The Other Man

Meet Charles.
Charles is my boyfriend.
Charles is eight years old (which means he's actually seven) and in Dragon class and he speaks excellent English. In fact, Dragon class students are fairly remarkable and are probably at an elementary level.
Charles is really, really funny and has a fantastic "shit-eater" grin. He also throws a mean dodgeball and an even meaner insult ("you are a bug eating octopus" "you are a flower faced monkey", etc). He also likes the color pink and is really good at spelling.

Our love affair started about two months ago when Charles was still in Tiger class. We'd been verbally sparring for awhile since I like to tease and Charles gives great reactions to being teased and then one day at lunch I was teasing him and he told me to go away. Then I threatened to sit beside him and he said, "Okay!". Thus our relationship was born. To clarify things I was sure to ask, "Charles are you my boyfriend?" and he immediately said, "Yes! And A-a-a-a-mber Teacher is my girlfriend.". (Charles has a pretty intense stutter.) For the rest of the week he sat beside me at lunch. One day I sat across from him instead of beside him and when I asked how he was doing he informed me that he was angry because I was not sitting beside him.

As with all new relationships, things were fairly intense for the first week and gradually he began eating lunch away from me sometimes. He still gets a big grin on his face whenever he sees me but unfortunately we have opposing lunch periods. He is still full of jokes though- like the day he told me that he hated me and then added, "Only joking!". Or when he told me that he would never draw a picture for me at his art class.

Probably my favorite exchange with Charles happened earlier this week. I asked him, "Charles, why are you so handsome?" and he sagely advised me, "Because I love you very much.". Awww, and I love you too Charles.