A/N: Before Danielle met Ashley, she had another special girl in her life. This is the beginning of their story.
It was a fairly normal Tuesday morning in Mr. Imhoff's fifth grade class. They had just transitioned back to their desks after finishing their 'Readers Workshop' rotations for the day, and the young teacher was having his class of 23 do the next few pages in their spelling workbooks using the words for that week.
Seated in groups of four-to-five at round tables instead of traditional desks, the class was far from completely silent; hushed conversation and giggles filled the room, and a group of typically rowdy boys began throwing balls of paper from one table to another.
All of the mischief came to an abrupt stop when the principal poked his head into the room.
"Gregg? Can I talk to you for a second?"
The teacher nodded, moving towards the door.
"Work quietly for a few minute, okay guys?" He instructs, getting nods and murmured replies before following his boss out into the hallway.
He's met with a mother-daughter pair, both with blonde hair and blue eyes. The older woman (obviously the younger's mother) had sharp features and an icy stair almost as if she would rather be anywhere but here. Dressed in a black pencil skirt with a silk Robbin's egg blue blouse tucked into it and a matching black blazer over top, and finished with flesh toned heels and hair pulled back into a tight bun, she breathed serious business woman.
The younger girl had a sweet, round face and a gap-toothed smile where her adult teeth hadn't quite come in yet. She had a light pink backpack and was holding a lunch box with 'The Powerpuff Girls' on it; quite popular with girls her age. She was wearing a variation on the school uniform: a white Peter Pan collared shirt under and tan jumper dress, white, lace edged socks and purple polka dotted sneakers gave a pop of her girlie personality to the uniform, and her hair was twisted into a single French plait.
"Hello, Gregg Imhoff," the teacher introduced himself to the older woman, extending a hand.
"Margret DeCarlo," the mom replied, returning the handshake. "Very nice to meet you."
"You too."
"Here are all the forms we were told to fill out," Margret says, handing Gregg a manila file folder with the paperwork inside.
"Great, thanks," he says, taking the folder and, tucking it under his arm, turns to the girl standing next to him.
"Hi! I'm Mr. Imhoff. I'm going to be your teacher," Gregg smiled to the girl, holding out a hand.
The child smiled back at him, shaking his hand back. "I'm Saccone. I'm going to be your student."
Everyone laughed at that.
Precocious little thing.
"Well I'll leave you to it. Saccone, have good day," the principal, Mr. Bell, told the group, patting the girl on the shoulder, before turning down the hallway.
"I should be going as well," Saccone's mother starts. "Saccone, Papa or I will be here to pick you up after school. Meet us at the flag pole, alright?"
"I remember," The girl nods. "I love you, Mama."
"I love you too, sweet girl." And with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, the mother follows the principal down the hallway.
Teacher and student watch her mother leave and when she turns the corner, Saccone pipes up.
"You don't have to call me Saccone if you don't want to. You can call me Sass. That's what my teacher and friends at my old school called me." She finishes the statement a little wistful, as if stuck in a favorite memory.
"Well I will do that," Gregg smiles. "Where was your other school?"
"Vermont. We lived there since I was two. My mom's work moved down here so me and my Papa and my Nona had to move too."
"Do you miss it?"
"Yeah," Sass confides.
"Well I'm sure you'll find something great about living here very soon," he tells her, laying a hand on her backpack. "Hey, were you able to get you school supplies? I'm just wondering. Not a big deal if you didn't."
"Yes," Sass nods, reaching back and patting her book bag. "Most of it was stuff I already had for my old school," she answers with a shrug. "I only had to get a few things."
"Great. Come on, let's go inside." And teacher leads student into her new classroom.
As he had suspected, Mr. Imhoff walks back into his classroom to find the quiet scene he had left his class in had dissolved into utter chaos. Almost none of his students were working, instead they were out of their seats and talking with their friends; definitely not what they were supposed to be doing.
"Hey!" His shout silences the class instantly. "I leave you guys alone for five minutes and this is what you do? Not cool." The fifth graders could tell their teacher was very angry, and maybe even a bit disappointed in them. "Get in your seats," he tells the remaining few who did not rush to sit down once he started to yell.
He turns back to Sass, who is looking a bit more scared than she did when he first met her.
"Guys, this is Saccone. She's gonna be joining our class." The kids give the new girl smiles and waves and scattered hellos. The same group of trouble making boys snickered at the new girl's name, but were instantly silenced by a look from their teacher and a loss of recess privileges.
"Okay, let's put you right here," Mr. Imhoff says, leading Saccone to a table of four, to which he pulls up an extra chair. "This is Danielle, Miles, Eli and Jessica," he introduces, going around the table. Danielle had blonde, curly hair and blue eyes, both similar in color to Saccone's own features; Miles had deeply tanned skin, dark brown eyes, rimmed with glasses, and black hair that was spiked up with gel; Eli had lighter, longer brown hair, and green eyes; and Jessica and brown hair and eyes, and freckles that dusted her nose and cheeks. All four kids smile and say hello, and make room for their new classmate.
Saccone begins taking all of her supplies out of her backpack and sets them on the table in front of her. Notebooks, binders, folders, a green pencil box; everything comes out. Mr. Imhoff takes the things she doesn't need and replaces them with her workbooks and textbooks. She slides all of her materials into the pocket on the back of her chair, like everyone else has it, and leaves out her pencil box and spelling workbook.
While her new teacher gets the rest of the class back on track, Sass puts her lunchbox into the basket with the others and hangs her backpack in the available cubby. When she sits back at her table, Danielle looks up from her work and smiles at her.
"I like your sweatshirt." The sweater in question, that Sass had pulled on over her uniform top as the classroom was cold, was emblazoned with the characters from 'Nightmare Before Christmas,' and also happened to be one of Danielle's favorite movies.
"Thanks," Sass smiles, opening her workbook to the page they were working on.
"Do you wanna sit with me at lunch?"
"Sure."
"Okay," Danielle nods.
And a friendship was made.