Forever and Always

Chapter 17 - ABC

Kayla's POV

Riding the bus seemed to take forever. It kept stopping to pick up other kids. A girl with straight brown hair sat next to me.

"Hi, I'm Kayla." I said to the girl. She didn't say anything back. "What's your name?"

"Charlotte."

"Nice to meet you. It's my first day of school. What about you?"

She nodded. We didn't talk much the rest of the way. When I got off the bus I asked her if she wanted to sit with me tomorrow. She said yes, maybe we'll be friends.

All of the Kindergarten teachers were waiting outside the school building. I've never seen so many kids before. The big kdis walked themselves to their classrooms.

"Kayla Swift?" Somebody was calling my name. I looked to see who it was, but there were too many people to tell. I slowly raised my hand and a tall woman walked over to me.

"Are you Kayla?" Asked the woman.
I nodded.

"Come with me. I am your Kindergarten teacher Ms. Bailey." She led to me to a group of other students and told me to wait while she went to find the rest of our class. There were some kids who were already friends. I tried to talk to a few people, but no one wanted to answer my questions. I stayed quite until our teacher brought us to her room.

Ms. Bailey's room was big. There were five round tables, a teachers desk, a large round rug and computers. Posters covered the walls. I couldn't understand what all of them said, but I saw colors and animals and the alphabet. I would get to learn how to read and write. Maybe I will be able to write songs like Mommy.

"Okay everyone, pick a spot on the oval carpet and sit criss cross applesauce." Ms. Bailey announced.

We all gathered on the rug and waited for directions.

"I am Ms. Bailey and I will be your teacher this year. This is Mrs. Schafer our assistant teacher." She explained while gesturing. "Later I will explain what we will be learning this year, but right now I would like to get to know each of you. We are going to go around the room and say your name and your favorite ice cream flavor."

We started our first activity after we learned everyone's names.

"I hope y'all are excited to do our first project. It is important to know how to write your names. So, that's what we'll start with. I have markers and crayons set out on the back table. I want you to grab a sheet of paper and your favorite color. Then pick a table and we will come around, write your name at the top and then you copy it."

I wrote my name as many times as I could fit on the page. They never looked as good as Ms. Bailey's. I shared a table with 2 boys and one other girl. We had snacks after our project while our teacher read us a story by Dr. Suess. Mommy has read me that story many times. By the end of the year I will be able to read it by myself. I was surprised when my teacher announced we would be going home in a half hour. The day went by so fast. I couldn't sleep during nap time, so I just laid on my mat staring at the ceiling.

"I had a great day with all of you today. I hope you also had an awesome day. Tonight I want you to go home with this poster and have your parents help you fill it out. It will help me to get to know you guys better, and it will prepare you for family day. You bring in your family and talk about yourself and them and a favorite item. It is our first big project." Ms. Bailey handed out the posters just as the bell rung.

I ran out into the hallway and tucked my poster into my backpack. I followed the other kids to the parent pick up line. I saw Mommy waiting in her car in the parking lot. She got out and walked to the line. I gave her a great big hug.

"How did it go Kayla?"

"It was exciting. My teacher, Ms. Bailey, has so many books. She calls it her own library, and by the end of the year we will be able to read some of the books in it. I also learned to write my name today." I pulled out my paper to show her. "See?"

"Wow Kayla that's amazing! Owen is waiting in the car for you. We had better get going."

I couldn't stop talking about school in the car. When we got home I showed Mommy my assignment.

"Since we learned to write our names, our teacher wants us to make a poster about ourselves for family day. I write my name at the top and put pictures and things I like on it. Here is the paper with directions."

"When do you need to have this turned in?" Asked Mommy.

"In two days. Including today. Family day is all next week, but we have to be ready."

"Well then we had better get started."

Taylor's POV

I brought out several boxes of old photos for Kayla to look at. I must admit my love of taking photos of kids and cats.

"Hope this is enough to get us started." I said setting down the last box of photos. "Let's have another look at the criteria sheet."

Kayla began to look through the photos.

"I like this one! Can we put it on?" Requested Kayla.

"Of course." I took a look at the picture she was holding. It was a fairly recent picture of all three of us at the park. "So Kayla. Here is how you glue on a picture. You put a dab in each corner and then flip the picture over and press down with the towel. That way no fingerprints get on it." I explained laying down the first picture.

We continued to select and glue dow n pictures.

"What else do we need to do Kay?"

"Add glitter."

"Glitter!?"

"Yes, every project needs some sparkle."

"I agree."

When we finished it looked like a glitter bomb had exploded in the living room. Everything on the criteria list was checked off except for one thing, a family tree.

Kayla's POV

"Mommy there's still one thing we haven't checked off yet. What does it say?"

"It says a family tree."

"What's that?" I asked

"It shows everyone in our family in an organized way." Said Mommy while getting out a piece of paper. She began to draw a bunch of lines on the paper. It started with Grandma and Grandpa. Then Uncle Austin and Mommy. Off of Mommy was me and Owen.

"See Kayla. Two people get married and they are added to the tree. Grandma has her own tree and Grandpa has his own tree. When they got married they had me and your Uncle Austin. Then I had you and Owen."

I nodded trying to follow her picture. Isn't something missing?

"Why don't I have two parents? Shouldn't Owen and I have a daddy too? All of my friends have two parents."

"Kayla, I should start dinner. Can you clear the table?"

"Were not done."

"I know, but it's not due for another day. It's getting late and we can finish tomorrow."

"Okay." I sighed and reluctantly put away all of the art supplies. Why won't Mommy answer my question. Who is my Daddy? Everyone has one right?

Thank y'all so much for reading this story and being patient for the updates. I enjoy reading your comments and the helpful feedback, so I decided to release two chapters in one day. Questions will soon be answered. Thanks again!