I do not own Recess

Chapter One: Quiet Home

"The second star to the right," A young woman sung as she walked, boredly, around her kitchen.

She had raven hair that fell to her mid-back, deep brown eyes and a curvy figure. You could tell she use to be a petite figure, but she grew into a fine, hourglass shape as she reached maturity.

She stood short; a mere 5 foot 3 inches, but her figure how she carried herself gave away she was much older than she appeared.

She moved over to her stove every few moments, humming her song and checking on her dinner every few moments.

After a few moments she slid her feet across the linoleum floor to her cork board where coupons and notices from the school were tacked.

She continued to hum the theme to the old movie she loved as a child as she scanned the notices.

She flipped a few notices up until she was met with an old photo pinned under all the papers. The picture was of six friends, two girls and four boys. All only about the age of ten.

She smiled at the photo before realizing her dinner should be done. She hurried back over to the stove, lifted the pot and dumped the water and noodles in the drainer in the sink.

She licked her lips. After eating canned soup and cafeteria food for two months she was happy to finally be able to afford boxed food like Mac & Cheese.

For a twenty-six year old, living alone and owning a house, with a job as an Art teacher, along with electricity, phone, water and mortgage payments, she was surprised she could afford a two dollar box of Mac & Cheese.

She mixed in all the contexts of the meal and pour all of the different shaped noodles into a large bowl, grabbed a spoon and walked into her living room. She turned on the TV and flipped through a few channels boredly as she swallowed the noodles whole.

Her house was quiet, like always. The only sound she could hear was her TV. The two other bedrooms empty while the third held a Pull-Out couch bed and a few boxes she never got around to unpacking. She sometimes wished she could buy a dog for company but then she remembered she's a teacher and with all the payments she had to make every month, her dog would probably die from lack of food. She didn't want to have to worry about coming home to a dead dog and she knew she couldn't give up the little money she had for food for a dog so she always talked herself out of it.

She would have gotten a roommate to help pay the bills so she could get a dog, but none of her friends lived in town that long to help out much and every roommate she had gone through were dirt bags who never paid rent and left after a month. She finally just gave up in getting a roommate, but she couldn't sell her house. She already grew to like it and she didn't want to go through the hassle of trying to find a smaller house in her town. So, she lived alone, the only company she had was the sound of the television or the few visits she gets from friends and family.

Her cell phone buzzed and she clicked the Speaker button, resting the phone on top of her slightly large chest. "Hello?" She called through a mouth full of noodles, keeping her eyes on the TV screen.

"Hey, Spin, are you busy?" a female voice rang through.

She tried to hide her groan. "Uh, sorta, Gretch. I'm eating dinner and watching uh," Just then the show she was watching, which seemed like a horror movie, let a blood curdling scream ring through the house as a zombie looking thing ripped open the screaming girl's stomach. "I'm watching the news?" She lied, scrunching her face up, wondering if the news sounded like that.

Gretchen laughed, "I think you're lying, Spinelli. In fact, I know you're lying."

"Well I'm watching something!" She shot back, taking in another spoon full of noodles.

"I was thinking we could hang out at McSwigin's."

Spinelli shook her head, "School night, Gretch. I can't be out, getting drunk, when my first period class is a bunch of first graders. Do you have any idea how pissed I'd be? Maybe Friday night."

Gretchen sighed, "College Spinelli would have came."

"College Spinelli didn't have a mortgage and nine jillion other payments she has to make every month. Hangovers don't help when you're trying to get promoted to High School level Art teacher."

"You just started teaching two years ago, though. It'll be another five to six years before you're qualified,"

"Ahem!" Spinelli said into the phone.

Gretchen sighed again, "Fine. I'll just call, um,"

Spinelli laughed, "I'm the only one left in this town, Gretch. You picked a horrible time to come home from school."

She sighed, "Alright. I guess I'll just spend the night playing Trivial Pursuit with my parents."

Spinelli tried to hide her laugh, "Alright, Gretch. Later." She said before clicking the end button on her phone and placing it down on the couch.

She had to admit, she was happy her friends didn't live in town with her. All of them became these huge big shots while she was just a pointless Elementary school teacher. Vince was a professional baseball player for the Rangers, Gus was in the military (She didn't know if he had any metals or if he was a commander or anything since they didn't really keep in touch while he was away. He only really kept in touch with his parents), Mikey was on Broadway, either starring in it or simply a background singer but he was still on it, and Gretchen was currently studying at Yale and working in some Science facility making triple what she makes in a year.

She had no idea if she could live in the same town as her four successful best friends while she was a simple teacher.

Her mind drifted onto the picture and how she only recalled four out of her five best friend's career choices. She sighed. Considering she hadn't seen her fifth best friend in over ten years she couldn't really know what he was up to.

She half smiled; he was probably doing something fabulous. She wondered if he worked publishing comic books or making cartoons. He was talented in sports, maybe he was on some down trotted sports team and the only reason she hadn't heard of him was because the rest of his team members sucked and they hadn't won a single game yet. Or maybe he used his advice skills and became some sort of therapist for children to help them (She didn't think he'd want to hear about adults problems all day. He was always good at reaching children).

She glanced at her phone as it buzzed and realized it was a text from one of her fellow teacher friends. It read:

'Just got an e-mail. New student tomorrow. He's a first grader.'

Spinelli sighed. She never got e-mails like that. She only ever found out about new students when they showed up on her attendance page on her laptop. It was because she was an Art teacher and she worked with first through sixth grade students different days of the week. She didn't have just one class all week like the "core" teachers did.

She didn't bother to reply to the message. She'd rather wait it out and meet the new student tomorrow.

hope you liked it.

This is something I'll be working on in my spare time.

Peter Pan inspired this story, so thank you Peter.

I hope you liked the first chapter. tell me what you think. Thanks.