Alexis alternated between her professional "all things can be solved" voice and her candid "break room" voice seamlessly, in a way that, if this was a stage show, people would call erudite.
"Yes, Mrs. Allen. We will be here until you get the boys. And, can we make this a teachable moment? Like about the snow? You know, that is a good idea. Ill see if maybe I can get someone out there with a weather map or something, yes. Ok, stay safe. Thanks, bye!" And when she hung up the phone, the pitch changed to coalescing groaning.
"So extra. Just come get your kids!"
She popped out of her office buttoning up the top clasp of her oversized turquoise puffy winter jacket. March Meadow's main office used to be the nurse's clinic back way before anyone there was even born. Alexis's own office was the cot room and she sometimes joked, when days were particularly bad or zany, that it was the ghost of a student who died there. "The consumption or scarlet fever took them! Its the ghost fucking up our copiers," she mentioned last time she invoked the latent spirit. There was then a large 10' x 10' open area that must have been a lobby back then as it is now. This was just a square space marked by a behemoth faux cherry wood desk belonging to Ms. Rain, the receptionist, and then metal wire chairs. There was a single door in the far corner that lead to a restroom, one of three non-student/adult only bathroom in March Meadow. The other being off the gym next to defunct shower rooms now used for storage and the other in the basement by the custodian's office. That one, John Johnson, insisted was his and his alone and even pulled the door of its hinges to affirm it was only him using this space. Alexis got him to compromise and install a black curtain on a rod for some sense of decency.
In the main office no one was sitting but instead standing. Ms. Rains had the phone hooked to her shoulder and the cook (Food Service Specialist as the budget said), Bruce Thomas, stood by the door to the hallway jotting down names of parents sneaking kids in the hallway
"Everyone had the same idea, Alexis," he said and the shrugged. "Just trying to help Ms. Izzy until my ride gets here."
Instead of parents barn storming the office they were in the hallway grabbing kids as they came down the steps or the turn to from the annex.
"Is anyone actually in car line or getting kids at the door?" she asked no one in particular while she walked out and down the hallway to the front vestibule. She caught side hugs from some of the kids and awkward glances from others and dodged mumblings of "you should have closed today" from errant parents.
***
The front door and car line was controlled chaos. Keeping to March Meadow protocols the right kids were going to right places but it was in an organic process held by Carlos and Zoey.
Zoey insisted on shoveling clean paths for the kids. "I sit most of the day. I appreciate the chance to do something with my arms," she said when Carlos said he was OK to keep doing it. So she scraped and pushed only for, by the next student, the path already dusted anew with fresh snow. The driveway was slowly turning into a clogged toboggan chute of fresh snow mixed with the brown caked street snow.
"I think I am going to need a push!" screamed a maroon Ford Taurus through a barely cracked slit in the driver side window. Carlos had already heard it and was leaning into the oblong trunk while the driver gunned the engine. The futile spinning eventually bit into a helpful piece of pavement and had enough momentum to inch out and become anything else but their problem.
At the far end of the line there were only two cars left. This should all be done soon. Zoey heard the kids in the vestibule chirp up and caught Alexis just as she stepped outside
"Be careful. I mean doing best I can but its non stop." Zoey pushed a bit of snow away and encourage Alexis to grab onto one of the still standing poles of the fence.
"Ok, this is actually insane. This has to be like six inches since this morning!"
A student came from the vestibule and whipped out a measuring tape. "I think its actually eight!" He waddled over to the exposed hedgerow and dipped the end of the tape into the untouched snow. The neon yellow band stopped at 7 and 1/4ths. "Ok, pretty close. See Ms. Collins and Ms. Koldrich?"
'Hey that is a great, Brody. Real meteorologist type estimating," said Zoey leaning into the handle of her shovel
"Brody, why do you have a tape measure randomly on you?" said Alexis adding tape measure to list of wacky things she had seen kids carry. The craziest being a the single blade of Crayola safety scissors banded to a chopstick
"I always have one. My dad and grandpa always carry one too." Brody tucked the tape back into the reel and his coat pocket. "My dad works in construction and grandpa was a carpenter. Like Jesus"
The snow kept coming , angry and hot white. Alexis imagined they would need something divine to get out of here. On her phone she had unread Slack messages from Mr. Joshua who had ignored "pedestrian door" and snuck out right at 305pm. "My wife's job downtown told everyone to go home and they only care about money. So I am leaving. Amanda will be fine by herself at the door"
Carlos came to get Brody affirming he was the last car. The second car was someone who guessed the buses wouldn't run and came to gather student. They spent five minutes screaming at Carlos about how she had taken off early from work and how "Y'all should have closed today!"
"Cmon, Brody. Last one lets go. I am going to have your mom drive back through the carline and come out the back entrance. She isn't leaving just getting ready." In the background the black SUV pivoted in a slow series of turns to zoom out through the back. That way, at least, there were some fashion of tire tracks to follow.
"Let me help you," said Zoey as she grabbed the shovel and walked with them. She held the shovel against her shoulder, its lime green blade bright against the winter, and followed in the foot paths cut by Carlos and only partially erased by the snow.
"You look really cool, Ms. Koldrich holding the shovel that way. Like out of an anime. You ever watch Hunter X Hunter or My Hero Academia or Attack on Titan?" Brody motioned with hands excitedly but also aimlessly.
"I liked Sailor Moon when I was young. That's about it," Zoey responded. When she first began teaching she tried to follow whatever was popular with the kids and it lead her to learn a lot about Minecraft only for it to be quickly rendered obsolete by the next update. Now, she just went with the flow
"I did too. She was pretty bad ass." said Carlos who brought his eyes up for a second to lock with Zoey's.
"That one is really old." said Brody "But, thats ok." He got into his car and the ended the car line dismissal for the day.
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