Disclaimer: I own nothing. Unfortunately.
The remainder of the semester was a blur. Between juggling Rachel's holiday festivities at school and preparing for the upcoming final exam season, Lisa barely had time to think about France or plan for their departure. She was completely overwhelmed with trying to be a great class mom and being an above average professor. There were organic, gluten-free, homemade cupcakes and sweets that needed to be baked and the mountain of essays she had yet grade were increasing by the day.
It was 10:39 P.M. on a Thursday night and she was attempting to knead this grass-fed, non-GMO, less MSG concoction into a proper sugar cookie dough for the third time that night. She has made sugar cookies a billion times and yet, the texture was unlike anything she'd ever experienced. It was excessively sticky at some points, the sugar and flour wouldn't bind properly during the mixing process, and it was the grainiest cookie dough ever created. It smelled odd too. After ten minutes of kneading, Lisa slammed her hands on the counter.
"Screw it. Who eats organic cookies anyways? Heathens. That's who."
Her forearms burned slightly from all the kneading and her back hurt from standing during all three failed cookie dough attempts. With a defeated sigh, she tossed the dough into the trash, loaded the dishwasher, and let the spatulas soak in the sink overnight. She dragged her feet up the stairs and peered into Rachel's room. Smiling to herself, she walked to her bedroom, not bothering with the lights, and leapt face first into bed. With thoughts of angry sugar cookies chasing her into Rachel's classroom, Lisa fell asleep.
Her 5:45 A.M. alarm screamed into the silent, early morning. Slamming her hand down to snooze the possessed device, Lisa pulled her pillow over her face and groaned. Finding the energy to swing her legs out of bed, Lisa aggressively unplugged the alarm clock and grabbed her laptop. Heading to the bathroom, she began to look for a nut-free, organic bakery while her shower warmed up. Surprisingly, there were quite a few locations in her neighborhood as well as near Rachel's school. Clicking on the location nearest her townhouse, Lisa immediately saw a whole page dedicated to "nut-free, organic, secular cookies" that were "perfect for any party" and "baked fresh daily". She really couldn't believe that it was that easy.
"What a market."
Browsing through all of the options, she chose the thirty-count cookie platter. She snorted at the cliché variety of police cars, fire trucks, and princess crowns that comprised the $75.00 deal. It was worth it. With a click of her mouse, her order was available for pickup by 7:45 A.M. She even requested that a ribbon be added to the packaging for an extra $2.00.
"I should've done this for International Day and Non-Thanksgiving Day. Damn. Next time."
The whirlwind of Lisa's morning took a toll on her. Rachel's enthusiasm for school was almost non-existent as the start of the winter break commenced tomorrow, so her usually easy-going daughter was more difficult to herd to school. After she picked up the cookies and arrived at Rachel's school, Lisa walked hand-in-hand with her daughter to drop off the cookies to her classroom. Politely nodding to a few of the faculty members and familiar parents, they finally reached their destination. As they opened the door, Lisa immediately rolled her eyes. The queen bee of all the class moms, of course, was collecting the baked goods for their kids' class party. Great.
Channeling her inner politician, Lisa greeted the overachieving stay-at-home-mom.
"Rebecca, how are you?" It took every ounce of patience and willpower to not add a snide bitch at the end.
With a saccharine smile, Rebecca responded.
"Lisa, I'm doing well. I'm surprised to see you this morning. Are you off from work?"
"No, Rebecca. I'm just here to walk Rachel in and drop these off," gesturing to the cookies.
"It's a shame you can't stay. I'm sure Rachel would love to have you here."
Taking a deep breath in, Lisa glanced down at Rachel who was oblivious to the whole situation. Must be nice, kid, she thought to herself. Walking over to place the cookies on the dessert table, Lisa then helped Rachel get settled in at her desk. Kneeling, to be eye level with her daughter, Lisa gave her the gentlest smile and cupped her face. The guilt was consuming.
"Rache, you know that if mommy could be here, I would, right? I'm trying my be–"
Adoringly putting her smaller hands over her mother's, Rachel eskimo kissed Lisa.
"Mommy, go be a teacher doctor. We leave for Toulouse in three days and I don't even like sugar cookies anymore."
Teary-eyed, amazed, and her heart bursting with affection for her daughter, Lisa kissed Rachel on the forehead.
"I'll see you after school, baby. We'll get pizza for dinner and we'll watch the turtle documentary, okay?"
"Mommy, there are tortoises too. And extra cheese please?"
Lisa chuckled. This kid was the light of her life and she could not imagine her life without her.
"Always. Mommy has to go now. Bye, baby. I love you."
Waving to her mother, Rachel blew Lisa a kiss.
"Bye, Mommy!"
Pushing the classroom door to exit, Lisa turned around and her eyes met with the petty perfectionist.
"Have a great day, Becky."
Grinning to herself, she heard the huff of annoyance as she walked back to her car.
The moment she stepped onto campus grounds, Lisa was in overdrive. She had four, thirty-page papers left to grade before final grades needed to be entered into the system by the 3:00 P.M. deadline the following day. Beelining to her office, she shut the door and hoped that a student wouldn't show up unannounced. Diligently, she started grading the first paper of her day. While she liked going through the papers twice–once to check off most of the rubric requirements and the second time for the legitimacy of the subject material–she wished that it wasn't so tedious. But she was a stickler for accuracy.
It took her an hour and a half to grade the first paper. One down, three to go.
Her eyes burned and she wished that she wore her glasses instead of her contacts. Slipping her stocking clad feet into the moccasins she kept under her desk, she leaned back and stretched out her back, wincing as she heard a crack. Looking up at the standard institutional clock, she sighed. It was almost lunch time, but she couldn't will herself out of the office.
"Just one more paper, then I'll go eat."
Those were her famous last words. The next paper she read was atrocious. Subject matter aside, the grammar, punctuation, and formatting were essentially non-existent or aesthetically offensive and to make matters worse, it was about fifteen extra pages longer than all of the rest of the assignments submitted. Almost three hours later, her head was about to implode. With the flourish of her wrist, Lisa scribbled a disappointing, glaringly red 'C' minus on top of her student's paper. Laying her head on her cold metal desk, she closed her eyes and sighed.
"C's get degrees, right?" She laughed and thought about the joke she heard consistently throughout her time in med school.
"What do you call students who graduated with C's in med school?"
Doctors.
Before she could laugh at her own joke, her iPhone started chiming. It was her "Go Pickup Rachel Alarm". Filing all of the papers she graded into the ladybug decorated Pendaflex folders and putting the last two ungraded papers on top, Lisa started to pack up. To prepare her office for the winter break, she closed the blinds to her office, made sure the space heater was unplugged, and watered her cactus (silently hoping it wouldn't be dead when she got back). With a final glance at her office, she shut the lights off and locked up. Winter break had arrived. Almost.
With time to spare, Lisa parked in the visitor's lot of Rachel's school, hoping to surprise her daughter by waiting outside the front steps where pickup took place. Rubbing her hands together, she looked around the school campus and remembered the struggle to find Rachel a quality school on such short notice when they first moved to Baltimore. She made phone call after phone call to no avail. With August quickly approaching at the time, Lisa was desperate. She looked at the website of the school Rachel was currently enrolled in and saw a familiar name. She sighed, thinking back to the previous time she was in this exact situation and the same exact person who helped her was about to hopefully save the day again.
Sanford Wells was on the board of admissions.
Since she resigned, they forged a respectful and useful acquaintanceship. He called her occasionally when he needed advice in regard to handling the newer hospital board members and how to handle certain departments, especially in regards to budget requests. Not once had she asked him for anything, but was always there to lend him a helping hand. Not once, until she needed him to help Rachel get into the top private school in Baltimore. Without hesitation, he made one phone call and in three business days, Rachel received her acceptance packet and a list of necessary items in the mail.
Lost in thought, Lisa nearly stumbled over after a fifty-four-pound skipping force barreled straight into her legs.
"Mommy, you're here! Why are you outside? When did you get here? How long have you been here? Are we getting pizza? Can I have ice cream? Can I bring my pink suitca-"?
"RACHEL! Baby, slow down," Lisa chuckled at her daughter's enthusiasm. Giving her a big momma bear hug, they walked hand-in-hand to the car. After warming up the car and allowing Rachel to settle down, she pulled out of the parking lot.
"Here's the plan, Batman. We're going home and mommy is going to grade ONE paper. While I'm working, you should start taking out the clothes that you want to take to France," Lisa stated.
"Ice cream? Ice cream and pizza night? You made me eat kale yesterday," Rachel exclaims, while she simultaneously ignored the packing duty her mother bestowed upon her and grimaced as she remembered the bitter, gross vegetable her adoring mother made her for dinner.
Rolling her eyes, Lisa remembered the coercing she had to do to convince Rachel to eat the leafy green.
"We can make sundaes at home after you do some packing and you have to eat at least two slices of pizza, deal?"
Unable to control her excitement, Rachel started bouncing up and down in the front seat. If Lisa didn't know any better, it looked as if Rachel was having a seizure. Making it home safely, they went inside and went their separate ways to do their respective chores.
It took Lisa four and a half hours and TWO completely graded papers later to realize that it was way past dinner time and Rachel was eerily quiet. Running upstairs to check on Rachel she hysterically started to laugh at the scene in front of her. What was once a very organized and clean bedroom was now a chaotic mess of clothes and shoes strewn all over the place. There was even a t-shirt that swung in circles from being flung onto the ceiling fan. Scanning the room for Rachel, she smiles as she found her using an orange colored pencil to fill in one of The Aristocats cats.
"My love, what in the world happened to your room?!"
"I packed my suitcase, just like you said to do," pointing to the pink luggage that sat upright near her closet.
Bent over with laughter, Lisa could not control herself, "Okay, no one said to reenact a department store bombing here, Rache! Let's get this cleaned up and we'll order pizza. Why didn't you come get me when it was dinner time?"
Still coloring her little heart away, she gave her mother a 'duh' response, "Because you were working…?"
Snorting at her kid, who despite not being hers biologically is hers through and through, in every way possible.
"Okay, smarty pants. Chop, chop, start cleaning. I'll order pizza and come back upstairs to help."
Eventually, the pizza was delivered and quickly demolished as Lisa and Rachel were hungrier than expected. Sundaes were made, eaten, and cleaned up in no time. As they changed for the final time that night, they reconvened in the living room to watch the Turtles and Tortoises documentary. Getting comfortable on the couch, Rachel sidled up next to Lisa and rested her head on her mother's chest. Seeing the tortoises appear on the screen, Rachel clenched Lisa's thigh in enjoyment and excitement. Sliding her head down to rest on the pillow on her mother's lap, Rachel looked up and smiled a megawatt smile.
"Mommy, can I have a tort-," she got cut off immediately.
"Absolutely not. They're huge and we don't have the room or the heat and my god Rache, it's a turtle!"
"Mommy, it's a tortoise! An African Spurred Tortoise, actually. They're cute. And by the time it gets super big, we can get a bigger house!"
Not able to say no to her daughter completely, Lisa ran her fingers through Rachel's hair and continued.
"Maybe in the future, okay? We just don't have the room for a huge turtle. They're supposed to live in the wild, anyways."
Not completely satisfied, but not willing to push, Rachel gave an exasperated, "Tortoise, and fine, I'll ask you again next year."
Halfway through the documentary, Rachel had fallen asleep. Scooping her up, Lisa carried her upstairs to her bedroom, breathing slightly heavier than before. Damn, Rachel was getting big , she thought to herself. Tucking her in and taking the suitcase Rachel "packed" earlier, she went to her bedroom. Grabbing her laptop, she pulled up a packing spreadsheet she created when she and Rachel took their first vacation together. Looking through the list and rechecking Rachel's luggage, she laughed. The suitcase was primarily t-shirts and socks, nothing else.
Dumping the whole suitcase onto her bed, she packed what was necessary, then went into Rachel's room to get the remaining items needed. Satisfied that Rachel was 85% packed, she would worry about herself tomorrow–she had all day once she dropped Rachel off at school. The luxury of modern technology and being able to access her job's server from home was truly a godsend.
Checking off the packed items for Rachel, Lisa saved her spreadsheet and logged onto the Johns Hopkins academic online portal to enter her students' grades for the semester. An hour and forty-five minutes flew by and her 2016 Fall semester came to an end. Relief settled over her and she no longer felt the anxiety of not getting everything done in time looming over her head. Closing her laptop, she headed to the bathroom and got ready for bed. Gently removing the day's stress from her face, Lisa then took her contact lenses out and tossed them into the trash. Resisting the urge to scratch her eyes out of relief, she blindly made her way back to bed.
Stretching her whole body out on the bed, she got a second wind of energy filled with excitement for hers and Rachel's trip. Only three more "sleeps", as Rachel put it, before they would wake up at 3:00 A.M. and make their way to the airport. With a small smile on her face, Lisa drifted to sleep.
Notes: Next chapter brings them to France, so Maura will most likely be introduced in the fourth chapter, potential for the fifth chapter at the latest.
