The Silence She Speaks✔

Four-Quinn

"He needed to be punished," the teacher said.

"You cannot hit a child!" The lady yelled. "Here is your pink slip, pack your things, you're done!"

"You can't do this to me!" The man yelled.

"I can and I just did," the lady said rudely. "Goodbye now."

"This isn't fair!" The man yelled. He kicked a table and stormed out of the room.

"You can expect a visit from the authorities soon!" She shouted. The desk lady turned to me with a gentle smile. "Quinn, sweetie, I'm sorry you had to see that. He was a substitute, I promise he isn't the real teacher." I nodded.

"So your name's Quinn?" The boy asked. I nodded. "Do you not talk or something?" I nodded again. "Are you new here?" Another nod. "That's pretty cool, where'd you used to go to?"

"Segro middle," I wrote. "It's in Georgia."

"Whoa, Georgia? Really?" The boy asked. I nodded. "Are the peaches as good as people say they are?" I nodded.

Peaches were my favorite, the ones grown in Georgia are the best though. I still remember my mom taking me and Sammy to the farm and picking off the high ones for us. We were too little to reach it back then, now we could easily do it.

Well, I could. Sammy's dead so he can't. Unless there's peaches in heaven for Sammy to have. There probably are. If Sammy is happy in heaven, that means that there has to be peaches. They were his favorite too.

"The best," I wrote.

"So why did you move here?" The boy asked.

"It's complicated," I wrote.

"You wrote 'the foster lady' earlier, do you mean your foster mom?" He asked. I nodded. "Oh yeah, my name's Oliver," the boy said. "Most people call me Ollie though." I nodded.

"Ollie, I think you should go to the nurse and get your wrists checked out," the office lady said.

"Can Quinn come with me?" Ollie asked. "I can give her a tour of the school."

"I'll have to ask her mother first," the office lady said.

The foster lady walked out of the small room just as Ollie was leaving and he stopped immediately. "Speak of the devil," the office lady chuckled. "Mrs. Brooke, this young man was wanting to show your daughter around the campus. If it is okay with you, would it be alright if she went?"

"Oh yes," the foster lady smiled. "I know Ollie very well and I trust him with Quinn. By the way, how are you Ollie?"

"I'm fine Mrs. Brooke," Ollie smiled. "Thank you for asking. How has Mason been, I haven't seen him in forever."

"He's doing just fine," the foster lady smiled.

"Well go on ahead Ollie," the office lady shooed. "Be back by the time the bell rings though. It wouldn't be good for her to be attacked by the sudden crowds."

"Yes ma'am," Ollie said sweetly. "Come on Quinn, it'll be fun." I nodded and walked out with him.

"You know the foster lady?" I wrote.

"Yeah," Ollie said merrily. "Mason and I used to be good friends, we played basketball together a lot. When he went to middle school, we stopped hanging out." I nodded. "I never would have guessed that Mason would have a sister," Ollie said laughing. "With all those guys around, I figured girls weren't allowed to live there."

"There wasn't really a choice, the foster lady is my godmother," I wrote.

"Oh yeah?" Ollie said. "That's pretty neat. Oh, here's the nurse's office." Ollie pointed to a small room on the left. "When we come back we'll stop there so she can take a look at me. I don't really need her to, though. Anyways, this whole place is the middle school section. We're the middle part of the building and every special class is here. Along with the nurse's office, the normal office, and the cafeteria. You know what special classes are, right?"