Forgotten

Chapter 6

           YOU READY?" I KNEEL DOWN TO smooth the front of Hayley's pink school dress and look up at her. Hayley's blonde hair has been pulled into two tight French braids whose tips just touch her shoulders. She wears a small brown schoolbag on her shoulders, which came from her supply container and holds the few books and pencils that she's been issued.

            Hayley nods. "Are we going now?"

            "Yeah." I stand up and lead her from her bedroom to the kitchen. "Liana and I are both taking you. We've got to go to some kind of orientation while you're at school."

            I help Hayley into her white lace socks and school shoes, a pair of black Mary Janes. Once we're out the door, Liana locks up the house behind us, and we set off for the school.

            The school is about two miles west of the homestead, and Hayley walks between Liana and me the whole way. "This is the only day we're going to be walking you," I tell her. "Liana and I need to take care of the farm work in the mornings. Starting tomorrow, there's going to be a shuttle service for all the little kids. A hoverbus will come at seven-thirty every morning to pick you up, and drop you off at three o'clock every afternoon."

            "But today we'll be taking you to your classroom," Liana says reassuringly. "When we get there, you're going to meet your teacher and your classmates, and then one of us will pick you up after school."

            "What will we do in school?" Hayley asks.

            "Today will be easy," I say. "You'll probably just play games and get to know your classmates."

            The rest of the walk is quiet, each of us lost in our own private thoughts. My mind is spinning. Will she fit in? Will the other kids like her? Will they notice her photographic memory? I'm sure I must be more nervous than Hayley herself.

            The school is comprised of fifteen classrooms, a small library, and a cafeteria, all connected by a network of hallways. As the large front building looms up in front of us, I pull out a sheet of paper from my jeans pocket, which has Hayley's school information on it, and unfold it.

            "Unit 1, Room 3," I read, squinting at the map, which has a big red star on Hayley's classroom. I look at Liana. "Remember where that is?"

            Liana shrugs. "I don't think we had that classroom." She shrugs and leads the way up a staircase and through the glass doors of the building, which have the words "DARRINGTON DISTRICT FIVE SCHOOL" painted on each pane.

            The only kids being walked to school today are the first-graders, and they all have classrooms in Unit 1, so the halls are packed with young kids with backpacks and older teenagers trying to navigate the crowded corridors.

            Liana goes in front of us, attempting to shoulder past everyone to get to the furthest room down the hall, Hayley's classroom. After about a minute of shoving, we find ourselves standing in front of a large gray door, marked with a bold blue number indicating this classroom as Room 3.

            I open the door and hold it open for Hayley and Liana. "This is your classroom," I say to Hayley as I go in after her. "Think you'll be able to remember where it is?"

            Hayley seems too overwhelmed to reply. The classroom is bustling with tiny first-graders and their older homestead siblings, all trying to find the correct desks. The three of us join the crowd, searching each desk's neat cursive label for Hayley's name. For this school year, it will be Hayley Parlett, but next year, Hayley will have a different last name since she'll be at a new homestead.