BPOV

I groaned as the alarm blared, annoyingly persistent. I shivered at the chill in the air and regretted having to take my arm out from under the duvet to turn off the alarm. If Sam weren't on patrol I would have snuggled into his warm body but instead I've got to get up and brave the cold floorboards. Wrapping my robe around me I headed downstairs to grab a cup of coffee to wake me up. I glanced out the window and was surprised to see the ground was littered with snow. I was equal parts excited and unenthused, as I love snow but the first snowfall of the year makes keeping students focused, like pulling teeth. I was about to take a sip of my coffee when the smell made me queasy. Foregoing the coffee, I grabbed my work clothes adding an extra jumper, knowing the school heating wasn't very effective.

As I pulled into my staff parking space as expected, pandemonium. Kids were squealing and snowballs whizzing around.

"Ms Mills, wanna build a snowman with us." Colin and Brady offered with matching goofy grins.

"As much as I'd love to, I think I'd rather watch from the safe confines of my classroom where there is no risk of getting hit by one of those." I ducked as I saw one of those huge snowballs heading in my direction. I grimaced as I saw O'Connor from one of my classes handing a younger kid a snow cone suspiciously yellow in colour. Oh good Lord, boys, I really don't want to have to deal with this.

"That better not be what I think it is O'Connor, or so help me you will be writing me lines on why we don't make lemon snow cones until your hand seizes up."

"No Ms Mills, it's yellow syrup I swear." He had an impish grin on his face but I couldn't bring myself to turn around and inspect it. I just gave him a meaningful glance. I made my way through the throngs of students and finally made it indoors, shaking off the snow stuck to my coat. I headed into my classroom, and pulled out my old, tattered copy of 'To kill a mockingbird' and the outline of my lesson plan for period one. I picked up a piece of chalk and wrote up the names of central characters of the book, so I could make spider diagrams of the kids' impressions of them so far. With ten minutes to spare I had everything ready for my lesson and quickly grabbed a tea from the staffroom. When I came back to my classroom I found Jenny sitting in there already, reading her copy of the book.

"You're reading ahead Jenny, I'm hoping that means you like it." Her head snapped up, I felt bad for startling her but she just gave me a shy smile.

"Yes Ms Mills, I love it. It's one of my favourites to date."

"What is your favourite novel?" I asked her, pleased to find what she is passionate about.

"Well, I don't think I can pick just one, but I loved Jane Eyre."

"That is definitely one of my favourites too Jenny. The character development in Jane Eyre is so rich and there is something so endearing about Jane Eyre as a heroine, she is quietly brilliant. I could see why you might find that relatable." I gave her shoulder a squeeze as she blushed from my praise. I made my way back to my desk as the rest of my class came bustling in, regaling me with their battles in the snow trenches.

"Alright you noisy lot, please take your seats. Get out your copies of 'To kill a mockingbird' please." I wanted to get a general impression on how everyone was coping with the text. Weedle out any kids that are struggling, needing extra help and those that are just lazy and need to be chased up to put in the effort in the future.

"Right, so as you can see on the blackboard I have put up the main characters. I would like for you to tell me what your impressions of the characters are so far." I waited for a response and wasn't particularly surprised that I got none, it seemed they would require a little coaxing. I know Jenny would have some points but I don't want to make her uncomfortable.

"Brady, could you give me any insight on Scout?"

"Umm, well, she's the narrator of the book. She's a tomboy." I headed over to the blackboard and added the points to Scout's spider diagram.

"Excellent start, Scout is indeed the main protagonist of this novel. She speaks of a time when she 'first knew', so this is her accounting her childhood now that she is older. You also said that Scout is a tomboy, anyone want to develop on that." One of the girls in the middle row, Jess raised her hand and I indicated for her to speak.

"Well she likes playing outdoors with Jem and she wears overalls, opposite to what the talcum powdered ladies would expect from a little girl." Good, things were getting off to a great start and this encouraged other kids to volunteer thoughts on Jem and Scout.

"What about you Matt, what character has made an impression on you?"

"That would be none of them." I heard a few laughs around the room.

"What about them made them unimpressionable?"

"I wouldn't know as I haven't read the chapters yet."

"That's disappointing but no matter you'll make it up to me. Despite, not reading the assigned chapters do you know why there would be widespread poverty in the town of Maycomb given the quote: 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself' - 1932?"

"The Great Depression, that's from Roosevelt's first inaugural speech." I was struggling to identify what category Matt fell under, he seemed an intelligent kid but the way in which he announced he hadn't read the chapters makes me feel I'm missing something.

"Very good Matt." I looked round, pleased to find Jenny ready to contribute.

"I've enjoyed Atticus the most so far, I love the relationship he has with his children. He is the moral backbone of the story." I smiled at Jenny and wrote down moral backbone under Atticus Finch. The bell rang signalling the end of class and I felt extremely satisfied with how hard the kids worked in my lesson. I set them some more work giving everyone a warning of what would happen if it wasn't completed, holding Matt's gaze as I said so.

The rest of the day didn't go quite as successfully, it seemed a cross school snowball fight had been arranged during break, for after school and no matter how hard I tried they were all too keyed up to sit still. I heaved a sigh of relief as the last bell rang and decided I would take Chief Billy up on his offer to ask him questions. I drove home, changed into something more comfortable and walked to the Black's house. As I walked up the road towards their house a small figure hurtled into me. I fell to the ground with a grunt and was about to chastise the responsible party when I looked up to see a young boy looking frantic. I got up and placed my hands on his shoulders getting him to focus on me.

"What is it?"

"Help, you have to help us. My friend Tommy he fell through the ice on the lake. We were playing and it just cracked right underneath him." Oh God, that lake wasn't ready for kids to play on yet, it wouldn't have frozen completely with the first snowfall.

"Go to Chief Billy's house and tell him to call Sam for help." I started running as fast as I could towards the lake praying the boy would be okay. Even if he is still treading water, he will catch hypothermia if I don't get to him soon. I urged my legs to carry me faster but with the snow it was hard to keep my balance. Finally, the lake came into view and I was relieved to see the boy was still keeping his head above the water.

"Help me, please help me!" He screamed out as he saw me, making my heart clench.

"I'm going to help you Tommy I promise, I've just got to find the best way to get to you." I shook my head as I saw he was too far in for me to be able to reach him with anything available to me. If the ice couldn't hold a little boy's weight then it's not going to be able to hold mine when it's already cracked. I saw his paddle was getting weaker and his head was submerging more and more under water. I had no choice and had to go in, there would be no waiting for Sam, he would drown in the mean time.

"Please, I'm so tired." Tommy started spluttering on water. I quickly stripped of my heavy coat, leaving it out for Tommy when I get him out.

"Just hold on a little longer, I'm coming okay. Just keep kicking your legs, I know it's hard." I took my first step onto the ice and heard the ominous groan of it under my weight but I couldn't afford to hesitate. I took cautious purposeful strides towards Tommy. I was within four steps of him when his head submerged under water and with a silent plea to Sam I plunged into the ice cold water. I reached for Tommy and pulled him up to the surface and he started coughing up water. He clung to me desperately but was only making it harder for me to keep us both afloat.

"Tommy, stop please I've got you. If you don't stop pulling me down we will both drown." I screamed out trying to stop his flailing.

"I'm scared." He choked out, but released his restricting grip on me.

"I know, I'm going to try and push you up onto the ice. I want you to spread out like a star fish so your weight is distributed across the ice. Okay?"

"Okay." My thighs burned with the effort of treading water but I propelled us towards the edge where he had fallen in and then grabbed him under his knees. With every reserve of my energy I managed to push Tommy up onto the ice. I heard it creaking in protest and knew I needed to get him to move forward as quickly as possible.

"Crawl Tommy, crawl as carefully but as fast as you can towards the bank." I saw his arms trembling from both the cold and the exertion. But slowly, he started to progress towards the bank.

"That's it Tommy, keep going." I kept kicking my legs, focusing on Tommy whilst trying to ignore the protest of my muscles and the icy conditions of the lake water. I let out a sound of relief as Tommy made it to the bank.

"Now Tommy, strip from your wet clothes and wrap yourself in my coat. Help should be here soon." I averted my gaze as he put my coat on and now started assessing how I was going to get myself out of this situation. I paddled towards the edge of the ice and tried to pull myself up, as soon as I put my weight onto it, the ice collapsed beneath me. I let out a shaky breath and tried again with the same result. Each attempt left me more exhausted then the last and desperation clawed at me. I felt my muscles seize and with a final cry of Sam from my lips, I slipped into the cold, dark water.

AN: AH... cliff hanger! Tell me what you think please!