Valerie was deep in her work, when her alarm rang. It was time for her most important job: picking up, Anya, from school.
This was their routine. Elena,dropped her off in the morning, and Valerie did the afternoon pickup. She quickly got ready and drove to the school.
She walked into the hallway just in time to see Anya in the middle of a crowd. The little girl had just performed a perfect 360-degree spin that sent a boy tumbling to the floor. Valerie felt a surge of pride in her and was about step in, another mother rushed in, shoving Valerie hard in her hurry.
The shove was so sudden that Valerie's fake eye popped out. It fell to the floor with a quiet *tink*. Not wanting to scare the children, she quickly searched for it, found it under a bench, and put it back in.
But when she turned around, she saw the angry woman raising her hand to hit Anya.
