[ forty two ] god's gift to me
The boys returned mid November, just three days before Michael's birthday. The first thing they did once they were back in Sydney was to visit Prudence. The three boys, along with Calum who was there to see Lucy, knocked on the front door of the Carrigan house anxiously. It was a couple of minutes before Lucy opened the door. Her smile brightened at the sight of Calum. She was quick to jump into her boyfriend's arms and she gave him a big kiss. When they pulled away, she greeted the others. "Hey boys."
"Hey Lucy." The three greeted in unison.
"Where's Prudence?" Michael wondered, letting himself into her home.
"Right." She remembered with a playfull roll of her eyes. "The three of you have a crush on Prudence. Well, she isn't here right now. With all the free time she had after you boys went on tour, she and Sam decided to volunteer at the elementary."
Ashton's hazel eyes darkened in annoyance. "We leave for a few weeks and this guy thinks he can take Prudence from us." The drummer muttered under his breath.
"I'm going over there." Michael said.
"What school was it?" Luke asked Lucy.
She replied. "Parmalee Primary School. The one on Parmalee street and Hoover."
"Thanks." Luke told her and the three rushed off in the direction of the primary school.
-
They arrived just ten minutes later, the primary school was only four streets away from Prudence's house. Looking up at the school building, Ashton commented, "Hm, this is the school Lauren and Harry go to."
"Great." Michael patted his mate on the shoulder. "They don't let anyone in during school hours unless you're a parent or an older sibling of a student."
By the front door to the main building was a doorbell. Luke pressed it and immediately came the voice of a woman asking, "What do you need?"
"Uh," Ashton stepped closer to the microphone. "My name is Ashton Irwin. I just got back to Australia and I was wondering if I could visit my siblings Harry and Lauren Irwin." His voice came out in an awkward way. He thought it ridiculous that he even needed permission to get into the building.
"I'm going to unlock the doors." The woman said.
There was a loud beep and the doors opened automatically before them. Immediately at the entrance was a middle aged woman at a desk. Flanking her were two security guards. In front of the woman was an opened folder with sign in sheets that kept track of who entered and who left the building, as well as the times and dates of everything. Michael mumbled to his friends, "They really take the safety of children seriously at this school." As they approached the people at the desk, Michael began, "We're here to visit Harry and Lauren Irwin." While he spoke, something written on the folder caught his eye.
Check in - 7:45am. Prudence Carrigan, room 52.
"First you'll need to sign in." The woman instructed. After seeing the way they were dressed, she added, "Then the guards will check you for weapons. Once you have signed in, a guard will escort you to the main office where they will give you a visitor pass."
The boys did exactly as they were told and thirty minutes later they were let into the school. It was nine in the morning, many of the children were out for recess. Little boys and girls ran around all over the place. Ashton sighed, "Now we'll need to visit every room until we find Prudence."
"Or," Michael suggested, "We can go to room fifty two. Didn't you read the sign in sheet?"
"That's right next to Harry's class." Ashton said. "He's in room fifty three."
"Then lead the way." Luke pushed his friend forward.
With Ashton leading, they got to the class room in no time. Michael knocked on the door, expecting Prudence to answer it, but was met with a woman in her mid-thirties and she was small, making her look even smaller in contrast to the boys. She took one look at them and raised an eyebrow. "May I help you? Do you have a little brother or sister in this class?"
"No. We're looking for Prudence Carrigan." Michael said to her, easily peeking over her shoulder to find Prudence.
Prudence hadn't noticed them yet, she was engrossed in the story she was reading to the children. She was sat on a chair at the front of the room while the children sat on the carpet, listening intently as she read to them. The teache let them into the room and they walked towards the carpet, taking a seat at the back. The children giggled at the fact that three very tall boys were sitting cross legged on a colorful kindergarten carpet. Prudence saw them and smiled, but continued reading her book. It was the story of the Little Red Hen.
She was done moments later and grabbed another book from the stack. "I think one of my friends wants to read this one to you. Right, Michael?" Luke and Ashton pushed him forward and he got up, taking her place at the front of the classroom while she replaced him at the back. The book she had handed him was Clifford the Big Red Dog.
The teacher was delighted to have the boys in her classroom. There were things she knew Prudence couldn't do, such as lifting heavy things, and the boys did it gladly. By lunch time, the room was completely different.
Prudence got the children into a staight line to take them to lunch. Just as she was about to leave with them, Sam walked up. The three other boys shot glares at him. "Hey Prudence," He huffed tiredly after having run from the classroom he was helping to go find her. "After you drop your kids off with the cafeteria staff, do you want to go get some lunch at the mall?"
"I'd love to." She started. "But my friends just got back to Australia and came to visit me."
"Thanks for inviting us, Sam." Luke shot him a false smile. "But we'll be having lunch here at the school."
Sam crinkled up his nose. "You don't want to do that mate. The food here is horrible and tasteless."
"Actually, we do." Luke challenged. "We love tasteless food. Don't we, boys?" At that point, they would say anything to get Sam to go away."
Shrugging his shoulders, Sam said, "Okay." Looking to Prudence, he added, "I'll get you something from the sandwich shop." With that, Sam turned and jogged for the exit. Their lunch break was only a half hour and he wanted to get back in time to finish his volunteering shift.
-
After taking the children to the lunch line and making sure there would be someone supervising them, they boys took a peek at what was being offered for lunch. It was a small carton of milk, a little box of veggies, a wheat bread roll and a piece of chicken with barbeque sauce on it. The boys didn't think it looked apetizing, but they were hungry. They only hoped they would be allowed to have seconds.
As they got intot he lunch line with the rest of the children, Prudence giggled. "What are you doing?" She asked.
"We're getting lunch." Ashton replied.
"You don't have to stand in line with the children." She explained, "We can go in the teacher's lounge. They have vending machines and other kinds of food. They figure that as adults we can decide what we want to eat."
"Oh." was all they said.
Grabbing Ashton by the hand, she took them to the teacher's lounge where they mostly filled up on junk food. The four sat at a table together, stuffing chips and cookies into their mouths. Prudence smiled to herself. Everything the boys did seemed to be so much fun. With a sigh, she murmured to herself happily. "They are god's gift to me." Her closest friends, the only ones she had. And none of them noticed how much more tired she looked than before.
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new chapter. i hope you all like it. i just types it right now. i feel like there should be five to ten more chapters. maybe less before this story ends. thank you so much for reading and supporting. it means a lot.
i love you.
-clary xx
