I Can Make You Dance All Night.

The sound of children and their parents talking filled her ears. She gripped Logan's small hand and walked up the black sidewalk, reaching the blacktop where children lined up. The kindergartners were standing on a yellow line near the school building, smiling and chatting. Some clung to their parent's hips, anxiously staring at the others.

"Do you want to go talk to your friends?" Ava asked her little brother, letting go of his small hand to rub his shoulder.

Logan shook his blond head.

Ava bit her lip, and continued to softly rub his shoulder. She thought he had made friends at the open house that Friday. She had seen him with a brown-haired boy at the toy blocks. Where was he? Was he in the other class? What if Logan didn't make any friends? Kids can be so cruel, he could be bullied...

She was just being nervous. He'll be fine. It's only 4 hours he has to go. It's 8 now, he'll be out, ready, and excited for tomorrow by the afternoon.

Just look forward to the afternoon, Ava thought to herself.

A slim, twenty-something year old woman walked out with a bright smile. She recognized her to be Ms. Moore, the teacher she had met Friday.

"Good morning parents and children! How are you today?" she asked. A series of 'good's and 'good morning's were heard all around her. "Good! Are you all ready for the first day? Great! Let's head in, yeah?"

Ava bended down to her brother, and planted a kiss on his forehead. "I'll see you at 12, okay kiddo? You have your snack in your backpack?"

Logan nodded.

She slowly rose up. "Have fun, Logan. I love you,"

He started to leave. She grinned to herself. His green and blue backpack was almost bigger than him. The parents all started to head home for the morning. Most of the kids were already inside.

Except next to her, a cry filled the air. Ava turned to see a tall man, holding a five year old in his arm, giving her a kiss on her nose.

"Take me home!" she wailed. "I wanna go home!"

"I can't," the man said, trying to soothe her. "Everyone has to go to school. I went. So will you,"

He turned his almost raven haired head. His brown eyes locked with hers. Ava gave a sad smile. The corner of his lips struggled to curl up to smile back.

Ms. Moore walked over to the guy and his sister (daughter? he looked way too young to have a 5 year old.) and pouted. "Oh, hon. It's alright."

Ava figured it was time to stop gawking and walk back home, which was conveniently located down the street. She'd go home, get her laptop, and go downtown to sit in the local coffee shop for a while and write.

Later that afternoon, she got a call from her mother. Her phone buzzed on the shop's table next to her computer. Her fingers stopped typing, and she answered the phone.

"Hello?" she asked, eyes wandering around the small shop. Not many people were in here, making it a great place to concentrate on writing without having to worry about loud talkers.

"Good morning, lovely! How was the morning? Logan okay?" her mother's upbeat voice came through the speaker.

"It was good. Yeah, he's fine. Went in without a problem," she said.

"I'm so sorry your father and I couldn't make it, sweetie. We'll be home tomorrow. Did Logan ask why we weren't there today?" she asked.

No. "Yeah. He was pretty upset, but he didn't make a big deal of it," He didn't care. The five year old understood more than the parents ever would.

"That's our little boy!" the mother laughed. "Understanding as ever. What time do you have to get him today?"

"Twelve."

"Ava... it's eleven fifty-five,"

"What?" she glanced at the clock on top of the laptop's screen and cursed. "Shit! I lost track of time!"

"Cursing, Ava," her mother said sternly. "It causes stress, and stress causes wrinkles."

She got there within 15 minutes, most of the parents already gone. She ran out of the car, jogging up the pavement towards the area she had been at four hours prior.

She came around the corner and saw the little girl that had been crying for early with her brother on the swingset. Leaning on the wall, and watching them was the guy she suspected to be her older brother.

Deciding to let him be, and introduce herself to the taller man, she walked up to him. "I'm sorry for being late. Thank you for staying with him,"

He smiled at her. "It's okay. You're only ten minutes late."

"Ten minutes too late," she said.

"Don't be too hard on yourself. They seem to be liking each other. Apparently they hung out all class," he chuckled softly. She smiled, and he stuck out his hand. "I'm Jack, Ava's dad."

Dad. Okay, wow. She shook the hand. "I'm Ava, Logan's older sister. I thought you were her brother or something. You look so young," she paused. "Sorry. That was rude. You're probably offended."

Jack smiled. "It's okay. I get it all the time. I'm pretty young, I guess. I'm twenty-two."

So he was a teen dad."Oh. Okay. That makes sense," she nodded.

"Yeah. If you don't mind me asking, but where are your parents?" he asked.

"Cabo," she said with an eye roll.

"Oh... well that's uh," he hesitated.

"Shitty of them? It's normal. They missed my graduation because they were in Hawaii for a wedding," she explained with a frown. "Sorry. I don't mean to bore you with my issues."

"It's okay. We all have troubles," he said.

Suddenly, Ava found herself growing attracted to Jack. To be frank, he was attractive. She perked up a little, and made a note to look a little better in the morning. "Okay, we should get going. Again, thank you. We should set up a playdate for them or something later," she suggested.

"Okay," he agreed quickly. "That'd be fun."

"Great. I'll see you in the morning," she waved before calling Logan over.

During work, she couldn't help but wonder where Ava's mother was.

Notes

OOPS