Katniss POV- (The next Monday, 5am)
"Katniss, stop crying, please? If you cry when you drop Willow off she's going to cry too." Peeta tells me, frowning.
I walk into his arms and start crying more.
"I just can't believe she's already going to school." I say sobbing into his shirt.
Peeta is laughing at me but he's tearing up too and I know he's upset that she's already going into school but really hasn't admitted it.
"It'll be alright, baby. I promise." He says rubbing my back.
"Are you going to come with me to take her? I have to have her at school by 8."
He nods, "I wouldn't miss it for the world. Meet me at the bakery at 7:45 and I'll go over there with you."
I nod my head.
"And her teacher is your best friend, Katniss. You have nothing to worry about, I think it'll be perfect." Peeta says confidently.
"I know I'm just nervous." I say.
He chuckles and presses a kiss to my forehead and wipes some of my tears away.
"And after we drop her off you can come home and get some time to yourself or you can come with me to the bakery if you want." Peeta says.
I nod my head and he presses a quick kiss to my lips, "It'll be just fine. I will see you in a bit, I love you." He says.
I nod, "I love you too." I say and he leaves.
I go in the living room and sit down. I don't need to wake Willow up for at least another two hours. So I cry until about 7am when I realize I need to wake her up so we won't be late.
I open up her bedroom door and see her fast asleep in her bed, her lamb tight in her grip. I glance at the orange walls and the white trees Peeta painted on them, over five years ago. It flashes me back to the late nights and early mornings with her. From when she was a baby.
I can't believe how fast she's grown.
I hesitate, not really wanting to wake her up. I know she's going to be absolutely exhausted the first few weeks at least.
"Willow, wake up, baby. It's your first day of big school." I say in the most cheerful voice I can conjure up.
I sit on the edge of her bed and rub her arm until she opens her tired eyes. She lets out a huge yawn and sits up.
Her hair is matted to her head and all wild and sticking up and I can't help but to laugh at her.
"What?" Willow asks me.
I chuckle, "Your hair is crazy! We are gonna go have to give you another bath real quick." I say.
She groans, "I tooked one last night."
"I know you did but now your hair is all crazy and I can't fix it with it being crazy." I say and she sighs.
I give her a quick bath and fix her hair and put a bow on her head too and then I get her dressed.
We go back downstairs with about 30 minutes left until we need to meet Peeta so we make sure we have all her school stuff ready.
"I love my back pack." Willow says admiring her bright purple backpack.
I smile, "I think it's beautiful. I bet Bristol is gonna love it too. That's her favorite color."
"Really? Oh, and do I have to call her Mrs. Whatever her other name is or can I still call her Bristle?" Willow asks me.
I shrug, "I don't know. I bet she doesn't care." I say truthfully.
"I'm glad her is my teacher because she is sooooo smart."
I chuckle, "She is. She's very smart."
"Yeah and I can't wait to see Finn and Carter." Willow says.
"I heard they were excited to see you." I say, remembering what both Annie and Bristol told me on the phone last night.
"So, it'll just be Bristle that I know in my class?"
"Yes, baby but there will be other kids there too. It just can't be you and her, as much as you'd like that. You have to be nice though, okay?"
"I will be."
"And you have to listen to her. Just because you know her doesn't mean you can be bad because she's still your teacher." I say sternly.
Willow is never really 'bad' just kind of ornery and can be mouthy at times without really realizing it. But Bristol has never had a problem with Willow that I know of, so that's good.
"I won't be bad, Momma." Willow says, annoyed that I continually remind her.
"If you are I told Bristol she could spank you." I tell Willow and she gasps, shaking her head.
"I don't want no bustings so I'll be really really good." She says.
"I hope so." I say laughing.
I honestly think she's had maybe three spankings her whole life.
Willow sighs, "I'm gonna miss you so much while I go to school." She says and hugs me.
I kiss the top of her head, "I'm gonna miss you too, sweet girl. But me and Daddy are gonna be there at 3 to pick you up and we can come home and hang out." I tell her.
"Is Daddy at work?"
"Yes, but he is gonna take you to school with me this morning." I tell her.
She gets excited, "Yay! I'm glad. Just today though?" She says disappointed.
"Probably so. Maybe he will a few more times but he can't all the time." I tell her.
"Okay."
Willow looks down at her stuff again and her full backpack.
"That's gonna be heavy." She groans.
I laugh, "You lazy little girl. I bet Bristol is gonna take most of that and put it up." I tell her truthfully and she sighs.
"Good because I'm not that strong." She says shaking her head.
I laugh at her, "You're so silly." I say.
She smiles.
"I'm hungry."
"Guess what?" I say remembering what Peeta had planned to do.
"Huh?"
"Daddy is making you your favorite breakfast for when we meet him." I tell her.
She smiles, "Awesome!"
"How about we go make your lunch and then we can go?"
"Okay." Willow says and we head into the kitchen.
I pack her little lunch box with all the things she picked out and she helps me make her sandwich and we head to the bakery.
I call Peeta and he comes out, carrying two small boxes of food.
"Hey, sweet girls." He says getting in the car. He turns around and hands Willow a little box from the bakery.
"Hurry and eat, baby." Peeta tells her.
She opens the box, "Oh! Thank you." She says happily and starts digging in to donut holes he must've made this morning. Peeta opens my box and shoves a cheesebun in my mouth, without me expecting it.
"Thanks. You could've just told me to open my mouth or handed it to me." I laugh.
"But that wouldn't have been as entertaining." Peeta says.
We get to the elementary school, a place I haven't been to since Prim died.
"Are you excited, Willow?" Peeta asks her on the way up.
"Yeah." She says with a mouthful of donut.
Finnick and Annie are outside, Bristol and Carter are there too.
"Hi!" Finn says and hugs Peeta and I.
Then Carter comes over, "Auntie Katniss I'm so happy Willow is gonna be here with us now!" She says.
I smile, "Me too."
We all walk into the building, Willow in Peeta's arms and his hand in mine and Carter's in the other.
Finnick, Annie, and Bristol follow behind us.
When we get in there Bristol has to go to her classroom because kids are starting to show up so Peeta and I drop Carter off in her classroom for her and luckily Finn is in the same class as her. Then Peeta, Willow and I head to Bristol's classroom and Willow starts to literally freak out.
She's never been this way with anything so I have no idea what's gotten into her. Maybe it's because she can tell Peeta and I are upset or maybe it's the other crying kids.
"I don't want to go!" She screams at Peeta, beginning to bawl.
I can tell it's killing him and he wants badly to give in but he already went through school.
"No! Daddy, please don't leave me." Willow cries hysterically.
It is killing me too, but we have to leave her here no matter how big of a fit she's throwing.
Peeta gives her a quick kiss, tells her he loves her and hands her off to me.
She's screaming and kicking and reaching out for Peeta.
He walks out, knowing that it'll calm her down some.
"Willow Mellark." I say sternly.
She whines louder and kneel down to her.
"Willow. You need to stop that." I say.
It takes a few seconds but she stops her screaming and reaching for Peeta, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Daddy!!" Willow whines and cries over and over. I'm glad she's not the only kid doing this though, there's about five of them besides Willow.
Bristol is tending to other kids right now so I try to calm her down until I can leave Willow with her.
"Willow. Stop that." I say and she sniffles and looks at me, making a pouty lip that she thinks will get her out of going.
It's breaking my heart but she has to go to school and if Peeta and I let her slide the very first time she doesn't want to go she's not ever going to want to.
"B-b-but I don't want to stay here. There's too many kids here." She sobs into my shirt.
I frown, "Baby, you have to stay here. You're going to make Bristol cry if you don't want to stay with her." I say.
She looks over at Bristol who's holding onto a few screaming kids while their parents run out of the classroom and back at me.
"I bet her doesn't want me to stay here with her because all those other kids are crying too." Willow says.
I laugh a little and wipe away her tears with my sleeve, "I bet she does. You've been staying with Bristol since you were a little baby and you love her a lot so I promise you that you're going to be perfectly fine." I assure her.
"I know but she won't only love me, she has to love all these kids too and I don't want her to love anyone but me and Carter and Finn and Carson." Willow says kind of angrily.
I roll my eyes, "Well, she does love you guys but she has to love these kids too, okay? You need to be on your best behavior because if not you're gonna make her sad. Show her how good you are." I remind her.
"I will but I want to stay with you and Daddy. I'm gonna miss you guys so much." She says, her voice cracking and more tears begin streaming down her cheeks.
My eyes begin to water and I hold it back.
"Give me hugs and kisses." I say, knowing the faster I leave the faster she will be over this.
She hugs me super tight and for a long time. Then gives me a kiss on each cheek, my forehead, my nose, the top top my head, and then my lips.
I know she's doing it to stall but I don't say anything.
I put her on the floor and Bristol comes over, the other kids have calmed down and she's only waiting on Willow now. Everyone else is sitting down like they're suppose to be.
I kneel down, "Stay here and Daddy and I will pick you up in a little while." I say and kiss the top of her head.
"I love you." I say.
She frowns and Bristol picks her up, "I love you too, Mommy."
Willow wraps her arms around Bristol and lays her head on her shoulder.
Bristol gives me a reassuring look, "She will be fine." She says and I nod, knowing she will be.
"Bye, Momma." Willow says waving, I wave back and walk out of her classroom.
Peeta is outside and he looks like he's been crying or is real close to it.
All the other parents left.
"She'll be fine." I say looking at him and putting my hand on his shoulder.
He sighs and we leave.
"I can't believe how she reacted, I was not expecting that." Peeta says sighing.
I groan, "I know. She's been so so excited too and I figured it would be easier since it was my best friend as her teacher."
"I know. But goodness, that shattered my heart into a million pieces."
"Mine too but she was just testing us. I know she will be just be just fine." I assure him.
He nods, "I have no doubt but it didn't make it easier on us."
"Bristol has her hands full. There were at least five other kids throwing a tantrum besides Willow." I tell him.
"I saw. Hopefully tomorrow she won't have a problem." Peeta says hopeful.
I shrug, "What now?"
"You can go home if you want to." He says.
I shake my head, "It's not going to be the same without her there all day and I'm pretty sure if I go home I'm going to cry the whole day."
"Did you cry?"
"Not while we dropped her off but I did from the time you left until the time I woke her up." I inform him.
Peeta frowns, "I feel so old now, it's depressing."
"Me too." I say.
He shakes his head, "I can't believe she's in school."
I feel more tears well up in my eyes, "Gosh, stop." I laugh as tears stream down my cheeks.
Peeta frowns and takes my hand and intertwines our fingers.
"I'm sorry, it makes me pretty sad too."
I shake my head, "I'm fine." I say.
"Do you want to come help me until close and then we can go home?" Peeta asks.
"Yes."
So we go to the bakery, which is packed full, as it usually is and will be for a few more hours but Peeta takes me to the back where we work on business stuff like paper work.
He has a great group of workers that can handle things without Peeta and allows him some time to pay bills or whatever he needs to do, or be off to be with Willow or I.
We go to his office and I help him pay a few bills and add up his worker's times and write paychecks too.
I love helping him out up here but I just miss Willow bothering us.
At noon I help him clean off tables and sweep the front while he cleans the back and does dishes. We give the extras to Thom and his family to take home and Peeta checks the stock in the back and has a huge list of stuff that we need to go buy, so it looks like we will be making a shopping trip either later today or tomorrow.
By the time we finish everything up, we have enough time to go home and clean up our house a bit, before we we have to pick her up.
And thankfully, before we know it, it's time to pick Willow up.
We meet Bristol outside with the rest of her class and Willow seemed to be doing good until she saw us and gets out of line and runs to us.
"Momma!!!!" Willow squeals and jumps into my arms and then goes to Peeta.
"How was she?" I ask Bristol.
She smiles, "She was good, Kat. Not saying I give her special treatment already but she's been my helper all day. And, she might be the teacher's pet." Bristol says winking.
Peeta looks at me and burst out laughing, "Like mother like daughter." He says.
I elbow him in the stomach and Bristol laughs, "Were you a teacher's pet, Katniss?"
"No, but Peeta thinks so." I tell her.
She laughs and Willow jumps down out of Peeta's arms.
"Bye, Bristle! I will see you tomorrow. I love you." She says hugging her legs. Bristol smiles, "Okay, sweetheart. I love you too."
Bristol gives me a quick hug, "I'll call you later." She says and I nod.
Peeta and I take Willow home.
"Mommy, I had so much fun. Bristle is the funnest teacher ever. But Carter said her teacher isn't very fun." She tells us as we sit in the kitchen while Peeta makes her a snack.
"You got lucky this time, Willow. Next year you won't probably know your teacher." I say truthfully.
We really did get lucky that Bristol was Willow's teacher. She knows Willow like she knows her girls and loves her just the same, so that's reassuring.
"There's a lot of kids in my class too."
"Did you make any new friends?" Peeta asks her.
She sighs, "I think so. There's three girls at my table."
"What's their names?" I ask her.
"One girls name is Bentley and her has blond hair, one girl has hair the same color as Annie's and her name is Paisley and the other girl's name is Meadow."
I smile, "They sound nice."
"They are. Bentley is really nice to me." Willow says smiling.
"Good. Maybe you found a new friend." I say.
"I want to have friends but I only want to really be Carter and Finn's friends. What if I like my friends better than them?"
I look at Peeta and he shrugs.
"Well, you can love them all the same. Finn and Carter have friends besides you." I say.
"Ugh, I know. But okay, I will love them all. Oh and there's some bad kids in my class too." She says.
I chuckle, "Were you one of them?"
"No!" Willow is quick to say.
"Sure..." I tease her.
She gives me a look, "Really, Momma! You could Bristle and see."
"I believe you, sweetheart." I laughing.
Willow lets out a groan and yawns, "I'm so sleepy."
I glance at Peeta and he takes it.
"Willow, you have a few more hours until you can go to bed so let's go find something to do." He says.
"We can go rest our eyes." She says.
I snort, "You're a brat."
Peeta just laughs and rolls his eyes at her, "I agree with, Momma."