The next day Miranda goes home and back to school.
Right after lunch Miranda puts her stuff in her cubby hole and comes back to the classroom.
Just before she sat down she saw Maxine set up their experiment with Alexx.
"Aunt Maxine. Aunt Alexx," she hollers as she runs up to them.
Maxine picks her up and sets her on the table, "hey you. Is today going ok?"
Miranda put her head down and said, "well no. None of my friends welcomed me back except a few."
Maxine pushes Miranda's hair back and says, "that means that the kids that didn't welcome you back aren't your real friends. They only wanted to be your friends before you got sick. They think that's cool but it's not."
Just then Alexx walks up to them and sits on the table with all their equipment, "Aunt Maxine is right. The kids that didn't welcome you back don't deserve your friendship. You'll be able to find some new friends. You're a smart girl and you deserve better than that. Mommy and daddy would say the same thing."
Miranda looked over at the girls snickering at her and said, "you're right Aunt Alexx, Maxine. I deserve better." She walks back to her desk, snaps her fingers towards her classmates, and walks away to sit down while the girls just looked at her stunned.
Just then Ms. Mitchell walks up and says, "class today we have a special presentation. Miranda's Aunt Alexx and Maxine have come to tell you about what they do at work. Maxine, Alexx the floor is all yours."
The class applauses and they begin the presentation. Alexx steps up to the middle of the table and introduces herself, "My name is Alexx Woods and I'm the Medical Examiner for Miami Dade Police Department. Basically what I do is when somebody gets hurt and they're bought into the MDPD it's my job is to find out how they got hurt and to give there soul a peace of mind. I also help out my colleagues when they don't want to see their real doctor. Since you guys are a little young I'm gonna show you part of my job. I asked your teacher to help you put a bunch of things in your hands so I could do my part of the presentation. Who wants to go first?"
Miranda's friend Carmen raises her hand and Maxine calls her name.
Maxine puts her on the table and Alexx takes a cotton swab and gives it to Maxine, "My name is Maxine Velera and I'm the DNA analyst. My job is to find out what the substance is on this swab. What I do is I cut the swab and put it into the mass spec and put it into a machine that will tell me what kind of substance is on the swab."
She cuts the swab and puts it into the mass spec and the printer prints out a paper that says what the results are, "Carmen. The substance that you have on your hands is black top."
Alexx takes her off the table and takes her to the sink and washes her hands.
Maxine continues the presentation and they clean up.
When they finish cleaning up Miranda walks up to Mrs Mitchell and asks her, "since it's almost lunchtime can I go have lunch with my Aunts today? I hardly get to see them because of their jobs."
She looks over at Maxine and she puts her hands up to say, 'I had no idea she was gonna do this.'
Mrs Mitchell looked back at Miranda and said, "sure. Why not. But just for today and come back at one o'clock we have a lot to do today including studying for a spelling test."
Miranda hugs her and says, "thanks."
Mandy put her hand on her cheek and kissed her forehead goodbye, "see ya in an hr. Now go."
They three of them left and went to Burger King.
Just as the walk in the restaurant Miranda notices Frank.
She runs up to him and hollers, "Grandpa Frank."
He picks her up and hugs her tight, "what are you doing out of school young lady?"
She points to Maxine & Alexx and says, "Aunt Maxine and Aunt Alexx visited my class today and I asked Miss Mitchell if I could have lunch with them. What are you doing here?"
He holds her in his arms and says with a big smile on his face, "I'm picking up some lunch for myself and gonna take it back to my office."
Miranda puts her head down and says sadly, "you don't want to have lunch with me?"
He looks up at Alexx and Maxine and said, "sure why not. I can have lunch with you in the break room at the lab then you can tell me about your day."
They all get in line and Frank puts Miranda on his shoulders, "so what do you want princess?"
She looks down and him and says, "chicken fries and french fries- they're the best."
The four of them order their food and head back to the lab.
Frank sets up her food and sits next to her while Alexx sits on the other side and Maxine sits across from her. He ate a French fry and asks, "ok Miranda how did today go?"
Miranda took a bite of one of her fries and said, "great. Aunt Maxine and Aunt Alexx did a big presentation about each of their jobs at the lab. Aunt Alexx showed us how she collects things on people and Aunt Maxine shows us how she finds out what those things that Aunt Alexx collects are."
She takes a drink of her soda and Maxine continues, "yeah. We set a big table up in front of the class and called some kids up who had substances on their hands and Alexx collected the swabs and I analyzed them to tell the class what the substances were using the mass spec. The class loved it."
Maxine ate a bite of her chicken fry and Alexx continued, "we couldn't go into too many details about me dealing w/ the bodies so I just told them about how I collect stuff on people and give it to the CSI's to find out what the stuff is."
Frank smiled and said, "sounds like a good presentation you guys did. Did you like it Miranda?"
She giggled before taking a bite of another chicken fry, "of course I loved it. I wanna come to the lab and see the real thing someday."
Frank perked up, looked at Maxine and Alexx and said, "that's a great idea. When you get home you should mention it to mommy and daddy." Miranda barely choked on the rest of her chicken fry when saying, "you really think that mommy and daddy would let me come to the lab and hang out?"
Alexx jumped into the convo and said, "sure. I think they'd love to show you around the lab. I know I'd love a visit from my favorite God daughter."
Maxine pushed her hair back and laughed, "you know Miranda. I could use a smart little girl like you to help me in the lab when I get overwhelmed with stuff and Aunt Nat is out with either mommy, daddy or Uncle Ryan."
She nearly jumped out of her chair and said, "you'd really let me help you in the lab Aunt Maxine?"
She bit her sandwich and nodded her head.
Alexx looked at Miranda funny and said, "I could use some help too sometimes. Do you think you'd wanna help me out sometime too?"
Miranda laughed, "of course Aunt Alexx. I like to help everybody. I'm a very helpful girl. Even mommy says so."
Just then Frank looked at his watch and sighed, "I'm sorry kiddo but we have to get you back to school and I have to get back to work."
She put her head down and bought it back up again and said, "can't I come to the lab with you guys and help out. I don't like school."
Frank collected Miranda's trash and asked her, "why not?"
She looked back at Maxine and Alexx and said, "some girls don't like me. They only liked me before I got sick. They think I played something called hookie"
Frank looked at her sat down next to her and grabbed her hand before curling his lips a bit, "well you know what? If you still have problems with these girls you come to your good old Grandpa Frank and he'll straighten them out for you."
She kissed his nose and said, "you'd do that for me Grandpa Frank?"
He scooped her up in his arms and squeezed her, "of course I would. You're my only granddaughter. I'd do anything to protect you."
Just as the 4 of them come out of the break room to enter the elevator Eric sees them from the prints lab, comes out, crosses his arms and clears his throat, "Miranda Alicia Delko what are you doing out of school young lady?"
She runs up to him and puts her arms out to hug him, "hi daddy."
He curls his lips, "Hi. Now what are you doing out of school young lady?"
Maxine jumped in and said, "Eric don't be mad at her. I asked her to go to lunch with us and she said yes."
He looks up at her and sighs, "that's fine but from now on you guys can take her for ice cream or whatnot after school. I don't want her missing anymore school as it is."
Alexx interrupts them, "it was also partially my fault. I should have cleared it with you first. I'm sorry Eric."
He nods his head and Miranda asks him, "do you still love me daddy?"
He picks her up and sits on a bench and puts her on his lap.
H sees everything going on and says, "of course daddy loves you. He would do anything to protect you just like any of us here at the lab would."
Maxine and Alexx nodded their heads in unison, "we agree."
Miranda put her head down, "daddy are you gonna punish me for being bad?"
He hugged her sideways and said, "no. I don't have a reason to punish you. You weren't being a bad girl but from now on when you go to school I'd like you to be there ok?"
She hugs him tightly and said, "I'm sorry daddy."
He picks her up and said, "come on girl. I'll take you back to school."
He puts her on his shoulders and Calleigh sees what's going on.
She comes out of the evidence room and asks Eric, "what's going on?"
Miranda puts her head down and looks at Eric. She puts her finger on her mouth and whispers, "shhh..."
He smiles at her and winks, "ok."
Calleigh puts her hands on her hips and asks, "Eric what in sam hill is going on?"
He sighs and said, "Miranda went to lunch with Alexx and Velera but came to the lab to have lunch with Frank. I'm-"
Calleigh interrupts him, "Miranda don't do that again. I've already had enough stuff going on with you to last me the rest of the month. Eric take her back to school. We'll take punishment when we get home."
Miranda looks at Alexx with a quivering mouth, "mommy. I only had lunch with Aunt Alexx and Aunt Maxine. Ask Aunt Maxine if you don't believe me."
Just then Maxine interrupts them and says, "look Calleigh. I know you're upset but she asked if she could have lunch with us. I know we should have kept her at school but she says she doesn't like it. Girls in her class are constantly picking on her. I've seen it while we were there today."
Calleigh looked at Miranda, "is this true sweetie?" Miranda put her head down and buried her head into Eric's hair, "yes mommy. Please don't make me go back "
She sits down next to Eric while holding Miranda, "I'm sorry baby but if you don't go to school mommy and daddy can get into big trouble."
Alexx steps in and says, 'tell you what Miranda. How about Aunt Maxine and I come over every other day and check on you to see what's going on?"
She smiled wide and said, "I'd love that." Just then they all separate and Eric takes her back to school.
He walks her to her classroom door and kneels next to her, "remember what I said sweetie. If those girls keep picking on you tell the teacher and if that don't work come to one of us."
She kissed his nose and said, "ok I will. Bye daddy." He stands up and puts his hands on his hips, "hey. Are you trying to get rid of me that fast?"
She giggled and said while tilting her head, "of course not daddy. I just wanna see Ms. Mitchell."
He shakes his head and rubs the top of it, "ok. I get the picture. I'll see you after school. Can I get a kiss?"
She smiled and kissed him on the side of his mouth, "bye daddy."