Sun was not as sunny as you'd initially thought.

After the run-down of the playground he'd given you, you figured he was over the whole assisstant thing he was upset about when you'd first met, but it felt more like he had been putting on a show for the tour.

Now whenever you tried talking to him or approaching him, he'd shove a child into your arms and run off to entertain another kid. Maybe you were just overthinking it, maybe you shouldn't have been so eager for his attention when clearly there was a mob of goblins to take care of, but it really felt like he was avoiding you. 'Or maybe he's just doing his job,' the reasonable half of you yelled.

Nonetheless, the first day went smoothly, besides you sulking over not being able to talk to Sundrop. Not that you wanted to. He was repulsive, actually. Quite the bitch. Yup. Could kiss your ass, for all you cared. Not that you did.

It was nearing the end of the day, and you were coaxing a shy girl out of a small, colorful tube you could crawl through and hide in. She had her pale arms wrapped around her baggy, pink dress, her black hair falling past her elbows and concealing her face as she worriedly stared up at you with huge, adorable bug-eyes.

After ten minutes of no such luck getting her to come out, you glance over at Sundrop to see if he could maybe help you get her out. But he's already staring at you, and his head quickly snaps around to appease a small group of kids crowding around his feet. Weird.

You stand up slowly, looking down at the tube with the girl in it before making your way over to Sundrop. He seems to be in the middle of a wild game explanation, and as you approach all you hear is, "Two... Three... GO!" before all the kids scatter for different parts of the playground in a fit of giggles.

You're only five feet away from him when he swivels his head around to look at you, and you stop suddenly. The tension that follows is enough to make you want to suckerpunch him in the face just to get him to stop staring at you, but obviously you don't.

"Hey, so," You begin, "There's a girl hiding and I can't get her to come out, do you think you could-"

"That's Maribelle," Sundrop replies without hesitation, "She hides a lot, usually when theres lots of new kids, or a new..." He pauses, averting his gaze for a moment before looking back up again. "Bring her some glue, googly eyes, and a rock. She'll be fine."

"A... I'm sorry, a rock?" What the fuck does she need a rock for? You look back cautiously, before turning back to see Sundrop giving you a blank stare.

Another moment of silent tension. Another thought of suckerpunching him, though this time it's followed by a thought of drop-kicking him before he finally says, "You... put the googly eyes on the rock. It's a pocket-friend. She likes making them."

"Oh," You reply like an idiot. Of course. Rock friends. Right. Every child's dream. You stare past Sundrop, slowly looking around the playground without actually moving. He stares at you expectantly. "So, where's the-?"

"Oh, right, of course," He mumbles.

"Yeah."

"Sorry."

"You're fine."

You follow Sundrop as he deflatedly skips to a cream-colored gate with stickers all over it. He basically passes through it like a ghost with how effortlessly he pushes it aside and trots through the opening. You follow him through a small, dim hallway with scuffed, painted dinosaurs and rainbows on the walls.

He steps into a room a bit brighter, with baby blue walls and a table filled with all the art supplies you could dream up. He boogies to the table and sweeps up a bunch of things as you awkwardly watch.

Soon he turns, bringing himself to stand inches from you and placing an armload of glitter glue, paints, and a lot more googly eyes than probably neccessary for a rock into your hands. Well, I suppose that depends how edgy the child is.

His fingers brush your arm as he makes sure you've got everything without dropping it. You both stare at each other for a moment, and he looks like he's about to say something when you hurredly interrupt, "The kids are probably killing each other out there."

He nods quickly. "You're right, I should go. Let me know if you nee-"

"Yup, thanks Sundrop." He seems almost dissappointed for a moment, but leaves in a haste, his fingers trailing down to your wrist before dropping as he walks past you.

You're not sure why you rushed him away, but you take a moment to sit on the floor and have a totally sophisticated adult-meltdown before getting up and bringing the rock supplies out to Maribelle.

You feel Sundrop's eyes on you the moment you leave the fenced area, but beeline it straight for the child. You aren't sure why all the other attendents quit, but if Sundrop was acting this strange and utterly confusing with all of them, then suddenly the world makes sense again.

You spread all of the rock supplies out in front of the tube entrance where Maribelle is still curled up, and she peeks up at you in curiosity.

"A little birdie told me you liked making rock friends," You say softly, "And that you're really good at it. Do you think you could show me? I'd like to make one too, but I don't think I'd be very good at it." Maribelle hesitates and then nods slowly, crawling over to sit at the edge of the tube, reaching out for a rock. She has to be only eight or so, she's so small.

An hour passes in a flash, and in that time you found yourself really liking Maribelle. She opened up like a flower, all it needed was a little encouragement. She laughs a lot, you notice out, and the both of you seemed to get along great, and made well over ten rocks each before you hear footsteps accompanied by bells behind you.

You turn to see obnoxious jester pants- and an empty playground. Had everyone been picked up already? You look up to see Sundrop gazing down at you, and he quickly directs his focus to Maribelle.

"Hello, friend! Your father is here to pick you up, and- oh, what's this? Look at all of these lovely buddies you've made!" Sundrop crouches to admire all of Maribelle's rocks, and you notice the moment his eyes find your sloppy, derpy-eyed rocks. You feel embarrassed for a moment; you'd felt so much like a kid in the past hour, getting lost in crafts, you forgot you'd been working.

He reaches out to offer his hand to Maribelle. "I'll walk you to the door, friend! Why don't you pick a few rocks to take home, and we'll wrap the rest up all nice and pretty for you to get next time you're here? Just to save time and the hassle of carrying them all out now." Maribelle nods slowly with a shy smile, picking out three of her rocks and grabbing Sundrop's hand as he leads her to the door. She turns back once to smile at you, breaking her contact with Sundrop for a moment to wave before she turns and skips to the door with him.

You smile to yourself, beginning to clean up the mess the both of you had made while giggling yourselves silly like best friends. You finish scooping everything up, standing and leaving yours and Maribelle's rocks to collect on a second trip, when things start to slip. Then suddenly he was there, grabbing onto your hands and helping you hold everything up.

You glance up for a stupid, breathless moment to find Sundrop standing in front of you at his full height, staring down at you. You never understood if it was a good or bad thing when he cut that dancing shit out.

"I've got it, why don't you grab the rocks?" You say, avoiding any form of thanks.

"Why can't I help?" He asks innocently. Almost mockingly. Bitch. Cute bitch.

"Because, I've got it. Please get the rocks." You step aside, but his legs follow your own, his grip tightening on your hands.

"Why are you avoiding me?" He asks, staring so intently he might as well shoot lazer beams through your skull.

"Me? You're avoiding me. What's it with you? Do you like me or not?" He hesitates, not saying a word. And then,

"You're right. Sorry, friend." That's when he steps aside, his hands falling as he walks past you to pick up the rocks. That bipolar motherfucker. You nearly turned around to beat his ass, but then remember how easily he lifted you out of the ballpit. He could probably throw you all the way to the top of the slide without a second thought. Storming off to the crafts room seems like a great second option.

Once in the bright blue room you start putting the supplies away, dropping them in the designated, color-coded and labeled baskets they came from.

You turn around to leave and find yourself face to face with a certain sun-faced BUTTHEAD. With a small scream and flailing of arms you nearly knock over the crafts table in an attempt to get away before registering who it is.

"Wha- what are you-" You sputter, looking up at the ridiculous, smiling cretin in front of you. "What do you want?!" You nearly scream. You'd have gotten all up in his face about it if he weren't already standing inches from you.

"Need any help?" He asks simply.

"Uh... no? Thanks..?"

"Okay."

Another awkward pause.

He doesn't seem the brightest, but there's not much else you could expect from a daycare attendent who looks like he eats the children.

You slowly make your way around him, and you can feel his presence directly behind you as you leave the crafts room. He's like a dog. A tall, stupid, dog. You bet if you called him a good boy he'd roll over and purr. Typical dog shit.

You reach the single exit to the daycare, unless crawling up the slide or scaling the wall fits your fancy better.

You turn, and aren't even surprised when you find Sundrop basically breathing down your neck, his arms intertwining behind him.

"Good bye," He says.

You weren't sure if that was supposed to be a threat or not, so you just turn and leave quickly, not sparing a parting word or last glance back at him as you flee.

You don't sleep that night, your strange co-worker all you could think of. You honestly weren't sure what was stopping you from quitting and finding a new job. Everything about that daycare screamed "QUIT" to you, but for some reason you wanted to go back. Maybe just for the kids. Maybe just for Maribelle. Or maybe there was someone else just as intriguing that you couldn't help but want to know more about.