Sedona

Daycare Fee

(Y/N)'s POV

Clouds filled the morning sky as I fumbled to get ready, and Annie and Thomas, too. They followed me at my heels, especially Annie. She held onto the hem of my shirt with one hand and her stuffed animal with another.

"Where are we going?" She asked me, following close behind. It's either this or she played an elaborate game of hide and seek with me. She is such a shy little girl.

"Well, I got to stop by you two's daycare, but I promise we can go to the park after. Does that sound fun?" My eyes danced between the two.

"Yeah! Can we go?! I wanna go to the park!" Thomas cheered, jumping and smiling brightly in excitement. His energy going through the roof into the Milky Way and the universe beyond. He's like a little ball of sunshine in our little kitchen.

"I just gotta do one thing first, and than we can go, okay? I promise." I reassured Thomas as I ushered the two to the car.

Thomas ran quickly to the back while Annie followed only a hair slower. Her stuffed animal dangled and shook about in her grip as she ran after her brother. Thomas tugged repeatedly on the car door.

"Hold on, Thomas." My keys jangled and clinked together in my hands, unlocking the car. He scurried into the car once he got the chance like a little mouse.

Thomas and Annie buckled themselves up before I could get there. "Come on, let's go, parent!" He beat on the back of the driver's seat in his excitement.

"Mr. Charles?" I opened the door into a tiny office in the daycare. A receptionist led me here, and I had Thomas and Annie being watched outside.

"Yes, you are?" The graying man lifted his head up from his computer. His glasses perched on the end of his nose like he's a librarian in a cartoon.

"I'm (Y/N) (L/N)." I slowly lowered into the seat offered like sitting down would sign my fate to be doomed. "I came to pay for the fee I got yesterday."

"Oh, yeah," He sighed, propping his elbows on the cheap fake wood desk of his. This is probably the millionth time that he did this in the early afternoon. It's like a movie scene playing out before me.

"It's twenty dollars. Next time, it would be a bigger charge. We discourage repeated offenses." He stressed his words with an icy expression, like he enjoyed doing this. "It's only policy."

"Right, I get that." My hands fished for my wallet, taking a moment to not look at him.

"Though, I must ask why you were so late to pick up Annie and Thomas (L/N)." He interrupted me from looking at my wallet.

"Oh, well. I work as a veterinarian, and I got into a workplace accident that led to me in the hospital." I let my wallet rest in my lap as I talked. "I'll try to be more careful, sir."

"Okay, I just find it interesting that it is your first day with us. It's not often that we get some to have such a record quickly." He typed on his keyboard. I could see my file in the database through his large rectangular glasses.

"Yes, I promise to not do this again, sir." I slowly felt more frustrated with this man in his depressing, little, beige office.

"It's important to collect your kids from daycare every day. We close our doors at 8:30 pm. So you must have those two kids collected before then." He finally pushed his glasses up off the tip of his nose.

"I know that. I will pick them up on time. They only come here so I can do work to put food on the table. If I had someone that could care for them, I would." I found a twenty in my temporarily abandoned wallet.

The dollar got lightly thrown on the table as I got up to leave. "Good day, sir." The door slammed shut with a little force than I meant to.

"Ugh," I just slumped onto the little bench next to his sad little office. Color posters and drawings gifted by children coated the walls in front of me.

I took the moment to calm down before getting Thomas and Annie into the next room. Mr. Charles' attitude got on my nerves. The situation is awful, and I felt horrible already that I missed picking them up from daycare.

A snake bit me, and that's all. It isn't exactly my fault, but I should find a way around this. I'm a single parent with no family or friends for miles; I'm the only one that can pick them up.

Their other parent is just some loser in another state or someplace that ditched. They wanted to fulfill their dream of the stars, which wasn't a big deal. It's just that they wanted to be in other people's beds all the time as they made their art.

It's exhausting to have to deal with them, and it still is now that they are just face lost in a crowd somewhere. I'm left in a constant struggle to make ends meet and care for the kids. My car's AC and heater is still broken, and I can't afford to fix it right now.

"Hi, are you going to drop off Thomas and Annie today?" A familiar voice popped up to my left.

"Oh, no. I just had to take care of some business. I'm off today, so I can watch them by myself." I stood up to my feet, my eyes catching on Esme beside me.

"Alright, they are really good kids. You are doing a good job parenting." She complimented me with a polite smile.

"Thank you. It was nice talking to you, but I gotta go. I promised the kids to take them to the park today." I walked down the hall to a colorful room to get them together.

"It was nice talking to you, too." She went on her own way into another room.
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1025 Words