Disclaimer: Christy and all other characters of the tv series do not belong to me, I am just borrowing them. I am only doing this for my own enjoyment and not for profit.
A/N: I'm not sure if I will continue this story or if it is just a oneshot, but do please read an review.
Miss Alice Hendersen held out a leaf to me and I took it, bewildered, 'Hold onto joy Miss Huddleston. Thee will need it.' In my first day in Cutter Gap, I had witnessed the near death of a man just a second before the living beauty that was the source of all life and death in these mountains, and that was as good as any crash course on how to be a school teacher that Miss Hendersen could give me. So instead, she gave me the only tool she knew would survive.
I felt so vulnerable that I knew I was a stranger in this place where others had built their lives, as simple and hard as they were. I could be only what I knew, and perhaps because of my own distaste for frivolous fashion and gossip, I felt naked in my city clothes. Nevertheless, after Mr. Grantland cautioned me in a concerned voice, 'Steady, woe. Those nice big shoes aren't too practical,' I could only reply, 'I was just trying to look taller…'
Mr. Grantland, or rather David, comforted me by offering me a gentleman's arm and led me to the schoolhouse like I was a lost sheep stuck in the mud. The children stood, blended among the trees, barefoot. 'They have no shoes!' My free hand instinctively reached to meet the heel of my right shoe and without a second thought, I pulled it off. I remembered that I had just fallen in mud moments before, but to my relief, my stocking foot landed on dry ground. Bewildered, David stopped midsentence before steadying me while I took off my other shoe. 'That's better,' I said, and when I took his arm again, he smiled sweetly, knowing what I had meant by what I had done. It warmed my heart.