A/N: Ollo! The new theme is 'College Life' so, yes, the next few weeks shall be DerekxLaurel centric. I must warn you, however, I've gotten very few reviews lately so this story is taking a week break between now and Chapter 4. Unless I get no reviews, in which case that break may be a little longer. Alright, let's go!

Chapter Three

Pocahontas

So there had been some slight issues with the plumbing at Choice Academy (probably having something to with those pre-K kids Laurel saw flushing leggos down the toilets), so school had been postponed until further notice. Which was fun for Laurel but not so fun for Mommy and Daddy. For the next few days, until Uncle Simmy and Aunty got back in town, Laurel was going to have to go to work with Daddy.

The arrangement was that Laurel would stay for Daddy's first class and then go stay with one of his colleagues that doesn't have any classes until the afternoon. Laurel had never actually been to Daddy's school before, and Berkeley campus was huge. Especially if you sometimes need help reaching the door knob.

There were people everywhere and the buildings were so cool. They actually kind of reminded Laurel of Daddy's paid sabbath-, sabbac-, sabbe-, well, Daddy's paid trip to Rome. It was way cool. Laurel held tightly onto Daddy's hand in order to avoid getting lost in the flow of things.

Everybody seemed so busy, like nobody even took time breathe. By the time they got into one of the sprawling establishments she was exhausted. Daddy had to carry her inside and she was too bored to notice the looks they were getting since Laurel wasn't actually allowed to be in the classroom during instructional time.

Whatever, at least she got to bring Pinky; that was more than she could say for her school in any case.

UC Berkeley was definitely even more awesome on the inside. People were still everywhere, but the architecture was brilliant. She marveled at all the windows and winding hallways. Daddy told her that, right now, they were in a place called Tolman Hall. Laurel didn't really care but she decided to just keep her mouth shut.

She closed her eyes and kept Pinky close at hand, thinking about what she would draw with her coloring box, which was inside Daddy's suitcase. Before she knew it they were in Daddy's classroom. There were rows and rows of strange looking desks and chairs with a cool really tall desk-thing like the one at Consty's church. There was a movie screen and a whiteboard and a-

"Laurel, do you understand that you must be very quiet or else we won't go to Bruster's today?" he asked her having pulled her up so that they were facing each other. She nodded emphatically. He sent her to a mysterious seat in the very back of the classroom as people would be arriving in a few minutes.

She contentedly hummed the song she learned from Senora Nunez while she drew a picture of Daddy's school.

All throughout class she steadily ignored people's cooing and whispered "Whose kid is that?" and "Is she Dr. Souza's? But she's so cute!". Interestingly enough, nobody came near her. She didn't know why, usually people would walk up to her and say hi or buy her something. She was mildly suspicious that i had to do with Daddy but the thought just kind of floated away.

No matter, she and her corner were having a darn good time, anyways. This all changed a few minutes later, however.

"Whatcha singin', honey?" A very strange sounding voice approached her. Her eyes rolled up to meet a lady with yellowish skin and brown eyes. She was pretty but Daddy told her not to to talk to or acknowledge (like she knew what that word meant) any strangers. Even if they were pretty, which made Laurel want to trust her anyways. But something inside her told her not to do anything rash just yet.

Laurel continued to hum.

"What if I told you your Dad said it's ok for you to talk to me?" The lady whispered since they were in the middle of class.

The lady had already been speaking to her for two minutes and had yet to introduce herself. That was rude.

"Los pollitos dicen pio, pio, pio

Cuando tienen hombre

Cuando tienen frio

La gallina busca el maiz y el trigo

les da la comida y les presta abrigo"

Laurel gasped. She knew Senora Nunez's song!

"You know Senora Nunez's song?" Laurel whispered excitedly. She knew lots of Spanish songs but nobody but her Kindergarten knew Senora Nunez's song!

"Los Pollitos Dicen? Yeah, my mom used to sing it to me." said Lady.

Laurel beamed up at her, all past grievances forgotten.

"Why don't we go watch a movie, Laurel?"

"Ok!" Laurel replied enthusiastically.

"Just around the riverbend..."

Laurel didn't know this movie but it looked pretty cool so far. There were half-naked people and talking trees, so it was cool.

Right now she was watching the movie from the lady's laptop. So fars she'd watched about three cartoons so far, specifically Anastasia (the one with John Cusack and Meg Ryan) and Princess and the Frog (the one with Anika Noni Rose).

The lady said that they were just going to keep watching movies until Laurel fell asleep or Daddy came to pick her up. Laurel was kind of bored but the movie made her laugh at some parts. Slightly annoyed at the fat guy with the pony-tail wearing way too much pink, she began playing on the iPod that her Mommy got her for Valentine's Day.

She was becoming completely absorbed in a game of Cut the Rope when she turned to look at the door. This room wasn't much different from Daddy's so she wasn't very concerned when Lady turned to 'step out for a minute'. There was knocking at it now, however. That was bothersome.

Laurel, of course, had absolutely no intention of opening the door. If the it was locked, Lady had a key.

"Laurel, open the door." A gruff voice came from the other side of the glass. Laurel hadn't actually bothered to look up. Her face lit up as she raced to the entrance.

She pulled roughly at the doorknob. Unfortunately, it would not budge. She kept pulling and found herself too small make any process. She hated being small! Why couldn't she be big like Daddy?

She looked up at Daddy with her arms crossed and the beginnings of a pout coming on.

Daddy, quite frankly, looked pissed.

"Why in the hell would she-"

"Souza!" Lady came rushing in, cutting Daddy off mid-growl.

"Pineda." Daddy said gruffly. Lady rushed to the door with a pair of keys and unlocked the door.

"I just locked her in there so she couldn't walk out and hurt herself." Laurel was listening but she didn't catch the unsaid explanation, and so nobody would walk in and hurt her.

In the second the door opened Daddy had Laurel scooped up in one arm and she assumed the regular position. He effortlessly picked up her things and put them in her purple princess backpack.

"Laurel, you know you aren't supposed to play with that when nobody is watching you." He said.

She nodded her head.

"You shouldn't have made such a mess."

She nodded her head.

"Are you hungry?"

She nodded her head.

Daddy turned to walk out the door but briefly stopped to face Lady.

He offered her a gruff 'thanks' and she nodded in answer. They began walking to the car, the school being just as busy as before.

"Chick-Fil-A?" Every time Daddy asked Laurel where she wanted to eat she answered exactly the same.

"Yup!"

So that wasn't exactly thrilling but I swear next week shall be better! Remember, review and suggest!