Thoughts That Count
Episode 2 Part 2
Ezra
By class the next morning, Aria had left my mind. It didn't feel like anything had changed. It made no difference weather or not I would see her in the fourth row over, fifth seat back. My mind was clear, and my mood buoyant.
"Okay everyone, Let's take our seats," I said as I wrote the word innocence on the board and underlined it. I heard the class shuffle to their desks and turned around, rolling up my sleeves. I heard the clicking of heals and looked to the doorway where a dark haired girl stopped in surprise in the doorway, looking away from her phone for what I assumed was the first time today.
"Am I late?" she asked, looking over to me.
I leaned down to pick up a stack of papers, "Its Mona right?"
She instantly perked up and put her cell phone in her bag as if my knowing her name was the best thing to happen to her right then, "That's right Mr. Fritz," I laughed along with the majority of the class at her mistake. She turned to them, "What?" she snapped.
I scratched my cheek and smiled at her, "Take your seat, Mona, please," she went to her desk and sat down.
I picked up the stack of papers, and started counting them into stacks for each row, "If the mockingbird represents the idea of innocence, what characters are innocent?" I asked the class as I passed out the papers, "Take a second, jot down your ideas, we'll discuss."
I returned to my desk and picked up my lesson plan and a pen.
As I heard another set of footsteps, I looked up to see Aria walk into my room and set a paper on my desk. Everything I'd managed to keep out of my thoughts came back as I looked down at the sheet she'd left on my desk. The transfer form was stamped with a dark, red DECLINED in the bottom right hand corner. I dropped my pen and paper and picked it up. No matter how many times I read the eight letter word it didn't register in my mind.
I looked up from the paper to her, sitting in her chair, focussed on her book. It took a moment, but her eyes came up slowly to meet mine. Her lips twitched in the tiniest appologetic smile, and I looked down. This wasn't going to be easy, It never was...