Two months after school started. Luna was doing pretty well at avoiding Oliver. Until one day, her fifth-grade teacher told her entire class they were getting split in half because she was going to be teaching a first grade due to budget cuts.
They placed Luna in Oliver’s class.
“Well, well, well… if it isn’t my favorite person in the entire world. Welcome to my class. What are you doing here?” Oliver’s voice stung her to the core because all she wanted to do was apologize, but she knew she couldn’t because that would show weakness. Well, that’s what Joseph said. Luna held her head up high to show no mercy.
“If you must know, dork, I got placed in your class since my teacher is teaching a first grade. You’re stuck with me now. Congratulations!” She could feel a hint of sarcasm in her voice, but it got him to shut up and leave.
Mrs. Lewis, Luna’s new fifth-grade teacher, walked in to see half of my class in her class waiting for her to seat us in our assigned seats for the rest of the year. Mrs. Lewis placed Luna in a group of four, Oliver, John, and Karol.
As the week went by, Mrs. Lewis asked us to write an essay about our family. Luna wasn’t the best at writing about her family. There were several issues in her family.
“Mrs. Lewis, can I write anything else that’s not about my family, please?” Luna hoped that Mrs. Lewis would sympathize with her. She was getting worried because, from the look on Mrs. Lewis’s face, she would not give Luna a different topic.
“Luna, if I give you a different topic, then other students will want different topics. That wouldn’t be fair to them. You don’t have to go into specifics. Just write about your family.” Luna could feel all the tears in her eyes. She just nodded and looked down at the paper. She looked around at all her other classmates. They were done. She looked at Oliver, John, and Karol; they were all on a second page of writing.
Luna could tell that she was going to have issues. She held her tears back as she started writing, but once she started. Her mind replayed that past summer and all the pain that came out of it, replaying all the problems. She immediately started crying. She wrote on the paper, asking if she could go to the restroom, so when Mrs. Lewis walked over to her, she could see what Luna was asking. When Mrs. Lewis came over, she rubbed Luna’s back and said yes. Luna practically ran out of the classroom, because she was crying to the point of pain crashing into her chest.
Luna splashed cold water on her face and then she reminded herself it was okay and that she was safe; even though she didn’t believe it, she knew she was safe, but she had to make herself believe it was okay. She walked back to her class slowly because she didn’t want to go back and have to see everyone writing. When she got to the classroom, Mrs. Lewis was waiting for her next to the door.
“Luna, are you okay?” Mrs. Lewis was concerned about Luna; she couldn’t tell Mrs. Lewis what was wrong. She used the same line she would use whenever she was crying.
“I’m fine. Thank you for asking. I just couldn’t think of anything and I didn’t want to be the last person to be finished. I’m sorry, I couldn’t write the essay.” It was one of Luna’s favorite lines because she couldn’t write about her family.
“I’m not mad. Instead of going back to your seat, why don’t you write what’s wrong at the desk next to mine. You aren’t in trouble, it’ll help me, help you. Okay?” Luna felt like she was going to have some issues. If she knew that if she told Mrs. Lewis what was really bothering her, Mrs. Lewis would call her mom. Luna nodded, walked into the class. Everyone was staring at her; she could feel all the eyes looking at her.
She walked over to the desk Mrs. Lewis told her about. She sat down and took out a piece of paper; she looked at it for a good two minutes. She couldn’t stop thinking. The words ‘you aren’t smart, stop trying’ kept popping into her head. Luna could hear only the screaming from the summer all around her. The words were loud enough that she couldn’t hear Mrs. Lewis told her it would be okay to sit back in her seat when she was ready. Luna wrote the only thing that wouldn’t get her in trouble for anything.
“I don’t live with my dad, and I miss him so much.” After she wrote that, she got up and went back to her group, avoiding all eye contact with everyone looking at her. She even avoided Oliver’s concerned eyes looking at her. She could only hear the loud words in her head for the rest of that day. When it came time to leave, Mrs. Lewis asked Luna if she could write the essay as homework. Luna would not escape that essay for the life of her. She agreed and thought that she could write it up at home because she gets to call her dad today.
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