I Have A New Friend

Being a teacher is a strange thing. It is my job to take care of my students. As a building we have adopted the BIST philosophy for discipline. We are committed to helping our kids make good choices. Part of this model means that all teachers get to know all the kids and build relationships with them - especially the challenging ones.
So though I am the lowly preschool teacher I know the junior high kids too. As one of the aftercare providers I get a chance to interact with the bigger kids on a daily basis. Well, and let's face it, since I'm the only certified teacher who does aftercare I get to take care of any "challenges" that come up.
Really I'm getting to my friend but I'm taking the long windy route so bear with me. Back up to last week. The junior high boys were giving my co-aftercare provider some heck. Mainly it was her two own children so I went down and brought them up to my room. I can't even tell you how mad they were with me - especially the older one. He wouldn't talk to me the rest of the evening nor for an hour the next morning--- but then he opened up.
Now the kid is my new best friend. Today alone he stopped by my classroom 3 times to see if I needed anything. And though he moans and complains that I checked with his teachers to get his missing assignments, he is anxious to get to work afterschool since he knows I will help him. The deal is he wants to come teach preschool one day and I won't let him until he is all caught up. And to top it all off the love of his life just happens to be the oldest daughter of one of my friends.
So I, the teacher who is afraid of the junior high kids, has been befriended by an eighth grader--- how did that happen??