Jamie and Grace

I tapped my fingers impatiently against my desk waiting for class to begin. I was jittery and gassy. I wanted to throw up and the air felt like the temperature of an oven. I could feel sweat forming behind my pores, but they seemed to never come forward. I looked around the room in a twitchy way. The desks formed an "E" with the legs of it shooting toward the front of the classroom. I was sitting in the middle leg, third desk back. I tightened my thighs and another silent flatulence released itself from me.

"Hello students welcome to 3rd grade year. I am Mr. Aiden and I will be your teacher this year. Let's start off by introducing ourselves."

"That smell again," exclaimed a voice behind me in a irritated way. Kids began to snicker.

"Excuse me, sir," Mr. Aiden said disapproving his comment, "the rest of you, shh!"

Mr.Aiden flipped the sole of his palm upward and turned his face toward a little girl on the last leg of the "E" to begin. Her eyes are humongous and beady and her nose and lips are small and petite. Her hair is braided back into frizzy cornrows with three yellow beads hanging on each braid. Her confidence is very obvious.
"I'm Ava. I'm 9. I'm happy to be here today to enjoy my first day of school!" She smiled hard and looked around the classroom to see everyones reaction. The awkward silence roamed the room. Her smile faded and she sat down unsatisfied.

"Nice to meet you, Ava, next. Next!"

A loud bell rings and I'm confused. I look around the room and I see I'm not the only one. I look to Mr.Aiden for guidance. He has a worried and confused look on his face.

"Class, that's a fire drill, we need to get into a single file line, hands behind our backs and walk fast to the exit down the hall. QUICK, get to moving!"
Everyone pumped themselves out their seat and lined up against the door. Desperation to run out the classroom and barge through other students that filled the hallway was tempting. I would have ran home, but the action would have been pointless, because I have no clue where i live.

" Ok kiddies, follow the flow of the hallway, let's go!"

We all walked out the door of the classroom and each of us scanned big kids faces in the hallway. They were huge and their feet seemed to crack the ground with each step they took. Busy watching the chaos of everyone run around, bump into each other, rumble with each other and fall, I slowed myself down. One big, round girl took her time to stroll down the hallway as if she weren't scared like all the rest of us. Her chest rose and her breathing rattled when she exhaled. She looked like a teddy bear that was about to spill open with cotton. Kids seem to multiply from behind her and run in front of her down the hallway. Her energy seemed to be at a all time low.

"Hey, you need to catch up with us," said the yellow beaded girl grabbing my hand.
She yanked me so hard my body jerked as if a tornado had hit me. She ran holding my hand and swirled me around slower moving people who were taller than us. I bumped into a blonde haired kid, a girl with a red jacket, and my nose smashed right into the neck of a boy with a red bruise on it.
"OUCH!"
"Oh calm down, you're fine, you just hit the women's bathroom sign," the yellow beaded girl said rolling her eyes.

"Why are we in here? Why aren't we following the flow?"
"We lost our class and I need to show you something."
"What." I stared at her confused and my body shaped as if I were going to run away if it was anything bad.
"Come here!"
She yanked my hand and gravity took me down to the ground. I rolled over on my back in pain with eyes shut tight. Once I opened them I was under a bathroom stall with lady and a man. They looked at each other in horror then starred at me covering their most private parts.
"Oh my gosh," she yelled still trying to figure which body part should be covered the first. I slid from under and yellow beaded girl was giggling into her tiny brown hand. My hearted dropped and I crawled to exit the bathroom, but yellow beaded girl wouldn't let me.
"What are you doing? Let me go!"
She gripped my leg roughly making my body willingly slide back.
"Didn't you see that?"
"Yes, and I don''t want to get in trouble let me go!"
I tried kicking my leg out of her grip and pumped her stomach with my foot. She groaned in pain and and compressed her newly shoe-printed dress up against her stomach.
The bathroom door with the lady and the man flung open. The woman's name tag was lopsided and said "Visitor Sarah Lurmone" Her clothes were intensely wrinkled and she quickly fixed her hair. She walked away avoiding eye contact but using her peripheral vision to see if I was looking. The man slowly trailed behind her and stopped to look at me with angry eyebrows.
"You ain't see nothing." His nose flared and he buttoned his pants. They left and I turned to look at yellow bead.

"Is everyone gone already?".
I propped my ear into the air to listen.
I walk into the hallway and freeze. What I see is surprising. A hand touches my shoulder and it's yellow bead hunched down still holding her stomach with drool dripping down her chin. She's appalled to see what I see as well.