Chapter 15 - A Not-So-Clean Slate

Han was very nervous on the first day of school.

The orphanage made sure the children attended school regularly, but they had too many children and too few teachers to be able to do more than teach them the basics. There was no chance of a child receiving individual attention. Thanks to his afternoon with Jed, Han now knew he would be far behind the other children.

Tom and Han met the Curry children and they all walked to school together. Adam, Joseph and Leah had already introduced Tom to their friends, so he already knew many of the students.

Jed, although well-liked by everybody, had no close friends before Han. It wasn't that he was standoffish; it was just that he didn't know many children of his age and he was careful about who he spent his time with. He liked to be quiet sometimes and use his imagination. Most of the children he knew were more like Adam and Joe, and he found himself peaceably trying to do what they wanted to do. He soon got tired of it.

Han was the first friend he'd known that understood that sometimes you could just sit quietly thinking and enjoy the day. He and Han both liked to talk, but they could be quiet too.

But it meant Jed didn't have a large number of friends to introduce Han to beforehand.

Despite the minister's words, none of the church people had introduced their children to Han, so apart from Tom and the Curry children, he wouldn't know anyone. He wasn't overly concerned; living in the orphanage had got him used to meeting new people. He was also wise enough to prefer one good friend to a large number of casual friends.

The children filed into the small schoolhouse. The returning students quickly found seats and the new children waited at the front of the class.

Besides Jed, there were two other children starting school for the first time, a brother and sister. They had an older sister in the class and were already well known to most people. Mrs. Benton welcomed them to the class and pointed them to desks beside each other.

Then she welcomed Jed. She'd known him for a long time, having met him many times with his family. She introduced him and he ran to an empty desk. She smiled at his enthusiasm.

Then she turned to Tom and Han. Since she hadn't met them before, she spoke quietly to them before introducing them to the class. "Hello Tom, Hannibal. It's very nice to have you here. My name's Mrs. Benton."

Han cleared his throat. "Please, ma'am, could you call me Han?"

Miss. Benton could certainly understand why he wouldn't want to go by Hannibal. "Of course! Han it is. Now, I don't want you to feel too nervous on your first day, so I thought you might like to sit by your cousins. Tom, I imagine that you'd like to be next to Adam?"

Tom grinned. "Yes, ma'am."

She saw that Adam had already saved him a seat.

"And Han? Would you like to sit next to Joe?"

"Please, ma'am… could I sit by Jed?"

She was surprised and pleased. She'd assumed that being older he'd be closer to the others; Jed always seemed like a bit of a loner. She was pleased to think that he'd found a friend at last. She liked Jed; he was a bright and imaginative child.

"Of course you may, Han." She turned to face the class. "Welcome, everybody! I hope you all had an enjoyable summer. Children, I'd like to introduce you to the two newest additions to our community - this is Tom and his brother, Han."

One of the older children at the back of the class, a friend of Adam's and Joe's, snickered. "Hannah-Belle!"

The rest of the class giggled but Han didn't react. It wasn't the first time someone had teased him about his name and it wouldn't be the last.

Mrs. Benton was not happy to hear them teasing the new boy already. "Bill Evans, that's enough of that! One more remark from you and you will stay behind after class." In a softer tone, she said, "Tom, you can go to your seat. Emily, if you would move over here, Han can sit there. Thank you."

The two boys quickly settled into their seats and Jed gave Han a happy grin.

The lessons began.

"Class, today I'd like all of you to begin reading through your readers. If there are any words you don't know, please copy them onto your slate."

She waited until she could see them all reading and then started to walk around the classroom. Most of the students had one or two words written down in a neat cursive script. She went over to Tom to see how he was doing. He had a few words written down in a messy scrawl, but seemed to be spending the majority of the time grinning and whispering with Adam and Joe. She wouldn't say anything yet, not on his first day. If the behavior continued, she would take him aside and speak to him later.

She moved over to Han. His eyes were down and he was blushing furiously. Jed glanced at him worriedly, as Han laboriously traced out words in awkward capital letters. As she appeared at his shoulder, he leaned further over his slate, trying to hide it from view. Gently, she put her hand on his shoulder and leaned over to examine his slate. His writing was terrible.

She frowned. Was it just his writing that was bad or was his reading equally poor? She didn't want to embarrass the boy by making him read in front of the class, but she had to know if he was literate. She pointed to a word and asked him quietly, "Han, do you know this word?"

In an equally low voice, he answered, "Have, ma'am."

"And this one?"

"Apple."

"What about this one?"

He stared at it for a few moments and then shook his head, defeated.

"It's alright, don't worry. You can clean your slate and stop writing now."

She didn't want the other children to see his slate and tease him about it. It seemed they were already teasing him about his name.

He nodded and wiped his slate clean.

When they stopped for lunch, she asked Han to wait behind. She saw Jed give him a worried look. "It's alright, Jed, he'll be out in a moment. I just want to talk to him for a minute."

When the classroom was empty, she handed him his reader and asked him to start reading. He took it from her and started to read, hesitantly. Despite his obvious worry, his reading wasn't too bad, although nowhere near the right level for his age.

Then she asked him to write a sentence on the board.

He bit his lip and began to write in large, untidy capital letters. After a couple of laboriously written words, she stopped him. "Alright, Han, that's enough."

It was just as she'd thought; the child could barely write. "I'm sorry, Han, but I'm going to move you into a lower class. I think you might be more comfortable using the same reader as Jed."

In truth, even the younger children could write better, but she didn't want him to feel too disheartened. It seemed he was already being teased and she knew the boy would suffer further taunting about this.

He flushed. "Please, ma'am... I can do it, really I can!"

"I'm sorry, Han. Your reading isn't too bad, but it's not where it should be. And your writing needs a lot of work. You'll find it easier to learn if you're not struggling to keep up with a book that's beyond your level."

"I'll work harder! Me and Jed have been practicing, he's been helping me!" His eyes were round and imploring.

She felt so sorry for him, this was obviously hard for him. "I'm glad to hear it, but I'm sorry, Han. It really is the best thing for you right now."