Her first day of work was more stressful than she could have imagined. Even though she was an experienced artist, the thought of teaching children made her incredibly nervous.
She pulled on a grey shirt she didn't mind getting paint on and a black floral cardigan to look a little more put together and work appropriate. With a pair of black jeans and her black converse she was as ready as she was going to get.
Although it was a Saturday, her father was at work, the same as every week. He would leave for work early and come home late, no goodbye, only some money for groceries.
With a deep breath, she locked the door behind her and headed to the bus stop.
***
When she arrived at work, her nerves had settled into a sense of excitement.
"Rose! I'm so glad you're here, you're going to be shadowing Hillary over there, she is one of our instructors and will be teaching a class for children aged five to eight. If you have any questions just come by my office." Ms.Swann greeted her and began to guide her to one of the classrooms.
"Hillary! This is Rose, she's our new assistant instructor. She's going to be with you for the day. Have a good day girls!" Ms.Swann hurried Rose into the room before leaving.
"It's nice to meet you Rose, I hope you're ready for a messy day." Hillary smiled, rolling up her shirts sleeves up to her elbow.
"Now, because the kids pretty young we want to keep all options open, so today we're going to be doing some clay sculpting. We're going to let them have their own creative rein with it. We like to change up what they are learning so they can develop new skills every week. It's proved to be a good learning strategy." Hillary told her as she whirled around the room setting up stations.
"Sounds interesting." Rose chirped. "What do you want me to do?"
"There isn't going to be much work for us to do, we want them to really learn what art forms they enjoy, so we're just here to make sure they don't get hurt and are able to create something they'll be proud of. If you want to, you're welcome to create your own sculpture, and to help the kids with some of their finer details. Can you bring this to the counter over there?" Hillary smiled, and dumped some clay into Rose's arms.
Just moments after Rose and Hillary had set up enough stations for the children who would be coming to the class, there was a flood of kids rushing into the room. There were girls and boys alike, many were wearing paint splattered clothes and were chattering amongst themselves.
"Welcome back to class guys! I hope everyone is excited to make our clay sculptures! You're allowed to make whatever you want and they will be ready to go home when you come into class next week." Hillary said, sounding very chipper.
Once all the kids were sitting at their stations and had gotten started on their sculptures, Rose took out her own hunk of clay and began to methodically roll and shape it, humming the entire time. She didn't realize she had attracted an audience until she was shaping the tail of the little dog she was making.
"Oh, hi." Rose said, suddenly feeling very awkward. There were a few little girls watching her form the sculpture in her hands.
"They finished doing their sculptures and wanted to watch you do yours, you seemed so occupied with it and I figured you wouldn't mind." Hillary said, giving her a reassuring smile.
"I like your puppy. Mine looks like that, his name is Turtle." One of the little girls said, smiling shyly.
"That's so cool! I always wanted a dog, but my dad's allergic so we couldn't get one." Rose said, returning the little girl's smile.
***
Rose trudged back home after cleaning the kids' supplies. She was exhausted, but in a way she could only describe as satisfying. She got out of the bus the stop before her house to get groceries for the upcoming week.
Humming quietly to herself as she roamed the aisles, she gathered the ingredients she would need for tonight's lasagna. She paid, barely noticing the people around her, and when she turned around and bumped into someone she began to apologize profusely.
"Watch where you're going bitch. I could've dropped my coffee." The girl she instantly recognized as Renee, hissed.
"Sorry" Rose whispered, bending down to pick up the package of ground beef she had dropped.
"You're fucking useless, just get out of my way." She brushed past the girl crouched on the ground, rolling her eyes and kicking the package further out of Rose's reach.
"Perfect." Rose muttered, crawling forwards to grab the fallen package.
She already knew the next school week would not be enjoyable, running into Renee today would make all the girls in school be even ruder this week.
***
Unfortunately, she had guessed correctly.
On Monday, when she walked into the school, every girl in her grade seemed to be staring at her.
She could hear whispers as she headed to her locker, though she couldn't make out their actual words.
It was lunch when she began to get anxious about what the people around her were saying. She left her food in her locker and headed to the library, deciding to stay away from prying eyes.
Unfortunately, when she walked into the room, there were a few girls who were sitting and giggling.
"Did you hear about Rose? Apparently she tried to sleep with Renee's boyfriend, so Renee slapped her at the grocery store." The blonde girl whispered to the girl with bright pink hair.
"Holy shit, what a bitch move." The girl answered.
"I wouldn't trust Renee, she's kind've a manipulative bitch." Said the girl next to them.
"Shut up Paisley, you don't know shit." The blonde hissed. Rose flinched from the look on the girl's face and accidentally knocked a book off the shelf next to her.
"Shit" She muttered quietly, hoping the other girls hadn't noticed. Unfortunately, when she started to stand up, the group was standing in front of her.
"Hey there, you nosey little bitch. You just can't keep you're nose out of other people's business, can you?" The blonde girl bit out. Rose had learned that being silent was best, so she didn't say a word.
"C'mon Ashley, we should just leave her alone." Paisley said, tugging at Ashley's sleeve.
"No, the little bitch should learn her place." Ashley brushed the smaller girl off her arm. "Do you have anything to say for yourself? Besides being a skank?" The tall girl sneered.
Rose kept her head down, wanting to disappear.
"This is just a warning, next time you step out of line, I'll hunt you down." Ashley and her little clique walked out of the library, only Paisley looking back.
Rose slumped over, just wanting her day to be over.
YOU ARE READING
The One They Left Behind
Romance"If you loved me, why was it so easy for you to walk away?" Rose was used to being forgotten. Her mother had left, then her brother. The one person she never expected to leave her was Diana, her best friend. Diana left in 10th grade, leaving an opt...
