Love Me on Valentine's Day || ✔️

2.2 // henri's hares

2 . 2 / / h e n r i ' s   h a r e s

Grade Five // Age 11

THERE WAS a buzz in the air as the students took their seats that day. It was Show & Tell in Ms. Osman's class, and everyone was clutching their item, eager to share it with the class.

Alexandria Benson had her stuffed rabbit sitting on the desk, the soft brown fur still sparkling like it did that first day when she bought it from Build-a-Bear. The rabbit, named Fiona (a tribute to the ogre princess she was obsessed with at the time), was wearing a cute red top and a black skirt with glittering red ballet slippers. Alex loved her to bits.

Around the room, various stuffed animals, sports equipment, books, and toys sat atop the desks of the students. They were already talking to one another excitedly about their item. Alexandria was chatting with her friend, Sara, about her rabbit.

"It was years ago," spoke the girl. "But my daddy and I were at the mall when we walked by the store. At first I didn't want to go in, but he made me and it was so fun! My sister was so jealous she couldn't get one too."

"Oh my God," Sara exclaimed. "You're so lucky your parents buy you stuff. Mine never do," the girl frowned, poking her old doll with the sewn patch on one of its legs.

Alexandria shrugged, unaware of how lucky she was in the way little children often were.

"Alright, class! Settle down, please," Ms. Osman called, clapping her hands and standing at the front of the classroom.

It took a few moments for the kids to stop chattering, the sound dimming from laughter and the buzz of conversation to the sounds of "shhh" from twenty or so ten and eleven year olds, and then finally silence. Ms. Osman smiled contentedly at the quiet, knowing well that it would not last for long.

"Welcome to Show & Tell, everyone!" she exclaimed. The whiteboard behind her bore those words, elegantly written and decorated with little cartoon drawings of different objects. Alex saw a basketball, a teddy bear, and even a cupcake. "We're going to listen, respectively, to every person as they present their object. You may ask questions at the end of the person's presentation. Understood?" she looked around the room at the little nodding heads and smiled again. "Okay, who wants to go first?"

The next two hours passed by in a blur with different presentations of items. Alexandria had fun—it certainly beaten doing math. There were some cool things, someone even brought rabbits, though he called them hares. They looked so fluffy and cute. Alex would have liked to touch one but Henri said they didn't like to be touched by strangers.

Soon after the wrap-up of their Show & Tell, the bell rang for lunch. The students went to their bags and took out their lunches, returning to chat with their friends before recess started. Rania had come to join Sara and Alexandria at their table, and the girls talked about what eleven year old girls often talked about—families, what happened this morning, and the cute boys from the other class.

Just as Sara was in the middle of a truly entrancing story about Asher, and how he had looked at her yesterday on the bus—surely it meant he liked it, she might have a boyfriend soon, she told them—a scream pierced the room. Alexandria jumped, turning to see where it came from.

"Where's Mr. and Mrs. Hare?" Henri was frantic, checking and re-checking his hares' cages. He went down on his knees, checking under his desk. Distantly, Alexandria thought of how uncreative the names were. But Henri was never meant to be a poet.

The lunch monitor, sweet Mrs. Sokolov, came into the room after she heard the commotion. "What's wrong?" she asked in a voice that Alex thought sounded like it was coated in honey.

"My hares are missing!" wailed Henri. He was now sitting on the floor in despair.

"Oh, dear," said Mrs. Sokolov. "Not good," she was already taking out her school-issued phone, probably to alert the other teachers of the situation.

Henri was still crying when Alex stood up from her chair and walked towards him. Her friends were after her, whispering questions about what she was doing on their way. "I can help look for them," she announced to Mrs. Sokolov. Henri stopped crying long enough to stare at her with wide red eyes.

"Oh, dear," she said. "You're so sweet. Thank you, girls. Now, Henri, where did you last see the hares?" As Henri answered questions to help them with their search, Alexandria felt a bit like she was in one of the cop shows her dad liked to watch. She was giddy to start searching for the victims, to rule this out as a possible kidnapping . . .

But before she let her imagination carry her too far, she snapped herself back to attention. Focus. She had a mission.

The trio were excused from recess and granted full access of the halls. They could wander it to look for the hares, and it made them all feel quite special.

The feeling died quickly when they realized that they couldn't find the hares, and that time was running out. Alex blew out a sigh and called to the others that she was going to the washroom.

When she entered, she heard a faint noise, but she dismissed it as someone in the stalls. After flushing the toilet and washing her hands, she saw brown fur peaking from the bottom of the stalls in the mirror. Her eyes widened, and she slowly shook her hands to get rid of the water, grabbing a paper towel to wipe off the rest. She tiptoed out of the bathroom, making sure not to make a noise that would spook the hares.

Outside, she ran to the room, crying out for Henri and Mrs. Sokolov, "I found them!"

Henri jumped from his position on the floor. He followed her eagerly, bursting into the girls washroom. Alex stifled a giggle, hoping no one went in in the few moments it took her to get the others. Sara and Rania came too, and Sara didn't stop her laugh from escaping.

Henri burst out of the washroom with his hares in his arms. "Thank you, Alexandria. Thank you!" he cried. "I don't know how to repay you. You saved my life."

Alex felt her cheeks get warm, and was glad that her skin was dark enough not to show her blushing. "No problem," she mumbled.

Henri never forgot that Alex was the one who had found his hares. He was grateful for her. They became friends from that day, and even dated briefly during freshman year before Alex decided to focus on her studies. He loved her, though he never told her. He knew Alex didn't feel for him as much as he did for her, but the few weeks that was their relationship was the happiest he remembered feeling in a long time. He still followed her on social media, and talked to her. But as expected after breaking up, and especially at such a young age, things were awkward. He saw that she had no boyfriend, and she told him that the guy she hung out with all the time—Caleb—was just a friend. He sent the Invite secretly hoping that they might rekindle their relationship, but if he knew anything about Alexandria, he knew she would refuse him.

It didn't matter, though. He would move on. Soon. But he first had to try.

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Hi everyone! What do you think of this chapter?

I really like Henri, and I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. It's different to write from the point of view of a child, and I like it. How did you like him? What do you think Alexandria will do?

See you next chapter,
Sage