Always His Baby

Chapter 4
Lessons

Chapter Description: Sheridan tries to get through the day as a six year old in Primary school.

After the woman herds her back into the playground, Sheridan avoids the glances of any of her new ’schoolmates’ and makes a bee-line for the bench in the corner where she sits down with the Tangled themed rucksack that Robin had handed to her. She’d tried searching for her purse and mobile where she had left them in Jake’s room but they had vanished along with her teenage body. For a brief moment she thought of her dad’s attempts to call her the night before.

Would this have happened if she’d...? No. It was pointless to wonder about that. It probably wouldn’t have made the slightest bit of difference and she’d still be sat here, a decade older mentally than these brats. Sheridan took a deep breath. All she had to do was get through a couple of hours here until break and then she could try to make a run for it. There were too many parents still mulling around the gates at the moment but surely there were only a few staff watching at break-times.

That would be her window to get out and get to the police station. Until then she could think of the best way to convince them of her true age. Perhaps if she just spoke as mature as possible then someone might be intrigued as to why a child has the words and voice of someone older without just laughing it off as Jake and Robin and their mum had?

She’s so deep in thought that she barely notices two girls the same size as her coming over until they’re right in front of her.

"Sheri? What’s wrong? Why didn’t you meet us at the hopscotch like every morning?" The girl with dark hair asks; "Are you sick?"

Sheridan frowns at the two kids bothering her; "Just leave me alone. I don’t even know who you are. Piss off."

The other, chubbier girl gasps at hearing such a grown up swear word come out of Sheri’s mouth.

"You shouldn’t say that! My mummy says those words are naughty." The other girl rebukes, though looks more annoyed than really afraid.

"Then your mummy is a twat. Go. Away." Sheridan scowls.

The girl’s face falls and her lip wobbles before she runs away. The first girl, the one with the brown hair who had approached first, looks somewhat appalled as her friend runs off in tears before she looks back at Sheridan - who couldn’t care less. It’s not like she’s going to be here for longer than a day at most so why bother playing nice with these sprogs?

Dark-haired girl frowned; "Why are you being horrible? You made Amanda cry."

"I don’t care. Are we supposed to know each other? I don’t even know your name, kid, all right?"

"Sammy. And we’re best friends. Don’t you wanna be best friends anymore?"

Something in the kid’s rather innocent, but potentially forgiving tone, pulls at something in Sheridan’s chest for once. She sighs, rubbing her head.

"Look. Sammy." She had a feeling this would be pointless but it was worth a try; "Whoever you think I am, it’s wrong, okay? I dunno if you can understand this...but I’m really fifteen years old. And this morning I woke up as a little kid and people act like that’s normal. But it’s not. Maybe you think the two of us have been best friends but really, I don’t know you. And I’m not just saying that to be a bitch, trust me."

She almost wishes that she was. That none of this was real. It shouldn’t be.

Sammy blinks. It’s clear she doesn’t think she should believe Sheridan. But why isn’t she running away or laughing? Sheri waits for her to do so, sitting with her chin in her hands and frowning as she tries to think.

But then Sammy sits down beside her; "Can I play too? We can both be grown ups who were shrunk down."

Sheridan sighed, realising it wasn’t going to be easy to get rid of the kid. Then she realised she sort of didn’t want to. It was rather nice to have at least one person on her side instead of laughing at her or making her feel smaller than she already was.

"Sure. Whatever."

The bell rings and the kids all begin to move towards the main hall for assembly. Sheridan just goes along with the crowd, hoping to not be noticed, just another sheep. Sammy sticks by her side and tries to add to the game by making up what job and kind of house she’d have if she were a grown up. Sheridan just nods, pretending to listen, though rarely even looking at her.

After having to sit and feign paying attention to the school headmaster, Sheridan is walking towards her first lesson of the day. Maths. Her least favorite subject, though she was a little comforted by the thought that at least she knew the simple sums and times table they would be learning, which the same couldn’t be said for algebra and trigonometry. In fact, when the teacher asks for people to put their hands up if they know the answer, Sheridan strangely finds herself doing so - if just for the rather proud moment where she would answer every one, surprising both the students and teachers. As if she were a prodigy of some sort.

Well, she’s stuck like this for now, might as well have some fun with it. Or at least as much as she could with the situation as it was.

But while her memory of how to add, minus and multiply seemed to remain at a mature level, the same couldn’t be said for her hand-writing. It’s rather awkward learning to hold a pen again in such a smaller hand, and any attempts to show her working out still resulted in a childish scrawl. Not that her teacher seemed to mind, still impressed with her ’vast improvement’ at mental arithmetic.

When it’s finally break-time, Sammy is close to Sheri again and skipping a little.

"Wow! That was amazing! How did you know EVERY answer?" Sammy praises, rather astounded.

Sheridan knows she shouldn’t be so proud of mastering Year 2 level maths but it was a little nice to be thought of as ’smart’ when it had never been much of a key trait for her. Looks before books, etc.

"Because I learned it all nine years ago." She replies, only wishing her teacher would have thought that so obvious.

"You still wanna play that game?"

"It’s not a game!" She snaps before looking apologetic when Sammy flinches back. "Sorry."

Something tells her that Sammy could prove useful.

She needed an ally. So if she had to play nice with her then she would, if just for personal gain.

Sammy smiles, easily letting it go; "Okay! What do you want to do then?"

Indeed, the kid is eager to please. She reminds Sheridan a little of her old friend Jade. Though even she had reached the end of her tether with Sheridan by Year 9 when she’d begun to become a little more self-absorbed and constantly seeking to be the centre of attention. Sammy clearly wasn’t anywhere near that level of guts to walk away from her rather rubbish friend, clearly.

Sheridan smirks as she began to hatch a plan. She motions for Sammy to lean closer so she can whisper.

"We are best friends, yeah?" She asks and Sammy gives a nod of assurance; "Good...What I need you to do is to wait for both the two ladies to be looking away and then tell me. So I can leave and find a police man to help me. Can you do that for me? I’ll be your best friend forever."

That’s what kids said after all, wasn’t it?

There’s a thoughtful expression on Sammy’s face and it makes Sheri clench her fists in frustration. The kid should just be saying yes. Obeying her elders.

Sammy smiles; "’Kay...Only if you do something for me."

"Sure. What?" Anything.

She points over to the girl she’d made cry earlier that morning, currently sitting on another bench with two other girls, talking. Sometimes looking over to Sheridan and Sammy before looking away again.

"Say sorry to Amanda." Sammy says, driving a hard bargain; "And then play some skipping-rope with us! Then I’ll help you go find police man. Deal?"

The girl held out her hand. Sheri had to admit, she admired the kid’s spunk if nothing else.

Maybe they could have been friends in another life.

"Fine." She said, shaking her hand. Anything that she needed in order to get out of this giant headache of a school day.

Sheridan dragged her feet over to Amanda and apologized for calling her mummy a twat - despite the girls not knowing what that word even meant. Just that it sounded like another curse. Amanda is also quick to forgive seeing as Sheri apologized so openly for the others to see. That part is easy enough, if a little embarrassing. She hates admitting to be wrong after all but she knows she’ll need help in order to escape. The next is when Sammy gets out her skipping rope.

It’s been about half a dozen years for Sheridan since she last played with one of those. She knows she’ll be out of practise and stumble, making an idiot of herself. It was bad enough looking like a child. That didn’t mean she had to indulge in childish games as well. But Sammy is soon tugging on her hand again.

"Come on! We had a deal, remember?" Her friend coaxes.

Sheridan sighs and moves between the two other girls holding the rope at each end. She takes a breath and they start to sing the rhyme as they move the ropes. And she starts to jump.

"Cinderella

How many doctors will it take?"

Sammy and the other girls sing as Sheridan jumps. Her minor anxiety quickly melts away as she finds she’s a lot better at this than she remembers. The longer she manages to jump and the more the girls sing, she knows she’s doing really well. And it’s rather nice to know she’s doing something good that is actually. Fun. Just a little bit. It’s exhilarating and something she never got out of sports usually, at least the ones in P.E. Something about this was different.

Soon she’s determined to make it to the next verse. And then the next. Sammy reminds her that Jenna made it to the fifth so that’s what she needs to beat. Easy-peasey! Sheridan grins and keeps on skipping, not having felt a need to be so tenacious in years. Of course she could beat these little oinks, no problem. Her pony-tail loosens a bit and soon falls off, letting her blond curls bounce rather messily as she jumps, which is annoying. But she keeps going, wanting to be the best.

Her friend Sammy is cheering her on. She is a pretty good friend, Sheridan had to admit. She could do - and has done - a lot worse. Sammy wouldn’t stab her in the back or try to steal her boyfriend, she thinks.

How many powder puffs till she’s finished?"

Finally the wind makes her hair fly in front of her face and it causes her to lose her concentration, making her stumble on the rope and come to the end of the game. But she still managed to win and she grins as the other girls cheer. And Jenna doesn’t look at all sore for losing.

When was it that girls became so competitive and spiteful towards each other? Sammy offers Sheridan her carton of strawberry juice and she accepts gratefully, mouth dry as a bone after that. But worth it. So much fun! Robin packed some orange jellies in her lunch-box which Sheridan shares with Sammy as thanks for the drink.

It takes a few minutes for Sheridan to remember that important thing she was supposed to be doing.

"Oh yeah! I need to go to the police station so they can make me big again!" She reminds Sammy.

"But if you go now then you not gonna come to my sister’s birthday party after school?" Sammy asks, a little crestfallen; "It’s a Disney dress-up party, remember! I have your Jasmine costume at mine."

Sheridan feels a strange tingle in her tummy. Just around her diaphragm. Jasmine always was her favorite Disney princess. She had a pet tiger after all, something she’d once pleaded with Dad to get for her - until one day he’d come home with a ginger tabby cat. A ’small tiger’, he’d told her, called ’Raja’ regardless. She’d still loved it...as silly as it was.

But. Maybe it was okay to be silly if everyone thought she was a child anyway? Being silly was fun. A lot more fun than anything she’d been getting up to lately. Fun that she could remember and that didn’t result in a searing headache. These girls...her ’friends’...weren’t half-bad for being little brats. Jenna even offers to sort her messy hair by putting it in pig-tails for her - which is better than having it messy so Sheridan lets her work. And Sammy was a cool kid so maybe a party would be fun.

Then she could go find a police man afterwards. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. There’s no rush after all. Is there?