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She walked to the desk, picked up the red book and opened it to find a list of twelve names. Well, that was a start.

“Alright then,” she said with far more confidence than she felt. “Clara Buxton?”

“Here,” said a girl with fair pigtails.

“Carter Edwards?”

“Miss?” said a voice.

Ava looked up. “Please just answer with ‘here’ or ‘present,’” she said.

“Yes, but miss?”

She took a breath, control. That was key. Control was the key in any classroom, no matter how old the students. “We’re doing the register right now,” she said, proud of herself for remembering the right word. “We’ll have questions after. Carter Edwards?”

“Here,” said a voice. “But miss?”

“I said we’re taking attendance,” Ava snapped.

“We know,” said the little girl in the front row with dark curly hair. “But we’re all here and the problem is Daniel.”

Ava frowned. “Who’s Daniel?” She looked down her list and found his name.

“Me,” said a boy at the back with a hang-dog look on his face.

“Well, he’s here, so I don’t see the problem,” said Ava.

“There is a problem,” said the curly-haired girl looking quite serious. “Because Daniel’s done a wee.”

“Daniel’s what?” squawked Ava, looking around in alarm.

She tilted her head and sure enough, a puddle was growing around the small boy’s small chair. She swallowed, thoroughly out of her element and unsure of what to do.

“You need to send him to the office,” said the curly-haired girl.

Ava nodded. “Right. Um, Daniel, off to the office please.” The boy stood up and squelched toward the door and even Ava felt a pang of pity. “Do you, uh, need some help?”

Daniel shook his head.

“It happens all the time, miss,” said Miss Curly-Hair. “He knows what to do, don’t you Daniel?”

Daniel nodded grimly and opened the door.

Ava turned back to the register and marked him as present. She had no idea what had gone wrong here, and she was going to sort it out at the earliest opportunity, but just at the moment she had a classroom to run, and her professional pride was enough to overcome her discomfort around small children.

She’d take attendance, check the lesson plan on her desk, and keep them occupied until recess. After that, well, she and Jake Lowell needed to have a serious discussion.

Chapter Seven

Hope’s day hadn’t exactly started off well.

She and Alice had both woken up late and it had been a rush to get into school. Then, just when she was sitting down to get on top of the normal start of term paperwork, Amy Littleton, the lower infants teacher who had been Alice’s class teacher the year before, stopped by the office.

“Slight emergency,” she’d said.

Hope, who’d always had a bit of a soft spot for Amy, smiled sympathetically. “What can I do to help?”

“Um, actually you’re under orders from Jake to come handle the parents for upper infants and get the kids settled.”