Esther, Be Tender With My Love

Nine

The First Day of School
Narrarator POV

It certainly was a pecuiliar Monday morning for Esther as she got ready for school. She had to wake up extra early to help the three boys living in her basement learn how to use her shower. Esther wasn't used to sharing a bathroom with anyone - let alone three young adult men. Sure, she used to share one with her brother who was eight years older than her but he would wake up extra early to stay out of her way.

The Gibb brothers dressed up in the new clothes their new friend had bought them two days previous in order to fit in. It looked as though their plan was working as they walked in through the school entrance together. On both sides of the halls people were staring and whispering to each other but not because the boys beside Esther Ryan were from a different time period.

"Are those new kids?"

"Who does she think she is walking in here with the hot new kids?" Esther tried to hold back a laugh at that comment.

She proceeded to lead them down the hall and to the administrative office by the cafeteria. Last night she made a fake email posing as the boys' mom and enrolled them in the school. Now all they had to do was pick up their schedules. Esther or "Barbara Gibb" requested that they all take the same classes are her for a better chance of having some of the same classes. She didn't want to annoy them by having them in ALL of her same classes.

"Good morning Ms." Barry paused to read the office secretary's name plate atop her desk. "Landsaw. My brothers and I are here to pick up our schedules." The mildly overweight lady stared down the boys from over her glasses as she chewed a piece of expired dollar store gum.

"You must be the Gibbs." She dragged out in between chews. Barry nodded his head with a polite smile. Ms. Landsaw sighed and placed her smutty novel on her desk, getting up from her desk chair and walking into a back room. A moment later, she came back with three pieces of paper and handed them to the boys to seperate amongst themselves. Without even acknowledging anyone's existance anymore, she picked her book back up and stuck her nose back in it. Maurice looked at Esther awkwardly and muttered a "thanks" as the group walked out of the office.

"Nice lady." He said, examining his time table.

"Oooh. We have third period history, sixth period algebra II, and seminar together." Esther informed while looking over his shoulder. Maurice felt his breath get caught in his throat at the closeness of her. In the past few days he's know this lady, he's felt a funny feeling in his stomach he'd never felt before. It was a good feeling. Like someone had set hundreds of buterflies free in his stomach. It happened everytime he made eye contact with the girl or saw her smile or heard her melodious laugh. He knew she was special and wanted so badly to tell her how he felt. But what would happen when her grandfather finished builiding the time machine?

"Robin, looks like he have second period biology and fourth hour english." Maurice hadn't even noticed that Esther had moved away from him to look at his twin brother's schedule. "And Barry, it looks like we only have seventh hour career development together. That's weird but at least we all have the last lunch shift together."

Esther didn't have first hour with any of her new friends. Instead, they all had completely different classes. She sat in her band class and tried to focus on the music they were performing but couldn't seem to concentrate. Her mind wouldn't stop running with thoughts of a certain twin. She pictured his handsome face smiling down at her - his honey brown eyes boring into hers. She was quickly shaken out of her thoughts as Mr. Michaels, her band director, yelled out a measure number to begin playing and counted the band off.

When first period finally ended, Esther packed up her things and darted out of the performing arts center. She wanted to hurry up and get to class unnoticed but of course someone had to get in the way.

"Good morning Ms. Ryan. May I speak to you for a moment?" Asked her Mr. Daniels, her English teacher. He had a new steaming cup of coffee in his hand.

"Sure." Esther sighed and walked over to him. She hoped he'd make the conversation quick. She wanted to get to class at least before the bell but she also got creeped out by this guy. There have been countless reports from her peers of him staring at girls' butts as they walk down and making sexual comments to them.

"It appears you scored low the test from last week. I strongly encourage you stay with me after school and retake it. Or you can earn extra credit points." He winked at her, making her want to throw up.

"You can't fool me Mr. Daniels. You make me sick." Faking a smile, she walked away from him. But he wasn't done. She felt him grab her wrist before she could walk away and her body being dragged across the hall from his strong grasp.

"Don't talk to me like that. If you don't come in then I will make sure you fail. That won't look so good when you graduate this semester now will it?" Mr. Daniels smiled devilishly. She looked at him in fear and slowly nodded her head. "Good girl." He smirked, his hand rubbing down her wrist to her hand where he squeezed it. Grossed out, Esther whipped her hand out of his grasp and sped walked down the hall.

"Great I'm going to be late." She said to herself. Not even halfway to her biology class, the bell rang which made her begin to run. "Why does the biology room have to be all the way across the fucking school?"

Finally, Esther made it to her classroom. Taking a deep breath, she slowly opened the door where Mrs. Johnson was waiting with an annoyed expression.

"Ryan." She began, glaring at the young girl. "I thought I made it clear at the beginning of the year that tardiness absolutely is not tolerated in my class."
Esther gulped and opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. "Go. Sit down in the back." Esther nodded and moped over to the back desk with her head down. She was utterly embarrassed. Confrontation was always a struggle for her - both giving and receiving it.

"Hey, are you okay?" A familiar voice asked from beside her. Looking up, she saw Robin looking at her concerned. She nodded her head but he wasn't convinced at all. Robin didn't know what to do about his new best friend. He only hoped that Maurice could help her next period. He knew his twin brother fancied the girl.