Titanic 2 - Book 4 - Let Me Protect You

Chapter 1

Cora's shiny, new black slippers clipped, clapped, and clopped against the dirty cobblestone road as she walked off to her new schoolhouse. Her brown bag was slung over her shoulder and her paper sack of lunch was held delicately in her hand.

As she pushed open the door of the schoolhouse, all eyes suddenly fell on her, and she felt a wee bit nervous. Mr. Wesley smiled warmly at her.

"Class," He said, "I would like you all to welcome Ms. Cora Cartmell. She is our new student."

"Hi, Cora!" The nice kids waved and smiled. The mean ones either glared at her or stuck their tongues out at her. The shyer ones either hid their faces or just stared at her with blank expressions. Cora was confused about the mean/shy ones. Did she do anything wrong?

"Would you like to tell the students a little bit about yourself, dear?"

Cora nodded, though reluctantly.

"Um, hello..." She began. The mean kids rolled their eyes, clearly bored. The nicer, more patient ones just stared, either smiling kindly or just sitting there blankly.

"My name is Cora Cartmell, and I'm 5 years old. I came here from Southampton, England. I was on the Titanic, travelling in third class with my mommy and daddy. My new best friend, who isn't from here, saved me. I was about to drown when me and my mommy and daddy were trapped behind a gate, but my best friend and her horsey kicked down the gate and saved me. We didn't make it to the lifeboats, though, so we sat in the freezing water. Luckily, me and my new friends huddled together to make heat and warmth and we just barely survived. Me and my mommy and daddy took a carriage here after we arrived on the Carpathia in New York City."

The class was silent. The mean kids had stopped sticking their tongues out and making rude faces, and instead just sat in their seats with surprised expressions. The kind ones looked sad and sympathetic, and the shyer, more emotional ones had tears brimming in their eyes. Mr. Wesley was shocked, surprised, impressed, and horrified.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Mr. Wesley cleared his throat.

"Well, um, thank you for sharing your story, Ms. Cora. I will have you sit in the front with the younger children. They are all your age and most of them are very friendly." Mr. Wesley ordered.

Cora gulped nervously. Most of them, she thought. MOST of them are friendly.

She sat down next to a little girl who looked to be around her age, maybe a year or 2 younger. The little girl had red braided hair and freckles and sweet pea green eyes. The little girl hid her face behind her textbook.

"Hi there. I'm Cora." Cora waved a little at the redheaded girl, who just hid her face more, her face turning almost as red as her hair.

Cora just shrugged. "Oookay then...?"

The next hour of class they learned about England and had to open up their textbooks to a chapter about it.

"Class, you can now go outside and eat your lunches. Once you are finished, you can play a bit on the playground if you have time." Mr. Wesley announced.

Cora eagerly took her lunch sack out from her desk and ran outside.

The shy, tiny redheaded girl slowly took hers out, too, and slugged behind. An older boy shoved her to the side, knocking her down, and tears welled up in her eyes as her face turned redder than ever from anger and humiliation. She got up and dusted off her pretty, white, laced dress.

The boy just laughed.

"Slowpoke...!"