More on the "Missing" Quarter

As far as I'm concerned, the quarter is forgotten. Someone stole it, it's gone. Let's move on.

The kids didn't forget though.

Today, in the same class in which the quarter disappeared, one of the students brought it up. Out of the blue "Did you get your coin back?," she asked me. I was totally taken aback. Me: "Oh… uh… no." Her: "I wish I could reimburse you for it." I get the feeling she gets why it was such a big deal. Because she can't reimburse me for it, even though she wants to. "It's okay, it wasn't you," I tell her.

Later, in a completely different class where quarter theft was never an issue, some other kids mention it. "We heard someone in Madame Labeille's class took a coin," some say. "Yeah, it's true a coin is missing. It's lost," I say, even though we all know it wasn't just lost. "It was Maxence," several agree. I shrug my shoulders. I am not sure it was Maxence, but the other kids are positive it was him. Secretly, I believe them. But I don't say anything and try to move the class along with recognizing the difference between thirteeNN and thirtYY.

"Here!" says one of the students. She pulls an American nickel from her pencil case and tries to give it to me. "You can have this!" It's adorable, these kids trying to make others' wrongs right. Of course I don't take her nickel. The offering of it was enough. This class gets stickers today.