Journey to Love

Chapter 11

"That's a beautiful drawing you have made there Layla" Mrs Williams admired from over Layla's shoulder. Layla looked down at her drawing, her shoulders curving in slightly due to Mrs Williams compliment. Her cheeks began to warm at the nice words Mrs Williams had said.

"Thank you" she tentatively whispered out as her eyes began to fill with unshed tears. Why did a compliment affect her so much? 

Layla had drawn a little green Christmas tree that held some colourful decorations. Of course, she had only gotten the idea from the movie Grinch that they had watched earlier in the day. It had to be the best movie that Layla had ever seen, though she hadn't seen that many movies.  Layla had gotten so in awe at how colourful the Christmas season actually was. It was so much more colourful than her Christmas. 

When she'd noticed Nikola drawing a bunch of square-shaped objects beneath the tree, Layla asked what they were. Nikola had smiled at her and replied with 'presents' as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

Layla loved the idea of having presents under the tree, so she copied Nikola. She had drawn a single box, in some amazing wrapping paper that she had seen somewhere in her past. She was envisioning what she really wanted in that box, hoping that Santa came and visited her this year. Because she really wanted a notebook. She didn't care what it looked like. She just wanted some paper to draw and write on when she was at school and home. She wanted something similar to that of her classmates, instead of writing on a piece of paper.  

Though no one had ever commented on her scraps of paper, she just wanted to fit in. She was just begging that Santa would see her as a good girl this year and come and visit her during the night. She had only ever learned about Santa through school. The teachers would say that the man in red and white would come to any good boy and girl, yet she had never been given anything from him. Was she that naughty, that disobedient that Santa never visited her? She was always messing up at home and it seemed that Santa knew it too.

"What's in the present Layla?" Mrs Willam asked her. 

Layla kept her head down, fingers clenching against each other in her lap while she stuttered out, "A erm..a notebook" 

While they had started to do extra work at lunchtime, it was still hard for her to talk to Mrs Williams. She would usually just nod her head and write down what was being said, though she was feeling more comfortable around her teacher, she didn't want to be too loud for Mrs William's liking. 

"Oooh, that sounds amazing Layla. What type of notebook do you want? Like a drawing book, I remember you mentioning that you like drawing"

"um, any notebook" Layla replied back embarrassingly. Her eyes stayed glued to her piece of drawing, waiting for Mrs Williams to move on to the next person. 

"Okay, when you are done with your drawing, do you want to go put it up on the back wall?"

Layla stilled at her words. She could put her painting on the back wall? Excitement dribbled into Layla at Mrs Williams's words. She could put her painting on the back wall! She had noticed that she was the only person in the class who did not have a painting on the back wall. Layla was usually stuck at home trying to clean the artwork of bruises on her body. But now that she was here for an art class, she could put something on the wall.

Layla nodded her head eagerly. 

"Come on then, I'll help you put it up" Mrs Williams smiled down at Layla, as Layla jumped out of her seat, careful not to hurt her ribs.

They both walked up towards the back wall, Layla's step had a bit of a skip in it as she got all excited by the artwork being on display. She held the paper up on the wall as Mrs Williams stuck the pins into the corners, keeping it in place. Layla took a step back and admired her work on the wall.

"It is an amazing piece of work Layla, good job" Mrs Williams spoke softly before going back to check on the rest of the class.

Small tears pricked the corner of Layla's eyes as she stood staring at her painting. Someone was proud of her work, someone complimented her. Maybe her parents would be proud of her too, she thought.

Layla's good mood continued to last all the way until the end of the school day. Thoughts about whether her foster parents could be proud of her for her accomplishment ran through her head. She just wanted to make them proud. To make them happy with her. 

"Class!"  Mrs Williams called out to the class. Everyone stopped what they were doing to listen to Mrs William's announcement. 

"Well everyone, as you know that tomorrow is the last day of school before Christmas break! how exciting is that?" Mrs Williams smiled, "As you all know, we are having a Christmas party tomorrow, parents are welcome. I sent out a letter to each of your parents, formally inviting them to the party. Don't forget to remind your parents that you guys need to bring some food, you have all been assigned them. If your parents can't, please just tell me and we can sort something out. Now off you guys go, I'll see you tomorrow when we will decide on our first film. Have a good afternoon!" 

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Thank you so much for reading! 

Published: 18th May 2022

Words: 956