Going to get the twins was always something else. Beau knew it was a good day if the girls came out together at least. But no, Raven was bouncing out with her bright blond curls, waving some art as a flag, spinning around in the air as they went across the car rider line. Ok, great. She was regulating herself during one of the most dangerous parts of the day which meant something happened. Which meant tight braided Alexandra…
Yep. As expected his little Alex had wedged herself between the two big pillars. Beau quickly put on the emergency flashers and breaks as he saw two of the teachers struggling to get her to leave the tight space.
“Raven, back seat buckle up and get on the swim cap.”
“OK. Daddy guess what! There’s a fundraiser and the whole school screamed!”
“Really?” He looked at the worn out Mrs White. “I didn’t get that e-mail.”
“Mister Watt if we could talk later because Alex has been having a lot of tantrums today.”
He kept walking “You mean meltdowns… My wife will call you all later.” Beau hated putting it on his wife, but August was like a warrior goddess when talking to these people where he just felt like he was stumbling over everything.
“Oh no need we could talk now…”
“The girls have swim so not really.” He got over to Alexandra. He knelt down and looked at her hands hiding inside the hoodie she liked wearing so much. Cloud lining and golden lettering creating her name on the blue background.
“Hey… you in the sky now?”
She nodded a bit, Covering her ears over the hood.
“Well we are going to swim now. All the water on you? Then you can pretend you’re flying and feel better.”
She hesitated and took his hand, her mouth opening trying to find her words again. “...loud. Alarms.”
“Not just the fundraiser rally?”
As she squeezed back out she shook her head. Beau quickly picked her up, her tiny frame just a ragdoll against him. “For crying…” He looked at Mrs. White as he carried her back, people honking for him to hurry up and move in the line. “My wife and you are talking, I’m texting her.”
“OOOOOooooo! You’re in trouble!” Raven half leaned out the window. “Cause we got an IEP and Mama said it's legal!”
As he got near the car, Alexandra was half crawling over her sister and into the car window, even as he tried to open it. Raven giggled and pulled her in, letting her sister crawl across to get buckled up, handing over the ear plugs. “Quiet time for you, sissy.”
Alexandra had them in just as someone started cursing Beau out. It’s not like he wanted to be there that long either. The girls were supposed to be warned if a rally or drill was happening. They were supposed to be allowed to skip the rally if they didn’t think they could handle the noise and lights. It used to be August would deal with all of this, but since he had the time he took it over. If afternoons like this didn’t prove she needed some romance to make up for well… everything ever he made her do then Beau didn’t know what did.
It wasn’t long before they were moving and the girls were getting sorted in the back. Raven repeating every conversation word for word, the myna bird she was, that she felt was important. As she went on he got the gist of the day for the girls. Kids teasing, again. The teachers were playing videos. A test. The fire alarm went off and then no one was able to turn it off for 20 minutes. A sub. And then the rally. It was no wonder the kids were dysregulated.
“That sounds like quite the day. But you know what’s next?”
“Swim time! I’m gonna go so fast daddy.”
“I bet!”
Alexandra quietly spoke up. “You’ll video?”
Her starting to speak so quickly was a good sign he figured. “Yep. Just like anytime she can’t make it. She’ll probably brag to everyone again.”
Alexandra smiled a tiny bit at that as she started to get settled in her seat a bit more, trying to curl into a ball inside the hoodie. Well… they weren’t that far from the pool. Beau decided to pretend not to notice this time.
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