The next morning, Aster wakes me up with her screaming and crying. I scramble out from under my covers and out of bed. "Aster, it's okay baby, sissy's here," I whisper soothingly and pick her up.

She immediately burries her head in the crook of my neck, and calms down to a wimper. I gently bounce her up and down until she stops.

I get out a diper and a change of clothes, I change her and notice her nose is red and she has boogers running down her face. "Oh, baby, you have a cold," I wipe her face with a tissue and take her temperature. She has a temperature of 105. "Oh, princess, let's get you a bath, that'll make you feel better." I pick her back up and take her to the bath tub. I fill the tub up with slightly warm water. I strip her of her clothes and diper, and sit her in her seat in the bath tub. She wimpers, "oh, it's okay baby," I whisper and starts crying histerically.

After her bath, I give her some cold medicine we conveniently had in the cabinet, and give her a bottle. She falls asleep in the middle of the bottle and I wrap her in her blanket and lay her in her pack n' play. My phone rings and I pick it up. "Hello?"

"Hi, it's Cole, is this Willow?"

"Yeah, hi Cole. Well, Aster and I won't be at the park today," I say and glance over at her. She's still lying still swaddled in her blanket.

"Oh, why not?" He sounds diapointed.

"Aster woke up with a cold this morning, and I did what I remember my mom doing when she babysat this little boy, years ago." I sigh, "wait, do you think you could help? You know, I really don't know what else to do, right now she's sleeping."

"Yeah, I'm sure I could help, I have a couple of little cousins that I helped with when they got sick."

"Oh, you don't know how much this means to me, thank you so much, Cole. I'll just text you my address, okay?"

"Yup, I'll be there shortly," he replies and I hang up with a smile on my face. Maybe he'll know what to do.

I text him our address and he arrives less than fifteen minutes later. I open the door, and Aster wakes up from the noise, she flutters her eyes open and looks around, before screaming again. I sigh, and walk over to her.

"I'm sorry, princess, I didn't mean to wake you, baby," I pick her up and she burries her face in the crook of my neck and sniffles. Cole walks in and shuts the door, careful not to make any more noise than needed. "What do I do? She's never been sick before," I say and she squirms a little before sniffling again and closing her eyes.

"Well, what did you do already?"

"Not much, I just gave her a bath, got her changed, wrapped her in a blanket, and gave her some cold medicine, and then she fell asleep."

"Okay, well you actually did pretty well, she probably needs some rest, then when she wakes up, she'll most likely need to eat."

I nod, "okay," I look up at him, "hey, you never told me why you weren't in school that day we met at the park, and now that I think about it, you should be in school now. It is Thursday, right?"

He looks me in the eye, "you won't tell anyone?" What is there not to tell about? I just shake my head, clarifying I won't tell anyone. He takes a deep breath, "my mom homeschools me."

"Oh, that's cool, my mom homeschooled me until last year when she got pregnant with Aster."

"You don't think I'm lame?" He asks doubtfully, looking me up and down.

I shake my head, "no, Cole, you're still the same person I knew before you told me. I actually think homeschooling is cool, after Aster is a little older and I go back and finish school, I want to be able to do it for her. It's way nicer than going to public school, especially if you're young." He nods in agreement, right when Aster wakes up and starts kicking and screaming in my arms. I stand back up from the couch and bounce her up and down, "it's okay Aster, you're alright," she won't stop screaming.

"Here, let me try," Cole suggests, holding his arms out. I hand her over and he whispers in her ear and she calms down. She slowly falls back asleep, and he sits back down. I sit next to him. "You want her back?" He asks and I shake my head.

"And risk her waking again, nope, you can hold her for now." I say, smirking.