The boy gave a strange box to his teacher and his classmates laughed at him, but when the teacher opened the box, everyone froze in shock.
At the end of the school year, the seventh-grade students decided to congratulate their teacher on the holiday. Almost everyone brought flowers, gift boxes, and cards. There was a joyful noise in the air, and the children were happily discussing who had given what. And then he came up to the teacher’s desk – a quiet, inconspicuous boy, whom most people even forgot to call by name. He was a poor student, although he was a very talented child. It was just that over the past year, the boy’s mother was constantly ill and could not help her son with his homework, and recently she left this world.
The boy had a hesitant smile on his face, and in his hands he was holding a strange box, wrapped in brown paper and sealed with old sticky tape. Some of the students immediately burst out laughing. Someone whispered:
— The beggar brought something again…
The teacher automatically picked up the box, intending to thank him and put the gift away as she usually did. But something in the boy’s eyes—a look of worry and hope—made her open the box right then.
When she took off the paper and opened the lid, the class suddenly became quiet. All the students suddenly fell silent, and the teacher looked at the boy in surprise…
Inside the box was an old bracelet with artificial stones, a little worn, and an almost empty bottle of cheap perfume.
“It’s… it’s my mother’s,” the boy said quietly, struggling to find the words. “I just thought… maybe you’d want it for yourself…”
There was more laughter from the back rows.
“This is trash,” someone whispered.
But at that moment the teacher changed. Her face became serious. She slowly took out the bracelet, put it on her wrist. Then she opened the bottle and sprayed perfume on her dress.
“You smell like your mother,” the boy whispered, his eyes growing wet.
The teacher straightened up.
– It smells very nice, doesn’t it, children?
The class was silent. A few students nodded hesitantly. The laughter died down.
From that day on, everything changed. The teacher began to look at that boy more often. After classes, she began to work with him separately, explaining what they had not had time to cover.
She learned that he was growing up with his grandmother, that his mother had died only a month ago, and that his father had left the family even earlier.
Over time, the boy began to answer more confidently. His grades became higher. And most importantly, he began to believe in himself.
