Ariel lifted her eyelids open as the sun rays via the window curtains kissed her face. She rose up from her bed and looked at the clock on the wall in front of her. it said six-thirty two. She walked out of her room and went inside Melody's room.

"Melody? Wake up," Ariel softly patted her on the shoulder. Melody rose from her bed very groggily.

"Good morning, sweetie!" Ariel said, cheerfully.

"Good morning," said Melody. She stretched her arms. Meanwhile, Eric was walking in toward Melody's room to wake her up. He was surprised to see that Ariel had already woken Melody up. He smiled, relieved that Ariel had already taken care of the task.

After dressing, Ariel served scrambled eggs and toast to Eric and Melody. She also gave Melody orange juice and Eric coffee. Eric and Melody loved the food. The eggs were warm and the toast was crunchy. After breakfast, Eric grabbed Ariel's hand. Eric was hoping that Ariel didn't notice his face turning red again.

"Um, come on, I am going to give you my car," he said.

He led her to his garage. Eric opened the garage door and what Ariel saw was a silver Saturn Concord. It was a good size for Ariel due to her being shorter than Eric.
Later at seven twenty A.M., after bidding goodbye to each other, Eric was off in his jeep. Ariel and Melody hopped in the silver Saturn concord and were off to school. Melody helped Ariel drive to her school by giving out directions. They arrived at school. Melody got out of the car and waved bye to Ariel who waved back.
Eric stepped into his office, happy that he finally made it to work on time.

"Hey Eric!" Eric turned to see two men smiling at him. One was an Arab man with black hairy and brown eyes in a black suit. The other one had orange hair and blue eyes.

"Hey Al and Adam! What's up?" Eric walked over to them and gave them the buddy fist. The three buddies went inside the floor of their office building.

While setting his stuff down in his office, Eric was greeted by Andrina, Attina, Adella, and Arista.

"Hey, girls," he said.

"Hi, Eric," they chimed. They work as assistants to Eric's nice boss, Mr. Walt Disney and his brother, Mr. Roy Disney.

"How is our sister doing? I hope she wasn't giving you trouble," Adella teased.

"No, she was great," Eric smiled, sincerely. "She woke up Melody before I did. She also made us breakfast and drove Melody to school."

"Is that all she is going to do? Sounds boring," Arista frowned.

"No! I'm having her shop for some groceries for a while. She will spend more time with Melody in the afternoon," Eric enlightened.

"Okay, " said Attina. "But just make sure you give her stuff to keep her busy since your daughter spends half of the day at school."

"Hey, I will," Eric assured.

Melody stood at the front steps of school building at 3:00pm, waiting for Ariel to come. Her hands were covering her face. One drop of tear shed from another eye and another tear followed. She was shaking and quacking. Melody noticed Ariel waving to her. Melody walked to her car and hopped in the front seat.

"What's wrong, Melody?" Ariel asked as they drove off.

"Some kids made fun of me!" Melody sniffed.

"They did? Whatever for?"

"All because I don't have a mommy!" Melody still sniffed. Ariel put her arm around Melody's shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Melody," she said. She knows what it feels like to lose a mother. Hearing Melody's cries reminded her of her own mother.

"I have an idea!" said Ariel. "How about I take you out for ice cream?"

"I could use some ice cream," Melody answered.

At a small ice cream parlor, two men were working along with Flounder. One man, Scuttle, was tall with white hair. The other was Sebastian who was dark-skinned with balding hair and a little bit chubby. Sebastian was working behind the cashier while Scuttle was scooping up ice cream for customers. Flounder was sweeping the floor with his mop.

"All right, little lady, here is your double-chocoalate ice cream! Here you go sir, cookies n' cream in a small cup! Ah, here you go ma'am:strawberry smoothie!" As soon as the customers left, Scuttle wiped his forehead.

"Wooo-wee! That was a lot of people!" he said.

"You telling mon!" sighed Sebastian through his Jamaican accent. "This is tiring me out! I don't think I can handle another-

"Uncles Sebastian and Scuttle! Flounder!" a familiar voice rang. The two men (and Flounder) both turned their attention toward a familiar red-head with a black-haired girl hiding a little behind her.

"Hey! Look it's here!" Scuttle exclaimed. "Ariel! How ya doin' kid!"

"I see you bought a friend," said Sebastian, noticing Melody.

"Yes," said Ariel. "This is Melody Barnes, the girl I'm watching over."

"Hello, Mr. Sebastian," said Melody, shyly.

"Hello, child," Sebastian greeted. "Hey, Flounder! Aren't ya goin' da greet ya sister?"

Flounder looked at them. He said nothing. Sebastian gave him where-are-your-manners-look.

"Hello Ariel," he said, trying to be nice. He looked at Melody. "Hello, Ariel's kid,"

"So, what kind of ice cream flavor do ya want?" Scuttle asked.

"I want strawberry, please!" said Melody.

"I'll have strawberry, also," Ariel smiled.

"Great!" Scuttle shouted. He moved to the ice cream boxes. "Two strawberry ice creams comin' right up!"

Ariel looked at Flounder. She could tell that he sounded really sad. Why is that? She was about to say something when Scuttle interrupted her when he placed her ice cream in front of her. Ariel took money out of her wallet and hand it to Scuttle.

"Ah, don't bother, sweetie," said Scuttle pushing the money away.

"Oh, but uncle Scuttle-"

"It's all in the house!"

"All right," said Ariel. She and melody grabbed spoons and enjoyed their strawberry ice cream. Flounder felt a little bit bad for being rude to Ariel. It has been a few days since she left, and already, he missed her. Not wanting to be rude in front of her or his two uncles, he went to introduce himself to Melody.

"Hi, I'm Flounder, what's your name?" he said.

"Hi, I'm Melody," she said.

"How old are you?" Flounder asked.

"I'm five years old going on six!"

"Really? I'm eight years old!"

"What school did you go to?"

"I don't go to school."

"You don't!" Melody's eyes went big. She never met a kid who didn't go to school.

"Well, you see, Melody. Flounder here, is home-schooled," said Scuttle. "Every day, he stays at home and gets lessons from his pa or one of his sisters."

"Wow! It must be fun being home-schooled," Melody told Flounder.

"Yeah, but sometimes I get lonely because I don't hang out with the other kids very much," Flounder responded.

"I'll be your friend!" said Melody.

Ariel smiled while watching Flounder and Scuttle talking with Melody. Looks like she's not sad anymore She thought.

Meanwhile, Eric was at his office, reading his papers part of the project that he, Adam, and Aladdin were working on. His thoughts were wandering off instead of on the papers. He was hoping that everything was going well with Ariel on her first day. What if Ariel didn't get Melody to school on time? What if she yelled at Melody? What if she hurts Melody? If Ariel every lays on finger on Melody then he would have no problem firing her. He put his mind back on the papers, trying to forget about his worries.

Back at the parlor, Ariel was chatting with Sebastian and Scuttle. Melody was finishing up her homework that she had brought along with. Flounder had just finished mopping the floors and was working on his math workbook.

"Say, what time is it?" Scuttle asked. "Is it time for the shop to close?"

"Nah, we still got time until eight," said Sebastian.

Ariel dropped her spoon.

"Eight! Oh no! Mr. Barnes is going to kill me!" she panicked.

"It's seven-thirty already!" Melody exclaimed as she looked at the clock on the wall. She quickly packed her homework in her backpack.

Ariel quickly gathered her purse.

I'm sorry, everyone!" said Ariel. She grabbed Melody's hand. "I got to go! Bye Uncles Sebastian and Scuttle! Bye Flounder!"

"Bye everyone!" Melody waved. They ran out of the door.

"Bye!" the boy and the two men called back. "Hurry before he gets home!" Sebastian shouted. "So what do ya think of Melody, Flounder?"

"She's not so bad," said Flounder. "She's really nice."

Meanwhile, Ursula, Flotsam, and Jetsam were in front of Eric's office building, waiting for him.
"Okay boys," Ursula instructed. "Here is the plan. It is 7:00. In an hour, Eric will walk out of the door. Once he does, we ask him to have a drink with us at the Poison Apple Bar-"
"What if he says no?" Flotsam interrupted.
"We'll knock him out!" Ursula snapped.
"As I was saying, we ourselves drinks-But we let him drink more than four shots of alcohol. We take him to a court where I will marry him. Later, we take him home. Then, while he and his brat sleep, you boys pull out your knives and stab them in the back. We bury the bodies and the money is ours." She finished, smiling.
"Oooooo!" Flotsam rubbed his hands together. "I can hardly wait! I can smell the money already!"

The crazy old lady and the two foolish men wait. Just then, Ursula felt something tapping on her shoulder. She turned around to see a black police officer standing and looking stern.

"Excuse me, ma'm but you just parked your car in front of the NO PARKING SIGN," said the officer. "It's illegal to park after 6pm so I'm afraid I have to charge you."

"A parking ticket!" Ursula yelled. "Noooooooooo! This cannot be happening to me!" Ursula grew angry; really angry. This was not going according to her plan.

"Officer, you can't do this!" Ursula protested.

"I'm afraid I can, ma'm," said the officer. "You must pay or else I'll charge you another fee for refusing to do so,"

Ursula growled. So much for her plan.

Luckily, Ariel and Melody made it back home by 7:00. Ariel looked over and checked Melody's homework while the girls ate turkey sandwiches for dinner. After dinner, they went to upstairs to get ready for bed. As Ariel entered Melody's bedroom for a bedtime story, she noticed a few more soccer trophies on Melody's drawer. When she asked Melody about them, she discovered that those were the trophies that Melody had received from preschool and kindergarten.

"Two of them are from the soccer games. The third one was from when I sang at the talent show," Melody explained.

"Wow! Melody that is a lot of stuff you won," said Ariel. melody nodded. "Your father must be proud!"

"Yeah..," Melody's eyes went a bit cloudy. She looked down at the carpet floor staring at her toes.

"I'm sorry, did I something wrong?" Ariel panicked, not meaning to hurt the girl's feelings.

"It's not that," said Melody. "It's just that...I wish Daddy would show up at my games and performances more often. He only showed up at one soccer game and he never came to see me at the talent show because he was too busy working."

Ariel was shocked. Eric never almost never attended at Melody's games or her talent show? That must have been awful! It must have been awful to be stuck at work and not be able to show up at your child's school events.

"There is going to be a talent show toward of the end of the school year. I don't know whether to join or not because I know Daddy is not going to show up," Melody added.

Ariel put her arms around Melody.

"Hey, I think you should do it," she said, sincerely.

"Really?" said Melody.

"Yes! Go and join the show! I will come and see you!"

"Really?" Melody asked. Ariel nodded, smiling.

"All right! That will be great!" Melody jumped. "woo-hoo!" Then she stopped jumping. "But do you think you can Daddy to come?"

Ariel thought for a moment. Could she really do it?

"I'll try to get him to come," she said. Just then they heard the door opening and closing.

"Melody! Miss Benson! I'm home!" Eric just walked through the door. He headed upstairs and went to Melody's room.

"DADDY!" Melody squealed. She shot off like a rocket and hug Eric.

"Hey kiddo!" Eric laughed, hugging her back. They let go a little bit but Eric still held her. "How was your day today?"

"It was great! Ariel took me out for ice cream and I played with Flounder!"

"Who's Flounder?"

"My little brother, Mr. Barnes," Ariel replied.

"It was so much fun, Daddy! You should come with us sometime!" Melody enlightened.

"Yeah, I should," said Eric, thinking how nice it would be to have ice cream if he didn't have such a busy schedule. "Well time for sleepy-time!" Melody kissed Eric and Ariel good night.

After Eric and Ariel left the room, Eric asked Ariel how she is enjoying her job.

"It was wonderful, Mr. Barnes. Melody was such a sweet girl. She was fun to talk to and she gave me no trouble at all!"

"Yeah," Eric chuckled. "I can see that she likes you. Well, I'll see you in the morning, sleep tight."

"You too," said Ariel. But before she turned to leave, she remembered Melody's request.

"Mr. Benson?"

"Yes?"

"...Never mind," Ariel said. She quickly retreated to her room. Eric raised an eyebrow. What was Ariel trying to ask him?

"CURSED THAT COP!"a deep female voice screamed."OUR PLAN HAS BEEN RUINED!" Ursula, Flotsam and Jetsam were forced to go back to their place after the whole ticket fiasco.

"We don't have enough money to pay for the fine!" Jetsam wailed.

"Yeah!" Flotsam cried.

"Well, screw this!" Ursula threw her fine ticket in the garbage. "I don't have enough money to pay a fine! We need another a plan to get Eric's money fast!"

"Yeah!...but what?" Flotsam and Jetsam answered.

"I don't know," Ursula said sourly. "But tomorrow, we will think of something! Right now, it is late so let's get to bed!"

"Night mistress!"

"Good night my darlings."