Alex's POV
Mama smiles sadly at me, as the strange lady comes and greets us. "Se un buen chico, de acuerdo?"
Mama doesn't look well anymore and Father yells at her a lot. "Esta amable dama se ocupará de ti."
"Yes, Mama. May I take my cars with me?"
She nods, and the strange lady greets her.
"Emilia! It's been so long!"
Mama smiles at her, and they begin talking in hushed tones, and Mama pushes me towards the little boy sitting on the porch, rolling a toy truck across the first step. I sit next to him and dig through clothes and a toothbrush to pull a car out of my backpack.
"Do you like cars?"
The other boy's eyes light up. "Yeah! Grandma got me loads of them! Wanna see?"
I look at my mother for approval, and she beckons me over.
"You stay here with Mrs. Hollister and you be a good boy, okay? Mama loves you."
"Okay, Mama. I love you too."
I grin at the other boy and we race up the stairs, clamoring about cars all the way up the stairs.
It wasn't unusual for Mama to drop me off at other peoples' houses. They were nice to me. And Mama always came back, so I was okay.
---
Grey sat across from me, giggling as we threw the peas across the table at each other. Mrs. Hollister distractedly motions for us to stop as she continues speaking on the phone.
My new friend begins scooping his peas into the toy truck by the spoonful, and drives it over to me, before dumping the truck's load onto my plate.
"Greyson Hollister!"
Before she can scold him further, the door swings open, and a girl with red ribbons in her hair comes flying through.
"Momma! Look what Sera got me!"
"Felicity! Hello darling!"
I stare in wonder at her white blonde hair. Is she an angel? Mama tells me about angels all the time. She says they protect us from bad people.
She proudly shows her ribbons to Mrs. Hollister who smiles and tells her how nice they look on her. A older girl with a missing tooth trails in.
Missing teeth. I want missing teeth.
"Alex, this is Sera-" the taller girl - "and Felicity." The angel one.
Sera waves, but the Felicity frowns.
"Mommy, he dropped food on the floor."
I look down to see a few stray peas rolled under my chair.
"Mommy, he made a mess."
"You're not nice." It wasn't meant as an insult, but a statement. She took it otherwise.
"And you're gross!"
We start glaring at each other till Mrs. Hollister ushers her away, scolding her. Sera shakes her head, smiles at me and Greyson and trails off after them.
"Felicity is in her moods. That's what Mommy says." Greyson announces.
I nod. "She doesn't like me."
"She doesn't like anyone. Mommy says she is a regular ice queen. Mommy says she won't be like that forever."
"Ice melts."
"I guess."
"If the ice melts then she can't be an ice queen."
We giggle and go back to throwing peas at each other.