Back to School (Oversized Pre-K Edition)
Jonny groaned about, hearing his alarm go off. Why did he need to get up early? What was going on today? He reached over and turned it off, sitting up a bit. Looking around the room.
Vincent sat patiently at the end of the bed with his beloved sheep, playing on Jonny’s phone. The soft sound of piano played. Orlando was nowhere to be found- expected as it was the first Wednesday of the month, which meant he had to go to the office for a long, long boring meeting about techy things, and business things and it was just boring for the child. So, on these days, Jonny stayed home with him for once.
“Well good morning Vincent, did Dada let you out or did you just climb out on your own?” He chuckled, ruffling his hair a bit. Vincent hummed.
“Dada gave me monies.” He replied, picking at his pajama bottoms.
“Oh he did.” He smiled, picking him up and settling him in his lap. “Are you up for breakfast Vinny?”
Vincent nodded, “Can we have pancakes with maple syrup?”
“Of course you can. Pancakes need the syrup.” He kissed his forehead.
Vincent nodded, getting up and out of his lap, lifting up his sweater paws, “We’re gonna go eat pancakes!” He walked downstairs, holding tightly to the bannister.
He laughed, “Hold on Vince.” He called out to him, getting out and following him downstairs. “Just you and me for a bit, I think we should go out for back to school stuff. Does that sound good to you?” He asked him, getting what he needed for the pancakes.
“Back to school?” The concept never occurred to him really, because when he joined the program, it had moved to mostly online for a time because of a sickness that was going around that affected little boys like him. “School not done?”
“Well it’s mainly just so you can get a few things. Like pencils, paper, and some craft stuff. Also a new backpack.” He explained.
“Backpack...Can I get a sheepy one?” He asked, swinging his feet.
“If we can find one, I don’t see why not.” He went over and set down a plate in front of him. Syrup drizzled on the pancakes. Vincent didn’t waste time and thankfully, Jonny cut his pancakes up so that they didn’t interfere with his ability to eat. He seemed to be quieter at that, it was hard to find a lot of sheep related things that were meant for a boy his size sometimes, mostly in their city.
Jonny sat down after getting his own plate. Looking on his phone for some sheep supplies. Maybe he can find some online.
As it turned out, Etsy was a good source. He smiled slightly and put the perfect bag into the cart, deciding to just get it now rather than trying to look for one at the store. It would be a surprise when it came.
Nonetheless, Vincent finished eating and was subject to the deft work of Jonny and his trusted tool, the dastardly washcloth.
“No!” Vincent whined, his hands and face being cleaned.
“Yes.” He chuckled, “You got syrup all over you buddy, and no time for bath. So washcloth.”
“No washcloth. Bad.” Vincent glowered at the washcloth after Jonny took away his plate, giving him his morning bottle. After a quick round of dishes, they both got dressed and Vincent was put into his adorable car seat.
As they learned, Vincent really wasn’t a fan of the carseat, but somehow liked strollers. They didn’t understand it, but it didn’t usually matter.
“Okay, secure, do you want some juice or just gonna be sad until we get to the store?”
Vincent just kicked his legs angrily. Not sad, but rather miffed. “Big boy!”
“I know you are, but it’s okay. It’s just for a little bit.” He told him, giving him Sheepy. Vincent took Sheepy but stuck his tongue out at him. Dear lord though, the New York traffic for back to school was atrocious.
Even if they lived in the suburbs they weren’t safe. The drive was a lot longer than it should’ve been. It was a bit annoying if anything, but they still got to the store. Jonny getting Vincent out of his carseat and into the stroller. It was easier to get around with him in the stroller, plus it could act as a cart in a way.
Vincent pouted a little since he wanted to look at the pretty stationary, but was obedient nonetheless. Though it was rather cute to see what stationary was available that was both cute and not atrociously priced.
“If I let you out to look around, will you hold onto the stroller while we’re here?” He asked him, since the aisles were pretty busy.
Vincent nodded, “I be good, Papa.”
“I know you will be Vince.” Jonny told him, “It’s just other people that make me worry.” He got him out of the seat.
Vincent held onto the bar of the stroller, watching eagerly, “Papa! Papa! There’s notebooks!”
“I can see. Do you wanna go pick some out?” He asked him, patting his back.
“...Papa go with.” Vincent still did not like people. What a mood.
“I’ll be right here with you.” He told him, going a bit closer to where all the notebooks were.
The system they were using involved having Vincent take six 'classes' during the school week. And for those classes, some required notebooks and other stationary things to keep track of his progress. Three notebooks were necessary this year. Adorably, Vincent chose three adorable notebooks: One of cute ballerina rabbits, another one of unicorns and flowers and the final one being cute rainbows.
This choice of cute girly things continued: Vincent chose a large cinnamoroll pencil pouch to hold all of his plain highlighters, colored pencils and crayons. He preferred mechanical pencils and was pleased to see that they had ones with farm animals all over them- including sheep.
"What now?" Vincent asked, holding onto the package of mechanical pencils.
“Hmm...I think some paper and some folders. Then we can try and look for a backpack.” He told him.
“But we already gots paper.” Vincent held onto his pencils, and used them to point at the notebooks, “Don’t they gots paper to write on, Papa?”
“Well it’s always good to get some more.” He told him.
Vincent hummed, “But if we have too much paper, we’ll have no room in the backpack. Papa doesn’t like an untidy backpack.” He said as a matter of fact.
“That's true, but it’s always good to have extra paper at home.” He told him, grabbing a couple of stacks.
Vincent thoughtfully hummed, “We need maths paper too, Papa.”
“Right right.” He grabbed a few stacks of the graphing paper.
The smaller ravenette smiled, but then looked worried, “Do we gotta get skizzors?”
“I don’t think so.” He told him, kissing his cheek. “Anything that you could need scissors for, Dada or I could do for you.”
“Skizzors bad.” Vincent said, looking at the displays of cute kiddy scissors and other kinds of sharp tools of destruction. “Sckizzors hurt.”
“I know Vince.” He ruffled his hair, “That’s why Dada or I will do it.”
“Good.” Vincent nodded, “Bad scissors.”
“I know bud. Let’s go look at other things, okay?” He led him away from the scissors. Vincent stuck his tongue out at the display.
Thankfully, the acquisition of simple pastel colored folders wasn’t nearly as traumatizing and the hunt for glue-sticks proved to be a fun game for the smaller ravenette to partake in.
Jonny watched him, making sure they had everything they could need before they had to leave the store. Telling Vincent that he got him a surprise, but they have to wait until it gets to the house. Vincent seemed very excited at the prospect of such a thing, but waited patiently with his Sheep by the door, since he thought the surprise was Dada coming home early. No such luck. He was very sad. Jonny picked him up, shushing him.
“Dada not coming home yet, I wish that was the surprise, but it’s not.” He kissed his cheek. Vincent looked very sadly at the door, making grabby hands. “I know you want Dada, I know.” He shushed him, rubbing his back. “Do you wanna sit on the couch with me? We can watch a movie.”
“...Wanna watch Care Bears.”
“Okay we can watch that.” He went over and sat with him, turning on the tv.
It was pretty, but needless to say, Vincent was very happy when Orlando came home. Even more happy when he had gotten his backpack two days later.