A New Day (3)
To say Jeremy was nervous was… well understatement of the year. While yes he worked with kids at Freddy’s, sometimes their loud screaming would drive him up the wall from sensory overload. Thankfully, he heard the schedule would be lax today to help ease him into the role and they always have a designated nap time. He also found one of his fidget toys in his bag that came with him so he at least could focus his fingers on something today.
He opened a large wooden door to a reception area filled with posters, colors, and a giant animatronic golden statue. They all featured the daycare attendant: Sun and Moon (though some mistakenly call them Sundrop and Moondrop because of their candy). Jeremy found a small table beside the main daycare area labeled ‘reception’ and went up. “Uh hi I’m Jeremy Fitzgerald. I’m supposed to be working here today?”
A thinner woman with dirty blonde hair and red-rimmed glasses looked up at him. “Oh yes Abby should be here in-“ A crash could be heard as a dark-skinned, short, plump woman came skittering out from behind a corner. “Sorry sorry! I hope you weren’t waiting here too long! And yes Sandy I’ll clean that up after training Jeremy.” She had splotches of lighter melanin and freckles around her face and legs, with her hair in frizzy buns held with two colorful scrunchies. She had customized with yellow striped leg warmers, some glow-in-the-dark bands, and matching Sun and Moon pins on her shirt.
“Uh it’s fine I wasn’t waiting here too long…”
“Honestly dear you gotta stop running in the halls when you get excited.”
“I know, Sun already lectures me enough about it… Anyways hi new guy! Or girl or whatever you use; I’m Abby and I hope you have a tolerance for high-energy children because we get to watch them for about 4 hours straight before lunch!”
“…Yay?”
“You get used to it. Have fun you two!~” Sandy called while Abby pulled Jeremy toward the daycare. One thing many patrons did not know about the daycare is there was another way to get into than the ball pit slide. There was a hidden door for staff only which required a keycard to open. Thankfully, the daycare was not as overwhelming with the walls being void of any bright colors to showcase the fun climbing structures and foam mat flooring. There was a giant classic Freddy plush (complete with tophat), and a large rainbow stage in the corner presumably for performances.
“Impressive isn’t it? Fazbears really went all out for the Pizzaplex.”
“Yeah…” It was still suspicious though because Jeremy remembers the crumbling quality of his Freddy’s. How everything including the building was on its last limbs, pizza was cardboard stale, and the bathrooms sometimes wouldn’t even work. Why would they care now?
His thoughts were interrupted by a squeaking noise coming from above. He turned his head to see a tall animatronic with a plastered grin waving enthusiastically toward him. “Hello!~” They proceeded to dive head-first into the ball pit which sent Jeremy racing over to the ball pit. “Why would you do that?! Are you ok?”
There were a few seconds of pause before the animatronic sprung to life and lifted him up. “I’m more than ok, I get to make a new friend!” Their sun rays were spinning enthusiastically as they spun in circles. Jeremy (besides nausea) had mixed feelings about the animatronic so far, with their smile somehow being even more creepy than the original animatronics but still somehow charming with his energy. “Please put me down…”
“Oh so sorry friendo, I didn’t even ask! Anyways my name is Sun! But you can call me Sunshine, Sunny, Sundrop, whatever!”
“I see now why you and Abby are friends…”
“Because we’re both extroverted, loud, and energetic?” Abby chimed.
“Because we know each other so well?” Sun cheered.
“…Because you both do not know personal space.”
“Oh… well that too. Anyways, the schedule for today is we introduce you to the kids, do some fingerpainting, snacks, naptime/lunch, and then play until the end of the day. Some days we substitute the morning block before naptime to do field trips around other sections of the Pizzaplex but parents have to sign a waiver.”
Honestly it did not sound too bad for the first day. They went over other important rules like allergies, how to administer epi-pens, when a child should be put in timeout, kicked, or banned, and most importantly, to always keep the lights on. That last one didn’t quite make sense to Jeremy, but he thought it was meant for nighttime to ward away potential trespassers.
Eventually the kids slowly started trickling in for the day and were rounded up for the introduction. “Hi kids!”
“Hi Ms. Abby!” They all responded with glee.
“This is Jeremy and he’s going to be helping today. Yes Jenny?”
“Will he be here every day?”
“Well that’s up for him to decide in the future, but I hope you can convince him to come back often. Anything you want to share Jeremy?”
“Uh yes hi I’m Jeremy and uh…” His mind was drawing a blank, he was never good at public speaking even if it was just a gaggle of children. “I enjoy drawing?”
All the children let out various oohs of excitement. “Can you show us some?"
“M-maybe while you’re fingerpainting today. I’d need some paper and a pencil though.”
“We can do that. Alright kids let’s paint!” Sun laid out a large tarp before bringing over some small tables with chairs that the kids could reach and sit on. Abby brought some sheets of white paper and paint (including a few pencils for Jeremy). Jeremy (as stupid as it sounded) did not want to disappoint these kids but had no idea what to draw. So he did what he always did, doodled the animatronics. Some of them were easy from muscle memory, drawing Bonnie and the new version of Chica from a nearby decoration.
“Hey it’s Bonnie! But he looks slightly older.”
“Woah mister, you draw really well!”
“Oh thanks but this is nothing. I just did this often enough that it became second nature.”
“Still it looks better than my painting…” A little girl with pinks and blues all over her fingers held up her drawing of a how holding hands with (supposedly) Chica.
“There’s no bad art, just sometimes hard to understand. And I clearly understand how much you love Chica.”
“Yeah!! She’s my favorite and so positive, plus she likes food.”
“Well I think you captured her wonderfully.” The little girl squealed as she continued to paint. It was nice to decompress and do something Jeremy loved without the fear of an animatronic coming for his face… or head.
Snacks ended quickly and thus it was naptime. Thankfully to combat the struggle of sleeping with the lights on, the daycare introduced a new support animatronic with a low-light corner filled with plushies, blankets, and optional quiet music. Her name is Tari, being a medium-large-sized blue animal mascot with more fur than animatronic parts. She was only a few inches taller than Jeremy (which was still big but smaller than a normal animatronic). Three orange, rounded horns were protruding from her head while she wore an incredibly soft, darkish blue sweater, bright blue eyes, dark blue ox hooves for feet, and a somewhat small hidden blue tail. It was clear she was meant to be some sort of ox or bison, but cartoony enough to be a Fazbear mascot and animated for children.
“Hello children, glad to see you again.” Her voice was soft but not quiet, as if it would lull you to sleep if you listened for long enough. “And you must be Jeremy, yes? Abby was very excited to meet you. I also run the quiet corner for children with hearing disabilities or who struggle from overstimulation, so if you would like to visit or need something don’t hesitate to ask. I also recommend learning ASL if you haven’t already, as it helps many children talk when they are non-verbal and useful during naptime.”
“Thank you Tari, and yes Abby was… more than excited. I think she knocked something over trying to greet me. Also, why isn’t Sun here helping us? Isn’t there the Moon animatronic for this part?”
“A likely occurrence. She can be somewhat clumsy with those reception floor tiles. As for the attendant… that is not my tale to tell. He will share with you on his own time.” There was an air of wisdom and mystery to Tari as Jeremy helped the kids settle down into the cots. Despite her appearance, it felt as if she was a bit unique from the others. She wasn’t energetic or colorful in the same way the glamrocks were nor as thematically colored in her appearance like Sun. And if you looked hard enough you could see a faint starburst outline where a patch of fur around her left eye was lighter…
Before Jeremy could ask about it, a commotion was going on with two kids. A young girl was tugging on a thin pink blanket while the boy was refusing to let go. “Give it back! It’s mine!”
“Hey there’s no reason to shout. Can you tell me what’s going on?” Jeremy kneeled down beside the girl.
“He’s using my blanket that I forgot to take home yesterday and now he won’t give it back. It has my name on it too!”
“Can I see the tag?” The boy reluctantly gave up the blanket so Jeremy could clearly see. And sure enough, there was the girl’s name written on the tag. “Well it is yours so I will give it back to you for naptime, but if you’d like I can keep it for you while you play until you need to go home. Also, you could have asked nicely and mentioned the nametag before trying to take away the blanket. I’m sure you would feel mad if someone tried taking something of yours away without asking first.”
“Yeah… sorry but this blanket means a lot to me. I’ll just keep it with me while I play. Sorry again Bobby.” She sent them both an apologetic look before walking over to her cot. Jeremy, instead of going to lunch, decided to stick around and quietly mess with his fidget cube until naptime was over.
The rest of the day proceeded as normal with Abby and Sun substituting so Jeremy could eat. By the time he came back some of the kids were already going or gone for the day. Albeit confused, maybe he was better at this than he thought? He yawned as one girl tugged on his pant leg. “Mister Jeremy?”
“Yes Jenny?”
“I have to go but I wanted you to have this. I hope you come play with me next time!” She shoved a piece of paper into his hands as she raced toward her dad at reception. Jeremy uncrumpled the paper to see she had added him to the drawing, holding hands with her and Abby. A perfect drawing to end the day.