I would just like to say that I am from Australia and I am not to familiar with the school system in America if I had made some mistakes, with anything in this story please let me know and I will fix it up

As Novalee drove down the main road of Sequoyah, towards the primary school, She looked at her daughter, not believing that she was driving her to her first day of school, Novalee remembered back to the day that she was born, After 5 years with this wonderful little girl that called her mama, and meeting the people that she had, she could no longer hold any anger for Willy Jack Pickens for leaving her at that Wal-Mart store of Okalahoma, that became her home for 4 months and then the birth place of Americus, Novalee meet her best friend when she awoke in hospital the day after, Lexie Coop, She had told her how Forney had followed her back to the store that day, and then jumped though the window when he herd her scream out in pain as she went in to labor and delivered her daughter, A smile played on novalee lips as she remembered how naive she had been

"Is the hospital gonna keep my baby, where is she?" she had asked

"Why would the hospital keep your baby," was Lexie's reply

"because I cant pay, its like a restaurant when you cant pay they make you wash the dishes" tears swelling in her eyes "I don't know what they'll make me do" Lexie protested "I'm broke, I got nothing no family no job… now I got a baby"

A small smile spread across Lexie's lips, "I know what you need" she said walking out the door, when Lexie walked back in to the room and placed her tiny daughter in her arms, and she felt that her heart would burst with love.

Novalee reached over and tucked a few stray strands of her behind a Americus' ear, her daughter smiled back at her, and novalee felt that all to familiar feeling again.

Novalee pulled into the school car park, turned off the car and undid Americus' seatbelt and pulled her out "come on baby, where gonna be late" she said taking her daughter hand and hurrying towards the library, she knew the layout of the school fairly well, just at the end of last year she had been asked to come in and do some school photos, she walked up to the lists that held the names of the pupils and which class room they were in, she found Americus Nation, and froze when she saw the room number 5, novalee didn't like 5's bad things always happened around 5's, the only good thing to happen on a 5 was that her daughter was born on the fifth of July, she just hoped that they didn't have the same influence on her daughter, she walked Americus to her classroom, and took a deep breath as she walked under the number above the blue door, she felt her daughter squeeze her hand for reassurance ,

"Hi, Mrs. Winchester" A plump bubbly woman said to them

"Hi, I'm novalee and this is Americus"

"Ohh your Forney's wife, do say hello to him for me," she replied before rushing off to greet another parent and child, a lot of people knew Forney from when he worked in the library, where novalee had actually meet him, he was filling in for his sister, Novalee had been giving a tree by Thelma "Sister" husband, when she had met her outside the wal-mart she was living in, Sister had mistaken her for Ruth Ann Mott, she had come out of the shop, and sat down and talked to novalee for a while then dragged her over to her blue welcome wagon, and gave her a gift basket and a buckeye tree, after a few weeks the tree had started to die, so she went to the library to see if she could find out what was wrong with it, that was when she met Forney, he seemed impatient with her a first after finding out what she was after he ran around the library gathering books and dropping down on the table where she was now sitting, when she tried to read them out loud, he snapped at the world she was having trouble saying, then took off again in another frenzy, it was the next day after she had found out she only needed to plant it, she went around to sister husband place and asked if she could plant it in her garden, after staying for dinner novalee walked "home" and that night she had Americus.

The sound of the school siren brought her back from the present

"Ok baby, are you going to be ok," novalee crouched down to her daughters height and wrapped her arms around her

"Yes mama,"

"Ok then, you be a good girl now, ya hear" Novalee held her breath again as she walked out the door, Novalee contemplated going home, but decided against it no "bad 5's" had happened for some time now, and she couldn't cancel a job just because of her superstitions, she got back into her car and drove towards the church where the wedding was being held, the bride to be had wanted novalee there a bit early to take photos of them getting ready, every time that she did a wedding she thought of the first weeding she ever did, she had developed the photos and was looking at them in the lounge room of sister trailer, by that time Americus and her had been living with sister and her "gentleman friend" Mr. Sprook for a few years, Americus and sister had come in announcing that there was a cyclone warning, and that they were going to the shelter, a gush a wind came in though the window and blew some of the photos on the floor, sister help novalee to pick them up, they both had a laugh when novalee explained that one of the waitresses was the grooms ex, and they did say they wanted photos of everything so she photographed the punch up that happened with the waitress, bride and bridesmaids, Novalee packed away the photos, and grabbed Americus and took her to the shelter, while sister took some soup over to Dixie Merlin, saying that she would meet them at the shelter, Americus never saw her grandma sister again, Novalee wiped at the tear that ran down her face as she pulled into the church car park, she couldn't find a empty place so she parked under the tree on the grass, she quickly pinned her back up, grabbed her cameras off the back seat, and ran into the church.