Cold as Ice

1.

Ava's pov

"Have a good rest of your day Eileen." I say as I punch out and shut down my laptop for the day. I look at my AppleWatch and it says 3:00pm. I got out on time for once.

It's cold still for early April so I put on my jacket to keep warm with the slightly frigid air. With the cooler weather beginning to die down also means that 2020's early months are coming to an end.

Our boss is cracking down on us to meet deadlines and it's becoming a bit more stressful. I wouldn't be surprised if I had to enroll my kids in the extended day program for a few weeks until it dies down again.

"You too Ava! Make sure you take a video of that sweet little girls new trick today. I want to see." She smiles in delight.

Eileen is like a grandmother to both Aurora and Hunter. She loves everything involving Aurora figure skating or Hunter playing hockey and it is honestly the sweetest thing. She loves both of them dearly and even spoils them a little too much in my eyes.

"I will. She's very proud of it." I say and pack up my lunch box and laptop for the evening. "I'll see you tomorrow. Bye" I smile and head to my car which has crayola crayons on the carpet and seat, ice cold McDonald's French fries on the floor, empty juice pouches in the sides of my kids car seats and the occasional candy wrapper. In my cup holder is a now ice cold coffee from this morning that was originally ordered hot. So that's what I forgot in my car this morning.

This morning we were running behind because Aurora was nervous about going to school for the fire drill today. They were having a fire truck go by the preschool and going over safety procedures with them.

The importance of not playing with matches and lighters, not touching the hot stove or oven, and knowing escape routes and meeting places in case of a fire. All things kids should know from a young age on.

I picked out a book called Arthur's Fire Drill by Marc Brown from the children's section at the local library. I read it to both of them last night just to give them an understanding of what would happen today. Let's just pray everything went well.

I head over to the preschool and park my car near the door. Heading inside, I see my beautiful babies playing with the other kids their age waiting for their parents to pick them up.

Both of them have red plastic fire hats on and safety stickers on the left side of their shirts. God they're adorable.

Aurora is the first to notice my presence. "Mumma!" She squeals and runs over to the small swing door next to the counter. Hunter is quick to follow her and smiles brightly when they see me.

"Hi baby." I smile and sign out both my children. She gets her backpack and jacket off the hook with her name on it and Hunter does the same.

"Hi handsome." I crouch down to both their heights and give them big hugs and about a million kisses.

"Momma stopppp" Hunter giggles and wipes his cheek.

"Now why would I stop loving my babies?" I ask and wave to the teacher before walking out the front door. Hunter begins to tell me every detail about his day which makes me smile.

"I sat up in the fire truck Momma!" He tells me causing a bigger smile to grow on my face. He told me last night that he was scared to go sit up in the fire truck because of how high up it was, but he did it.

"Great job buddy! Did you have fun?" I ask as I help him into his car seat.

"I did." He gives me a grin and then tell him to keep his hands away from the door as I shut it. I put Aurora into her car seat and she's being quiet on me.

"What about you my princess? Did you have fun today with the firefighters?" I ask and she shrugs. "What happened?"

"A boy pulled my hair when we were in line for the fire drill..." she says and tears fill her eyes. She looks distraught and sad.

"Oh baby that just mean..did you tell Ms.D? I ask and she shakes her head telling me no. "Well if he does it again you tell her okay?" I say looking at her in the rearview mirror as I put on my seatbelt. She only gives me a small nod still upset. In the mirror I see Hunter grab her hand and my heart melts into a puddle. They are the cutest twins ever.

"Well..how about after the rink today we get hot chocolate and I'll make chicken nuggets at home for dinner?" I offer and a smile instantly takes over her face.

"Yes Mumma!" She giggles and kicks her legs back and forth in the car seat. My babies are adorable.

We head home and they practically drag me to their room so we can get to the rink. Aurora has me put her in fleece lined tights and a quarter zip sweatshirt over her thermal and I put Hunter in sweatpants and a thermal.

After placing hats on their heads, I grab their bags and put them in the back of my car and we head to the rink. It's crazy how it came full circle.

My whole life was at the skating rink when I was younger. I was a competitive figure skater. I met my babies father at the rink. And now their lives are practically on skates.

The short 10 minutes drive to the rink comes to an end and we all walk in. Since it's early, open skate is still quite so I sign us in and we put on our skates.

"Gloves Hunter." I tell him and he groans but puts down his hockey stick and puts on his gloves. I make sure his helmet is tight and his skates are tied. "All good to go" and off he goes skating towards the net.

"Ready little lady?" I say as I tie her skater. She nods and I finish tying my own skates. Both of us take the ice and she begins gliding gracefully around in circles, doing all these graceful turns.

I watch both of them skate for an hour and more people begin to show up with the 5:30 crowd. "Aurora, baby, can I record your new trick?" I ask and she gives me a look. "Eileen wants to see how beautiful you skate." And to that her eyes light up.

"Gamma?" She asks with her gorgeous smile. Of course I give in and not correct her.

"Yes baby, grandma." I tell her and pull out my phone. Eileen has said on numerous occasions that she doesn't mind them calling her grandma. She never had kids of her own so she never had grandchildren. She sees me as her daughter and my babies as her grandchildren and I'm so happy I have a connection to someone like that.

"Hi gamma." She says and waves to the phone that is now recording. She skates to build up speed and shifts her weight to her left skate. She pulls her right leg behind her head and spins in a circle. This girls flexibility scares the shit out of me.

She finishes her trick and skates back over to the camera. "Bye bye gamma love you." She smiles and I send the video off to Eileen. I look over at Hunter who is holding his ground with the seven to nine year olds playing hockey. He steals the puck from a defender and skates up the mini half court game and scores on the open net.

I guess hockey is just in his DNA.