crowd,” he said softly putting his hands on her shoulders.

She looked at him slightly taken aback. “What crowd? Where is there a crowd?”

“Oh,” he smiled faintly, “I’ve noticed a couple of other fellas who seem to be interested,” he whispered as he slid his hands from her shoulders down to her waist. “That’s the reason I’m here and that’s the reason I have to do this,” he pulled her tight against his chest and ever so gently caressed her lips with his. He savored her feel, her scent and her warmth as he kissed her and made a mental note of how the little blonde seem to ‘fit’ just right in his embrace.

“Now,” he said when the kiss ended, “What’s say you and I have dinner this evening at the International House and talk about the future?”

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea to move so quickly…,” her head was still spinning from his tender assault on her mouth.

“Quickly? But it’s been months since we met…” he pushed her out to arm’s length.

“Didn’t your little escapade with Frankie just five,” she held up the appropriate number of fingers in front of his nose, “Minutes ago teach you anything, you impossible man?” she shook her head in exasperation.

He stared at her blankly.

“Like “Look before you leap”?” she raised her eyebrows.

He laughed heartily and hugged her tightly. “Rest assured, madam. I’m going to go into this with my eyes wide open.” He tried to kiss her again but she placed her fingers on his mouth to stop him.

“You do realize that we still have to discuss your punishment?”

“Madam, I really don’t think it’s necessary…”

“Well, I think it’s necessary,” she suddenly became the teacher once more. “It was an extremely dangerous and stupid thing to do. And if I ever catch you doing anything like that again, I’m gonna… I’m gonna….” There was that index finger of hers in his face for a third time.

“You’re going to send a note home?” he teased chuckling to himself.

She cleared her throat and looked up at him sternly. “I’m going to give you a necessary talking to, that’s what! But for now,” she sent a hard swat to his backside.

“Ouch!” he yelped as her swat managed to find the exact spot on his behind that he had injured.

She giggled and escaped from his arms when he reached back to rub the place where her hand connected. “Let that be a lesson to you, young man,” she moved to the chalkboard and began to vigorously erase it.

“Yes, ma’am,” he grinned sheepishly, snatched up his hat from one of the student’s desks and turned to leave. “Oh, I forgot,” he turned back. “Shall I pick you up at 7?”

“If that gives you enough time to do your lines,” she smirked back at him.

“Lines?” his mouth dropped to the floor. “I thought…”

“100 times,” she picked up a piece of chalk and wrote the number on the board for emphasis. “‘I will do what Teacher says.’”

“Now, look here, madam, I am not…” he growled.

“And, I want them completed before dinner. Understand?”

“Mrs. Healy,” Ben Cartwright frowned as he walked to where she was standing.

Amanda braced herself, recognizing a certain familiar fire in his dark brown eyes as he approached. Oh –oh. The fire suddenly turned into a mischievous twinkle and the frown into a smile.

“I love you, Teacher,” he whispered in her ear and planted a kiss on her cheek.

“And they better be neat, Benjamin!” she shook her finger in his face again.

“I’ll be right on time,” he took her hand and gently kissed it. “Until later,” he smiled, turned and almost bumped into little Frankie.

“Mr. Cartwright?” he wiggled his index finger in a manner indicating that he needed to say something privately.

Ben got the message and leaned down so that his ear was at the same level as Frankie’s mouth. “Yes?”

“Ya bett’r make sure they’re real neat,” Frankie advised in a whisper. “Mrs. Healey don’t like it when they ain’t neat.”

Ben chuckled straightening up and ruffled the little boy’s blonde curls. “Thanks, Frankie. I’ll do my best.” He looked back at Amanda who was watching the exchange with great interest, winked at her and strolled out of the classroom whistling.

Frankie scowled slightly as he studied the grey haired rancher’s departure.

“Something wrong, Frankie?” Mrs. Healey noticed his frown.

The little boy shuffled the few steps toward his teacher, looked up at her with his big green eyes and asked, “Does he know I askt ya ta marry me first?”

Mrs. Healey laughed. “I don’t think so...but I think he knows he has a few rivals,” Amanda smiled down at the little boy recalling Ben’s reference to noticing “a couple of other fellas who seem to be interested.” She then erased the ‘100’ from the board. “Of course, I told you I’m too young to settle down and get married but if I decide to,” she tapped Frankie on his freckled nose, “You definitely will be at the top of my list,” she sat down in her chair and picked up the hand bell that sat on the corner of her desk. “Would you like to call the class in from recess now for me?” she held out the bell to him as an invitation.

“Sure thing,” the little boy grabbed it and started to run toward the door. He turned back and smiled at her. “I love you, too, Teacher.”

Mrs. Healey sighed shaking her head. Boys will be boys, big and little alike.

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*Many thanks to David Dortort for his creation of Bonanza in general and the Cartwrights and the Ponderosa in particular. The author does not claim ownership of any of the aforementioned characters. This story is not intended to infringe on any known copyrights but does belong to the author. © March 2006. Amanda Jackson Healey © March, 2005 is copyrighted character belonging to the author. ALL INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED.

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