A/N: Thank you so much for your amazing response to this story, guys!

I am taking the SAT on the 7th and I have a competition next Thursday so I'm not sure how those things will affect my posting schedule but I will try to post when I get home next Thursday. It will be later than 9pm EST but hopefully not more than an hour or two later.

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Sofia and I both slept through the night and I was so thankful for that because I was worried we'd both be up half the night again and I really didn't need that. I needed for us to be fully rested because I had no doubt that this was going to take a lot out of both of us. I woke up with Sofia curled up to my side and I figured she came in sometime in the middle of the night. I wasn't surprised that she'd come in but I was kind of surprised that she hadn't woken me.

"Sof," I whispered into her ear, "it's time to get up baby."

Since Sofia was sleeping so peacefully and didn't seem like she was going to get up without a little more nudging from me I decided that this would be a perfect opportunity for me to take a shower uninterrupted which I didn't get to do very often, so I slipped out of bed and headed to the shower quietly.

After I got out of my shower and finished getting ready I knew that I'd waited as long as I could to wake Sofia up and even though I didn't want to wake her I went into my room and sat down on the edge of the bed and shook her softly to wake her. "Sofia, baby, you gotta get up. It's your first day of school." I was surprised I was able to say that with getting upset but I was and I figured if I could get her to preschool and drop her off without being upset then hopefully she would be fine with me leaving her there even though I still didn't want to.

"Do I hafta?" she asked sleepily and I wanted so badly to say she didn't but I knew that I had to say yes.

"Yeah, baby, you do. Daddy is going to be here in just a couple minutes to drive us to preschool. Okay?" I asked and she nodded even though I could tell that she wasn't exactly happy about it. At least she was dealing which was a good thing. I got her ready as quickly as I could and put her hair into a ponytail with a bow on top. "Ready to go, baby girl?" I asked, right as I heard Mark knock on the door and she nodded reluctantly.

"How are my girls?" Mark asked as soon as I opened the door and I shrugged. I didn't want to talk about it because I didn't want to upset Sofia because Mark was right, it was going to be fine. I just needed to get it over with because it was going to happen eventually and she did need to make some friends, at this rate she was going to be a loner forever which obviously wasn't going to work. "Okay, then. Ready to go, Sof?" Mark asked as soon as he saw my face and I rolled my eyes.

Sofia nodded and took the hand he had stretched out for her. " 'm ready," she mumbled and we followed her out the door. I quickly locked the door behind us before following them to the elevator. As soon as I got on the elevator I wanted to turn back because I felt like this was stupid, I shouldn't just bring her to preschool for the socialization. I should bring her to a park to meet other kids but every time I looked over at Mark I could tell that he wasn't going to let me back out again which is why I was glad he was with us because if it was just me and Sofia we easily would have backed out.

When we got to the preschool I was overwhelmed by the size of it, even though I'd toured it already it seemed a lot bigger when I was actually standing in front of it with my daughter who was tiny. She didn't need to be left here and as much as I wanted to turn and run I couldn't. So I did the next best thing, I turned to Mark and whispered in his ear, "This place is huge."

"That's because it's more than just a preschool. The preschool section is small, you know that. We've been here before it's not that big. We checked, Callie, she'll be fine," he insisted.

After we enter the building we walked down a hall which seemed like it was a mile long before finally reaching the classroom that the lady at the front desk said she would be in. We walked in and I saw a really small class size which immediately calmed my fear of her getting lost but then I was worried that all of the other kids would be already friends and since she didn't start at the beginning of the year no one would want to be friends with her.

"Hi, I'm Ms. Dumas. It's nice to meet you, you must me the Sloan's?" she asked and I had to stifle a laugh.

"Actually, I'm Callie Torres, his last name is Sloan, we're not married," I clarified and when I finished clarifying that I felt like I was a child. Seriously? Did I just admit to this woman that Sofia was born out of wedlock? Was that really necessary?

"Okay," she said with a small laugh, that seemed more like she was embarrassed than it seemed she was laughing at us, "Either way, it's nice to meet you both and this must be Sofia."

"Hi," Sofia mumbled quietly which is what I was afraid of. I didn't want her to be shy but I knew that it was bound to happen because she'd never really been around a group of her peers before so it was a new experience for her.

Ms. Dumas look at both of us before saying, "Sofia will do great and I'll make sure she makes friends. Well, I'll see you at noon when you come to pick her up."

I smiled and nodded before squatting down to Sofia's level to say goodbye. "Hey, princess, daddy has to go to work and he needs to drop me off before work so I can get my car so we're going to leave you here to make new friends. I'll be back before you know it, okay?" I asked, trying to avoid choking up.

"M'kay, mama?" she asked and I looked at her curiously.

"Yes, baby girl?"

"I love you and daddy said I'm gonna has lotsa fun, k?" she asked and I smiled. I knew that Mark told her to say that but even so it still made me feel better.

"Okay, baby. Have fun," I said before standing back up to leave with Mark. I was still worried about leaving her but I knew that it was only three hours and we were only five minutes from my apartment.

As we headed back to the car I looked over at Mark and said, "Thanks for that."

"What?" he asked innocently and I rolled my eyes. "For telling Sofia that she was going to have fun, you're definitely stronger than I am," I admitted.

"Callie," he said with a pause, "Sofia is going to have fun and you're going to be fine. I'll see you later," he said as he pulled up to my apartment complex to let me out of the car. "You'll be fine," he said as I got out of the car.

I headed up to my apartment and for the first time since all of the preschool drama started I actually felt like he was right. We were all going to be fine and this was the best choice to make even if in some ways it was the hardest decision to make. We made the decision and now we get to live with it. But, now? I was actually kind of excited about it, she would make friends with some kids and maybe I'd even make friends with some moms.

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I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review & check out my !

Question of the Chapter: Would you like to see Callie speaking Spanish/Spanglish with Sofia?