"Okay Julie, we'll be here to pick you up at 2:30 sharp." Colleen knelt down in front of her sister to fix her hair and clothes one last time.
"Okay, can we go to the park today?" Julie asked again.
"Yes Jules, we're going to the park right after school." Randy smiled at her repetition. "Now get in there before you're late." He ordered nicely. She turned and slowly dragged herself through the front doors, waving once before she disappeared into the stream of students.
"You're getting the hang of this aren't you?" Colleen asked putting her arm around Randy's waist. He was still looking at the doors, trying to get one last look at Julie.
"What?" He finally looked over at him. She was smugly smiling up at him.
"Parenting."
"Hey, there's no smelly diapers with this kid, I'm fine." He joked.
"You're an idiot. And if we don't get going, you'll be late too." She laughed as they turned and walked off. ~~~
"Higher!" Julie shouted as Randy pushed her on the swings.
"You sure?" He asked.
"Positive." She answered at she swung backwards, closer to him. Colleen was sitting under the tree just by the swing set. She'd had a stressful day at work so Randy had insisted she relax. A young girl, about her age walked briskly up to Randy and grabbed his attention. He turned and looked her over once before hugging her. Colleen's mouth dropped down to the grass. She finally gained her composure and after standing up, strode over to them. After she'd gained her composer and stood up, she walked over to the swing set to were Julie was now keeping herself going by pumping.
"I can't believe it's you! It's been so long!" She heard this mysterious girl say. Colleen rolled her eyes as she walked up but found herself almost falling over when she heard Randy's response.
"I know, I missed you so much!" Randy pulled her into another hug. Once she again composed herself, she closed the space between them with a large fake smile on her face.
"Randy, who's this?" She asked cheerfully.
"Oh, jeez, Colleen. Um, this is Lauren, and old friend." Randy explained stuttering as Lauren looked at her feet. "Lauren, this is Colleen, my uh, girlfriend." Oh great, now he can't look even look at me. Tired of the awkwardness of the situation, Colleen turned away to help Julie off the swing, she'd called to her because she wanted to stop.
"Well, I need to start dinner and Julie has some homework to do so we'll see you at home Randy, nice meeting you Lauren." Colleen rattled off the quickest excuse she could leading Julie away by the hand.
"Uh yea, home." Randy almost whispered to Colleen's quickly retreating figure.