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ISLA
Iwas expecting nightmares and no sleep, but it will never get old waking up and just feeling safe and at peace. Getting to know my kids are safe and it’s perfectly okay that they are being loud and playing. Stretching and slowly waking up is such a change and brings me so much peace. It’s the little things in life, I guess. After finding some clothes and brushing my teeth, I go find the kiddos. Vivi is in her room playing with her Barbie house, which she could basically live in because it’s huge. The boys are playing a game on some handheld game crap Maw-Maw surprised them with. She’s going to have them so spoiled it’s unreal. They also appear to have gotten food from somewhere.
“Arden, where did you get food?” I say, grabbing a granola bar and some sweet tea.
“Maw-Maw brought it. She said to let you sleep in for a little while,” he tells me happily.
“Okay then baby, I'm going to take y’all to Maw-Maw. Where is she in this place? Um, actually let me just call her. I don’t have time to get lost,” I say as I pull out my cell phone.
“Why are you calling me from the same house, Isla Claire?” she answers with a humph.
“Because woman, how else am I going to find you in this monstrosity?” I sass back, rolling my eyes.
“I can hear you rolling your eyes, child! Keep that up and I will poke them out! You’re not too old to be grounded, you know” she retorts.
“Yes ma’am, sorry.. so where are you?” I mumble.
“I’m in the conservatory; just follow the arrows,” she cackles at me.
“Come on babies, let’s go find Maw-Maw so momma can go get you boys registered for school! It starts in TWO weeks! Lachlan, you get to be in big boy school this year, are you excited?” I ask, bending to kiss his sweet little face.
“I do? Really? Can I ride the bus like bubba did? Will I make friends?” he squeals.
Laughing at his enthusiasm,“Yes baby, you’ll make so many friends, but I’m not sure about the bus yet, though. Everyone is going to love you both!”
“You’re gonna make so many friends bubba! Plus, I’ll be there too, and I’m your bestest friend!!” Arden tells him.
After what feels like a two mile walk, we finally find my grandmother. “Hey my babies! Come give Maw-Maw some love!” She opens her arms as my kids let go of me to hug her. I actually take a second to look around, and holy shit, this is insane. There is an actual freaking waterfall that drops into a small koi pond, and I can’t help but marvel at all the plants. It’s like a jungle. Almost every inch of the room, which is roughly the size of two double wide trailers, is covered in all kinds of plants. I see ferns, roses, lilies, sunflowers, and even a few small trees. Three walls and the ceiling are made of just glass.
“Wow, this place is beautiful! Um, one question though. How deep is that waterfall?” I ask, walking to it.
“It’s about two feet,” she replies, “But I put in sensors that will set off an alarm if something bigger than the koi jumps in, similar to the ones in the pool and hot tub. However, the pool house has motion detecting cameras, and the doors to both rooms have fingerprint locks. The glass wall opens up, but you can only do it from the locked panel on the wall of the pool house. That reminds me, I need to add you to the system and you need to have the security app put on your phone.” Handing me a stack of paper, she continues. “Here is all the stuff you need to register the boys to prove residency, income, their birth certificates, socials, and everything. I put it all together once you shipped all your important paperwork when you decided to move.”
Smiling at her gratefully I say, “Wow you really did think of everything. I’ll never be able to repay you for all you’ve done for me and the kids. I love you,” I sniff, wiping tears away.
“You don’t have to ever repay me, it’s what parents do sweetheart. Now get on, I wrote the address on the folder,” she replies as she pushes me out the door.
The school is only about twenty minutes away, so it’s not a bad commute. It looks nice, pretty big for an elementary school, but nicely kept white brick with blue shutters. It's a single story building, but looks like it takes up the whole block. The sign says it’s called Pine View Elementary and Middle School. Hmmm that’s cool it goes through 8th grade. Gathering my nerves because I hate going places alone and talking to people– social anxiety for the win– I take one last deep breath, grab the folders, and get out of my beat up 2012 Chevy Cruze, which sticks out like a sore thumb in this nice area. Oh well, it’s not like I’ll be a PTA mom anyway.
My first thought walking in is, Wow. It’s super modern, clean and white. So much white. Jesus, how do they keep this place clean? The floors are white tiles, and the walls? White. The counters? You guessed it. WHITE.
“Can I help you?” comes from behind me, causing me to jump.
“Holy sh.. crap. Sorry, I didn’t see you there, but um yes ma’am I’m here to register my two sons,” I tell the woman who is looking at me like I pissed in her cheerios. I take a second to check my outfit.. I don’t get what the look is for; I’m in black leggings, my black converse and a Falling in Reverse tee.. well, it might be the royal purple hair, lip and nose ring, and full sleeves of tattoos.
“Sure,” she says condescendingly. “What grades? You have to live in the school zone and we’ll need proof of address, income, birth certificates, vaccination records, your ID, and if there is a dad we’ll need his ID as well. They can not be registered without all that,” she snarks.
Oh, this bitch is gonna have me getting rude. Okay then. “Yup, here is all of the paperwork, here is my ID, and I can go dig their dad's body up and get his wallet but I fear that may be illegal,” I deadpan, smirking as her face turns white.
“Oh my, I’m sorry for your loss,” she gasps, taking the paperwork from my outstretched hand.
“Oh, and they will be in kindergarten and pre-k,” I add with a sickly sweet voice.
“Mhm… and are you renting or buying?” she asks with a raised eyebrow.
“Neither, we live with my grandmother. She filled out all the paperwork and included everything since we just got into town Saturday.” I’m really about to lose my manners with this judgmental old bat and she can’t even see all the tattoos I have.
“This has your address as the old Gauthreaux Manor?” she says with a shocked voice.
