Page 26 of Ace

“I hope it’s French toast, with lots and lots of syrup!”

“It might be.”

They entered the dining hall and the scent of syrup assaulted her nostrils. She spotted the buffet overflowing with thick, buttery French toast strips at the same time she spotted Margo, Luna and Jade. She took off at a full-speed sprint but Daddy caught her before she got far.

“Not so fast, little one.”

“You said I could eat with my friends!”

“And you can, but you don’t even have food yet. Stay with me while you get your food, and I’ll carry it to their table for you.”

“I just want French toast and nothin’ else,” she demanded as they reached the buffet that was stocked with all sorts of goodies aside from the French toast main course.

“You need to at least have some fruit with your French toast,” Daddy told her. “So pick a fruit or I will pick for you.”

“Pineapple. And raspberries!”

“Two fruits. Very good girl.” He handed her a plate and she loaded it up with three French toast sticks, a spoonful of pineapple, and a dozen raspberries. “What would you like to drink?”

She wanted coffee, but wasn’t sure how well that would go over and it didn’t seem worth the stress of being told no. “Milk?”

“Chocolate or regular?”

“Chocolate!” That almost made up for the travesty of not having coffee.

Just as he’d promised, Daddy carried her plate and cup over to the table where her friends were sitting.

“Hi hi!” Luna cried as she sat down.

Daddy got her all settled, kissed her cheek and whispered, “Be good,” in her ear before joining Bear, King, Knox and Baze at a nearby table.

“Hi hi!” she greeted Luna back.

“I like your dress!”

“Thanks, I got it here! I’m wearing it in honor of going to the aquarium today.”

“I love the aquarium!” Margo cried. “The sharks and jellyfish are the best!”

“I like the Nemo fishes best!” Luna said.

“I like the stingrays,” Lizzie whispered shyly. Sometimes this part of being Little still felt weird to her: just having honest, excited conversations about mundane things like favorite aquarium creatures. “Daddy got me a stuffed one. I named him Bert.”

“That’s so cool!” Jade smiled at her brightly and Lizzie relaxed. While she wished she could be more like Luna and Margo, she liked Jade the best. Jade always made her feel the most comfortable and always seemed to know when she was feeling out of place.

The conversation died as they all dug into their breakfasts and when it did, Lizzie started to worry again about the rules Daddy had set in place for her the night before. In particular the one about lying and suddenly the French toast felt like sawdust in her mouth.

“What’s wrong?” Jade asked, when she set her fork down on her plate with a disgusted look on her face.

“Nothin,” Lizzie said. She wanted to get someone’s opinion on what to do, but she wasn’t sure she felt comfortable enough with Luna or Margo to talk about it. They could be pretty loud, and Ace wasn’t sitting very far away.

Before anyone could say anything else or ask any further questions, Tessa and Mariah bounced up, sliding their trays onto the table before sitting. “Morning!” Tessa cried. “Happy Saturday! Anyone have fun plans today?”

“Lizzie’s going to the aquarium!” Luna told the table at large. This was followed by more exuberant declarations of favorite aquatic creatures, but Lizzie was too in her head to participate in the conversation. Jade was the only one who noticed. She quietly finished eating, picked up her tray and walked it over to the dirty bins before returning and sliding in beside Lizzie. “If you want to talk, we could go get our own table,” she whispered softly. “We could probably even go into the chapel to talk if you wanted. We’d just need to tell our Daddies first.”

She hadn’t really planned on telling anyone, but Jade’s quiet and knowing nature comforted her and made her feel safe—almost as safe as her Daddy did. “Yes please.”

She jumped up from the table and walked over to where Ace was sitting. The conversation stopped as he looked up at her. “Everything okay, little one?”