My Daughter's Teacher

I'm broke

"Miss Black, can I have some money?" Rhodes asked.

"I'm broke."

"How? You're a teacher!" Rhodes questioned.

They must not know...

"That's a conversation for another time, my boy. Anyways. We all think of something different when we hear 'money'. It could be a negative thought or it could be a positive thought. Either way it's valuable," I snickered. "Get it? Cause money is valuable-"

"Miss Black, that wasn't funny." Ivory stared.

"Yes it was!" Halo giggled.

"Alrighty let's be serious. On your tables is a bowl of pennies. Inside that bowl, along with the pennies, is are dice. You will roll said dice and whatever number is how many pennies you will take from the bowl. After you collect five pennies you will come to me 'the bank' and exchange that for a....who can tell me what is a little more valuable than a penny?"

Atticus' hand shot up and I happily called on him.

"Go ahead Atticus."

"A nickel."

"Good job! It's a nickel. After you exchange your pennies for a nickel you will go back to your seat and continue until you have another set of five. Then you'll exchange your pennies for another nickel and then exchange those two nickels for... what comes after a nickel?"

This time Elliot's hand went up.

"A dime."

"My goodness I don't even know why I'm teaching this you guys are already so smart!" I gasped, "The goal is to get up to a dollar. The dollars I have aren't real because I'm broke. You may keep it as part of your paychecks which you will receive on Friday. Go ahead it begin."

The sounds of plastic clashing with wood filled the room. The kids were smiling happily as they tried to get up to five pennies. The first person to get five was Noah.

Noah didn't talk unless he needed to. He was extremely introverted and only talked to me or Atticus. I could tell his silence caused a struggle for everyone else because they would try and talk to him or play with him but all he did was look at them.

That's a sign of a special little thing called 'somethings going on at home'. I learned that my first week of college. Silence, anger, and anxiety were all "symptoms" for it. Now I'm not saying Noah is being abused at home; I'm saying there's something going on at home.

I could be overthinking it but these are my students and while their time is being occupied by me, it is my duty to protect and care for them.

"Alrighty. Noah, here's your nickel." I smiled.

"Thank you, Miss Black." He whispered.

Esmeralda and Xavier came up to me next. Both of them were holding exactly five pennies and both of them were wearing big, bright smiles.

"I need a nickel, please." Esme said, smiling so brightly that you could see the missing teeth she had lost last weekend.

She told me her dad started calling her "gums"and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Well here's a nickel for you, gums." I laughed.

"Miss Black!" Esmeralda gasped, "you're supposed to be on my side!"

"It's funny." Xavier agreed.

"Wow. Ok I'm going back to my seat."

I gave Xavier his nickel and waited until everyone else needed theirs. It took thirty minutes for everyone to get a dollar. Some of them (Noah, Halo, Atticus, Rylee, and Esme) got up to three dollars.

"Ok I should have all of my coins back and everyone should have at least a dollar on their desks," I spoke, "I want everyone to put their money in their wallets and then I need numbers one to eleven to grab their things. Once they return twelve to twenty-two will grab theirs. After everyone has their things we're gonna sit quietly and wait for announcements."

Little Salem would be so proud of me. I'm making her dreams come true one day at a time.

1213 words

A/n: HSIT HAS 26k READS HOLY FUCK!!! Thank you all for reading that and reading this too! We're almost to five hundred reads on here!! Don't be ghost readers either make sure you vote and comment!
-Mj