Carly's Army

tws: unwanted sexual advances made towards an underaged character by an adult
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carly is the baby of the nursery. being the youngest, everyone in the nursery has taken on a parental/older sibling role for her. at first, she hated it. it made the young apprentice feel infantilized. she already struggled enough proving herself to parents as both an apprentice and a minor. it didn’t help that it seemed even her co-workers and bosses didn’t think she could do things herself.

as time went on, however, carly came around to the dynamic. marjorie doesn’t have any children of her own, so carly fills that role. autumn sees who she could’ve been had the cards she’d been dealt been a little different, and feels the need to protect carly’s bubbliness. charlotte just sees someone like her- bubbly, outgoing, and always in a good mood. carly is like a younger sister to charlotte. and so on and so forth.

she’s a kid. carly understands that. 17, yes. but still a kid. still young enough to where the world could very easily chew her up and spit her out had it not been for her found family at the knight nursery always looking out for her and explaining things to her when she is looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. if anything, carly now basks in her “untouchable” status. just ask reece.

so when a pervy father manages to make some unwanted advances during pick-up, carly finds comfort in that she has an army behind her.

the day starts out like any other. carly gets up, gets ready, and waits for reece to pick her up while wolfing down a granola bar for breakfast. carly has a later start today so by the time she gets to the nursery, all of the children have been dropped off for the day.

the day itself goes by like any other. taking care of the little ones, quick gossip session with charlotte while winter thinks she’s in the bathroom, and eating lunch with reece. the day is a good day thus far, albeit an uneventful one.

it’s not until evening rolls around and parents begin trickling in to collect their children do things take a turn. carly does a few handovers with parents, mostly the mums. winter, when possible, takes on the collections from dads. the mums may make unsolicited comments about her physical appearance, but carly has heard it all already and can brush it off with relative ease. however, the audacity of man knows no bounds and never ceases to amaze carly…and makes her want to take a bath in a mixture of bleach and holy water.

winter is off at the toilets, having waited until carly was in ratio to go. the ideas of being alone in the room and not knowing what parent could walk in next does unsettle carly, but surely, she can handle it for a few moments, right?

…right?

“good evening,” she hears a man’s voice from behind her, scaring the shit out of her and making her whip around.

“oh, gosh. sorry, you kinda startled me there. good evening! lucy, go grab your stuff from your cubbie!” carly rushes out in one breath, giving lucy’s dad a polite smile.

“it’s alright.” lucy’s dad pauses and rakes his eyes up and down carly’s body, making her smile falter and spine shiver. “you look nice tonight.”

carly tries to not show her discomfort. it’s just a compliment, right? a completely innocent comment meant to lift up her spirits a bit. she does the same thing with charlotte. just a nice compliment.”oh. um, thank you.” she’s just wearing a hoodie and jeans. nothing nice. just a nice compliment. she decides to quickly shift the topic. “lucy had a great day today! she has a few drawings to bring home tonight. i noticed throughout the day that she was holding the pencils and crayons properly rather than holding it in her fist!” yes, mention a developmental progress. her confidence in her attempts to shift focus when she notices that lucy’s dad’s eyes have landed on her chest.