Chapter Text
Al yawned as he poured a cup of coffee from the beat up coffeemaker. Glancing at his phone for the time, 8:43 blinked back at him, which probably meant—
He turned as he heard the tell-tale padding of Annie’s feet on the hardwood floors.
Her hair was tangled in impossible knots he didn’t look forward to untangling—seriously, no matter how many detangler sprays Kath, Medda, Angel, Fabi, even Spot and Race, suggested, he could never get his kid’s hair untangled—and she clutched three stuffed animals to her chest with one arm while she held her purple blanket around her with the other.
Annie’s eyes were half-closed, but she still managed to climb into a kitchen chair without dropping her blanket or an animal.
“What’s shakin’ Annie Bananie?” he asked, taking a sip of coffee. “Sleep good?”
She nodded before laying her head down on the table, pillowed by the arm holding her blanket.
“Ya hungry? We got waffles or cereal. I think,” Al added, opening the cabinet. They’d be okay another day, he thought, but a grocery trip was definitely in their future. “Yeah, we gots those heart-shaped Cheerios or blueberry waffles. What’s ya poison, kiddo?”
“Mm…” Annie hummed, sitting up and propping her chin in her hand. “Waffles.”
“Sounds good,” he said, pulling the box from the freezer. “Want milk or juice?”
She pointed to his mug on the counter. “Coffee.”
Albert snorted. “Ha! Milk or juice, Annabella?”
Huffing, Annie dropped her head back on her arm. “Chocolate milk.”
“There ya go.”
~*~
Annie whined and tried to pull away and he tried to tug a brush through her hair.
“Well, if ya’d stop squirmin’, we’d be done by now,” Al said, pulling her closer and locking a leg around her so he could keep both hands free. “Here, play on the iPad. ‘m almost done.”
After another five minutes of muttered curses, three knots, and possibly a few tears, Annie’s hair was finally brushed out.
“Finally,” he sighed. “Want me to do somethin’ with it or keep it down?”
“Uhmm…like yours,” she said, tapping on the screen of the iPad.
Thank god it ain’t a braid, Al thought, scratching the back of his neck before pulling a ponytail holder from his wrist and brushing Annie’s hair back to twist it in a simple bun.
He hadn’t grown his hair out since Annie was a baby and he didn’t have time to sleep, let alone get a haircut, but a few months back, he’d started letting it grow out again.
There’d been plans to make plans to get it cut again a couple months ago, but it’d never happened. And then there was a minor pandemic sweeping the nation, so his hair had grown out almost as long as Annie’s.
“So, we got dance class at three—”
“On Zoom?” Annie asked, trying to twist around to look at him.
He nudged her back. “Yeah, on Zoom, like we did with Jojo’s class Monday. So we c’n work on a puzzle 'til then, or we can color, listen t' your audio books…”
Annie turned around and Al let her this time, figuring her hair was fine. “What ‘bout school?” she asked, even though she didn’t look happy about it.
“Act’lly...” Al said, drawing out the word. He hadn’t figured out how he was gonna tell her this part. “Act’lly, kid, we ain’t gonna be doin’ school anymore.”
“Why?”
‘Cause we was fuckin’ miserable, he thought. With their combined ADHD, the total disruption to their schedule, the lack of Annie’s paraprofessional, and the sheer amount of worksheets that was expected of her, they'd burned out after the first week.
He’d mentioned something to Davey about it after a particularly bad day, how online school was just too hard for them to pull off.
“Why don’t you pull her?” Davey’d suggested.
The question had stopped Al in his tracks. “You c’n do that?”
“Sure. I’ve had some students drop, a lot of teachers have. And Annie’s a good kid, she’s on track for her age, and let’s face it. She’s in kindergarten. There’s probably not much she’s missing.”
“What do I do? Just email her teacher?”
“Yeah, they’ll let you know if there’s anything else you have to do, contact the school or whatever.”
“Think that’ll be okay? Like I ain’t gonna get her behind or anythin’ if I pull her, right?” Albert had asked. “I mean, I hate th’classes but I don’t want my kid fallin’ behind just ‘cause I can’t figure it out.”
“Albert, I’ve met Annie. She’s a good kid, smart kid. She will definitely be fine missing the last month of kindergarten, she’ll bounce back.”
As usual, Davey'd made a lot of sense.
This time, Albert didn't even pretend to hate it.
So he'd pulled her from school, figuring they could handle things on their own.
"Ya know, me an' your teacher decided you's been doin' so good in school lately, you don't gotta go for the rest of the year."
Annie narrowed her eyes at him. "Really?" she asked doubtfully.
Al tapped her forehead, right between her eyebrows, rocking her back gently and causing Annie to giggle. "'Course, kiddo. You's a genius, don't'cha know?"
She pushed his hand away. "No more school?"
He crossed an "X" over his heart. "No more school—"
Whooping, Annie jumped to her feet before leaping off the couch and racing to the closet. "PUZZLE!"
~*~
“I’m ready f’r Annie, Daddy!” Annie yelled, pulling herself over the arm of the couch, landing in a summersault. Her hair was wet from her bath, darkening the back of Al’s DuckTales shirt that she wore like a nightgown.
He snagged her before she could fall off the couch, plopping her on one of the couch cushions. “Really? Ya brush ya teeth?”
“Yup!”
“Really? Lemme smell.”
Standing, Annie balanced her hands on his shoulders so she could lean in as close as she could and breathe in his face.
“Whew! Kid, you def’nitely got DaSilva breath. Go brush again. Put toothpaste on ya brush this time.”
“But I did—”
Al shook his head. “Nope. One more time or no Annie tonight.” It was an empty threat. He still had nightmares of the night he actually refused to show the movie for Annie to fall asleep to.
But he figured he had another year or so before she either grew out of it or realized her dad was full of shit.
Whining, Annie slid off the couch and ran back to the bathroom. He heard the water running and a minute later, Annie came running back.
“Now?” Without being prompted this time, she pulled him towards her and exhaled loudly in his face.
Pushing her gently away, Albert pulled her up to sit on the couch next to him. “Alright, ya good now. Gotcha blanket?”
Annie stood on the couch, wrapping the baby blanket Buttons had made her around her before flopping face-first onto the single couch pillow they had. Wiggling around until she could see the TV, she chirped, “Uh-huh!”
“Gotcha duck?”
One hand unearthed from the blanket, a yellow stuffed duck clutched in a tiny fist. “Yup!”
“An’ ya sure ya don’t wanna watch somethin’ else—”
“Daddy!”
“Alright, alright.” Al pressed “Play” on the remote. The overture began and Annie squirmed once more, getting comfortable, before reaching to grab his hand, pulling it so it rested against the back of her hand. Once it was in the position, she tucked her arm back under the blanket to cradle her duck. Her other hand moved up to her mouth and she sucked her thumb as the movie cast a soft glow over the living room.
Smoothing his thumb behind her ear, Albert sighed. Today had been...okay. Good, even. There hadn't been too many of those lately.
He knew better than to think that just pulling Annie from school would solve everything, but it'd be enough to keep them happy for a bit—
"Daddy?" Annie mumbled, already looking half-asleep.
"Hmm?"
"Since I don't got school, can we go t' the park t'morrow?"
—or maybe less than twenty-four hours. It was a good run.