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“Zimms, she’s not going to be happy about this.”
“She’s seven. She’ll get over it.”
“No, you don’t understand. She has mastered the look. You know, the one Bitty gets when I try to sneak the pie before it cools off?” Kent groaned as the only response he got was laughter. “It’s not funny! She’s your daughter, fuck genetics.”
“Kenny, I’m one hundred percent sure you do something to deserve that look.” The other end of the line was muffled for a moment, Jack had placed his hand over the speaker and was talking to someone else. “Listen, I need to go. Thanks again for watching Stella. One of us will text you when we can.”
Kent waved the gratitude off even though Jack couldn’t see it. “Yeah, yeah. Just don’t be surprised when you hear about the former captain of the Aces being found dead from the glare of a seven year old.” With another chuckle, the phone were hung up and Kent was only left with the sound of other parents chatting and cars idling as he waited in the pick-up lane. The loud familiar sound of a school bell rang out and out the door came the mass exodus of elementary students. Backups bouncing up and down, playing tag, some already buried deep in their phones or a book as they walked to the buses or car.
He managed to find the familiar head of dark hair in the crowd and waved his arm with a smile to get Stella’s attention. The seven year old narrowed her eyes at the sight of her godfather. Yep. She was still angry.
“Heya, Stell-bell. How was school?”
She answered with a curt. “Fine.” As she handed him her backpack and climbed into the car, without so much as a glance. This would be a fun afternoon. Kent let out another sigh before walking around to the driver side and climbing in, placing Stella’s backpack on the floor and making sure she was properly buckled before he started to navigate out of the afterschool traffic.
“Do anything fun today?”
“Not really.”
“…Learn anything new?”
“Uncle Kenny. It’s school. Of course I did.”
He was getting nowhere fast. Kent sighed, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel before turning around in his seat to face the sullen little girl. “Stella, you have to understand something like that is not my decision to make. It’s their rules, we have to follow them.”
“I know that!”
“Then what’s the problem?”
Stella took a breath before finally looking Kent in the eyes, “You wouldn’t let me do the jumps at your house either! We don’t have to follow the rules there!”
That’s what was bothering her? He couldn’t help but sigh a little in relief; at least that was something he could control. Last Saturday he’d taken Stella to the ice rink and was skating around with her. She was certainly more into figure skating than anything else right now, especially after Bitty has showcased one of his old routines, and wanted to replicate the jumps he’d done. She couldn’t do them during practice and performances because of their rules but apparently thought her godfather would let her do them. When Kent immediately shot down the idea, Stella got angry with him and they cut the rest of their skating time short.
When he dropped her off at home she’d announced that “Uncle Kenny is a fascist” and stormed off into her room, door slam and all. Jack went to check on her as Bitty explained she’d been watching documentaries with her Papa. Jack and Bitty were thankful that Kent hadn’t let her practice her jumps though and told him they would talk to her about it later. A brief, and obviously forced, phone call from Stella later that night did nothing to soothe the air between them and Kent had just planned on giving the little girl her space for a while. Until he was called on for emergency babysitting that is.
“Stella, your Daddy doesn’t want to you try those jumps yet. He wants you to wait until you’ve had a little more training.”
“But he wasn’t there-“
“Stella.” With a stern voice, reminiscent of his days as a captain, Kent cut her off. Stella ducked her head sheepishly. “The last thing your Daddy, Papa or I want is for you to get hurt. If you try that jump without knowing what to do, you might break your arm or leg, or worse.” Talking about his goddaughter getting hurt made him think about his own career ending injury. “I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
Silence filled the car for a few moments. Before Stella finally mumbled something that sounded like, “Okay.” As she played with her seatbelt. Kent couldn’t help but let out a sigh as he reached back to ruffle her hair.
“I’m not mad, kid. I’m just worried. Okay?” Stella’s body language showed immense relief as she heard those words. She looked up again at Kent with a smile and he returned one automatically. It was really hard to stay mad at her anyway.
“You wanna see what we did in science?” Just like that she switched gears. Kent laughed as she didn’t even wait for a response before she pulled out a black sheet of paper with a series of holes poked into it. “Constellations! They’re a group of stars that make a pattern in the night sky. We all made our own and then held them up the light just like real stars! I made a hockey stick!”
Kent smiled as he took the piece of paper and held it up to what little afternoon light was left and did indeed see a hockey stick. “Wow that looks great baby! Like something I’d really see at night.” A thought suddenly popped into his head as he handed the paper back to Stella. “Hey, you want to go see some more constellations? And planets maybe?”
“Uncle Kenny. We can’t go to space right now” She gave him a look that said, ‘I’m trying to be very patient with you but you’re being incredibly stupid right now.’
“We can go the planetarium though.” Stella thought for a moment before getting an excited look on her face and nodding vigorously.
Perfect! They had a plan for the afternoon and she no longer looked ready and willing to kill him. Kent smiled to himself as he turned around and put his car into gear, signaling that he was leaving his spot. The planetarium wasn’t too far from the school so it wasn’t like it would take that long. He might find something that he liked too.
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For a Thursday afternoon in the middle of winter, the planetarium was surprisingly busy. Kent managed to pull into one of the last free spots before turning off the car and helping Stella out. She willingly reached out to hold his hand as they walked into the building, cheerfully telling him more about her day at school. It always surprised how quickly she did turn her mood around. Looks like Jack had been right, again. Kent followed along as best he could, nodding and interjecting at the appropriate moments as he paid for their tickets and helped her take her coat off.
Stella chatted endlessly as they wandered into the theater, one of their shows was due to start in about ten minutes so they had just enough time to find seats and settle in. Kent couldn’t help but be slightly amused as he watched Stella more than the presentation. It was appropriately enough about constellations and she was taking it all in. He had to stop himself from reaching over and closing her mouth a few times.
After the presentation was over she turned to him with wide eyes. “Uncle Kenny, how are there that many stars in the sky?”
Kent shrugged. “I don’t know, the sky is pretty big though. We don’t see them all at once.”
Stella pondered this as they stood up and filed out of the theater. They were stopped just outside by one of the employees. He was tall. Very tall. He was also wearing a smile that looked like it directly pulled out of a Disney film.
“Excuse me, little lady.” His voice held an obvious accent, Russian it sounded like. “May I stop you to ask about presentation?” Stella looked up at Kent to check if it was okay, he simply nodded and pushed her forward a bit as the larger man crouched down so he was more at her level. “Do you enjoy learning about stars?” Stella nodded. The man pretended to make a note on the clipboard he was holding. “I see. You know anything about stars before this?”
Stella nodded again, but this time she spoke up as well. “In school. We learned about constellations today.”
The man’s smile grew wider, Kent didn’t think that was possible, and he nodded. “Ah, so that is why father decide to bring you.”
“Oh no, I’m not-“Kent was about to correct the stranger when Stella talked over him.
“No, no! Uncle Kenny isn’t my dad. I already have two, I don’t need three. Although sometimes it feels like I have three.” She sent him a look, okay clearly the rink incident wasn’t forgotten. How naïve of him. The stranger shot Kent a look, Kent merely shrugged his shoulders in response.
Turning his attention back to Stella he responded with, “Well, if uncle brings you to planetarium, he can’t be all bad.” Kent was a little surprised the employee wasn’t fazed by her two dads comment, or he was at least thankful that if he was he was at least pretending not to be.
Stella remembered the question he’d asked beforehand and spoke up again, “You want to see the constellation I made?” The man nodded in agreement and Stella grabbed her backpack from Kent (she’d insisted they needed to bring it inside) and rummaged through her folders to find it. With Stella’s attention on something else Kent took the opportunity to mouth an apology over her head to the stranger. He merely shook his head and smiled in response. He felt something react in the pit of his stomach as the other man focused his eyes on him, something a little foreign since Stella had come into his life.
The attention was quickly taken back by Stella as she found her constellation and proudly showed it to the man, telling him how to see it. “A hockey stick!” he happily said as he held the paper up to the florescent lights in the lobby. “Wonderful! Think maybe we see it in the sky one day, yes?” Stella giggled as she tucked her paper back into her backpack. The employee ripped something off a small packet and added, “Maybe your uncle will bring you back for new show next time? Lots to choose from.” With a wink he gave them to Kent, who took them while feeling only a slight heat rise in his cheeks. The man had handed them a few free kid’s admission coupons, as if Kent needed another reason to return. “My name is Alexei. You ask for me next you come. Maybe we arrange special tour for future star maker?” He turned his grin to the now bouncing on her feet Stella, it was obvious she was all for this arrangement.
Kent coughed slightly before speaking up himself, “Thank you, we’ll be sure to do that. I’m Kent by the way, and this is Stella.” He placed his hands on her shoulders in an effort to calm her body, but it was a fruitless one. He then watched as Alexei’s face grew more animated at the discovery of their names.
“Stella? Stella is a perfect name for you!”
“Why is that?” Stella
Alexei leaned in a little closer and whispered, “Can you keep secret?” Stella nodded enthusiastically, eager to hear whatever the other man had to share with her. “It means star.” She turned to Kent with an excited look on her face, jumping up and down with this new information.
“Uncle Kent! Uncle Kent! Did you hear that?!”
“I did.” Kent was worked hard to not burst out laughing at the display. He knew this was one hundred percent serious business for his goddaughter. “Looks like you got a perfect name, right?”
“Yes! Perfect name!” Alexei agreed and threw Kent another wink (that caused another cliff dropping feeling in Kent’s stomach) as he stood up from the crouching position. “Hopefully I see you again soon?” Kent quickly nodded, giving his mouth a few moments to process what was being said in his head.
“Y-yeah, yeah. We’ll definitely be back.” Kent shifted a little, “I think we’ve got a budding astronomer on our hands anyway. I’ll be a nominee for worst uncle ever if I don’t bring her back.”
“Well, we certainly don’t want that.” The two men smiled and held their gazes for a moment before Alexei seemed to remember he was at work. “Ah, excuse me! I need to go check on next show. I hope to see you two again soon.” He gave Stella quick pat on the head and caused Kent’s stomach to drop another ten feet when he waved and smiled before leaving. It took Stella about five or six calls of his name for Kent to remember he had a hungry seven year old that he was tasked with bringing home.
“So, are we coming this weekend Uncle Kenny?”