THE SLICE OF CAKE

Yesterday I got to witness one of the most heart warming events I have experienced since I started substituting two Octobers ago: In my third period HIGH SCHOOL English class, the teacher's STUDENT aide is a recently arrived Chinese student; his English is not the greatest, and his parents do not live here. He lives near the University with a bunch of older Chinese friends on his own.

And he has a huge crush on this little white girl in class.

What happened yesterday made my heart swell, and the class cheer. The girl came in late with her sister and her friends (they had made a trip to Starbucks before class, without my permission). When they all came into the class we were in the middle of reading our novel, The Tortilla Curtain, by T.C. Boyle, so it was pretty quiet. Everyone booed them and shouted for being late. And the white girl looked at her desk and said "What is that?"

There was a vanilla birthday cake, with white frosting and a strawberry on top, encased in a nice plastic covering. Next to it was a paper crane, with writing on it. Everyone said "Some guy came in and left it for you!" Which was true. The student aide came in, dropped the cake off on the her desk, and left.

Everyone was quiet as they watched her open the cake container, and unfold the paper crane, and read the note inside. Then they demanded that she read it aloud. And so, she did. This is what the note said:

"I don't know why I got you this little cake. It is just as cute as you are. From ---------"