The Numbered

Chapter Twelve

Dan picked up his little girl and squeezed her tightly. "Have a great day, honey."

Hannah

The school was a mile and a half walk from their house. Unseasonably warm, Hannah skipped along the path saying hello to everyone that passed and petting every dog. When they reached the school, her mother led her to Mrs Smith's classroom and she knocked on the door.

"Come in".

Her mother opened the door, and Hannah ducked behind her mother as thirty little faces turned towards them.

"Ah, you must be Hannah?" said the kindly looking lady, seated behind the desk at the front. She was a large-framed lady with a ruddy, round face. "Come in my dear, let's have a look at you."

Hannah crept out from behind her mother. The lady stood up and walked towards Hannah and held out her hand, which Hannah took. The teacher shook it gently.

"My name is Mrs Smith and I will be your teacher. Do you think you would like to sit down over there?" She pointed to a spare seat next to a little girl with curly blonde hair. The little girl looked over at Hannah, gave a shy smile which Hannah returned.

"You can go now mummy, don't worry about me, I'll be alright," Hannah said, turning to look back at her mother.

Her mother dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. "Okay, sweetheart, you have a great day and I'll be outside at three to pick you up".

Hannah walked over to the table where the little blonde girl sat. She pulled out the chair and sat down and looked around her in awe. She didn't see the cracks in the walls, the water stains on the broken ceiling tiles or the badly worn carpet. What Hannah saw was something altogether lovelier; magical in fact. Every wall was crammed full with children's drawings and some of the window panes had been painted with bright primary colours which let the sunlight fall into the room as if a rainbow had decided to visit there for the day. In the corner of the room was a castle made from old cardboard boxes, tape and black marker pen. She couldn't wait to play in there.

Hi, I'm Emma." the little girl whispered to Hannah. "I like your bow."

"Thanks, my mummy says I can only wear it on special occasions."

"Okay class, take a piece of paper and a pencil from your drawer. We are going to practice writing our names," Mrs Smith instructed. Hannah watched Emma lift the desk top to find her equipment. Hannah looked down into her desk to find two pencils, one pen, eight crayons, and some lined and some plain paper. Hannah was delighted as she had never had her own stationary set before. Selecting the red pencil she carefully picked up a sheet of paper and closed down the lid.

"I know how to write my name," Emma boasted and set to work. Hannah looked down at the little girl's handwriting. "See look how good I am?" she stated. Hannah thought the jumble of badly drawn letters was all wrong, but being a very polite little girl she smiled and said they looked great.

"You won't be able to do this very well because you're new and you won't know how to do it?" Emma boasted.

Hannah was a little annoyed by this, but stayed quiet not wanting to upset her new friend. She picked up her pencil and wrote her name slowly, just as her mother had shown her. At home Hannah liked nothing better than to read, write and draw. Her mummy was always telling her how clever she was especially since she had recently started to do joined-up writing. Hannah finished the last h with a little flourish at the end of her name and turned to her new friend to see what she thought. Emma looked down at the page and didn't give Hannah the smile she thought she would? Instead the little girl screamed out at the top of her lungs.