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Chelsea
I brush some hair from Luna's face and give her a reassuring smile. I hate seeing her so upset. Time and time again, I have been to the school to discuss the way certain classmates treat Luna. But how are the schools meant to teach the kids to respect all family units when their parents are just as bad at home? Luna wraps her arms around my waist, and I hold her tight.
“Can I not just go home?” I hear her ask quietly.
I look around and the parents starting to turn up to watch the rest of the class and consider leaving with her. But she has been practising her lines repeatedly for this part. I know them as well as she does because of how many times I’ve listened to her practice.
“I just want to go home, Mummy,” she says again, looking up at me.
“If you go home, how am I meant to see the amazing dance you have been practising?”
We both turn to see Calvin walking towards us. Luna's whole face changes as she stares at him.
“Pippin! You are here!” she exclaims wiping at her face. He stops before her and holds out a single rose whilst squatting down. Something I’ve noticed they all do when speaking to her.
“I wanted to come and cheer you on. You told me how much you’ve been practising and how hard you have been working on your speech and dance. Houdini and Bambi wanted to be here too, but something came up at work, so I’m here and will record it to show the others when they finish later. The flower’s from Houdini.”
Luna stares at the rose in his hand for a moment before turning around and throwing her arms around his neck. He chuckles as he hugs her back and kisses her cheek.
“Thank you,” she whispers as she steps back and takes the flower from him. I hear someone clearing their throat and look up to see her teacher smiling at us.
“Are you coming back in now, Luna?” she asks, holding out her hand. Luna looks at me and Calvin and smiles before nodding to her teacher and taking her hand.
“See you in a bit, honey,” I call as she skips off with her teacher, a completely different child who was in my arms asking to go home just moments ago. I turn around to see Calvin smiling to himself as he watches her.
“I can’t believe you came. I don’t know how to thank you for what you just did,” I whisper as he turns his attention to me. He wraps an arm around my waist and tugs me against him before pressing a kiss to my lips.
“You don’t have to thank me. If you can pretend to date us, then we can do the same for you,” he whispers in my ear before smiling down at me. “The others wanted to come, but they are dealing with an incident.” He looks up behind me and smirks. “I think we have an audience.”
I look behind us to see a few of the mums staring at us and the dads frowning. I look back to Calvin and press a kiss to his lips.
“At least it will give them something different to talk about,” I wink before leading him to the queue to enter the building.
???
Calvin sits with his arm around me the whole way through the production. He cheers and whistles for Luna whenever she’s on stage and records her as he promised to show the guys. As soon as we collect her after the show’s finished, he sweeps her off her feet and makes a huge fuss of her. Luna is beaming from ear to ear and looking so proud of herself.
“You were amazing, Luna bug. I think you even made Mommy cry,” Calvin grins as he places her back on the ground.
“That’s not hard. Mummy cries all the time,” she sighs as she grins at me. I’m just about to answer when my mobile vibrates in my handbag. I dig it out quickly and see Mr Young's name on the screen.
“Hello?”
“Sorry if I’m interrupting the performance. I wasn’t sure if it would be finished by now or not.” Mr Young apologises.
“It’s okay, sir, the show’s over. We are just leaving the school,” I answer. I look to my right, where Calvin and Luna are watching me.
“I’m sorry to ask, but is there any way you could pop back to the office? Something has come up, and I need your help. You can bring your daughter with you; I’m sure we could find a way to keep her entertained.”
I look to Luna as guilt crashes into me. She gets so bored when she has to come to work with me. Would it be fair to her to take her?
“What’s the matter?” Calvin asks. I hold up a finger and turn my attention back to the call.
“Let me see if I can get her into the after-school club. If I can’t, I’ll have to bring her in with me. Either way, I will be back there as soon as possible.”
Mr Young thanks me, and I hang up to see a sad-looking Luna and a curious Calvin.
“Something’s happened at work, and I need to go back in,” I sigh as Luna’s bottom lip starts to quiver.
