Red Wine

4: Fourth Grade Student at 6:00

Christopher never once dreamed of becoming a maintenance man for a primary school, and yet here he is now, walking to the school for his first day on the job. Having lost his parents at the young age of 16 where none of his relatives were willing to lend a hand, he was forced to drop out of high school in order to survive. He currently lives with a high school friend who was kind enough to let him live in his basement for free, but that's about the extent of his generosity - or at least, that's where Christopher drew the line. The fact that he was given a roof over his head was a big thing for him already, and now it's up to him to sustain the rest of his needs such as food, water, and a portion of pay for the electrical and water bills of his friend.

Which is precisely why Christopher is now here in a humble academy to work as a maintenance man. The job description was fairly straightforward and was open even for dropouts like him: all he had to do as a rookie is to clean the classrooms after the primary school kids went home, to mop some 'oopsies' of the children in case they've been called for, and to water and trim the foliage around the entire school. The pay was average, but there's no space for Christopher to complain at this point; he has to take whatever he can.

His other colleagues in the maintenance office were pretty chill, far from what the young man was imagining it to be - for some reason he had this mental image of buff middle-aged men who were rude and snarky, kind of like his father when he was still alive. It felt like a breath of fresh air for Christopher to meet such people, and he was grateful for it.

The following day after his first day at work, Christopher gets to water the plants and trim some of the bushes around the school. He has already planned his route for this specific task after roaming around and studying the perimeters and area of the school; he will start from the opposite side of where the maintenance office is, and then work his way back towards the office so that it's nearer to take his break once he's done. Christopher did just that: he grabbed the watering can, headed for the furthest building of the school, filled up the can with water, and continued on until he reached the building nearest to the maintenance office - the building of the older primary kids.

However, for some reason, when Christopher went up to the fourth floor, where the fourth grade students have their classes, the potted plants in the corridor that he was supposed to water were already wet and well-watered. The plants on the other floors were untouched, though.

The young man's first thought is that one of his coworkers must have helped him; it was almost 6:45 anyway, the kids will be coming into school soon and it'll be harder to do the plants with so many hyper kids flooding into the campus. Christopher just let it slide for now and he should probably thank whoever it was. Once he has completed his morning routine, the rookie returns to the maintenance office to take a break. He was welcomed by his other coworkers.

"Um, whoever helped me water the plants on the fourth floor at Building D," Christopher nervously starts a conversation with his older colleagues. "I appreciate it so much! I'll do my best to finish faster next time."

His other coworkers looked at him in confusion. One of the senior maintenance men, Ethan, replied to Christopher. "The others were in the restroom fixing the lights when you were watering the plants, Christopher. Maybe a student helped you?"

Now it was Christopher's turn to be confused. Not only did he overestimate his colleagues a bit, but why would an elementary schooler be at school as early as 6:00? He should have also noticed the student in one of the rooms if that were the case, but the rookie was, of course, so busy with his job that he didn't really pay attention to anything else.

Thus he decided to observe it for a few more days to investigate the matter. Christopher still followed his initial path when watering and trimming the plants; starting from the furthest building from the maintenance office, and ending at 'Building D', the nearest one from their office. He did this for an entire week, and Christopher ended up with the same results by following his routine. By the time he's about to water the plants on the fourth floor, it has already been taken care of.