Chapter 2
"The Bee Room?" Raven groaned in dismay, "I can't stand the Bee Room!"
Tina, the assistant director apologized, "I know, I'm sorry Raven. Serenity called in sick and there's no one else to cover for her."
"I'm gonna kill her the next time I see her," She warned Tina.
"She thought you'd say that and she says she owes you lunch."
Raven rolled her eyes at the situation and sighed, "Whatever, thanks anyways Tina." she replied, turning to the Bee room.
Each room in Kelly's Childcare Center was named after a different insect. The infants room was called the caterpillar room, the toddlers the ladybugs and so on.
The worst room in the whole daycare by far had been the three year olds, appropriately named the Bees. 'Why' Raven always wondered 'would you name an entire classroom after an insect that stings people and is a general nuisance, that's just a self fulfilling prophecy waiting to happen.'
The Bee's room always found themselves with the worst of the worst kids. Raven mostly just assumed it was the age of three, "Threenagers" as Serenity called it. Serenity was the only person who could really handle the room because she had the patience of a saint.
There was one time a kid threw a wood block and gave Serenity a black eye and all she did was calmly take the kid by the hand and walk them to a different station and talk to them about being safe before calling the office so she could ice her eye. She was made for this room, Raven was not.
Raven learned pretty quickly that for whatever reason, the age of three brought out the most volatile emotions in a child. Being an empath this was of course very overwhelming for her. However, being an empath also helped her cheat a little on dealing with this room.
'Oh man that's so weird, Tyler was just punching Kayson in the face and then he suddenly decided to sit quietly in the library and not talk for half an hour, that's so strange and something I have absolutely nothing to do with.'
Regardless of this fact though, all the pure, raw emotions and lack of impulse control really wore Raven out. Even if on the outside looking in, they were all perfect angels for her.
Of course it also didn't help that Riley was in the Bee Room. From the moment she had met the blonde child in the sandbox on that fateful day, and every moment on there was always someone getting hurt by him whenever Raven was near. Now Raven knew it was wrong to hate a three year old but she couldn't help but think, 'Man fuck this kid' everytime he put his hands on someone else.
Now Riley wasn't the worst behaved child by any means, as surprising as that fact is, Riley was just cruel. Riley could not have fun unless it was at someone else's expense, and the worst part? He was really smart about it, so he rarely got caught.
Raven always knew because she could sense the pungent malice coming off of him like burning rubber, truly disgusting. Fortunately this kept him in line better when Raven was in the classroom but empath or not you could sense the bitterness emanating between the two.
On this particular day she had class in the afternoon so she was in the Bee's all morning until lunchtime. Raven had barely finished setting up the room for the day when she heard impatient heels clicking down the hall followed by sounds or crying. Raven raised an eyebrow, she didn't recognize that cry who was-
Her thoughts were cut short by the sound of the door being swung open and a little girl sobbing clinging desperately to her mother. In the woman's other arm on her hip was Natalie, the infant from yesterday. 'So this is Nora' thought Raven regarding the screaming girl, before she could introduce herself to the woman, she had quickly pried the child off her leg, rolled her eyes and huffed, "Oh my god, I am so over you!" before slamming the door in both Raven and Nora's face.
Raven felt a dark rage bubble underneath her skin before she took a deep breath and deadpanned, "Nice" before tending to the girl on the floor.
"Hey, shh-shhh-shhh" she hushed while dropping to her knees to comfort the screaming child. Nora was a carbon copy of her younger sister with longer hair in soft waves that reached her chin, and a bright red face from shrieking and crying. She noticed that the girl was still in the pajamas and she had brought a small backpack with her, shaped like an owl.
Raven suddenly got a clearer picture of what Nora's morning looked like before coming here. She was more than likely ripped out of bed and brought here immediately to be taken care of. 'Double nice, A+ parenting, lady'
Raven interrupted her own thoughts to focus on the child at hand. At this point she was inconsolable and she really didn't want to start using her powers this early so she resigned to pull Nora into her lap and let her cry it out.
After several minutes the sobbing turned into a gentle cry and several moments after that slowly turned into whining.
Nora then turned her head up towards Raven and finally spoke in a small voice, "I want my mom."
'Why?' Raven thought, but instead said, " I know, but you're gonna see her later right?"
"No!" she retorted Angrily, "some boy from Daddy's work is coming to get me!"
Oh shit that was right, she only got dropped off by her parents not picked up. Raven started thinking about the ways to help Nora cope and realized the next child wasn't scheduled to arrive for another 10 mins.
"Hey Nora," Raven said, coaxing the child, "You wanna help me out?"
Nora sniffed, "Sure"
Raven grabbed a box of pens from the cabinet, "We need to make sure all the other teachers have pens to sign in their kids, can you help me deliver them?"
Nora shrugged, wiping away the rest of the tears from her eyes, "Sure."
Nora and Raven walked hand in hand passing out pens. The teachers in each room realized quickly what Raven was doing and introduced themselves to the child and gave Nora praise and thanks. By the time all the pens had been passed out, Nora had calmed down completely and was curious about playing in her classroom. Raven learned a while back that kids loved having jobs and getting them out on an environment they were upset in can wipe their mental slate clean for when they need to go back.
When they had finally reached the room, Nora cleared her throat, "Um Ms. Raven?"
"What's up?"
"I'm still in my PJ's"
"Right, that you are. Can you dress yourself?"
"Uh-huh, I am this many, so I can dress myself." she said, holding up two fingers.
Raven pulled up her ring finger from her fist, "This many, you're three." she clarified.
"Yeah that many. My clothes are in my owl packpack."
Raven opened the backpack and her blood ran cold. Every single item of clothing was designer. Raven didn't even know they made designer clothing that small.
Raven looked at the sand and water table in the classroom, the paint, the playdough, and she even looked out of the window at the mud kitchen on the playground.
Raven took a deep breath and slowly zipped the backpack back up as quietly whispered to herself, "Nope. Nope. Nope."
Raven walked into the kids bathroom and grabbed a basket of extra clothes from the top shelf for when kids spilled on themselves or had accidents.
Raven picked out a child sized gray hoodie with the center logo on it, a pair of black leggings and sparkly purple tennis shoes.
"Do you want to try this instead?" Raven asked.
The little girl marveled, "Ooooo! I like Purple! "
"Perfect."
Within moments Nora was dressed in the more school appropriate attire and the other children started filing in.
First was Oliver, who was probably her favorite being that she was Oliver's favorite. Oliver was diagnosed with autism and had trouble communicating but after a while had gotten a few words and phrases down really well. In addition his mother was just a light of a human being, so much so that she reminded her of Kory.
His mother gasped upon seeing Raven, "Oli looks whose here with you this morning!"
Oliver grinned ear to ear and started babbling at Raven while taking her hand and hugging her arm.
"Nice to see you too Oliver" She smirked.
Oliver's mother said her goodbyes and went on her way. After Oliver came Sara H and Sarah P from their perspective parents, then came the twins Evan and Eric, then Ezekiel, Chloe and Rya's mom's were friends so they carpooled together, and finally Riley arrived.
Upon seeing Raven, Riley huffed and stomped his foot "No I don't want you to be here today!"
Riley's mother tapped him in the back of the head and barked through gritted teeth, "Don't be rude." looking back up at Raven she apologized for her son's behavior.
Raven felt for Riley's mom, it wasn't like she was trying to raise a little bastard. In fact she was trying very hard not to raise a little bastard, but Riley's parents were separated and Riley's dad was a big bastard.
"It's Ok, Gina" Raven replied "We're gonna try to have a good day together."
Riley blew a raspberry at Raven in response.
"RILEY!" Gina yelled incredulously.
"It'll be ok, I promise." she assured Gina.
"If he gives you even an ounce of trouble don't hesitate to call me."
"Don't worry I will."
By this time it was 8 o'clock and breakfast would be served in half an hour. All the children were playing in their respective centers except for one little girl.
Nora sat in Cozy corner by herself hugging her knees to her chest and sulking. Raven moved to the child and flopped down the pillows next to Nora and sprawled out with her eyes closed and put her hands on the back of her head. "What's up kid?" she asked.
Nora pouted, "No one will play with me."
Raven didn't move but popped open a singular eye, "hmmm...I see that is a problem, but may I ask did you ask anyone to play with you?"
Nora narrowed her eyes at her feet, "No."
"Would you like me to help you ask?"
Nora's eyes lit up, she thought the teacher was going to make her do it on her own but now that someone was going to help her…
"Yes please," Nora replied gratefully.
"Ok," Raven sat up "Where do you want to play?"
"Over there" Nora said pointing to where Rya and Chloe were playing in the dress up clothes.
"Alright then, let's go," Raven took her hand and began walking Nora over to where the pair of girls played.
Nora arrived at the dress up area with Raven and froze looking up at her in panic. What was she supposed to do now?
Raven began coaching her, "Hi my name is…"
Nora repeated, "Hi my name is…" Silence.
Raven whispered to the girl, "And now you say your name."
"Nora" she said, looking directly at the girls now.
"Can I play with you?" Raven coached
"Can I play with you?" Nora asked the girls
Rya answered immediately, "Uh-huh we're pwaying Fwozen, I'm Elsa and Chwoe is Anna, you can be owaf if you want to or you can be Evil Elsa!"
Nora gasped and struck a devilish grin on her face "I wanna be Evil Elsa!"
'Fuckin weirdos' Raven thought to herself as she walked away to let the kids play.
Nora stuck by Rya and Chloe for the rest of the morning, recess and mid morning playtime, by lunchtime it was time for Raven to go to class and the second float teacher stepped in the room to let her go.
Nora saw Raven gathering up her things to leave and panicked.
"You're leaving me?" Nora asked, tears forming at her eyes.
"NO, NO, NO." Oliver shrieked happily hugging Raven's leg. He was currently very into the word 'no'.
Raven felt guilty leaving the girl to someone she didn't know but school came first. She attempted to talk up how great the other teacher was but if she was being honest she really didn't know the teacher that well herself and it didn't deflect the girls tears.
Finally, Raven gave a sigh of resignation, knowing the girl would still be there after her classes were done for the day, she promised she'd stop by before Nora left for the day. The little girl accepted the offer and after nearly choking Raven out with a hug (and after peeling a giggling Oliver off of her leg) she set off to school for the day.