I practically fall through my door as I put my jacket on the clothes rack. I turned to see Ophelia, who was still unconscious on the sofa, and then I heard the sounds of writing coming from the kitchen. I head over there and see Rose and Petals working on their homework. How sweet! “Dad!” Rose yelled from across the table “How do you spell ‘excavator’?” I was about to answer until I suddenly heard the doorbell, so I held up a finger and rushed to get the door… outside, to my surprise, was Robert, who just casually walked in and greeted me with a smile.
“Hiya! You mind if I hang out here for a bit?” He says with a wave.
“...You’re trying to get out of work again, aren’t you?” I ask, already knowing the answer to that question. He just shrugged and sat down in the kitchen with the two kids. “Well since you’re here, help me out with helping these two do their homework.”
“Better than looking for fingerprints…” He mumbles as he watches over Rose. On one question, Rose read it out loud so Robert could help.
“This one says, Pat has 5 apples… his wife has 3 times more apples than he does. How many apples does Pat’s wife have…?” She looks at the question stumped as Robert points at the paper.
“You see, Pat’s first mistake was getting married to a woman who’s clearly obsessed with these apples.” Rose looks at him with even more confusion.
“What? Mister Robert, do you not like marriage?"
“Marriage is where fun goes to die…” He says as he scratches the back of his head. Rose just turned back to the paper and wrote ‘file a divorce’ which pleases Robert. “There you go, little lady, now you’re thinking logically!”
“I don’t know how my math teacher will feel about this answer…” She says pouting until Robert holds out his police id.
“Just tell them it was approved by the police! Then all the other kids are gonna feel reeeal stupid.” He says, chuckling to himself. Petals turns to the two and back at me.
“For the record, I got 15.” She says as I pat her on the head.
“Good job.” I say before realizing how late it was… “Alright I’m wrapping up for the day… Robert, get outta my house.”
“Alright, alright, don’t be so pushy about it.” He says with a smile before leaving the house. Rose and Petals put their work away as they wave to me.
“Goodnight dad!” The two girls said at the same time as I made my way upstairs… Tomorrow was my deadline… I have to win… no matter what!

To be continued...