"I always start my day with the best intentions and a positive attitude. Then idiots happen."

~Anonymous

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 "Dusty, I'll kill you, you know I will!" I warn, dodging away from her small hands that are trying to poke me in the eye with a mascara wand.

She's been pestering me all day, wanting me to get ready for our day at the aquarium. Weekends are the hardest with the girls. They get so bored, which shouldn't be my problem, but they won't shut up until we do something.

I'd made a deal with Dusty—if she changed out of her mermaid costume and put on real clothes, I'd let her do my makeup. It didn't quite seem fair to me, but the mermaid costume had enough glitter to blind a psychic from seeing into the future.

"Just a little!" Dusty protests.

I lean closer to the mirror, muttering swear words deep in my heart, and guide her hand towards my eyelashes.

"Beautiful!" she squeals. "Now, lipstick, lipstick!"

"No way!" I say. "That's too far."

"How about red?!"

"No, thanks. I'd rather not look like I've been kissing the Kool-Aid man."

"Just a little?" she begs.

"Ugh. Fine."

She dabs it on carefully, and I almost smile watching her little face be so concentrated.

"Good," she says slowly, backing away to examine her work.

I turn towards the mirror and nod. "Not bad, kid."

Dusty whispers, "I think Mr. Watson will like it. He loves pretty paintings."

I blink at her, open my mouth, then close it. I'm not even going to say anything.

That little girl is too smooth for her own good. Besides, I've officially decided it's not a date. What was I thinking, anyway?

"Alright, let's get going," I say, "the aquarium waits for no one."

It takes forever to get the girls out of the house. First, Jemma forgets her headphones in her room. Then Dusty remembers Shakira, her stuffed penguin. Once we're all in the car about to pull out, Eloise runs back inside the house to get a new book she bought.

We're almost thirty minutes late by the time we're actually on the road.

Apparently, Finn is not great with directions. Apparently, "just outside of town" really means "three towns over". Because the GPS says we'll be there in an hour.

An hour in the car with the three of them, and I'm already in a bad mood to begin with.

"Let's sing!" Dusty announces.

"No!" I cry in a panic. Whoever said the songs of children were like the voices of angels had apparently been drunk when they thought that. When Dusty sang, she literally screamed at the top of her lungs.

Dusty levels her gaze at me and then, without wavering, begins, "Ninety-nine bottles of milk on the wall..."

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I stumble out of the car as if I've just been released from prison, gasping for air and sanity.

I lean against the door to try and still my swirling head.

Eloise, Jemma, and Dusty clamber out, looking excited and giddy for the field trip.

"You're all the worst," I grumble, unloading the snack bag. I still wonder what I did to deserve this.

We make our way into the aquarium, where there is blessed air conditioning. It smells like strange cleaner inside, but I don't mind.

It's quiet.

For a second, anyway.

"Gift shop!" Dusty cries.

"No!" I snap.

"Yes!"

She goes to take off, but I grab her arm just in time. I kneel in front of her to give her a good lecture, but then have to search my phone for the parenting website I'd been on.

"Dusty," I say, glancing down at the screen, "you are being very disobedient right now and I don't reciproc—I mean—" I squint at the word, "oh, appreciate it. Sorry, the font is really weird. Okay?"

"O....kay," she says slowly.

I nod proudly. "Good."

I straighten and turn to see Finn walking through the large doors.

"Mr. Watson!" Jemma and Dusty cry.

"Hello, girls," he says, cordially shaking each of their hands, which makes them all giggle. Eloise is more reserved but shakes his hand anyway.

He walks up to me with that uneven gait of his and rubs the back his neck before glancing behind him. "You look tired, Miss Beverly."

"I had to listen to Dusty's singing all the way here. Believe me, it brought tears to my ears."

"I see the girls are rather excited. I hope I brought enough fact cards to appease them."

I cross my arms and laugh. "Fact cards?"

He shrugs with one shoulder. "Well, you seemed to think I knew about aquatic animals, but it turns out, well...I don't."

I press my lips together to keep from grinning and nod. "I knew a guy once who told me he had a yacht. But it turned out that it was a camouflage canoe with a motor attached to the back. Which was disappointing. He also told me he had a vintage tin can of tobacco with rust that looked like the face of David Bowie. Turns out that was a lie too." I clear my throat and gesture towards him. "So, anyway, yeah...the fact cards are really awesome."

He flashes that half-second smile that looks like a glance. But I'm realizing that it's not just a glance. Glancing at someone means nothing. His flicker of a smile always means something different and makes me smile back.

"And," I add, a little shyly, "this is my first time at an aquarium too, so..."

Finn blinks. "Really? That surprises me."

"She has a jaded past," Jemma announces. Where did she even hear that word?

"Her parents sucked," Dusty adds. "That's what mommy says."

"I...yeah," I shrug. "It's true. But Dusty, don't say suck, what did Mrs. Connie tell you?"

"Sorry."

Eloise straightens up. "Hello? Fish? Whale sharks? Stingrays? We're wasting time."

We all make our way to buy tickets, and soon we enter the aquarium.

A flutter of excitement in my stomach surprises me. Is it sad that I've never been to an aquarium? I never thought about going to one. But the more I'm getting out, the more I've realized that I've never had a life. I've never done anything. Like Dusty said, my parents sucked, but then again, I guess I do too. It runs in the family.

As we pass by a huge tank that goes from the floor to the ceiling, I gasp along with the girls and laugh.

"Wow," I murmur, gazing up at the swarms of fish dodging back and forth. They move like a unit, their scales shimmering as they turn.

I glance over and see that Finn is watching me curiously and I point to the long pinkish ones. "They look like Vienna sausages with tails!"

His eyes crinkle into a laugh and he shakes his head.

"Ma'am, get your child's face off the glass!" an employee shouts.

I turn and Dusty has her mouth wide open against the exhibit.

"Ah, geez, Dusty," I sigh. "You're scaring them away!"

The employee frowns. "Please don't do that anymore."

"Yeah, we got it," I say.

"It makes the glass really dirty and—"

I lift a finger. "Ssshh. Do you hear that? That's the sound of you not telling me what to do anymore."

Eloise hisses, "Super Aunt Beverly, remember?"

I roll my eyes and swivel toward the employee. "Thank you for your kind and generous reminder, good sir."

The employee ducks his head in a nod before backing away.

"Good job," Eloise whispers.

"I believe the dolphin show begins in ten minutes," Finn says, peering at the brochure like it's one of his paintings. I'm not even sure he noticed the whole ordeal.

"Good," I say. "Kids, let's go see Flipper."

Jemma looks up at me, wringing her hands. "Will they eat each other like they did in that documentary?"

I sigh and prod her forward. "No, they probably already fed them. Besides, I hear they only eat each other if they have barbeque sauce on their tails."