Thursday morning greeted 7B with chaos — paper scraps on the floor, dusty windows, and the faint smell of forgotten lunches. On the board, Ms. Larsen had written: “Mission #19 – Prepare your space for Christmas.” She clapped her hands once and said with a grin, “No lessons today — we clean, decorate, and make this place shine.”
The room came alive instantly. Chairs scraped, brooms appeared, and laughter echoed off the walls. Emma and Ida teamed up to wash the windows, their breath fogging the cold glass. Jonas, predictably, was first to volunteer for vacuum duty — mostly for the fun of it — but ended up doing a surprisingly good job. Others sorted through old art supplies, stacked books, and wiped down desks that hadn’t been this clean since August.
After an hour, the room looked transformed. They hung up the handmade stars and drawings from earlier missions, strung fairy lights around the bulletin board, and placed a small wooden nativity set on Ms. Larsen’s desk. When everything was finished, the teacher dimmed the lights and lit a few battery candles.
“This,” she said quietly, looking around, “is what happens when everyone contributes — small efforts, big results.”
For a moment, nobody spoke. The classroom didn’t just look different; it felt different — warmer, calmer, almost like home. And as they stood together, admiring their work, Emma whispered, “It’s funny… we didn’t just clean a classroom, we cleaned the mood.”
Ms. Larsen smiled. “Exactly.”