"I thought of something we could have for dinner," Eva called out as she stepped carefully into the living room. I stuffed my blush back into the small makeup bag sitting near the wall of the sink and turned off the light in the bathroom.

"Oh yeah, what's that?" I asked grabbing a jacket from my closet and slipped it on as she appeared just outside my bedroom door. She was now wearing a long-sleeved white shirt with the word love written across it, dark blue jeans and light pink tennis shoes.

"Spaghetti." She stated excitedly as she put one foot out in front of her as she showed off her outfit. "I decided to change too."

"I see that. I am loving the outfit and the dinner choice."

"You really think so?"

"I do. Those shoes go perfectly with the outfit you've got on. And believe it or not, spaghetti is a must in this family." Eva beamed as she looked at her shirt then at her shoes as we walked back into the living room. "Why don't you get your booster seat out of your room and then we'll go."

"Okay." Immediately she disappeared down the hall, coming back a few minutes with her booster seat in both hands. "Got it!"

"Alright." Digging down into my left pocket, I grabbed my keys. " Looks like we are ready to go."

"Mhm." She followed behind slowly as I opened the door for her step into the garage, but not without warning, of course.

"There are a few stairs you're going to have to get down before you get to the car."

"Kind of like my old house, except we had three steps to go down." She stepped down them, one by one while carrying the booster seat. I could tell already that I was going to have one very independent girl to raise. Of course, I couldn't fault her for that, especially since I was the same way."You said we were going to check out schools?"

"I did." She handed me the booster seat as she climbed into the back of the car. "Then we can go shopping for things we might want to eat this week."

"What if they don't like me?" She asked with a frown as she sat down in ther seat and buckled herself up with ease.

"Who? The other kids?"

"Yeah. What if they don't like me?"

"Do you want my opinion?" I questioned, feeling a little unsure about charting into unknown territory as she gave a little nod. "I think they are going to love you when they realize what a great friend you are."

"Even if I'm the new kid? Not everybody likes them."

"Who told you that? I was the new kid many times. As hard as it was, I eventually always made a friend."

"I guess. Can we go now?"

"Yes, we can go." Closing her door, I sighed and wondered what I was getting myself into as I hopped into the driver's seat and opened the garage door. I usually listened to music in the car, but today I left it off, which made the ride relatively silent as we drove to the nearest elementary school. As I pulled up to one of the parking spots close to the front door, her gaze hadn't moved from the window.

When it was clear she wasn't making any move to get out of the car, I shut the engine off and hopped out to open the back door. "This school doesn't look too bad, does it?"

"The colors aren't that pretty to look at." She looked around the door, looking less than impressed. The school was an older one; grey interior around the front door area, lined with brown colored bricks around the rest of the building.

"Maybe not. Come on, hop out." I encouraged her as she let out a long sigh before unbuckling and jumping onto the asphalt.

"Now that was fun."

"Are you telling me you're not a fan of school?" She walked beside me as we made our way down the long sidewalk. She did the most unexpected thing and grabbed my hand nervously, clinging onto me the closer we got to stepping through the front door.

"Not really. I had an art teacher I really liked. It was the only class I really liked. Everything else was boring." She skirted to a stop, tugging on my arm. "Do we really have to go in? I could just come to work with you every day. You wouldn't even know I'm there."

"I wish you could." I bent down to her level, hoping that no one would come barreling through the doors and run into us while were standing there. "Unfortunately, there's a law that you have to go to school. As for coming with me to work, there may be a day you can come meet everybody. For now, can we give this school a chance?"

"I guess I can give it a week or two." She came to the conclusion as her mouth twisted in contemplation. I knew it wasn't what she really wanted to do, but it was kind of the only option she had right now.

"Glad to hear it." With us both accepting that answer, for the time being, we were able to walk into the school with relatively no hitches as we stepped up to the front desk.

"Hi, can I help you?" The receptionist was an older lady, maybe in her forties. She had kind blue

eyes and glasses hanging over her nose.

"Hi. My name is Hailey Upton. I was wondering if I could get my daughter enrolled in your school?"

"We can probably do that. How old are you, sweetheart?"

"Five, almost six." Eva let go of my hand as she tried to see over the taller part of the counter. Just as she did, I felt my phone buzz in my back pocket.

Hey, Hailey. I can get all the information faxed to the school, Are you there now? Luckily, I had thought to text Eliza after reading through about the requirements for enrolling children in school. Especially after she didn't leave the information I needed for Eva.

We are, yes.

"Okay, so we do require you to fill out an application as well as an emergency form, and I will need to see some kind of proof that proves you are the parent. I will also need proof of your child's identity, your proof of residence, and records of vaccinations.

"Here's my ID and proof of residence." Pulling out the bank statement I had put into my pocket before bed, I set it next to my ID.

"Can I get your fax number so I can have the social worker fax her information to you?"

"Absolutely." She gave me the number, which I then texted to Eliza. She responded a few seconds later that she would get that sent right over to the office. "Alright. If you'd both like to take a seat, I'm just going to make a photocopy of your driver's license while we're waiting for her information to be faxed through."

"Thank you."

"No problem."

I sat down in one of those soft wooden cushion chairs and it brought me back to how many times I found myself or one of my brothers sitting in one of those chairs. We had tried to keep out of trouble growing up, especially knowing what our dad would do to us if we didn't. I had learned to stay out of it after a couple of times and so did my older brother, but my youngest brother never knew how to.