Day by Day

Chapter 32: 5 Years Later

As time passed, moving on seemed to get easier, but, at the same time, was not easy at all. Some days were harder for the parents than others. The worst days were the girls' birthdays and the days they brought each other the girls to the orphanage.

Before they knew it, five years had passed since the youngest girl, which was Cayla, was brought to the orphanage. After the first year, the big days seemed to be getting easier, but five was a big milestone. It meant that they had been without their girls for half a decade. It also meant the girls either had started school or were going to very soon.

Mal and Ben continued to rule Auradon side-by-side. They were not afraid to admit that their job seemed to make it easy to take their minds off their daughter as they seemed to always be busy. Between the meetings, royal decrees, banquets, and all the other royal tasks they had to accomplish, it gave them little thinking time.

The others struggled a little more, not to say Mal and Ben didn't struggle at all. Jay, Lonnie, Carlos, Jane, Evie, and Doug all worked at Auradon Prep, so they were around kids every day. In the most recent years, they expanded Auradon Prep to a K-12 school instead of just high school, so they could provide the best education for the next generation of Auradon, Audrey and Chad's kids, Chad Jr. and Aria, being included.

The kids around them, no matter if they were starting kindergarten or graduating high school, reminded all of them of the girls they were not able to watch grow up.

Carlos, who worked in the technology department, wasn't around the students as often, but he always had a soft spot for the kids who would see him if they had an issue with their phone or laptop.

Jane and Evie, the mothers of the two younger girls, both worked in more behind-the-scenes positions at the school. Jane was training to become headmistress after her mother retires, and Evie became the guidance counselor at the school. Before Auradon, that probably wouldn't have been a career choice for her, but her love for education, kids, and helping others led her to take on this job alongside running her fashion business. Both Evie and Jane would get a little emotional whenever they helped a student out, wishing they could've done the same to their daughters.

Lonnie, Jay, and Doug were probably the ones closest to the students given that they were teachers, teaching P.E. and Chemistry respectively. They had to put their emotions aside during school hours given that they were around the kids all the time. As time went on, they got used to the feeling of kids asking them for their advice and helping them achieve their goals. 

Every year, around the time the last saw the girls, the four groups of parents would go out and have dinner together. The one thing they knew for certain was that they were not going through this alone and that they would always have each other to lean on if they ever needed it.

The Auradon Orphanage: home to all the Auradonian boys and girls who didn't have their own place to call home. The younger kids were filled with hopes and dreams of someday getting adopted and getting to go home with a family to call their own. The older kids, who had been there for much longer, had given up hope. Who would want a teenager anyway? They knew no one out there would want them, but that didn't stop some of them from making sure the younger kids never let go. What none of the kids knew was that four girls, who had been at the orphanage since they were babies, were a lot more special than any of them realized.

The four little girls raced through the hallways, trying to reach their rooms before lights out that night.

Brelyn, now six years old, had purple hair that reached her upper back and emerald-green eyes. The young girl was a confident and playful type. Being the oldest of her four friends, she was always looking out for them. She never wanted them to be disappointed.

Six-year-old Jacey followed. She had her hair pulled back in a high ponytail, which she wore if her hair wasn't tied into two fishtail braids. She was the playful one of the bunch as she always had a lot of energy that the owners of the orphanage had a hard time containing sometimes.

Five-year-old Elaina held on tightly to Jacey's hand, not wanting to get lost in the maze of kids that filled the hallway. The blue-haired girl's hair just brushed her shoulders and her big, chocolate-brown eyes watched each of the kids intently. She was the smallest of the bunch, which caused the other three girls to cling onto her in order not to lose her. She wore a necklace, the pendant being half of a red apple. She had arrived at the orphanage with it, so she wore it everywhere she went.

At the end of the group, Cayla, who had just turned five, followed right behind her friends. Her light-brown hair was tied into two pigtails that bounced with every step she took. She was deemed one of the cutest kids at the orphanage. She had the brightest blue eyes and freckles that spotted her face. How could she not be the cutest?

The girls reached their shared bedroom and tucked themselves tightly into their beds, resting up for the next day ahead of them. Little did they know, they had much more than a first day of school to worry about in their future...

Hey guys! The new semester started, and I'm slowly getting back into writing. This chapter is just a filler chapter to move the story along. The next chapter I actually wrote a long time ago, so I will be updating tomorrow! Thank you all for sticking around!