You Changed My Life Kid.

When it was time for Leila to go back to school, the guys and I were talking about starting a new album. With Lily in her fragile condition, I was letting her sleep in and I was getting Leila ready for school.

One morning, I opened my eyes and it was to Lily’s sleeping. She looked so beautiful. I gently kissed her lips so not to wake her then got out of bed. Walking softly from the room, I made my way to Leila’s bedroom. I didn’t want to wake her right away, so I decided to grabbed her clothes lay them at the foot of her bed, and then gather up her dirty clothes before waking her. I piled the dirty stuff outside her door before I turned to her bed and woke her gently. She smiled up at me then I kissed her soft cheek. I sat there looking down at her and really took in the features of my daughter. She looked so innocent. She had my eyes but she had her mothers beauty. Her mother was a mixture of Alison Sudol and Alicia Simmons-Way. She was a natural beauty. Her long hair was the color of dark chocolate with red highlights. I knew she was so going to be small like her mother. Thin and curvy. And this worried me when it came to boys. Moving some hair from her eyes, I picked her up and held her in my lap. She was my world and I wanted her know that, and I hope she never felt left out of anything. Or when the baby comes. She’ll always be my little girl. My first born my pride and joy. I let her wake up in my arms then had her go brush her teeth and wash up.

I exited her room and peeked into my own. Lily was sitting up in bed trying to wake up. She was so beautiful, to me she was like Marilyn Monroe with long black hair. But her body was so tiny, but she sure did have beautiful curves. Spotting me, she smiled and I entered the room completely. I walked to the edge of the bed and leaned down kissing her soft lips.

“How are you feeling this morning?” I asked. I knew most mornings she would throw up.

“I feel o…” before she could finish her sentence, she was scrambling to get out of bed and to the bathroom. Feeling bad because I was the reason she was like this, I stood with her rubbing her back. “I’m okay now. Go get Leila’s breakfast.” she whispered sitting on the floor with her neck pressed against the edge of the tub. I nodded kissing her cheek and then her forehead.

“Come down when you’re ready. Want me to make you some toast?” I asked Lily before walking down the stairs.

“No, can we go out to breakfast after dropping Leila off at school?” she said.

“Sure.” I said nodding. Walking downstairs, Leila was sitting in the living room watching cartoons. Her head bounced side to side as she listened and watched the opening song to her favorite show. She was so adorable. “Baby girl what would you like for breakfast?” I asked.

“Do we have any pop tarts?” she asked. I nodded knowing we had picked some up on the day before. “One of them please.”

“Okay, baby. Come and get it.” I said walking into the kitchen. She bounced behind me.

As I pulled her pop tarts from the toaster, Lily walked into the kitchen. Leila was sitting at the table with her juice. Lily was dressed and ready for the day. I was still in my pajamas.

“Baby go get dressed and I’ll give her this.” Lily said. I nodded giving her a quick kiss before going up stairs. As I pulled my jeans on, Lily came in. I had taken a quick shower. Water dripped from my hair down my face as I looked up at her. She grabbed the towel from the bed after walking in and dried my hair as I buttoned my jeans, looking up with the towel still on my head, hiding most of my face I leaned in and kissed her. I could feel her smiled against my lips.

“I love you.” I mumbled against her shoulder where I had placed my head after pulling away from her our kiss. Her head rested against my own shoulder.

“I love you too.” she whispered. Leila enter our bedroom shortly after.

“I’m going to be late for school.” she said softly. Lily and I looked over at the clock on the bedside table and she was right.

The three of us exited the bedroom and ran down the stairs putting shoes on and making sure he had everything we out the door. I locked the front down behind us as Lily and Leila made their way to the car.

As we drove towards her school, Leila was going through he backpack. She pulled something out and handed it to Lily. As Lily read it I could tell by her face that Leila was going to be in trouble.

“Ophelia! Why didn’t you give me this while you were on vacation?” Lily asked looking behind her.

“I don’t know.” Leila said, shrugging her shoulders. “ I guess I didn’t want daddy mad at me.” she mumbled.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Her teacher wants to see us first thing this morning.” Lily said. I sighed.

“It’s okay we can go in and talk with her teacher find out what’s going on. Then me and you can go and do what we planned.” I said, taking her hand in mine and kissing the back of it. She smiled at me and nodded. “And Leila it’s okay there’s probably nothing to worry about.” I said, looking in my rearview mirror. She was looking back at me with a smile on her face.

“Okay daddy. I love you.” she said.

Parking the car, I pulled Leila from the back seat and carried her inside. As we walked in, a bunch of the older kids recognized me. They pointed and waved, I half smiled, giving the ones who waved a nod to show them I had seen them. When we entered Leila’s classroom. Her teacher came over and greeted us kindly.

“Thank you for coming Mr. Baker.” she said shaking my hand. “I normally talk to Lily but I think this matter is important enough that I need to speak with you personally.” I nodded. The teacher told Leila to go and put her things away then to go out to the play ground where the other children were playing.

“Is there something wrong?” I asked. Once Leila was out of hearing range.

“Yes. It seems that Leila is having a extremely hard time making and keeping friends.” the woman said. I looked over at Leila who was sitting on the edge of her seat drawing on a piece of paper. “She talks about traveling to Europe and being on tour buses. And the other children don’t believe her.” The teacher said.

“But she has been to Europe several times, and since the age of two spent most of the year on a tour bus.” I said.

“I understand this because I know what you do for a living Mr. Baker. But is there anyway that we could put together a way of proving this?” the teacher asked. “I dislike seeing Leila who is a sweet child be treated this way.”

“Yes, I could bring in photo’s and even some of the people she’s traveled with. I mean even Lily could prove it she’s been with Leila since the day she started traveling with me.” I said.

“How about tomorrow afternoon? That’s when we have show and tell.” the teacher said.

“Sounds good.” I said.

At breakfast, Lily and I talked about who I should call for the project. We talked about the baby and when her next doctor appointment was. When we finished breakfast, we went and did a little shopping.

As Lily took a little nap, I pulled some of my favorite pictures from the last few years for the project and called a few friends for some help. I called Mikey Way up knowing he’d enjoy helping out his favorite Non-blood Niece. I asked Jimmy to come and I called up Matt Tuck who was in town with the his band.

The next day, I had the guys come and meet me at the house before going to the school. Lily was going out to lunch with a few of her friends so it was just us. I grabbed the photos and the four of us took off to the school.

After checking in at the main office, we walked down to Leila’s classroom.

“I haven’t been in a school building in so long.” Mikey said. “It’s so creepy.” we all laughed as we reached the door of her classroom. All the kids were sitting on a carpet, listen to the teacher as she talked. When she spotted us she smiled and kept talking waving us in some of the kids turned to see who was coming in. Leila spotted us and came over.

“Daddy what are you guys doing here?” she asked.

“We’re you’re show and tell project.” I said. Her eyes got wide and she smiled. “We’re your proof the you’ve been to the places you said you’ve been.” I said. She got excited giving me a hug.

When the teacher said she could start she had the four us stand up in front of her class. She introduced us. Starting with Jimmy.

“Okay this is my Uncle Jimmy. I’ve known him my whole life and he’s one of my favorite Uncles!” she exclaimed. He smiled. “He’s a drummer for a famous band called Avenged Sevenfold.” Moving on to the next person. “This is Mikey Way, the worlds greatest bass player! He plays for My Chemical Romance. His wife is so cool. And so is his brother who’s the singer for the band.” next person, “And this handsome guys is Matt Tuck of Bullet for My Valentine.” he picked her gave her a kiss on the cheek then placed her back on her feet. “These two,” she said standing between Matt and Mikey. “Toured with my Uncle Jimmy and my daddy,” she said moving to me. “Who is this great man.” she said softly taking my hand looking up at me. “We toured with My Chem while in Australia and did a huge festival in England with Bullet.” she said. I took out the pictures I had.

“If you get close, these are only a few of hundreds of picture I have of Leila when we were touring.” I said. Showing the kids the different places she been. “Leila has been almost everywhere around the world. She can speak most words in German from when we spent two months with Tokio Hotel while promoting our CD.” I said. The kids were in AWW over the pictures and the stories she was telling. It was nice to see her smiling and the look of pride on her face was so nice. I think she finally knew that no matter what those kids said, she knew that she had done more in her five years of life then they had in theirs.