Room 319

Ms. Walsh

Ava loved Ms. Walsh. She was like the mother she never had. A nice plump old lady who gave great hugs. Ava was always in her class. Before school, after school, during lunch, and sometimes even during other classes.
     Ms. Walsh also knew what happened to Ava. And she was respectful of her and listened to her problems.
     After the bell rang ending the first day of school Ava rushed down the hall to Ms. Walsh's room. She had so much to tell her.
      As soon as she walked in Ms. Walsh gave Ava a nice big hug. "I missed you sweetie. How was summer? How was your first day?" She said
     "Summer was busy, I took two jobs and whatever else came along the way. I was excited for school and then I got my schedule." Ava said handing her the schedule. Ms. Walsh looked it through and look back at Ava.
     "There's still time to change it if you need." She said gently "no I need to face my problems head on. I need to move on." Ava said sternly. "So how was the class?" Walsh asked. "Terrible, he's in over his head. I predict teacher burn out by the end of the year." Ava said with a bit of mischief.
     "And he used your lesson plan!" She said. "I know that. I gave it to him." Ms. Walsh said kindly. "He's new, give him a chance. I think you'll like him. You two have a lot in common." She said.
     They started talking about other things when Mr. Cade walked in. Ava was sitting behind the bookshelf and Cade couldn't see her. "Is it always this hard?" He asked when he came in. "No. You get used to it" Ms replied. She looked at him and with her eyes pointed to the bookshelf or rather behind it. Cade walked forward and saw Ava sitting on the chair behind it.
      "You know sir you're trying to hard to be their friend. We can see right through you. My best advice is to just be yourself and stop trying to play mind games. They rarely work." Ava said. She felt braver with Ms. Walsh next to her. "I've got to go." Ava said before Cade could reply. She made a beeline for the door and left.
"She's quite the character." Cade said. "You have no idea. In all my years of teaching I've never met anyone like her. She's something special I just know it. I'm proud to have taught her. And you'll be too. She has a habit of growing on people." Ms. Walsh said
"She doesn't seem to like me all that much." Cade said. "It takes her time to warm up to people. Trust does not come easy to her." Walsh said.
"Now tell me all about your terrible first day."