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The preschool itself was a smallish building, nestled on a suburban roadside just little out of Durem. It was convenient for Reuben, since it was only a few minutes away from the high school, so if anything happened, he could stop by quickly. Vergil had come to enjoy "going to school with Dad," even if his stop was one earlier than his father's.

Reuben parked his car in the lot and unbuckled Vergil from the booster seat in the back. Talk about making adjustments-- the kid's wings had not wanted to squeeze past the seat belt the first time Reuben had tried to take him anywhere. Now, with a little bit of maneuvering, he could just about do it.

Vergil was almost unable to contain his excitement. "I'm going to show you my desk, Dad! I sit at the red table, remember? And then we're going to make macaroni necklaces for each other!"

"Alright, kiddo," Reuben laughed, and took Vergil's hand as they crossed the small parking lot. The sign outside the day care bore the image of a rising sun smiling down at three baby birds. The building itself seemed like it had been a residential home before, only recently converted to a business. Reuben hoped that his directions were alright--this place might be easy to miss. He checked that his cell phone was on vibrate just in case (it was) and took Vergil inside.

"Welcome back, Vergil!" A cheery middle-aged woman greeted them. "And so pleased to see you, Mr. Sceleri! Vergil's told me how excited he was for you to come."

Reuben smiled back. "Thanks, Mrs. Pemberley-- good to see you, too. One of Vergil's friends will be coming along today with his parent."

She nodded, and meanwhile Vergil dashed off to begin playing with a group of girls at a plastic stove and oven.

"Vergil's been a dear," she commented to Reuben, "but he does tend to get a little perturbed if things aren't progressing at his pace."

Reuben nodded, watching his son flip a plastic pancake. "That's very true of him. He tends to like things a bit faster paced than usual. I hope he's not been causing trouble?"

Shaking her head, Mrs. Pemberley laughed lightly. "Oh no. As long as he's kept occupied, he's an utter sweetheart. I just wanted to make sure that you knew."

Reuben appreciated that. Chances were, Vergil would continue to like things fast, fast, fast, and he'd need to make sure that his songbird charge wasn't getting too ahead of himself.

Mrs. Pemberley had gone off to sort out a disagreement two kids were having about who go to play with what blocks-- their parents, meanwhile, were deep in conversation and hadn't noticed the tussle. Reuben sighed, and watched Vergil pick up the banana that had gotten dropped on the floor. His kid seemed to really like that stove, or, at least, he thought, flipping various plastic food items in the air.

He wondered a little where Lily and Stas were, but remembered that Lily had mentioned that they might be late. Either way, it didn't look like things would be starting for a bit longer, as a couple more parents and their children entered the room. Mrs. Pemberley was doing her best to greet everyone without seeming like an overbearing vulture stalking out the entranceway. Though, her caution was something that made Reuben feel reassured about Vergil's safety when he wasn't there.

The songbird in question was having a great time. He ran back over to Reuben, small plastic frying pan in hand, and tugged on his sleeve. "Come on, Dad! Mickey and I want to make you breakfast!"

Reuben watched as a plastic sausage careened past his shoulder. Vergil looked dejected, frying pan in hand. "I think you need some more practice, kiddo," he said, "it takes a while to learn how to do that. How about trying with softer stuff before moving on to food?"

"Okay!" Vergil responded, ready to do whatever he could to improve his sadly lacking aerial food preparation skills. He dashed back to his group, and the three began making a turkey for their parents.

In the meantime, Mrs. Pemberley had gotten the classroom in order once more. She glanced at the smiling sun clock on the wall: almost time to start. But, then she caught sight of a purple-haired child and a bespectacled youth entering the room and walked over to meet them.

"Oh hello there! Welcome to Sunnyside-Up Preschool. I haven't seen you around before, so allow me to introduce myself--I'm Mrs. Pemberley."

Mrs. Pemberley smiled down at the young child. "Very pleased to meet you, Stasio! And you as well, Lily." She considered that the number of children who liked to wear wings were increasing. Perhaps it was a new fad. Either way, it would make dress-up day a lot more fun.

"Ah yes, Mr. Sceleri mentioned you earlier. I think he's over there by the playsets. Feel free to say for as long as you like. We want you to be sure that this is the right place for your child. If you're interested in enrolling Stasio, then please see me or Becky, my teaching assistant and we'll hand you a form. Becky's lovely-- she's doing an internship with me to get her teaching certificate." She gestured to an adult who was helping a group of children build towers out of blocks.

Reuben wondered how long he was going to have to sit at the small table; his legs were starting to cramp up a little. Man, kids' stuff today was so...small. It didn't seem like it had been that way when he was a kid. Huh. How the world changes.

"Look, Dad!" Vergil said proudly, holding a plastic fish up by the tail. "We're making a salmon!"

Nodding, Reuben scanned the room. It was getting pretty full now, so he imagined they'd be starting soon. His eyes found Mrs. Pemberley and saw her speaking with Lily and Stas.

"Hey, Verge, guess who's here?"

Mrs. Pemberley nodded. "Oh, of course, go right ahead! Today is friends and visitor's day, so you're more than welcome to stick around as we go through the day's activities. Actually," she commented, glancing at the sun clock behind her, "if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try to get everyone's attention so that we can begin soon."

And with that, she made her way through the sea of tables and small children playing to give the nod to Becky and begin calling everyone's attention to her.

Reuben untangled himself from tiny table and, seeing Lily free, made his way over to him. "Nice to see you could come!" He said. Vergil, pan forgotten, started to run, but then caught himself and moved at a fast walk, obviously wanting to see his friend again.

"Staaaaz!" He said happily. "I've eaten so many carrots!"

Reuben smiled at Lily. "I really can't believe how well that worked out. His favorite vegetable is now carrots." He shook his head. "So did you find the place okay? It's a little out of the city, but a good friend referred me here when I was looking."

Watching as his son sped over to Stas, Reuben was happy to see Lily again. He'd tacitly acknowledged that, yes, he now had a second son in the faculty lounge a few days ago, but that hadn't gone over exactly stunningly. It was a relief to be around another parent in, well, something of a similar situation.

"Great to see you, too," he replied. He was glad that Lily had found the place okay. "I see you met Mrs. Pem." He smiled. "Vergil's real fond of her, though she does tend to do that talk-and-run thing when it's close to starting time. Hazard of being a preschool teacher, I guess."

"Staaaz!" Vergil said. He had other friends at school, but Stas was a special one, since he didn't get to see him all the time. Plus, they were on a mission. Speaking of which..."Yeah, mine, too. I don't think I like artichokes after all. They're really prickly."

Reuben sighed and looked at Lily ruefully. "I caved and got the artichoke. I found some crazy recipe for it online and tried it out but neither Verge nor I could stomach it." He shook his head and grimaced at the memory.

"That's good! I'd hoped it wouldn't be too much trouble." A thought crossed his mind on listening to Lily's difficulty. "Hey, if you're okay with it, we could do a carpool if you don't live too far away. I'm in Durem, but this is right on the way to work for me, so I could take Stas in for you if you decide to enroll him. Verge and I tend to get up pretty early anyway."

In the meantime, Mrs. Pemberley had placed herself at the front of the room, had dispatched Becky to bring out the supplies, and was preparing to call the class to order for attendance time.

Vergil listened understandingly. "I didn't really like them that much. Some foods Dad cooks are just kinda weird." He made a face and then laughed. "Oh, I didn't get hurt! Dad got pricked a lot when he was trying to chop it up!"

Reuben nodded. "Thanks for the tip. Guess I still have a lot to learn about parenting, huh?" You'd think that having helped to raise one kid and he would understand what to do, but oh well. All kids were different, so apart from the basics, he was really in the same boat as everyone else.

"It's fine by me. I'm usually up early grading papers and Verge likes the morning." He smiled. "It's sometimes a little difficult to work at home when he's up so early, so lately I've been bringing him here and then going to work." Vergil in the morning wasn't very conducive to getting any grading done so Reuben had opted to drop his songbird off at the early arrival time for the preschool instead. Then, he'd get to the high school a while before class started--long enough to get in some work.

"I'm sure Verge would love the company, and it would be no trouble to me at all."

Vergil nodded, as though having finally found someone who understood him. "Parents are weird sometimes. Although, it's good that your dad saves you from the black stuff." He considered this for a while, wondering if the black stuff that Stas was talking about was the black stuff that sometimes appeared on his food. He decided to think about it later. "Oh, he was okay." Vergil nodded and tilted his head pensively. "He got all silent and started talking to himself a lot, though."

Reuben grinned. "Hey, sure! We can tag-team parent or something. Together we're bound to make it as... awesome dads." He had been about to say "kickass" instead of "awesome," but caught himself just in time. Swearing in a pre-k classroom, classy.

"Yeah!" Reuben replied, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. Okay, so maybe he'd been a little anxious for his kid to make a friend. Besides, now it would force him to keep the apartment in good order to impress guests. Though, a small apartment was hardly impressive material. Hell, whatever. He'd make that sucker clean and serve juice boxes and everything! "That's right," he said, "we should probably listen," he commented to Vergil, who looked as though he were about to burst out in joy at possibly carpooling.

"Everyone, eyes and ears over here!" Mrs. Pemberley called. "Head to your assigned tables and we'll begin the first project of the day--macaroni necklaces! If you have a guest with you, they can share your desk. Alright, let's get moving!"