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To Our Guardian Angel

A parting gift

By E.B.GPublished 3 years ago 10 min read
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To Our Guardian Angel
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

A raindrop landed on my cheek and tricked down my face. It quickly prompted me to speed walk to the side double doors of our elementary school. I did NOT want to get any of my bags wet, especially not today. As soon as I was in the building, I walked down to my classroom with the brightest smile on my face. I couldn't help myself, today was a very special day.

Ms. Rodriguez, my assistant teacher, was already there practically bouncing up and down on her seat waiting for me.

"Good Morning Ms. Lopez!", she greeted, quickly helping me with all my bags that were about to fall off my arms.

"Good Morning Ms. Rodriguez!", I exclaimed. We both couldn't help it, we were oozing with happiness!

"Let's keep all of the party stuff and snacks in the back cabinets until it's time. We will need to keep everything a surprise until I break the big news to Mr. Hernandez at 12:00."

Ms. Rodriguez and I quickly put our stuff away and soon walked together to pick up our students from the bus lane. As my students got off the bus, I noticed each and every one of them looked so ecstatic, I almost got jealous! They had never been this happy to see me before, but I guess winning a national contest for your school will do that to you. Even more, winning a national contest worth $20,000 for your school library, and getting to surprise your school principal with the news! The small ping of jealousy wilted away as I looked at all my students lined up, ready to go inside. I loved my job! Being a teacher is the most rewarding job, but being a special education teacher, is something completely different. You get to teach the most exceptional students and see them accomplish extraordinary feats. A thunderous sound and a downpour of rain snapped me from my thoughts. We all rushed inside and walked to our classroom to begin our day.

As the day went on, I could feel the anticipation coming from all the students. Who could blame them? My own leg was shaking impatiently for 12:00 PM to arrive. The plan was simple. We had asked the principal's receptionist for 30 minutes of his time to come read a book to our class. Instead, when the principal arrived, he would be surprised with the news, and our students would proudly get to share with him how they won the contest. At 11:30, I decided to take my restroom break before all of the excitement, and I walked into the teacher's lounge and straight to one of the bathroom in the back. As I finished washing my hands, I suddenly heard another thunderous noise, but the this time, all the lights went with it. I stood completely frozen in the restroom and covered in darkness. I hated the dark!

" Just great!", one voice said from the teacher's lounge.

" Don't worry the backup storm lights will come on soon.", I heard another voice say, which I recognized as the principal's.

I wasn't alone, but I was in the bathroom in complete darkness and somewhere nearby was our district's golden boy. I closed my eyes to calm myself from feeling scared. The golden boy and his companion continued their conversation and I decided to listen in to deter myself from thinking about the darkness. As I listened, I thought about the golden boy, Mr. Robert Hernandez. He was intimidating not just for his intellect and demeanor, ability to help a school be successful. He was also loved by staff across the district that they even named him the "future of our school system". He was young, determined, and hard-working. Everyone in our school dubbed him "Principal Superman". I called him golden boy in my head, because it seemed he was so perfect, he radiated a golden aura. It was an honor to have him recognize you and today my students would have that honor.

" Make sure you put the listing on our portal ASAP. We need to start interviewing for that position as soon as possible. Hopefully we can finds some substitutes in the meantime." said the principal.

His voice sounded strained somehow, so I listened even more intently. Judging by what he was saying, he must be talking about Ms. Johnson, the special education teacher who had just quit.

" We will make sure the listing is up before the end of the day", said the principal's companion.

"Good, we need a new candidate who will fit into our school's new framework and look. We want Starling Elementary to be perceived as the perfect school. We don't have any room for showing our...um...flaws." The principal went quiet and then started up again," I am all for equality and I want the best for all students, but having special education students as newscasters for our morning announcements is not feasible right now. We need our star students on announcements. Ms. Johnson couldn't understand this, so it's really best that she decided to leave".

I stood completely frozen in the bathroom. My ears began to ring inside my head. Did I just hear him say that?! Mr. Hernandez, the "future of our school" said something like that about my students?! My sadness suddenly turned into bubbling anger. How dare he label my students as "flaws"?! My students were exceptional and hard-working, worthy of all opportunities to showcase their hard work.

The lights came back on and I decided to wait and listen to make sure the principal left. I looked at my watch and it was 11:50. " I have just enough time", I thought. I quickly jogged to my classroom, surprising the students and Ms. Rodriguez when they saw me arrive.

"Are you okay, Ms. Lopez?" asked Ms. Rodriguez.

"I will be, please tell the students that the party is cancelled for today. The principal has to deal with some things, due to the lights going off. I will be right back." I quickly went to my desk to gather the letter from the contest and the small black notebook I would need. I left my classroom more determined than ever and I barged straight into the principal's office.

" Good Morning Mr. Hernandez, I would apologize for barging into your office like this, but right now, I am too pissed off at you, that I don't care."

He looked at me with bewilderment and then suddenly straightened up and started to stand. "Excuse me?", he asked confused.

I shivered a little. He stood tall at 6'3", which was much more intimidating than my small 5'4" frame. He was muscular too, so he looked almost ready for battle. I felt the small weight of the black notebook I brought with me in my hands, and decided to be brave. The notebook was the reminder of what I was fighting for. I looked at the principal and realized that he no longer held that golden aura that I believed he had. It was completely gone. I decided to begin.

" My students are not flaws! Contrary to what you believe, my students are not just numbers on your roster that you can hide away in a classroom when you are trying to portray a certain " look or framework" of Starling Elementary! My students deserve to be on the morning announcements. They work hard and are exceptional at everything they do, which you would know, if you had bothered to get to know them more!"

Mr. Hernandez stood tall and silent as he looked at me. I decided to take advantage of his silence and continue. I was probably going to lose my job anyway, so I may as well say everything I need to. I put the letter I had from the contest on his desk.

" We were going to surprise you today with this news. My students won a national contest for our school library. They won $20,000. Do you want to know how they won it?"

He looked at me closely, as if debating whether or not he should respond to me.

"That's okay, I'll tell you anyways. They won the national contest by writing poems and letters about their hero. I'll let you guess who they all chose to write about?! They wrote about you! And we were going to surprise you today, but...." I trailed off as tears threatened my eyes. I would not cry in front of this man. I thought of my students and straightened myself out. I clutched the black notebook in my hands and decided to continue.

" I heard you in the teacher's lounge when the lights went off. I was in the restroom and I just want to say that I am deeply disappointed in you. You are no superman. You are most definitely NOT the future of our school district."

" Ms. Lopez, I think..." he started, but I cut him off.

" You want to know who the future of this school district is? It's my students. They are the true future and I will continue to advocate for them no matter who tries to bring them down." I grabbed the black notebook tightly in my hands, as if willing it to give me strength. Finally I decided to place it on top of his desk. He looked down at the black notebook confused.

" That is what my students did to win the contest. Inside, they wrote about all the things you meant to them. Inside was their hard work that earned them the top prize in a NATIONAL competition. So you see Mr. Hernandez, they are not flaws. They are exceptional. They are worthy of this recognition and much more. And if Ms. Johnson left because she knew of your bias towards our students, well I stand by her. However, I refuse to leave without fighting. You may very well fire me, but my students are worth fighting for. I would love to stay, but I have students to get back to and an explanation to figure out for them, as I'm sure you do too." With those final words, I walked out of his office and back to my classroom.

When I walked into the classroom, I was shocked with the view that stood before me. All the party decorations and snacks were out, and all my students were there waiting with Ms. Rodriguez.

"What is going on?", I asked Ms. Rodriguez

" I know you said the principal wasn't going to be able to make it, but I didn't want the snacks and party decorations to go to waste. Besides, the students had a surprise for you they really wanted to share today!", she said.

I looked at my students and I could see that they were still beaming with excitement. The same excitement in their eyes from this morning. One of my students came forward and handed me a black notebook, the same as the one I had just left in the principal's office. I couldn't help but smile at the feeling of having the black notebook back in my hands.

"Open it!", they exclaimed.

I opened the smooth, black notebook and on the first page it read, " To our guardian angel, Ms. Lopez! This notebook is for you." Below those sentences was a hand drawn picture of me, which a golden aura colored around me.

Tears filled my eyes and trickled down my cheeks.

"Thank you!", I said and smiled. We laughed and ate our snacks and as I read the poems and letters written by my students to me, I couldn't help but feel joyful. I know I had done the right thing, no matter what consequences awaited me later. If today were truly my last day, this little black notebook was the best parting gift I could have ever asked for. I would enjoy this moment with my students to the fullest.

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E.B.G

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