101 questions in 106 (open)

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Aurora sat on the chair at her table, looking through a horse and pony book. Her mother sitting not too far away on the sofa, her feet up, reading through a book of her own. "Mommy? Why is this horse black and his mommy is yellow?"

Monique looked up from the book she was reading, Nicholas Sparks' A Walk to Remember. "Maybe his daddy is black?" She suggested as she went back to the book.

The girl nodded her head as she turned the page in the book. "Mommy? Why is the pony in the snow?" She was looking at a picture of an Icelandic pony.

Monique rolled her eyes as she looked over from the book again. "Because it's probably winter." She offered.

Again the girl nodded her head as she turned to another page in the book and looked at the pictures of horses flying over different jumps. She opened her mouth again, but her mother beat her to the punch.

"I don't know the answers to all your questions." She said softly, as the girl had been doing nothing but asking endless questions since she sat down with the book. "I think you need to wait until you see one of the riding students next. Why don't you draw a picture?"

Aurora pouted, her eyes welling with tears as she looked at her mother. When she didn't get the reaction she wanted, she shrugged and closed the book she had borrowed from the school library. "'Kay, mommy." She chirped as she walked over to her art draw and pulled out some paper, crayons and horse stencils.

The drama teacher gave the girl a soft smile. She knew that her daughter must get bored at times and wondered if maybe she should have given the girl up like her parents had suggested. She also wondered if she could talk her parents into the idea if they would take her to live with them. The had never met their grandbaby, and she felt that it was time they got over themselves.

[sepia]

"I think you're a little lost." The statement was addressed to the small cuddly animal Philip had just discovered abandoned in a corridor - a black horse with a startlingly bright yellow mane and tail - and as such was said quietly. He didn't need everyone around to know that he talked to soft toys, after all, even if he didn't do it very often. Honest. Scooping up the toy, on the basis that he couldn't just leave it there, he contemplated what he was going to do with it. Either hand it in to the Office or - and he nodded decisively, decision made before the thought had reached completion - he could go pay a visit to Monica and Aurora Chambers. The toy was most likely to be the small girl's, after all, and she'd probably want it back if she had lost it. And if it wasn't hers, then he hadn't lost anything by checking.

Making his way through the building, he checked doors until he reached the one proclaiming that the mother and daughter lived inside, then raised his hand and knocked firmly. Of course, this was when he'd discover that they were actually down at the stables. Philip had seen more than once the little girl trotting around, expression very serious, on one of the smaller ponies the Academy owned. Cute little thing, really, though he'd never actually met her in person, and hadn't had particularly much to do with her mother, yet, beyond normal casual conversation between staff members.

This might be the time to rectify that, though. He hadn't really been doing anything, after all, Doodle having been well exercised earlier that morning, and now turned out - with fingers crossed - into the paddock for a few hours before lunch. Philip just hoped he'd avoid injuring himself by falling into a hole, or something of a similar ilk. Shifting his weight as he waited for someone to appear at the door, he found his mind drifting off back to some essay marking he had to be doing... but that could be put off for a small bit of socialising, definitely.

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Aurora sat at her table, she held the stencil firmly with one small fine hand and the pencil in the other hand was carefully drawing around the inside of the stencil, her tongue poked out between her teeth as she concentrated on keeping the pencil against the plastic so that she didn't ruin the inside of her horse. She squealed in delight as she finished the outline and triumphantly lifted the stencil into the air to have a look at her hard work.

Monique lowered the book she was reading and looked over at her daughter who had a beaming smile on her blotchy face. she then looked down at the balls of paper that were scattered across the floor around the girl's seat. even at the age of three, the little girl was a perfectionist and the slightest error, not matter how tiny, would result in the child having to start from the beginning again. She had now been sitting at the table for an hour, working on the same picture. "You're happy with it then?" She asked carefully.

Aurora looked at her picture with a frown of concentration and then nodded her head. "I nam, mommy." She said with another nod as she held the picture up for her mother to have a look.

"I'm going to colour her in and then I'll add some glitter."

They both turned toward the door as they heard a knock on it.

Monique placed the bookmark into her book and closed it before placing it on the coffee table. She then got to her feet and walked over to the door and opened it. "Philip!" She said with a smile as she recognized the history teacher - being a drama teacher was almost like being head cheerleader, she knew who everyone was and everything there was needed to know about them. "What can I do for you?" She saw the stuffed horse he was holding, but felt the need to ask anyway just to hear what he would say.

[sepia]

Just as he was wondering whether he was, in fact, knocking on the door of an empty room, the barrier in question swung open, revealing Monique and, behind her, Aurora at a table, face turned towards the door. Ah, good, he didn't look to be interrupting anything particularly important with his errand of cuddly toy mercy.

"I found this little guy," he answered, raising the hand holding the stuffed animal. "It seemed like the best bet was to check if it was Aurora's, before I kidnapped him off to Lost and Found." He proffered the toy towards the drama teacher, adding as he did so "I'm glad to find that you're in. I half thought you might be down at the stables, it being such a nice day for riding." A bit hot now, perhaps, with bright sunlight pouring down, but earlier it had been very pleasant.

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Aurora's eyes lit up when the toy was presented to her mother. "Goldie!" She squealed as she jumped up, her chair falling backwards in the process of the small child running toward the door.

"Rory."

Monique's tone held a warning that the child quickly understood as she slowed down before crashing into the adults. "Thank you for returning him to me, Mr Grey." The girl said as folded her hands together in front of her and waited in front of her mother.

Monique smiled. "Yes, because we would never have thought to check in the lost property." She said, sarcasm layering her voice.

Aurora looked up wide-eyed at her mother. "We wouldn't have?"

The woman shook her head as she looked at Philip again. "Sarcasm is wasted on the youth."

[sepia]

Ah, good, so it was hers - well, that saved a trip up to the office. He handed over the toy to the girl, saying as he did so, "You're very welcome, but it was no bother. Less of a distance to here than up to lost property, so it seemed more efficient to try the more direct route." The last part of that statement was addressed more to Monique than her daughter, in defense of his decision to go the more direct route of coming to find them, rather than perhaps the more sensible route of wandering off to Lost and Found.

"It's something that frequently concerns me," Philip agreed, tone grave though the amused sparkle in his eyes rather detracted from his serious tone. "Such a tragedy that so much subtlety is lost..." He shook his head, not really managing to hide his smile, and began to wonder if he should be heading off. His task was complete, now, after all, and he didn't want to intrude onto whatever serious business Aurora and Monique were up to. He dithered, though, not sure if wandering off would be seen as a sign of rudeness. Oh, social complexities, how the baffled him sometimes...

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Aurora took the outstretched toy and cuddled the pony close to her. "Thank you, Mr Grey." She said with a bright smile. She looked up and turned from her mother to the man and back again, knowing that they were both talking about her, over her head nonetheless, but not really understanding what they were saying.

Monique chuckled at Philip's reply to her statement about children and ruffled the top of her daughter's head when the girl looked up at them with a confused and slightly concerned look.

Aurora stomped her foot on the floor, knowing that they were making fun of them. She jutted out her bottom lip in a pout. She looked up at Philip again, the pout vanished instantly. "Would you like to see my Webkinz collection, Mr Grey?" She gave him a bright smile and without waiting for him to reply she was already marching across the room, expecting him to follow.

A small arm chair that matched the rest of the lounge suite sat in her corner of the room and lined up on it was her small collection of Webkinz toys. 8 horses, a dragon, a sea horse and two dogs.

Notes: These are all of my horse webkinz, I couldn't find the unicorn. And a tiny snippet of the rest of my collection.

[sepia]

"Can't refuse an offer like that," Philip said, seriously, half for Monique's benefit, half for her daughters, and followed the small girl across the room, grinning at how imperiously she expected him to follow. He didn't have much experience with kids, being an only child, not yet having settled down himself, yet, with the result that he had no nieces or nephews to practice on, and no prospects of his own child coming his way any time soon, but found them rather nice - and frequently amusing - even if he did prefer ones who were old enough he could discuss history with. Still, as long as Aurora didn't decide to do anything too terrifying, he'd probably be fine, as his usual method for dealing with kids involved talking to them as (fairly) sensible people - he'd never subscribed to the practice of talking down to children, feeling that they'd never learn anything like that.

"That's quite the collection," he said, making sure to keep his tone serious as he studied Aurora's little pile of soft toys. "They all look very happy." When he'd been a kid, he'd been the type to have epically complicated imaginary adventures with his toys - both of the cuddly, and noncuddly variety - and so was well-versed in treating them like they were alive. Even as an adult, he tended to talk to inanimate objects - books, pens, chairs... - so he just hoped that Aurora wouldn't consider him insane. He wondered if worrying about a three year old thinking that you were insane meant he actually had bigger problems. "Do they have names?"

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Monique shook her head and laughed as Philip asked of the toys had names. "Oh, you're in trouble now." She chuckled as she walked over to the sofa, sat back down and picked up her book.

Aurora looked up at the man with a bright smile. "Of course they have names!" She said as she took in a deep breath. "The sea horse is Chele. The German Shepard is Kip, the Rottie is Rocky, the little horse is Willow - she's a ballerina, the Whimsical dragon is Whimsical , the pinto is Rain, the black Friesian is Bwani, the Clydesdale is Blaze, the pink pony is Pinky Pie, the grey Arabian is Sultan, the American Albino is Blizzard, the brown Arabian is Prince." She grinned again when she had finished naming them all.

Monique sat on the sofa laughing.

[sepia]

And they did all have names! Philip briefly undulged himself with a fond memory of his own soft-toy collection he'd had as a kid, his favourite of which had been the little dragon dramatically named Firebringer, who tended to lead his cuddly companions on daring adventures, which always had happy endings. Truth be told - though this was never getting admitted to anyone except under the strictest confidence - he still had that little dragon, safely perched on a shelf in his room, our of the way of his two border collies. Everyone needed a little bit of child in them, right?

"A ballerina?" he questioned, after Aurora had finished her recital of names, shooting an amused look at the laughing Monique on the sofa. There was nothing wrong with asking detailed question's about a girl's toy collection, was there now? His favourite friend of his parents, after all, had always been the one who was prepared to play with his Lego set when he came over, and he guessed he was just following along in that grand tradition. "I didn't realise horses did ballet." Dressage, yes, ballet... not so much. Clearly this was an exceptionally talented little toy.

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Aurora nodded her head about Willow doing ballet. She walked over to her bookshelf and pulled out a very colourful folder. "Here you go." She chirped as she handed the folder over.

The first three pages were picture of Willow in her bed room and then the dance studio:

The girl nodded her head, as if it all made perfect sense. "They are very clever." She told the man sagely. "I can't wait for my birthday. I've already given mommy my wishlist." She dropped her voice down to a whisper. "I've already written my letter to Santa too. I'm trying my hardest to be very good so I go onto the nice list." She gave a definite nod at that, as if the case was settled.

[sepia]

Accepting the folder, and flipping through the first few pages as Willow and her dance studio - it was nice to know that kids today, or one of them, at least still had imaginary adventures with their toys instead of being solely interested in televisions, he thought, nostalgia hitting him for a moment - Philip also took the time to note that the pictures were pretty good, too. On top of an active imagination, Aurora apparently had quite the artistic mindset, too... which made sense given that her mother was the drama teacher.

Dropping his voice an equal amount, so that he too was speaking in a whisper, Philip attempted a sagely looking expression at Aurora's newest revelation. "I'm sure you're on that list," he agreed, thoughtfully. "When is your birthday?" Christmas, thanks, he could work the date out fine for, but from her tone he was thinking that her birthday was presumably before the winter celebration.

"I've heard that you're a decent little rider, too." A slight tangent, perhaps, but to Philip, nice people had almost always been associated with horses, so it was a logical tack for his brain to strike off on. "Do you spend a lot of time at the stables?"

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Aurora beamed as she looked at the man. "I got mommy to copy the computer screen when I was playing with Willow online." She said as he looked through the pictures.

She giggled when he said that he was sure she was already on the nice list. "My birthday is on Halloween." She had never celebrated the holiday that her birthday fell on, but Monique had always told her it was just an easier way of explaining when her birthday was.

Her eyes lit up when Philip spoke of her riding. "Thank you, Mr Grey." She said with a giggle. "I try to spend as much time as I can, but only if it works for mommy."

"Or if she can con a student who will remain nameless into allowing her to tag along." Monique spoke up from the sofa. Watching her child interact with the male adult made the woman feel guilty for the fact that Aurora didn't know her own father - which made her feel even worse as the man wanted nothing to so with his spawn - and once again made her wonder if the girl would be better off with her grandparents. She also knew though, that at the academy the three year old had so many experiences that most children her own age missed out on.

[sepia]

"Halloween, huh? That makes it nice and easy to remember." Even if, when she was older, she might find herself disliking all the commercial hype that surrounded her birthday. Philip had never personally bought into the whole Halloween thing - brought up quietly, if not particularly strongly, Protestant, he'd always felt it was rather disrespectful towards the original traditions of the day, and preferred to keep well out of it. At least for now, though, it didn't seem that Rory suffered any disillusions about her birthday, for which he was glad.

"I imagine she could con a lot of the students into allowing her to tag along, actually," Philip commented, in an amused tone of voice, as he turned his attention back to Monique. He knew, of course, as it would be a little hard not to know given that they worked together, that there wasn't any husband in Monique's life, or father in Aurora's life, but he hadn't felt the need to inquire further of the school's gossip mill. Monique probably got enough grief about it as it was, and it wasn't really any of his business - nor did he care, really. Aurora hardly seemed to be suffering, after all, and from his oh-so-inexpert analysis, Monique looked pretty happy too.

"It's nice that the Academy has ponies small enough - and experienced enough - to be able to teach such young students," he continued, mostly to Monique, but in a way that meant that Aurora hopefully wouldn't feel left out of things. "Do they have many ponies? I would have thought that they'd be mostly geared to larger animals, for the majority of students are just a few years older than Aurora, here."

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Monique laughed. "When Rory first started showing interest in horses, Kat found a Shetland school master who was up for sale. He's 18 so is pretty much ready for retirement, but he's a perfect mount for mini-me over there." She blew a kiss in her daughter's direction as the girl stuck her tongue out at her before pouting.

"Miss Carr has found other ponies now too. She says I'm going to outgrow Tonka before too long and I'll need something else to ride." She grinned. "Me and Cara went with Miss Carr to pick them up. I even got to ride one of them!" She picked up the black horse and squeezed him against her chest and pressed her face against his soft mane, hiding a yawn.

Monique didn't miss a beat though. "It might be time for someone to sit down for a while and read some books?" she suggested softly. She knew her daughter was too old for afternoon naps, but the girl had had a busy morning. "Katherine was a little worried about getting ponies, but as there are a couple of students here that are small enough to ride even the little ponies, she wasn't too worried about them not being put to use."