Ishigreensa

Larry nodded. "I've had a word about her lying once, but yeah, we are getting used to one another, so I didn't want to start being heavy handed before we got to know each other. You are right though, there is no excuse for lying." He nodded along and when she told him that she needed to be responsible for herself, he shook his head. "No? I don't think that is going to go well right now. I picked her up at the bus station in worse condition, actually. She needs help to get herself cleaned up and changed because she's scared, it seems, to admit when she's wet. I'd rather let you change her than trust she will change herself." He looked at her intently. "Look, I don't know everything she's been through, but she's very immature, like you said, sometimes not even close to being as mature as a fifth grader, so I really think she should get help changing her diapers until she gets a little more confident and mature." Larry pulled out a diaper, a pull up that he called a diaper. "I could go in there and do it for her, but she might appreciate you doing it more. I had let her take care of her own pull ups through the morning, but she kept saying she didn't need to go on the way here, and never once said she was wet, so I haven't honestly helped her yet. I think it would be better if you did it this time until I explain things a little more to her." He looked at the nurse pleadingly.

Larry saw the nurse take his baby into the bathroom to help her get sorted, and so he walked over to the utility closet and started to get things together to clean the floor up. One thing he had learned about how hard it was for them to staff the school, was that though this was a K-8 school, and had the rooms they needed for it, the lack of staff meant they only had one custodians, so teachers had to clean up their own rooms as much as they could, and Sixth to Eighth graders had one teacher to share among the six classes of students, so they used a lot of assistant non-certified staff to support the teachers, one non-certified staff member per classroom, and the certified teacher took turns visiting each of the classes over the course of three days, getting to see each class once. For a while, the fifth graders had one teacher to share between two classes in the same way, but now he was there, they were going to have one fifth grade teacher for each class. They had asked him if he could help out the middle school teacher, but he told them he wasn't endorsed for middle school, so they had to put him in the fifth grade position for this year. He did promise to do some extra training so he could be endorsed within the next year, and he said that he'd be happy to help out the middle school teachers when his own class was at music or something where they usually had a planning period. That was one of the things they liked about him, and though he wasn't endorsed for it, at least he could give the middle school kids three extra hours over the course of the three days of having an extra teacher in the classes, so the teacher asked that he helped with the sixth graders. He had papers that let him teach K-6. "My name is Larry Hauches (Hawks)," Larry told her. "I'm so sorry about little Sarah. She's been having problems, but doesn't like to admit she's having trouble staying dry. I've been trying to work with her at an easy pace because before she came to stay with me, I hadn't seen her. My sister and I don't talk a lot, but it seems she's kept having a baby from me, and now, she can't seem to take care of her anymore." He frowned and looked at the nurse. "You're not going to give my sister or me a hard time, are you? I think she's out on the streets which is why she put her daughter on the bus suddenly and only told me about her when she was already on her way. She figured since I had just come back to the states from Japan that I should have money to provide for her, but it just doesn't work like that, and the girl was already on the bus, so what was I to do? Send her on the streets? Send her to strangers in the Welfare system? I wouldn't do that to her no matter what the situation was, not unless I really had to, you know?" Larry frowned but knew he had to lay stuff out on the table, even though it was all a lie, if he was to protect this little lady from going back into the system and likely getting back with people that didn't care, or worse, with people that would actually hit her for stupid things that were not her fault, like the toileting problems she was having.

Larry was talking happily with the principal and one of the teachers that were in the interview, just before the door opened. They had just told him about the car and where he could pick it up in a couple of days. He would start work that Friday. Larry turned to see his little baby saying that she was glad that he was finished, when he then saw her peeing through her pants and all over the floor. "Sarah, honey!" He ran over and hugged her. He didn't have the heart to scold her. He could see that she was mortified at what she had done. He turned to the nurse, and frowned. "I'm sorry. She's been having some personal problems at home, and I think she's got some kind of bladder infection or something, but I couldn't get it checked until I can get her covered under a medical plan." He patted the baby girl on the back. "It's okay, baby. It's okay. We'll just see what we can do to get you cleaned up, sweetheart." He looked at the nurse. "I'm really sorry about the mess. I can have her clean it up, or I can do it, but I really don't think it's completely her fault. She sometimes doesn't seem to notice when she's peeing her pants." He rocked with the baby girl on their feet.

He sighed and nodded. He took her to the front, where he told them that she was his niece that was suddenly dropped on him just a couple of days ago. The school was a bit sympathetic knowing he was stuck at a motel, so they told him that the only staff on hand to watch her were in the nurse's office. "Now, I want you to behave for the Nurse. You have your deck of cards and your bag, so don't bother her unless you really need something. You're eleven years old," he decided she couldn't be any younger than that. "...So you can be quiet and play by yourself until I come back. It shouldn't be that long." He had no idea she had had interviews that were so quick. He was used to taking anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour depending on what they were looking for. Larry went to the restroom himself before he went in to the interview, completely ready, but not as confident as he'd like to be. In the Nurse's office, there were two other kids in there, a little sick, and one boy with a hurt arm from playing at recess. The nurse started to notice a smell, and of course, she wouldn't have suspected the older kid, the eleven year old in the room to be wet and besides her pants looked dry, so she went and checked on one of the other kids behind the curtains. The Interview was taking a lot longer though as they wanted to make sure he wasn't going to just leave them within a month, so they were more detailed than usual, taking nearly two hours before they were satisfied he wasn't just going to up and quit the minute he heard of a better school. They even decided to sweeten the deal by giving him a house to rent that had the starting costs paid for and a small car. It was dumpy, but it was dependable enough to get him from the small town to the city when he wanted. Then they gave him a $500 sign on bonus so that he would stop looking for work. They were that desperate for teachers. He thought the extra time was sort of them looking for weaknesses to not give him a job at first, and so he got more and more nervous, so that when he came out of there, he was very happy that they told him he was hired on the spot and finally broke it to him that he was their only candidate in the last year to try to fill the position permanently. That's why they were so careful not to just give him the job before knowing his long term plans. They didn't need someone that would just up and leave suddenly on them. He understood the situation, and realized it must have been hard to find teachers, but honestly, he wanted to live in a small town. The city was always crazy, and it frustrated him to drive in the city in every day traffic. He came back not knowing what he was about to discover.

Larry feels pressed for time. seven dollars here and ten dollars there were adding up, and he was going to be unable to take care of her at all if something didn't give. He might have to make her start eating things that they could put together at the motel. After she got her food, and they started to walk, again, he looked at her bottom. It looked bulgy, but not wet. A diaper was bulgy anyway, he supposed, not realizing that it was bulging from being wet in as much as it was. He looked to her and whispered as they walked. "I can take you into the bath room so you are safe," he told her as they walked. "You have got to have to go again by now?" He didn't have time to argue with her though, and so when they went in, he really only had time to ask her once, and then he would just have to drop her off where she could be watched. "Honey, last chance, are you sure you don't need to go?"

Larry sighed. "Honey, you haven't been to the toilet in over four hours, and your little body isn't made to wait that long. It's okay if you're wet, sweetheart." But seeing how she was getting frustrated, he sighed and looking at his watch, he agreed that they didn't have time for that anyway. "Alright, We need to get to the interview anyway. But you need to go as soon as we get in the building, okay?" He walked her to the little stand to get her a burger, hotdog, or something else they had there. "Get what you want, and make it fast or I'll have to order. We don't have time for you to take your time like you did at Subway Yesterday." He tapped his foot at her to hurry her.

"Oh, sweetheart! That's why I tried to get you up earlier," he patted her lap. "I'll see if there is something around the area when I figure out where I'm going. Hopefully, there will be time to get something for you." He saw the bus stop, and he stood up. "Ready, baby? We need to just check where the building is. It's supposed to be close by, and then we can see if there is anywhere close by to get you something to eat and to maybe check and change your diaper." He got off with a hand on her back and smiling at her, he saw the building right behind another one. He could tell by an obvious mark on the building, so he did have some time, and luckily, there was a small shopping area just across the street with a little convenience food cart. "Let's go see what they have?" he told her thinking more of her stomach at the moment than her wet diaper. It wasn't wet through her clothes, so even if she was wet, she'd survive for now. He did think he wanted to get her cleaned up though if she was wet, but time was quickly running out. He had about 25 minutes to get somewhere he needed to be that would take fifteen minutes to get to.

Larry had been too into his notes to notice when she first looked around and then went back to resting. They had a ways to go, so he wasn't concerned if she slept a little bit. As time went on, he thought she started to smell, but he wasn't sure if it was him just imagining things, or if she really was wet in her diaper. There was nothing he could do about it on the bus though, so he just let her sleep. Larry was feeling ready as the bus pulled to the stop three stops from their stop. He looked over at the little girl he thought was eleven years of age, and shook her a little. "Sarah, honey, wakey, wakey." He kissed the top of her head and gently rolled her shoulders to wake her. He hoped she'd open her eyes sooner than later. "Our stop is coming up, and I need you to be ready to go. We won't have much time to get into the place, and for me to change your wet diaper." He still had no evidence that she had wet, only a suspicion and he thought she smelled like she had done it, but he wasn't going to ask anyone else if she smelled to confirm it because that would just be mean. She was a child even if she was too old to be wetting her pants. That fact that she was, probably meant she needed to see a doctor. That was still on his to do list.

"This is not about being early for your interview, Sarah. If we miss this bus, I lose the chance completely. Honestly. You should have been up an hour ago!" They get on the bus, and he shakes his head at her uncaring attitude. He realized that he thought she was eleven years old though, so sighed and gathered himself. Of course a child doesn't know any better. For all he knew, she was never held to any kind of schedule because she was likely neglected or something. "Just keep yourself dry," he told her as they got on the bus. "If you do, we can start letting you wear your undies again instead of what you have on." They took a seat, and he sat there wondering why the child was always being so selfish about things. Was he being too soft on her? She didn't act like a mistreated foster kid, to be honest, or at least, not the way he'd imagined a foster kid going through something like that would be. If anything, she seemed to act like a spoiled princess all the time. He looked at her for a few seconds, shook his head and opened his notes. He had to prepare for this. This job was important. Spoiled or not, he could correct that later. Right now, he couldn't take care of her at all if he didn't get the job.

"Well, good," he said when she said it was dry. "Because we really need to get going to catch the bus. Just get dressed, and let's go." He was running his hand through his hair because of nerves. "Do you need to take a toy or a book or something?" he asked her. "The Interview could take some time." He rushed to get her clothes on her, trying to get her to hurry. He was watching the clock like a hawk knowing if they missed this bus, he would not make it to the interview. "Honey, the interview will be a loss if I turn up late. You cannot turn up late for these things, so let's go," he kept harping on her until they were out the door, the stress too much for him to remember to check her diaper or anything as they took off.

Larry got up and tried to wake her once, then started to get ready. He put on his nicer clothes, combed his hair, brushed his teeth, put on underarm and colon, and then went to check on the child again. "Get up, Sarah." He then went to make something quick for breakfast only to see her still sleeping, and exasperated, he walked over and shook at her trying to wake her. "Honey, you need to get up now," he was telling her. "We need to get your diaper off of you, get you washed off if you peed in your sleep, and get you ready to go." He kept trying to wake her.

"You can watch television if you want," Larry told her. "But keep it low so I can sleep. I'm turning in. Don't stay up too long because I need to take you with me since the district office is on the other side of town and I don't want to leave you all alone." He had seen she was changed, but didn't go to check her. They were home, so there was no reason to worry if she wet herself right now. "Good night, sweetheart." He winked at her and then went to bed.

"Alright," he said softening once she had lost her scowl and her eyes started to water. "But just bear in mind, I will not be letting you off talking to adults like that. It's wrong. It's really wrong to show disrespect for anyone that doesn't deserve it first, but even then, it's not always good to do it even if someone deserved it." He patted her on the butt and let her slip down to her own feet. "Be a good girl the rest of the night, sweetheart. If I tell you to do something, you do it. If I want to check your diaper, you let me check and change you if necessary. Understand?" He walked her the rest of the way to the motel holding her hand all the way to the door, when he had to get his key to unlock the door. "Now, I'm going to take a shower, and I want you to get ready for bed while I'm in there."

"Stop," he swatted her butt. "You don't sound sorry, and you don't get what you want with attitude or trying to fight it with me. That's only going to get you a sore butt!" He swatted her again. He didn't hit very hard, but with as big and strong as he was, he didn't know how sensitive she was to having her butt swatted.

Larry shook his head. "You need to understand your situation, sweetheart. You need to understand that the way you talked to me in there will not be tolerated. I am happy to take care of you, but you need to understand that that really makes me your uncle and since your mom and dad are not here, that means I'm in charge." He looked in to her eyes. "Now, I'm old school, and I will spank if I have to. I don't like spanking, but if it is necessary, I will." He waited for her to respond, not letting her down or anything else while he was going through this with her.

Larry sighs. The child definitely is acting a bit spoiled even if she is only around eleven years old. She probably needs to be taught some better manners, but right now, what they need, is to go get some sleep. Tomorrow is a big day, and if he gets the job, then he will be able to take care of her. He still hasn't caught on that she's an adult yet, though the clues are out there so blatant. Maybe it's because he really wants a child that he doesn't see it. "Yes, sweetie, we can go," he puts an arm around her and walks her out. As they walk towards the motel again, she whispers to her. "Honey, you know that you can't be talking to your teachers at school the way you just talked to me in there," he nodded back at the Subway. "The way you asked if we can leave wasn't really that polite, and well, it doesn't look like anyone took the time to really teach you to be polite yet." He stopped and reached down and picked her up, wrapping her legs around him. "I'm not trying to hurt your feelings, baby, but I just don't want you to get into unnecessary trouble at school, you know?"

Larry frowned at her and pointed out the napkins they used, the wrapper from his own sandwich that was no longer useful, and his own cup. "Sarah, please, the trash." He frowned at her until she started to gather the trash, if she did, otherwise, he just kept frowning at her.

Larry smiled at the young girl, and saw that she pushed her unfinished sandwich away from her. "Your eyes are bigger than your stomach, I guess," he told her. "But that's okay. We'll just take this to go and maybe have it for your lunch tomorrow." He wrapped it up in the provided wrapper for it, and then he wrapped up the half of cookie he didn't finish for her, too. "You can have the rest of my cookie for your lunch, too," he told her. He waited for her to get her jacket on, and then he nodded at the trash that was left. "You can go ahead and throw the rest of the trash out while I finish getting things together here, if you'd be so kind?"

Larry frowned at the price, but if she was going to eat it, then he did say whatever she wanted. He smiled and let her be. She was still in the same area, and they could clearly see each other, so she was fine. He went on as usual, and finally brought the tray of sandwiches, the cookie, and the drinks over for her and himself to eat. "There you are," he smiled as he push her stuff to her. "Go ahead and eat, sweetheart." He wasn't sure what to say at the moment, so he just ate in peace and listened for her if she wanted to say anything.

Larry didn't know Sarah that well yet, and she did get a little upset earlier when he'd told her to stay under a ten dollar limit stating that it wasn't enough, and he told her to get what she wanted, so it wouldn't be until he saw just how much of the sandwich and cookie she was about to waste that he would start to realize how wasteful she could be, something she'd have to learn under his roof, that wasn't okay. Larry apologized to the customer after them. "I'm sorry. She's just kind of being picky. I think it's the first time she's ever gotten to pick food out for herself. Strange as that sounds, she doesn't seem to have been well taken care of before she came to me, so please, bear with us just this once." He saw they had two little kids. "How about I pay for their dessert for your patience with us?" "Oh, no, that's not necessary," the father said. "We have little kids out selves, and we let them pick things out for themselves all the time, and honestly, we could have been in front of you, and you'd be waiting not for one, but two excited young kids. We can wait. You just use your money to make your own kid happy." Larry smiled at him, a gratitude of respect in his eyes for the empathetic man. Their kids were definitely smaller than Sarah though, and Larry didn't know it, but one of them was ten and the other eight, and had he known their ages, he would have easily seen that Sarah was nowhere close to eleven years old, but would have had to be at least sixteen or seventeen, but he had rose colored glasses right now, and she never denied being thirteen and then younger than thirteen, always making him guess her age for some reason. Most kids would just tell you their age, but then she was hiding, as assumed, from abusers, so the less she told him about herself the less likely her old foster parents could be found. For all he knew, Sarah wasn't even her real name.

Larry walked her down the street a little ways. It was probably a good ten minute walk, and they saw Subway, Carl's Junior, and Wendy's. Though Larry was tempted to hold her hand, he had promised, as long as she stayed close, he wouldn't, so he kept having to tuck his hands behind his back to keep from reaching out towards her. He was very nervous of the area. Finally, they went in, and he relaxed a little bit as they started to order their sandwiches. "Get whatever you like," he told her. "A full foot sub on any bread and any stuffings you like, one side dish, a drink, and I think they have dessert breads or something here, if I remember."

Larry saw her go to the bathroom as she said she was going, but he couldn't understand why it was taking so long. Maybe she had pooped or something. He decided it wasn't worth talking about, and just got his things together and waited for her. When she says she's ready, he smiled at her. "Okay, this way, honey." He put a hand on her shoulder because he still worried a little bit about going out around there. They were not exactly in the high end of town after all. "Just stay close to me, please. I'll try not to hold your hand all the time, but I do need to be able to see you at all times and know you can call for me if you need me, that I can hear you."

Before he put up the cards, he did show her two other types of solitaire she could play when he couldn't play with her, and one was the clock where you try to get the clock face to have the right cards showing, all four in the suit, and then the kings in the middle of the clock face. He also showed her one called Free Cell. She can only take 1 card plus a number of cards equal to a maximum of 4 free cells on the top. When there isn't a play, then she could put a card on the top but that limits the free cells until they are all used up. Once he briefly showed her those solitaire games, he smiled. "Well, I think we'll just go get subway sandwiches today." He handed her the cards. "These are yours, now. I can always buy another deck when I or we need a deck to play with."

He took the cards and started to shuffle them. "Have you ever heard of Eukre?" he asked her "It's an easy game that can be played with 2, 3, or 4 players. When you play with four players, you usually play partners." He smlied at her willingness to try. "I'll show you this game, and after that, I'll show you two variants of solitaire that you can play by yourself when you don't have someone to play with." He dealt her 3 cards and himself 2, and then her 2 and himself 3 cards. But before he did that, he had removed all the cards that ere eights and below except for the deuces. "Now, you know the Jacks are usually lower in power than the queen, but in the suite that is called trump, the right Jack, or the Jack of that suite is the highest card. Then the other Jack of the suite that is the same color as trump is second highest, then the A, K, Q, jokers, 10, 9, and 2. The 2 cannot be taken by any card, but it cannot take another card either unless it is a trump card. Points are Jack-right, Jack-left, Ace, Joker-high, Joker-low, ten, and deuce of the suit that was bid in. There are 7 points in one hand. You bid on the suit you want to be trump based on how many you think you can take...." As he explained the rules, he was really getting into teaching her. There were some qualities of a teacher she could see, how he didn't let her just give up, but talked her through how to bid, and how to figure out how much was a solid bid for her hand. He taught her how to preserve her mid-high cards so that she could use them to the most advantage, and taught her to sacrifice a Queen if she had an A but didn't know if he had Jacks or not. They played to 21, but the first three times she made a mistake, and over-bid her hand, he let her keep the points she did take, but the fourth hand, let her see how bidding above what she couldn't take would set her back. He didn't notice her acting in anyway to give away if she was still having trouble, so he didn't say anything when they were done, and went to get ready to take her out for a cheaper meal for dinner.

And as he suspected, it seems kids don't need real things in their hands anymore and seem to just be immersed in the computer and phone very quick rewards like points for getting a card in place. "Well, it's not that hard to shuffle," he told her. There are three standard ways I know of, and there are a lot of other ways that people have picked up over the years. The easiest way to shuffle, is just cut the cards, and then place some of that cut deck on top of the rest, cut it again from the top half, and put those on top and so on. You can also just push some cards out from the side, and put them on top, or you can hold the cards sideways, and alternate letting cards fall in front or behind a point of origin." She showed her what he meant. "The real fun shuffle though, is like this...," and he shuffled the cards like you see in card tricks where you lay two piles on top of one another in alternating sequences, and then you bend them up and let them fall into your hands as the cards straighten themselves out. "This one takes a little practice though. Can I?" He reached for her hands to show her how to hold the cards. It wouldn't be easy to get the first time, but if she let him work with her once a day a few times, she should get the feel by the fifth or sixth time.