Page 41 of Shelter for Morgan

Tanner looked over at Maribel, probably to see if she was looking at him before he spoke. "Everyone has to be in their seats before the bell."

Morgan heard something near the back of the room and before she fully understood what it was, she heard the kids counting.

"Six... Five... Four... Three... Two-"

Tomas put his seat down and flopped into it just before the class called out, "Zero!"

The school bell rang and everyone let out a collective breath and then erupted into laughter.

Morgan touched her pointer finger to her lips and held up her hand high above her head.

One student copied her and then another and another.

Soon, the whole class was doing it except Benji with his arm in a sling.

When Morgan looked at him, he looked away, but she didn't want to call attention to him, so she moved on.

She lowered her hands and nodded. "Thank you."

Moving around to the whiteboard, she took out her black pen and wrote two large headings side by side.

RULES

LAWS

"Okay," she turned back to the class, "give me an example of a rule here at school."

Almost every hand shot up into the air.

"Except..." She swept the room with her gaze, "for the rule about being in your seats at the start of class."

More than half of the hands dropped.

She almost hid her smile. "Okay. Umm... Trina?"

Trina sat up in her chair and lifted her chin before speaking, sending her braids back over her shoulders. "No running in the hallways and around corners."

"Great." Morgan turned back to the board and wrote it out.

NO RUNNING IN HALLS/AROUND CORNERS

"Uh, Miss?"

She turned around, choosing to smile before turning around. "Tomas?"

He lowered his hand. "Aren't we going to go over the reading?"

Morgan nodded. "Later. I'm changing things up."

The class looked around at each other and Morgan saw mostly interested faces around the room.

"And now I need a law." She held up her hand for attention. "Nothing too... dangerous. And you know what I mean."

Benji's hand was up first.

"Benji."

He started to lean forward on his desk, but with the sling on his arm, he couldn't do that. He leaned back and answered her question.

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