Bonus - Week Four, UDC 10 - Teachers
Frolic
The music was startling, as Mrs. Henderson set down the music books on her desk, for there wasn't supposed to be anyone in her classroom so early. She cocked her head, listening to Sitting on the Dock of the Bay's off-beat tune for a few moments before going into the music room proper. There she paused at the sight of one of her students dancing slowly around the room, singing along.
When the song ended and he noticed her, he blushed at having been caught. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Henderson. I just-"
"No, Pete," she told him cautiously. "No need to be sorry. Just ask if you want to use the record player." She frowned. "Why this song?"
He shrugged. "Don't hate it so much now."
That response was puzzling.
Haven
On duty in the cafeteria, Mr. Wilson was startled to see the youngest student on campus joined regularly by the newest, recently transferred from Tennessee. He couldn't recall if he'd ever seen Mitchell with a friend, especially not one who regularly turned up with an extra lunch sack and didn't accept no for an answer on weather or not he accepted the generosity.
The third week brought a change, a smile to a normally pensive thirteen-year-old, and when Bradshaw brushed past him, Mr. Wilson stopped him with a hand on the shoulder. "Good job."
Nick simply nodded and continued on his way.
Succor
The two students still seated on the front steps caught his attention, and the Principal frowned. The newest and the youngest, one of them staring into a box in his hand. He inched closer, and was startled to hear Pete Mitchell telling Bradshaw about... tutoring?
"Bart has trouble reading," Mitchell told him. "Gets frustrated real easy, and I'd been trying to explain the importance of wording in a word problem, when he..."
"Lost his temper," Bradshaw finished. "And that's how you broke your arm."
"Yeah... and also why, when he wants me to explain the math to him, I sometimes have to run. A lot. He's nice, and then not, and..."
The Principal frowned at that. "Mitchell?" They both startled, looked back at him. "When that happens again, run to my office."
"Sir?"
"You heard me. I give you permission to run in the halls in that instance."