He opened the door and walked into the room. His eyes scanned the room, panning from one side to the other. He dropped down to his knees and searched under the tables and between the chairs. Finally returning to his feet, he stood still for several moments to listen for a slight noise that might make him aware of someone's presence in the room. After he was certain that the room was completely empty, he walked towards the corridor, closing the door as he left the room.

He moved swiftly, but slowly down the corridor, entering each empty room and repeating the process of checking the room and making sure it was completely empty. Some of the rooms he passed still had classes running. There was still ten minutes until the end of the day. They continued normally, not aware of what had just happened. He continued on, moving down the corridor and upon entering one of the rooms he heard what seemed to be faint sobs.

He was unable to determine where they were coming from by just standing quietly listening to them, so he started walking around the room. He listened hard, checking under the tables and in the cupboards to see if he could find the source of the soft noise. After he had searched most of the room, he soon realized that the sobs were not coming from this room. He left the room and saw that the staircase was just a few metres away and he realized that the sobs must be coming from there.

As he got closer to the stairs, the sobs got gradually louder, so that they were just above a loud whisper. He turned into the staircase and saw her sitting there, a few steps down. Her head was buried in her lap and she had her hands wrapped around her legs. He moved to her and put his arm around her, trying to comfort her. He had always been there for her when she was down or something was wrong. He had become one of her best friends. They sat there for several minutes without saying a thing, he just left his arm around her, rubbing her side softly.

"Take your time, we don't have to go back until you are ready," he said, in the most calm and comforting voice he could do.

She didn't say anything, although her sobs did slow down and become softer. They just sat there again, not saying anything. He was waiting for her to say something, like, "I'm okay. We can go back now," but nothing came. After several minutes, she still hadn't said anything and he was starting to get a bit anxious to get back to class.

Finally she spoke, and it wasn't really what he expected her to say, "Let’s go back to class."

He was a little surprised that she had said that. He didn't question what she had said. He just agreed and gave her a tight hug. He was expected her to say that she never wanted to go back in there. Maybe she was maturing? Although, running out of a room for something as little as that was probably not one of the best ways to have handled it.

They got up together and started walking back to class. They were only a few metres away when she stopped, only for a moment and then continued on to the door.

The class was talking quietly in a large group that had formed in the middle of the room. Some of them looked up and saw them coming by. They turned back and said something, which made more people look up. They tried to be discreet, but she could tell they were making fun of her.

She sat back down in her chair by herself, away from the rest of the class, as he went over and joined the group. It wasn't long before someone called out to her and asked her to join the group. She went over and joined them. Chatting away after a while, she realized that all had been forgotten and everything was back to normal.

Big Book '99