Like Little Ants

When the bell rings they rush through the corridor pushing each other. Just few of them, and usually girls, among those who are older, keep themselves proper, walking slowly by the side of the wall. If given a chance, with a grain of irritation, breaking out of "politeness" and "example" they push aside two or three of these noisy little ones, usually boys, who want to roll out of the building as soon as possible.

And then, in small batches of three to five, and even seven, they walk down the streets chattering about the day. On their backs, it seems forever stuck, they carry enormous bags, stuffed with books or grain...or... bricks? Some of their bodies are a little bit more then a meter from the ground and they are weighted down with the "source of knowledge" - notebooks and textbooks. Few of them I saw had to push forward, as though they pull the whole truck of sand behind. But nobody promised educating process to be easy, and so here they toil.

I noticed how two of them broke from the rest and walked towards the fence, and there, on the other side, a girl waved at them, inviting them inside.
Since he is a boy, and boys always have to be the first, he took his chance to get through the fence first - only to get stuck, his little body could easily slip through the aperture, but his bag could not make it through. His sister or maybe his friend on this side tried pushing him, while another girl pulled his hands. I watched them and could not resist but intervene, so I lifted his bag and pushed him in. Immediately his friend followed him and I performed the same for the girl as her bag was even bigger!

"Thank you, aunty!" - in three they shouted beaming and giggling.
I just smiled and happily went home hoping that it was a safe place for the kids to be and assuming that they had slightly different plans for the afternoon. After all, children deserve some change in their daily school-home routine, and I hope they were back home by the time mom returned from work.