Okay I came up with something; maybe this is okay…please review and tell me what you think!

Disclaimer: Same as always

Raising Kids is Hard to Do, Ch. 2

Things were still rather rocky at home as Larissa was getting more nervous about preschool ending and elementary school starting. Troy and Sharpay thought that an orientation would help calm her nerves; she would get to meet her teacher (the actual teacher, since Alison was just the assistant), look around both the classroom and the school, and get to meet some of her classmates-to-be.

"Come on sweetie, we need to get going," Troy called as he walked into Larissa's room. She was sitting on her bed, dressed, but her shoes were on the floor. "Come on sweetie," he said as he walked over to her.

"I don't want to go," she said, looking down at the floor. "What if mean Miss Alison is there," she asked, looking up at Troy.

He sighed, "Even if she is, just remember that she isn't going to be your main teacher and you are going to make so many friends there that you won't have time to worry about her. So get your shoes on and let's get going," he said with a smile.

She nodded, "Okay; but what if you're wrong?"

"I'm not," he said with a wink. "Come on, you're going to love it there," he said as he picked up her shoes and handed them to her.

She looked at them, "These are tie shoes. I can't tie my shoes yet!" She started to cry.

Sharpay walked into the room with Zachary in her arms. Kayleigh was in the playpen downstairs. "What is going on in here? Larissa we need to get going."

"But I can't tie my shoes yet!" She yelled.

Troy looked at her, "Come on, you get the shoes on and I'll tie them, all right? We'll work on learning how to tie them some other time," he said as he gave Larissa a hopeful look. He then looked at Sharpay who nodded.

"Yeah, we'll learn how to tie shoes later," she said. "Just let daddy tie them right now."

Larissa nodded, "Okay," she said, knowing that she wasn't going to win this battle.

Troy watched as Larissa slipped the shoes on. He then tied each one, saying some sort of rhyme along with it:

"Build a tee pee
Come inside
Close it tight so we can hide
Over the mountain
And around we go
Here's my arrow
And here's my bow!"

Larissa gave her dad a rather weird look, "What was that?"

"A shoe tying rhyme," he said with a smile. "Now every time you tie your shoes…when you learn that is, you can recite this rhyme along with it."

Sharpay smiled, "Wow, that is the same rhyme I would say when I was learning how to tie my shoes; the same went for Ryan."

Larissa looked up at her, "Really?"

"Yes, really. Now let's go; daddy can teach you the rhyme later," she said.

Troy nodded, "Yeah I'll teach you after we get home or tomorrow…whenever we have time," he said, taking Larissa's hand and leading her down the stairs. He picked up Kayleigh from her playpen. "Ana, time to go," he said to the little girl who was watching a TV show.

She turned around, "Okay daddy," she said quietly.

Sharpay sighed, "Troy what are we going to do about her speech? I can barely ever hear her."

He shook his head, "Let's just worry about one thing at a time," he said as the six of them made their way out to the car. After about 5 minutes of strapping each child into their car seat, they were ready to go. Troy drove to Red Oak Elementary School (A/N: Probably not a school in NM, but I went to this elementary school in IL, so that's the school I'm using. :)) where Larissa would be attending in the fall. He found a parking spot and went around to the back and took the double stroller out of the trunk. Sharpay then placed Kayleigh and Zachary in it and got Larissa and Ana out of the car.

"I think we have everything," she said as she slid the van door shut.

"Let's go then," Troy said. He noticed Larissa was still just standing there. "Honey, we need to go inside, come on."

She just stared at the school and then to the side of the school, a small smile forming on her face. "Daddy, look!" She pointed to a playground that was next to the school. "Will I get to play on that?"

He smiled, "I'm sure you will; but not yet…we still need to go inside first."

She nodded and took his free hand (he was carrying Ana and Sharpay was pushing the stroller). "Okay."

Troy smiled at Sharpay, "This could be a good thing," he whispered.

She smiled, "I sure hope so."

When they got inside, they saw several other families as well; each family had at least one child who was Larissa's age. "Who are these people," Larissa asked nervously.

They walked over to a table that had name tags on it. "These," he said as he picked up name tags for each of them, "Are your future classmates…the kids are anyway."

She nodded, "Which one is my teacher?"

Sharpay looked around, "I'm not sure; maybe she's in the classroom," she said, pointing to a warm looking room.

Larissa slowly walked towards the room, as if in slow motion. When she got to the door, her jaw dropped. "This…is…my…room?" She looked around and saw at least three tables with chairs, a rug in the front of the room, a couple of shelves that had books on them, a play area, and the alphabet across the wall near the ceiling. There was a woman sitting at a desk in the back of the room, greeting families.

Troy smiled, "Yes, this is going to be your room. And I'm guessing that this," he said as they walked over to her, "Is going to be your teacher."

Larissa held tightly on to her dad's hand as they made their way to the woman sitting in the desk.

The woman just finished talking to another family with a little girl. She looked up and saw Larissa and her family. She smiled at Larissa, "Well hello there," she said with a smile.

Larissa just stood there, not knowing whether to smile or run away.

Troy, seeing her face, looked over at the woman, "Hi, I'm Troy, this is my wife Sharpay and this is our daughter, Larissa," he said gesturing to the little girl gripping his hand.

The woman nodded, "It's very nice to meet you, Larissa. I'm Mrs. Johnson; I'm going to be your teacher this year."

Larissa just looked at her, wondering if she could trust her or not. "Hi," she said quietly.

"It's very nice to meet you," Sharpay said as she shook Mrs. Johnson's hand.

"And you as well." She looked at Larissa's siblings, "I am guessing that these are your sisters and brother?"

Larissa nodded, not wanting to say anything. What if she turned out to be just like Alison? What if she was worse?

Troy, sensing Larissa's anxiety, spoke up, "Well I think we're just going to do some looking around the room right now."

She nodded, "Okay; and if you have any questions, please feel free to come on over here and ask," she said with a smile.

"Thank you," Sharpay said as they walked over to another part of the room. "Well she seems very nice," she said to Larissa.

She shrugged, "I guess, but I still don't…" She bumped into someone as she was walking. She looked up to see who it was and gripped Troy's hand even tighter.

The woman looked at Larissa, "Hello, Larissa," she said with an icy smile.

Larissa didn't say anything.

Troy eyed the woman, "Hello…Alison," he said.

She smiled, "Wow I can't believe that Larissa is in this class," she said, pretending that nothing had happened at the beginning of the school year.

Sharpay looked over at Larissa, who was frozen with fear that Alison was going to do something to her. "Well, it was…nice running into you again, but we're just going to look around the room," she said, not knowing if Alison had changed or not.

After hearing this, Larissa let go of Troy's hand and ran out into the hall.

Troy set Ana down next to Sharpay, "I'll be right back with her."

She nodded, "All right." She then turned back to Alison, "She's just a little nervous about being in kindergarten…and having you in this class," she said, not afraid to speak her mind.

"I see," she said. "Well I should go greet some of the other families," she said as she walked away.

Sharpay rolled her eyes and walked out into the hall with Ana in tow (she was still pushing the stroller) to look for Larissa and Troy.

"Larissa," Troy said, finding her near the drinking fountain, "Why did you do that?"

"I hate her!" She started to run off again, but Troy caught her and picked her up. "I know you don't like her, but what have your mom and I always said about using the word 'hate?'"

She shrugged, "I know, don't say it."

"Exactly."

"But I hate…don't like her at all! She was so mean to me, daddy!" She buried he face in Troy's shoulder.

Sharpay walked up to them, "Let me guess; she's not at all happy that you-know-who is going to be in her class."

"That's exactly the case," he said as he rubbed her back, trying to calm Larissa down.

Sharpay sighed, "Why, of all the schools, let alone classrooms, did she have to be here?"

He shrugged, "I don't know, but maybe she has changed."

Larissa looked at Troy as if he were nuts, "No she hasn't! I could see it in her face. She still hates me!"

"Larissa," he said in a warning tone.

"Fine, she doesn't like me!"

"Look, why don't we try going back into the room and this time we'll look around at what there is, okay," Sharpay suggested.

Larissa didn't say anything for a moment, "Okay," she said quietly.

"Good. Come on honey," Sharpay said as Troy let her down. Sharpay took her hand and walked back into the room.

Larissa made sure to walk in the other direction so she wouldn't have to see Alison. She walked over to the big carpet that was in the front of the room. "What's this," she asked her parents.

Troy looked at a small decorated sign that was next to the rug. "It's the story rug. I'm guessing that whenever you have story time or show-and-tell, you all sit over here and your teacher reads a book."

Larissa nodded, "Do you think she'll ever read 'The Giving Tree?'" (Only my favorite book from when I was a kid!)

Sharpay smiled, "I'm sure she will," she said, eyeing the story on one of the book shelves. "She'll probably read a lot of books that you love."

Larissa smiled for the first time since they had entered the room. "What are those," she asked, pointing to some notebooks.

"Those are for your writing," Mrs. Johnson said from behind Larissa, causing her to jump a mile in the air. "Sorry about that," she said, suppressing a giggle.

Larissa turned around, "What do you mean for my writing? I don't write."

"Not yet, but when we do start to write, that is what you will be writing in; you will get to take it home everyday and show it to your mom and dad and then they will help you work on your writing," she said with a smile.

Larissa nodded, "Oh."

"Sorry, she's a bit overwhelmed by everything," Sharpay supplied.

Mrs. Johnson shook her head, "Don't worry about it, a lot of the children are." She paused, "Speaking of children, would you like to meet some of the kids you'll be in class with, Larissa?"

She shook her head, "Not yet."

Troy looked at Larissa, "How about if I come with you?"

Larissa nodded, "Okay."

He smiled, "Great." He turned to Mrs. Johnson, "Thank you, Mrs. Johnson."

She shook her head, "No problem, and please, call me Sherri."

He nodded and thank her again and then walked over to the play area with Larissa where a few other children were. "Well? Why don't you ask if you can join in?"

She stood back, "I don't want to. They won't like me."

He sighed, "Larissa…" He then decided that it wasn't worth arguing over. She would meet these kids again in the fall anyway. "Okay…are you ready to leave then?" He had noticed that Kayleigh was beginning to get fussy and do her usual 'I'm tired' routine.

"Yes, I want to leave." She started to walk to the door but remembered that she would probably get into trouble if she left without her parents, so she waited for them.

"Thank you," Sharpay said to her as they walked over to where Larissa was waiting.

"So I think that went pretty well," Troy said as he and Sharpay walked out of the twins' room after putting them down for a nap.

"All things considered, I think you're right," she said with a small smile. "I just hope that things go well during the actual school year." She looked over at Troy nervously. Would things go well for Larissa in September?

Okay, so that was it! I hope you liked it. What did you think of Mrs. Johnson? And what about Alison; do you think she will be any better? Please send your thoughts, ideas, suggestions, anything to me! I love reading your reviews. As always, thank you for reading!