Pride & Prejudice & Alienz (Josh Dun)

II

I had never chaperoned a dance, or even children over the age of 13. From what I remember of middle school, dances were basically friends standing around awkwardly and waiting for someone else to make the first move while loud, sweaty boys bounced off the walls and shoved their friends into random girls. I was really not looking forward to having to go up to young couples and remind them to leave enough room for Jesus between them on the dance floor, but it was only a couple hours and if anything went particularly wrong, I could probably sucker Mrs. Thompson into compensating me with even more donuts.

"Am I supposed to dress up for this?" I ask Jenna as I grab my thermos the morning of. She pursed her lips and cocked her head to the side, clearly as unsure as I was.  She shrugged. "This dress you have on is super cute, I say go with it. It's not too casual, but it's also not formal. It's not prom, I think you're safe." I nod. A solid suggestion, in my opinion.  Plus it was a cute dress and my kids all loved it. It was a simple black dress with a Halloween print on the collar and star cut outs around the bottom hem, what could possibly be more appropriate for a dance in October? I was even wearing a jack-o-lantern brooch and black cat earrings. I eagerly waited all year to be able to pull this bad boy out of the closet again, there was no way I was going to let any opportunity to wear it slip through my fingers. 

I wiped all concern about the dance from my mind. It's not like I really needed to impress any of the middle school teachers anyway, they weren't my normal colleagues and I was absolutely certain I looked positively professional and downright delightful. I bid Jenna a good day and went on my way out the door and to my car.

After that, the day carried on like any other, with projects ranging vastly between the different grades. My last class of the day was  first graders and I had a very exciting project for them. We were making little monster puppets out of paper bags for Halloween, which I would return the following week with some candy inside as a treat for them. 

Of course, some of the kids finished early and had some spare time on their hands. Ever the ambitious little tykes, a couple little girls wanted to know what they could do now. I suggested they cut out little bats and spiders so I could hang them up around the room to add to the decorations I'd already put up. This was a task they took on eagerly, despite how little time they had. Then, before the blink of an eye, my classes for the day were over and I was cleaning up, hunting down loose slivers of construction paper and roll away crayons.

I waited until I heard the school buses pulling away before I grabbed my things and started heading out. I was just in the foyer by the front office when I spotted one of my first graders. Her name was Jessie and she was staring at the ground, kicking her feet and  pouting like you wouldn't believe. "Did you miss the bus?" I ask. She looked up at me and nodded, clearly about to burst out into tears. "It wasn't Miss Kim driving, I didn't want to get on," she explained. 

I nodded and told her to stay there while I went into the office and had the receptionist call her mom to let her know, then I came back to wait with her. "It's okay,  mom's on her way and I'll sit with you in the meantime." The tiny look of terror started to wash away and soon we were talking about the class and how excited she was for Halloween. At one point she went into her backpack that was almost the size of her, and pulled out a crooked little paper bat she'd made in class. She smiled as she carefully nested it in my hair without explanation. 

"Is that his home now?" I ask.

She nodded vigorously, flashing me a smile full of missing teeth. "You're the Halloween Princess, Miss Bennet," she declared. It was moments like this that made me really and truly love my job.

Soon after, her mom picked her up and I explained to her out of earshot that Jessie had been too scared to get on the bus because there was a substitute driver for the day. She thanked me for waiting with Jessie and off the pair went, leaving me with just enough time to motor over to the middle school and help the other teachers set up for the dance.