Lynn's New Friend

That's...Great!

POV~ Miss Ravira

Since the students had lunch, I had some free time to eat lunch and use the bathroom and do other things I was required to do. Nothing difficult, just some organizing and checking my emails while I ate some leftover chicken pot pie.

I was responding to an email from one of the parents when I heard a box fall in the closet. Nothing valuable was in that box. Just some looseleaf lined paper that I had. I quickly answered the email, pressed send, and went over to place the box back up on the shelf it fell off off. I glanced at the clock and went over to my desk to grab my keys and my phone.

Time to pick up the kids for recess. I thought as I made my way across the school to go to the recess field. It was simple. A vibrant colored playground with slides and a small rock wall. There were a few swings and there was a lot of things for the kids to play on. There was a small basketball court where the older kids usually played poorly planned basketball games. Of course, there was also a large field where other kids played tag or hide and seek or just chatted with each other.

The students were running toward the place they gathered so that I could pick them up and we would go to the gymnasium with the gym teacher. All of them were there...except for Lynn. I had assumed she'd be trailing behind the others. Eventually when I saw her, I noticed that her stuffed animal was torn. Half of the fluffy stuffing was being shoved into the toy and one of the button eyes was missing. I wondered what had happened to Lynn's stuffed animal.

Maybe she accidentally ripped it on the playground. Maybe it was already worn out. Maybe... I paused. I looked at the other students and saw a certain group huddled together pointed and muttering to each other. All of their eyes were on Lynn who was desperately attempting to fix the rip in Bubblegum's leg. Her silver eyes gleamed with worry and sadness. She tried her best to fix it, clutching some of the lose stuffing in her hands. Once I put the pieces together, I put my hands on my hips and sighed.

My class was never this mean. They have always been good. They did their work and got along. They got good reports from other teachers and substitutes. What happened to them? They are just a bunch of kindergarteners... I thought as I walked toward Lynn and crouched down to her height. She pushed some of her hair behind her ear revealing that her silver eyes were filled with tears. My gaze turned into pity. I was taking pity on some poor girl whose first day at kindergarten was living nightmare.

"Lynn, what happened?" I pretended to act clueless. She looked away, not looking at me but instead looking at the blades of grass behind me.

"I–I just ripped Bubblegum on the slide..." Lynn lied, trying to avoid making eye contact with me. I lowered my tone to a whisper.

"If you want me to, I can take Bubblegum and get her sewed back together again and bring her back to you tomorrow. Will you allow me to do that?" I asked her softly catching some of the stuffing that fell out of her palm. She hesitated, probably shocked I asked her that question.

"I–I guess so. Please take care of her." Lynn advised me. I nodded my head and held out my hand. She gently placed the hippopotamus in my hand and watched as I stood back up to my normal height.

"I will take care of Bubblegum, don't worry." I assured her, holding the purple hippo lightly in my hands trying my hardest not to let any stuffing escape the toy. I flashed a smile and she gave a small grin in response.

"Thank you, Miss R." She said. I held Bubblegum and called the other students over. They all hurried over to me and we walked back to class. Lynn stayed by my side the entire walk back to the class, guessing that since I was there the others wouldn't be as harsh as they were.