Letters

Chapter One

Trust. It was a funny thing to feel for someone. A funny thing to have in someone. The ability to trust was like a miracle; like you would give them your life to look after until you needed it again. You would lock away your thoughts in their mind, knowing they'd stay there, safe and sound, guarded by the love they have for you.

I trusted you, maybe not more than anyone else I had before, but in a different way to anyone else before. You listened, when I rambled on about everything. You could still make me laugh, smile, even on the worst of days. I saw you approaching from the distance, and somehow I felt safe again.

The bell went, sharply ringing through my ears. I packed away my things and Mrs Jones dismissed us from biology. I stumbled toward the corner by the field, where I usually met my group of friends. On my way I noticed Catherine.

"Hey, Catherine," I called across the wide pathway leading to the RE block.

"Oh, Emily. Miss Collins was just looking for you, she said to find her, I think she has to tell you something."

"Ok, tell the others I'll be back in a few minutes then"

I turned right, expecting to see a big smile waiting for me by the technology block where I usually noticed Miss Collins strolling around, ready for a chat. After a few minutes of searching for a bright pink hoodie on patrol, I noticed her making her way across the grass behind the sports hall.

It was a smile that greeted me, but more of a broken smile, a sympathetic smile, a sad smile. She looked happy to see me, but once I had said hello I knew something wasn't right.

She spoke softly, and looked into my blurry eyes.

"No. Miss...you can't leave!"

I said, as she told me her job may be taken away from her at our school.

She smiled again, trying to keep me from crying, although it didn't work. I couldn't hold the tears in. The thought of not seeing her smile every day. I felt the cold drops trickle down my cheek.

It seemed odd to me too. How could a teenager develop such a relationship with a teacher? Not even a teacher. A substitute. To some, Miss Collins was just a substitute teacher, perhaps the only one that could keep us wild teens under control while our actual teachers were away.

But to me, she was special. She listened. She helped me. She cheered me up. She was a friend; one that understood. One that never judged me or gave up on me. A strange friend to have, yet the only one that seemed to make time for me even when she had other things to do.

Her kind voice echoed around my head.

"I'll always have time for you, Emily. You are very special to me, remember that!"

She was special to me, too. Part of me loved her for everything she had done for me, she always seemed to tell me that I was special. I didn't understand why, why me, why did she care so much about me?

But she didn't seem to need a reason. I had so much appreciation for all the times she comforted me when I had a face full of tears, even when I was in the shittiest of moods.

She still cheered me up.

But now she was gone.

Gone.

The school had taken her from me.

Taken her, without even allowing her to say a proper goodbye to the life she loved. The life she had built up for 5 years.

It only hit me once it was too late to see her smile. I said goodbye to her, she hugged me tight in her comforting arms. Yet by the time it came to me that I would never see her again, never hear her voice, she had already been driven off. And she was gone.