#Chapter 163: Art Department

Moana

Both Ella’s and my eyes widened when Edrick came out into the dining room early the next morning and announced his plans.

“Get dressed, both of you,” he said. “We’re going to look at a school today.”

Ella’s jaw dropped. “A school?!” she shrieked, jumping up from her chair excitedly. “Really?”

Edrick nodded with a slight smile. “Yep. We’re gonna look into sending you to school like all of the other kids. Would you like that?”

With a wide, ecstatic grin, Ella nodded vehemently and ran over to her father. She threw her little arms around his legs and hugged him tightly. “Yes, daddy!” she shouted. “I really really want to go to school!”

Ella’s excitement made me smile, and I could tell that Edrick was trying — and failing — to hide a smile of his own. “Go get dressed, then,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of time. I told the headmistress we’d be there soon.”

Ella took off at a full sprint toward her room. I thought I heard the sound of her tripping, falling, and skidding across the floor on her way, but she seemed fine. I stood, smiling, and placed my hands on my hips.

did think

does belong in school, and she deserves to socialize with other kids. Besides… With the baby coming, having her

necessarily agree with that last point — I was confident that I could easily handle both a baby and Ella on my own, so long as I had just a little help — but I wasn’t about to argue with Edrick. I was just glad that he had decided to send Ella to

turned out that Edrick chose the school that was within walking distance, which made me happy, and so we walked to meet the headmistress. Ella walked between us, holding one of each of our hands, and it

pictures. It was an old building with tall windows, stone facades, and arched wooden doors. There was a playground out front with lots of shade from trees and plenty of playground equipment, and there was even a garden on the other side with planter boxes for fruit and vegetables. As we walked up the long pebble pathway to the front door, an elderly woman stepped out onto the front stoop and waved to us. She had long white hair that was piled into a neat bun on top of her head, and wore an elegant suit jacket with a matching pencil skirt. As we approached, I saw that she had the school emblem — a golden

Morgan, Miss Ella, and…” she

out my hand. The old

she replied, then turned and held open the heavy wooden door for us. “Come on in. Let’s start

for her age, and scurried around the school with ease as she showed us everything. The inside of the school was even more lovely, with tile floors, high ceilings, and a lot of natural light. There was a gymnasium, auditorium, countless classrooms, a cafeteria, a beautiful inner courtyard with a fountain, and plenty of recreation spaces. She showed us the music room, the science lab, the daycare room, and the library, and before

headmistress said, gesturing to a closed and rather dusty

all of the furniture covered by white sheets. The curtains were closed and there were boxes everywhere, as though it was being

not being used?” I asked, turning to face

it used to be,” she

I frowned. “What happened?”

couple of years ago,” she said. “She was getting on in age. We haven’t found a good

course it was out of the headmistress’s control, but I wanted to make sure that Ella went to a school with a good art program,

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