Banana Pancakes ▷ James Rhodes

10 - CONSTANT WORRY

FLICK LEFT EARLY THAT DAY, WHICH MEANT SHE SPENT MOST OF HER TIME WITH LIBBY. She didn't have much else to do, if she was being honest, her entire life was work and Libby. Of course, the former tended to be more demanding than the other, which was surprising given how loud Libby could be, but if she wanted to keep sending Libby to her dance classes and paying for all that they needed to, she needed to work.

She didn't want Libby to know that they were getting financial aid from family. She didn't understand why she thought so, because all she needed to explain was that she had given up many things to send her younger siblings go to school and Libby would understand. But she never wanted Libby to worry about money, she and Kaiko wanted to teach her the value without wanting her to worry.

Now, she just wanted to make sure she wouldn't worry. She knew what it was like to grow up worrying. Worrying about everything, but especially money. Libby wasn't going to live like that, not if she could help it.

"Mom, can we go to the library?" Libby asked, walking out of her room, carrying some of her thicker books.

Libby looked up from where she was cooking dinner, raising her eyebrows as she watched her daughter take a seat on the couch, setting the stack next to her, opening one of the books and frowning at the first page.

"Sure, sweetie, can I ask why?" she asked, because as far as she knew, getting Libby to read was a challenge.

"Everyone's reading now and some of the kids in my class are reading Harry Potter, and everyone thinks they're cool, 'cause they're so long. So I wanna be cool, so I wanna read really thick books," she said, huffing as she tossed her book to the side, reaching for another book, her reaction no different than the last.

"Well, sure, honey, I think it's great you want to start reading more, but don't read just because you want people to like you, you don't need to read big books to be cool," Flick pointed out, and Libby only gave her a patronizing look, rolling her eyes as she turned her attention to yet another book, not even validating her mother's statement with a response.

Flick could only sigh. She always worried that she wasn't doing enough to validate her daughter. Growing up, she never felt like she was recognized, and she promised herself that she wouldn't do that to her children, yet there Libby was, wanting to check out larger books for the sole purpose of wanting to look cool.

She really missed Kaiko.

"Did you get all your homework done?" she asked, and Libby looked up from where she was forcing herself to read.

"None of my work is due until the end of the week, so I don't have to do it now," the young girl reasoned, and Flick hummed; this was a teaching moment, but lecturing her never worked, because it never worked on anyone.

"Well..." she began, choosing her words carefully, because Libby was a champion when it came to arguing, and Flick figured that it came from someone that was neither herself nor Kaiko, which made sense when she thought about it, "Why don't you just do it now, to get it out of the way, so you don't have to worry about it while you're at your dance practices?"

"But I don't worry about it while I'm dancing, I didn't have a lot today," Libby pointed out, and Flick was so glad that her daughter gave her a window, because she wasn't the best at giving life lessons.

"Well, what happens when you do have a lot, because you didn't do it last time?" her mother pointed out, "What if something happens and you don't have time to do it the night before? Besides, if you get it all done now, then make sure you get the stuff you're assigned tomorrow done early, you have more time to do other things."

"Like what?" Libby asked, crossing her arms, and that was a very good question that Flick wasn't planning on.

But then, "Well, if you finish up, we could catch up on that fairytale TV show you wanted to watch."