The Way We Were

The Way We Aquarium

Marcy yawned as she counted the children again. She, Miss Carter and another room mom were on this field trip to the aquarium and although she loved the place, she was still worried about Yuria.

After a week of worry and anxious phone calls, she, Jude and Mal finally tracked the girl down. Marcy had spoken with her but very briefly. It did nothing to alleviate her fears.

"Mommy?" Mally pulled up on her shorts.

Marcy looked down, blinking away her issues. "Yes, baby?"

"Will we get to see octopus?"

"Yes."

"I told you, Raj!" The little boy looked to his friend with a wide smile.

"Go sit down, sweetie." She patted his head. "I have to count you all."

"Okay, Mommy!" He hugged her bare legs and ran to sit next to Raj.

Marcy counted again before turning to Miss Carter. "26."

Miss Carter nodded. "We can go now. Mr. Tibbs, we're ready."

The elderly but still sharp Mr. Tibbs put the bus in gear. He shut the doors and turned on the radio before turning out of the school's parking lot.

Marcy sat next to Belinda Otto, the other room mom. Belinda was the closest mom to Marcy's age in the entire three classroom school. She was twenty six and a single mom. Marcy thought she was nice but she wasn't exactly trying to make friends, even if she knew she needed more mom friends.

She took out her phone and texted Mal and Jude. Both replied that they hadn't heard from Yuria either, even though the Vietnamese beauty had promised to call back that day.

Marcy tried not to let it get to her.

The class made it to the aquarium with little fanfare and exited the bus. Miss Carter had them group up with the buddy system and had them split up in teams of three so every adult would have a group of about eight kids.

The trio of groups split up and went on different tours.

Marcy's group went to see the sharks first and right away ran into problems when Charlie began scaring little girls by pretending to be a shark.

The two little girls ran to Marcy and hid behind her legs. "Mrs. Chang! Mrs. Chang! Charlie's being mean!"

Marcy wasn't in the mood. "Which one is Charlie?"

The girls pointed to the blond boy laughing with his freckled redheaded friend. "Him!"

"Come on." Marcy called the twins and their friends over, the tour guide confused. The four children walked up to her. "We're going to have a little talk with Charlie. Okay? I want you to stay close."

All six children nodded, the twins knowing Charlie was about to get it.

Marcy went to Charlie and tried to be nice. He was three after all. "Young man. I hear you're being mean. You know that's not very nice, right?"

"So?" He turned up his nose.

"Everything you do has consequences, whether they're bad or good. You do good and you get good. You do bad, you get bad. Understand?"

"My daddy said you're a..." Charlie thought hard on the word. "Slut. Mommy said she didn't want you to come on this trip cuz you a bad fluence."

"Did they?" Marcy squatted in front of him.

He nodded. "Mommy said not to listen to you."

Marcy nodded slowly. "Do you love your mommy?"

Charlie didn't understand the question. "Yes."