Sinner's Place {h.s}

ten.

First day back at school from fall break, and of course my kids are running wild around the classroom. This was the only thing I hated about breaks—they always came back untamable. I was happy to see them happy, but it was so hard to get them to calm down.

"Alright, class!" I clapped my hands a couple of times, my eyes scanning over the room as a smile appeared on my lips. They were all screaming still, some were sitting at their desks looking at me, but others were still rowdy.

"One! Two!" I started counted, having to put my stern voice on. The kids looked up at me, then the class when silent. When the voices died down, I gave them a thumbs up.

"I hope everyone had a great fall break and an even better Halloween. Did anyone get candy??" I smiled with my jaw dropped, showing my excitement for them. Small cheers of 'yes!' came from them and I nodded.

"Great. Now, today we are going to ease back into school work. Today you'll be reading. I'll put on some quiet music and hand out your study guides. This will be on your next test, okay?" I was the kind of teacher that didn't really like to slam down insane amounts of school work onto kids when they came back from breaks.

I hated when that happened to me in school. It was the worst and I wanted to try to be the best teacher I could be for these kids. A fun teacher, if you will.

After I handed out the study guides and put on some soft music, I left the classroom to get another cup of coffee from the break room. I was exhausted and didn't get much sleep last night either.

But, that's been happening a lot lately. No sleep, can barely focus on myself—it's just been crazy the last few days. I've been apartment hunting with Gracie, but everything has been so expensive.

I loathed the way the landlords fucked everyone over in this area. It felt like they were really out here trying to create homelessness.

Of course, it's not all their fault. It all trickles down to the system and of course, I wasn't a fan of the system either.

If I got paid more, I would be a lot happier. We barely got paid enough money for what we do. Teachers are so important, without us, who would teach our kids? But of course, they didn't find us valuable enough to pay us more.

We did, however, find an apartment on the other side of town. It was six hundred a month. Me and Gracie looked at it the other day and it was...disgusting. To say the least.

But, I wasn't complaining. I needed out of my parents house as soon as possible. At this point, I really didn't care what I lived. I thought about just decorating the place as much as they would let me—and maybe I could paint?

"Hey." A voice knocked me out of my thoughts, my head tilting over to Ms. Robinson who was grabbing herself a cup of coffee. She was always the sweetest whenever we talked. Ms. Robinson was also the oldest teacher in this school. We all loved her.