Blue Moon of Kentucky

Chapter 6

There had been no need to fear the return of Mr. Benson–he never came. Instead they were out of school for a week before a replacement could be found. That replacement was a certain Miss Bessie. A young, unmarried, idealistic woman who believed that she could do some good up in the mountains, were nobody wanted to teach. She had good intentions, but was up against a classroom full of students aged six to sixteen.

Both Elvis and Loretta decided that they felt rather sorry for Miss Bessie and would help her where they could. While they had been Mr. Benson's least favorite students, they quickly became Miss Bessie's favorites. Elvis read stories to the younger children in the afternoon, while Miss Bessie covered material he already understood with the older ones. Loretta helped the grade schoolers with their letters, both print and cursive and came early to get the fire going as the weather grew colder. Since Elvis still wasn't allowed to walk to school by himself, he came early too.

It was the first week of December and finally, the Webb children had been gifted with shoes, very much to Gladys' relief for she feared for their health every day when she saw them with their bare feet, especially since small amounts of snow would come and go.

On the third day of December, Elvis and Loretta arrived at school to find one of the windows smashed. 

Immediately, Elvis began to fret. "What if Miss Bessie thinks we done this?"

"Oh hell's bells Elvis, the things you worry about. Why would Miss Bessie think that we done this? We'd be stupid if we did cause she knows we're the first ones here. You just be quiet and I'll tell her when she comes."

Elvis nodded his head slowly. "Loretta? How come that you don't worry about it?"

"I don't worry 'bout teachers cause they never stay long anyway. So it don't matter."

"But this one actually likes us," Elvis pointed out.

"So she'll believe us too." Loretta proceeded to start the fire under Elvis' watch before walking over to her desk. "Are you ever gonna sing at the church?"

"Should I?"

"Yes!" She threw back without considering. She wouldn't admit it to anyone, especially not Junior or Herman, but she liked being alone with Elvis for a little while every day before they started class. They never talked about anything special or secret, but it was still nice. Loretta had friends that were girls, of course, and at times they teased her about Elvis. Half the time she fought with them, the other half of the time she fought with the boys. She never really fought with Elvis though. Sure, they disagreed, he'd snap at her or she would deliver a swift kick to his shin, but it wasn't really fighting.

"Can you help me some?" Loretta asked. She had taken a seat and gotten out her homework.

"With the grammar stuff?" Elvis questioned.

"I think I got that," Loretta said without any real confidence. "There's some of the math problems I just couldn't get right. Like..." She turned a page in her notebook. "What is the denominator for 3, 4 and 5?"

Elvis' eyes grew wide. "I don't know. I think it's...we can try 50." Elvis took his seat and they dove into the task at hand, trying not to be bothered by the cold.

More often than not they spend the majority of their time alone catching up on and checking over their homework. They were both interested in good grades at the end of the year, or in Loretta's case, passing grades. Loretta wasn't exactly sure what her friends thought they would be doing instead.

Not much later, Miss Bessie and a group of their fellow students came. Elvis grabbed both his and Loretta's homework assignments and stepped forward to hand them in. He gave Miss Bessie a tense smile before walking back to his seat.