4 (jaylor) gleaming twilight and an infinite afterglow

chapter fourteen.

"What if she's had a terrible day?" Taylor asked as both her and Joe were on their way to pick the kids up from school. They'd recently brought a bigger car so that they could fit everybody inside, but also one that didn't make them stand out too much in the public. The kinds of people that went to this school had bigger cars anyway.
"She's going to be fine, Taylor. She will have had a great day. If there had been any problems, we would have heard about them before now." Joe smiled, taking her hand as he drove. "The school told us that if there were any issues, we'd be the first to know," he reassured her. He was surprised that he didn't feel as stressed as Taylor did. He trusted the school, and he trusted Ryan's words that said the school was truly great with these kinds of things. He also knew that he had to be calm, because Taylor often got more stressed if he wasn't, and he didn't want her to feel stressed.
"What if she's being bullied?" Taylor asked, and Joe sighed. That was something that had been on his mind too, but he also knew that they were five year olds, and that hopefully, they'd be nice to one another. Children were weird. And hopefully, to a bunch of five year olds, being in the same class as their daughter wouldn't even be a big deal. Hopefully they didn't even know who they were. He hoped that things like that didn't matter to five year olds - he was sure that kids didn't care about those sorts of things, but he wasn't sure. He couldn't remember if things like that were a big deal to him when he was five.
"I don't think she's being bullied. She's been with these kids before, remember? They had that open day where she got to meet everyone. They all got along. And there's only like, twelve kids in her class." Joe told her. "I think she's going to have had a really good day."
"If she's had a bad day, I'm not forcing her to go tomorrow." Taylor bit her lip. "I suppose that if she's had a bad day, she'll be distracted from it because Patrick's here."
"She's going to have had fun," Joe sighed as he pulled into a carpark. "Seriously - I think she'll never want to come home." He grinned. "She gets to spend the whole day with Betty, and she loves learning. She's good at making friends. I really think that we're going to have to pull her out of there."
Taylor smiled at the thought. Lately, she'd been feeling like she just had to be anxious about something. She always felt like that when things were going okay, when she didn't feel like really bad things had happened for a while. She thought that a part of her must just be constantly waiting for the bad things to happen. Of course, she wished that she wasn't like that... she wished that she could see the happy times for what it was but she couldn't help it. She used to be the complete opposite to her mom - she used to always be the sort of person who could see the best in every situation. She used to be the glass half full type of person, used to always have her face turned towards the sun. She always saw the best in people, the best in life. Whereas her mother had always seen every single possible thing that could go wrong in every situation. She'd always gotten mad when Taylor had left candles burning in her room, and Taylor could remember the long list of things she'd told her that could go wrong. Now she was that person. Now, she could list countless things that could go wrong with every passing moment. She'd already made quite a concise list in her head of all the things that could happen to Thea at school, and had planned out exactly what she'd do if they were to actually happen. She'd started making a lot of mental lists in her head of things like that. What could happen to Joe. He could be hit by a car. A raging and mentally ill fan could get mad and kill him. Adam could escape and kill him. He could get sick. He could get hurt. She could do something to hurt him. She had so many things to be worried about.

The streets were quiet, and Joe was excited to get inside the school. Other parents were arriving to pick up their children, but it didn't even seem to bother them that they were celebrities. Most of the parents here were famous or really rich, and things like that just didn't bother them.
The school had a very strict document that every single parent had to sign regarding to personal information of the other parents, students and their information. That's what kept everybody safe. That's what meant that all of these people could send their kids to school.
They got to wait outside Thea and Betty's classroom. Both James and Inez finished five minutes early so they were able to meet them outside.
"Aunty Taylor! Uncle Joe!" Inez Flung her arms around them, and Joe smiled.
"How was school?" He asked them, and they both grinned.
"Good! I saw Betty and Thea playing together," James smiled, "and I made sure they were okay! Thea said she was happy because they were learning how to add numbers together and she already knew how to do that." Joe could see Taylor relax a little out of the corner of his eye. "She was really happy."

Thea and Betty both came bouncing out of the classroom, with the biggest smiled imaginable on their faces.
"Mommy! Daddy!" Thea exclaimed as she ran into their arms. Taylor felt herself breathe a sigh of relief when she held her daughter in her arms again, when she could see how happy she was.
"How was school?" Taylor asked as Thea hugged Joe and Taylor hugged Betty. "Are we ready to go? Has everyone got everything they need?"
James and Inez nodded, and Betty linked arms with Thea as the two of them started talking happily about their days.

"We can add all the numbers to ten!" Thea chattered away in the back.
"That's so cool!" James smiled. "Soon, you might even be counting all the way to one hundred! Then you'll be able to add one hundred and one hundred together!"
Taylor loved how close the girls were, even though they were different ages. James and Inez were so lovely to Thea, and it always made her happy to see them looking out for each other.
Thea's birthday party was on the weekend, as her birthday was next Thursday, something Taylor was looking forward to. Their New York estate was definitely large enough for a party - which is what they had planned. Thea didn't necessarily know about that yet, because she tended to get overwhelmed with all her excitement and tired herself out before it had even begun.
They'd booked out several bouncy castles, and Joe had even managed to find a mermaid that was going to come and swim in their pool. Both of them knew that this would be so exciting for her, considering how much she loved mermaids and the ocean.
Joe had been beyond excited when he'd had the thought of getting a real life mermaid to come to her party - he knew how much she'd love it. He could still remember how he'd jumped out of bed to go to the computer, giving Taylor the fright of her life. It was going to be the best birthday ever, they were sure of it. All of Thea's friends were invited, Taylor was paying for Joe's family to come over from England. Gigi, Zayn and Khai would be there - they hadn't seen them in a while, because both of them had been so busy. Ed, Cherry and Lyra were coming over from London too. So many of their friends were coming. Taylor's family were going to be there, she'd invited Austin's family too. Taylor had invited Katy, Orlando and Daisy. They'd grown closer over the last few years, and Taylor really wanted her to come. All of Thea's favourite people in the entire world were going to be there. Selena, Abigail, Rosa. Taylor had organised with her for a car to pick her up on Wednesday, that would take her to the airport and she'd finally get to see the world. It was all so exciting.

"You're home!" Ryan greeted them outside as he held the door open for them to climb out of the car.
"Daddy!" Betty cried out as Taylor got out of the car.
"What trouble did you cause, Princess?" Ryan asked Inez as he tickled her nose. Inez laughed as Taylor helped them to get their bags out of the car.
"I'm a good girl!" Inez frowned, but giggled.
"I know you are! Alright, everyone inside for a snack and homework!" He said as the three of them headed for the kitchen. "And I guess I'll see you three tomorrow morning!" He grinned.
Taylor laughed. "We'll do it all again tomorrow!"
"The great, wondrous joys of the repetitive days during parenthood." Ryan chuckled.
"Oh yes, you're right about that," Joe called from the car.
"I'd better go and make sure they're not burning the kitchen down," Ryan waved goodbye, and Thea was complaining about being hungry when Taylor got back into the car.
"We'll be home soon and then we'll get you a snack," she smiled.
"Ice cream?"
"That's for desert after dinner, remember?" Joe smiled.
Thea dramatically sighed. Taylor was happy that she seemed to have a good day. She was so happy that she seemed to have fun, and make friends.
She was also happy that it wasn't public knowledge that Thea was attending a school right in the heart of New York City.

Taylor couldn't believe how much pain the city had once brought her, and thought it was funny that it was now the place they were spending most of their time in. It was the place where her daughter was getting an education and the place where she was beginning to see dreams again. Now she was here. She was pulling into the driveway of their home, Thea in the back, talking about how she knew what mine plus nine was, a baby on the way and the love of her life sitting in the drivers seat.

Sometimes, she felt so in love, so happy and light, that it was almost as if she'd never known pain before.