“I am,” she responded.
“Did you volunteer or is this part of the art class?”
“No, it's not part of the art class,” she replied, wiping sweat from her forehead.
“The NeverEnding Story is one of my favorite movies so I offered my help.”
“That was nice,” William responded.
“It was,” Ms. Spencer said. “Though, I didn't expect it to be this much work.”
“It does seem like a lot,” William said. “I think it's going to take twenty
thousand cotton balls to cover this dog.”
“Luck dragon,” Ms. Spencer corrected, sticking another cotton ball on.
“Luck dragon,” William mimicked, sticking a cotton ball on the dragon.
“You know what?” the art teacher said. “We need to turn this into a game. Maybe it
would get finished quicker.”
“A game, you say?” William asked.
“Yes, a game,” Ms. Spencer responded. She gazed at him as if she were studying him.
“Let's see who can glue the most cotton balls onto the luck dragon in a minute.”
“I think I am pretty good at that,” William said, looking at his hand. He had only
placed about ten cotton balls onto the thing and his hands were already sticky from
the glue.
“We shall see,” the teacher said. “Let's do best of three. You look like you may
get nervous the first time around.”
“Nervous?” William said with mocked offense. “I was born for this.”
“Oh,” Ms. Spencer raised an eyebrow. “Would you care to make it interesting?”
“Like a dollar a cotton ball?” William asked.
“Ha!” she laughed. “I'm a teacher, not a big fancy movie producer.”
“Well,” William pondered. “How about if I beat you, you have to buy me dinner?”