I wake up the next morning at my normal 4:45, and get ready for my run again making sure I have my phone with me. But this time before I leave I check in on Elizabeth, she is curled up in a ball facing the wall.
I leave the house and make sure to lock the door behind me, I start my run after going left at the sidewalk. I try to make a plan of what to do with her when I get back. I know that her back to school night is tonight, so we'll have to go to the store and pick out her school supplies. And I need to go in before back to school night starts, because we have a staff meeting. Maybe I can take her to Southdale park and she can make some friends.
I ponder these things as I finish my run, I check the time and see that I have been out for 50 minutes. I take out my house key from under my phone, in my armband and unlock the door. I walk to my room and get ready for a shower.
When I'm done I change into jeans and an oversized pink sweater that I always remember having. I blow dry my hair, then throw it up into a bun. I walk down the hall and open Elizabeth's door, I see her facing me. But what I'm worried about is the tears that are streaming down her face.
I rush into the room and sit on the bed beside her, "Hey, hey, hey! What's wrong?"
"I miss mommy and daddy" she whimpers as she sits up.
I pull her into my arms and stroke her hair as she cries into my chest. "I know they are gone, but they still love you. They will always be with you in your heart, you know that right?"
She nods, "But they still aren't here with me"
"I know. Do you want to hear a story of when your daddy and I were left alone for a week during the summer, while our parents went to a wedding in Florida?" She nods her head, "Well, I think I was a little older than you now and your daddy was 11. He thought he was old enough to take care of the two of us, so Mom and Dad left him in charge. Now that was a bad idea. For the first day we were okay, he could make us peanut butter sandwiches and macaroni and cheese. But then on the third day he started to panic, we ran out of bread because that was the only thing we had been eating.
"He tried to feed me candy from the Easter box that we had." Elizabeth giggled at her father's craziness. "We never washed the dishes either, so they were piling up. I thought it was a week of freedom so I didn't shower or brush my hair at all. We probably looked like little monsters." I say with a little laugh, "I don't think we went outside at all, otherwise the neighbors would've thought we were insane. By the time our parents got home the house was a pit, we looked and smelled like trolls, and there was no more food."
Elizabeth was laughing so hard she was crying. "Daddy's weird!" She exclaims through her laughs.
"Yes, he was, and he still is! Are you better now?"
"Ya, thanks Auntie"
"Anytime Lizard"
"Lizard?" She questions.
"Yup, that's you, Lizzy is short for Elizabeth and now I'm making Lizzy Lizard, my name for you" I reply. She giggles at my response. "Okay kiddo, let's get you ready for breakfast, then maybe we can go to the park later?"
"Yes!" she exclaims. I let her pick out her own outfit of jeans, and a red long sleeved shirt. She grabs a black jacket and ties it around her waist.
"What do you want to do want for breakfast, I have cereal, toast, pancakes, waffles, and fruit." I open the pantry and let her look around, "See anything you like?"
"Can I have some cereal please?"
"Sure, what kind do you want?"
"That one" she points to the Honey Nut Cheerios. I pull out the cereal and put it in a bowl with milk, then give it to her.
"Okay so today we need to get you ready for 1st grade, how does that sound? We'll get your school supplies then we can go meet your teacher tonight!"
She gives me a big closed mouthed smile because she has her mouth full. After her breakfast I get her ready in my grey Honda Accord and we are off to Wal-Mart to get her supplies. We spend about 2 hours in Wal-Mart finding her materials.
At one point Elizabeth played hide-and-seek with me, I had a mini panic attack, when I couldn't find her. Then she thought that it was absolutely hilarious when she popped out from behind the clothes next to the school supplies and scared me.
We get to the check out and load the items onto the conveyer belt. She grabs a Kit Kat from the candy rack and looks at me with big puppy dog eyes. It is so irresistible, so I let her place it with the other items. The total comes out to be $132.89, so I pay with a swipe of my card.
Lizard jumps in front of the cart and hops on the end of it, so that I'm pushing her backwards. We make it to the car with her laughing the whole way along. We load the car and are on the road in about 10 minutes, I check the time and see that it is around noon.
I turn around and face Elizabeth, "What sounds good for lunch? We can go out to eat."
"I wanna go out to eat."
"Anywhere special?"
"Nope I don't care."
"Okay, how about we eat at Culver's."
She nods her head, so I turn the corner into the Culver's driveway and park. We go inside and order to go. She orders a corn dog and ice cream, while I order a ButterBurger. We go back to the car, and I drive home and we eat our food at the table.
After lunch we clean up the counters and put the dishes away in the dishwasher. I help her put her curly blonde hair into a high ponytail so it is out of her way. We grab all of her school supplies and organize them with her name on them, and put them into the new pink backpack that she got.
"Back to School night starts at 5:30, and I need to be there at 4. Right now it is 2:30, so how about we go to the park and play before we get down to business?" I ask.
"Okay!" she replies.
I throw her backpack on my shoulder, make sure I have my keys, and phone before I take her hand. We head out the door and towards the school, as I walk I notice a skip in her step, and I'm happy that she is in a good mood.
We make it to the school park in 3 minutes, it helps to be only 2 blocks away from the school. The park is mainly blue poles, with a smaller baby side and small slides, then it has a bigger side that has harder obstacles and the long twisty slide. The swings are on the far side by the rock climbing wall and the teeter-totter. She wants to go on the swings first, I put her bag down by the edge of the playground where we won't forget it. I push her for about 30 minutes while she giggles the whole way. She goes down all of the slides at least twice each, before she surprises me by tagging me than running.
"You're it! Now you've got to chase me!" she exclaims.
"Oh, you're going to get it missy!" I start to run after her, trying to dodge all of the bars and poles that make up the playground. I finally reach her and pick her up, making her squeal in surprise. I put her down then check the time, 3:48.
"Lizzard, we need to get going!"
"Okay" she says with a little pout. She walks over to me with her bag and starts towards the main entrance on the other side of the brick school. Before going in I take a deep breath to calm my nerves.
Once inside I make my way through the hallways to the cafeteria. I already know where some of the places are because of my short tour shortly after I accepted the job. I notice that there are some of the teachers here already.
"You need to behave for a little bit, Auntie needs to talk to some people for awhile. So can you go sit down over there until I come get you please?" I ask her after pointing to the back corner of the cafeteria where no one is.
"Yes, I'll be good" She answers before making her way over to one of the tables and pulling out a book that she had packed into her backpack.
I make my way over to where the others are and introduce myself to a tall, mocha skinned girl with short black hair, "Hi, I'm Tris Prior, I'm the new 2nd grade teacher!"
"Hi Tris! I'm Christina Kravitz, the 1st grade teacher!"
"Oh, you're going to be teaching my-"
I get cut off by a microphone screeching, "Welcome Staff"
