Please, Miss (GirlxGirl) ✔️

41| accidental dinner plans

                The following week at work was both enjoyable and a pain in the ass. I'd never realised just how hard work children could be, but I'd also never realised just how much joy they could bring. I'd slowly gotten used to the routines and regimes of the place, I'd met a few of my other colleagues, and I'd gotten acquainted with all of the kids. Most of them seemed to like me, apart from little Delilah, who'd still not so much as looked in my direction.

On Friday afternoon I welcomed in the older group, helping with their coats and shoes and taking them upstairs. Sophia and Jack were both sick, and so the group was slightly smaller than usual, with just six little faces staring up at me from the floor.

"Okay," Mel said, clapping her hands. "You guys can start playing in here. Evie can I grab you for one moment?"

"Sure," I said, following her out of the room and into the hallway, passing Patrick on the way who gave me a smile. "What's up?"

"It's Delilah's turn to read this morning, and I thought you might like to do it. I know you've been struggling to bond with her, but this will be a good way for her to learn to trust you. She won't read to you, but you can definitely read to her. What do you think?"

I shuffled on the spot. "I don't know, she seems to hate me. I don't want to scare her even more."

Mel smiled, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Evie, she's seven years old and she's had a pretty tough time so far. She has every right not to trust adults. You have to show her that she can rely on you."

I nodded. "Okay, I get that."

With a few final words of wisdom from Mel, I made my way back into the playroom and spotted Delilah in the corner on her own, legs crossed, stroking a Barbie's hair. Sighing, I made my way towards her, and knelt down beside her. "Hey Delilah, it's your turn to read with me," I said quietly with a smile.

She turned her head, eyes wide, looking up at me as though she wanted to cry. After a few moments, she nodded, and I held my hand out to help her up. Delilah flinched, and took a step backwards. My heart sank a little in my chest, and I wondered what on earth had happened to this poor, frightened little girl.

I took a step backwards, retracting my hand but keeping my eyes on hers. "Come on sweetie, you can show me your favourite book and we'll read it together, okay?"

She followed at least three steps behind me all the way to the reading room, and inside, she slowly walked to the centre. I went to close the door behind me, but watched her eyes widen with fear as I did so. I stopped.

"I'll leave it open, okay?" I said, and stepped away from the door with my hands up and taking a seat onto the couch. "Do you want to choose a book from the shelf?" Delilah turned her head towards the wall of books, chose one within seconds from the bottom shelf, and placed it beside me. "The magic treehouse, huh? Sounds good. Hey, if you sit up here, I can read it to you, okay?" I patted the seat beside me, and she cautiously climbed onto it, as far to the edge as possible.

I read to her for over half an hour. Normally the reading sessions would only be about twenty minutes as the kids got bored pretty quickly and we only had a few hours with them, but Delilah seemed glued into the story. She'd even inched slightly closer to me as the book went on, and I felt glad that she seemed to not be quite so terrified by me anymore.

Eventually, I closed the story, placing the book on the arm of the couch beside me. "I think we're going to have to stop now to give someone else a turn. Is that okay?"

Delilah looked up at me and nodded slowly.

"Maybe we can carry it on next week, if you like?"