The first day of school was last Tuesday, September 4th. My day went so smoothly. The kids in my class seem to be fairly calm and settle down to work. The only real unusual kid is the one who sucks his thumb while he plays with the hair on his head-and remember that I teach 6th grade...
Anyway, this is the first year that Emily and Stella are not going to the same school. Stella is in fourth grade at the elementary school, and Emily is in sixth grade at the middle school. I knew this would be hard on them, as they are great buddies and rely on each other quite alot. I actually figured it would be hardest on Emily, since Stella has always seemed to be my "roll with the punches, happy-go-lucky" girl.
This year, Emily has to leave for the bus before Stella, which means that we had to get Stella a house key, since she'd be the one having to lock up in the morning. During the summer I had bought her a "key strap" to wear around her neck from the Seattle Aquarium, and also got her a key made that had rainbows on it. She loved them, and was excited to be responsible for a key.
Only thing, I never thought about having to try the key out to make sure it worked, or to practice in advance to make sure that Stella could, in fact, lock the door on her own.
Tuesday morning was busy with all four of us having our first day of school. But we all got up and got ready, and I took pictures of each girl on the front porch-a posed "first day" picture since I can no longer take one of them as they actually leave the house and get on the bus. I made sure both girls had backpacks and lunch ready to go and had their keys. Then I kissed them and wished them well, and I headed off to my school.
When I got to my school, I put my purse in my metal file cabinet, and began my day. As I said, it went surprisingly smooth. It was a good day. After my day was over and I had returned to my classroom, I realized that Emily would be home from school, and I was dying to know how her first day of middle school went. I got my purse out of the file cabinet. I got my cell phone, opened it, and then realized that since it was in the metal cabinet I hadn't had any reception all day long. I had forgotten my morning ritual of taking out the cell phone and putting it on my desk before putting my purse in the file cabinet, just in case the girls needed to get ahold of me.
As the phone picked up service again, I saw that someone had tried to call me from home that morning. Thinking Emily must have missed her bus, since it was a new time and stop for her, and wondering how she got to school, I listened to the voicemail. And my heart almost stopped.
The message began, and it was Stella. And it was the most desperate crying and wailing I've ever heard from her. I couldn't make out what she was saying except for the desperate pleas of "Mommy, where are you? Mommy, I need you! Mommy, pick up the phone!"
My heart was beating so fast and my knees were weak. I had to sit down. I quickly called Eric to see if she had called him that morning, but I only got his voicemail (It makes you wonder why we have cell phones when it failed twice that day...). I left a message for him to call me ASAP, that Stella had left this awful message and I had no idea what had happened that morning.
I then called our neighbor. The original plan for Stella that morning was that she would leave the house after eating her breakfast and would walk down the street to her friend's house. Her friend's mom had taken the day off to make sure the first day of catching the bus went smoothly. So I knew the mom would be home. I called her, and had to leave a message. I was scared, and my message, I'm sure, was also sounding quite desperate.
Mid-message, though, the mom picked up. "What happened to Stella?" I screamed...
She laughed, and explained what happened. Apparently, Stella had a hard time even getting the key into the lock. Once she figured that out, the key wouldn't turn in the lock, and she couldn't then get it out of the lock. She then panicked. That's when she ran and called me on the cell phone and left that desperate message. Finally, she had the sense to go down to the neighbor's house as planned, and get help (the mom is actually a 911 operator, and good with emergencies!). They both walked back to the house, and practiced with the key. By then, though, Stella had had quite an emotional morning, and asked the mom to drive them to school, which she did.
Later that night I let Eric listen to the message. For some reason, he put it on speaker phone, and Stella began to cry all over again (thanks, Eric....). He quickly shut it off. He said the message was disturbing. Stella has not had a wonderful week of school; she is still getting frustrated easily over things, and wishes that Emily was still there. I never expected this, and it's going to take some time for her to adjust to it all, I guess.
Luckily, Emily has been having a positive middle school beginning. Good. I couldn't take it if they both were having trouble adjusting this year.
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