Lynn's New Friend

Introducing Lynn

POV~ Miss Ravira

I gestured Lynn over toward me and she stood next to the rocking chair I was sitting on. She still held onto the stuffed hippopotamus tightly.

She must be nervous. I thought.

"So Lynn, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? What's your favorite color? When's your birthday?" I asked her. She hugged the hippopotamus tighter allowing some of the stuffing to fall out of its back. She gave me a nervous look and then stared at the ground while speaking.

"My...my name is Lynn Travison. I am five years old. My favorite color is purple. My birthday is October 8. I really like to draw and color.." she continued to speak but it was incoherent. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a hand raise. It was Nathan.

"Do you have a question for Lynn, Nathan?" I asked the boy who was wiggling his fingers to get my attention.

"Yeah! Lynn, why are your eyes gray?" He asked her. I felt my body tense up. I had no idea how a five year old would answer a question like that.

Lynn stared at me. I saw that she was shaking and her silver eyes went round with fear.

"I–I don't know..." she mumbled.

"They are really weird. I thought people were supposed to have normal eye colors. Silver isn't normal." A voice snapped. I saw Jess sitting up straight giving Lynn a harsh look.

"Excuse me Jess but that wasn't very nice. Apologize to Lynn this instant!" I snapped back at her surprised by her sudden change of attitude.

"I'm sorry Miss Ravira, but they are so weird!" Jess said scoffing a little bit. I looked at Lynn. She had tears coming down her face.

"It's okay...I know they are weird." Lynn murmured back to Jess.

"Can we please ask some nicer questions?" I looked at the class astonished that they'd be so mean. I didn't expect them to be like this at all, especially Jess.

All of the kids stayed silent except for Jess, Lydia, and Sienna who were giggling and gossiping with each other. After a few moments I looked at Lynn telling her to sit down somewhere on the carpet. She walked over toward the carpet sitting in the corner of the carpet. She clutched the hippopotamus even tighter, one of the button eyes popping lose and now hanging by a black thread.

I opened the book and continued to read the story.

"...and there were plenty of cookies for everyone–"

"Why do you have a stuffed animal?" A voice cut me off mid sentence and I saw Christian whose back was faced to me. Christian was a bit annoying, admittedly. He always got into trouble with teachers and was very rambunctious. He was pointing to Lynn's hippopotamus. A piece of her blonde hair covered her face as she gave him a response.

"I–I like her. Her name is Bubblegum." She replied softly.

"Well that's dumb. I don't bring stuffed toys to school because I'm not a baby!" He shouted in her face. I saw a few other kids laugh after Christian said that. They all stared at her hippopotamus mocking it. At least that's what I inferred.

"Alright children, let's just ignore Lynn's hippo–"

"But that's weird! Why would she bring it to school?" A new voice interrupted me.

"Everyone be–"

"Maybe it's because she doesn't have any friends."

"What happened to the eye?"

"It smells funny!"

I tried to silence them but they were all pointing and talking about the stupid hippopotamus. I felt bad for Lynn. I noticed tears were running down her pale cheeks as she looked down and curled herself into a ball. I stood up and slammed the book down onto the rocking chair.

"Class! Stop making comments on the hippopotamus and sit down and be quiet or we will not be going to art class today!" I said raising my voice louder than I ever had to with this group of kids. They all grew quiet, giving me strange looks. They must have not expected me to raise my voice at them but when they are all making comments and pointing and picking on someone I have to tell them to knock it off.

••••

The class had sat down at their tables and luckily the table Lynn sat at was in front of my desk so if the kids at the table said anything I'd be right there to listen. Right now, they were coloring in a picture which had numbers in random spots. Red was 1 so wherever there was a 1 they would have to color it red. Simple things for kindergarteners. I noticed Lynn was very happy with this. She even asked me to give Bubblegum a piece of paper and a box of crayons so that she could color. I obliged, feeling bad that the kids were making fun of it earlier.

She did have to sit at the table with Jess, Nathan, Christian, and Sienna which may have not been the best but since they were nearby I figured they wouldn't want me to yell at them again.

Lynn was coloring with a green crayon when she accidentally nudged her elbow into Sienna's. Sienna gave a slight scoff at Lynn and shuffled her seat closer to Nathan. She whispered something to him that was inaudible to me but I knew it was certainly not nice.

"What did you just tell Nathan?" I said. Sienna jumped a little bit, probably not expecting me to notice her whispering to him.

"I–I was just telling him about the picture." She lied. She wasn't a good liar.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Miss R."

"Alright..." I replied tapping my foot against the floor getting a little annoyed at my students. They were not like this in the beginning of the year. They were so sweet and kind and adorable. What happened? I wish I knew why they were so mean to Lynn but I honestly couldn't think of a reason. It could not have been because she was shy. Thomas was shy. It could not have been because she has a stuffed animal. Bridget always carries a small stuffed lion on her backpack and the whole class knows this because she showed it to the entire class during show-and-tell. It bewildered me. I didn't know why they were so rude to her and made all these comments.

Was it because she was new?

I didn't know.