Chapter 2

Meme pulled into the staff parking lot after dropping off Lily at daycare. She looked in the rearview mirror to do one last look at herself before going into the school.

“You got this,” I told myself. “This is not anything you have not done before, just a new school and dealing with middle school children, not elementary school kids anymore. This is what you wanted. This is going to be a good school year.”

I got out of the car and started walking to the entrance of the middle school. In front of the school above the entrance in big bold letters was Maple-Pine Middle School. Classes had already started, so the hallways were cleared of kids. I saw a sign hanging on the right side of the hallway saying OFFICE with an arrow pointing to where the door was. Walked through the heavy metal door. The office was full of school spirit. They had a statue of a knight on the left side of the door. Chairs to the right. Right above the counter going from one wall to the other a banner was hanging saying: HOME OF THE KNIGHTS. A short stubby lady walks around one of the many desks that was behind the counter.

“Hi, you must be Meme,” the stubby lady said with a smile.

“Yes, I am Meme the new school therapist,” I said.

“I am Mrs. Jacobs, come around to this side of the counter and I will show you to your office,” she said. “I will show you around as soon as the assembly is over.”

“Oh, there is an assembly going on?” I asked.

“Yes, to go over a couple of things and to introduce you,” she stated.

We walked towards the back of the office and opened the door. Three doors down the hallway were my office. The closer we got the more nervous I was getting. Finally, we reached my office door. The door had a colorful tapestry on it and a sign that said: TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND LET IT GO. Before walking in the door, Mrs. Jacobs turned to me and apologized for how the office would look.

“Look Meme I want to apologize for how your office may look. We have had so much going on lately and have not gotten a chance to get it cleaned up.” she stated.

“It is ok Mrs. Jacob,” I said.

She opens the door to the office. As soon as she opened the door the smell of rotten old food filled the room. I looked around the office. To the left, there was a small bookshelf with one book on the second shelf that had a half-bitten chicken leg sitting on top of it. A bunch of dead plants, and a picture frame with no photo in it on the top shelf. On the walls above the bookshelf there was the typical hang-in-there with the kitten, think POSITIVE, and other inspirational posters.

Then, I looked at the middle of the room, there was a small desk filled with paper thrown all over it with an early 2000s desktop computer, a coffee cup that said: World's #1 Therapist with various kinds of pens in it, a half-eaten sandwich, and a colorful banner in a front of the desk that said SMILE. Behind the desk was a rainbow tapestry with big yellow letters that said: PEACE. There was a trash can by the desk that was overfilled with paper and food.

Finally, I looked to the right of the room, there was a big window and a bright yellow lounge chair with red and orange throw pillows, a dark green throw blanket, and what looked like something blue was split on the chair and someone made it into a smiley face. A poster that said BE KIND on the wall in front of the chair. The office was colorful, to say the least, and it smelled.

When I looked back at Mrs. Jacobs, I must have had an I’M DISGUSED AND WISH I NEVER TOOK THIS JOB look on my face because she quickly started apologizing again. She even offered to move her into a smaller office until they could get it cleaned properly. I declined because I can get it cleaned how I want it to be cleaned and I do not want to move my stuff from one office to another.

She took me all around the school and showed me where everything was. We went into the teacher’s lounge and met a couple of the teachers. Then the assembly bell rang, and we walked towards the theater. When we reached the theater, I noticed there were chairs lined up across the stage. One by one the chairs started feeling up on stage with teachers. Mrs. Jacob led me to the stage and pointed to the chair in the middle of all the teachers. “That is your seat,” she said. I nodded and went to my seat.

Mrs. Jacob stood in front of the mic on the stage. “Good morning students,” she said. “Today is an exciting day. We have a couple of awards to give out, but first I would like you all to give a warm Knights welcome to Dr. Mrs. Meme Bell our new school therapist.” She introduced Meme. I stood up and walked towards the microphone.

“Good morning students and facility my name as she said is Dr. Mrs. Meme Bell, but everyone is welcome to call me Dr. Meme or Mrs. Bell whichever you are more comfortable with,” I stated with a smile on my face. “I want to let you know that my door is always open to each one of you. It is a safe space. It is good to be here with you and cannot wait to meet you all individually,” I left off with a friendly smile and a wavy, then walked back to my seat.

The assembly finished after the students who were receiving an award got them. I got up from the seat and started walking off stage. As I reached the bottom of the stairs some of the teachers were lined up to welcome me to the school. I told each one hi and shook hands with them. The last teacher was a short slim English teacher named Jessica who smelled of Bath and Body Works Warm Vanilla Bean body mist. She was a bubbly native lady with long black hair that she had in a ponytail. “Welcome to the Knight family,” she said as she handed me a white Orchard. “Thank you and the flower is beautiful thank you,” I said getting the flower. We stood there talking for a little bit. Since it was lunch time, she walked with me back to my office.

“Oh, they gave you this office,” Jessica said once we reached my office. “Did they at least clean it for you?” she asked. I shook my head no and opened the door. “Wow I did not think it was going to be this dirty, but the lady that had this office before was not very keen on being clean. She had been an older lady here since the 70s and had just decided to retire and travel. But she has been retired now for four months, they should have had this office cleaned out,” she stated. “I am not worried about it; would it have been nice to start my new job in a clean office? Yes, but the principal told me there have been a lot of things going on, so I understand,” I said. “I have 35 minutes left of my lunch do you want help cleaning, “Jessica asked. “No, it is ok. Just show me where I can get the cleaning supplies and trash bags,” I said. Just as I finished my sentence, we heard a knock on the door.

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“I was told to come and start cleaning the office,” said the janitor. He was an older man in his late 40s or early 50s wearing a dirty janitor button-up shirt and black pants. His left black shoe had a small hole on the top and they were dirty. He had sad blue eyes with salt and pepper hair. On his right hand he had a watch and above his watch was a tattoo. Army or military, I thought to myself.

“That’s okay I can clean it myself you can just leave all the stuff that I need to clean with and some gloves if you have any,” I said with a smile.

“Are you sure Ma’am,” he asked. Puzzled because the office was grossly dirty, and she was dressed nicely. “You sure you don’t just want me to clean up this mess?”

“I am sorry what is your name,” I asked.

“My name is Joe.” he stated.

“Hi, Joe my name is Meme you don’t have to call me Ma’am,” I said.

“Nice to meet you Meme,” he said and stuck his hand out. “Are you sure you do not want me to just clean it? It will not be a big deal,” he stated.

I shook his hand. “No, I got it, Joe,” I said. “Plus, you have a whole school to make sure it is clean. I only have this office, so I got it but thank you,” I replied.

“That is true, but what about your clothes they will get messed up,” Joe replied.

“Oh, I am not worried about my clothes I have my gym bag in my car with some clean clothes and shoes. I am going to change and tackle this office.” I replied.

“Okay, I will leave all these cleaning supplies, trash bags, and gloves right here on the chair. But Meme, if you need help getting stuff out of here, please call me over the radio to help you. "Oh, and once you are done with all the trash call me and I will get the bags and throw them in the trash can,” Joe stated. I shook my head and thanked him. He left the office.

I looked over at Jessica who was already putting on gloves. “Go ahead and get changed I will start throwing stuff away,” Jessica said. “Okay thank you,” I said as I started walking towards the door. “I will be right back,” I told her.

I got to my car and opened the trunk. Grabbed the old Nike gym bag and closed the trunk. Luckily, I had put some clean gym clothes in my bag because I was going to go to the gym after school. Not going to the gym today I had changed my mind the minute I first looked at the office. I got to the facility bathroom, went into one of the stalls, and opened the gym bag. In there was a baby pink spaghetti strap shirt, black leggings, pink long tube socks, and black Nike’s with a baby pink Nike symbol. There was also a small jewelry box in there where she would put whatever jewelry she was wearing except for her wedding ring in there. A towel that had her initials embroidered on it. I left the box and towel in the bag. I grabbed the clothes, and shoes and started changing. Put the clothes I was wearing and my high heels in the bag and closed the bag up. I left the bathroom and headed back to my office. The hall was filled with students heading back toward their classes. As I was walking back, I was stopped by a couple of students who wanted to say high and welcome me to the school. I smiled and thanked them. I knew I made the right decision to work here. I reached my office and saw that Jessica had already made a difference on the left side of the room. The small bookshelf was clear of old dead plants, picture-less picture frames, the book, and the half-bitten chicken leg. She had cleaned it and put the Orchard on there. She looked back.

“You now look ready to clean the office,” she said with a smile.

“Luckily I packed my gym bag last night because I was going to go to the gym after work,” I replied.

Jessica started taking off her gloves and walked towards me. “I did as much as I could, but I must go back to my class and teach. If you are not done by the end of the school, then I will come back and help you some more,” she said.

“Thank you, Jessica, so much for helping,” I replied.

“Don’t worry about it,” she replied. “See you later.”

“See you later,” I said as she was walking out the door.

Meme grabbed some gloves, trash bags, and cleaning supplies and started cleaning my new office. She started where Jessica left off. Then she looked up at the wall above the bookshelf and started taking the posters off the wallexcept for the kitten one. Even though the kitten one was a typical poster to have she still liked it. Once she was done taking the posters off the wall, she moved on to the rest of the office. Picking things up, throwing them away, taking everything off the walls, desk, chairs, and floor. It was almost 2:30 pm when Joe walked into her office.

“Wow, what a complete difference,” he said. “It does not even look like what it did before you cleaned it. He looked over by the window at the five big trash bags. “Can I take them? "He asked.

I chuckled and replied,” I know it doesn’t look like a rainbow threw up in here or that a tornado hit it. Yes, you can take them, Joe, thank you. Oh, I do not want that yellow chair or the computer can you take it out of here please.”

He laughed and replied. “Aww, you did not like the rainbow throw-up? And yes, I will take them both out of here.” We both laughed and I told him thank you.

The school bell rang, and the hallways got loud with students chatter and laughs. Then, I heard a knock on the door, it was Jessica. Jessica came in and put on some gloves.

“Okay where do you need me,” she asked.

“I am almost done with the center of the room. Can you start on the right side of the room?” I asked. “Joe is taking the bags of trash out and the chair.”

“Oh, you don’t want the happy chair,” she said with a laugh.

I shook my head no and said,” No I am ok, and I don’t want this computer.” Pointing at the computer. We both were laughing when Joe walked in.

“I think I am going to take the happy chair and put it in my office,” Joe said.

“Be my guest Joe. I was going to have you throw it away, but go ahead and take it,” I replied. Joe grabbed the chair and took it to his janitorial office. He came back and removed the computer. Before he left the room he asked if there was anything else I needed help with.

“Oh, Joe there are some boxes in my car can you help me bring them in please,” I asked.

“Yeah of course,” Joe answered.

Both Joe and I went to the car to get the boxes out of the trunk while Jessica stayed behind sweeping the floor. Before leaving the building, we stopped at his office, got the dolly, and then headed to the car. In the trunk were four medium-sized boxes. Joe grabbed each box and stacked them on top of each other on the dolly. I closed the trunk and headed back inside. When we got back to the office, Jessica had just finished sweeping. The office looked so different, no more rainbow throw-up, she thought to herself. The office still had a smell to it, but not as bad as when she first walked into the room. Joe moved the boxes one by one off the dolly and put two of them on the bookshelf and the other two on the desk.

“Not putting them on the floor so the night janitor can clean the floor,” he said. “It will help with the smell in here,” he added.

“Thank you, guys, so much for helping,” I replied. “And great because I was trying to figure out how I was going to get that smell out of here.”

“Girl do not worry about,” said Jessica.

“Yeah, do not worry about it Meme. It should have been done before you started,” Joe replied.

“Well, thank you anyway,” I said as I looked down at my watch. “Damn it is already 4:30 pm, school has been out for two hours already. I will decorate it tomorrow. Let us go home and be with our families.”

“Oh, I did not even notice it was that late,” Jessica said. She gave Meme a hug and walked towards the door. “See you tomorrow. What time are you coming tomorrow,” she asked.

“I will be here at six in the morning unless I have to take my daughter to day care then I will be here at seven-thirty,” I replied. “I want to try and get the office done before the kids come.”

“Ok when I come in, I will pop in and see if you are here,” she said.

“Sounds good,” I replied. She left the office and Joe said his goodbyes, then left right behind Jessica. I walked to the door and took one last look around the office. Yup, this was going to be a good rest of the school year. Turned off the lights and left.