Can't Help Falling in Love

2

Meredith sighed as she rested her head in her hands, wondering why she had chosen a career that seemed to come with a constant migraine. First graders were a lot of fun, and she usually loved working with them, but today was just a bad day. She'd woken with a major headache, which had only worsened throughout the day as her students approached her with questions about every little thing under the sun and parents called and demanded to know why their children weren't already performing multi variable calculus. Now it was almost time for dismissal, and she couldn't wait to go home and take a long hot bath before collapsing into bed. She knew it was lame, but she just wanted to feel like a normal person again. And soon as she got rid of this stupid migraine, she might feel slightly normal again.

"Miss Grey! Miss Grey!" Meg cried as she ran to her desk. "I colored you a new picture!"

"Inside voice, Meg," Meredith sighed, pulling her head out of her hands as she took the piece of paper from the hands of one of her brightest students. "Wow, this is beautiful. But you're supposed to be working on your counting review from kindergarten."

"I finished already," Meg shrugged. "And my uncle says that if I'm all done with my work, then I can color."

Meredith smiled softly as she pinned Meg's drawing to her bulletin board. "Well, you're uncle sounds very nice," she nodded. "But now why don't you go spend some time in the reading corner?"

"Okay!" Meg exclaimed, hugging Meredith around the waist before she ran to the corner of the room that was surrounded by short bookshelves and boasted a few beanbags.

Meredith sighed as she rested her head against the cool surface of her desk. This was only her second year of teaching, but she could already feel that she was going to have a fun class. Meg was one of the brightest in the class, but for the two weeks that she'd been teaching these students she could already tell that they were all very eager to learn. She'd enjoyed teaching them so far, and she knew that each of her students showed a completely unique promise of becoming amazing individuals.

But right now, all she wanted was a head that didn't throb with every tick of the clock as the time crept closer and closer to three o'clock.

"Alright," she announced as she pushed herself off of her seat and made her way to the front of the classroom. "How many people are still working on their kindergarten review?"

A few students raised there hands, and Meredith nodded. "Alright, good job to those of you who did," she said. "And it's okay if you didn't. I want you to take out your homework folders and put the worksheet in the take home side. And remember to bring it to your parents and bring it back to school on Monday. When you've put your homework away, I want you to make sure your desk is clear so we can clean them before we pack up for dismissal."

To her surprise, a majority of the students cleared their desks with minimal distractions. There was a great deal of noise as they did so, but she couldn't complain when they were at least doing what she asked. Beggars couldn't be choosers.

"Alright," she announced, trying not to jump up and down as the clock hit two forty five. "Walkers are heading to Mrs. Pryor's class, bussers to Miss Myer's, and if your parents are picking you up, you'll be staying here. And I know a lot of you are starting your soccer season this weekend, so have fun with that! I'll see you on Monday."

There was a flurry of activity as her students made their way to the door, leaving two students in the classroom. Mike's mother came a few minutes later and Meredith chatted with her quickly for a few moments before they hurried to soccer practice. Meredith turned back to her classroom, smiling at Meg Scott as she sat quietly at her desk, humming as she colored quietly.