A/N: As I am in the process of slowly deleting most of my stories, I have decided this is one of the few I will keep - at least for now.

Something Better Someday

I'm like a kid who just won't let it go,
Twisting and turning the colors in rows.
I'm so intent to find out what it is;
This is my Rubik's cube.
I know I will figure it out.
- Athlete

They ended up at McDonalds anyway.

"You said you changed your mind about coming here." She had just said that. She had just said she was thinking about coming here, but she had changed her mind.

"She was joking," Chloe said.

Oh. "I should be in school right now," Aubrey said, exiting the car with them, taking her doll, "I want to go to school."

"I wish my kid felt that way," a random woman said, walking past.

Aubrey glared at the back of her head until she was gone.

"I like school too, sometimes," Chloe said, skipping around to Aubrey's side of the car, "But only to see all my friends. I like missing school on days like today when I was supposed to have a math test."

"Why didn't I know you had a math test today, Chloe Beale?" Julia asked, grabbing Chloe by the hand.

Chloe stopped in her tracks. "I don't think you were listening when I told you."

"Maybe you forgot to tell me," Julia suggested, "Or maybe you didn't want to tell me."

Chloe shook her head. "Don't blame me for your bad parenting."

Julia quirked a brow and tapped her lightly on the head, prompting Chloe to throw her arms up in a shrug. "It has been a week and a half since you brought home your folder." She pulled open the door and held it so Aubrey could walk in first. "Where is your folder?"

"It's in my desk," Chloe answered, being pulled along inside.

"Why is it in your desk?"

Chloe stared at her.

"Why is it in your desk?" Julia repeated.

"Because it's glued there," Chloe replied in a loud whisper.

"Your folder is glued to the inside of your desk?"

Chloe nodded in slow motion.

"Why?"

"You don't wanna know."

"Did you glue it there?"

"I think that we should just let this go for now," Chloe said, "It's Aubrey's first real day here, so I think we should focus less on me and more on her. She needs the attention more than I do right now."

Aubrey turned her head to glare at her next.

"So you don't need any attention?" Julia asked.

"Nope."

"Okay." Julia released her hand to go stand in line.

"Mama, wait!" Chloe jogged after her and grabbed her arm once she caught up. "I didn't mean you had to stop holding my hand."

Julia laughed and pulled her into a tight side hug. "What do you guys want?"

"I want a Happy Meal, with nuggets." Chloe turned to Aubrey. "Do you want a Happy Meal?"

"I'm not feeling very happy right now," Aubrey informed her.

"You don't have to be happy to eat a Happy Meal," Chloe replied, "I think it's called a Happy Meal because it's supposed to make you happy."

There is nothing that could make Aubrey happy right now – especially not some stupid chicken nuggets.

"I bet you want a Happy Meal," Chloe said to Rock.

"Nope," Julia shook her head, "That's not happening."

"Look how sad that makes him." Chloe grabbed his tail and tucked it between his back legs.

"They have yogurt with strawberries and blueberries in it," Julia pointed out, placing a hand on Aubrey's back, "How does that sound?"

Aubrey watched Chloe try to use baby talk to cheer up the dog for a second, before deciding she just wasn't going to answer the question. She folded her arms, sandwiching her doll against her chest.

"Let's do that," Julia decided, "If you decide you want something else, you can let me know." She gave Aubrey's shoulder a squeeze then stepped up to the counter to order. "I'm going to buy an extra toy," she told the guy taking her order.

"We get so many toys today," Chloe said. She abandoned Rock to stand next to Aubrey, folding her arms to hug her doll the same way. "The only time I ever got this many toys before was when I first moved in. And my birthday. And Christmas. Let's go sit down somewhere by the play place." She unfolded her arms to wrap an arm around Aubrey and shepherd her away. "I can see that you're sad. When I'm sad, I like hugs. What do you like when you're sad?"

"To be alone." Aubrey shrugged her off and hoisted herself up onto a chair across from a booth.

"That's what my brother says too," Chloe said and climbed into the booth, "But that's just because when he sad before, he had to be alone."

"Some people like to be alone."

"Then why do you carry around a doll?"

Aubrey blinked.

"She must make you not lonely."

"You have a doll," Aubrey pointed out.

"And she makes me not lonely when no one else is around." Chloe bent her doll's legs to sit her on her lap.

Right. Aubrey exhaled a deep sigh and turned to look at the colorful tubes curving around the room. Below them lay a ball pit, and she could only imagine what terrible things hid beneath the balls. A kidnapper. A giant snake. Some kid's pee. A floor that was so far down that if you sunk in, you'd never get out. The thoughts made her shudder. She never wanted to go in there – ever; not for as long as she lived. A third of the world's missing children could probably be found at the bottom of a McDonald's ball pit – maybe even more than that.

She turned to look at the yogurt and some kind of cheap, plastic keychain toy as they were placed on the table in front of her.

"That's a Tamagotchi," Chloe said, pointing at Aubrey's toy before digging into a box for her own, "But not a real one. It's just a fake one to hang on your backpack. Do you know what a Tamagotchi is?"

"Everyone knows what a Tamagotchi is." Aubrey's would be dead now, because it was at home while she was stuck with these people. She pushed the yogurt back several inches.

"You don't get to play if you don't eat," Chloe said.

Good.

"I can make an exception just this once," Julia said. She grabbed the back of Chloe's shirt as Chloe tried to bolt. "For Aubrey. Eat your food."

"Aw." Chloe fell dramatically back into the booth. "Well, it was worth a try."

xxxxx

"Puh-leeeeeaaaaaaase."

"Chloe, Pumpkin, if Aubrey doesn't want to play, you can't make her play. She has a lot going on right now. How about you crawl through the tunnels a few times?"

Chloe opened her mouth and managed to get the 'p' sound in another 'please' out, before Julia shot her a look. "It's boring alone. And there's no other kids here."

"Because they're all at school," Aubrey stated – which was exactly where they should be.

Chloe let her head fall against the back of the booth then slowly sunk down until she had practically slid under the table. "I'm melting," she announced.

Julia breathed a laugh. "Okay, Frosty, how about you melt your way to the car?"

Chloe bolted upright, her brows knitted together in confusion. "But I didn't get to play."

"Well, then go play."

"I don't wanna play all by myself," Chloe replied.

"Well, Chlo, I'm too big to play in the play place, Aubrey does not feel like playing, and there are no other kids here. So, it looks like your options are to either play by yourself or we can leave now. Which do you want to do?"

Aubrey watched her slouch back down against the seat again to debate her options.

"I guess we can just go home," Chloe mumbled.

"We're not going home," Julia replied, "You're going to Aunt Rachel's, remember?"

Chloe kicked her feet up and down, kicking Aubrey in the shin without noticing. "Maybe Rock can play."

"Rock is not allowed in the play place, Pumpkin."

"On the dog shows on TV, the dogs go through tunnels."

"I know, and I'm sure that Rock would have so much fun doing that, but the rules say he's not allowed to play – and if we don't follow the rules, we'll be told to leave and you might not be allowed to come back here to play again," Julia explained, "Now, do you want to play or do you want to leave?"

Chloe slowly pulled her shoes off and placed them on the seat next to her.

"Does that mean you're going to play?" Julia asked. She was met with a solemn nod as Chloe stood up and carried her doll toward the play area.

Aubrey clenched her jaw off to one side. She felt like a jerk – a tired jerk. She watched her walk away, feeling worse with every step she took, then flinched and slid off her chair when Julia placed a hand on her shoulder. "Wait!" she called to Chloe. She shot Julia a glare. It was her fault Aubrey was there to begin with – there at McDonald's, there in Florida. She didn't want to play with Chloe, but she especially didn't want to sit at the table alone with Chloe's mother. She wanted to be with her own mother.

Chloe's eyes lit up as soon as she realized Aubrey was going with her. She doubled back to grab her hand – oblivious to the frustration written all over Aubrey's face. "Do you wanna jump in the ball pit?"

"The ball pit is where I draw the line."

"You don't have a pencil," Chloe replied.

Aubrey's gaze flitted up toward the ceiling. "No, I don't want to jump in the ball pit. Do you have any idea what could be in there?"

Chloe nodded. "Balls."

"Besides that."

"…a pit."

Aubrey stopped walking and turn to the side to face her. For a moment, she was positive Chloe was stupid. That was until Chloe's serious expression began to slowly dissolve into one of giggles. She wasn't dumb; she was messing with her. "You know what else?" Her tone might have come off more threatening than she meant it to, because Chloe's eyes widened – but really she was thinking about the possibility that some kid had peed in their once.

"Me," Chloe answered as she released Aubrey's hand.

Aubrey tilted her head as she watched a dejected Chloe climbed the steps then fall face first into the colorful pit.

That wasn't what Aubrey had meant – but Chloe throwing herself in there was definitely simpler than pushing her would have been. "I'll go down the slide one time," she said, "And then I want to leave." There were two options to get there, and Aubrey chose some climbable platforms as opposed to the tunnel opening. She'd still have to go through tunnels at the top, but less of them. Tucking her doll under her arm, she hoisted herself up onto the first one.

"Or…" Chloe climbed back out of the balls, "You could go down both slides one time."

"How about we race?" Aubrey tried to reason with her.

"Okay!"

"I meant down the slide, not to it!" Aubrey didn't even know how to get to the slide! She pulled herself up faster. She might have been good at climbing, but had she known this was going to happen, it wouldn't have been her chosen route – at least not with a doll in her hand. "Chloe!"

She finally made it to the opening – just quick enough to see Chloe dart through one of the tunnels. She knew which direction she was going to have to go; she just needed to catch up and then cut in front of Chloe last minute and – she stopped so fast that she fell into a tiny dead-end that jutted out over the room below. Some sort of dark liquid had been spilled on the tunnel in front of her, and she almost touched it. She scrambled to sit upright so she could place her doll on her lap and wrung her hands together.

Chloe's head poked around the corner and she locked eyes with Aubrey. "It's just somebody's soda. Climb over it."

Climb over it. Aubrey was going to have to turn and go back. She was going to lose.

"Hold on," Chloe said, "I'll be right back. Don't move." She disappeared back around the corner.

This was why Aubrey did not want to play in here. There were germs and it was disgusting – and, really, this was more about going home than it was crawling through some dirty tunnels, but the smallest things suddenly felt so big. She backed herself up into the little area made to look like a helicopter and looked down through the window at Julia, who was writing something in a notebook. This wasn't how things were supposed to go…

"It's this way!" Chloe called. The sound of her tiny hands slapping the plastic she crawled were accompanied by the sound of someone bigger following her back to Aubrey. "See. A spill." She pointed it out to one of the worker. "You're cleaning that up real good," she said as the lady mopped it up with a towel then sprayed something on the ground.

"What is that?" Aubrey asked.

"Bleach," the lady replied. She didn't look very happy to be in the play place either. Sighing, she dried that up with another towel then squeezed past Chloe to leave.

Bleach was good. Aubrey's mother cleaned with bleach all the time. But this stuff must have been diluted, because it didn't burn Aubrey's nose like at home. She could barely smell it at all.

"Better?" It wasn't the tone Aubrey's parents used when they asked that. Chloe actually seemed to want to know if that had made Aubrey feel better – and Aubrey didn't really know what to say. Had she really just climbed all the way down there, found a worker, and then climbed back up so some soda could be wiped up for Aubrey to get through? Why had she just done that? "Here." She crawled toward Aubrey and took her hand again, but this time instead of dragging her, she helped her over the newly cleaned area. "Now is it better?"

Aubrey responded with a jerky nod. "Thank you."

"I'll show you where the slides are and then we can race." She released Aubrey's hand so they could fit through the tunnels. "You go first. I'll tell you which way to go."

Aubrey inched past her. There weren't exactly that many ways to go. Most of the areas that could be turned into were more little alcoves; only two tunnels seemed to lead to different areas. She followed Chloe's directions to the slides and immediately chose the blue one.

Chloe say down in front of the yellow. "Do you want say it?"

"On your mark," Aubrey said, "Get set. Go!" She leaned back so the grips on the bottom of her socks wouldn't slow her down and flew down the slide as fast as she could make herself go – so fast, she nearly fell on her butt at the bottom. Nearly. She caught herself at the last minute and wobbled on her feet.

Chloe appeared a full ten seconds later – way too much later for Aubrey to believe it was a fair match. "Well, I guess you won. Good job."

"Did you let me win?"

Chloe nodded her head.

"Why would you do that?" Aubrey demanded. Her nostrils flared.

"I thought you wanted to win."

"But it's not a fair win!"

"Life isn't fair." Chloe laid a hand on her shoulder. "But the good part is, sometimes it's not fair in your favor."

Aubrey gaped at her. "I want a rematch."

"You wanna go through again?"

Just one more time. To win properly.

xxxxx

"Did you have fun?" Julia asked.

Aubrey sat back down on her chair and yanked her shoes on after the second race ended in a proper win.

"Yeah, but usually people wanna play longer," Chloe answered.

"Maybe next time, Pumpkin."

Chloe collapsed dramatically into the booth, laying back so her head was on Julia's lap. Only her feet could be seen as she raised them in the air above her to fix her shoes.

"You ready to go to Aunt Rachel's?" Julia asked.

"I guess so."

"What are you writing?" Aubrey asked, watching Julia tuck her notebook into her bag.

"That's her work journal," Chloe said, "We're not allowed to look at it."

"It's boring anyway." Julia eased Chloe to a sitting position so she could stand. "I'll buy you books if you want to read."

"I can't even read it. You write in cursive. It's like a secret code," Chloe said.

It wasn't a secret code.

"Do you know how to read cursive?" Julia asked.

Aubrey stared at her. Yes. She stopped herself before she could blurt out the word and looked back down at her shoes to make sure they were on properly, subtly glancing at the journal sticking out of Julia's bag. It was a hard decision – to keep it a secret rather than announce that, of course she could read cursive.

"If you both have your shoes on, it's time to go."

"Do you know how to read cursive?" Chloe whispered in Aubrey's ear as they stood up to follow Julia out the door.

"Yes," Aubrey whispered back. Darn it.

Chloe clutched her arm. "That's so cool."

xxxxx

"Do I really have to go to Aunt Rachel's house?"

Aubrey stared out the window at all the things passing them by. There were so many hotels. She had never seen so many hotels. And these weren't fancy hotels like she was used to. They had the doors to their guest rooms on the outside. "Excuse me, Ma'am?"

"Yes, Chloe, you really really have to go to Aunt Rachel's." Julia glanced back at them in the mirror. "How about you just call me Julia, Aubrey."

Aubrey frowned.

"What do you need, Baby?"

"Why are there so many hotels here?" Aubrey asked, "And why do they look like that?"

"Actually, they're motels," Chloe corrected, "And it's cause me we live by the beach. And also, you have to drive a little far, but we live close to Disney too."

Aubrey already knew the last part – but now she had more questions, like what was the difference between a hotel and a motel?

"Actually, people live in a lot of these," Julia answered.

"You can't live there," Aubrey argued, "They're for vacation."

"They're supposed to be for vacation," Julia said, "But some people don't have anywhere to live – and so they end up living in motels."

"Why can't they buy a house?" Aubrey asked.

"Or rent an apartment?" Chloe added.

"Well, it's possible they can't do that because maybe they made a wrong choice and have a criminal record," Julia answered, "Or maybe they had a house or an apartment and something happened or they got evicted."

"What's evicted mean? " Chloe asked.

"It means you're thrown out." Aubrey leaned her forehead against the cool glass as they drove past another motel with a 'no vacancy' sign that had some of the letters smashed, so it just glowed 'no y'.

"At least you don't have to live in a motel," Chloe blurted out.

That's because Aubrey wasn't thrown out. She was just…well, she didn't know the word for it, but it wasn't that.

"Not that you were thrown out," Chloe corrected her words, "You were given to us - and we love you."

Aubrey wasn't that either.