A Cry in the Park - A Bob's Burgers fanfic - by BobsBurgersStories1

A Cry in the Park - Part 8

The story of Louise in the well had become the talk of the town; groups of women discussed the slow rescue operation over coffee or at the hairdressers'; men at work would mention it as they stood around the water cooler under the pretext of getting a drink; kids would discuss it with friends as they played games and ran around outside. It was perhaps the most interesting thing to ever happen in the small town, which drew the attention of a larger audience. As was the case in Seymour's Bay, families in Trenton, Vineland, and even Philadelphia would sit down after dinner and switch on the nightly news to see how the girl in the well was faring, hoping that she would be rescued soon.

It was a typical morning at Wagstaff Middle School; teachers marching briskly, downing the last of their coffee; students were chattering amicably, pushing, clamouring, some dawdling, some rushing to get to their class on time, making last-minute dashes to their lockers, before the final bell rang.

Ms LaBonz, who taught first period English, sat impatiently behind her desk as her class entered, chattering away as usual, taking their seats and continuing to talk about their respective weekends, most of them completely ignoring the teacher, who sat silently.

Eventually, row by row, the students settled, and LaBonz began to take the register, satisfied with the level of quiet.

   "John?" she called, looking up at the student in question.

   "Here."

   "Sarah?"

   "Here, miss."

   "Louise?" When she did not get an answer, she looked up and found Louise's desk empty. "Where is Louise?!" she huffed, her brown eyes scanning the room, sighing heavily.

   "Didn't you hear? She fell down a well," said Regular-sized Rudy, raising his hand. He had wanted to miss school that day, to go and watch the rescue efforts, but his mother wouldn't hear of it.

   "What?"

   "Yeah, she fell down on Friday, and they still haven't gotten her out."

   "Okay, then." Ms LaBonz continued to take the register, not believing him. Although she owned a television, she rarely watched the news, nor did she follow the news online. She was thinking of a wishing well, and was actually disappointed that Louise had not been able to come up with a better excuse for her absence, and she made a mental note to phone the girl's parents.

However, she was not able to teach much during the lesson, for the discussion had turned to Louise.

   "I can't believe she's been in a well for three days. She must be so scared; I would be scared, because I don't like the dark, or being underground, and my cat wouldn't be there with me, so I would hate it," said Harley, shaking her head.

   "I just heard about it this morning," said John. "I didn't think it was true. How come they haven't got her out?"

   "She's buried in rubble," Rudy told him, "so they have to dig."

   "Well, even so; how can it take three days to get someone out of a well?" asked Sarah, and the topic of Louise in the well continued all throughout the lesson, despite LaBonz's efforts to maintain order and she was extremely thankful when the bell rang, and she was able to go to the seclusion of the sacred teachers' lounge.

   "What a morning!" she huffed, immediately pouring herself a coffee. "Those kids just would not shut up! Something about Louise Belcher being in a well." She looked around at all the other teachers in the room, and they all stared back at her, the few that didn't know not quite knowing what to make of this news.