About a year or so after I graduated college I got pregnant and had my little baby girl. I loved her more than anything and would do anything to make her happy. I was so worried on her first day of preschool because I knew that she was different. She didn't like to be even on the other side of the room without me. We always slept in the same room because money was tight and I could only afford a one bedroom apartment. However, when I went to make coffee and left her in bed, she would scream. I had to work from home because of this.
"Elle, look at Mommy." I said to my little girl on her first day. We were at home about to leave.
She looked at me with her big brown eyes. She had frosting all over her face from her toaster pastry. I wiped it off with a paper towel.
"You're going to have a lot of fun at school." I said, even though I knew it wasn't true.
"Really?" She asked and started jumping up and down.
"Yeah, it's going to be so fun!" I lied.
"Let's go!" She squealed and ran to the door.
"Hold on Sweetie, I have to get my stuff." I said and ran into the bedroom really quickly before she got nervous. One part of me kept saying how I needed to take her to school and the other side told me I shouldn't.
"Mommy?" She walked into the bedroom.
"I'm right here." I said. "Ready to go?"
"Yes." She said.
We left the building and I started to get nervous. Not only was she going to miss me, I was going to miss her.
"Mommy? What is school like?" Elle asked me.
"It's super fun. And guess what?"
"What?" She asked.
"You are going to meet friends!" I said.
"What's so good about friends? I only need you." She said. I looked at her sweet little face.
"I only need you too, Sweetie."
We continued walking and eventually reached the school. We entered the brick building and Elle held onto my leg. I walked into the office.
"Hello Ma'am, can I help you?" The secretary asked.
"Yes. This is Elle Mitchell." I said.
"She'll be in Miss Beale's class." She replied. "It's right down the hall to your left. Miss Beale is the overly excited ginger." She laughed.
I walked down the hall and entered the classroom to see the energetic redhead.
"Is everyone here?" She asked the room full of parents and kids. There was complete silence. "I'm going to take that as a yes." She giggled nervously. "I'm Chloe Beale. Welcome to my classroom, I'm very excited to be teaching these kiddos. You can get your child acclimated and leave whenever you feel comfortable. I'll be here all day!" Dead silence and another nervous laugh followed. "And I'm not funny. Okay, I'll be walking around if you want to talk."
"I want to play kitchen!" Elle said and pulled me to a small kitchen set up.
"I need to talk to Miss Beale, okay? Will you be fine without me for a few minutes?"
"No!" Elle whined.
"Elle, Sweetie you have to be able to do things by yourself. I'm not always going to be around." I said. And there go the tears. Elle began to cry. Not a soft cry, this was a loud and "let's embarrass Mom" cry.
"Oh no! What's wrong, Little One?" The redhead came over and knelt down with me and Elle.
"Mommy is going to leave!" Elle yelled. Well, that was embarrassing. I never really got used to being called "Mommy" in public.
"Mommy probably has somewhere to be. Don't you Mommy?" The teacher said. Now this hot redhead was calling me Mommy! Wait, did I just call her hot?
"I, um, actually just needed to cross the room to talk to you, but now I guess I don't have to." I said with a nervous chuckle. Now I was the one with the nervous laugh! Chloe looked at me and bit her lip, then looked down at my little girl.
"I've never really had this problem before. Not this bad at least. You can't even cross the room?" She said, inaudible to Elle who was curled up in my lap.
"I'm really sorry. We can leave if you don't want us." I said.
"No, don't leave." Chloe said. "I don't mind. What's your name?"
"I'm Beca and this is Elle." I said.
"You two have beautiful names." She said.
"Thanks." I replied.
Over the next few weeks, Chloe gained Elle's trust and eventually I was able to leave the room, then the building. Elle loved Chloe which was perfect because we started to date. Turns out I did think she was hot and she was the perfect match for me.
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