“Papa!” The front door slammed open, allowing the hot air to blow right on in. It may have been September but the heat of summer was still pounding down on them.

“Papa…,” she put a whine behind it this time. He turned to face her, lifting one of his eyebrows.

“Yes?”

There was a slight giggle behind hands that were covering her mouth. She lowered hem enough to answer, “Ms. Nella said that there’s a parents and teachers meeting tonight! So you better go.”

He gave his daughter a hard stare, “You’re only telling me this now? Did you forget to give me the paper telling parents when this was a few weeks ago, Syd?”

The girl flushed red and rubbed the back of her neck. The corner of her sneaker squeaked against the wooden floor as she nodded. “Sorry, I think I lost it and she reminded us today.”

Julian sighed and stood up, ruffling his daughter’s hair. She cried out and batted at his hand. He just chuckled and headed over to the kitchen where the school’s calendar was posted. Scanning through, he nodded. There it was, in a couple of hours. Standing, he ran a hand through his hair and blew out a breath.

Alright, standard procedure. Shower to wash away his scent with the descenter body washes. Then use the scent blocker lotions and patches. Only then, he could get dressed. After that it was a quick spritz befre stepping into the school.

Sydney stood in the doorway watching him and he could see that she tried to mask her expression, but she wasn’t that good considering she was only eight. She protested him covering up his omega status, not quite fully understanding the danger of a lone omega with a child, but accepted that he wanted it that way. Julian met up with her at the door and gave her a soft hug with a kiss on the top of her head.

“I know. I’m sorry, bug. One day, I won’t have to do this.”

She signed and burrowed into his arms, her face buried in his chest. The stood like that for a little while, just taking the time to bond as a small family. His fingers ran through her long hair a few times before he pulled back.

“Better?”

She nodded, her eyes drooping slightly with the overload of his scent soothing her. He guided her over to the counter where she hopped up and snagged an apple from the bowl.

“I’ll grab your bag that I’m sure you slung off in the mudroom and you’ll get started on your homework, yes?”

Syd groaned but nodded as he walked down the hall, spotting her backback slumped just where he suspected it would be. With a shake of his head, he picked it up and brought it back to the kitchen. They worked together to get her set up for the rest of the afternoon until she was finished. That would give him time to cook dinner for the two of them before they had to leave for the meeting.

—

When five thirty rolled around, Julian was nervously fidgeting with his sleeves of his suit and tie. He rolled up the sleeves to just under the elbow and kept the tie slightly loose so that it wasn’t too formal but not sloppy. He would leave his jacket at home because there was no reason to wear it in this heat. His slacks had been pressed and his shoes shined to make him look crisp. It was a light tan color to compliment his tan skin and dark blond hair.

The shower had helped to wash his scent away and the lotions helped as well. He hadn’t wanted to use the patches, since they made his skin blister, but he was so nervous meeting this Ms. Nella that Syd spoke so fondly of, that his nervous scent kept overriding the lotion. He stuck a tiny canister of the high grade descenter in his pocket just in case.

It was bad enough that Syd had crinkled her nose at his acidic lemon scent when he came down to show off the suit.

“Why are you nervous, Papa?”

He sighed, “It’s just going somewhere new and you talk so much of this Ms. Nella that I want to make a good impression.”

His daughter stared at him, “You’re a lawyer and take on mean people, but you’re afraid of my Beta teacher?”

“Now hold up one second, Syd. I didn’t say I was afraid of her.” Julian started, but Syd had started to grin and took off out the house. He grabbed his keys to the car and ran off after her. “Come back here, you trouble bug!”

—

Wild, red hair. Stunning, long legs covered with thigh high socks decorated with mushrooms. Shoes that looked like they belonged in a school, but they were also decorated with the cutest mushrooms and moss. Julian’s eyes trailed slowly up the body of the tallest woman he had ever seen. Even without the shoes, he suspected that she was well over half a head taller than him. His heart stuttered, and damned if his patches and descenter were working overtime.

Her dress was cute, coming to mid thigh and dark brown. It was soft flow and had embroidery decorating all over it. He couldn’t quite see with her shifting around while she was talking wildly with her hands. It was a high waist corset dress that sat over top of a cream colored shirt. the entire outfit made her fiery hair stand out yet compliment it beautifully.

“Papa, you’re staring really hard and I can smell your scent.”

Julian coughed and jerked his eyes away from the teacher that was in the middle of a few other parents chattering about something.

“Sorry, Syd. She caught me off guard.”

Syd gave him a devious smile, “I know. She’s awfully pretty, isn’t she?”

“Don’t go there, Sydney. We’re here for your report, not matchmaking.” He gave her a stern warning and look. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. He shook his head and took a seat at one of the chairs near the back of the room.

Sydney had wandered to a couple of others her age and was talking to them. Julian watched with a smile, happy to see that she was getting along with those her age. He had worried about that with the move.

“She’s quite exceptional, you know.”

A gentle scent reached his nose, but he couldn’t place it before it disappeared. Julian turned to see that the Beta teacher had joined him in watching the kids play. He flushed lightly at the compliment.

“She is. I think that’s mostly her determination to learn everything she can though.”

“Sydney must have an excellent role model then,” the woman complimented.

Julian flushed bright red at that and tried his best to temper it but it didn’t work. Ms. Nella chuckled behind a hand before holding it out.

“It’s nice to meet you finally, Mr. Hayes.”

Julian took her hand and softly shook it. There was a slight change in his skin, a tingle that moved up through his palm and through his arm. It was something different, nothing like he’d experienced before. He smiled at her, not giving away that he had felt something because it couldn’t have been something. I was just his mind and nerves.

“It’s lovely to meet you, Ms. Nella. Sydney has spoken nothing but the best of your teaching.”

Her head tilted to the side for a fraction of a second, glacing down at their connection, before letting go. There was a smile on her face, but something else lingered. He turned to look at Sydney, missing the way that she rubbed her hand and palm with a confused expression. Or how she took in a deeper breath, trying to scent him as politely and discreetly as possible. When he turned back, she was settling down next to him in a seat.

“Well, I’ve talked to most of these parents before, so why don’t we take a moment longer to talk about Sydney? Nothing wrong of course, in fact I think that you would like to hear how advanced I think she is.”

Julian raised an eyebrow, “Really?”

She nodded, “I do. I think that she needs a bit more challenging in her work. Now I don’t think that she is ready to skip a grade but I can tell that she is getting a tad bored. I wanted to ask your permission to give her some homework that was a litle bit harder than some of the other classmates.”

Their gazes naturally drifted over to the group of kids that had grown a bit while new parents were showing up. Groups had formed around the room, with drinks or snack plates in hands. There were mostly smiles and laughter. It was a sight that he was not used to seeing.

All the towns and cities they had moved before were all frowns and yelling. Parents that were either rude to the teacher or other parents, those who felt they were above one another, parents that struggled to feed and clothe themselves and the children. Here though, it was peaceful and felt like a community. It was a novel experience. Maybe it was just that it was someone who cultivated this space rather than the community itself.

“Mr. Hayes?”

Julian snapped out of his thoughts, blushing red when he saw that Ms. Nella had been talking to him for a moment.

“I’m so sorry, Ms. Nella, I must have gotten lost in my thoughts.”

She waved her hands, “No, no. Not Ms. Nella. Just Nella for the parents. Or Helena if you prefer.”

“Helena?” Julian tried out. “It’s a beautiful name.”

This time, it was her turned to blush. “Ah yeah, it’s easier for the kids to say Nella and not get giggly over saying a bad word as my name.”

Julian’s eyebrows rose before he let out a loud snort, covering his hands over his mouth in horror at the sudden laugh.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh like that.”

“Oh no, please! It’s really funny.” She giggled, flapping her hand at him to brush off the embarassment. “Don’t ever worry about it. It gets a good laugh out of everyone that asks about the nickname.”

There was a commotion and another parent called out to Nella. She sighed quietly and groaned. “Oh goodie.”

Her eyes widened, “Oh no, please, you didn’t hear that.”

“Not a thing.” Julian just smiled at her. He leaned back against the chair.

Nella stood up and was preparing to walk away before turning back to him, “If you ever pick up Sydney from school, don’t be a stranger. Come stop by and we can talk about advancing her homework to keep her on a higher track.”

Julian sat up and gave her a wide smile and he was absolutely sure that he was perfuming, because Sydney had paused to look over at him.

“I would love that.”

Nella blushed lightly and bowed her head before turning away to talk to some of the other parents. Syndey rushed over and grinnd at him.

“Ohh, somebody likes her! I knew you would.” She sing sang. Julian shook his head at her antics, though didn’t deny her. Sydney giggled and tugged on a loose lock of hair.

“You might want to spray though, Papa. I could start to smell you perfuming the closer I got.”

“Shit,” he dug through his pockets to find the descenter spray. “I’ll go to the bathroom and put this on. Do you want to stay here or come with me?”

“I’ll stay here. Just be careful. Love you, Papa.”

He kissed her on the top of her head, “Love you too, bug. Now go have fun with your friends. I’ll be back in a moment.”

Julian scuttled from the room, trying his best to avoid the different pockets of groups that were lingering around. He’d need to cover his scent soon if she could smell it. Even though his daughter had an unusually high sense of smell, it was better safe than sorry.

He took one last glance over at Helena, who’s beautiful red hair and long legs were just the tip of the confusing iceberg of feelings, before stepping through the door.