He scrolled through social media as he waited, and it was only then that he realized he didn’t have any pictures of him and Jalen posted to his page. The realization came with another one. He hadn’t taken any pictures with Jalen. He made a mental note to remedy that soon.
When the bell rang, he got out of his car and headed towards the pickup area. He stood there for only a few minutes before he saw Alynn exit the building. She looked around, he assumed, for his brother’s car. Rohan waved, and when she saw him, she smiled and jogged over.
“Hey, Uncle Rohan.”
“Hey, kiddo. How was school?” he asked, waving to a monitor as they headed towards his car.
“It was okay. We’re learning some new math equations, and it is not fun.”
Rohan chuckled as he opened the back door for her. Once they were both in, he ensured her seatbelt was on before backing out of his parking spot and heading to his house.
“It can’t be that bad,” he responded to her math statement.
“It is,” Alynn insisted. “But maybe it’s because my brain hasn’t turned back on from Christmas break.”
“I’m sure that’s it,” he responded because he knew Alynn was good at math.
When they arrived at his house, he unlocked the door and allowed his niece to walk in first. She skipped down the hall to the room she slept in when she stayed over.
“Bring your homework to the kitchen,” he called after her as he entered the mentioned room.
Going to the refrigerator, he pulled out the ingredients to make a sandwich and some fruit. He was making the sandwich when Alynn walked into the kitchen holding a notebook, a workbook, and a textbook in her hand.
“No mayo, please,” she requested, and Rohan was well aware. He cut the sandwich in half before washing off some grapes and blackberries.
He placed half of the sandwich and the fruit on a plate before going to the refrigerator and pulling out the chocolate milk. He poured some into a cup before taking it along with the plate and setting it beside Alynn as she worked some math problems in her workbook.
He put everything away, grabbed the other half of the sandwich, and took a bite. He knew that Alynn could have eaten it all along with the fruit, but if she did, they wouldn’t eat dinner until late.
Rohan went into the living room, turned off the movie he’d been watching along with the projector. He would let Alynn choose something to watch when she finished her homework.
“Uncle Rohan, I need help with this problem,” Alynn called from the kitchen.
He returned to the kitchen and went over to the table to look at the problem Alynn was working on. Sitting beside her, he walked her through it, letting her do the next one like it on her own. Rohan finished his sandwich while Alynn worked on her problems and ate her snack.
When she finished her math problems. He checked them for her, and then they moved on to her spelling words. He called them out to her, and she spelled them and used them in a sentence.
Once they’d gone over the spelling words, she had a short story she was supposed to read to him and discuss the emotion of the narrator. He listened to her read, and she told himwhy she thought the narrator was sad. He was impressed she’d deduced that, because as she’d read it, it sounded as if the narrator was happy. The subtle word usage was easy enough for him to pick up on the fact that happiness was not what the narrator felt. Though he knew it would be harder for children.
When they were finished with all of her homework, Alynn put everything away, and Rohan went into the living room. It was a few minutes after five. So, he figured they’d have time to watch a movie before he started on dinner.
Alynn bounded back down the hallway and flopped down on the couch beside him. He gave her the remote as he turned the projector on.
“This thing is so cool,” Alynn said. “I’m going to see if Daddy will get me one for my birthday.”
Alynn choseJumanjifor them to watch, but Rohan wasn’t surprised. They watched it at least once whenever she came over. He propped his feet up on the coffee table while she sat on her legs as the movie started.
25
Rohan made a left as four of the girls in the backseat sang along to the song on the radio. He glanced in the rearview mirror to find Kodi scrolling on her phone and Landon drawing. The eight of them were going to look for decorations and costumes for Mikal’s birthday party in a few weeks. Jalen had asked him a few days ago if he would bring Alynn with them when they went, so she could get a costume as well. They’d taken Jalen’s vehicle so they would all fit.
They had a pretty full agenda for the day and were heading to the party store first to see if they could find some decorations. He glanced over at Jalen, who was looking out of the window. She’d ended up working a double yesterday to cover for someone, and he was sure she was more than likely still tired. Rohan wasn’t opposed to them doing it on Sunday instead, but Jalen stated she wanted to study on Sunday for a test she had on Monday.
Reaching over, he took her hand in his and brought it to his lips, placing a soft kiss against it. She turned to him, giving him a smile before turning around as Omari called her name.
“If we have time, can we go to the park after errands?”
“We’ll see, okay?” Jalen responded, smiling at the six-year-old before turning back around.
