HANSON

Dirty pink locker etched with the word "HANSON"

Malika traced her fingers across the scratchy letters on the locker. She didn't know what HANSON meant, but the fact that someone took the time to mark this locker made it special. She would choose this one.

She timidly lifted the rusty metal handle and release the latch on the door. It creaked open and she peered inside. The interior was as dingy as the outside, but it intrigued Malika nonetheless. She moved closer to the locker and pressed her face close as she started to shut the door. The interior grew darker and more mysterious as less light showed through. A small rush of pleasure filled her. This could be a secret hiding place.

She opened the door again and placed a rock inside the locker, then let it shut, just a bit. She stared at the pink door, enraptured with the idea that something was now hidden inside. She opened the door again. There was the rock. She shut the door with a bang and looked around her. She found the splintered end of a worn pencil on the ground and eagerly placed it inside her treasure cave, too. She shut the locker with satisfaction and walked back outside. She had a secret. The other children could not begin to guess that she'd hidden away a rock and a pencil inside the specially-marked locker.

The children continued to play on a picnic table as Malika watched. She started to join them, then looked back toward the pink locker. It seemed to glow with her secret. Two boys started to walk near the locker. Malika couldn't bear it. She ran back over and opened the scratched-up HANSON door. It creaked loudly. The boys turned their heads. Malika, heart-racing now, gathered up the rock and the pencil and shut the locker door again. She'd put them back in there tomorrow.