The first bell of the year rings and I smile as the sound of small voices echoes throughout the hall and into my classroom. It's always the sweetest time of the year, when the first bell rings and all the children come back. While some could be a pain in arse there are always those very few sweet and selfless students who are too nice to be mean to their teachers and fellow students.

As students begin to trickle into the room I walk around watching as they find their name tags and sit down looking around some still looking slightly sleepy. I smile before I walk out of my room and across the call to Matilda Roseberry. "They look so tired." I comment as she welcomes another student as they walk in.

"They look tired?" She asks glancing at me and I notice the barely noticable bags under her eyes.

"Yeah I hear you." I offer patting her on the back.

"Aren't you tired?" She asks looking me over.

I shrug my shoulders. "Not really, I started my planning at the beginning of the summer… I take it you didn't."

She rolls her eyes with a chuckle. "No, I have a life."

I laugh. "No you have a family." I point out as I glance back over at my classroom. A few students stand around talking. Good, they need to make friends with each other.

The one minute warning bell rings out and I turn back to Matilda. "Welp see you at lunch." I offer before heading across the hall and back into my classroom. As I'm about to close my classroom door I hear thundering feet coming from behind me, echoing through the hall. I press my back to the classroom door as I wait for them, to see if they are one of mine. To my surprise a messy haired, green eyed boy runs past me and into the classroom with a bruise blossoming on his cheek. I watch him make his way to his seat setting his tattered bag next to his desk. I'm shocked out of my surprise by the final bell, jumping a little at the shrill sound echoing through the hall. I turn, close the door, and steel myself before turning around and smiling at the class.

"Welcome to you're first day of third grade everyone." I smile as I glance around at everyone. I've got a wide viriaty of students this year. I have eight girls and thirteen boys. Not as bad as it could be last year I had a total of thirty two students. "I'm Ms. Hope" I see some of the boys smile at my name and cover there mouths. "and will be you're teacher for this year. Now as you can see on you're desk are some forms for you're parents and or guardian's to fill out and sign." A few give me confused looks.

"Don't worry it's just so I know if you're allergic to anything or are… physically impaired."

I look around at everyone watching for those with glasses. Only three. One is my neightbors daughter, Abagial. Another is the late kid. The last one I don't know yet.

"Now if any of you don't have all the supplies you need just come up to me later on through the class and I'll give you everything you need. No reason to feel embarrassed."

I pause as I look around and smile at everyone. "To start the year off we all will be filling out a paper grid to help introduce ourselves to our fellow classmates each box has an example of something that at least one of you're should have done before so when you find a box with something sign you're name but you can only put you're name twice. This is meant to be an interactive project. You can ask me but I'd like you to seek out students you haven't met before and see if you can find something out about them. I'll give you… ten minutes." I call out as chairs are already being scrapped across the floor as students push away from the table. One by one they come over to me and I smile at them as they show me their paper asking me to sign it. I smile down at them as I click my pin open and look the paper over. For the most part I sign my name in the same spaces every time since they're empty. After a bit a sour smell reaches my nose and I look around until my eyes land on a pair of bright shinning green eyes hiding behind overly large glasses. Everyone takes a step back from him and I notice his cheeks become a little dusted with pink as he looks at the floor. "Would you like me to fill a square?" I ask him.

He nods his head keeping his eyes down but I smile at him before I take his paper and look it over, he's the only one who's signed it. I look over at him but he quickly avoids my gaze. Skitish. "Well its really hard to say which one I like there's so many choices." I point out that he likes to read. "I see you like to read. What's your favorite genre?" I ask him softly as everyone goes back to talking but I notice a another rather chubby student watching us both. Odd.

The boy just shrugs his shoulders.

"That's okay we'll figure out which is your favorite later this year okay?" I offer and he looks up at me with a little smile. "Now lets see... I guess I'll sign swimming and traveled outside of the country." I offer as I sign my name.

We smile at each other before he takes the paper back and walks back to his desk and sits down staring down at the paper. I sit and watch the other students but I can't help but keep my eyes on this little boy. He does look way to small for his age and too thin. He smells like he hasn't bathed in a month and no one is talking to him.

I feel dread shift in my gut as I let out a sigh. Another one.