<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #FFFF00">Marianne Warrender</span> smiled when Danielle thanked her. “No need to thank me at all, dear”, she replied with the usual kindness. “I will be back soon”, the woman completed, before waving a quick goodbye and crossing the small space between the two houses. She really hoped not to get caught up in the middle of a shower, the woman thought while she entered the kitchen and started working.<br/><br/>Despite the idea of rain not attracting her much, helping out a neighbor did. And after all, rain would be a minor inconvenience.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">**************************************</div><br/><span style="color: #FFFF00">Mrs. Warrender</span> was already in her car and preparing to leave when Ethan told her to be careful. “Don’t worry, dear, I will! Give you a ring once I get home!”, she promised, knowing that Ethan was a kindly soul who worried about everyone’s safety.<br/><br/>After her promise, the woman finally took off with her car. As promised - and as it was her habit anyway -, she was very careful on the way home, driving a little more slowly than usual so she could make sure nothing bad would happen. <br/><br/>It didn’t take long for Mrs. Warrender to get home, since she didn’t live too far away from Ethan’s shop. Parking her car in the family’s garage, the woman entered the kitchen to find her daughter busy with chicken broth. Moving to help, as usual, she started talking while working. “Is anyone sick?”, she inquired.<br/><br/>Marianne nodded. “Yes, Jared, next door”, she explained. “I offered to make him some chicken broth and he accepted”. Mrs Warrender nodded. “Good, I will go check on him when it’s done”, she added, since she felt somewhat responsible for the small family next door.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">**************************************</div><br/><span style="color: #FFFF00">Elena</span> showed a somewhat shy smile to Ethan. She was never sure about whether or not she could call the parents of her students by their first names, and thus she always reverted to calling them Mr. or Mrs. Something. With Ethan, though, she had a more personal relationship, due to the nature of her own relationship with his children.<br/><br/>She could remember when she had met the kids. None of the other teachers wanted anything to do with them, and even the student counselor had given up on the kids. Elena had encountered two children that were scared and sad, and that initially resisted her attempts on being friendly. It had taken a while for her to break the ice, but Elena felt that the kids were much better now, despite others still not understanding them.<br/><br/>Despite having an intensely personal relationship with the family, though, Elena rarely talked about her own personal life. She felt that it wasn’t her position to speak about herself. Now, though, she wasn’t working and wasn’t in the mood to be professional.<br/><br/>“Ethan, I’m sorry”, she replied kindly. “I would accept a cup of coffee if it’s not too much trouble”, the young woman completed. Ethan’s question about how she was made Elena nibble on her lower lip. “I am fine, thank you”, she finally went. “I took the day off because…”. Her voice trailed off for a moment, but she forced herself to go on. “...I have been to church, I… always do it in the anniversary of my husband’s passing”, she explained very quietly, her voice barely audible.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">**************************************</div><br/><span style="color: #FFFF00">Miss Jones</span> sighed when Sarah spoke to her that way. Those kids were a pair of little demons, she thought to herself. Only Elena, with her infinite patience, could handle them. She probably had water in her veins, not blood. Those brats were disrespectful and rude, and she had no idea why they were even still in the school. “You may carry on reading the textbook, or some other book you have with you, as long as you are not disruptive”, the woman replied, clearly displeased. <br/><br/>“As for the rest of you, please start reading your textbooks. I will stop at each desk collecting the composition Mrs. Parkinson has left for you during the last class, so please have it out and on your desks so this can be done more quickly. I will just collect them, Mrs. Parkinson will correct them tomorrow”, she announced, waiting for compositions to start being placed on desks so she could start picking them up.</div>