Hot For The Teacher

ONE

Tobin hears giggling and quickly closes her eyes to make it look as those she's still sleeping. She feels a little person climb on to the bed beside her and nudge her.

"Aunty, Toby, it's time to wake up! You promised that you'd take me to the park today! Come on, get up!" Tobin starts chucking as the nudging gives way to pushing and the covers are pulled back from her head to reveal her niece, Sarah.

Tobin reaches out and grabs her, making her squeal as she tickles the young girl before hugging her.

"Do I have time to get dressed and eat before we go to the park?"

"Mommy made pancakes."

Tobin sits up and smiles, "Is there booberries for the pancakes?"

Sarah laughs, "They're called blueberries, not booberries, Aunty Toby, you're silly!"

Tobin laughs, "How about you go and tell your Mommy to hook me up with a stack while I get changed? Can you do that?"

"Yep!" Sarah jumps off the bed and runs out of the room leaving Tobin sitting and laughing on the bed.

Tobin gets herself up and heads to the bathroom to do what needs doing and then grabs some wrinkly clothes from her duffel bag to put on. Looking around the room, she finds one shoe and puts it on before continuing to search for its' friend. Not having any luck searching the floor and surrounding area for it, Tobin gets down on her hands and knees and seeing white underneath the bed tries to reach for it, stretching right out before being able to grab it.

Hearing laughing as she turns around with the shoe in her hand, Tobin looks up, "Morning, Sis."

Perry Brown, Tobin's sister looks down at her and shakes her head. "Some things never change."

Tobin shrugs, "I found it."

"And a million cobwebs along with it."

"Yeah, you really should have cleaned better. I mean, there's like a spider community under there."

"Well then it's a good thing I happen to know you aren't afraid of spiders, because you can look after getting rid of them before Sarah sees any of them."

Tobin scrunches her nose, "If I provide a letter from my doctor, can I get out of it? I'm recovering from an injury after all."

"I really don't think that knocking out some cobwebs is going to interfere with your recovery. Now, Sarah is not so patiently waiting for you down in the kitchen."

Tobin looks at the shoe still in her hand and slides it on, double knotting the laces before standing up and following her sister down the stairs and into the kitchen, where she plops down on a stool beside her syrup faced niece.

With only a bit of syrup left on the plates and their juice cups empty it's time for the morning outing.

"Go wash up, kid and we'll head to the park."

"Okay, Auntie Toby."

Sarah takes off running from the counter and flies past her mom on her way to the bathroom to get rid of her sticky paws and face.

Perry can't help but laugh, "She barely slept last night because she was so excited that you were here and planning on sticking around until after school starts."

Tobin smiles and nods, "I've missed you guys, I just wish I was here under better circumstances."

"Have faith. I know that you're frustrated with getting injured so close to the end of the season, but, you'll be back playing in no time and in the meantime, I've got myself a babysitter and you don't have to sleep on Katie's couch or floor." Perry looks at her and laughs as she says the last bit, knowing that Tobin is never going to live down the fact that their sister's family dog decided not to share the couch one night and Tobin opted to sleep on the floor rather than disturbing the lab.

"Be nice or I could go and stay with the 'rents instead."

"But then you'd miss out on walking Sarah to and from school."

"It's closer to physio."

"I'm a better cook than Mom."

Tobin shrugs and nods, "Agreed."

"I'M READY!" A voice yells out. 

The sisters both look at each other and smile with Perry putting her finger up. "Did you put a jacket on?"

"No. I'm not cold."

"Put a jacket on, please."

"Fine."

Tobin laughs, "We shouldn't be gone too long."

"Back in time for lunch. Sarah has a play date lined up with her friend from school this afternoon and I promised to drop her off around 1."

"Cool! I can do that."

Tobin turns and walks towards the door.

"Tobin?"

"Yeah?"

"Jacket!"

Tobin rolls her eyes at her sister before pulling on her jacket.

After walking to the park holding hands, it takes no time for Sarah to let go when the swings come into sight and she takes off running towards them.

"Come on Aunty Tobin, I need a push!"

Tobin pushes her until the swing is high enough that it makes her concerned about her niece falling off or out of it. "My arms are getting tired and I'm not really supposed to be standing for very long. I'll be over at the table watching, okay?"

"Okay!"

Watching and laughing at Sarah's antics as her niece moves around and plays with some of her friends, Tobin feels content, but also at the same time feels as though something is missing from her life and it's not just that she's missing kicking a silly little ball around.