Kindergarten

V A L E R I U S ' P O V :

"Baby, wake up.. it's school time." I shake Ellie softly.

September first rolled around and I've been preparing Ellie for school all week. I've tried my best to make it sound exciting but for some reason, Ellie just still isn't very happy about it.

Ellie hates mornings, she always has but she's never passed up a chance to have chocolate cereal. She's been faking that she's asleep for ten minutes now.

"Okayyy.. since you're sleeping I guess I can go drink all the chocolate milk for breakfast." I say, sitting up from to bed to leave the room.

"What!" Ellie whispers in pure horror. She sits up quickly and snaps her head to me. Her hair is all over the place and her mouth is hung open in disbelief. "No."

I smirk fell on my face. Got you. "You little devil! We're you lying to me?" I mock shock. I pick her up and start tickling her which makes her giggle loudly. "Pretending to be asleep!?" I blow a raspberry on her stomach and she giggles harder.

My mouth can't stop itself from curving into a wide grin, completely overjoyed at the melodic sound.

I stop and she gives me an innocent smile. I shake my head playfully and carry her downstairs.

Ellie sits in her chair and went to the pantry to get her cereal. I pour her a bowl of Coco Pebbles and grab her chocolate milk.

Should I be going her this much chocolate in the morning? No.. probably not, but she's my baby so she gets anything she wants. She deserves anything she wants.

I get my coffee and sit next to her as she eats. "Are you excited for school?" I ask her, taking a sip of my black coffee.

"No."

She shoves a scoop of her cereal in her mouth.

"Yeah.. I figured." I mumble under my breath with a slight smile playing on my lips. She already sounds like a teenager.

I wonder where she gets all this attitude from.

• • •

I let out a huff of air when I finish her hair tie. It snaps into place and I look at my work. A single braid down Ellie's hair. It felt like it took hours to do but it only took twenty minutes

I've been practicing.

I slip her into an satin emerald green dress and turn her toward me so I can place a small gold clip in her hair. Ellie picked it out herself. She has good taste, real gold and diamonds. What my princess deserves.

After, I leave her alone to brush her teeth, I go to get dressed myself.

Today is the first day in four months that I'll be going back into our mafia base. Enzo is my underboss, he's been there since my departure. I trusted him to watch over everything while I was attending to much more important things.

I need to make a good appearance so I slide into an all black tux with an emerald green tie to match Ellie's dress. I wanted to have a reminder of her even through we'll be apart. Plus, Ellie enjoys it when we match.

I bring Ellie back downstairs after we finish and hand her a lunch for school.

"Ellie how about we take a picture for your zii and your nonno." I say. She skips over to me, her sandals hitting the ground.

I take out my camera and she gives me a lopsided smile. I can't help the wide smile that takes over my face. I send it in our family group-chat knowing that they'll all enjoy the photo.

We arrive at the school after I drag Ellie out of the house. She was not too happy about leaving.

I get her out of her car seat, setting her on the ground. I bend down so I'm closer to her height. "Listen, baby. I'm going to walk you in and pick you up but I can't stay with you. I have to go to work." I break the news to her and her smile falls a little.

"You can't come?" She repeats sadly, tears gather in her eyes.

"I can't.. but I will see you soon. Really soon. You're going to have so much fun that you won't even notice I'm not there." I kiss the crown of her head. "Plus.. I'll always be with you in here.." I point to her heart. "And in here." I point to our matching bracelets and she smiles just a little wider.

I have her put on her backpack and grab her lunch. I hold her hand while we walk into the school. I look around and see some of my men around the outside of the school undercover. I wouldn't actually send my daughter somewhere without protection. I'm not a fool.

We walk up towards her classroom. While we pass students, other parents stand far away from us. I guess my deepened glare wasn't helping.

The first room on the right has lights and bright decorations welcoming the new kindergarten class. I see Ellie's teacher standing at the door greeting kids. I watch how she interacts with the kids.

"Hi! I'm Mrs. Williams! What's your name?" She asks Ellie, sending her a sweet smile.

Ellie squeezes my hand and looks up to me. I give her a nod for encouragement.

"Ellie." Ellie mumbles, giving Mrs. Williams a half smile.

"That's a beautiful name!" Her teacher cheers. Ellie blushes a little, leaning onto my leg. Mrs. Williams turns to me with a bright smile I can tell she uses it with all the other parents here. "You must be Dad?" I nod. "Well there are desks with name tags on them if you want to help Miss Ellie find hers."

That woman is way too happy.

We walk in to see the other parents helping their kids. I walk Ellie over to the cubbies for her stuff and examine the names before finding hers.

"Every morning you're going to come here and put your things away. Okay?" I say and hang her book bag on the short hook.

"Okay." Ellie mumbles back quietly and place her lunchbox down as I unzip her bag to get out her school things.

I can tell how nervous she's getting. I wish she didn't have to be so scared. I wish I could help her in someway.

When Elle sits in her assigned seat, I look in her eyes and smile. She smiles back. "Ellie, I have to go now. I want you to have fun, okay?" She nods sadly and I smile a little. "You look beautiful, baby. I love you." She hugs me tightly. I kiss the top of her head.

I hug her back just as tightly. "I love you too, papà." She whispers. I pull away to kiss her temple.

"Bye, piccolina. I'll see you soon. You won't even know I'm gone. You'll be brave, sì?"

"Sì. Bye, papà."

I get up to walk away and as I do, my eyes drift back to Ellie smiling back at me.

• • •

T H I R D P E R S O N P O V :

Eleonora watches as her papà leaves the brightly lit classroom. When she can't see him any more, she knows he is gone. She wants to cry and run back to him but instead she sits down and stays like she knows her papà would want her to do. She wants to be brave for her papà.

Her seat is in the front of the room so she turns around, scanning the classroom to watch all the other kids say goodbye to their parents. Ellie finds it odd that so many kids her age have a mamma.

Why do they have one but she doesn't?

Ellie remembers when her papà told her that she had one too but that she had to leave. All she knew was that her mamma loved her just as much as her papà does.

Soon, the parents leave too and Mrs. Williams comes back into the classroom to greet the kids.

"Welcome students! I'll be your Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Williams!" The teacher exclaims with a big smile, making some of the students smile at how kind she is. "Since we are all soon to become friends.. let's introduce ourselves! Let's say our name, our favorite color, our favorite food and one thing about ourselves!" Mrs. Williams writes each mission on the white board. "I'll start. I'm Mrs. Williams, my favorite color is green, my favorite food is pizza and I have three cats! Now, let's start with Eleonora since your last name is first in our alphabet." She sends a smile to the small girl wearing a wary face.

"Um..," Ellie mumbles, looking at all the students starring at her. She isn't sure how she feels about the attention. It makes her shift in her seat.

She silently wishes for her papà to come back and save her from all the eyes on her.

Mrs. Williams notices her uncertainty and speaks up. "You don't have to go first, I'm sure one of our friends here can help you out!"

"I'll go!" Ellie says before she can stop herself. After all she did like the thought being first. The teacher sends her a soft smile to carry on. "Uhm.. I'm Eleonora. I like lots of colors." Her thoughts fill of all her favorite colors. "I love chocolate!" She starts getting excited, a smile growing on her face. "And my papà is my favorite, he says I can have lots of ice cream later!"

Relief floods through Ellie when she realizes how interested her teacher was in her story. Her classmates were listening too. They clap for her when she finishes. Joy makes a smile climb to Ellie's face.

"That's wonderful! Class say 'hello' to Ellie!"

Maybe school isn't as bad as Ellie thought.

• • •

Looking out at the warm blue sky Ellie sits alone, eating lunch on the playground. She sits on the jungle gym while the other kids run around with their friends.

Today the teachers let the students eat outside and have their recess. They have an hour outside to do whatever they want.

Ellie had many different chances to make friends but it seemed all the other kids already had friends. She decided she wouldn't want to bother them so, now she sits at the top of the rock climbing wall eating her lunch, watching the other kids from so high up.

Her eyes travel around and focus on a man wearing an bright orange jacket. That kind of looks like John. Ellie thinks to herself. Weird.

John, her papà's most trusted guard, is now a children's crossing guard for the day. It's miserable but he does it to keep Ellie safe.

Deciding that it is crazy that John could be here when he's at her house was insane, she picks up her lunch box from beside her. Ellie starts to take out what her papà packed for her.

She finds a note from her papà. I love you Ellie. It reads. It has two hearts. Ellie figures out it's one for her and one for her papà.

Ellie takes out her cookie, suddenly something shifts beside her. She jumps back in surprise and is greeted with a girl her age, smiling wide.

"I'm Summer! But you can call me Winter if you'd like!" Summer says with a smile. She breathes heavy to try and catch her breath from running up the stairs to the play set.

A small smile lifts Ellie's lips.

"I'm Ellie. You can call me anything."

Ellie quickly decides that the girl is kind enough to be her friend.

Summer puts a finger on her chin and looks out to the distance. "What about.. elephant?" Summer laughs at how similar the two names sound.

"Cool." Ellie smiles a little. The girls sit in silence for a little until Ellie speaks again. "You look like Mrs. Williams." Admiring the similarities in their features.

"You look like Mr. Jones." Summer replies and Ellie turns to see the first grade teacher, Mr. Jones, on the other side of the playground. He was much paler and his skin matched Ellie's.

Both girls look to each other and make a face of disgust. "Eww!" Both of them said and laughed with each other. Mr. Jones has gross boy germs. All boys do, of course the two girls know that.

"Hey! Race you to that tree?" Summer points to the tree across the playground. Ellie goes to get up when Summer stops her. "Watch." Summer says, setting her own lunch box down before sliding to the edge and jumping off the platform.

Summer falls on her butt but gets up and brushes her pants off quickly. Ellie tosses both of their lunches down to Summer. She thinks about it for a moment before doing the same as Summer and jumping down, only Ellie lands on her feet.

"Cool!" Summer grabs her lunch box and Ellie grabs her own.

The girls count to three before running off to the old oak tree on the outskirts of the playground. In synch and laughing together.

• • •

V A L E R I U S ' P O V :

I tap my foot on the ground (not so patiently), waiting for an update on Ellie.

Enzo bursts into my office and looks at me with questioning stare, then shakes his head as if he can read my mind.

"She'll be okay." I roll my eyes at his words.

My computer chimes, signaling I got an email. It's from John. I open it quickly, Enzo walks behind my desk to see it too.

When it loads I see some photo attachments. Clicking on the first one, I hold my breath. I find Ellie sitting alone on the play set and my excitement tones down. I was hoping she wouldn't be alone.

I click to the next one to find a little girl sitting next to her. The corner on my lips twitch up into a smile. The next was of them jumping from the play set and running away with smiles in their faces.

She better not get hurt from that.

"See she's fine." Enzo says, pinching my cheek.

I push his hand away in pure disgust.

"Don't do that."

• • •

I stand outside of the Elementary school, leaning against my car. I watch as the kids run out to their parents while some walk with their friends.

When kids start clearing out I see kids Ellie's age start to walk out. Then I see my girl walk out hand and hand with the girl from the photo. My heart warms at the sight of her.

They hug before the girl runs to her parents. Ellie's eyes find me and in a flash, she's running to me with a wide smile. I pick her up smoothly and hug her as tight as I can.

"La mia piccola principessa, I missed you! How was your day?" My little princess. We don't let go of each other. I pick her up and open the back door.

"Good, I missed you too!" She giggles, making me smile.

I start the car and look back through the rear view mirror to see Ellie. "So.. did you make any new friends?" I ask and she looks to me with bright eyes and a smile.

• • •