There are two classrooms and two teachers for each grade, along with speciality teachers for gym and art and stuff.

There were only three main hallways in the school and walked down the second one. Posters and projects adored the walls and I calmed myself down by looking at them. I saw a bunch of Halloween jack-o-lanterns drawings on the wall and even homemade candy baskets hanging from the ceiling. One was a skeleton, another was a ghost, one was a pumpkin.

“Hey guys!” I said when I walked into the room, “Ready to do some homework?”

The five little third graders that I was tutoring looked up and I was relieved that I recognized a face. Sophie was there in all of her out of uniform girl scout cuteness. Along with four other third graders, and luckily they were sitting at their desks with their name tags prominent on them.

One little olive skinned red-head was named Lilian. One brown pigtailed girl was Alexia, another brown haired ponytailed girl was Phoebe. And the one with short blond hair and pale as paper skin was Daniel. And none of them looked excited to be there. At first I thought it was because I looked weird with my black lipstick but then I realized that they were a bunch of little kids that were being held after school for having bad grades. I would be embarrassed too.

Their teacher wasn’t there but I was told that I had free reign around the room. With their help I moved their five desks into a circle with a sixth desk just for me. It was a bit hard because of the rainbow carpet on the floor and the leaves hanging artfully from strings from the ceiling tiles. But we managed to form a pretty nice circle. My knees knocked the underside of the little desk but I managed to smile.

I started helping Sophie first, you know because girl scouts got to help each other or whatever Ms. Aveline always says. Thanks to me explaining to her how to decimal last wednesday the math wasn’t too bad, but the science was tricky. They were learning about watersheds and she still didn’t know the names of the major rivers here. It took me about fifteen minutes to explain it to her. But after a mnemonic device she seemed to get it pretty well. And in my professional tutor opinion I don’t think Sophie is dumb. She just takes a bit longer to understand some things, and I think tutoring will really help with that.

While we were working I had the other little kids work on their homework and any worksheets they were confused about on their own. My plan was to rotate which kid I was working with while the other kids worked by themselves and by the time I got everyone all the homework would be completed and I could go home. But a wrench got thrown in my plans very quickly.

“Instead of homework can you help me with my lipstick?” Daniel asked me.

Sophie, the little piece of poop that she is, immediately started teasing him, “You’re stupid Daniel, boys can’t wear lipstick! Lipstick is for girls!”

It’s amazing how fast ideas of right and wrong get into kids. Like Sophie’s eight and she already knows enough to stop Daniel from trying on lipstick because it was “for girls”. But since I was there I wasn’t going to stand for that.

“That’s not true, Daniel don’t worry I can help you with your lipstick.” So instead of helping Daniel with his homework I helped him put on makeup. It was a strange tutoring session for sure.

The tube he had in his pocket looked old, almost expired but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. It was from M.A.C. and looked pretty expansive so I had to assume that he swiped it from his mom. And once I started helping him he was actually pretty good at putting it on. Unlike my first time putting on lipgloss none when on this chin, his teeth, or his fingers. In hindsight I think he just wanted someone to validate him wanting to wear lipstick more than he wanted someone to actually help him out with the application.

Once we were done his lips were a cool shade of pink, and he was smiling from ear to ear. The only issue I could find was his mom being mad at me for helping him. I just hope the kid has enough sense not to give me up if he’s asked.

His turn with me was done but we hadn’t even done any homework yet so while I actually tutored him I helped Phoebe too. And then Alexia said she was feeling left out and I started to help her too. Then Lilian just scooted closer to us with no explanation, then Sophie, very angrily got in the new group too. And pretty soon it was just like a regular class, albeit with a much smaller student population.

We were all helping each other out and by that I mean Sophie accasinaly chimed in this information while I was explaining all the concepts to everybody. And not only did they learn but I also got a crash course of sorts. But not anything academic, no diary, I learned something much more interesting. Elementary school gossip!

“You look stupid Daniel,” Sophie told Dan while I was trying to explain multiplication to Phoebe.

“Now Sophie, that isn’t very nice…” I started to say, but Daniel cut me off.

He smiled wide, showing off his new pink lips, “It’s okay Naomi, she isn’t invited to my birthday party anyway.”

That really shut up Sophie and she stopped talking for all of seven minutes. During the relatively quiet time3 I managed to explain everything to Phoebe and even Alexia paid attention and learned a thing or two. But Sophie just had to chime in again.

“Alexia you have to have your anniversary party on Friday!” she said.

I could assume that Friday was the day of Daniel’s birthday party, but what Alexia’s anniversary was I couldn’t guess. Alexia seemed confused on why Sophie would ask her, but Sophie helpfully explained what she was talking about to her friend.

“I get invited to every party, I have to get invited to every party!” she said calmly, “If you have a party at the same time as Daniel’s then I can say I was somewhere else instead I didn’t get invited.”

It was all I could do to not laugh at that moment while I was helping Phoebe with English. Like the kids really thought that all mattered. Like when they’re my age they’re going to be consequences for not attending every party in third grade. But I guess it’s the same with everything I think is important. In twenty years am I really going to remember any of this? Well if I forget it’s your job to remind me, diary.

Alexia and Sophie kept talking parties and I kept talking and tutoring the other kids. Everyone was actually learning really well and I think I actually made a bit of a difference today. But when there was a bit of a lull, meaning that everyone was working on their own, I turned my attention back to Sophie and Alexia. And boy did they sure grab onto it and don’t let go.

“You know I can’t have a party,” Alexia said, “George’s taking me on a date. He said he’s saved up to buy me a cookie at Starbucks.”

That one really stabbed at my heart but I tried to keep my composure by asking a question, “How long have you two been dating, Alexia?”

She looked so proud, like they were engaged or something as she said, “Two weeks and our anniversary is Friday!”

Elementary school relationships are so weird. Everyone has a girlfriend or boyfriend and it’s considered weird not to. But I guess highschool’s not that different. My friends are pretty chill but I think Harper will judge me if I sit with Mom at the dinner on Friday.

We wrapped up the tutoring session at 6:00 and once I arranged the desks back to where they were before and made sure everyone had their proper papers we all filed out the front. Since they were little kids all of their parents were already there and I took the opportunity to schmooze a little bit. Isn’t that what Derrick calls it when you build connections? Schmoozing? I don’t know. I talked to the parents and gave them my number and they said they would call me if their kid needed anymore help, hopefully I would be paid in the future though.

Once I was done talking to the parents and watching their cars pull out of the bus loop I turned around to get my bike. Only to smile when I realized that there was someone to pick me up too.

“Charlie!”I said to my best friend, “I didn’t even realize you were there.”

She waved me off, “It’s fine the kids are most important anyway.”

We started walking home together and it really reminded me of old times. Even though we don’t live in the same neighborhood anymore Charlie and I used to live ,like, down the street next to each other when we were in elementary school. When Mom or Derrick was late Charlie’s dad would drop me off at my house instead. I would play on her nintendo ds while we rode and it would always be a fun time.

But this afternoon ,even though it was the first time Charlie and I had gone home together in months, didn’t feel like old times. She was smiling and I was walking my bike and we were right next to each other but I couldn’t help but feel like we were far apart.

“So how long have you been in that group?” I tried to ask her casually.

She thought about it for a second, “About two years…” Then as almost an afterthought, “Darn has it really been only that long, I can’t almost remember a time when I wasn’t in the group.”

That long, she’s been in a secret group and hadn’t told me for two years. And in all honesty she actually didn’t tell me, I discovered it on my own. With the help of that card of course. We’ve known each other since I moved here six years ago, but are we really friend’s diary? No matter what happened at school I’ve always counted on Charlie to be there and by my friend. But I guess those years don’t really count any more, but the next years can count.

Alright diary, commitment time! I’ve been thinking about this since I got back home and said bye to Charlie. I will join the group and I’ll even worship Satan or get blood poured on me for Charlie. I want to be her friend, for real this time, and I want her to not have to hide anything from me anymore. I would swear to God, but I don’t really think that’s appropriate in this context. I’ll start my commitment to the group tomorrow, see you then diary.

Naomi J. Morgan