#brightwindsbarony

The purple part of the glamour rainbow tastes best, of course

Miss Nance waves to all the kids, some of them she calls by name and she always tries to learn them, as they get off the bus "You kids don't lose track of your winter clothes now, we got a chill make a bear refuse to come out of his cave"

Giggles. "Bears get snow days..."

"Charleen, good luck with your book report. Irene, you have fun with that science project..." then she laughs "I know, they know where to get fish cheap and berries on the sly. If I had free groceries, I'd take a snow day too" A wink "Mike, don't you let Mrs Whompler tear you down, you are plenty smart."

"See you later, Miss Nance!" Irene chimes as she heads into school!

Mike grumps "I hate Mrs whompler.. why can't Miss Nance teach Math?"

Charleen says "If Miss Nance taught math then Mrs. Whompler would drive the bus and I don't want to see her TWICE a day"

"oh yeah" Mike can see that point

All around her, Irene sees the hustle and bustle of the kids. Many aren't wearing masks which is worrisome for the mortal ones. But at least no one is teasing her for hers. She sees Ashlee waving. Ashlee LIKES wearing a mask, but for other reasons. It covers part of her face. Ashlee got dropped off in a nice private car . Her clothes are new! Nice

"Ashleeeeeeeeeeeee!"

She joins her friend, ready to face class together. She's glad THEY don't have The Whomp.

Ashlee blushes and does show off her new shoes "Miss Harkson found out my old ones were tearing and didn't fit well anymore and.. she got me these. They light up"

"Nice!"

"Yeah.." A beaming smile and she walks with her. ALSO glad they don't have 'The Whomp'. WHo is like almost everyone's least favorite teacher. A lot of kids dont' like math, but even kids who do don't want the Whomp . Nope, they're in luck. They have Mr. Kindly, who actually lives up to his name.

"Welcome back, kids. We're going to learn about English so one day when you write letters of complaint to the school for freezing us, it will be very polished and proper" A wink

Ashlee admits "His mustaches make him look like a WALRUS"

"But I like him" A whisper

"Me too. Did you read the book yet?"

"Yep." A beat "didn't you?"

"Um..."

Ashlee looks at her, "Fine. I'll do the talking for the report. But only because I got my mask on."

"Okay, who wants to go first for the book reports?" Mr. Kindly asks "I see. What if I told who he or she who goes first, gets an extra 2 on it's final score for bravery?"

Nudge-nudge for Ashlee.

Ashlee coughs "We'll go."

"Two points to your favorite Hogwartz House"

She says "I picked the book so.. I'll do most of the reporting but.. " the troll says "Irene was a BIG Help. Huge. " FIRM nod nod , then she starts to speak "My report is on a book called 'The War that Saved My life' by Kimberly Brubaker Bradely... it's about a girl in World War two.. and she has a club foot... and.. well..her mom is mean"

To be fair, it was picked from a list, but when Ashlee heard what it was about, she insisted, and Irene got dragged along

Irene read some of it!

She does chime in from time to time.

Steve threatens to tune out as there are ZERO ninjas in this but he tries.

"There's roaches under the sink."

"ewww" One girl says

Ashlee nods "And she's forced to stay there when she's bad... "

Ashlee seemed to need Irene's help there to continue, for her this means something and Irene may not like the book , but she looks out for her big friend.

One time a girl called Ashlee ugly to the big girl's face...

and Irene got revenge for her by switching the gir's shampoo with orange dye (she wasn't GOOD enough for purple)

"But she's not really bad, but her Mam is bad."

"Which sounds like an important lesson" Their teacher nods

"It's a hard book to read."

"Yes, some times poeple who are mean and bad tell YOU what's wrong with you as if your'e the bad one , and .. " A jaw set "it's not so. " Ashlee says "And a club foot doesn't make you dumb"

And she goes on "It IS hard, but in the end.. " she says "It turns out for the best. Ada learns to read, and write, and ride horses! And she learns she's worth something." A look at Mr. Kindly "I don't know if we got an A, but the book deserves one. " She actually hugs it

Pat-pat on Ashlee's arm. reassuring her friend.

Ashlee 's cheeks go up, showing her smie

"That was a very good report, Ashlee. Irene, I would love to see you get to speak on the next one if you do another" And the teacher motions them to sit down

The rest of the school day is actually pretty good. She gets to meet some other kids.. she avoids the douchenozzles kids, and The Whomp.

Whomp whomp

Then, as they go out side to get on the bus, they see it...

the winter storm that exists only for them, a Chimeric blizzard of ice and death in the distance

Mortal nightmares hear 'it's snowing in Texas, power is out' and they have fueld the situation...

even in an area that doesn't have the problem yet