The Singer's Girl

Chapter 2

TAYLOR'S POV

"I'll wake you up when it's time for school, okay?" I said before turning the bedside lamp off. I was letting Caroline sleep in my bed tonight, because what kind of mother would I be on my first day in being a mother if I didn't? I got settled into bed bedside her while I was thinking about all that had happened today.

"Goodnight, I love you." She told me, interrupting my thoughts.

"I love you Caroline, goodnight." I told her. This summer she had needed a lot of reassurance that I loved her. She was still struggling with her dad being killed, and had been all summer. But today it seemed like she was doing well, she had officially become my daughter earlier this afternoon. I had been kind of worried for today, but everything ended up running smoothly.

The reason I had been worried was because Caroline seemed to have her good days, and her not so good days. And I probably wouldn't be so content right now if the day I officially adopted her fell on one of her bad days.

After the fact that her dad was dead settled with her, she realized all the long term consequences. All the things that would happen in the future because of him not being there, and she started to have panic attacks. And frankly, it frightened me when she did, although I always tried to appear brave and strong when I helped her through them.

I'd learned that talking to her about what was happening in the present and talking about the future for her and I instead would help her calm down when she was having panic attacks. So when this has happened in the past couple months I would often talk to her about how I was adopting her. I would tell her all about the perfect family that her and I make and how happy her dad would be for us. And I would count down the days until the adoption would be official while she was laying in my arms trying to calm down. And today is day zero, it's happening, I'm a real mother.

So she obviously had her bad days, but her good days were the best. I'd felt like I'd forgotten what a happy kid Caroline was until she started having good days again. I loved seeing her laugh and smile, even if it's just for a second. And I loved talking to her on those days, it was such a contrast from her bad days. On the good days she could talk with me for hours about anything. My guess was that all the stuff she had bottled up right after Charlie died was finally all coming out on those days.

She would talk my ear off, but I never minded. Seeing her happy was enough for me. And I genuinely liked hearing what she had to say about everything. Because after a tragedy happens, perspectives can change. And although this has forced Caroline to mature much past her age, there were times when I still saw the little girl in her eyes.

Realizing that a new school year started for Caroline tomorrow also made me realize how long it has actually been since Charlie died. 4 and a half months. And sometimes Caroline will still cry and scream like it happened yesterday, but I knew that was all part of the grieving process.

If there's one thing I wanted this school year to bring Caroline it was friends. Even though she had referred to me as her best friend countless times, nothing could replace friendships between you and people your own age. You can relate to them, you can talk to them about anything, and you can vent to them. And I knew Caroline needed that, especially since she's getting older.

When your Caroline's age friends are an important part of life, but so are parents. So I tried to be the best I could be at both roles.

CAROLINE'S POV

"Caroline." I heard Taylor say while she put her hand on my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see Taylor standing over me, I slept in her room last night.

"It's the first day of school! Oh my gosh, you're a sophomore." She said as I slowly pulled myself out of bed. I didn't know how I felt about school yet, I wouldn't have friends to ask me how my summer went, but I guess if I had friends they would know how my summer went, because they would've been there with me. And during school I missed my dad 100 times more than usual. Maybe it was because I was alone all the time, I was in a classroom full of kids, but I was alone.

But then again, maybe starting school would be good for me. You never know, maybe it would be easier to sleep on school nights than it was on summer nights. I slept well last night. But I figured it was because Taylor was there. My normal night routine was trying to get to sleep but then overthinking everything until I freaked out and gave myself a panic attack. It happened more than was probably healthy, and I only got Taylor 50% of the time when I would have them.

I went up to my room that morning and got dressed in the outfit that Taylor and I had picked out last night. I remembered last year on the first day of school, I was scared to death because it was freshman year. But my dad was alive back then, he wasn't in the country, but he was alive.

When I went back downstairs Taylor had breakfast ready for me, and before long we were on our way to school. When we pulled up to school I saw some familiar faces, I also saw some terrified looking freshman and I thanked god that I wasn't one if them anymore.

"Bye Caroline. Have a good day." Taylor said as I got out of her car.

"Bye, I love you." I told her.

"Love you." She said before I shut the car door and was on my way in.

----------------------------------------

So if you haven't noticed I'll be updating every Sunday and Wednesday. They'll probably come later in the day on Wednesdays because I have school and then cross country practice immediately after. Thanks for dealing with the short chapters, they get longer as the story unfolds, I promise!