Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Ju-li-ette! Get out of the car!”, her mother urged. Juliette knew her mother was going to stomp her foot soon by the way she spelled out her name. But she held onto the booster seat as intently as before. 

She shook her head. And with that her mama’s blue eyes became slits. 

“Max, do something!”, she ordered and disappeared from the open car door. 

“Have you tried asking her nicely?”, Juliette could hear her Daddy ask. Then how her mother retorted something. It didn’t sound very nice.

Juliette heard the gravel crunch around and her daddy appeared in the open car door. He smiled at her.

“Hi Juliette!”, he said. “Don’t you want to go look at the new daycare with mama and I?”, he wondered.

She shook her head.

“You don’t have to touch anyone”, he coaxed.

She just shifted in her seat. 

“It will be much better here than the last place. Mister Castle says everyone is really nice”, he continued. “And look, they even have a swing set!”, he added and pointed somewhere where she couldn’t see.

“I wanna go home Daddy…”, she whispered.

But not quietly enough. 

“Juliette if you don’t come with us you’ll have to stay in the car because we need to talk to the teacher!”, her mother erupted from outside the car.

That got her moving. Being locked in the car was something she did not want to spend her morning doing. She grabbed her blanket and desperately tugged at the seat belt, but the buckle was obviously made to withstand her child fingers.

“Careful princess”, her father said and reached in.

The little girl went rigid and threw up her hands above her head as the larger hands clicked open the contraption. But as soon as it was done she climbed out of the car with her blanket in hand.

“Finally!”, her mother said as soon as Juliette’s small tennis shoes hit the gravel. And with a flick of her hair started heading towards the gate.

Juliette almost changed her mind right then and there, but the car door closed behind her and she was too short to open it by herself.

“You coming princess?”, her father asked and held out his hand for her.

She handed him the other end of her blanket. His mouth twitched as if he was going to make a face, but he kept his composure and took it. Then followed his wife towards the gate.

Juliette knew that it kind of looked like she was a puppy on a leash when they walked like that, Emma had said so, but she didn't mind it. Not if it kept her daddy safe.

“Look Max, they have a rod, a bolt and a chain! It’s like Alcatraz isn’t it?”

Juliette had to agree; it did look awfully complex. Her mother tugged at it some making it rattle, but not open. Her mother groaned.

“If it's going to take this long to open it every time I might as well climb…!”, she grumbled.

Juliette had never seen her Mama climb anything, so she wondered if that was even possible.

“I'm sure we'll get used to it just like the last one”, her father ushered.

She did eventually get it open. What she wasn’t happy about was that she had to close it again afterwards; Juliette’s father pointed that out pointing at a sign on the fencing.

Meanwhile Juliette took a look at the playground. It wasn't very different from her last one really. She couldn't see all of it though, since it disappeared behind one of the buildings. There were two buildings. They were beige with happy flowers, butterflies and bees on the brick walls. They didn't have those on the other day-care. Each house had flower beds along the sides and two doors with stairs and ramps for wagons.

Focusing on the open space before the houses she saw the swings her father had pointed out, surrounded by a neat wooden fence with a gate she assumed could be locked. There was a sandbox with a little house in the middle and plastic toys scattered in and around it; buckets, shovels and all that. Behind it was a collection of trees and bushes with paths of brown dirt trailing between the thin stems. There were some tricycles, and a small slide furthest off. Everything was surrounded by a tall wooden fence that switched into a green wired one when it faced the parking lot.

What she found most appealing was the shed on the far end of the wall. She hoped there wasn't any poison ivy growing behind it like on the last day-care.

A tug on her blanket brought her back to the present.

“Come on”, her mother said.

 They walked up to the building and her parents looked at the signs on the doors. Juliette thought they looked funny. It was a capital A, she had learnt that; but the small a next to it had a ponytail.

“No, it's the next one”, her mother announced and the three went to the next door.

The sign looked even funnier there. It was an O with feet and a three taking a nap! She was about to giggle but then her mother opened the door and she remembered why she was there. She clutched her blanket and followed her father inside.

“Hello?”, her mama called out as soon as they came in.

Juliette could hear children further in.

The sound of pattering little feet sounded almost immediately and shortly thereafter a boy, who was taller than Juliette, appeared in the doorway. He had short black hair and equally dark eyes. He had a shirt with the Power Rangers on it.

Juliette took cover behind her father's long legs.

“Hi there”, Juliette's father said. 

“Hi”, the boy nodded then turned his head back into the room he had come from and shouted with a might that startle all three. “Caaaastle! There's people heeeere!”

A chair was pulled out and heavier footsteps were heard. A man showed up in the door. His hair was made out of braids Juliette noticed. And he wore glasses. And his skin was dark like the chocolate her parents liked eating in the evening sometimes.

“Aa, Mr. And Mrs. Sommers!”, he greeted.

“And Juliette”, he added and nodded at her. 

“Welcome to Omega point day-care!”, he said and joined them in the hallway. Juliette disappeared behind her father’s legs even further. 

“You must be Castle”, her mother said and stepped forwards to shake Castle’s hand.

He shook it. “We are all very excited to have you joining Omega point”, Castle said. 

Then Juliette had to stumble forward when her father decided that he had to shake hands as well, leaving her without a cover there in the strange hallway. Her eyes darted around at this newfound situation; and jumped in a start when she found the boy from the door standing right next to her. He was looking at her. 

“My name’s Kenji. I’m six”, he said suddenly and stuck out his hand. 

Her eyes widened and she scurried backwards. 

“Don’t touch me…”, she warned.

“Why?”, he asked.

“Because you’ll die”, she said.

He gasped. “Why?”, he gawked and cocked his head at her, his hand falling down to his side.

“I have cooties”, she replied eyeing the way of her parents, pronouncing the word as if it was the plague. Or cancer. Adults said cancer was bad. Almost as bad as cooties.

His eyes widened to the size of plates. “Wow!”, he breathed and studied her with newfound fascination.

Just then the adults decided to interrupt. 

“Ju-li-ette! Don’t start with that! Max why don’t you watch her…!?”, her mother exclaimed with crossed arms, sending a glare at her husband.

“She’s your daughter too you know…”, he muttered.

“Aah, it’s what you mentioned in the email, yes?”, Castle asked Max.

“Yeah…”

“None of that when you meet the others, understood?”, her mother said and started ushering Juliette towards the door Castle where was standing. It looked like a shepherd steering a sheep with Juliette scurrying forward to avoid touching her mother’s outstretched hands.

Still Juliette froze in the doorway.

There were kids everywhere. Drawing, running, tumbling, building, with their heads deep in dress up boxes, flipping through picture books, kneading dough. Everyone playing. Everything covered in the high pitched chattering of young children. She saw Kenji take a seat at one of the tables. She hadn’t noticed him walk past her. She would have turned on her heel and retreated to the tambour if there hadn’t been legs in the way.

Castle walked passed her and got something from the wall. And moments later a cow bell chimed in the room with a clear cling clang.

“Okay kiddies! Quiet down…”

The talking dissolved and suddenly every pair of eyes in the room were aimed at them. Juliette clutched her blanket. 

“We have a new buddy joining us today”, Castle continued. “So I want you all to be extra nice, so you don’t scare her away!”, he said and wagged his finger at the lot. But it wasn’t very stern and he received a shower of gentle giggles. 

He turned to Kenji. “Kenji, why don't you introduce Juliette to all of your buddies while her parents and I talk some more?”

“Okay”, Kenji said. He looked at her and made a hither motion with his hand. “Come here”, he said.

She briefly glanced between him and her parents.

Her mother scowled slightly. “Go on, Sweetie”, she said. “But nothing about… that ”, she added, then followed Castle out the door.

Seeing she had no choice Juliette reluctantly obeyed and sat down on the stool next to Kenji. Some of the children had come to gather around the table, but some were still playing.

“Okay everyone!”, Kenji said, putting on a formal tone. “This ”, he held out his arm and pointed at her without touching her, “...is Juliette.”

The children stared.

A boy with glasses wiped his nose on his sleeve.

“I’m Kenji, but you already know that”, Kenji continued.

He redirected his hand to point at the girl next to him. She had been sitting and drawing with crayons when Juliette got in. She was blonde with brown eyes.

“This is Alia.”

Alia did not say anything, but merely glanced up before continuing to draw.

“That’s Brendan”, he said and pointed at a pale boy.

“Hello!”

Juliette thought he sounded funny, but she didn’t say anything.

“He’s from England. That’s why he sounds funny”, Kenji said, startling Juliette.

“I do not…!”, Brendan complained.

“Do too”, the girl next to him said. Brendan blushed.

“And you’re not allowed to give him any forks, because he tries to put them in the electrical outlets”, Kenji continued.

Brendan blushed harder at that, but did not deny it.

“That’s Lily”, Kenji said, nodding at the girl who had talked before.

The girl with short curly brown hair waved.

“Hi. ”

“She’s killer at memory”, Kenji whispered.

“Then there’s Ian-”

“‘sup ?”

“-and Emory.”

“Hi there!”

The two boys were sitting on the rug further off building a tower of blocks.

“And lastly, Sara and Sonya.”

Juliette startled again. The girls who looked up at the sound of their names looked exactly the same! One of them was elbows deep in a doctor’s play set. The other had a piece of cardboard in one hand, and a crayon in the other.

“Hi!”, they said in unison.

“There is--”

Suddenly the front door opened, making all the children turn their heads.

“Hi Adam!”, half of the children greeted.

Juliette turned her head and saw the boy who had come in, he had brown hair and blue eyes.

Very blue eyes.

“Hi”, he said back. Then he frowned. “Who’s that?”, he said.

Juliette blushed a little, because it was obvious he was talking about her.

“This”, Kenji explained; he seemed to be the one explaining a lot of things on Omega point, ”Is Juliette!”

Then he lowered his voice into a conspiring whisper. “You’re not allowed to touch her though. She has cooties. ”

Adam widened his eyes a little in horror. Or, Juliette assumed it was horror. “Oh, okay...”, Adam said.

“She’s starting here today. Right Jay?”

Juliette blinked.

Jay?

“Yes, I am...”, she said.

“Huh...”, Adam pondered. Then he went and left his backpack, but just as quickly he returned to the all-room and sat down by the table.

The children started asking Juliette about how she managed to not-kill anyone at home, which she explained with the diligent use of gloves and blankets, but they almost right after that another door opened. And once again all the children turned their heads. It was Castle and Juliette’s parents. The had just opened to door though, but they were getting ready to leave.

“Don’t tell my mama or daddy I told you guys. They get mad...”, Juliette whispered to them, feeling a little ashamed.

Kenji eyes went wide at this.

“What…?? Do they want people to touch you by accident, and die from it??”

Juliette shook her head. “N-no it’s not--” But before she could explain the door opened fully and Castle and her parents returned.

“Okay princess, it’s time for mama and daddy to leave”, her daddy announced.

Juliette stood up and walked up to them.

“We’ll come get you at five, okay?”, her mama said. She leaned down to kiss her, but Juliette backed away. It made her mama scowl.

Juliette felt bad, but she didn’t want to hurt her mama either.

“Bye Princess”, her daddy said and waved. He knew that Juliette liked that better. She waved back.

“Bye.”

“Have fun with your new friends, okay?”, he said.

Then he and Juliette’s mama left.

“Oh, good morning Adam!”, Castle said when he noticed that Adam had shown up. “Okay, kiddies, now that everyone's here it's time for morning assembly!”

The day continued. The kids, or kiddies as Mr Castle called them, were very nice to her. They didn’t try to touch her, or tease her about her cooties, like on her last day-care. 

Sonya and Sara took it extra seriously and examined her using their instruments. They were super careful not to touch her bare skin, and listened to her breathing and her heart beat. They used a tiny hammer on her knee to check her reflexes and even looked down her throat with a tiny flashlight. - But Castle stopped them when they wanted to stick a popsicle stick into her mouth as well. -

They had snack time, then it was time to go outside.

All the kids had to put on vests, purple ones. Juliette thought that was strange, because on her old day-care they only had to wear vests for when they left the playground, but Kenji explained that that was because the adults were bad at telling the kids apart. Because there were other children. 

Some were mere toddlers. They wore orange vests.

Juliette didn’t like to admit it, but she got nervous around toddlers. They didn’t understand when she asked them not to touch her. And she didn’t want to hurt them.

There wasn’t any poison ivy behind the shed. She thought she was going to sit there alone for the rest of outside-time, but after a while; she didn’t know how long because she didn’t have a wrist watch like Emma did; someone came around the corner. She was worried it was going to be one of the smaller children and quickly stood up.

It wasn’t a smaller child.

It was Adam.

He was just as surprised as she was.

They looked at each other for a second, then Adam turned heel and retreated the way he had come from; back to the main play area. Juliette remained where she was, not really knowing whether she was supposed to do anything. She wanted to be alone, but she hoped she hadn’t made Adam sad in case he had also wanted to sit behind the shed.

Maybe she would ask him next time they had outside-time. After thinking about it some more she realized she wouldn’t mind having some company. As long as there was no touching.

Then she heard the bell. That meant Castle was calling them inside again. It was time for lunch.

Chapter Text

After lunch Castle let the kids make pictures with wet paint and brushes. He even got out little aisles. 

Juliette had one of those at home. She and Emma would stand on a side each and paint on large pieces of paper their daddy would roll out and cut for them. 

Juliette’s mama didn’t like letting Emma and Juliette paint. She said it was so messy to clean up afterwards. She thought it was much better when they used dry pencils.

Juliette liked painting. Especially with black paint. She’d make it look like those signs she saw in the Korean restaurant. And Chinese, or Japanese, or also the Moroccan. - Her daddy really liked the tea they served after the food. - They all had such pretty looking letters.

She didn’t know what she wrote, she wasn’t couldn’t really write anything besides her names in the normal alphabet to be honest, but maybe when she grew up she could learn to read the other alphabets, and then see what she wrote now.

She sometimes added flowers or stars around the letters, her mama said they looked very gloomy otherwise. Her daddy would say they could probably sell her paintings for millions of dollars, with or without the flowers and stars. And then he would take them to his office at the university.

That made Juliette feel all warm inside. But she did wonder how serious her daddy was when he said that when she saw Alia’s painting. Her aisle was next to Alia, so it was easy to peek over and see what she was painting. Her flowers were way more detailed than Juliette’s. Juliette had only made dandelions. Those were easy. You just pushed and twisted the brush with yellow, or orange, paint. Alia’s even had the little yellow powdery tongues that stuck out. They were really pretty. And Juliette was a little jealous.

When Alia saw her looking she dropped her brush. Castle had to help her clean the splat. Juliette didn’t look at Alia’s painting any more after that.

Kenji showed her his painting afterwards, while the pictures were drying. It was the Power Rangers. And a lot of yellow. Juliette thought it was a yellow river first - a pee river - and for a moment she thought Kenji was really weird.

“What’s the yellow?”, she had asked.

“It’s Rapunzel’s hair”, Kenji had explained proudly. “She’s helping them tie up the bad guys!”

Juliette was relieved at that. That made much more sense, and it meant Kenji wasn’t as weird as she thought. After that Castle said it was time for nap time. But not for the big kids . The big kids were the ones that were supposed to start school in the fall. Kenji was one of them, as well as Sara and Sonya.

Juliette was actually very tired from the eventful day, and didn’t protest the nap, even if she didn’t usually nap on her old day-care.

Big kids got to stay out in the big room while Juliette and the others went into the soft room. 

“This will be your matt”, Castle explained and laid out a mattress, just big enough for her to fit on. He laid it down on the floor next to where Adam was making his bed. “You can bring a pillow or a blanket from home if you want, but for today you can borrow this one.”

Then he helped her make the bed. She liked that, because she would have felt embarrassed if she had to do it herself considering all the other children were super fast at preparing their own beds. When he was done helping her Castle took out a cd-player.

“What is it today, Castle?”, Brendan asked in his accent.

“Winnie the Pooh”, Castle told him. Brendan cheered. “Now, lay down.”

All the children laid down and Castle set the cd running. Then, while the intro played, he went and closed the curtains a bit. Which was good, because Juliette wanted it a little darker. But not too dark.

The little girl fell asleep listening to how Christopher Robin let Pooh’s head bounce down the steps of the stairs.

She dreamed of stairs, and when she woke up she put her hand to the back of her head to see if she had any bumps. She had dreamed she had been Pooh. And that some small child had dragged her down the stairs, letting her head go thump, thump, thump.

She looked around for a moment. The cd had stopped playing, and everyone else was asleep. She looked at the door. She could hear Kenji and Sara - or was it Sonya? - talking quietly to each other. She could probably go join them if she wanted to, but she was still tired and the dream hadn't been that scary so she laid down again and went back to sleep.

When she woke up her mama had arrived to pick her up. She had quickly ushered her out into the hallway.

“Hurry, Emma is waiting for us to pick her up!”

Then she had turned her head and smiled at Castle.

“Bye Mr Castle”, she said.

“See you tomorrow”, Castle had replied

“Bye Juliette!”, a choir of voices had called from inside the room.

“Bye!”, she had called back, then her Mama had towed her out of the door by her blanket.

The next day when Juliette’s Daddy dropped her off Kenji had rushed out into the tambour.

“Do you still have cooties?”

She had glanced at her Daddy, who was putting dry socks and clean panties in the plastic box with her name on it (in case she made hers wet), and seeing he wasn’t paying attention and therefore couldn’t tell her Mama about it she nodded at Kenji.

“Will it ever go away?”, he then asked, frowning a little.

“I don’t know...”, she had answered, truthfully.

Right about then the front door had opened. For a second Juliette thought it was Adam, and she had been excited because then she could ask him about the shed, but then he had taken off his baseball cap and she had seen he was blond.

And Adam wasn’t blond. And also this boy had green eyes. And she was pretty sure Adam had blue eyes.

A woman stepped in after him. She was really pretty, Juliette thought. She must be the boy’s Mommy.

“Oh, hello!”, she said when she saw Juliette’s Daddy. “I don’t think we’ve met…!”

Then they started talking, like adults do with the hand shaking.

“I’m Leila Warner.”

“I’m Max Sommers. And we’re actually new here”, her Daddy told her.

Then they had started talking about work.

“Hey Aaron, where were you yesterday?”, Kenji asked.

The boy, Aaron, looked away from his Mommy.

“I visited my new school”, he told him. Then he must be one of the big boys who was going to start school that fall, Juliette thought.

Then his eyes landed on Juliette. Then something odd happened. He kind of looked all over her. Up and down while looking kind of angry.

“Who’s this?”, he asked.

“This is Juliette. She has cooties”, Kenji told him, a certain pride to his voice.

Aaron had not seemed impressed. “Cooties? ”

“That means she can kill you by touching you.”

Once again Juliette had to glance at her Daddy, but he was busy talking about the research he was conducting. He talked about that a lot with other adults.

It seemed to catch the attention of Aaron, however. His green eyes seemed to light up, like lime caramels.

“Is that true?”, he asked her, and she didn’t have a choice but to answer,

“Y-yes!”

“Aaron baby”, the woman suddenly said. “I’m going to go now. I put your sunscreen in the outer pocket, and you make sure to use it, alright? Castle is going to remind you.”

“Yes Mommy”, Aaron said.

“Okay honey”, then she leaned down and gave him a kiss. “Bye.”

“Bye Mommy”, Aaron said.

“I better go, too. Bye Princess!”, Juliette’s Daddy said and blew her a kiss.

“Bye Daddy!”, she said.

Then the two adults left. And before the children could talk any more Castle called for assembly.

Adam came a little after assembly had ended, his mom, a lady with brown hair, had peeked in from the hallway and apologized, saying that The traffic had been jammed!

Juliette wanted to go talk with Adam, but as soon as playtime started Aaron came over and asked if she wanted to play legos with him.

She was surprised again at how these kids still wanted to play with her even if she had cooties, and she wanted to play with legos, so she said yes. The legos at Omega Point wasn’t like the legos she and Emma played with at home. Hers and Emma’s came in sets with characters from movies they knew. They had a Frozen set and a skiing lodge. So most of their legos were white. The legos were all kinds of colors at Omega point, though. So it was kind of hard to make a nice looking house. And a bunch of doors and windows and roof tiles that Juliette hadn’t seen before. But Aaron showed her how to stack them so that they became smooth.

They were building a house together when Brendan joined in. He was way faster at building his house because he had fetched another box, and he didn’t have to take turns looking for pieces.

“I found the dog!”, Brendan suddenly said.

He held up the piece for the other two to see.

Juliette thought it was cute. It didn’t look like the ones she and Emma had though. Theirs was white and brown.

“Give it to me.”

Juliette looked at Aaron who was the one who had said it. He was looking at the dog.

Brendan considered it. “No”, he said.

Aaron scowled. “Give it to me”, Aaron repeated.

“But I’m the one who found it…!”, Brendan said.

Aaron was quiet for a moment.

Then he said, “Give it to me or I’ll make Juliette touch you.”

Juliette thought she had heard incorrectly. But before she could even ask him to repeat himself the dog was in Aaron’s palm and Brendan had tears in his eyes.

“Wh-what, n-no-!”, Juliette tried to protest, but Brendan had already stood up and hurried away.

“That was really mean, Aaron!”, she said.

Aaron didn’t seem to listen to her. Instead he placed the dog in front of the little driveway the had built.

“Aaron!”, she said again.

When he ignored her again she stood up to follow Brendan to tell him that she wouldn’t touch him at all. And also tell Castle that Aaron was being mean. But as she rose she was suddenly yanked down again by the fabric of her shirt.

She gasped and looked at him, and was immediately pinned in place by two lime caramels.

“Sit down and help me finish the house”, he told her.

“But-”

“Do it or I’ll tell Castle you made Brendan cry.”

She gasped. “I didn’t do that!”, she protested.

“That’s not what Brendan thinks”, he said.

And he sounded so sure, like an adult almost, that she was convinced. And she didn’t want to get in trouble. Her mama would get angry if she heard that Juliette still told the other kids about her cooties. And even more mad that she made the other kids cry because of it.

So she sat down. And she helped Aaron finish the house.

Chapter Text

Juliette thought it would get better once outside-time started.

It didn’t.

Suddenly no one asked if she wanted to play with them. Instead everyone seemed to avoid her, and she understood that Brendan had probably told everyone about how she had made him cry with her cooties. She wouldn’t have minded being one her own. The problem was that now Aaron wouldn’t let her go anywhere without him.

He didn’t hold her back. After all, he couldn’t do that.

“Let’s play with the trucks”, he’d say,

“Can we go play with the slide?”, Juliette wondered, referring to the slide in the jungle gym; that for the moment was unoccupied, which meant there wouldn’t be any scuffling and pushing with other kids.

Aaron hadn’t even looked up from the toy tractor he was using to make tracks in the sandbox.

“No.”

And for some reason she didn’t dare refuse.

Even when they went inside for lunch he wouldn’t leave her alone, sitting next to her by the table. No one talked to her then either. Only Aaron, who talked about the baseball cards he had at home. After lunch they had a sing along circle, and for a little while Juliette forgot that she had made Brendan sad. They were both singing happily to Itsy bitsy spider. And when nap time arrived Aaron had to stay out in the big room. He had looked pretty angry about it.

Today her Mama wasn’t there to pick her up when she woke up though.

“Castle?”, she had asked after realizing this.

“Yes Juliette?”

“Do you know when my Mama will come?”

He has pursed his lips and taken out his phone. “At five.” Then he saw how Juliette got sad.

“You wanna go home?”, he wondered.

“No...”, she told him. Because it wasn’t that she wanted to go home. She just didn’t want to have to play with Aaron and only Aaron. But she didn’t say that. 

Castle hadn’t looked completely convinced, but didn’t ask again.

“You may ring the bell for assembly if you want to”, he had said instead and taken out the bell.

Juliette did, and it was kind of fun seeing everyone turn their heads and widen their eyes a little at seeing her with the bell in her hand. Some kids had already been picked up by then, so the ring was a little bit smaller. Castle explained that they were going to play The ball, to which Winston cheered.

And Juliette was excited, because there wasn’t any touching with the ball game. You were just supposed to pass the ball around while coming up with words that went along with the theme.

But then she looked up and saw Aaron looking at her from across the rug, with his lime caramel eyes, and she understood that when they were let out for outside time again it would be the same thing as it had been before lunch. So she suddenly got an idea. An idea she knew was very naughty.

So when Castle said ‘Let’s play one last round’ she raised her hand.

“Yes Juliette?”

“May I go to the bathroom?”

“Yes, you may”, Castle had said.

“Let’s do months this time”, she heard Castle continue as she went out into the tambour. But she didn’t go to the bathroom. Instead she put on her sun hat, and very quietly opened the front door, then equally as quietly closed it again before running to the shed.

Juliette heard when the other children were let out and soon swings were swinging, sand was being piled, tricycles were driving and kids were screaming.

She didn’t hear anyone call her name, but she figured she wouldn’t go out until the clock was about five. Not that she knew what time it was, but she didn’t think about that. It went quite a while before she was interrupted.

She turned her head at the sound of someone coming around the corner. She was scared that it was Aaron who had figured out where she was. That he would be angry. 

But it wasn’t Aaron. It was Adam.

She didn’t really know what she expected him to do if it had been Aaron. He wouldn’t have been able to pull her out from there. Still, the image of him trying was scary.

“Adam!”, she said.

He hesitated for a moment, and then came over to her. He sat down next to her, far away enough to that they weren’t touching.

“Is Aaron still looking for me?”, she asked.

He nodded.

Then they were quiet for a bit.

“Is Brendan still sad?”

“Brendan? He seemed fine. He’s playing with Lily and Alia.”

“I didn’t mean to make him sad before”, she told him.

He looked a little surprised. “You didn’t make him sad though! It was Aaron.”

Her surprised look most have spoken for itself, because he continued. “Brendan told us what happened.”

Juliette gasped.

“Aaron is a bit of a bully most of the time”, Adam told her.

“He is?”, Juliette asked, horrified.

Adam nodded solemnly. “But it’s just because he’s an only-child”, Adam said. “Or, that’s what my mommy thinks. But it’s not his fault, supposedly.”

Juliette pursed her lips. She was hoping that Aaron was just having a bad day, Emma got those sometimes, and that he’d be nicer tomorrow. But if this was his normal self she didn’t know if she could handle being on Omega Point any longer.

“You look like you need a hug”, Adam said quietly.

Juliette did feel like she wanted a hug.

“You can’t touch me”, she told him.

"I can", Adam said.

Juliette blinked.

"I could touch you", Adam explained.

"You what!", Juliette gasped.

Adam nodded.

"How can you know that?", Juliette said, trying her best to mimic Emma. Emma was great at questioning things people said. It usually made their Mama scowl and sigh, but Emma got her answers either way.

Adam shook his head. "It was during nap time. So you were asleep."

"You weren't?", Juliette wondered.

Adam shook his head again.

Juliette found that equally as remarkable as the claim that Adam had touched her. To manage to stay awake during nap time; Juliette would never be able to do that…

"You looked like you were having a nightmare, and I felt bad and wanted to hold your hand. But I remembered what you said, but I thought it would be fine if I did it super fast."

He took his index finger and demonstrated by gently poking her arm very fast.

Juliette gasped.

Nothing had happened.

"Then nothing still happened when I did it for a bit longer."

He demonstrated again. Now taking a hold of her hand.

"You must have some sort of superpower…!", Juliette whispered.

Adam considered it.

"Maybe…", he said.

Juliette wondered what Kenji would have done if it had been him that had been able to touch her. He probably would have been way more excited at the idea of having superpowers.

Just then they heard the bell ring.

“Please don’t tell anyone about this”, Juliette said.

“Why?”

“Because they might think it’s safe to touch me, too, and they’ll get hurt. So just pretend like normal”, she told him.

“Okay”, Adam said.

"Now let’s go", Adam said, and they headed back to the yard, where Castle was giving out snacks.

Juliette and Adam didn’t have any time to enjoy Adam’s superpower, however, because as soon as snack time was over the brown haired woman, Adam’s Mommy, showed up at the gate.

“Addie! Jamie!”, she called.

“Who’s Jamie?”, Juliette asked Adam.

“That’s my little brother. I can introduce you tomorrow”, Adam told her, then he had to go inside and get his bag.

And not a minute after Adam had left Aaron was by her side again. Lime green eyes aimed at her sharply.

Juliette wanted to scream.

“Where did you go before?”, he asked.

“Nowhere”, she said.

He looked like he wanted to object, but shrugged it off. And then it was the same thing as it had been before lunch. Only Aaron. But Juliette kept her complaints to herself. This was how Aaron was, apparently. She just had to wait until tomorrow when Adam was back again.

“Let’s built a sand village”, Aaron said after they had walked around and pulled up dandelions from the paved stones; because apparently they were weeds and needed to be pulled out according to Aaron.

Juliette didn’t have time to respond before she heard the sound of the gate being rattled. She looked up hoping it was her mama that had arrived to take her home so that Aaron would stop bossing her around.

However, she quickly realized it wasn’t her mother. Instead it was a man she hadn’t seen before. He had brown hair and was wearing a blue suit. He was scowling at the lock of the gate as he tried removing the chain; which was exactly the way her mama did it.

“Who’s that?”, she wondered.

Aaron didn’t answer. When she looked back at him she saw that he was staring at the man. His hand tense around the bucket.

By this point a teacher had gone to the gate to help the man inside.

Once inside the man looked around, and his eyes stopped at them. He brought one hand to his mouth; cupping it to propel his voice better.

“Aaron!”, the man called.

Juliette looked at Aaron.

“That’s your Dad?”

Aaron didn’t say anything. Instead he looked at the sand at their feet. He picked up the plastic shovel.

“I think he wants you to come over”, she told him. That was usually what adults wanted when they called your name.

“I know! ”, Aaron snapped.

Juliette frowned. Then suddenly she felt a pull on her blanket. Aaron had taken a hold of it and was towing her towards the main gate.

Juliette almost protested, she didn’t really want to spend more time with Aaron. But she figured it wouldn’t take that long since Aaron was going home very soon anyway.

When they had walked up to Aaron’s dad, because that’s who Juliette assumed it was, Castle had also walked up. The two adults were talking. Like adults do.

Though Aaron’s dad didn’t look as peaceful as adults usually did when talking to teachers. Mr Anderson turned to look at the newly arrived children.

“Where’s your bag?”, he asked Aaron.

“In the hallway”, Aaron told him.

“Well, go get it”, the man told him; then he turned back towards Castle.

Aaron didn’t go get his bag. Instead he had more things to say apparently. The little boy tugged on the man’s blue blazer.

“Daddy?”

“Yes, Aaron?”

Juliette couldn’t really believe how Aaron dared to not do as he was told right away, with how annoyed his Dad seemed.

“May I take Juliette home with me?”

Juliette blinked.

So did Mr Anderson. He looked between his son and Juliette. Because what other girl would Aaron bring with him if not the one he wanted to take home?

“No, you may not.”

Juliette saw how Aaron scowled.

“Why not?”, he asked.

“We are going to talk about that in the car. Now go get your bag”, he said and pointed towards the building.

Aaron must have realized the same thing as Juliette at that moment: That Castle must have told Mr Anderson about what Aaron had done that morning, and now Aaron was in trouble. So he let go of Juliette's blanket and ran off to get his backpack.

Juliette stayed with the adults. She heard Mr Anderson sigh.

“This is really starting to get old…”

“Divorce affects children differently”, Castle explained, and it sounded like he had explained it many times already.

“Aaron’s behaviour is normal-”

“And all he needs is patience and positive attention ”, Mr Anderson filled in. “But if he still can't be told to share without throwing a fit he'll be kicked out…"

"That's not how it works, Mr Anderson", Castle told him.

Mr Anderson sighed again. Ran a hand through his hair. “What was the kid’s name? Brendol?”

“Brendan”, Castle filled in.

"Brendan. First thing in the morning: Apology to Brendan.”

Right then Aaron came back with his backpack.

"See you tomorrow, Aaron", Castle said.

Aaron didn't reply, but then his daddy cleared his throat.

"See you tomorrow, Mr Castle. See you tomorrow, Juliette", Aaron said.

"Bye Aaron", was all Juliette said.

Then Aaron's Daddy took him by the hand and the two walked towards the gate.

“Juliette”, Castle said and Juliette startled, figuring it was her turn to get a scolding.

“You won't ever be in trouble for tattling on people being mean. Because we want everyone to be happy here on Omega Point, as well as all the kids on the playground. But we can't have that if everyone doesn't do their part and make sure everyone is nice to each other. Do you understand?"

Juliette nodded. Barney the dinosaur had said something similar.

"Good girl", he said. Then he looked up. "And I'm pretty sure that's your mama coming now!", he told her.