Chapter 3 (part One) |The Grey Orphanage| There was a sharp knock on the door. I sat up straight, blinking in the bright light. "Jean!" I heard. It was miss Jenkins! "I'm up!" I called, throwing my covers to the side. My bare toes hit the cold tile and I hastened to dress and wash my face. I braided my hair and slipped on my shoes. I took a deep breath before opening the door. It was the first morning of my stay at the orphanage and I had woken up late. This was not a good start. Miss Jenkins was waiting in front of the door when I opened it. She raised an eyebrow and stared at me disapprovingly through her grey eyes. "Are you aware what time it is miss Olson?" "I suppose it is breakfast time." said Jean. "It is past that time. I expect expect everyone to get up when the bell is wrung." She motioned to a bell hanging on the wall in the middle of the hall. "I'm sorry, Miss Jenkins, I didn't hear it." "You will learn how to be a light sleeper." she said, "Now, I will let you off easy this one time. The children are in the school room. You may help them with their school work when they want help." Miss Jenkins walked off. No, this was certainly not a good start to a first day impression. She resolved to make up for her mistake by doing everything else right. She easily found the school room, remembering from the tour the previous night that it was beside the dining room. She was surprised, upon opening the door, at the scene before her. She had expected it to be silent and dull like it was last night. She heard shuffling of paper, low voices, giggles, chalk scratching against slates. It all looked very animated. As she opened the door further, there was a sudden hush, and everyone looked at the door. I will never be late again. thought she, entering. She hated to be stared at. She knew she was not pretty, and especially must look a sight this morning. Then the children slowly turned back to their work. As she walked past some of the tables, she heard unintelligible whispering, except for "miss Olson". Jean was quite at loss on what to do, and found it awkward to walk around the room observing the class. The three other women in there were sitting next to a few younger ones, their head bent over a text book or slate. Then one of the ladies stood up and tapped on the desk in front of the room, "Class, put your spelling away, we will start on math." Jean heard some groans from the back of the room. The lady who had stood up cleared her throat and frowned at them, but Jean thought she didn't seem very displeased. Certainly not as displeased as Miss Jenkins was to her this morning. Jean found an opportunity to help a little boy with his work, and she stayed beside him till lunch time. ~