The Day Care

Chapter 2

Zyra's POV

When I get home, the first thing I do is open up my doordash app. My favorite way to end the week is with sushi from Osaka Sushi, a glass of red wine, a bubble bath and finally watching this week's episode of the Bachelor.

Once my food order is in, I start my bath water before heading back to the kitchen.

I live in a two story home in North Philadelphia. On the first floor is my living room, laundry room, kitchen and a guest bedroom with a bathroom. My bedroom is on the second floor and has a large bathroom attached. I also have a second guest bedroom and bathroom upstairs.

It's a lot of space for just me so I regularly rent out one of the guestrooms to different travel nurses that are passing through. The next nurse is supposed to be arriving in two weeks.

When I hear the doorbell ring, I know my sushi is here. I hand the driver a $15 tip before plating my sushi rolls. I grab a glass of wine then head back up to my bathtub.

I drop one of my favorite lush bath bombs into the tube before climbing in. I have my wine and sushi on an over tub tray and slowly close my eyes as the hot water engulfs me.

A few minutes pass and I start the latest episode of the Bachelor. It's an interesting season as there are double the number of girls. I laugh because if I don't find a man soon, I'll probably be submitting my application for the Bachelor.

I finish the episode and my food before moisturizing my skin and crawling into bed. I don't have much planned for this weekend so I put on a movie before dozing off.

On Saturday morning, I'm up early. My first order of business is my 6am Pilates class. I come home for a shower and breakfast before catching the subway to the school. I usually use Saturday mornings to plan the curriculum and meals for the week.

Plus I'm supposed to be meeting Elliot and Oliver there around noon.

When I get to the school, I get seated behind my desk and get started on the menu for the week.  I partner with a local catering company that does all our shopping and meal prep and delivers food early Monday and early Wednesday morning. All I have to do is send them a list of what we need and they do all the rest. All the meals are made fresh and just require reheating.

For this week's breakfast, I order oatmeal for Monday, cream of wheat for Tuesday, muffins for Wednesday, eggs and toast for Thursday and French toast for Friday. I also order 10 pounds of fruit, a gallon of yogurt and a gallon of green smoothies for the kiddos.

The weekly lunch order is my other favorite part of planning for the week. I order lasagna and salad for Monday, salmon for Tuesday, chuck roast for Wednesday, kimchi fried rice for Thursday, and Ghanaian jollof for Friday. I add an order of veggies for each day and also order another box of frozen mini pizzas for the kids that might not be interested in what we are having for lunch each day.

I double check the pantry to make sure we are good on snacks and water and milk before placing the order.

When I'm done ordering the food, I get to work on the curriculum for the day. Even though my school is technically a daycare, I run it as a Montessori style school. Our days are structured and the kids leave each day with more knowledge in their heads. It's part of the reason my school has been ranked in the top 5 daycares in Philly for 3 years in a row now.

Around noon, Elliot and Oliver arrive for their tour and paperwork. Today Oliver is awake and holding Elliot's hand. I buzz them in and meet them in front of the desk.

"You must be Oliver," I say, bending my knees so we are eye level. "I'm Ms. Zyra. Are you ready to see your new school?"

Oliver kids shyly.