Evie - [wlw]

five

evie
-

Monday

The hallways of the school building were currently empty. Everyone was compiled into their classrooms doing their daily lessons.

I passed by a wall of glass windows that looked out onto the playground and saw that the second graders were outside getting their chance to attend recess before school ended. I smiled seeing their smiling faces run around and a group of girls gathering together to play with a jump rope.

When I was around their age I was already living with my aunt and getting situated to my new life after my parents had passed in the car accident.

My social skills had declined tremendously and I had a hard time making friends due to it.

Kids thought I was weird and somehow a rumor got started about me amongst our second grade class. It had spread so fast that eventually the kids came up with a new nickname for me, the orphan.

I swallowed back the knot that had formed itself in the pit of my throat as horrible childhood memories started to flood into my brain.

But I blocked them off by walking away from the windows and continuing my path to the front office to drop off a folder of papers I needed to turn in. Since it was later in the day and close to pick up time,

my class was attending music for their last hour of school until I had to bring them back to the classroom to pick up their backpacks and lunch boxes.

"Good afternoon Miss Love." I was greeted as I stopped in front of the inclosed front desk window. I smiled at the girl greeting her back and handed the folder over to her,

"Afternoon Naomi. This is for Nayelli, they're some extra papers she needed me to sign and I barely got around to them during my break." I said with a soft sigh.

We chatted for a few minutes since I still had some time to spare before my kids were released from music class.

The buzzer from the front desk rang signaling to Naomi that someone from the outside was requesting entrance. "Hi, how can I help you?" Naomi asked politely as she pressed her finger against the intercom speaker that spoke to whoever was outside.

I looked over my shoulder to see a shorter stature of a person standing behind the doors. It looked like a teenager and it piqued my curiosity as to what she was doing here during school hours. She was waving a piece of paper in her hand behind the clear glass.

"It's just me. I stepped outside to grab something from my backpack on the bus. I think I spoke to you before I walked out." The voice said back over the speaker.

"Oh yes! Come on in." Naomi replied pressing another button that unlocked the front doors for the girl to walk inside.

I turned back around to the front desk furrowing my brows, "She's definitely not in elementary. What's she doing here?" I asked in a low whisper when I heard the girl's footsteps coming up behind me.

"She's a part of the PALS program that the high school hosts here at the elementary. High schools kids who need extracurriculars to show up on their transcript come up here to be paired with kids who have special needs or learning disabilities. They basically just come here to bond with them or help with homework." Naomi said quietly before turning to the young girl who stepped up beside me and gave her a kind smile.

"You guys have this place locked down like it's a prison." The girl scoffed with an off tone as she handed over a written pass.

Naomi only chuckled, taking the paper from her and writing something down on it.