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“You know if you cry, she’s gonna cry, right?” Kelley says, flipping a pancake on the skillet as Alex shook her head beside her, while cutting up some banana. Her wife gave her an evil eye slightly, before placing some of the cut up banana on the small purple plate to her left. “I will not cry.” Alex huffs, “Okay, I will not cry in front of her. But I feel like she’s gonna get upset.” Kelley shook her head at her wife, allowing Alex to justify her emotions about this day. It was their daughter’s first day of kindergarten, and Kelley was convinced Alex was going to burst into tears at any moment.
Their daughter, Rose, had turned five in May and was more than ready for kindergarten. She'd been attending preschool three times a week and was doing well in it, considering at three she knew how to count to one hundred and knew her ABCs well enough that she could read some short books to herself. They had a bright child and the mothers were sure that she would handle schooling pretty well, but Rose had never spent more than two hours away from Alex in her entire five years of existence. Alex became a stay at home mom when Rose was born, the two had always wanted one of them to be with Rose so that they’d avoid daycare and all the germs.
But in turn, it did bite them in the butt a little, as Rose was a very shy and reserved child when it came to anyone outside her family. There was only one child that she wasn’t shy around and that was her cousin, Mallory, who was two years younger than Rose. “I think she’ll be okay, we’ve been hyping this up for weeks.” Kelley adds, reminding her about how they’d been getting Rose excited to go to school since the first week of August.
When they found out who her teacher was, they started getting Rose used to the name and took her shopping for a new backpack and Rose picked a bag covered in different types of dogs. Their five year old had an obsession with puppies for as long as they could remember, ‘puppy’ was probably one of the first words that Rose said correctly. And they picked a matching lunchbox and Rose was over the moon, she’d showed anyone that came to the house, especially little Mallory, her new backpack.
“Mama?” Rose called out as she poked her head into the archway of the kitchen. Her brown locks were a mess around her face as she had her thumb in her mouth, a habit that Kelley and Alex were attempting to break, but Rose seemed to only do it when she was nervous. “Hi baby girl!” Alex smiled, glancing up to Kelley, giving her the telling look of ‘I’m not gonna cry in front of her.’
“What Mommy making?” Rose asks, setting towards Alex with her arms outstretched and Alex lifts her small daughter into her arms, pressing a kiss to Rose’s cheek. “Your favorite.” Kelley replies with a smile.
“Pancakes?” Rose asks, a huge grin growing on her face as she does a happy dance in Alex’s arms.
“And not just any pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes.” Kelley says, making Rose’s eyes go wide with excitement.
“Mommy the best!” Rose exclaims, getting a pout from Alex.
“Mama’s not the best?” Alex asks and chuckles, as Rose reaches out and holds Alex’s cheeks in her small hands.
“Mama no make pancakes.” Rose points out, making Kelley snort to herself, it brought her so much joy with how much Rose acted like her, the sass, the personality, it was all Kelley at that age. For their lack of similarities as far as looks went as Rose very much resembled Alex, Rose resembled Kelly in her personality and mannerisms. Rose stayed curled up in Alex’s arms as Alex finished getting fruit onto all of their plates while Kelley stacked up some pancakes, bringing them over to the dining table.
“Mally come school?” Rose asks, as she munches on a slice of banana, bringing up her cousin for the first time that day, though most days, Mallory was all Rose could talk about, the two girls had always adored spending time together. “Not yet, she’s too little.” Kelley replies softly, watching as Rose scrunches her eyebrows together.
“But wanna play with Mally.” Rose mumbles, pouting to herself as she plays around with a piece of her pancake on her fork. And in turn this put Rose in a mood for the rest of breakfast, grumbling to herself about wanting to see Mallory and being upset each time she was told that Mallory couldn’t come to school. Alex had taken Rose upstairs to get ready, dressing the little one in her school’s uniform, and braiding Rose’s hair back from her face and tying in matching bows to the ends of her hair.
Kelley was busily cleaning up the kitchen from breakfast, attempting to have it all done before they had to take Rose to school. “Mommy come look!” Rose calls, as she steps to the top of the stairs, Kelley smiles as she spotted her daughter and Rose hit a pose. “Wow lovey! You look cool dude!” Kelley says as Rose climbed down the stairs and launched herself into Kelley’s arms and Kelley’s the side of her daughter’s head.
Alex trailed down the stairs behind Rose, and Kelley could see that Alex was already ready to cry, but was fighting. “Let’s go take some pictures.” Kelley says as she grabbed the board that Alex had ordered for Rose’s first day, that Kelley did find it quite lame when it first showed up at the house, but it had grown on her since it would be a nice memory in the future. Alex got Rose settled on the front steps and Rose held the sign in front of her, a pout on her face as Alex pulled out her phone. “Rose please smile.” Alex pleads, “Maybe Mallory can come over after school if your aunties aren’t busy.”
“Ooh yes!” Rose nods, replacing her pout with a Mona Lisa smile and Kelley snorts to herself, knowing very well she was the one who taught Rose to do the half ass smile. Alex shook her head as she snapped a few pictures as Kelley decided to get Rose to change her smile, showing the five year old a smile with her eyebrows all the up, looking like an emoji with a big smile. And Rose did copy her mother, replacing the halfway smile with the huge one as Alex glanced over her shoulder, seeing why Rose was making that smile now. “Kelley Maureen O’Hara stop that!” Alex says as Kelley rolls her eyes.
“Rose baby, do your nice smile.” Kelley says and Rose was settled onto her normal smile, her little dimples popping out and Kelley grinned brightly back at her, her little girl was going to kindergarten. Once pictures were completed, the family was loaded up into the car and headed towards the school building. Alex was the first out of the car, going right to Rose and getting her unbuckled and Kelley began to see the nerves grow in her wife again.
Kelley grabbed both Rose’s backpack and lunchbox as Rose held one hand of each of her moms as they headed towards the school building. They had a parent night the week before so Kelley and Alex knew where the room was located and knew of the first week policy with the school for kindergartens where parents could assist with the transition into the room if they believed their child needed it. Kelley and Alex had discussed how Rose may react, and planned for it to go really well or really bad depending on their daughter’s reaction. “Mommy I need my bags.” Rose states, reaching her arms up for her backpack and lunchbox.
“You’re right lovey, here ya go.” Kelley says, assisting Rose with getting the backpack on, finding it adorable how big it was on the little girl and Rose held onto her lunchbox tightly as they arrived at the classroom. They recognized her teacher right away, a tall blonde who made her way over to the entrance. “Hello I’m Mrs. Ertz, and how would you be?” she asks, directing her question towards Rose, giving a welcoming smile to the little girl as well as her moms.
“I’m Rosemary Kathleen O’Hara-Morgan. But I called Rose.” Rose says in one full breath and Kelley chuckles.
“Good job with your big girl name lovey.” Kelley smiled as she glanced towards Alex who was definitely on the verge of tears, while Rose seemed like she was more than ready to get into the classroom. “Are you ready to meet some friends?” Mrs. Ertz asks and Rose nods at her as she glances up to her mothers, Kelley leaning down first and kissing Rose’s cheek. “Have a good day lovey! We’ll at the end of the day.” Kelley smiles.
“Okay Mommy.” Rose nods as Alex knelt down beside Rose, who turned her attention to her other mom.
“You’re gonna do great, baby girl! Have fun!” Alex says with a watery smile as Rose hugs Alex tightly.
“I will Mama.” Rose nods, as she clings to Alex for a moment and Kelley is worried that both her wife and daughter would begin to cry. But Rose steps back from Alex and moves towards her teacher, not a single tear in sight. “Bye Mommy! Bye Mama! Love ya!” Rose smiles, blowing kisses at both of them as she runs ahead of her teacher into the classroom.
“That went pretty smooth, we’ll see you at two.” Mrs. Ertz says, waving at the parents as they make their way back to the car. Kelley climbed into the driver’s seat, starting up the car as she glanced over at Alex who had completely dissolved into tears. “Angel, she’s gonna be alright.” Kelley says, reaching across the center console to hold Alex’s hand as she cried.
“I know, but she was so okay. My baby’s not so little anymore.” Alex cried, wiping her eyes as she settled into hiccups instead of sobs.
“I’m sure she’s gonna give you the biggest hug when we pick her up.” Kelley says, kissing Alex’s cheek as they waited a few minutes before driving home. The car ride was quite silent aside from a few sniffles from Alex who moved herself into the house quickly as Kelley pulled out her phone, prompting a text to their groupchat with their friends.
Kelley: she cried
Christen: oh no! Poor Rose :(
Ashlyn: is bug ok????
Ashlyn: does bug want auntie to buy her candy????
Ashlyn: I will buy bug candy to make her happy!!!
Kelley: oh no, it wasn’t Rose who cried
Tobin: OMG it was Alex?!?!
Kelley: yep, not a single tear from Rose
Tobin: lmao that’s so funny, wow Alex
Alex: stfu Tobin we both know you’re gonna sob like a baby when Mal starts school
Ali: she sobbed when Mal kicked a soccer ball without tripping remember
Tobin: I did not sob
Ali: i have a video that begs to differ
Tobin: I hate you both