Twisted (Original Series Part 1)

The Arms Of A Storm (Finale)

"Time to wake up, Teedee bird." Barbara sat on the edge of her daughter's bed at seven o'clock in the morning, already dressed for the Big Day in her best suit, navy blue and white which was a perfect compliment to her blonde hair. She had recently cut it to look like Vivian Vance, and it was styled around a navy blue pillbox hat. She had gotten dressed for the day as soon as Jess had left to go to the bar to do inventory before it opened, A.J. having told him he'd meet him there to help out...but Barbara knew better. Her father was going there for the free day-drinking. She didn't care about any of that today; she had a singular focus. Today was her baby girl's first day of kindergarten and she had to make sure she woke up on time. That was no easy task; Stephanie never liked it when she had to wake up early, and she never wanted to go to sleep at bedtime. Most little girls asked for bedtime stories or songs when they were put into bed at night, but Stephanie liked to tell the stories herself, and Barbara would sit at the end of her bed for a long time, well past Stephanie's bedtime, listening to the adorable little stories Stephanie made up until she told her it was absolutely bedtime, no exceptions! She tried again, shaking her daughter and saying, "Teedee...you have to get up for school, honey."

"Nooooooo!" Stephanie's little voice called from under the pink blanket. "I don't want to go to school! I want to stay home with you, Mommy. I can help you today if you want me to."

"That's very sweet of you, honey, but every little girl has to go to school when they turn five...and every little boy too." Barbara turned the blanket down enough to stroke her daughter's hair. She smiled down at her and said, "You get to wear the pretty dress you picked out last night, you know. I know you like the dresses that twirl a lot, so when you get dressed for school you can twirl around and I'll take your picture in your pretty dress. We'll call the picture Stephanie's First Day Of School and put it in a pretty frame. How about that?"

Stephanie had a serious look on her little face, like she was thinking hard about something. "Mommy, how old am I going to be when I don't have to go to school anymore?"

"Well, you'll be eighteen when regular school is over, but then you will go to college, so maybe twenty-two or twenty-three," said Barbara. "Why do you ask, Teedee bird?"

"Because you told me I have to wake up at seven o'clock sharp for school every day, and I want to know how many days I have to wake up at seven o'clock for for the rest of my life."

Barbara laughed; she couldn't believe Stephanie was actually trying to do that math! "Well you know, you can sleep late every Saturday and Sunday, and summer vacation, and Christmas and Thanksgiving...lots of days, honey. And you know, you have to wake up early when you're a big girl, too, just like Daddy does, because you'll have to go to work."

"I'm going to get a job where I can sleep late, Mommy," Stephanie declared. "I'll get up early for school, but I promise I'm going to get a job where I can still stay up really, really late and then sleep in the morning as long as I want!"

"What job do you want to have, honey?" Barbara was smiling at how clever her daughter was, trying to strike a deal for the rest of her life because getting up for school made her unhappy.

"I'm going to tell stories to everybody, Mommy," Stephanie told her mother. "I don't know what job that is yet, but I'm going to stay up as late as I want and tell all my stories to everybody and maybe I can twirl around in my dresses too...I don't know if that's a job but that's what I want to do."

"Well, whatever you do, today is the first day, sweetheart." Barbara bent down to kiss her daughter on the forehead. "Today is the first day you get to go out there and learn everything you need to learn for when you're a big girl. I'm sorry it's early, but that's how they planned school."