Wall-E poked and prodded inquisitively at a navy blue-and-black binder smudged with dirt.
He'd been digging through a pile of trash as usual, searching for treasures, when he had come across the binder, along with a denim blue purse. He'd dug through the purse, and found an emaciated Simi Transit student bus pass, a wad of tissues, a pair of glasses, and a soiled Hello Kitty wallet. The wallet lay beside the binder, waiting for its contents to be discovered.
As Wall-E fiddled with one of the zippers lining the front cover, one of his fingers caught on the little hole on the end of the zipper, and the front of the binder unzipped, spilling its contents onto the Buy N Large worktable. He sorted through the mass of objects, and uncovered a battered copy of "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, a few worksheets with the name "Caitlin Schmidt" scrawled on them, an agenda book with Royal High School 2010-2011 imprinted on the glossy front cover, and several mechanical pencils with the lead tips intact. Upon unzipping the top pocket, he revealed a pack of index cards. The cards were blank.
Eve entered the truck, her melodic trilling noise generated by the gravity processors filling the truck. "Wall-E," she bleeped. Wall-E waved her over, and said, "Look…" Pointing to the mass of objects before him, he unzipped the main part of the binder. He was greeted by a leather folder with the words "RHS CHORAL MUSIC" and the number 28 stamped on it in golden ink. He opened the folder, and glanced at a jet black spiral notebook, a spring pen clipped to the inside pocket, and an impressive stack of sheet music. Leafing through "Lullay Alleluia" "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" "To Hear The Angels Sing" and "Rejoice!" they came to a new stack of music. "A Wink And A Smile" "In Time Of Silver Rain" and "Pie Jesu" ensued, and then they met the back of the folder. Wall-E closed the folder, set it aside, and looked at a 5 subject notebook. This was going to be a LONG afternoon.
Slowly, painstakingly, they came to the back of the binder, where a beautiful, ornate scrapbook greeted them. Wall-E let out an "Ooh!" of surprise. This was more entertaining than the previous things they had encountered. Flipping open the cover, they beheld a picture of four laughing girls grouped together. The tallest had honey blond hair knotted into a French braid, and blue eyes. The second tallest had auburn hair cut into a bob, her hazel eyes creased in a grin. The shortest of the foursome had waist-length mousy brown hair, with mischievous brown eyes. The third tallest had wavy chocolate hair, stray hairs from her bangs hanging in her eyes. The eyes were beautiful: One eye was blue, the other brown. Her mouth was open in laughter, her shockingly white teeth flashing in the camera's flash light. All four were sporting floor-length black dresses. The top quarter of the dresses were covered in glittering flowers. Eve found herself giggling at the picture. Wall-E glanced at the bottom picture, and saw that below each person, their name was printed. The blond one was called Ashley, the one with the bob-cut was Kailee, the girl with the waist-length hair was Katie, and the person with the dazzling eyes was Caitlin, no doubt the one who owned the binder and scrapbook. Below the captions and picture, it stated in crimped block letters "Choir Buddies 4Ever!"
Flipping to the next page, Wall-E saw Caitlin standing with a middle-aged woman, also with blond hair. Likewise with the last picture, a caption underneath the woman stated "Mrs. Enright, The Best English Teacher Eva!" Caitlin wore a purple shirt with the words "Don't call me, I'll text you" on the shirt in black lettering, dark blue skinny jeans, and black suede boots that came up to her shins. Mrs. Enright was wearing a tie-dye shirt, and black dress slacks. Both were grinning.
And so forth: pictures of Caitlin's friends, teachers, family, secret crushes, and acquaintances.
When they had finished browsing the scrapbook, Wall-E turned to the wallet, and opened it. There was nothing in it, save for a photo ID card of Caitlin with the words "Press Exchange Student" stamped on it. Replacing the wallet in the purse, Wall-E placed the binder at the front of the truck, where it would stay.
What precious memories teenagers carry.
