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The bus is awful, and neither of his parents can pick him up, so Gabe rides his bike to and from school.
It’s the best option, but not his favorite thing, sometimes he has to stop on the side of the road and wait for a wave of nausea to pass.
Luckily, though, today was not one of those days.
Gabe made it home in about 25 minutes- he could’ve been faster, but his bike is starting to get a flat tire and his dad’s too busy to fix it. Gabe gingerly set his bike in the garage, and sat on the front step to wait for Natalie.
Natalie, being only six years old, doesn’t know how to ride a bike, so she has to take the bus. The bus takes years to get to their little house on Walton Way, it’s one of the last stops! Natalie says she can’t wait to learn to ride a bike, but there isn’t one for her to learn with yet.
There is yelling from inside the house, but Gabe doesn’t listen in. He doesn’t want to know, so he pulls out his homework.
It’s pretty simple. Just dividing by 11s. 3rd grade is pretty easy, and Gabe thinks math probably won’t get much harder.
In the distance, he hears the rumble of an engine. He looks up to see the big school bus stop at the end of the street. 3 kids get off, including Natalie, and they all trot down the street to their homes.
When Natalie spots Gabe, she smiles big, showing off the gap in her bottom teeth (from losing her first tooth two days ago), and she sprints to him, her light up sketchers going disco-mode against the asphalt.
“Gabe!” she squeals. Giving him a big hug.
“Hey, Nat!”
“Do you think dad got us more popsicles? I want one!”
“No, I think mom and dad have been yelling all day.”
It’s true. This morning they were angry with each other. Something about taking mom back to the doctor. Again. Mom’s medicine wasn’t working, or something. Gabe tries not to listen. He just distracts himself and Natalie.
“Awh,” she kicks the ground. “Evan said that his parents yelled a lot before his dad moved to Colorado. Is dad gonna move to Colorado?”
“No! Our parents aren’t getting divorced! Just- mom needs new medicine?”
“Oh. What’s divorce?” Right. first graders have a smaller vocabulary than third graders.
”It’s like backwards marriage.”
“Cool. Can you teach me what you learned today?”
Gabe nodded, and the two headed inside. Mom was lying on the island, and dad was standing by the dining table. He turned his head to look Gabe and Natalie.
“Gabe, why don’t you take Natalie to the neighbor’s house?” he asked calmly, even though he’d clearly just been arguing with mom. He had an orange bottle with a white cap in his hand. Gabe assumed it was medicine for his mom.
“Miss Veronica is in California.” Natalie stated, her unkempt hair falling into her eyes as she spoke.
Dad grimaced. “Okay. Just go upstairs. Play that awful music you like.”
Natalie kicked off her shoes and skipped across the house. You didn’t need to tell her twice. Gabe followed closely after.
When the two got to their shared bedroom, Natalie threw herself on Gabe’s bed.
“Teach me what you learned!” Natalie cheered.
“You’re crazy for wanting to learn after 8 hours of school.”
“Mozart was crazy too!” she sing-songed, kicking her legs.
Gabe laughed, pulling out his notes from school that day. “Okay. I’ll teach you.”
“My teacher is gonna be sooo surprised when she finds out I can divide by 11s! That’s so cool!!” She squealed.
And so, Gabe taught a six year old simple division. Natalie was really a genius.
———
After about an hour of that, Natalie got bored, so they had a dance off. Except, Gabe can’t dance, and Natalie was just jumping doing stuff she learned in ballet before mom pulled her out.
“Can you do this?” She did a mini toe-touch jump.
Gabe thinks he’d brake something if he tried, so he doesn’t. He shakes his head.
“Soooo…. I win?”
Gabe shrugs, “Sure, but I get to absolutely crush you in Mario Kart.”
“I’m good at that game too!!”
Natalie is not good at Mario Kart. She’s six, she just drives in a circle. She’s happy though, that’s all that matters.