Sunshiny Days

Chapter Four

Alexandria awoke to Sun standing directly above her face. She screamed and instinctively threw a pillow at him.

It bounced against his face and his beams retracted a little. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he said as he started messing with the ribbons on his wrist.

Alexandria closed her eyes and sighed in relief. "I thought it was Moon again" she responded.

"Oh um...yes" Sun said awkwardly.

She stood up and started to fold the blankets neatly. As she handed them to him, she asked "When did I fall asleep? And what time even is it right now?"

Sun took the blankets from her and started walking to one of the play structures. It was a giant block that he climbed on top of. "Oh, it was about a couple hours ago. I moved you there so you would be more comfortable." he got the cable from the ceiling and began attaching it to his back. In no time at all he was up in the air and landed on the loft to his room. "It's almost 7 o clock, and I wanted to wake you up before the other children arrive!" he called from inside.

When he flew back down to her, she looked down sadly. "So my parents didn't come again, huh?"

Sun sensed her sadness and comforted her. "Don't you worry, little missy, we'll figure this out! Some more staff bots will be in today, so maybe they can help us!" Sun said with his usual cheeriness.

While it did comfort her a little, she still felt sad that her parents didn't even want her. It was much better to drop her off in a strange place than to care for her apparently.

Sun broke her train of thought and began dancing in anticipation. "The children, they're almost here!" He turned to her. "Are you ready?"

She was still a little nervous, but she gave him an apprehensive smile and a thumbs up.

The day went on like usual, with Alexandria warming up more and more with every passing hour. At first, she would hide in the playset while kids ran around and played with each other. Eventually, she was coaxed out subtly by Sun to go and interact with them. Hesitantly, she walked out of the playset and went to go talk with some of the other children. By the end of the day, she had actually managed to make a couple friends. When late afternoon fell, she said goodbye to her friends and ran off into the playset again.

"Thank you for visiting the Daycare, and have a Fazerrific day!" Sun beamed as the last family walked out. He sighed in exhaustion and fell to the ground with his back against the doors.

Alexandria ran over to him and asked "Are you okay?"

He chuckled a bit and looked at her "Yeah, it's just been a long day."

She sat down in front of him and put her knees to her chest. It looks like she wasn't going home again tonight.

As if he had sensed her thoughts, Sun jolted up. "Your parents! I'm so sorry, sunshine, I forgot all about that!" His sunbeams retracted fully as he pulled on them. "Oh, now you'll have to stay the night again." He seemed really bothered by this which touched her a little bit. No one had really cared this much about something she needed help with. Sun looked at her anxiously "Oh, I'm so sorry, everyone has left for the day and there's no one else to ask for help about this..." He stood up and held his hands to his chest. "You'll have to stay the night again, is that okay?"

She sighed, but there was nothing else that could be done. "I don't really have a choice" she chuckled dryly.

Sun really felt like this was his fault. "I promise I'll help you out tomorrow, you have my word." Sun crossed his hand in a "Cross my heart and hope to die" motion.

She chuckled a little. "It's okay, don't worry about it." She smiled but then looked up at him "But wait, aren't there other areas of the Pizzaplex? Why don't we go out there and see if anyone can help us?"

All of Sun's beams retracted at this. "We can't go out there," he said, visibly trembling.

"Why not?" she responded, oblivious to his fearful behavior.

"O-outside is...it's d-dangerous" he said, stumbling over his words.

Alexandria finally picked up on this and looked at him concerned "Are you okay?"

Sun quickly snapped out of it and pretended he was fine. "We're not going to go outside, okay? We're perfectly fine in here and there will be more staff bots that come in tomorrow!" he said with a false sense of cheerfulness.

"Okay" she finally agreed. "Great! Now let's get you a bed and some blankets, missy"

While Sun busied himself with preparing her sleeping spot, she wondered about his previous behavior.

'Sounds like he was scared out of his senses....' her shadow said suddenly.

"Geez, don't scare me like that!" Alexandria jumped in surprise. Sun looked back at her and she gave him a thumbs up. He turned around and kept working while Alexandria lowered her voice. "Why do you think that was?" she asked.

'Maybe it has something to do with the light?...' the shadow answered.

Alexandria got lost in thought for a minute as she looked over at Sun. After a few minutes, he ran over excitedly to her to announce that her bed setup was finished.

"I hope you like it, I added plushies from my own collection!" he beamed. Alexandria shyly thanked him and got into the bed made of pillows. When she laid down, Sun stood there and swayed idly. She pulled up the covers and looked at him awkwardly. "Goodnight, sunshine! I'll be right over there in case you need anything!" Sun said as he pranced off in his usual cheery fashion.

Her eyes followed him as she watched him go. After a while of laying on her back staring at the ceiling, she decided that she couldn't sleep. "What the heck, I should be tired," she said quietly.

'It's because you're thinking about something...' the shadow said from somewhere above her head.

Alexandria sighed, "You're right. I'm still thinking about what happened earlier. I'm really curious about the outside." She sat up. "I'm also bored of this Daycare, this is the only place Sun will allow us to stay at."

The shadow stayed silent for a moment, and then stared at her with a glint of mischief in her light blue eyes. 'Why don't we sneak out then?....'