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It was almost three-thirty, and I was waiting anxiously at the car for the bell to ring. I don’t know if it was the excitement of it being the last day of school or because John was standing next to me, smiling like a goof while we waited for Lily. Other parents were in the parking lot, sitting in their car, head down while playing on their phones. But not us—we were waiting outside of the vehicle, scanning the crowd of kids for Lily as they all made their way outside and celebrated the last day.
I watched as a group of them walked off to the side and bent down, getting something from their backpacks. The smile spread quickly across my face when I saw the cans of shaving cream and knew what they were planning. Off in the distance, I saw Lily talking to another girl before she hugged her and started to walk away. I burst into laughter as the kids began spraying shaving cream and chasing each other as they tried to get away.
John and I had walked over to the fence and were watching them, laughing as they had fun. Lily was oblivious to it all until another girl snuck up behind her and sprayed her with silly string. Lily’s eyes went wide as she reached up to touch the cold, gooey substance on her head. When she whipped around to see who had done it, I caught a glimpse of the girl as well.
“Oh my God!” I shrieked and smacked John in the chest. “It’s Sadie!!”
“What?” he asked as he leaned forward to try to get a better look.
“She said they went to the same school but that she didn’t have any classes with her because she was a fourth-grader. I can’t believe it—look at them having fun!”
I was so caught up in the moment that I hadn’t noticed when someone walked over and stood next to us, on the other side of the fence.
“Did you forget to check in again?” Her voice was just as bitchy as the last time I spoke to her.
I turned to look at her, a fake smile on my face.
“No. We didn’t check in because parents don’t need to.” I raised a brow and studied her as she looked past me to John. Her eyes traveled the length of his body as she folded her arms over her chest and admired him.
“Well, I don’t think I’ve been introduced,” she said, her tone changing to a more flirty one.
I rolled my eyes and ignored her as I looked back to where Lily was chasing Sadie, trying to get her with the can of silly string that she had stolen from her.
“I’m Lily’s teacher, Ms. Summers,” she added when neither of us acknowledged her.
John turned to look at me, ignoring the woman who was practically panting beside me.
“This is the Ms. Summers?” he asked. I nodded my head, knowing that he knew plenty about her from the past few weeks of me complaining about how awful she was.
He rubbed his lips together, then made a popping sound as he walked out from behind the fence and faced her. She smiled and pulled her shoulders back, making her breasts look bigger while she extended her hand for him to shake. He ignored it.
“I’ve heard plenty about you,” he said coldly, leaning in closer to her. Her eyes widened as his tall frame towered over her, his face set in stone. “And I can tell you that if you ever treat my daughter or Emma with any disrespect ever again—I will personally pay you a visit, and we’ll have a talk that you will never forget. You wanna act like the ring leader of the mean girls club? I’ll show you just how mean I can get.”
She scoffed and pulled her head back in surprise. She lifted her hand to her chest and fidgeted with the necklace that dipped into her cleavage.
“Sir, I can assure you that I have never treated either of them—”
“Save it,” he snapped, interrupting her. “Lucky for you, today is Lily’s last day, so there will not be any problems for me to come handle. However, if I were you, I’d consider my last warning if you ever see them around town.”
“Actually, the last day of school is on Thursday,” she snapped, switching back into the bitch mode she had when I first met her.
“Lily confirmed that the last test was today. Emma has made sure that all of Lily’s assignments were complete and turned in. There’s no reason for her to come the next two days,” John argued, folding his arms over his chest.
“Every day is an opportunity to learn something new,” she countered defensively.
“Like what? How to be a bully? How to clean the classroom while the teacher sits at her desk and watches?” I bit out, feeling relieved when I saw John’s smirk after I said it.
“Trust me, she’ll learn plenty this summer. No thanks to you,” John said coldly, turning his attention to Lily as she and Sadie came running over to us.
“Daddy!!” she screamed when she saw him. He bent down and held his arms open as she ran over and hugged him. He lifted her up and spun her around, her laughter the best sound in the world. Sadie and I laughed along, watching as Lily extended her arms in the air and giggled.
After a few minutes, he set her down, making sure she wasn’t too dizzy to stand on her own. Ms. Summers had apparently walked off at some point, not that any of us had noticed or missed her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, adjusting her backpack and looking up at him.
“I wanted to come pick you up on your LAST. DAY. OF. SCHOOL!”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“Daddy, school doesn’t end until Thursday. Remember?”
John tapped his finger to his chin as he looked up, pretending to be deep in thought.
“Hmm. That’s funny. I thought you said that today was the last day and that the other days were just for cleaning.” He paused for a moment and turned to look at me. “Wasn’t that what she said?”
I nodded and scrunched my face, watching her eyes light up.
“That’s what she said...”
“But you said that I had to go to school until the last day,” she said, suddenly unsure of herself.
“Did I?” He pulled his lips together, making fish lips that made her giggle. “Well, I guess I just figured why stay in school to clean when we can go on a... road trip!”
She covered her mouth with her hand and looked back and forth between us.
“Where?!”
“Everywhere,” he laughed and pulled her close to him. “We’re going to drive cross country to New Jersey to spend some time with—”
“Grandma and grandpa?” she finished for him, barely able to contain her excitement.
We both nodded, and I felt my heart swell at how happy she was. Hell, at how happy they both were.
“When do we leave?” she asked.
“I was thinking... maybe... tomorrow?”
I felt my stomach tighten, the dread of being by myself for a few months taking hold again. It wasn’t that I couldn’t be by myself. I just didn’t want to. And especially not in their house, alone with memories of Charlotte. I needed to start looking for a job to fill my time and fast. John and I hadn’t talked about the trip since Saturday at the beach, and I had avoided him whenever he would start to talk about it. Granted, it had only been a few days, but I didn’t think that he was going to get on the road so soon.
Maybe he was worried that if he didn’t go right away, something would change his mind? Or perhaps that was just wishful thinking on my end. I wanted them to have this experience together, but I felt so anxious about being alone and not having anyone. It was something that had haunted me ever since my parents died—the thought of truly being alone.
“Tomorrow?” Lily repeated. “Are you coming with us?” She turned to look at me, her eyes full of hope.
“I—” The words caught in my throat, and I looked at John, panic in my eyes. I didn’t know how to tell her no.
“Why don’t we go get some celebratory ice cream, and we can talk about everything then?” John offered.
I nodded and walked to the car as Lily grabbed my hand and walked with me. It was at that moment that I realized that my fear wasn’t about me being alone anymore. It was that I didn’t want Lily to be alone.