Lynn's New Friend

Painting Friendships

POV~ Miss Ravira

I neared the art room's door. The art room was alright, however, there was a strong paint smell coming from inside the room. I peeked inside and spotted Lynn holding her stuffed hippopotamus and painting what appeared to be a penguin. I was surprised. I didn't know Lynn liked penguins.

"Alright artists! Looks like Miss Ravira is here! Clean up!" Mr. Mason clapped his hands as the kids placed all of their paints on the shelves and ran to the sink to wash any excess paint on their hands. Lynn placed her painting on the drying rank when Jess ran up behind her and knocked her down. Lynn fell face first into her painting, causing the paint to ruin her clothes.

"Hey! Jess, that was not nice!" Mr. Mason said turning serious. I've never seen him serious before. Usually, even outside the workplace, he's very goofy and wacky. Seeing him serious meant he was genuinely upset that Jess pushed Lynn.

"Trash deserves to be pushed down." Jess stuck her tongue out earning a few giggles from students who saw the action. Lynn held her hippopotamus away from her and walked up to me.

"Miss Ravira. Can I take home some paint so I can re-paint my penguin?" Lynn asked me, her silver eyes widening.

"You have to ask Mr. Mason if you can." I replied, watching the little girl skip over to the teacher and ask for paint. He nodded his head, helping her get some plastic containers to put the various colored paints in. While Mr. Mason was doing so, I noticed she was facing the opposite direction and...talking? She was talking but was facing in the direction of the windows.

Probably just talking to herself. Maybe it's an imaginary friend. I thought, allowing the class to line up and head back to the classroom.

••••

When we got back, I allowed the students to get their lunch boxes and have their snacks. Most of them had pudding, Pop-Tarts, cookies, all various junk foods. I saw little Nathan had donuts in his lunchbox.

When I looked at Lynn, I noticed she only had some apple slices. Now, they were not bad foods. In fact, apples were my favorite fruit. But I saw that she had this look on her face which showed jealousy of the other kids with all these name brand snacks while she only had apple slices. Her table noticed this as well.

"You only have apples?" Jess asked Lynn glancing over at Lynn's desk. The silver eyed girl nodded her head slowly holding onto Bubblegum in her right arm.

"Do you not like these?" Christian asked waving gummy bears in her face. I saw Lynn's face light up and she reached forward in an attempt to grab a few. He immediately pulled them away from her. "I was just asking you something. You can't have them! They're mine!" He snapped at her.

"I–I've never had gummy bears..." Lynn whispered. "Have you?" She asked.

However, when she asked that she wasn't looking at anybody at her table. In fact, she wasn't looking at anyone at all. It gave me a strange feeling.

"Who are you talking to? Your imaginary friend?" Sienna spat at Lynn.

"N–No."

"Wow, loser doesn't have any friends!" Jess giggled bitterly.

"She has no friends?" Nathan gasped, his brown eyes widening in surprise.

"Makes sense, she's too dumb anyways!" Sienna laughed, earning a high-five from Christian and Jess. I stood up from my desk and marched over to the cluster.

"Alright, all of you knock it off this instant! Take back what all of you said right now or else I am bringing you all to the principal's office. I will have her call all of your parents to deal with your behavior. I don't understand why you are being so mean to Lynn. It's disrespectful. It's only her first day here." I snapped at the students who all looked at me with wide eyes. I've never yelled at them. They must've been shocked to see me acting like this but if they're being rude I'm not just going to sit back and watch.

Nathan was first to speak up. I could tell he didn't intend to be mean, probably just went along to avoid being teased as well.

"I'm sorry Miss R." He said hanging his head in shame.

"Don't say sorry to me.." I said gesturing toward Lynn who was hiding behind Bubblegum.

"I'm sorry Lynn." He said a bit quieter than when he said sorry to me.

"I–I–It's okay..." Lynn mumbled in a soft tone. The others just nodded their heads, clearly showing that they weren't that sorry. I walked back to my desk and saw that a few other kids from the other clusters were watching. The rest were chatting and eating their snacks not noticing one bit. I saw Lynn mumbling a few things to herself and eating her apple slices slowly. I knew I had to move her seat, however, I knew she'd still be picked on no matter where I sat her.

••••

The children had some free time to play and they all immediately got up and ran to the toy chest grabbing plastic cars and dolls and various toys. Matthew had a soft football and he and some of the other boys were playing catch. Lynn asked me if she could continue and paint. I placed some paper towels on her desk so it could be an easy cleanup and she did. She painted the white snow and the orange beak and the blue sky. It was a nice painting, for a five year old.

"Do you like snow, Miss R?" Lynn asked me, speaking a bit louder than she previously was.

"It's alright." I answered her.

"My friend really likes snow." She said smiling for the first time this day. I was so thankful. Had she made friends with one of the kids in art class?

"That's great! What's your friend's name?" I asked her sitting up straighter in my chair.

She shrugged her shoulders and looked at her painting. "I don't know. She didn't tell me."

"Is she in this class?" I asked. I glanced around at the room naming possible friends as I scanned the girl's faces.

"No, she's in another class. I think." Lynn told me dipping her paintbrush in the white paint.

"At least you made a friend. Hopefully you'll be good friends this year." I smiled. Lynn looked at me and smiled back.

"Hopefully!"