| Chapter 1 |
| "Hello?" She pulled her cell phone to her ear. "Hi I am Matt with Cingular Wireless, I hear you are interested in some new features for your phone?" He said in what seemed like on breath. "No I am not, I have told you a hundred times, please stop calling me." A hint of anger filled her tone. "I'll call back at a better time." He offered, as he shuffled through some papers. "No thank you that won't be necassary. It won't be necassary for anyone to call me back." The hint of anger rose in her tone. "I can arrange that." He said with dissapointment of the loss of a sale. "Thank you." And with that she hung up the phone, walked into the daycare she had bought because of her love of children, and thought of how it had become her home away from home. "Hello everyone." She greeted the children, and was replied with a round of 'I love you's. She heard it everyday but it still touched her like it had the first time. "Ok lets sing a song. Ya'll want to start with Little White Duck?" "YYYYEEEEAAAAHHHHH" With that she started. "There's a little white duck sitting in the water, a little white duck sitting in the water, he took a bite of a lily pad, shook his head and he said I'm glad I'm a little white duck sitting on the water, a little white duck doing what I aughta. Quack, quack. quack." Just as she was about to begin the frog Mason walked in. He ran over to her and attached himself to her leg. Although she shouldn't have played favorites, she had to admitt he was her baby. But mostly by his own doing, he had decided that she was the only teacher he would show affection to, and that was a gift she couldn't ignore. Before she knew it, it was time for all the children to depart to thier classes, she waved goodbye to all of them as she made her way to her office. She made calls to all the mothers she had messages from, most of them were questions about field trips. But one had brought fear to her, the mother had been concerned about bruises on her child. She walked the long walk to Ms. Jamie's room, as she reasoned with herself that there was no possible way Ms. Jamie could be so cruel as to harm a child. "May I steal Julie from you?" She tried to keep her voice firm. "Why of course you can." "Julie come with me to my office, your not in trouble I just need to talk to you about something." With that they walked silently to her office. "Julie you can sit right here. That is a pretty dress you have on today. Where'd you get it, I may get one myself?" Julie laughed and she knew she had relaxed her. "Well Julie I was just wondering what you did this weekend." "I went to my Daddy's house, and he bought me a dolly." "Did you get to enjoy the great weather we had this weekend?" She was trying to figure out where she had gotten the bruises, while hoping it wasn't at the daycare. "No Daddy said I couldn't go outside cause I was bad." Her voice dropped. "Ok well I was just wondering if you had enjoyed your weekend as much as I did mine." She already knew the answer. "Well I do when I'm with Mommy." Her eyes lit up. "Well then let's get you back to class so you can play." She walked to the door and led Julie back to her class. On her way back to her office Ms. Ingrid stopped her. "This young man has come to pick up Colton and he is not on Colton's list." Ms. Ingrid pointed to a man she guessed to be about her age, maybe a few years older at the most. "Come with me, we will get this straightened out." He gave her a bewildered look and began to follow her. His look got worse once he saw the office they were going into was labeled Owner. "Sit down please, I will be right with you , I have to make a phone call before I forget." She turned off the music playing, as she picked up the phone and dialed the number on a stray piece of paper. "Hello Mrs. Reed, I just talked to Julie, she gave no indication that it was Ms. Jamie, but I will be putting an observer in her room. I think you should talk to Julie about her relationship with her father tonight though. I am not positive but it does seem like it wouldn't hurt to try that lead. Yes you are welcome. No thank you for talking to me instead of getting irrational. Ok see you then. Bye bye." She turned her head toward the patiently waiting gentlman. She held up her finger to imply one more minute. She pressed a button to talk to her secretary. "Ms. Lucy, could you go sit with Ms. Jamie's class, she still needs her observation. Yes thank you. No that will be all. I'll be fine without a secretary for one day. Yes I'm sure. I'll be leaving soon anyways. Yes I don't feel too well. Yes I realized. No I'll be ok. Bye bye." She turned her attention to the young man one more time. "Ok Colton, let's see." She shuffled through a file for his pick up papers. "You may have accidently not made it onto Ms. Ingrid's list. Ok found it. What is your name and relation?" "Justin I am a friend of the family. He is staying with me while his parents are out of town." "Well you aren't on here. Is there a number where I can reach his parents? I'm sorry to do this to you but it's procedure. We wouldn't want just anyone to walk away with the kids." "I understand. You can call them on thier cell. They should still be in area. They were only going an hour away to visit her sick mother." "Great I have the number here." She made the call and found out his story checked out. "Ok one more thing, I need ID. They say you should be Justin Jeter." She checked his ID and walked him down to Ms. Ingrid's room to pick up Colton. "Bye Colton, see you tomorrow." She leaned down to hug him as he joined them in the doorway. "Wanna come see Justin's cool car? It's like yours." "Probably not as dirty as mine though, mine needs a bath." "Will you come then?" "Yes I will walk you out there, but just because you are so cute." He blushed as she picked him up. "Ready? I am going to look at your car." She turned to Justin giving him a curious look, he looked so familiar. Maybe he had been to pick up Colton before, she felt bad for the innconvenience if he had. "You own this place?" He attempted to make small talk, as they left the building. "Yes I do, it's a dream come true too." She pulled Colton a little closer to her, as he wrapped his arms around her neck. "You want me to take him?" Noticing her movement and thinking she was having a hard time keeping him up, he offered to help. "No I am used to it, huh Colton?" "Uh huh, Miss Tiffany always carries us. She loves us. Huh, Miss Tiffany?" "Yes I do. Oh yeah I guess I should ask you since his parents will be gone all week. I am having a party to celebrate the beginning of summer. It's at my house. All the kids are invited. It's this weekend." "Well here is my car." He pointed to a brand new BMW, playfully mimicing a model. "Wow," she circled it. "Colton this is nothing like my car!!" "It's like your silver one." |