Percy's age: 6
Date: September 9, First day of Kindergarten
Setting: Classroom
Scene: Percy is talking to the class fish
POV: Teacher

"Percy! Get your hands out of the water!"

The young boy turned in surprise, and snatched his hands out of the water. His face turned slightly red.

"Sorry Miss Quintan. It's just that," He looked down at the ground and continued quietly, "the water PH level is low."

Percy looked back up, his magnificent eyes watering, and his lower lip trembling,

"I was just trying to help."

His voice was so small and shaky that his teacher, Mrs. Quintan, couldn't help but feel bad for yelling.

"It's okay Percy. I just didn't want you or the fish to get hurt. How about you go wash your hands? You know where the bathroom is, right?" The kid nodded, and rushed off.

The teacher stood and looked at the fish tank. PH was off? How would a kindergartener even know what PH was? Nothing in the fish tank looked out of place, although the fish were being a little rowdy. She turned away, shaking her head slightly. Percy was probably just copying something he'd seen his parents do, Mrs. Quintan thought. There were a couple of kids watching the interaction curiously, but most of them were still focused on decorating their name tags.

Well, there's no harm in trying, so Mrs. Quintan took out some litmus paper and tested the PH. Sure enough, it was low. She quickly wrote herself a reminder to deal with that after school. She felt a tug on her shirt, and turned to see Percy.

"Excuse me? I can fix it. I can raise the PH."

The teacher smiled at the little boy,

"Oh no Percy, that's okay, you just decorate that name tag, alright?"

The boy stared at her for a second, before nodding slowly. He turned to his seat and sat down. Mrs. Quintan was slightly uneasy, and not at all sure the kid had actually listened to her. She decided she was going to keep her eye on Percy, but was distracted almost immediately because two kids on the other side of the room had started arguing.

Right as she managed to calm the two kids down, she heard a big splash, and kids shouting. She turned around and saw any teacher's worst nightmare. Percy was standing on a chair, and leaning over the top of the fish tank, with both arms fully submerged in the water. He was not balanced very well, and it looked like he was about to fall in. Mrs. Quintan was so focused on the safety of the child, that she didn't notice the fish swarming around Percy's hand, or the fact that Percy was talking to the fish. Instead, she ran over and picked Percy up, pulling him away from the tank.

"Hey! I was in the middle of something!"

Mrs. Quintan set the struggling child down, and knelt down so she was at his eye level.

"Percy, you cannot stick your hand in the fish tank! I know the PH is low, but you could hurt the fish, or yourself. I'll have to move your seat unless you can prove that you can behave yourself."

This time, Percy didn't look embarrassed, he just looked offended.

"Mrs. Quintan, I'm not going to hurt the fish. I was just talking to them and trying to balance out the PH."

"Oh? You were talking to the,?"

The boy nodded.

"Okay, what were the fish saying?"

During her years of teaching Mrs. Quintan knew that sometimes it was better to let a kid's imagination run wild, because if you listened to them, it usually made them more cooperative. So, when Percy started talking about her personal life, she was shocked,

"Well, they were telling me how they like the fish tank at your house better, because  your wife changes the decorations like, every month. They think this tank is boring. I tried to tell them that they should pay attention during class, and maybe they wouldn't be as bored, but then they said that they like movie night way better than they like counting. Which, is fair, I like movie night too, although I've never heard about Call Me By Your Name, which seems to be their favorite."

Mrs. Quintan stood with her mouth agape. This kid had actually spoken with her fish! How else would he know that she was married to a woman! Even though she was super proud of her wife, it wasn't something she flaunted, because she didn't like dealing with angry parents.

"Percy, let's go talk in the hall, okay?"

The kid nodded and followed her out of the classroom. Once they were in the hall, she turned to Percy and asked,

"How did you know that?"

The kid seemed confused.

"I told you, I talked to the fish!"

Mrs. Quintan shook her head,

"No Percy, you can't talk to fish. How did you know about my wife? Did you go through my stuff?"

Percy seemed insulted by the accusation.

"What? No! I wouldn't ever go through your private stuff! I didn't even ask! The fish just like to gossip!"

Mrs. Quintan obviously didn't believe the boy, but she felt bad for him, because he was obviously distressed. She sighed, and made a decision,

"Okay Percy, I'm going to trust you on this, but I'm going to talk to the principal and see if we can switch your class to one without a fish tank, that way you don't get into any trouble, okay?"

Percy considered this for a moment,

"Can I still visit your fish?"

Mrs. Quintan smiled and nodded,

"Of course, you can even help me feed them, as long as you don't tell the other kids."

Percy smiled and mimicked zipping his lips. Mrs. Quintan laughed,

"Alright, let's get back to class, you still need to decorate your name tag."

I'm back! Word count is 970, so it's pretty short. I think this one is really cute! I'm not sure if I actually like it, but hey, at least I'm updating lol.