The First Day On Our Own

Today marks the first day Coco is weaned from her schoolbus.

Ever since the schoolbus had a change of driver to a 'foreign talent', Coco has been coming home late. I mean, real late.

Her last lesson in school ends at 4pm. Her schoolbus normally sets off from school at 4.15pm. She used to reach home at 5pm, or slightly before or after 5pm.

Lately, she has been reaching home at 5.45pm. That's like almost two hours on the road! I find that totally unacceptable.

I called the boss to tell him the situation, that my kid had been coming home late ever since he got the new driver.

He became awfully defensive,"If you want your kid to go home early, fetch your kid yourself. You cannot expect me to ferry only a few kids. You cannot expect me to (do this and do that) ..."

So I called off the bus service last week and this morning, we went to school by train.

Unfortunately, the alarm did not go off. I woke up at 6.05am, the time we were supposed to set off!

After some rushing to the bathroom, drinking of milo, packing of stuff, we rushed out of the door at 6.25am.

Then, at the MRT station, Coco asked,"Where is my homework file?"

Drats! She placed it on the dining table when she wanted to put her waterbottle into her bag. After that, she forgot about it.

She looked utterly crestfallen. She was sure that her teachers would give her a earful for all the homeworks not submitted. Not wanting her First Day to be ruined, I told her I would bring the file to her after school.

When we reached our destination station, it was still raining. I told Coco that the morning was a formula content for 'The Most Unfortunate Day of My Life'. She smiled in agreement.

That was not all.

I walked in a puddle so that Coco could walk on the narrow pavement, but because of the poor visibility, Coco wanted to join me in the walk, so her socks and shoes were soaking wet when she reached school!

The only good thing that happened was that it rained, so there were many others who were also late. Children were still streaming in the school gate at 7.25am. Long, stationary lines of cars were formed on the single-lane roads heading towards Coco's school. That was just about the only thing that cheered the lass up.