Moving Forward

Ava Struggles

"Hello?" I answer my phone, seeing that it's Ava's school.

"Hi, Mrs. Pitt?"

"Yeah..." I reply, confused "Is something wrong with Ava?"

"Actually, there is." She finally says, "I was wondering if you could come pick her up.  She's been crying almost nonstop since Brad dropped her off this morning, and she hasn't been herself at all.  If it's possible, maybe she just needs a break."

"Sure.  I can be there in about 20 minutes."

I hang up, texting Brad quickly to let him know, and get Kassie ready to leave.  This isn't like Ava to get upset, and I think it's because she's catching on to the arguing Brad and I have been doing recently.  She loves school and all her friends there, so there isn't really a reason for all this.

As I start the drive, it hits me what it must be.  The rumor.  Not the arguments we've been having, but some made up bullshit that should have never gotten to her.

I pull into the first open parking space, quickly get Kassie out of her seat, and practically run into the school.  Ava is sitting on a chair behind a divider waiting for me.  She doesn't look too upset anymore, but I can tell that she's been crying.

"Hi, I'm here to pick up Avalynn Pitt." I walk up to the receptionist "Guidance called me."

"Okay!" She smiles, handing me a paper "I just need you to sign here."

I do as she says, then she leads me around the corner to where Ava is waiting.  She runs up the second she sees me, attaching herself to my leg.  I make sure she has her bag, but get stopped before I can leave.

"Mrs. Pitt?" Her teacher walks up to me "I was hoping we could talk really quickly before you leave.  It'll just be a few minutes.  I know you want to get her home."

I nod my head, knowing that it is needed to get the full story, and follow her into an office.  Just as she's about to start talking, I hear the receptionist again. 

"They should be right in there, Mr. Pitt."

Hearing this, I turn my head quickly, surprised that Brad was able to get out of filming to be here.  Ava runs up to him as soon as she can, and sits on his lap once he's next to me.  He looks over at me confused about the whole situation.

"So, from what I've gathered, another child innocently asked Ava about your divorce.  It was an older child in the upper class who has since been reminded that she cannot bring up things like that." The teacher gets quiet for a few seconds, watching our expressions "Ava, however seemed unaware of what divorce meant, and had no idea about the situation until another student explained it to her.  That student was much older, and has since been faced with some consequences since he quite obviously knew what he was doing."

Brad looks from Ava to me, not sure what to even say that this point.

"Miss. Brown, there is no divorce.  We're happily married, it was just the result of our publicist getting mad and making up a fake statement to put out.  None of it is true in any form.  We did what we needed to with the publicist, we were just hoping it wouldn't get this far."

"We haven't explained it to Ava because we didn't want to confuse her about it, but we'll definitely let her know more about the situation now." I quickly add, making sure she knows this will be taken care of "We really appreciate your efforts in helping her though, and talking to the other kids involved.  It means a lot that you didn't just push it aside."

"Of course!  We did not want to make any of this hard on her, so we tried to talk to her, but also let her do most of the talking.  I really hope we didn't make the situation worse for anyone."

We thank her again for all the help, before walking out to our cars and deciding what to do.

"Well Kassie's asleep." Brad looks over my shoulder to check on her "Maybe we should take Ava out for ice cream or something?  It shouldn't be too crowded and as long as she has sugar she'll pay attention to us."

"Yeah, that sounds good."

I follow him to the ice cream place, the whole time thinking about how we're supposed to explain this messed up situation to a 5 year old. 

"Can you get me vanilla with peanut butter?" I stand behind Brad in the line, bouncing Kassie on my hip since she woke up "I'm gonna try to feed her and see if that calms her down."

I take the girls to a table, quickly feeding Kassie before she gets really upset while Ava plays with sticks next to me.  She has them each talking to each other like they're her dolls having a conversation. 

"Come sit with us." Brad says once he brings the ice cream over.  She runs over to us, sitting right next to him.

"Honey what did that big kid say to you at school today?" I finally ask her "About me and daddy."

"He say you don't like each other anymore." She says quietly "But that not true."

We look at her, waiting to hear what else she says.

"Cause you kiss cause you like each other and it's gross."

"But it's a good thing." Brad laughs at the face she's making "It means that me and mommy are always going to stay together, and love each other."

"That's right.  We're always going to love each other, and you and Kassie." I add, making her smile "I don't want you to listen to anyone who tells you anything else, okay?"

"Okay." She says, digging into her ice cream "Good because I don't like it when people tell me bad things.  They're mean."

"I don't like it either."