Alina chuckled to herself as she glanced at the clock. She had sohow managed to finish the story in just thirty-five minutes, even with all the interruptions, jelly talk, and sock-related chaos. That left plenty of ti before the next lesson, and honestly, the babies looked too energized to sit still for anything serious right away.
She leaned back slightly in her chair and watched as the little ones broke into excited chatter. Letting them discuss the story felt like the perfect choice. It would help them build confidence, practice listening, and maybe even understand the value of group discussions—though with this particular group, it was more like a miniature debate championship sprinkled with cuteness and growling.
Drake had climbed halfway onto his chair, waving his hands as he insisted he would’ve defeated the jelly monster using spicy noodles. "Because jelly hates spicy! It lts!"
Luna rolled her eyes. "You would’ve tripped on your own tail and cried."
"I don’t cry!" Drake pouted. "I was just allergic to sadness that day!"
anwhile, Boo was floating in lazy circles above the group, muttering, "I liked the monster. He sounded squishy and misunderstood. I think he just needed a hug and maybe socks."
Rocky simply nodded, whispering, "Jelly monster was cute..." while Sable quietly wrote sothing down on a small notebook, his expression unusually focused.
Even Lucien, who hadn’t said a word, leaned slightly forward in his chair, chin resting on his palm as he listened to them argue.
The chatter from storyti slowly faded as Alina tapped her chalk against the board and turned to the class with a bright smile. "Alright, everyone. That’s enough jelly talk. Now it’s ti for our next class..."
She paused, trying not to laugh as she looked at their faces.
Instant dread.
Luna’s ears twitched. Rocky froze like he’d turned back into a pebble. Drake’s eyes widened with betrayal, and Boo dramatically sank halfway into the floor like he was lting.
"Math," Alina announced cheerfully.
A loud, dramatic groan echoed through the classroom.
"Nooooo," Drake whined, hugging his desk. "My brain doesn’t work during math! It only works during snack ti and Play ti!"
Alina giggled. "I promise this will be fun. Today, we’re learning about... asurents!"
Drake blinked. "What’s that?? Is it scary?? Can it be eaten??"
Alina walked over and leaned on her desk with a soft smile. "I’ll explain in a mont. But first... does anyone already know what asurent ans?"
To her surprise, Felix slowly raised his hand.
Alina tilted her head. "Yes, sweetheart?"
She couldn’t help but notice—Felix looked... different today. Not cold or grumpy like usual. His eyes had a strange gleam, and his lips were curled into a small smirk. Ah. It was one of those days.
She had learned by now that Felix had two modes: serious and stone-faced... or mischievous fox with too many ideas.
Today, it was definitely the latter.
Felix stood up slowly, cleared his throat, and announced confidently,
"asurent is... when you look at soone’s snack... and see if it’s bigger than yours."
A pause.
Then—
Drake howled with laughter. "YES!! That’s true!! I always asure Luna’s cookie before I eat mine!"
Luna growled. "Stop looking at my cookie, dragon!"
"I just check!" he argued, holding up his hands innocently. "It’s for math!!"
Alina rubbed her forehead, trying not to laugh. "Felix, that’s not exactly what I ant."
"But it’s accurate," Vlad Jr. said casually, sipping his juice. "Snack envy is a serious issue."
Alina smiled, walking toward the board again. "Okay, okay, enough chaos. Let explain properly. asurent ans comparing things like how long, tall, heavy, or wide sothing is. We use it to understand size. For example..."
She picked up her ruler and walked to Drake’s desk.
"Drake, let’s asure your tail!"
Drake gasped. "But what if it’s too long? Will you cut it?!"
"No, sweetheart," Alina laughed. "Just for fun."
"I want to asure my roar!" Drake shouted.
"You can’t asure a roar," Luna muttered. "That’s loudness."
"Then I’ll asure my loudness!" he declared proudly, taking a deep breath.
"DRAGOOOO—!"
Alina quickly said. "No roaring indoors!"
Boo whispered from under her desk, "I asured your scream. It was 200 scarys long."
Sable silently wrote "200 scarys = too much" in his notebook.
Felix leaned over to peek at Sable’s notebook and snorted. "You forgot to add ’plus one for drama.’ Drake is always dramatic."
"I am not dramatic!" Drake protested, imdiately standing on his chair. "I’m just very expressive!"
"That’s the sa thing," Luna muttered.
"Expressive is fancy-dramatic," Boo chid in from behind the bookshelf. "Like when I fake faint before math starts."
"Which you just did, five minutes ago," Alina reminded him.
Boo twirled. "And it was convincing."
"Alright, alright," Alina said with a patient smile as she walked back toward the board, giving it a light tap with her fingers. "Let’s stay focused, Sweethearts. We just learned that asurent ans comparing things like how tall, how heavy, or how much. Now..." she looked around the room, her tone warm and encouraging, "can anyone think of sothing else we can asure?"
Rocky raised a hand shyly. "How heavy... a rock is?"
"Perfect answer!" Alina bead. "That’s called weight. You asure how heavy or light sothing is."
Felix lifted his pencil and asked coolly, "Can we asure how annoying soone is?"
"I volunteer Drake," Luna added.
Drake gasped. "I’ll have you know I’m exactly five dragon hearts of aweso!"
"That’s not a unit of asurent, sweetheart," Alina said, though her smile grew wider.
"It should be," Boo mumbled, poking Sable with a back of pencil. "Let’s start a petition."
Vlad Jr. sighed and leaned back in his chair like royalty bored with peasants. "Can we move on to sothing more refined? Perhaps advanced calculations involving blood volu?"
"Absolutely not," Alina replied without blinking.
She took a piece of chalk and began drawing more shapes on the board—short lines, tall towers, uneven blocks.
"These are lines with different lengths. Let’s say the first one is one unit long," she explained. "The second is longer, so it might be two units. This is how we begin learning how much sothing is, or how far, or how big. Understand?"
Sable nodded slowly, already sketching the lines on his page with tiny precision. Boo was asuring the distance between his toes for fun. Drake tried to asure the length of his roar again but was shushed by Luna with a crayon to the forehead.
Kelpie, who had been quiet so far, raised his hand. "Can we asure water?"
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