Second chance mate

Chapter 2 (final draft)

She walked to the kids art class. It was where she was working. It was a good and steady job that paid well enough for her to not have to worry about food and a place to stay.

It had been two weeks since she left her son at her aunts. She had taken the first bus to the first location, not thinking or planning. She had just let her instinct guide her. She kept taking buses all over the place until she arrived in Oregon. There she had rented a hotel suite for unlimited number of nights and looked for a job. She took the job at the school because it was one of the first that came up and it was something she felt she needed. She felt that being around kids would give her experience to later raise her son on her own.

The principal, Meredith, had been hesitant in giving her the job. Ariel was confused. She knew she fit the criteria, she was young, had no obligation to pull her away from the job and had a college degree. So eventually she convinced Meredith to let her work and that she needed the help, the money for her son.

So for the last two weeks she worked the days at the school while the nights were spent crying and screaming and drinking herself to sleep filled with nightmares. Nightmares? Memories, horrible, horrible memories.

She ate just enough to survive and kept in contact back home to keep an eye on her son. She wanted to be a part of his progress even if she wasn't physically present or mentally capable. She was getting better though. She was progressing. She owed a lot of it to her son. And the rest of it to one of her students.

Her name was Olivia. She was a depressed kid, having lost her mother a few months ago, she had gone into her own shell. Ariel had sort of taken her under her wing. She had lost her mother at a young age too. She knew what the young girl was going through and she wanted to help her. It was like the mother part of her wanted to nurture her while the alpha in her wanted to protect her. While trying to heal her, Ariel was healing herself.

She remembered the first time the kid came. She had noticed that the girl sat aside and stared at the wall with no expression on her face. It had taken Ariel days to just get a response to her daily good morning how was school. But now she was replying. First it was just nods and small smiles. Now it had progressed to one worded answers.

Ariel had a new plan and today she was going to start working on it.

"Olivia, will you come help put this is in the back room?" She asked, gesturing to the art supplies. It was near halftime but Ariel had given her students the rest of the class free.

Olivia nodded and stood up to help her. They brought the supplies in and Olivia helped her shelf it.

"You know, Olivia, the pain won't be here forever." She said, leaning against the cabinet and watching as the girl's back stiffened.

She turned to leave.

"I am not asking you to talk. I am asking that you look at me and listen to me okay?"

Olivia slowly turned and looked at he teacher with a confused expression on her face. She didn't understand why she was talking to her about it. No one had done it in the last seven months since her mother's death.

Realizing she was ready to listen, Ariel sat down on the floor and looked in her eyes. "The pain of losing your mother won't be there forever. You won't feel empty forever. After a while you won't feel half without her. You'll stop crying, stop screaming, stop questioning everything. You'll eventually learn that life goes on. You'll move forward but you'll always remember her. It'll still hurt but it won't hurt forever."

"You don't know what you are talking about! You know nothing!" Olivia screamed and ran to the door.

"But I know! I know." Ariel said quickly. "I lost her too. When I was your age."