The Men's Camp

Ch 14 Maria - The first day of school

Maria pulled her mini-van into one of the last parks left in the schools undersized carpark and quietly cheered. It would be so much easier to wrangle the three children and their book packs into their new classrooms from here than from a ten-minute walk up the road. She headed to the back of the van and started pulling out the boxes of stationary.

"Jack, I need you to take yours" she said to her oldest son who had just turned ten. He was an athletic boy and tall for his age. She was so proud of him and the way he always wanted to help her with any tasks he considered manly, such as carrying boxes. She then only had to juggle the other two boxes and her daughters Brin and Callie who was starting school today. "Let's go to the grade three classrooms first" she told them, planning to leave Brin and Jack before getting to Callie's first grade class.

Her children gambolled happily towards the classrooms and she admired how sweet they looked in their brand new, slightly too large, school uniforms. After dropping off the boxes and checking Jack and Brin had hats, she headed to Callie's new class.

"Welcome" said a pretty, young twenty-year old who was the first-grade teacher. 'Poor thing' thought Maria, imagining how much work a room full of six-year old children would be, but she smiled and guided her daughter towards the desk with her name taped onto it. As Callie sat down at her place, Maria stood up to organise her books and her eyes met those of Rissy. She smiled warily.

"Maria!"

"Rissy!"

The women circled each other. Rissy Atkins was the mother who organised. She was on all the parent committees and was a loud, extravert that knew everyone and everything. Maria had first met her when Jack started school with her daughter Nora, and now here she was with her other daughter Tia in the same class as Callie. She was a great person, always sunny and full of delightful observations however, Maria always felt a little intimidated. She pushed her mild feelings of inferiority to the back of her mind and felt pleased that there would be plenty of social activities with the other parents in Callie's class this year.

"Coffee shop at ten" she sung over to Maria, and the two smiled like a pair of conspirators looking forward to the moment they would be relieved of their youngest child for the next twelve years.

As Maria entered the cute café, a table of mainly mothers and a few dads waved her over. Maria stopped in surprise. Sitting among the mums was Sue.