Picture perfect family... [Aramir]
Mar 10, 2012 0:04:40 GMT -5
Post by Kheft on Mar 10, 2012 0:04:40 GMT -5
The bell rang. That glorious peal that sent frisians of hope and freedom through every child trapped for what seemed an interminable sentence within the wooden walls of the schoolhouse. Spring was just barely beginning to breathe its fresh life over the seaside town. Snow drifts shrank to muddy slush at the roadside, streams thawed, and a few brave trees began to wreathe their crowns with tiny green leaves barely sprouted. With all of these changes came the first tremors of spring fever burning through the veins of every youth in the village. School days seemed to drag on for years of new and creative tortures. Now with the simple clang of a bell in the yard, prison bars were thrown open, and the relieved prisoners went pelting out into the muddy yard and racing for home.
All except one forlorn figure.
She hunched over on the bench outside the principal's office, more miserable than before. Her slate, clutched on her lap, bore the smudged and crooked lines of chalk sprawling across its dusty expanse, reading, "I will learn to control my temper." One hundred times she had to write it…and stay every wretched minute of two hours after class as punishment. These offenses to her young life meant that she wouldn't be waiting on the fence for Gage as she had promised.
The clock on the wall ticked in exaggerated slow motion, and an age of the world seemed to pass before the door of the principal's office opened and as he prepared to leave for the day, she was finally given permission to go home…with five extra pages of math homework to be done that evening.
With a low groan of despair, she slumped out the door, certain that all hopes and plans for the day were ruined. The light would begin to disappear far too soon, and Gage would be long gone home. Her boots scuffed the boards and kicked at a small rock as she finally emerged into the late afternoon. In fact, she was in such dismal spirits, that she almost missed the lanky figure leaned against the fence, a book in hand.
In that one moment, the day had gone from a dark to light, and her footsteps lifted into a hurried skip as she flung herself across the yard and hugged Gage so fervently that he nearly fell flat onto the ground.
"You waited!" A smile blazed across her face until she recalled the five extra pages of homework that weighed down her school bag. "Slave driving teacher gave me extra homework AND I had to stay late…I didn't even start the fight…this time." Her small face screwed up in frustration. "We can't go fishing like I planned on, I gotta get this work done before tomorrow or I'll be kept late again." The fence shuddered with the impact of her booted foot kicking the post irately. "I guess…maybe you could come home with me, we could do homework together or something. My parents won't care, would your mom? We could stop and tell her where we'll be."