Sequel: Infinite

Trouble-Maker

Sven.

"I'll see you later, babe," I said as I slipped into my shoes, leaving Ronnie one the couch, still in boxers as he finished his breakfast.

"Later, gorgeous. I'll text you and tell you if your dad actually comes in today."

I nodded my head, still disbelieving that my father hadn't shown up on Ronnie's first day back to the studio, which stopped them from finalizing the tour dates. "I'll be waiting to hear from you," I said as I grabbed my bag from the floor.

"Talk to you later, Atticus," I heard before I shut the door and headed down to my car, that was parked one car away from Ronnie's huge black SUV.

I unlocked the car and got in. It wasn't a long drive from Ronnie's place to my work and that was one thing that I liked about staying with Ronnie. Compared to the drive from my own apartment, it was so much easier and I got to spend more time doing things in the morning before I had to leave.

I double checked that I had my phone as I pulled out onto the street. When it was where it was supposed to be I pulled out and made my way towards La Petite daycare.

"Morning, Jamie," I greeted as I entered the building to the sound of children playing in the play room.

"Atticus!" she greeted, "How was the rest of your day yesterday?" she questioned, leaning against the back of the front desk.

I shrugged. "It was good. Ronnie and I ordered chinese food and watched a few scary movies."

Jamie smiled and cooed. "You guys are so cute together," she moaned, "I wish I could find someone as perfect for me as Ronnie is for you."

I smiled as my cheeks lit up. "He's pretty great," I agreed.

Jamie sighed and nodded her head. A little grin came on her face and she asked, "How long have you two been together?"

I shrugged. "It's been about five months," I said, then added, "I think."

Jamie gave me a confused look. "You don't know?"

"I know," I claimed, "Just not exactly."

Jamie shook her head at me and questioned, "How are you going to celebrate your anniversary's if you don't know?"

I shrugged again with an easy smile. "I don't really mind not celebrating those kind of things. I can't help but lose track of time when I'm with Ronnie."

Jamie smiled and nodded her head before turning her attention towards the hallway where a man came walking out with a smile. "Oh," Jamie exclaimed, "I forgot to tell you we have a new employee."

"Really?" I asked as I looked over the guy. He was wearing a pair of blue faded jeans and a white collared shirt. His hair was short and blonde and he offered up a warm smile as I looked his way.

"I'm Sven," he said as he entered the room father and held out his hand.

"Hi," I said as I shook his hand, "I'm Atticus."

"That's a unique name," he replied as he folded his hands together in front of him.

I shrugged. "My parents are unique people."

Sven smiled and nodded his head as I excused myself, actually having to go sign in and start helping out by getting each child's snack ready for later. I was in charge of checking the food and having specific ones made for the kids who were allergic to the ingredients in the snacks that was being served today.

Each child brought his or her own lunch since La Petite didn't have a kitchen, and also so that me and various other people won't have to do this job to a higher degree and accidentally mess up, sending a child to the hospital with a food allergy.

It didn't take very long to check the snacks for anything that certain kids wouldn't be able to eat. For a little girl named Izzy, I laid out an alternative to peanut butter crackers and set it on a piece of paper that had her name written in bold letters.

It took about a half an hour to figure all that out, and when I had logged in their files what each child was eating as a snack, I had been at work for about an hour and a half.

I moved towards the playroom where the kids were running around and playing with the aids. "Heather," I greeted as I moved over to the woman where she was sitting on a little chair, "How have you been?"

Heather looked up to me from where she sat at a tea party and grinned, "Hey Atticus," she said with a smile, "I've been really good. Why don't you join us?" she told me, motioning to another little pink chair.

"Is that okay, girls?" I asked the two young girls who were dishing out invisible tea and cookies.

The girls nodded eagerly so I plopped myself down into a pint sized chair and grabbed a cup of tea. I pretended to sip it and then complimented the girl who was pouring it, "This is very good," I told her, a grin on my face before I tried to sip it again.

"How have you been, Atticus?" Heather questioned with a slightly smile on her lips. She pushed her gorgeous blonde hair out of her eyes.

I shrugged. "Nothing special has happened lately," I told her. "Had a good weekend."

"That's good," she said, a smile still on her lips.

I gave her a confused look and asked, "What are you smiling about?"

She licked over her cherry lips and shrugged.

"Oh come on, Heather," I whined, "Why are you so happy?"

I watched as he hand moved to her stomach. My eyes grew insanely wide as she said, "Aiden and I decided to have a baby. I'm pregnant."

"Oh my gosh!" I shoulder as I jumped to hug her tightly. "You're going to have a baby!"

Heather nodded her naturally blonde head. "Yeah," she said with a huge grin, "Aiden finally agreed that now was the right time."

I chuckled and corrected her, "You mean nine months from now."

"Yeah," Heather said with a laugh, "I guess you're right."

I couldn't help but grin as the two of us talked about babies. "Do you want a boy or a girl?" I questioned a few minutes later.

Heather shrugged and thought about it for a moment. "I don't know," she said finally. "Aiden wants a boy though."

I laughed at the typical male attitude. "Of course he does."

Heather grinned. "A boy wouldn't be so bad. I wouldn't mind having a little Aiden around for the rest of my life. One Aiden is great and two Aiden's would be twice as great."

"Oh man," I said, causing Heather to look at me oddly.

"What?" she asked.

I chuckled. "I just imagined having two Ronnie's around."

Heather busted out with laughter, shaking her head at the thought. She ran her fingers through her hair to get it back into place and said, "That would be crazy."

"I wouldn't be able to handle that. I can barely handle one of him."

Heather smiled. "Are you two planning on having children someday, Atticus?"

I shrugged. "We've talked about it, but never said that it was set in stone. We've only been dating for about five months or so, we're not even thinking about marriage yet."

"But you've talked about being together permanently?" she asked, honest interest showing on her features.

I nodded, a ghost of a smile on my lips. "Of course," I stated, "He and I spend almost all our time together..." I trailed off as my phone vibrated in my pocket. Then I held it up with a laugh. "And we text each other when we're not together."

Heather laughed too and shook her head at the two of us as I replied to Ronnie. "You two are too cute," she said, "It's almost sickening."

I laughed loudly and nodded my head as the two girls excused themselves and ran off towards another section of the room since they had finished their tea. I replied to Heather, "Aren't we?" I asked, "We make me sick too."

Heather chuckled and stood up from the tiny table. I followed her head and we headed over to the adult sized chairs that were by the doors so that we could regulate who was going in and out of the room.

"Is it weird dating someone famous?" Heather questioned as we sat down.

"Not really," I said simply, "I've always been around 'famous' people so I'm used to it." I told her, using finger quotes around the word famous.

"Yeah, but still," she said, "Isn't it bothersome that you two can't go out in public without being recognized?"

I chuckled and shrugged. "He's not that famous, Heather. We can go out in public without a lot of people noticing him. It's mostly just high school kids that spazz out."

Heather nodded her head as I fiddled with the ring on my finger. Heather glanced down to the decorative ring. "Where'd you get that?" she asked, reaching out for it. I slipped it off my finger and handed it to her, watching as she studied the ring. "Was it Ronnie's?" she asked, since it was a man's ring.

I nodded and said, "Yeah. He gave it to me as a promise for the future."

Heather froze and l looked up to me. "Really?"

"Yeah," I replied, remembering the day.

"Wow," she said as she looked back to the silver ring, "That's so romantic."

"He is," I agreed, taking my ring back from her as she held it out to me. I slipped it back onto my finger and turned it around a couple times absently.

"Aiden never did anything like that for me," she said, talking about her husband, "He just let me skip meeting his mother a couple times."

I laughed and shook my head. "Ronnie's family is great."

Heather rolled her eyes and glared at me. "Well isn't he just perfect."

I rolled my eyes at her playfully as a smile came to her lips, since she couldn't pretend to be mad at me anymore. Heather and I separated a little while after that. She went to play with the kids and I headed back to my office to log the minor injuries that the kids had gotten so far today when they fell down on the playground or scraped themself on a toy.

I grabbed my black hoodie off the couch in my office when I walked in, and slipped it over my head since the air-conditioning in the building was cranked to fight back against the humid heat.

There was a knock on the door a couple hours later and as it creaked open, I looked up and saw an older woman who was behind Jamie. There was a little girl holding the hand of the woman behind Jamie.

I stood up and looked to Jamie for introduction. "Atticus," Jamie started, "This is Mrs. Henderson and her daughter Eony."

"Hello," I greeted as I stood up and walked over to them. "I'm Atticus Gurewitz, you must be a new parent here."

Mrs. Henderson nodded and pulled Eony out so that the little girl was standing in front of me. "Yes," she said, "Today will her Eony's first day here."

I looked down to the little girl who couldn't be more than four. I grinned and kneeled down in front of her. Her eyes were green and her hair was orange and in little braids. She looked nothing like the woman in front of me, who sported dark black hair and warm eyes.

"Hi, Eony," I greeted as I held out my hand towards her.

Her green eyes ran over my and then she grabbed my hand, shaking it lightly.

I asked, "Have you seen the playroom, yet?" hoping that it would loosen up the little girl.

She shook her head just barely and I grinned.

"Do you want to?" When she shook her head I reached out for her free hand. "Lets go see, then," I said.

The four of us moved out into the colorful hallway and then to the playroom that was crawling with more kids. Eony's eyes grew wide and she let go of my hand before running over and taking her mother's hand. Mrs. Henderson sighed.

"She's very shy," she said, "She's not used to being around large groups of children."

I nodded. I understood completely. "Well, Eony," I said, "Do you want to see your cubby instead? You can put all your stuff there and nobody will ever touch it."

She looked up to me and then nodded slowly.

"Okay, lets go," I said as I nodded back towards the hall. I lead them to a free cubby and I grabbed a piece of colorful paper from the counter. "This one will be yours, Eony," I said, motioning to her cubby, "How about we put your bag there?"

Eony looked up to her mom, who nodded. Eony then slipped her tiny backpack off of her shoulders and hung it on a hook. I smiled when a small smile came onto her freckled face.

"Want to decorate your name?" I asked as I leaned down to be as the same eye-level as her, also holding up a piece of yellow paper. "There's crayons in the playroom, if you're brave enough to go back in the there."

Eony's eyes grew wide once again and she seemed to be thinking about it. I stood up as I heard a familiar voice growing near.

"What are you doing here?" I asked with a smile as I turned to face Ronnie, who was looking over the little girl.

"Lunch?" Ronnie asked, seeing as we had been going out to lunch together everyday before he stopped going to studio and had to stay home to nurse his leg back to health.

I smiled at him and held up one finger to signal for him to give me a minute. Jamie greeted him with a huge smile.

"What do you say?" I asked Eony, "Do you want to go make a name tag with Jamie so that your mommy can get to work?"

Eony looked at Jamie who stood next to Ronnie. Jamie was smiling lightly at the little girl and she must have seemed non-threatening because Eony nodded and took Jamie's hand when she reached out for her. Jamie and Eony walked away together, leaving Ronnie, me, and Eony's mom standing together.

"It's better when they forget you're still here," I told Mrs. Henderson, "It's easier for them to integrate with the other kids and the new situation."

Mrs. Henderson nodded. "Yeah, I've just never seen her walk off with someone like that."

I shrugged. "Jamie is good with kids."

"She must be," she replied, a smile on her face as she turned to head out, thanking me as she did so.

"No problem," I told her, "It's just my job."

"I'll be back later to pick her up," she replied, "I guess I'll see you then."

I nodded my head and took Ronnie's hand as she walked out of the building. Jamie came walking out of the play room a minute later, barren of any children.

"She's with Regina," Jamie said with a shrug, "I can't stay away from my post too long."

I laughed and nodded my head as she walked back to the front desk and threw herself down into her chair. "Sign me out will you?" I asked as Ronnie led me towards the front door.

Jamie nodded. "Sure, I'll be your servant."

I grinned and said, "Thanks, babe. I'll see you whenever Ronnie is done kidnapping me."

Ronnie laughed and shook his head, his arm slipping around my shoulder. "That'll be never, Jamie."

"I won't tell anyone," Jamie called back to him as she waved goodbye to us.

I shook my head at them but let Ronnie pull me to his huge SUV. I climbed into the passenger's seat when Ronnie unlocked it. I watched as he climbed up, buckled up, and turned it on, the radio turning on and startling me as Ronnie's voice came flowing through the speakers.

"Your song!" I said, turning it up even more.

Ronnie nodded. "Yeah. Since the CD's release kids have been requesting us nonstop."

"That's so great."

Ronnie nodded. "What's even greater is that we've settled everything for Warped Tour."

"Really?" I asked with wide eyes.

"Yes," he said, "We're headlining."
♠ ♠ ♠
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