𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 • 𝘣𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴 [✔]

chapter one hundred thirty.

AUGUST 2016

Summer went by fast, before Claudia knew it, the first day of school was here. Ben's parents were back home in London, although they did say that they would come back to help plan the wedding. That got Claudia thinking about the location of her wedding, she wanted Ben's family to be there and most of his family was in London. Back home, she just had her mom, Lucy, Layna and Edward. She wasn't sure if Nate would even show up.

Putting her wedding thoughts aside, she waited five more minutes for the bell to ring for first period. She was nervous, mostly because she was getting new students. When the bell rang, she got up from her desk and with a smile on her face, she opened her door already expecting to see a line of students outside, but the hallway was empty.

She then checked the time on her phone. The tardy bell would ring in about five minutes yet no one was in the hallway. Claudia then spotted Lily walking to the classroom at the end of the hall.

"Lily! Where's everyone?" The teacher asked.

"We had a morning assembly in the auditorium. It was boring." Lily sighed.

"Oh, no one told me about that. . ."

"Hardly any teachers were there, Miss D, so don't feel bad. Have a nice first day back." Lily gave her teacher a hug before she walked to her first period class.

Several seconds later, the hallways started to fill up with students. Claudia noticed that this year, some students were smaller in height. Before, everyone had practically grown several inches over the summer. Most of her previous students were now taller than her.

"Miss Donovan?" Claudia heard a girl's voice coming from behind her.

"That's me, can I help you? You lost?" Claudia said in her gentle voice she always used with new students.

"Actually, I'm in your class." The young girl said.

"Great, well my room is over here and I don't really have assigned seats so since you're the first one here, you get first pick!" Claudia showed the brunette girl to her class. "What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Sofia."

"Nice to meet you, I'm miss-" Claudia got cut off by her name being screamed from her door.

"Miss D! I missed you!" Kevin, a previous student of hers, came into her room and hugged the teacher.

"I missed you more, but get to class! You can't be late on your first day already," Claudia let go of the teen boy and walked to her desk and opened her drawer. She kept snacks like granola bars, trail mix, gum or sometimes a whole pack of caprisuns incase any of her kids skipped a meal and wanted something to eat. "Did you eat breakfast? Want some rice krispies?" She gave Kevin one.

"Thanks, gotta go. I have Mr. Flynn first period." And with that Kevin left the room in a hurry.

"Sorry about him, he was in my class not too long ago. Would you like a rice krispie? I have granola bars if you prefer that." Claudia asked the girl.

"I'm okay, thank you though."

Minutes later, Claudia saw her classroom fill up with new faces she had to remember. She hoped she didn't mispronounce anyone's name. Five seconds after the tardy bell, a boy came in running.

"Do I need to get a tardy pass?" The boy asked, breathing heavily as he waited at the door.

"I saw you running, you're fine. Take a seat at any open desk, except mine. Believe it or not, someone did that three years ago." Claudia laughed.

Normally, Claudia would close her room door. That was in case Howard would come knocking while she gave her students breaks, most of them would be on their phones. Now that Howard was gone, she wanted to keep the door opened.

"Good morning, I'm Ms. Donovan. I hope we can all get along. Firstly, did anyone skip breakfast?" Claudia walked around her room and saw several students raise their hand shyly. "Okay, I'm not mad, I know sometimes you forgot, I do that too. And for that I have some snacks here at my desk so come up and get your snack." Claudia encouraged the teens.

It took several seconds for the students to register what was happening, but eventually they found the courage to get up and receive their snacks.

"Okay, second thing on the agenda is names. There's a piece of paper infront of you, it's basically a get to know me better sheet, fill it out and turn it in before you leave. If you have a preferred name you like to go by, make sure to write that somewhere on the sheet," Claudia explained. "Aside from that, I'll be passing out the syllabus and some coloring sheets if you want to relax and color. I know the first day is stressful so that's pretty much all I have planned for today."

All of the students smiled, some even cheered since they had an easy class period for their first day. "I hope you don't mind, I'll play some music. Any suggestions?"

Claudia heard tons of suggestions from different students like Amy Winehouse, the Mama Mia soundtrack, The Neighborhood. She had to admit, her students always had great taste in music.

"Okay, let's make this more easier, write down your songs and I'll make a playlist with all the songs."

By the end of the school day, Claudia had a designated playlist for each of her class periods.

an: going to try to update everyday this week because why not 😌 also just because it's almost the end doesn't mean y'all are safe from all the sad scenes i have planned hehehehe