Dot works on online advertising for her daycare.
She sees some ads for daycares in neighboring cities. They charge how much per month!? Dot can hardly believe her eyes.
She bites her lip. They have multiple employees, their own daycare facilities instead of her home nursery...
She can't fix the facility problem, but she starts drafting a help wanted ad for an assistant.
For now, though, she's on her own.
"Hold on, Ami, I'm coming," Dot says soothingly. Ami only cries more. Looks like she won't have an easy start today.
The oldest members of the household are working on their skills. Dot has found that engaging small talk and a listening ear help with the more stressed parents.
She wonders if that's something she could teach to a new assistant. How to be nice? Shouldn't be too tough...
***
Mr. Potts lets Tatum and Lester use the sculpting station near the back of the school. It took some pleading, but he'd convinced the school not to sell it and let seniors in his art class use it for their work.
"I thought you said it wouldn't be a clay statue," Lester grumbles.
" I didn't want it to be," Tatum sighs, "But Mr. Potts said using garbage would've involved a lot welding." Her first idea had been to make a mermaid out of trash they found at the beach, but Mr. Potts rightly pointed out that it would a) take a lot of time to gather that much garbage and b) they would use a lot of metal cans, hence the welding problem.
"I guess we can stick the trash on afterwards?" Lester suggests.
"That's better than no trash," Tatum agrees.
They spend a lot of time together in here. Every art class and the occasional study hall, every day. Most of the time, as the better sculptor, Tatum chisels away while Lester gives feedback or chats with her.
Tatum eventually gets to know him better. The reason she never sees him around school is because he goes straight home to look after his sister. He was afraid to do this project alone because Mr. Potts, despite generally liking his artwork, always says he's "sloppy".
She'd like to tell him about how the reason she doesn't text him back quickly is because she's always working on a potion for her sister, but she doesn't. She does tell him other things, though.
Today's topic is Kaira. "My sister keeps talking about how much she wants to leave Twinbrook. It's kinda annoying."
"I dunno, maybe she has a point. Twinbrook isn't exactly the most exciting town. Or the largest."
"Yeah, I know. But she makes it sound like a total dump!" Tatum huffs, then wipes her forehead, "And she talks about everyone here like they're beneath her or something. I'm sick of it."
"Yeah, I can see how that might be annoying. She's probably just frustrated though, being stuck here."
Tatum shrugs, "Yeah, maybe... I dunno. She could phrase it more nicely, I guess."
Their hangouts lead to some...feelings... on Lester's part. Feelings that are hard to admit.
He didn't think he'd come to like her, not in that way. Sure, Tatum is nice and very creative, but he assumed that they wouldn't have much in common.
And now here he is, wondering if she'd say yes if he asked her out to a movie.
He takes a deep, steadying breath.
Here goes nothing!
"Hey, so...do you want to catch a movie sometime?"
"Which one?" Tatum seems unaware of his nervousness.
"I was thinking La bise?"
"Oh, that new french movie? I didn't know you liked foreign films, or romance movies."
"It seemed like a good date movie," Lester says without thinking.
"A date?" Tatum freezes, "Lester-"
She doesn't get to finish her sentence. Mr. Potts enters the sculpting studio without even knocking.
"What is that?" he stares at their half-finished statue.
"It's going to be a mermaid," Tatum replies meekly.
"Does that look like a mermaid?" he replies scathingly.
"Well, no, but we're going to fix it-," Lester starts to reply.
"Sloppy. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. I knew Lester had a problem with that, but you?" he turns towards Tatum, "I expected better."
"It's not finished yet, Mr. Potts," Tatum objects.
His frown deepens. "You two realize there isn't much time yet, right? Do you have any idea how much the school wants to sell that sculpting station? They won't want to keep it if this is the kind of work they get from it." His voice is even, never raising above a normal volume, but his words hit Tatum straight in the chest like a sledgehammer.
"Mr. Potts, what's your problem? You don't have to be so angry," Lester indignantly interjects, "Calm down."
"Calm? How can I be calm when all of you are wasting my time!? Only one of you is actually finished with your project and the gallery is on my back about the other projects. I've gone out on a limb for all of you to get your work shown professionally! Calm!?"
Both teens are left speechless by Mr. Potts's rant. He looks wildly between the pair before barking out, "Just...get it done!" before leaving them.
They don't talk about the movies again after he's gone.
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AN: This was going to be a longer chapter, but I had to cut it off somewhere.
The one student done with their project is Jeremie! He finished his sketch while I had Tatum sculpting.
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