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Ryouko sighed as she tapped her fingers on the steering wheel, she was stuck in traffic. She had opted to drive since she was sure the train station would be full of kids going to school, which would normally be fine, but it was the first day so there would be plenty of kids running around trying to get on the right train and off at the right stop to make it to school on time. She had presumed that driving herself would be better but atlas, there was just as much traffic.
Admittedly this would most likely clear up by the end of the week, as adults and children got used to the new schedules but for now it would seem that she would have to settle with being a few minutes late to work.
Resigned to her fate, Ryouko leaned back in her car, thinking about how the children were doing on their first day. Rikka was most likely fine, she was still in middle school, so she had the same classmates and she seemed excited to get back to school with friends. Ryouko smiled thinking about her daughter, she wasn’t sure what classes she had or how many new teachers she would have but she was sure Rikka would tell her the next time they shared a meal, whenever that might be.
Ryouko was pulled from her thoughts for a bit when traffic started to move and she had to focus on driving less she caused an accident. When traffic slowed she returned to her thoughts, something much less pleasing to think about. Ira’s first day of school. That was sure to be much more hectic. Ryouko had done everything she could to prepare him for this, she had brought him to the store to buy everything he could ever need, schoolbag, notebooks, pencil case and supplies. Those had all been pretty easy, they were readily available with the coming school year.
More difficult had been signing him up to the school, Rikka had been a simple case of transferring her during the summer to the closest elementary when they moved then signing her up to the following middle school. Ira was… much more complicated. She had to register him as a student, get him all the IDs and such, and to do that she needed proof of where he lived and his legal guardian, neither of which she had. So she had to get legal documents from the country to prove that she was Ira’s legal guardian and that he was a person who needed documentation. Thankfully Rikka’s friend Alice, sent someone to help with everything, including attaching Ira’s medical files fairly quickly so she wouldn’t have to have him join in the middle of the year. After all this she was able to sign him up for middle school though in the grade under Rikka. Technically Ira’s birthday allowed him to go into Rikka’s grade, but it would make him the youngest and he was already the smallest in the grade, so she held him back, putting him with Regina.
Maybe that hadn’t been the best idea since she had learned from her conversations with Aida family, Sebastien and Joe that the two didn’t seem to get along great and the time she met Regina’s father he confirmed that fact to her. Well, it didn’t necessarily mean that they would be in the same class together, Oogai middle school had 3 classes for each grade level. Although she would find out who Ira had class with whenever she next saw him. Ryouko chuckled at the thought of Ira’s rants about Regina, it was a new thing to her, Rikka had always been too timid to really hate someone that way.
Thinking back to when she had last seen them was when she had left for work at the same time as them since they had to be at school early for orientation. Rikka had been happy since she was going to see all of her friends again. If she seemed the slightest bit annoyed it was at Ira’s lack of enthusiasm, he’d been like that since she forced him out of bed to the table to eat something, now he stood just inside the door, prolonging the time it took to say goodbyes by standing just past the door, inside the house, rifling through his school bag, messing with his uniform, looking for any excuse not to leave. Rikka was getting impatient so Ryouko decided to kiss Rikka goodbye on the forehead, something she liked to do before she left, then she turned around and pushed Ira’s bangs out of the way to give him one as well. As she walked away and got into her car she called to them to have a nice first day of school and that she loved them. While she drove away Rikka had pulled a stunned Ira out the door and the crosswalk, where Ryouko could see that he gotten a stain on his uniform before school even started.
Those uniforms had been a small annoyance to get compared to everything else but Ira’s tiny frame had meant that she needed to put in an order from the shop to the company since she couldn’t find them with the right measurements and she still had to get the sleeves hemmed since they sat too low when he wasn’t bending his arms. And then he stained it immediately! Huffing a bit at the thought Ryouko moved forward some more in traffic before she stopped again, smiling as she thought of something funny, the women at the shop had brought to a section made specifically for slender children with comparatively long limbs and when Ira only fit in pants that were stopping just under his knees she had complained it was just like when she worked with tall people, the way clothes were sized with length to waist size made long pants too big at the waist for them to wear. The concept of Ira, the smallest child of his age she knew having ‘tall people clothing problems’ was just hilarious. Although she could see how it would be annoying.
Relaxing after the memory, Ryouko was confident that Ira would adjust to school, the consistent schedule would hopefully help him and Ira was capable of being a social person, she had noticed that he liked to be with people who could be very loud with him during say a rant or just generally people who could be very loud and energetic, without him, he much prefers to watch someone running and jumping around taking about something from the sidelines. He also likes it when he can switch doing this with someone so that he talks and they listen, that seemed to make him happy. Ryouko has also learned randomly that Ira greatly enjoyed being read to, or reading from the same book, a little thing that was only really nice when he was calm and quiet, something she had never thought possible of the boy, but was one of the things she learned about him during their time together.
Ira would be fine, she decided solidly as she pulled into the hospital staff parking, 37 minutes late. Signing, Ryouko walked into the hospital, walking to the front where her supervisor was, preparing herself for the pain that was this man’s long verbal lectures.
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Ryouko arrived home early, much to her supervisor's chagrin. It was fine, one short day wasn’t going to cause the hospital to collapse. It was an hour, he was overreacting and she wanted to be there when Rikka and Ira returned home from school.
Ryouko had been going through her email when they came home, coming down the stairs to greet them Rikka seemed surprised to see her home so early, they made brief conversation while Rikka arranged her stuff in the doorway. After agreeing to talk more at dinner and Ryouko insisting that she would make dinner she went to find Ira in his room. Knocking on his door she came in at Ira’s response, to see him lying on his bed, having already changed out of his uniform. Gently sitting down on the edge of his bed she leaned over before asking him a very important question.
“How was school today Ira?” She asked, smiling down at him.
For a moment he side eyed her with an exasperated look, scoffing at her question but answering it anyway. “Regina’s in my class, she sits behind me to the left, she’s such a pain! And she’s going to be there all year!” Ira complained.
“I’m sorry about that, but besides that, did you do anything fun?” Ryouko asked, hoping that he didn’t just think about school as the place he shares a room with an annoying girl for hours.
“Icebreakers, far too many icebreakers. And slides over the same rules for every teacher we have.”
“Well rules are important, but did you meet any new people, make any friends?” This was the question she had wanted to ask him, she wanted him to spend time with people his age who weren’t the pretty cure.
“Eh, there were some people I talked to, most people were nice, very… insistent about being friends, they were weird. One girl caught me up on everything we’ll be doing and what’s like as well as when breaks are. Also talked a lot about her hobbies,” Ira stopped there to think more about what had happened but didn’t seem to recall anything else.
“Well that's nice, do you think that you’ll enjoy school?” Asked Ryouko, though the incredulous look Ira gave her answered her question perfectly. Smiling, Ryouko decided to leave him alone, she’d talk to Rikka at dinner and maybe get more information on Ira’s day depending on his mood later.