You're Not Alone

80: First Grade

3 weeks later
AMELIAS POV
Almost there. Halfway there. In 3 weeks Owen would be home. I was now 31 weeks pregnant. I wish he was here. The girls miss him so much. It's been so hard here by myself. I barely sleep, and Ellie cries constantly, and every once in a while Kamryn picks a fight with me. I'm hoping today is not one of those days, but she is starting school so she probably will. I walked downstairs and she was sitting in the kitchen eating a bowl of cereal.
"Good morning," I said.
"Good morning," she said.
"So are you excited to start first grade?" I asked.
"I guess so," she said.
"You're not excited?" I frowned.
"Well, no," she said.
"Is it because daddy's not here?" I sighed.
"I wanted both of you to come to school and meet my teacher," she frowned.
"I'm sorry," I said.
"I don't want to go anymore," she said.
"Kammie," I said, "it's the first day, you can't miss the first day!"
"Why not?" She said.
"Daddy wouldn't want you to miss the first day, he would want you to go have fun with your friends and meet your new teacher," I said.
"I don't care, he's not here anyway," she said, "both of you were supposed to bring me like everyone else does."
"You know he'll bring you to school everyday when he gets home," I said.
"I don't want to go and I'm not," she said.
"Kamryn you're going to school!" I said.
"No I'm not!" She said and ran upstairs. I was too pregnant and too tired to follow her.
"Kamryn you're going to school so you better get your butt down here because we're leaving!" I said. I picked up Ellie from her play pen and she giggled.
"Me go?" She asked.
"You're going to come to work with mommy," I said.
"I want to go with Kamwyn," Ellie said.
"You're too little for school," I said.
"Why?" She said and started crying. I could not handle two tantrums this morning.
"Ellie, you're going to see all the other kids that you love to play with, please don't cry," I said, "Kamryn!" I walked upstairs and she opened her door with her backpack.
"Fine I'll go," she mumbled and walked down the stairs. Ellie finally calmed down after cradling her. We got in the car and nobody said anything. Today was an extra bad day. I sighed as I pulled into the school parking lot. I set up Ellie's stroller and buckled her in and Kamryn got out of the car.
"I'll be here to pick you up okay?" I said.
"Okay," she said, "when?"
"2," I said.
"Why is first grade longer that's stupid," she said.
"It's so that your big brain can learn more," I explained.
"It's stupid," she said.
"Stupid isn't a nice word," I said.
"Fine," she said.
"Can I take a picture of you by the school sign?" I said.
"No," she said.
"But daddy would want to see you on your first day," I said. She walked over to the sign and faked her best smile as I took the picture.
"See, now you can show that to daddy when he comes home," I said.
"Yeah sure," she shrugged. We walked into the school and she immediately saw one of her friends and Kamryn smiled which was such a relief. I just hoped she would have a good day.
RICHARDS POV
Amelia was struggling with Owen gone and everyone could see that. I knew she needed some form of an AA meeting. I saw her walk in with baby Ellie and they walked into the daycare. Amelia looked so tired. She came out after signing Ellie into daycare with the nurse.
"Hey richard," she smiled as she walked past em.
"Hey," I said, "can we talk?"
"Sure, do you need a meeting? We can go," she said.
"I think you do," I said.
"What? I'm not drinking!" She protested.
"That's not what I meant," I said, "I just feel like you're overworking yourself and you seem really stressed and exhausted, I know you aren't using."
"Yeah, talking would be nice," she said. We walked down to my office and we both sat down.
"You doing alright?" I asked.
"No," she sighed, "I'm so tired, and the girls miss Owen so much, and today Kamryn gave me a hard time about school, and I, I just want Owen back."
"I can't imagine what it's like, but you're strong, and he's coming home soon, and you know the girls love you and don't want to give you a hard time, they just miss Owen," I said.
"Yeah," Amelia sighed, "God I miss Owen so much."
"Well doesn't he come home soon?" I said. She nodded.
"3 weeks," she said, "hopefully this little guy stays in here for that long so Owen can be here."
"Hopefully," I said, "have you spoken to Owen?"
"I talked to him the first two weeks over Skype with the girls, but then they had to more camps and the new one doesn't have good internet connection," Amelia said sadly.
"He'll be okay," I said.
"Yeah hopefully," she said, "well I have to get to a surgery, I'll talk to you later, thanks richard."
"You're welcome," I said, "anytime."
AMELIAS POV
I was in the parking lot with Ellie waiting for Kamryn. We walked into the school and the door opened and she came out.
"Hi mommy, hi Ellie," she said softly as we walked to the car.
"Hi honey, how was your day?" I asked.
"Good," she said.
"Were any of your friends from kindergarten in your class?" I asked.
"Yeah, Haley and Isabel, but Bailey isn't in my class, I saw him with another teacher," she said.
"Well that's okay, you see Bailey at the hospital all the time," I said as I watched her buckle herself in the seat. I felt a painful kick.
"Ooh," I said and put my hand on my stomach.
"Mommy are you okay?" Kamryn asked.
"I'm fine, your little brother is just kicking a lot," I said. He kicked again as I walked around to the other side of the car to buckle Ellie in her car seat. I got back in the drivers seat and Noah kept kicking. Probably Braxton Hicks, it was too early for me to be going into labor, well, I guess not, since my water broke while I was driving back to work.