The Mafia's Butterfly (Rewriting)

[15]

Josephina

Clara and Felix wave goodbye as they walk into the parking lot of school and get into Ezra's car. I smile and wait for the car to drive off and then I turn around and walk towards the tree that I love sitting under during breaks. I have a shift at the coffee shop today but it doesn't start for another hour or two so I'll just chill under the tree and draw until I need to leave.

"Hi, Josey." Someone giggles after calling out my name. I look to my left, where the voice came from, and see the little girl who lives on the same street as me. Her name is Ivy, I don't think I've mentioned that. I smile and wave at her. She's playing with the other small kids in the play area and saw me walk past. 

Usually after the high school is finished with the school day, an aftercare opens up in some of the classrooms and they use the gardens and cafeteria as well. The school let's other places rent out whatever they need because they thought it was a good idea to rent out some classrooms as well as other places in the school for funding. Some companies work out and others don't. The aftercare is one of the more ongoing and successful companies to rent out the school because it's a daily occurrence, where parents can't pick their kids up when school ends because they have work or are busy with other important activities. 

"When are you going home?" I ask softly as I walk closer to her and bend down a little. She sometimes has to walk home after school because her parents only have one car and they have multiple jobs, so once in awhile they can't pick her up from school, no matter what the time is. When the situation arises that she needs to walk home, an adult from the aftercare staff will walk with her up until a certain distance and then she walks alone from there. They've done this with other kids as well. However, she once walked with a staff member and that person tried to take advantage of her. 

She usually walks a similar route that I do and so she walked past the coffee shop and local grocery store, I was walking from the grocery store to the coffee shop and noticed her trying to get away. I was actually on a shift at the coffee shop and Simon had asked someone to go across the street to the grocery store and buy a few things because the kitchen was running out of stock and the shipment or delivery for those things hadn't come in yet. So I said I would go because there weren't a lot of customers to attend too and there were other waiters who were working the floor. As I was walking out of the grocery store and towards the coffee shop, I saw a little girl running away from something and as she got closer I realized that it was Ivy and she was running from a man. 

I went into big sister mode right then and there. I ran towards her and met her half way, I picked her up and told her to hold on. She was crying and shaking so much that she could barely keep her arm around my shoulders. I held her tightly and ran towards the coffee shop and inside, where I quite literally slammed myself into the kitchen door and yelled at Simon and Belle that if there's a guy who comes into the store, panting and looking around for Ivy, they need to get him out of here. They nodded in shock and looked between me and Ivy, who was absolutely terrified. 

I walked with her still in my arms into the staff room and I relaxed and sat down on the couch with her, I was going to let her sit on the couch on her own but she didn't want to let go of me so I let her get comfortable and sat with her for 15 minutes, just allowing her to breathe and know she was okay. 

Because of that incident, the aftercare doesn't allow new staff to walk with kids, they don't allow strangers to pick up kids so parents need to meet with the owners before sending their kids to aftercare and the only people who walk with kids are the staff that have been working there for a while because they'll have better judgement on whether or not they will actually just walk the kids wherever they walk too.