The Color of Your Heart

Chapter 3: The Prince

It was a beautiful day.

On the first day of Normington Middle School, Ms. Burke prepared herself with a nutritional- balanced, fat-free, GMO-free organic breakfast, a big basket of homemade snack, and a loving enthusiastic heart dedicated to all her students-to-be.

She arrived early, talked to the principal of the school, and had some friendly small chat with her coworkers, while she helped out by directing those poor parents cars that were unfortunately caught up in the traffic mess.

At 8:30 sharp, she arrived at the entrance of the advisory classroom.

She opened the door, and let the 22 kids into the classroom.

Almost all of the advisory teachers will start their first day by giving a short speech to the kids.

Not Ms. Burke.

She took out her homemade snack: blueberry oat cookie, with reduced sugar and reduced fat; lemonade, with as little sugar as possible, and no artificial syrup.

"You would have 10 minutes of free time, and you can do whatever you like in these 10 minutes. Enjoy the snack." She look around the classroom and told the kids.

All of the kids were caught off guard at first, and did not know how to respond. It's not what they had expected from the beginning of their middle school.

But soon they began to relax.

Some started to talk to each other, continuing their conversation before entering the classroom. Some enjoyed their cookie and drink silently. And some began to goof around.

Ms. Burke dressed in a very unassuming way today. She sat in the corner of the classroom, with a minimum sense of existence.

She was observing.

She had a notepad and a pen in her hands, and was making quick notes with symbols and letters that only she could understand.

She majored psychology in the college, and had always dreamed to be a psychologist. She had a loving and gentle heart and would like to dedicate her life in healing others's pain.

Of course, later she realized that she could not afford the expensive tuition. And the years of internship after graduation would not help financially either.

So now she is a teacher. She loves her job, but is still preparing herself to become the best psychologist in the world one day.

After all, one can always dream.

The tallest and loudest blonde boy in a classroom stood right at the center of the room, and was surrounded by a bunch of other boys and girls. He stood with his head high like he owned this place. He looked around his audience, with a very presentable smile.

Ms. Burke marked a "P" on the first line of her notepad.

"P" stands for prince.

This type of kids came from money, and had always been the center of people's attention from birth. He had always been a prince and would act as the alpha of the yet to be formed clique.

There was a skinny brunette, standing right next to the prince.

She was paying every bit of her attention to the prince, and would stare at whoever the prince was talking to. She's trying her best to stand up straight. Maybe a desperate effort so that she would appear to be taller. She probably really wanted to be a good match of the prince. She wanted to be the princess.

But she's not.

Ms. Burke marked an "M" on the second line.

"M" stands for maid.

When Ms. Burke noticed the two girls in the corner of the classroom, she jotted down an "E" for the Asian girl.

This time she did not put the "E" on the third line. Instead, she flipped the page and wrote the "E" right next to a name on the class roster.

Anna Mui.

At this point, Ms. Burke had not have the chance to match every face with a name on the roster yet. But since there was only one Asian girl in the classroom, and the last name Mui is pretty evident. Making the linkage is as easy as one plus one.

"E" stands for extrovert.

It's only the morning of day one of the school, and this girl is already making new friends and is so talkative to the other girl. Of course she's a typical extrovert. They like social connection, enjoy communicating with people, and gain energy while doing so.

Ms. Burke also put a "$" sign next to the name "Anna Mui", as well as another name on the roster: Michelle Owen.

These are the only two students who's on financial aid in this class. Anna Mui for her outstanding academic performance, and Michelle Owen as a benefit for low income family.

For kids from ordinary family, it's not easy to survive in private school like Normington Middle School, where students are mostly coming from affluent families.

Research has shown that staying in an environment where the children hold a status that are inferior to their peers, financially, physically, or performance wise, could all be the source of depression, anxiety, and other type of mental health disorders.

Ms. Burke decided to pay extra attention for the psychological health for these two girls.

She looked around the classroom.

There were totally 12 girls. She had a pretty good guess on who Anna Mui was. Then…who's Michelle Owen?

Could it be the one that Anna Mui was talking to? The only two kids without rich family background just happened to find each other?

Ms. Burke observed the other girl. She could not quite know what to make of her. This girl seems to be too calm for a 11-year-old.

One of the mature ones?

But when Ms. Burke was talking right before the 10 minutes break, this girl was the only one who was not looking at her face.

Difficulty with eye contact?

But right now, she was looking right at the Asian girl's face, with a radiating smile, as if her friend just said something very precious.

No, wait…she is moving her eyes away from her friend's face now. She made another try to look into that face, but quickly gave up.

Now she seems turning to the other people in the room and looks into their faces.

Each time, she looked away almost immediately, as if their faces are so slippery that her gaze just could not stay, or as if she has some natural difficulty looking at people's face, or eyes.

Hmm…interesting.

Ms. Burke put a "?" for this girl.