September 11th

8:00 am

Kuroko had missed his 8:00 subway ride, so he had to wait for the second one. Kuroko boarded as soon as it pulled into the station and he looked down at his watch 8:15, he would be at the trade center around 8:30 and have all the kids picked up before 9:00 to get them to school before the actual classes start at 9:30.

The daycare Kuroko worked at had classes and activities all day long. It was designed for busy New York parents that did not want to go through the hassle of finding a nanny to take care of their kids. Some daycare workers had to go pick up kids at specific drop off locations. Kuroko was in charge of the drop-off at the world trade center. Kuroko had 5 charges, Jimmy, Racheal, Will, Ashley, and Sarah.

The subway rolled to a stop and he got off and walked. He walked to the world trade center and showed his security pass to the guard on duty.

The guard let him by with no problem and Kuroko took the elevator to the 92nd floor. He walked up to the receptionist desk and where the receptionist, Brianna, was on the phone. When she was finished with the call, she looked at her computer and began typing some report.

"Ummm… Hello Miss Brianna."

Brianna jumped and looked at Kuroko. "Kuroko, I did not notice you come in. I'm sorry." She quickly paged her boss. "Mr. Tetsuya is here."

"I am sending Jimmy and Racheal down now." Mrs. Stein replied.

Jimmy and Racheal were twins; both had black hair, brown eyes, and were horribly mischievous.

The door opened and the two preschoolers ran out. They hugged Kuroko's legs.

"Ready to go?" Kuroko asked.

The two nodded.

Kuroko continued his normal morning routine of picking up the kids.

Will was a little book-lover, though he could barely read. He had blonde hair with sky blue eyes that were hidden behind a pair of glasses. Ashley always had her curly red hair in a pony tail, she was very girly and always wore shirts and dresses when given the chance. Sarah was African American, she wore her black hair in little braids and had the brightest smile of the group, she always wore bright yellow or neon colors which made her pop out from a distance.

"So, who did their coloring project?" Kuroko asked, trying to make conversation as they walked down the hall to go to the elevator.

"I did!" They basically screamed in unison.

"That's…"

The building shook for a second.

Living in Japan his whole life, Kuroko blew it off, thinking it was just an earthquake.

"What was that?" Will asked, scared.

That was when Kuroko had to reorganize his thinking; New York is very far from a tectonic plate. "I don't know." He answered truthfully. He watched everyone get up from their desks and walked over to their desk.

Kuroko led the five over. "Excuse me," Kuroko asked a woman, "What just happened?"

"A plane, it just… crashed." She said, as they watched the black smoke billowed out of the skyscraper.

The intercom came on. "Can I have your attention please? May I have your attention please?"

Everyone grew quiet in anticipation.

"Due to the emergency outside, we ask that everyone remain inside the building until the emergency unit gives us an all clear. 911 has been dispatched and the problem will be quickly resolved. Once again, we ask that everyone stay inside the building until we are given the all clear." The intercom clicked off.

The five kids looked up at Kuroko.

Kuroko took a deep breath.

"We are going to stay here for a bit guys." Kuroko pulled out a box of crayons from his messenger bag, "Let's color." Kuroko had the kids sit on the floor, somewhere out of the way and got some paper for them to draw on. He took another peak outside the window at the billowing smoke emanating from the building, hoping that everything was okay.