Grace Under Pressure (Grace Walker Series Book 1)

Chapter 3:

School never changes regardless of how often I'm away. I walked straight to the office to get my new schedule and the old familiar smell of textbooks and cafeteria food comes smacking me in the face. I like the office staff here, always glad to see me back, and always ready to answer any questions. Ms. Foster gives me my schedule and informs me, with a smile, that I have a few classes with Reni. She knows we love to be in class together. I make it to my locker, thankfully it's not far from the office because of my fall, I'm naturally running late to meet Mrs. Salmon. I finally walk into her room and she greets me with a warm hug.
"I'm so glad to see you! Is your leg better?" She said.
"Yes, I'm doing a lot better and I'm happy to see you too." "What was is it you needed to talk to me about?"
"Well," she began, "We are starting a new program here at Preston and I wanted to see if you would be willing to take part in it? It's basically a program designed to help other students out that may need assistance with homework, etc. It's kind of like tutoring, but it's more or less for students who need help to class or to catch up, if they were to have to take time off school. I figured you'd be perfect for the job since you have had some things that have made you miss some time here at school, so you know how it can be stressful to get back into the swing of things. Do you think you could be interested in something like that?"

I didn't know what to say. I liked to go to school, socialize at a bare minimum and go home. Now, she's asking me if I want to be involved in being there for another student for support.

"How long can you give me to think about it?" I asked.

"Well today is Monday, so maybe by the end of the week. Does that sound good?"

Too fast, I thought to myself. "Okay, I'll give you an answer by Friday."

"That's great, Grace! Let me know if you have any more questions and I'll hope to hear from you by Friday."

I waved goodbye, checked my schedule and headed towards my first class. I hope this is one with Reni to get her input.

First class, World History. A class I'm actually good at. Thank God, I needed to sit and think of what to tell Mrs. Salmon. I didn't however have Reni in this class, so it was a bit boring but I needed to think.

My first few classes went by in the blink of an eye, lunch too, so by the time I got to the last four classes, I was still as unsure about my decision as I was this morning, because I still hasn't seen Reni.
           
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"Oh my goodness, I feel like I haven't talked to you in like, forever!" Reni squealed as she embraced me into a hug.
"Reni, we just talked on the phone yesterday." I laughed. It was so good to see her.
We had Spanish together, and Ms. Lopez didn't like for us to talk much in English, so we had to make it quick before the bell rang. I didn't really get a chance to talk to her about Mrs. Salmon's proposition, because we were catching up on other things.
I had to laugh because, here I am with a old band T-shirt, ripped jeans and an old pair of Converse on, while Reni had space buns in her hair, the perfect make-up on and the cutest little pink sweater, leggings and black ankle boots to match. What a pair we were. We caught up on mostly gossip. Who was dating who, who had broke up, what parties were coming up. None of which interested me, but I didn't want to hurt her feelings. I missed her so much.

Later on in the day, she gave me a ride home, and I completely forgot to ask her her opinion on what Mrs. Salmon asked me. I would have to just ask her later. For the time being, I was just ready to get home.