Page 58 of Playing for Love
“Yes, Jesse. Do you remember?”
“Yep. A fraction is part of a whole,” he said triumphantly. “Like a piece of cake is afractionof a whole cake.”
“Very good!” Cassie exclaimed. “Today, we have a fun project that helps us understand fractions even more.”
Cassie passed out the Domino’s pizza boxes she had collected from various classroom parties throughout the year. The previous weekend, she had taken the boxes home and pasted a variety of different types and number of pizza slices in it. Some slices had construction paper olives, some had pepperoni, mushrooms and peppers. Likewise, some boxes had four slices while others had six or eight.
Cassie explained the concept of the lesson to them. “Now, all of you are going to walk around the classroom with this paper,” Cassie said, handing out the worksheets to all her students. “And draw the different fractions you see in each box. Then, we are going to compare the fractions to see which have the same number, but take up the same amount and size of pizza in the box. Make sense?”
Twenty-four heads nodded her way. “Alright then. Let’s get to work.”
Cassie made sure the kids were doing the activity the correct way. Seeing that all the children were engrossed in checking the pizza boxes, Cassie took the card attached to the vase of tulips.
Just because, it read.I’m holding out hope that one day you’ll go with me to the tulip festival. Maybe I can even get you in my shirt ;) Jamal.
Cassie sighed, holding the card close to her chest. She was a sucker for flowers. And she was a sucker even more for a tall, sweet, athletic, beautiful man who was slowly working his way into her heart.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Hello?” Cassie said groggily as she looked at her phone.Eight-thirty?She thought. It was way too early for anyone to be calling her. Everyone who knew her best knew that she didnotrise on the weekends before ten. She put her phone on speaker so she didn’t have to hold it to her face that was still plastered to her pillow. “Who is this and why are you calling me so early?”
“Are you seriously still in bed?” Jamal’s voice rang out over the phone. “I’ve already been to practiceandworked out! You’re wasting the day away!”
“It’s only eight-thirty. I don’t get up before double digits on the weekend,” she replied grumpily. “Why are you calling me?”
“Well, this is a side I haven’t seen from you before,” he responded, laughter in his voice. “Maybe I should invite you to stay over. I bet a massage would make you wake up with a smile on your face.”
Cassie grinned into the phone as she sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “Maybe. Now, answer the question. Why are you calling me?”
“I actually have a Saturday off, so I was gonna take JJ to one of her favorite places in the city.”
“And where might that be?”
“The science museum,” he replied.
Cassie shrugged her shoulders. “Never been.”
“What?” Jamal semi-shouted incredulously. “How have you lived in Oklahoma for four years and never gone? It’s a city icon!”
“Really?” Cassie responded, skepticism in her voice. “An icon?”
“Ok, ok. Maybe noticon. But definitely cool. You in?”
“You hafta come, Cassie!” she heard JJ yell in the background. “I’m tired of just my dad going. And besides, they haveSegways!”
Cassie couldn’t help but smile. JJ’s enthusiasm was infectious. “Ok, I’ll go. What time?”
“They open at ten. Want us to swing by and pick you up at nine-thirty?”
“You don’t need to come all the way to Norman to pick me up,” she said. “I can meet you there.”
“I’ll bring Starbucks.”
“In that case, I’ll see you at nine-thirty.”
Jamal laughed. “What’s your pleasure, my lady?”