Fire & Ice | Soulmate AU 1 |

chapter nineteen

 Everything with the daycare checks out over the weekend so I go with Rowan to drop Bella off for the first time on Monday morning. The three of us take the train to her school together. Bella sits on Rowan's lap while her and I play patty cake. The sun is just beginning to settle into the sky and it's shining in brightly through the windows of the train when we go over the elevated tracks. I have a feeling that Bella doesn't really know where we're going. She knows we visited a new place with new people, but the whole concept of school is alien to most kids who've never been in that environment. I'm sincerely hoping that her reaction isn't too bad when Rowan and I actually go to drop her off. Any kind of sadness on the little munchkin's face is bound to break both of our hearts.

Molly is happy to see us when we get there. She smiles with bright red lips as she checks us in at the front desk.

"We'll be giving you an ID with her name and picture on it sometime at the end of the week," she informs us. "It's got the chip so you can just swipe it past the reader outside her classroom when you drop her off starting after that."

"Oh, great." Rowan smiles, taking Bella's hand before she can wander off. "What room is she in?"

"She's going to be in the cyan room with Ms. Reyes. She knows you're coming today, so she'll be expecting you," Molly replies, gesturing to the opposite hallway we went down last time.

"Thank you so much," I thank her as I move past the front desk to follow Rowan's lead down the hall.

Bella toddles along at Rowan's side. Her and Rowan went out over the weekend so he could buy her some school stuff. He made sure to explain where she'd be going during the week from now on and what she would get to do there, but he told me that she still doesn't completely get it. Nonetheless, she appears just as perky and adorable as always. She has a super cool Captain Freedom backpack slung over her shoulders and a matching lunchbox in one tiny fist. Apparently Rowan urged her towards something more traditionally girly like all the Crimson Phantom and Golden Ray stuff, but it didn't take much convincing after Bella persisted. He wants nothing more than to make her happy.

A short woman with long, wavy brown hair that reaches all the way past her rib cage greets us at the door. The door is painted a light blue and has multi-colored cutouts of child-sized hands with their corresponding names stapled all over the front of it.

"You must be Bella," she says, crouching down despite the way the skirt of her turquoise dress brushes against the floor. "I'm Ms. Reyes and I'm gonna be your teacher for a while."

"Teacher?" Bella's tiny voice says, wavering slightly. Uh oh.

"Yeah, we're gonna do lots of fun stuff like finger painting and puzzles," Ms. Reyes confirms although she is clearly playing everything up for the sake of the kid. I would normally cringe at her behavior but it's obvious that she loves what she does for a living. I bet Rowan suddenly feels a lot better about handing Bella over to this woman for nearly twelve hours a day. "How's that sound?"

"S'okay," Bella replies. "Can Row stay?"

Ms. Reyes's eyes flick back up to Rowan who smiles hopelessly.

"Not today, but maybe some other time. He'll be back later, though," the woman says smoothly, handling her own quite well. "We were just gonna start making slime, though, so how about I get you set up with a table and some new friends, huh?"

A set of wide brown eyes swing back to look up and meet Rowan's gaze. He smiles and nods encouragingly. The eyes drift to me and I grin, as well. She looks back to Ms. Reyes and slowly lets go of Rowan's hand.

"Okay," she agrees. "But he'll be back later?"

"Of course," Rowan pipes up. "You won't even notice I'm gone, Bella-bear."