New friend, Hailey

*Late 2006*


“Do I have to?” asked Chris unenthusiastically. “I could go work w-with you.” He looked at her mournfully as he shifted his weight back and forth between one foot and then the other.

Willow shook her head as she ran a comb gently through her son’s hair; his bright red hair was long, almost touching his small shoulders. She tucked some of his untangled hair behind his ear as she knelt down so that she was just above his own height, “You won’t be allowed to, sweetie.”

Chris sighed and squinted his eyes as he tried to see through his myopic blue eyes; his glasses were still in his room, he’d have to run up stairs to get them, “Bu’ why?”

The redhead placed the comb down on the small wooden table beside them, “Because you just won’t; it’ll get me into trouble if I do take you with me.” She pulled the drawstrings on his blue corduroy pants to tighten the waistband; then she tied the tow strings into a tight bow.

The redheaded three-year-old pouted, “But I wanna go.” He scuffed his blue and white canvas shoes on the carpet. “S’not fair.”

Willow echoed his pout, “I know, sweetie. But that’s just the way it is, you wouldn’t want to get your mommy into trouble would you?”

Chris patted his hair a little and shook his head, “No, momma.” His arms fell to his sides a second later.

Willow smiled at the picture of Snoopy printed onto Chris’s red shirt, then she looked at him, “You’ll be fine, sweetie. You’ll love it there.”

“You sure?” he asked worriedly. He brushed his fringe out of his eyes as he looked at her.

She nodded, “Just try your best, okay?” she tweaked his nose, smiling at him. “I’m sure you’ll make loads of friends.”

Chris sighed, then nodded seriously, “Okay.”

Willow stood up and took him by the hand over to the sofa, they sat down- she helped Chris onto it- and they looked at each other, “Now, you remember what we talked about?”

Chris smiled brightly, “Yep! I don’t tell ANYONE ‘bout demons and stuff…or the magic, I’m not ‘llowed to use magic there, I think that’s all.”

She nodded, “It is.” Then she stood up and said, “Are your glasses in your room?”

He nodded after a second and then ran out of the room saying, “I will get them!” she could hear his footsteps as he ran up the stairs.

“Remember, don’t run downstairs!” Willow yelled up to him.

“Okay!”

A couple of minutes later Chris walked down the steps one at a time, clinging to the banister tightly. Willow smiled sheepishly to herself, she didn’t know why she’d told him to not run down them, he never did anyway.

He was scared of falling down them.

Willow grabbed Chris’s book-bag and handed it to him as he walked up to her, she saw that- behind his glasses- his bright blue eyes were anxious and scared. She sighed and wracked her brains for something reassuring to say to him.

She grabbed her car keys from the small table by the door and ushered her son out of the house, as they walked to the car she turned to Chris and said, “You know what my first memories of Daycare are?”

Chris shook his head, looking curious as she opened the door; he was lifted into his ‘kiddie-seat’, which was positioned in the rear seat in the middle, and strapped in securely.

“Well, I do remember being quite afraid- like you are, the place was full of lots of kids my own age; the only thing that stopped me having fun is me being shy and scared. There’s no need to be, there’s tons of toys and all sorts of fun things to play with; there’s books, crayons and coloring books. And then at lunch we all sit in a circle and pass plates of sandwiches around; bowls of fruit are passed around afterwards. Then after that we just go to sleep for a little while,” she explained in a near-babble of memories.

Chris smiled, still looking unsure, “I guess that’s okay.”

Willow ruffled his hair affectionately, “You’ll be fine. Just don’t be shy, okay?”

He nodded.

Willow shut the door and then walked around to the drivers’ side and opened the door; she slipped in, shut the door and jammed her keys into the ignition; then she turned around, “You wanna know something else?”

Chris nodded, eyes wide.

“I met your Uncle Xander there,” she smiled and turned back around.

“You did?!” exclaimed Chris eagerly. “Was he shy too?”

Willow nodded as the car burst into life, “In his own way, yeah. He kept on making the silliest jokes and was always blushing…me, I just stayed away from them.” She pulled away from the curb.

“Did Uncle Xander talk to you?”

“Yup,” Willow grinned at the memory. “I broke my crayon and got so scared I cried.”

Chris blinked, “Were they all mad?”

“Nope, Xander gave me his crayons and help me hide the one that I broke,” she explained. “We couldn’t stay away from each other after that.”

Chris smiled, maybe HE’D get a friend like his Uncle Xander! He hoped so! Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all.
“When will you get me?” he asked, he had to know.

“In a few hours, honey,” she replied, eyes firmly on the road. “You’ll have so much fun you won’t even think about it; I’ll be back before you know it.”

Chris nodded and straightened up looking determined, “Okay.” He would be fine!

~*~

*Daycare*


Chris squirmed as he sat awkwardly on the floor of the Daycare center; he looked around shyly at the ton of children running around. He didn’t know that there’d be so many other kids there, he didn’t even know what to do with them all.

He looked down at the colouring book that was in front of him, then to the red crayon clenched in his fist and sighed; usually he was good at colouring inside the lines but today he was too afraid so the red and green was all over the book.

His mommy had said that being shy was bad for him, that he’d miss a lot of fun stuff; he didn’t want to be shy but there were SO many kids! He really missed his mommy, maybe she’d come back in a minute.

As he got lost in his thoughts again his nervous gaze was fixed in the general direction of a blonde girl, though he didn’t see her, he was too worried to pay attention to who or what he was looking at.

Chris’s concentration cleared and he saw that a girl, with long blonde hair that fell freely all the way down her back, was smiling at him. He froze, not knowing what to do, and smiled back at her; but he was a few seconds too late as she turned around obviously upset with the blank stare he’d given her.

After five minutes of wondering and waiting for her to turn back to him he gave up and started colouring in, he was painfully aware of the hot blush that was burning his face; he should have been quicker.

He put the crayon down and grabbed the toy truck next to him and slid it along the floor, he didn’t find the act to be much fun but at least his hands were doing something other than twitching nervously. His head jerked up as he heard a clatter of something being dropped, he saw that a boy was walking away the blonde girl carrying a stuffed bear; he frowned, that girl had been playing with it. Maybe she’d gave it to him, he looked at her and saw that she looked close to tears; nope, she didn’t give it to him.

He gulped as he realized that he’d just stood up without even knowing it, he stared around at the other kids and was suddenly aware that the room wasn’t as full of kids as he’d first thought; he looked in the direction of the bear-stealer and saw that he’d walked over to two other kids, they had a LOT of toys over there…so why did they need that girl’s bear?

Making up his mind, his sucked in a breath pushed the fear away temporarily and walked over to the girl; she was rubbing her eyes with her hands as tears ran down her cheeks, he sat down next to her as she looked at him, “Hi,” he said awkwardly.

He shouldn’t be afraid, the girl had her toy taken away from her and he had to get it back, “My name’s Chris.”

She sniffled and said, “I-I’m Hailey,” she looked down miserably.

“He took your bear,” stated Chris and pointed in the direction of the small group with the ton of toys around them. “Do you want it back?”

Hailey averted her blue-green eyes away from him, “I-I dunno…”

Chris blinked, “You do, or you wouldn’t cry.” Hailey was smaller that him, he just realized that, she looked younger than him and the other kids.

He was a boy, and bigger than her- but not much bigger- so he should get her bear back; she looked really sad without it. Maybe it was HER bear, like Loki was his…he’d hate it if someone took Loki, “Tell him to give it back.”

The blonde looked at him with huge eyes, “But he’s a big meanie-head.”

Chris nodded agreeing, “He is…but he might give it back if he knows that he made you sad.” He would, why wouldn’t he?

Hailey blinked, “He would?”

“I think so,” he replied. He grabbed her hand and stood up, feeling determined. “Come on.”

Hailey just look scared.

Chris walked over to the group and tried not to think too much, he’d get scared if he thought about what he was going to do…he just had to do it, don’t think about, just do it. As he stopped next to the group he found Hailey’s bear which was now lying off to the side, they weren’t even playing with it!

“Can we have the bear back?” unconsciously, his hand tightened around Hailey’s as he pushed back the fear.

One of the boys had no hair and looked kind of mean, the boy looked at them and frowned, “No! It’s mine.”

Uh oh, that wasn’t good. He loosened his hand as he heard Hailey mutter an ‘Ow!”.

“It was Hailey’s first!” retorted Chris starting to feel angry.

“So? It’s my bear now,” said the kid, not nicely. He grabbed it and stuck his tongue out at him and Hailey; the other kids just ignored them. “Go ‘way.”

He tightened his hand around Hailey’s as he felt her start to back away, “No! It’s Hailey’s, now give it back!” he wasn’t even scared anymore, he was just angry; furious.

“Make me!”

Chris considered this for a second as he made up his mind, he glared and then snatched up one of the boy’s toy trucks.

The boy stood up quickly, “Give that back!” The other boys were looking at him with wide eyes, very interested.

“Not ‘til you give the bear back.”

The wind was knocked out of Chris’s lungs as the boy jumped at him; they both hit the ground, the boy’s fists were gripping the redhead’s shoulders and were now shaking him violently, “It’s MINE! Give it!”

“Chris!” exclaimed Hailey, scared she ran across the room to a dark-haired teacher, who was already walking towards them; she pulled on the teacher’s arm.

“Hey, hey, hey!” the teacher’s grabbed an arm each and pulled him and the boy apart, the room was completely silent as everyone else stared at them. The teacher glared at both of them. “Now, what is all this about?”

All three of them started explaining at once and at the same time; the teacher winced and said, “Quiet!” they stopped talking.

She turned to Hailey, “What happened, Hailey?” the teacher’s dark eyes fixed on the blonde.

Hailey didn’t speak at first, she shifted from foot to foot and looked down; when she looked up she caught his eye. He could tell she didn’t want to tell tales. He just looked at her whilst thinking, ‘Tell her, tell her, tell her…’

Perhaps she saw the pleading look, maybe she just knew that he wanted her to tell the teacher what had happened, but she looked away from him and up at the teacher, “He took my bear, it was mine first but he took it away. Then Chris was getting it back and the boy pushed him over.”

The teacher sighed and for a moment Chris thought that she wasn’t going to believe them, then looked at the boy and said, “Well, I’m very disappointed at you, Raymond. I’ve already told you before not to take without asking first.”

Raymond just glared and shifted uncomfortably as the other children all stared at him, he shrugged and looked away.

The teacher sighed and told Chris that he could get the bear, then she walked away saying something about ‘Spoilt kids’.

Chris looked at Raymond curiously for a second and then walked away, Hailey followed him, “Thanks, Chris.”

The redhead blushed as he stopped walking, they reached Hailey’s colouring book, he handed her the bear, “That’s okay.” He smiled, he liked helping people- it made him feel good.

He sat down next to Hailey as she hugged the bear and grabbed a crayon; then she looked up at him shyly, “D’you wanna be friends?”

Chris could hardly stop the huge, happy grin forming on his face, “Yes.”

Hailey smiled and then was concentrating on colouring; Chris stared at her for a minute before remembering his own colouring book and toy truck. He ran back to get them and was a little disappointed to find that they were both gone.

He walked back empty-handed and sat down, it wasn’t so bad though; not even losing the truck and the book was enough to wipe the smile off his face. He sat down next to Hailey again and watched her colouring; his mommy was going to be so proud of him…but she ALWAYS said that she was so he already knew.

The blonde looked up and blinked, “Why aren’t you colouring?”

Chris shrugged, “I lost the book, someone must have taken it when I left it.”

“Oh, you can share mine, then,” she moved the book between them so that he had a whole clean page to himself.

He accepted the crayons she let him borrow and grinned happily, “Thanks.”

Hailey smiled, “That’s okay.”

~*~

Chris jumped up excitedly and ran to his mommy, “Mommy!” she knelt down and caught him into her arms.

“Hey, sweetie,” she said hugging him. “Did you have a nice time?”

He nodded, almost knocking his glasses askew, “Yes, I have a friend, Hailey. And she’s really nice; c’mon!”

Willow stood up and allowed her son to pull her towards wherever he wanted to go.

“Chris!” Hailey ran up to them, blonde hair flying behind her. “My mommy and daddy say I have to go now.”

Chris grabbed her hand, “This is my mommy,” then he looked up at her. “This is Hailey, she’s my bestest friend!”

Hailey blushed and smiled brightly, “Hi.”

Willow smiled at the blonde, “I’m glad you’re making nice friends, Chris.”

Chris pushed his glasses up his nose, “Actually, just ‘friend’, I’m still working on the others!”

Willow laughed, “I’m sure you are.”

“Hailey! We gotta go, young lady!” yelled a brown-haired woman several feet away.

“Okay!” Hailey nodded to her mom and then looked at Willow and Chris. “I gotta go now, bye.”

Chris nodded, “I’ll see you next time.” He was already looking forward to coming back again.

Hailey waved as she walked away; then she was out of his sight, Chris frowned slightly, he was going to miss her until he went back, “Are we going now?”

Willow nodded, “’fraid so, honey.”

They walked out of the building and into the fresh air, some cars drove out of the car park, a few leaving clouds of dust in their wake.

Willow opened the car door to the rear and helped him climb inside onto his car-seat; as she strapped him in she said, “I’m glad you had a nice time there, Chris. Hey, y’know, if you make friends this quickly, just in one day, imagine how many friends you’ll have after a week in that place.”

That put the smile straight back onto Chris’s face, and it remained plastered there well after he got back home.

~*~