Sorry for the delay, been really busy!
Simple School Matters
The bell of the door dinged loudly as I walked into my uncle's law office after attending a long day at the local school house. I held some books flush against my chest as I made my way to my uncle's desk. Uncle Perry looked up at me from the scattered paperwork on his desk and asked me, "How was school today, Novella?"
"Fine." I sighed as I plopped my books down on the desk.
"Got a lot of schoolwork to do?" He asked me as I sat down at the chair that was opposite him at the wooden desk.
"Yep." I simply answered him as I opened up a book in order to read some story for my English Lit lesson.
My uncle nodded his head before he proceeded to tell me, "I expect you to have it done by time we leave here, Novella."
"Yes, Uncle Perry, I will."
"And if you finish early you'll help me by filing documents, understood?"
"Understood." I answered before I began to burry my nose in the book I needed to read a story from.
I always tried to get my schoolwork done quickly since I liked filing documents for Uncle Perry, since after all he used to pay me a bit to do it. So far I've earned nearly a whole greenback by helping file documents after school.
I wrote down the last arithmetic answer on my paper and smiled at my uncle, "I'm done with my schoolwork, Uncle Perry."
"Here, start filing them in the cabinets." My Uncle Perry pushed a stack of completed paperwork towards me.
"Lotta paperwork today, Uncle?" I asked him as I stood up from my chair and scooped up the stack I had to file.
"Yes, mostly simple matters such as wills and last testaments; land affairs."
"Oh." I said as I filed the documents.
"Have you been making any friends at school?" My uncle asked me, probably since I'd been going to school for over a week or so now and never mentioned any new friends.
"Not really." I shrugged as I continued to put the papers away in the proper labeled folders.
"Why not?" Uncle Perry asked as he looked up from his paperwork.
"I'm new's all." I explained, even though it was a bit of a lie. Most of them at school were Hatfields or their friends since the schoolhouse in the woods served both sides of the tug. My cousins, the McCoy boys, showed up to school whenever Ole Rand'l didn't need them on the farm which was maybe once a week or so. Teacher was even friends to the Hatfields I think, she even sneered her nose at me at times.
Uncle Perry just nodded his head at my answer and went back to work on his important papers.
The next day after waking up and eating some breakfast I walked to school. The walk seemed long and endless. After a short while I ran into my cousin Tolbert walking with Pharmer, Bud, Calvin, and 3 other boys I didn't know. "Get ova 'ere, cuz!" I heard a lanky boy with brown curly hair, who looked to be maybe the same age as Tolbert, shout at me and wave his hands at me.
I ran over to the boys in a hurry. "Hi." I told the boy who'd shouted at me.
"I be Jefferson McCoy, cuz." The boy told me with a lopsided smile upon seeing my confused look.
"I'm Parris is this is my brother Squirrel Huntin' Sam McCoy."
"Hi." I told them softly, still a bit overwhelmed about meeting more McCoy cousins."
"Novella, you can talk to them, they's kin and our friends." Tolbert told me as he rolled his eyes at me.
"Don't pay 'im no mind, he always like that." Calvin told me as he gave me a smile.
"Oh, looks like McCoys got the orphan with them today." I heard a lanky boy, bout 16, chuckle to a group of students, who I knew to be Hatfields and their friends, as me and my cousins walked up to the school house.
"Shit, Tolbert's gon'a kill ya Tom Wallace!" Jefferson snarled at the boy while pointing to Tolbert, who's face curled up into a large red stone with fire flying off of it.
"Watch it, mush-head!" Tolbert warned in a shout, his chest puffing up.
"Tolbert'll fight 'im for your honor." Parris explained to me as I looked a bit confused about Tolbert's sudden anger.
"Yep, for our family's honor." Sam said right when his brother was done his explanation.
"Oh…" I sighed, feeling a bit bad that I was going to be the cause of a fight.
"Who'd you be callin' mush-head, nasty McCoy scum?" The lanky teen, known as Tom Wallace, asked with venom in his voice as he quickly approached us. His friends followed closely behind.
"You, Tom, Who'd I be callin' a mush-head. Stupid ass." Tolbert grumbled loudly, his voice taunting the other boy as he quickly flung off his jacket and marched over to meet Tom.
"Gon be a fight! Fight, fight, fight!" Jefferson loudly chuckled as he grabbed me excitedly by the shoulder.
I just looked at him and shrugged. Boy, I knew that if someone told the teacher, which was mostly likely to happen, I was goin' to be scolded by Uncle Perry for participatin' in fights.