Molly left fifth hour which was in Hall 01. She was surprised that all of her teachers, so far, have included the zero when they announced halls. For example, saying ‘Hall Oh-One” instead of simply ‘Hall one’. She stopped at the bulletin board located on the wall on the corner of the Main Hall and Hall 03. There were several notices posted on it, but she was looking for the information related to the clubs. She found it posted on the right side at the bottom of the board. Again, it listed all of the clubs like the Student Handbook but his time it included the day of the week they would meet after school. Most of them met on Wednesday or Thursday, except for the sport activities. She quickly read down the list to the bottom to The Whodunnit Club. It was the only club that met on Monday at 2:15 p.m. The notice also said they had to have a signed parent permission slip and those could be picked up at their class office. Molly headed for her class office. She had learned earlier in the day that her class office was the first one on the Main Hall in between Hall 01 and Hall 02. She went directly there and found the door open. She walked up to the half-wall that served as a desk directly inside the room. A heavy-set woman was seated at a desk just on the other side of the wall. She looked up as Molly walked into the room.
“May I help you?” she asked Molly.
“Yes, please. I would like a club parent permission form,” Molly said in reply.
The woman pushed her chair back, stood up, walked around her desk, and approached Molly. She reached beneath the wall and pulled a piece of paper to the top of it.
“Here you go Miss…” she dragged out the Miss, waiting for Molly.
“My name is Molly, Molly Bennett,” Molly stated complying with the hint.
“Nice to meet you Molly,” the woman offered her hand which Molly took with a quick shake. “My name is Mrs. Young and I am happy to be your secretary. Here you go. You are the first one to request a permission form. But, dearie, you need to hurry to your next class because the bell is about to ring. We can chat another time.”
Molly smiled at her, turned, and left the office. Mrs. Young looked like she could be quite a character, she thought to herself. Her last class of the day, at least on Wednesday, was music. She chose that as one of her elective classes, and she was glad it was at the end of the day. It was in Hall 03, Room 312, which she had remembered was the last room of that hallway. She decided to walk a little faster when the bell rang. She decided to jog to her class. As she turned onto Hall 03, she almost ran into a teacher but luckily the teacher heard her coming and was flat against the wall.
“Slow down,” the soft female voice called out to her. “The classroom isn’t going anywhere.”
Molly turned to face the teacher to apologize. She found herself looking at a tall, red haired woman that had it pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing a pale green suit complete with a bright red tie. She was smiling at Molly with her hands folded in front of her.
“I am sorry, ma’am,” Molly said quickly avoiding her eyes which were green.
“You are forgiven,” the teacher responded. “Hello, my name is Miss Marvel and you are?”
“Molly Bennett,” Molly offered her hand. “How do you do?”
Miss Marvel shook her hand and held it for a second forcing Molly to look at her. “Nice to meet you, Molly. Just slow down. Well, see you around.”
Molly stepped back and started down the hall. She carefully walked away from Miss Marvel listening for the teacher to retreat down the hall but heard nothing. She stopped and turned to look to see if she was still there. The hallway was empty. She shrugged and went to Room 312.
When she entered the room, she heard the teacher call out her name, “Molly Bennett.”
“Here,” she said raising her hand.
The teacher turned toward her and smiled, “Welcome to Choir. My name is Mr. Eichelberger but you may call me Ike. For now, Miss Bennett, sit in the second row of chairs in the second seat.”
Molly turned to see the room had a set of risers with three rows of chairs plus a row on the floor in front of them. Students were standing around the room waiting for their names to be called to find their seats. A boy on the second row at the far right padded the seat beside him signaling to Molly that this was her seat. She certainly hoped it is a temporary seating chart. She walked to the chair and yanked her backpack to the floor in between her chair and his chair.
“Hello,” he whispered. “I’m Derrick and I am in seventh grade and you are?”
“Molly, sixth grade,” Molly replied as she folded her arms in front of her.
After roll call, “Ike” walked over to the piano and played a series of notes on it and began to sing, “Fa-la-la-la-laaa.”
He paused and played the same notes a step higher and began to sing again, “Fa-la-la-la-laaa.”
He stopped again and said, “Okay, this time sing with me. Fa-la…”
The class followed his instructions and began to sing with him as he led them through the notes to the next octave.
“Now, this time I am going to ask each of you to sing the scale solo with the piano only. Don’t be shy. I am simply trying to get you assigned to the different singing parts we will learn this year.“
The choir was finally set, and Molly found herself sitting just a few seats to the right from where she started in the same row. She was placed with the Altos and was sitting between two eighth graders who had tried to sit next to each other, but Ike insisted on having Molly split them. He had said to them when he did so, “And you know why?”
The bell rang releasing them into the hallways who were scampering with people heading for the exits as the school day ended. Molly stopped at her locker and dumped the books she had received after lunch into it and turned to go to her bus. She pushed open the door and a small group rushed by her. Harold stood just outside of the door with hands pulling at the straps to his backpack. He is smiling at her.
“Hi,” Molly said to him as she stepped toward him.
“Hi,” Harold turned as they walked side by side. “How was your first day of SLMS?”
“SLMS?” Molly asked him as they slowly approached their bus.
“Spanish Lake Middle School – SLMS,” Harold stopped at the door to the bus allowing her to ascend into it first. He followed her to the first available seat for two and sat beside her.
“it was interesting,” Molly finally answered him. “Most of the teachers seemed okay. I literally ran into Miss Marvel in the hall.”
“What’s up?” Bev flopped into the seat behind them.
“Molly was just telling me that she knocked Miss Marvel down in the hallway,” Harold said watching Molly squint her eyes at him.
“Not true,” Molly turned to face Bev. “I ran into her.”
Bev laughed and sat back in her seat as the bus moved forward.
“I didn’t actually hit her. She dodged me but I met her.”
“So what do you think of her?” Harold asked as he sat back and closed his eyes.
Molly sat back before she answered him. She thought about how she turned to look behind herself and Miss Marvel was gone.
“I think,” Molly said sitting back and closing her eyes. “Mysterious.”
To be continued…
My First Stories 