Before You

1 Year.

"Alright, class." I announced. "Time to clean up your centers and wash hands for lunch." A mix of groaning and cheers rang back. "Table one will go first."

"Miss. Tayler?" A little red headed boy asked, pushing his glasses up his thin little nose. "Will you be back again tomorrow?"

My heart ached a little. "No," I sighed. "Remember we talked about how today is my last day?" I reminded him. "I can only do my work study here for a few months and now I'm done and I get to go work in the middle school instead."

"Oh." He frowned, pushing the glasses up again.

I walked out from behind the desk and I knelt down in front of him to tap him on the nose. "You want to know a secret?" I whispered quietly and his little face lit up as he nodded. "I like you guys over here in the elementary way better than I'm going to like the middle schoolers." I made a sour face. "And I promise I'll come back to visit whenever I can."

"You're the best, Miss. Tayler." He giggled, then he surprised me when he wrapped his arms around my neck and kissed my cheek before running back to his table to help his friends clean up.

I stood back straight, smoothing out my skirt and then holding my hand to my chest. I was definitely going to miss working with the first graders. They were the absolute sweetest and all so eager to learn anything you could possibly teach them.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I glanced back to see Mrs. Tanner smiling broadly at me. "You're going to be an amazing teacher, Tayler." She told me. "The children just love you and we are certainly going to miss you around here. To show how much we all love you, we made you a special present." She told me, turning to pull a giant card out of one of the shelves behind her and passed it to me.

We love Miss. Tayler! Good luck! It said brightly across the front and the whole class had added a painted handprint and their names to it.

"I love this." I smiled, pride in all of the little boys and girls in the room building in me.

When I clocked out for the last time I walked the hallways, already feeling nostalgic about my time here. It had definitely confirmed for me that everything I've been working so hard for will be worth it in the end.

All the nights up studying instead of sleeping and all of the back aches and sore feet from standing and working double shifts all the time were going to pay off when in a couple of years I get to put my own name on one of these doors and have my own classroom full of little minds to help mold.

Aaron: Lunch at Ma's?

I had a lunch packed with me, but I decided I had enough time between now and when I need to get to the bookstore to have a quick bite with him.

My idea was starting to go a little off schedule when of course there was no parking downtown and I ended up needing to walk a block. I texted Aaron my order so at least he wasn't having to wait on me to order and the food might get out quick enough for me not to run late.

The streets were busy today, and the sidewalks were packed. The weather was nice out, so everyone was trying to get out to enjoy it after the nearly two whole weeks of nothing but rain. I had to admit, the breeze felt good coming through my thin white linen shirt and I didn't even care that it was tussling my hair all over the place.

"Um, Miss!" A woman called. "Oh, Tayler?"

I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and spun around, looking for someone I knew. I nearly got ran over by busy people who were in no mood to stop for me. I was about to turn back when I saw a little white glove waving in the air over the crowd.