Broken Descent (Bruno Mars)

Be Your Best

Two months later, Bruno knelt next to Charlotte in the park. They'd been going consistently for many weeks.

"Daddy," Charlotte whined. "Hurry up! I wanna play."

Bruno grinned, holding the last of her hair in both hands.

"Hold on," his voice muffled from behind the hair tie in his teeth until he finished the up the braid. "You don't want your hair in your face, right? You probably need a haircut."

Charlotte gasped dramatically as she turned around. "You wanna cut my princess hair?"

Laughing hard, Bruno rested his arm around her back. "No, no. I love your princess hair. It's beautiful. It's just getting a little long. You just need a little trim. You don't want the boys in your class to play with it, do you?"

Making a face, she shook her head. "Ewwww....no way."

"Yeah I don't either."

Bruno and Charlotte played around in the park until the sky got dark and it was time for dinner. After dinner, Charlotte dragged her backpack across the floor toward the dining room table.

Curious, he went over to help her. He picked it up. It felt a bit heavier than usual.

"Why is this so heavy?" He asked. "Do you have rocks in here?"

"No," Charlotte giggled.

Bruno took everything out of her backpack. There was book after book in there, with a note taped on top from Miss Hunter.

I made a promise with Charlotte that I would let her take these books home if she would pay attention. It's not a problem. I love that she's reading, just not during Math.

-Miss Hunter

Charlotte had already been working on her homework. Bruno waited for the right moment.

Staring at her math homework for a bit, Charlotte shook her head.

"This is hard, Daddy..."

Bruno put his hand on her back. "Do you understand any of it?"

"No..." she sighed.

Bruno took the note off the book. She averted her eyes.

"Are you paying attention to Miss Hunter when she teaches math?"

Shaking, Charlotte nodded.

"Charlotte I don't want you to lie to me...are you paying attention in math?" Bruno asked sternly.

"No," she said quietly.

Bruno began to rub her back gently, feeling the vibrations.

"Peanut I love that you love reading. I want you to keep loving it and keep doing it."

"I just want," her lips quivered, "I want to read...to you."

Charlotte brought her hands to cover her eyes. With a pout, Bruno lowered his head, trying to look at her. "Sweetheart, please don't cry. You're not in trouble. I'm not mad. I just want you to learn as much as you can from Miss Hunter, and all of your teachers. I'm not always going to be able to help you with your homework...."

Bruno took her hands, removing them from her face and holding them.

"You teach me so much..."

Charlotte smiled. "I do?"

"Yes...of course...every single day...and I want to learn from you even more, okay? Got it?"

Charlotte gave him a thumbs up. "Got it."

"There ya go," he said, grinning widely, kissing her cheek. "Go get the Lucky Charms."

"But we just ate dinner..."

"I know," Bruno smiled and winked. "Go get the box."

Charlotte skipped her way over to the pantry, pulling out the box of Lucky Charms. Bruno smiled, watching her mood change for the better. He looked at the sheet of homework and poured out a certain number of Lucky Charms on the table.

"Alright, count how many pieces of cereal there are in front of you."

Charlotte took a little while to count.

"Twenty-five."

"Okay, perfect," Bruno said.

Charlotte smiled proudly.

"Now," Bruno said, beginning to take all the marshmallows away.

"Hey," Charlotte whined with a slight smirk. "That's not very nice."

"Hold on...hold on. So if there are twenty-five altogether, and Daddy takes all the marshmallows...Daddy takes eleven marshmallows. How many does Charlotte have now?"

Bruno watched in awe as she concentrated hard to count the number of pieces she had.

"Charlotte has....fourteen," she said.

"Twenty-five minus eleven is what then?"

Charlotte rolled her eyes up to think. Bruno smiled at her. She put her finger to her lips.

"Fourteen?" She answered quietly.

"What was that?" Bruno asked, cupping his ear. "I think I heard a genius say something really, really smart?"

"Fourteen!" she squealed.

"Yes!" Bruno yelled, holding up both of his fists, grabbing her off her chair.

He swung her around a bit and then set her back on the chair. He helped her with the next problem, and then the one after that. Bruno left her to do her homework by herself. She didn't use the Lucky Charms for the last problem. She handed the worksheet to him so he could check it over before she put it in her backpack. Charlotte stared at the Lucky Charms on the table.

"Go ahead," Bruno laughed. "You can eat them now. You can eat the marshmallows too."

Later that night, Bruno brought one from the books from Miss Hunter into her room. He sat at her bedside, handing it to her.

"Daddy I'm not ready yet..."

"I know...but I want you to try," he said, opening it to the first page, "just read the words you know."

Charlotte read all the words she knew, almost every word on the page. Bruno had his eyes on her the whole time with pride. She'd come such a long way since she had started school. She turned page after page, reading most of the words. Tucked in between his hip and his arm, her eyes began to droop. Placing her under the covers, Bruno squeezed Roberto before giving it to her. Moving the hair off her forehead with his palm, Bruno gave her a kiss.

"Daddy?" Charlotte yawned.

"Yes?" Bruno replied softly.

"I'm going to pay attention in math tomorrow...I promise."

"Good," Bruno replied. "I'm going to write a note to Miss Hunter and tell her that you worked very hard on your homework. She's going to be very proud, just like I am."

Bruno took a second to admire the smile on her face as she started drifting off to sleep.

"I want you to be the best Charlotte you can be..." he whispered into her ear, turning off the light.

A/N: Just wanted to say that there will be a sequel for this story. There are still about twenty chapters left in this book, just wanted to let you guys know. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for reading!