"Well what's school going to do for me anyways? Don't ya' think I might stand out a bit?"
"Hopefully."
"For a mother you're not very nice ya' know,"
"Glad you noticed. Get your butt in the car. I've got errands to run once I get rid of you."
"Gee, thanks. Remind me of this day when I'm picking out your nursing home."
"Get in the car."
With a scowl on her face the irritated young woman plopped down inside her old mustang and waited. It had already been a long day and the clock hadn't even made it past 7 in the morning. As she mumbled under her breath about the day's ongoing events she broke from the thoughts as her car shook, once more the ungrateful bag of flesh she called a child had slammed the door shut too hard.
"You're going to break that door, and then you'll be paying for it. And fixing it too."
She grinned at the obvious discontent look that had marked up the young boy's firm cheekbones. A rusty chirping noise came from the engine, once, twice, finally it started to purr which meant it was time to leave. As Taylor backed out of the complexes narrow driveway she noticed the grass to the side of the pavement was torn up, a mix of small and large holes were dotting her front lawn. Gritting her teeth together she shook her head, bottling up a whirlwind of choice words as she already knew where they were coming from. Her perfect lawn, the rich green baby grass was being destroyed by her kind old landlady's dog. He was a raggedy old mutt with definite beagle in him, adorable if you didn't know better but by god she knew better, he was a grumpy old fart that stunk like puke and had a bowel problem. With a distinct distaste in her mouth Taylor found it suddenly hard to ignore her brat's child's constant prodding to head farther than the stop sign to which they'd made it to at the end of the street.
"Taylor....Taylor...TAY-"
"Akki, hush it all. We're going, we're going."
A stiff sigh and a cold roll of the eyes towards her small companion she hit the gas and off they went. First day of school, first day Akki would ever be with kids other than those at the park or birthday parties. She was almost sure as they ran through a few more neighborhoods that he was sitting tighter than she'd ever taken notice to him doing before. Back straight, legs stiff, even his normally shifting gray eyes managed to continue to gaze out the front windshield, watching in almost horror as they pulled up to the school's parking lot. The stringy woman arched her eyebrow as a group of giggling grade schoolers passed by her window as she shut the car off, it'd been so long since she'd seen children in this sort of environment, it was strange to watch what today's youth was like outside of the projects. Smiling warmly, a look she gave less than often to her son, Taylor encouraged him to get out of the car and on his way. Akki on the other hand, had a different idea entirely.
"So, like, you're going with me right?"
The nervousness in the child's voice gave Taylor a hint to his opinion about how this day would fare. After all, he was different, and green skinned children normally didn't mingle well with...well...the general populous. She shook her head calmly and leaned back in her leather seat,
"Nope. This is all you babe."
Another sigh, this time from Akki let the tension already mustering in the small car build. Just as it was about to break the old black mustang to bits he hooked his slender arm around the brown backpack and pulled it from around the seat and to his chest.
"Fine. Have a nice day running errands."
"Have a good day too,"
Taylor hadn't realized how late her words had escaped her lips until the door's lock clicked shut. As she watched Akki head towards the mass of small children running towards the front doors of the brick building she realized, this wasn't as easy as it looked.
