There Is A Tide In The Affairs Of Men

Alex T. Vargas Cult of personality. This is my world, I'm just letting you live in it.

[ayyoitsalex]

Chapter 10 - My Time To Shine

From the time I was seventeen I've been responsible for the meals prepared at the biggest holiday of them all; Thanksgiving. It's taken over as my personal favorite because I get to spend the day doing what I love, and what I do best. When it comes to me cooking for thanksgiving, my family has learned a few things. I know what I'm doing, don't distract me, and don't change my music. We got the week off from school, so I stayed up at my parent's house to get prepped for the upcoming event. Everyone was curious as to what kind of stops I was pulling out this year, but as always I wasn't saying. I'd come up with some new ideas I wanted to try out, and this was as good a time as any. When my siblings moved out I had my choice of which room I wanted to call my own. I picked Selena's room since it came with the best sunset views, and got the best night time breezes. When I got to be around sixteen I made the decision to paint the walls from the dark purple to a red. I hoped Selena wouldn't be too upset at what I'd done to her room. When I moved out, our parents kept the room relatively the same, but now there's not a bunch of clothes on the floor like I'm used to seeing it. I woke up early Tuesday with the task of doing the shopping on my mind. I called up my siblings to see which one of them could accompany me. Only Natalie was available, so I waited for her to come and pick me up.  Natalie unlocked the door and let herself in with baby Lexi in her arms. Before I could get up for a hug, she forced Lexi into my arms. "GOTTA PEE!" She screamed running to the bathroom. Lexi smiled at me as I held her close. "Your mommys so crazy Lexi. Did you know that?" "Yeah." She said laughing. Lexi can answer yes or no questions, but to whether or not she knows what it means remains to be seen. Natalie emerged from the bathroom looking relieved as ever. "Okay we ready?" She asked. "Yeah." Lexi said again putting her hands up. "Aha I guess that's a yes, let's get going!" I put Lexi in her carseat behind me. Natalie plugged in her phone and turned on the car. As the engine started the radio turned on. What came on wasn't music, but was some very intense whispering that sounded like it could be right in your ears. I gave Natalie a confused look before she practically slammed her hand into the off button. She fumbled around with her phone to put on actual music. "Um..what the fuck was that?" Natalie's face was turnning red. "Just some..patreon audio.." "What who's voice is that even?" "Dude it's so crazy it's this chick that does anime voices, but y'know makes them say bad things.." "Oh my god Natalie you're a freak haha." I palmed my face laughing hysterically. "Shut up! We all have our little things. This one just happens to be mine." "So..it's like audio porn?" "NO ABSOLUTELY NOT." She smacked the back of my head. "You little shit head.." "Ow!" "I am still your big sister y'know! Need to show me my respect!" We continued our drive to the store. When we got there  Natalie just followed behind as I pulled items into the basket. I was on a mission to get everything i needed. I didn't look back a few times, and at times lost Natalie through the crowd. "Elizabeth! Slow down a little!" When we finished checking out we went back home to put them all into the fridge. "Jesus how big is this turkey?" "Fifteen pounds." I answered looking through the vegetables, and looking through my checklist. "Can I just say I'm so glad you're good at cooking?" She hugged me. "Aha you could stand to mention it more often." The front door unlocked by Selena with her kids and Sam. "Helllo?" Selena called out for anyone home. "We're in here!" I answered. The kids rushed into the living room diving onto the couches. "Excuse me boys!" I stood there hands on my hips. Cole and AJ looked at one another before making their way towards me. I leaned down. "Hi aunt Liz." They said together hugging me, and kissing my cheeks on each side. "Love you guys." I smiled mussing up their hair as they walked back. "Well hey sister, excited for thanksgiving?" I turned to Selena. "Always! Gotta break out my fancy maternity pants so I won't lose a button." "Oh my god haha." I started taking out bowls to do as much prep work as I could before hand to make my life easier. That meant dicing up my mire poix, dry brining my turkey, making my compound butter, and cutting up bread for stuffing. My sisters both gathered around like I was doing magic, when I was just peeling vegetables. They continued looking on amazed as I chopped vegetables so easily and at times without looking. It might be stupid but it really does make me feel special. It's not that my sisters are bad cooks, I think it's just the fact that I'm going to school for cooking they think I have some more efficient way of doing simple things. Which I totally do.   "Lizzy are you sure you don't need any help?" Selena looked at me worried. I put down my knife and shook the aches out of my hand. "Yeah yeah I got it. You know me, I like doing it all." "Mm well if you say so. We can help too.." "I know I know, and I will need some help in the next couple days and maybe using you guys' ovens." "Jesus Liz what's all being made?" "Top secret!" Both Selena and Natalie rolled their eyes while I rubbed my hands together smiling devilishly. "Though if you really are set on helping these are some recipes you guys can do, and I made them as easy as possible." "Are you calling us stupid?! I HAVE A MASTERS DEGREE ELIZABETH!" Selena said faking getting mad. I rolled my eyes and went back to my cutting board. -Thursday- It's the big day and everything needs to go as planned or else I might kill somebody. I'm usually more go with the flow and easy going, but when it comes to cooking there is only one way to do things and it's my way. I was up around 5 am to start slow cooking some of the bigger proteins like the turkey and beef wellington I prepped the night before. Before putting the turkey into the oven I massaged the smoked garlic compoud butter underneath the skin. It's not the nicet feeling thing to do, but it makes a whole hell of a lot of difference down the line. I was still a bit sleepy, so I turned on the tv to wake me up a little. I flipped through the literal hundred of channels trying to find anything, but nothing was on. I turned on my newest favorite podcast and listened to "dead meat with James and Chelsea". I'm the only one of my family who is a huge horror movie buff. The only person I can get to go with me is Nathan, but he's not a addict like I am. Mom came down about an hour and a half after I did. "The only day I can expect you up this early." Mom laughed. "Well what can I say I love you all that much." I flashed a big smile to her. "Mm well happy thanksgiving my little head chef." She kissed the top of my head before going to get a cup of coffee. Nathan dropped by first around eight, and like the caring brother he is, he brought me breakfast. "Special delivery." He smirked handing me a bag of donuts. "Thanks brother!" I stuffed one in my mouth while giving him a hug. "Dinners gonna be ready about 4!" "Alright I'll have the girls all dressed and ready to see what you've come up with this year." "ITS FINNA BE LIT!" I smiled jumping up and down. "Right right..lit." Nathan not the one for today's slang terms. "Soph is making pies by the way!" Nathan said walking out the door. "Oh sweet! I knew I could trust one of you." -11 am- I was starting to get a little tired, but it wasn't anything I wasn't used to. I opened the fridge for the perfect remedy of an energy drink. I'd changed from my morning pajamas to a pair of jeans and my chef's coat to really feel the part. "Just like your father." Aunt Camryn said from behind me. I practically spit all over the fridge. "JESUS CHRIST." I put my hand over my chest. "I didn't hear anyone come in! My hearts like racing now." "Mm well thats from your lil energy nonsense. Drink coffee like an adult." "HUMPH. No coffees gross." "Peasant." Aunt Camryn muttered sipping her coffee. I turned my attention to the stove where I had potatoes, pasta, and stuffing working. Aunt Camryn peeked over my shoulder to see what I was working with, but I shielded her off. "No peeking!"  I practically shrieked as aunt Camryn took a step back. "Good lord Elizabeth you're not re-inventing the wheel here." "This is the one time I get to show out and I want to surprise. So please shoo." I even gave her a little hand wave motion.  Aunt Camryn looked like she was about to smack the life out of me. Mom walked in probably saving my face. "Nicole! She just told me to shoo!" She couldn't believe my audacity. "Haha c'mon Camryn leave Elizabeth to do her thing. You good here sweetie?" "Yeah I got it mom." She winked at me before guiding aunt Camryn into the other room. Selena walked in carrying trays of appetizers to appease guests while I finished cooking. "Well how's it coming along baby chef?" Selena smiled giving me a hug. "Everythings on schedule for 4 pm dinner." "Awesome, well I brought something special for you sincey you're being so great." She rummaged through the bags and pulled out a bowl of macaroni and cheese. It's my ultimate comfort food, and Selena would always make it for me when she would babysit. "YESS!" I ripped off the saran wrap and dug right in. I forgot I even had a hunger need until the first bite hit. "See not the only one who can cook. I also made more for dinner later for an extra side." "See you're helping!" I said like I was talking to one of her boys.   "Funny." Selena looked at me arms crossed. I got up and gave her another hug and kiss as a thank you. Although I didn't wipe my mouth enough so Selena had bits of cheese on her. "*sigh I expect things like this from my kids, not my adult sister." She pulled out wipes for her face.   "Oh! I have stuffing in that tray that needs to be finished off, can you do it in your oven please?" "Yeah sure, anything else?" I took a minute to run through the list in my head. "There's a tray of biscuits that need to be baked there. They're all portioned out, just put them in at 375, and brush the butter on top when they're done." "YES CHEF!" Selena saluted to me smiling. "Damn right yes chef!" "Okay we'll be back around 3." I pulled the turkey and beef at the same time to let them rest. The smell was absolutely intoxicating, roasted garlic, lemon, parsley, and bacon. It all was coming out the way in envisioned it. Mom helped me get all the serving plates while dad and uncle Logan set the table. Aunt Camryn "supervised" along with her glass of wine. My siblings all began to arrive with their families, so I stood at the door awaiting my tolls from the kids. "Happy thanksgiving auntie Liz here this is for you!" Daisy smiled happy as always. She hugged me tight and handed me a card she made of her handprint drawn into a turkey. "Thank you Daisy!" I squeezed her tight before moving onto the next in line. "What you got for me Julian?" I smiled down at him. He didn't say anything at first going straight into the hug. "Love you auntie Liz." AJ and Cole were next. "I wonder which of you loves me more..?" I said twiddling my thumbs. They shoved their way into my arms hugging as tight as they could. "Aha okay okay I see you both love me a lot." They laughed letting go. I looked at the table with the all the food I'd prepared along with sides prepared by everyone else, and marveled at it all. When everyone finally got a look at it they did as I did and were in awe of it. Along with the two stars of the show there was grilled asparagus, roasted brussel sprouts with pancetta, butter poached shrimp, pumpkin risotto, roasted acorn squash, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, stuffing, baked macaroni and cheese with a parmesan crust, and garden salad. The smells mixed together in the dining room and I could see everyone starting to salivate just a little at the sight. The dessert table looked just as amazing with the contributions of my sister-in-laws and siblings. "Elizabeth this looks so good. You did a great job." Selena putting her hands over my shoulders. "Yeah good job Liz it smells incredible." Nathan said looking over all the choices spread across the table. "I can't believe you did this on your own.." Natalie smiled. They all surrounded me in a big group hug before  we all joined hands. Dad looked to me and nodded. "Thank you god for bringing us all together and allowing me to show my family just how much they mean to me with a skill you've blessed me with. We give thanks for all the food we're about to have and pray for a good end to the coming year. Amen." "Amen." Everyone collectively answered back. Mom handed me my carving knife and I made the first cut into serving everyone. When everyone had a full plate we took our seats around the house. I plated up last and sat at the table between Sophia and Selena. "I'm so glad I've got my stretchy jeans on Liz. Cause definitely going back for more." Selena smiled eating. As dinner went on everyone would walk by and drop compliments to me and say thank you. It's what made it all worth it. Everyone seeing what I could do, and being recognized for it. I didn't care that my legs hurt from standing all day, my fingers had blisters from the knives, or I was tired beyond belief. Knowing that everyone enjoyed it so much made it worth going through. The kids dropped by me again to say thank you before starting dessert. "You did real good hon." Dad said kissing the top of my head as he walked towards the sink. "We'll all get the dishes sweetie. Take a break finally." Mom nudged me over to the recliner. "Yes will definitely do that." I collapsed into the chair, putting my feet up. The pain in my legs slowly subsiding while my body began to relax. I didn't move for a good twenty minutes before Selena walked by with two plates of pecan pie slices for the both of us. She handed one to me and we cheers'd our forks. I wasn't a pie person growing up, but they've grown on me. After dessert hit me everyone began contemplating the next step. My siblings finished off the dishes, and the kids were all starting to look sleepy. I cracked open another energy drink and split it with Selena. "So are we doing this?" Natalie asked eagerly. "Can you watch the kids?" Selena turned to mom. "We'll just put them to bed. We won't be gone more than a few hours." "Aw man guys go without me you know I hate it." Nathan waved off. "BABE! No way you gotta we can get a new tv." Sophia nudged him. Nathan's eye's lit up. "Yeah the kids can just sleep here while you're out. Oh

[ayyoitsalex]

Chapter 9 - Yes Chef!

Ooh! It's finally my turn to talk! We've never formally met, you've only read about me. Well anyway, my names Elizabeth Brooke Ryan. I go by a few names that my friends and family have come up with, so just pick one of those. Those names are; Elizabeth, Liz, Lizzy, Beth, Eliza, E.B., E.R, E., E. Ry, Ryan, and I think that's it. As you already know I'm youngest of my Ryan family siblings, I'm five foot five, blonde hair, green eyes, and I wear glasses. I didn't do sports like my siblings when I was in high school, I found a different kind of skill that I was good at. Instead I would learn cooking and baking at different rec centers and take classes wherever I could. I just found the whole thing so interesting, and it just came so natural. Despite my reputation as a picky eater. Hey I'm working on it! At this point I'd like to consider myself the best cook in my family. My siblings love being my taste testers and always have been ever since I made my first batch of cookies with mom when I was like..eight. Even though theres a pretty significant age gap between us, we're all close. I'm not any closer to one sibling more than another, I love them all equally. They all took time to take care of me growing up and in different ways. I study at a culinary school in San Diego, and my parents were gracious enough to pay for my entire tuition, but I do work at a restaurant for experience and y'know ya girl needs some spending money. I work at kind of a fancy-ish french restaurant, but I only do prep work. So I'm cutting lots of onions, carrots, potatoes, and crushing a whole mess of garlic. My dream is really to be a chef at a restaurant I love. Simple I know, but I'm a simple person. A lot of people think cooking is a chore or a hassle, but it's something I do that makes me happy and makes me feel creative and special. I live in a small-ish apartment near the school so on occasion I'll walk to school and work, but sometimes I'll feel weird walking around toting around a briefcase looking bag of knives. When I made the decision to go to culinary school it wasn't until I'd already done a year at a traditional college. I wasn't passionate about anything I was taking, and nothing seemed to make me want to dedicate my life to it. It was a real internal struggle since I didn't wanna feel like I was disappointing my parents in going an unconventional route. Though when I did finally tell them they were supportive. I don't know why I expected anything else from them, they're the best! Word got to my siblings on my decision and they all chipped in together to buy me my knives to show their support as well. They were Henckel knives that I'd walk by in Sur la Table all the time and just pine for. Can you say #Blessed ? -ALARM- I struggled underneath the covers trying to find my way out. When I finally emerged I turned the blaring alarm off, and made my way to the bathroom. I did my business and splashed some cold water on my face to wake me up a little bit more. "Alexa, play THE LIST!" I smiled turning to my reflection in the mirror. C'est La Vie began playing and I danced around my apartment probably looking like an idiot. Though what did I care I lived alone. "Say you will say you won't, say you'll do what I don't!" I continued singing probably off-key, dancing my way into the kitchen to make breakfast. Opening the fridge I examined the miriad of leftovers populating the shelves. First things first, i popped open a monster energy. I shook the caffiene through as I took the first sip. "C'est la vie!" I smiled hitting it right on time. -Knock knock- I skipped over to the door and looked through the peep hole. I unlocked the door welcoming inside my two best friends James and Rebecca. James walked in also holding the hand of his son. We usually walk to school together, but today they were early. "Healthy breakfast you got there." James laughed pointing to my energy drink. "It's just a warm up. I was going to have a real breakfast." "That and maybe put on some pants there." Rebecca said. "I'm wearing shorts! I wouldn't have answered the door pants-less I'm not a heathen Rebecca." Though I could see how I did look pantless with my big t-shirt covering my shorts. "Anyway, what're you guys doin here so early. We don't leave for another like..half hour." "I was actually going to ask if I could use your shower cause they were doin some stuff over at my building and the waters out.." Rebecca said pushing her index fingers together. "Well let me go first. And since I'm doing you this favor you make us breakfast then!" "Okay deal. See James look at how nice our friend Elizabeth is. That's why she's my best friend not you" "I can't help that my roommates had the bathrooms occupied when you came over. Get cookin there." I heard Rebecca rummaging through my cabinets for pans while I walked over to the bathroom to take a shower. The good thing about having friends in culinary school is that you can always rely on someone to cook. When I came out the cloud of steam flowed into the apartment. "Jeez you must take some hot showers." Rebecca said plating an omlette. I shrugged my shoulders, still drying my hair. "Okay I did my part. SHOWER!" She picked up her bag and practically ran to the shower. I sat down with James and his son, eating the omlette with what looked to be cut up portions of leftovers. I washed up the dishes and made final checks before we all made our way out of my place. I slinged my bag over my shoulder and picked up my knife kit on our way out the door. We talked about random things on our way to school, but not before making a quick stop for James. He dropped his son off at day-care which also was conveniently close to the school. "I really don't know how you do the whole single dad thing." Rebecca said. "What do you mean?" He said while replying to texts. "I mean I can barely take care of myself let alone another person, and ALONE." "Well he's not alone Becks. He's got us." I smiled. "Aha thanks Liz. But yeah I've got help but I just wanna do as much on my own as I can without burdening anyone else." "You're one of the strongest people I know James." Rebecca said before taking the last sip of her coffee. We made our way onto campus before parting ways to head to our classes. "Meet for lunch!" Rebecca shouted. Both James and I gave her the thumbs up. i walked into my first class of the day which was baking. I learned a lot of my baking knowledge from not only my mom but also my aunt Camryn. Along with her wedding planning business she has her own baking business on the side. She wasn't always my nicest teacher to me, but I did learn a lot. I buttoned up my chef's jacket and sat down in the lecture hall to watch a demonstration. I paid attention as best I could taking whatever notes I felt would help me the most later. This isn't like a typical lecture with slides,  it's literally a projection of someone making a dish. When it was finished the class went into the test kitchen to see if we could recreate it. I did fairly well on my recreation but just a few plating issues kept me from a perfect score. Still an A none the less with room for improvement. I checked the clock. I walked over to the cafeteria where Rebecca was already there waiting with her second coffee of the day. Though what can I expect from someone that considers themself a sommelier of coffee. "How was baking class?" Rebecca asked a little shakily. I'm assuming it's from all the caffiene she's had in such a short amount of time. "I made the pastry fine, but I just had plating issues. My coulis wasn't as thick as I wanted and it started streaking on the plate. So I got docked points, but still an A." I shrugged trying not to think about it too much. "Well that's good." "What's good?" James asked walking over to us carrying a tray. "Liz got an A in baking today, but she's mad about her coulis." "Oh bummer. Cookie?" He offered. I smirked taking it. "Ha nothing a cookie couldn't solve." "Okay rude you didn't offer me one." "Excuse me where are my manners, Rebecca would you also like a cookie?" "Hold the sarcasm with that one." Rebecca said reaching over. "But yes I would." I took a bite laughing at their exchange. "*SPITS JAMES!" I rubbed a napkin on my tongue. Both of them looking at me crazy. "THESE ARE RAISIN!" "...and?" James said slowly taking a bite for himself. "WHO LIKES OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES!?" I fumed passing it back to him. Rebecca's eyes grew wide. "You would like raisins!" Rebecca huffed. "C'mon Elizabeth, let's get real food." We stuck our tongues out while James laughed to himself. Moving through the lunch line, Rebecca and I grabbed food onto our trays to forget the trauma of the raisin trying to be a chocolate chip. What sick bastard decided cookies needed raisins?! I settled on a chicken sandwich with polenta fries, while Rebecca got a skirt steak salad with chipotle dressing. Perks of going to a culinary school is you get food normally not thought of in regular college. "I can't believe you did that to me. I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS!" I took a hard bite into my sandwich. He just shrugged his shoulders before taking another bite of that monstrosity of a dessert. When we finished lunch it was time for me to head to my cooking basics class. The class I'm probably best at. Like my baking class we start off watching a demo of a dish being made and then are asked to recreate. I like this one in particular cause we get to eat whatever we make. I'm not so much a sweet tooth person so that's why this one takes rank over desserts. Also this way I usually don't have to make dinner. We were making pan roasted chicken, braised swiss chard, roasted parsnips, and carmelized cipollini onions. It's a dish I could make in my sleep. When I got into the kitchen it was time for business. I didn't hear anyone, I wasn't talking, the only thing I was doing was cooking. I finished somewhere in the middle of the class, and brought my dish up to be judged. My professor cut into my chicken and I hoped to fuck it wasn't raw. He picked the piece up on the fork and I saw BOOM right on the money. He took bits from around the plate onto a single bite. "Very good Elizabeth. Another good days work. You can enjoy your dish if you want or leave it to another student." FUCK THAT. I brought my plate back to my station and started eating. I did the dishes at my station when I got done, and packed up my knives. James and Rebecca were waiting outside my class as we were all going to work right afterwards. James is a waiter at the restaurant, and Rebecca works the bar. They're both a little older than I am, and I'm only twenty. I met them both pretty randomly when sitting alone in the cafeteria. Rebecca sat down at my table and just introduced herself to me. Complete opposite of my own personality, and then right after James did the same. I guess they could tell I was new or something and needed friends. Since then we've all just hung out, and they even helped me get the job at the restaurant. "Looked good whatever you were eating." Rebecca said. "Oh so good. I love having a class where you eat what you make." "Aha I remember those classes. Enjoy them now." James warned. "Aw James don't scare her!" Rebecca laughed. "I'm just sayin! I can't eat my accounting homework." Way to bring down my mood James. "Well whatever, let's get to work." We walked off campus and rode the bus. I made it to my station of unchopped vegetables and got right into it. "Hey Elizabeth." Our head chef greeted me. "Hi!" I smiled looking up from my pile of carrots. "I'm also gonna need you to break down those romaine hearts. We got tableside Caesars going tonight." "Ooh fun. Are you guys making the dressing from scratch?" "Yeah actually, you ever done it?" He asked inspecting the various stations. "Just at home, it was okay." "Aha hard to believe this is your first year at culinary." What can I say? Humble brag. "Well I'll leave you to get back to work." "Alright, bye chef!" I don't even think I know our head chef's real name. I just call him chef. I set my knife down for a minute to shake the feeling back into my hands. The pile of carrots slowly began to dwindle down, so I shifted my focus to the romaine hearts. After washing and spinning them I broke them down for salad. I brought the bowls to the trolleys for the table side service. I stood at the front of the kitchen just imagining what it'd be like. "Alright on order! Four covers!" I said pretending to read a ticket. I heard laughs behind me and immediately I turned around shook. A few of the line cooks had seen me. "Aw..she's playing pretend." One of them said walking past me. "How cute..thinks she's an actual chef." Another chef smirked attempting to pinch my cheek. I pulled my face away, trying to be as stone face as possible as they walked by. Inside I was dying. I was so embarrassed. I ran back into the walk-in fridge to cool off. I took a few deep breaths to collect myself. The head chef walked in, and jumped back surprised to see me in there. "Whoa! I didn't expect to see anyone in here." "Oh..um I was just..never mind I don't know what I was doing." "You okay?" He asked looking me in the eyes. "Yeah yeah just..nothing." I tried to walk past him back into the kitchen. He held his arm out blocking my way. "Hey tell me what's wrong." He leaned up against the door. "No one can hear what we're talking about it's okay. What you say will be between us, and I can tell you're a little rattled about something." "*sigh well..alright. I was at the front of the pass with no one in the kitchen and I kinda like pretended I was calling out orders..y'know like a real head chef. Then I guess some of the line cooks saw me and kinda..made fun of me for pretending." "Mm I see. So lemme ask you something. What's your goal from all this?" "What? To be a head chef." "So what if you imagine yourself in that role and some people see? You can see yourself doing that, and that's what matters. Those chefs are probably just content working the line and never getting better. They probably stopped learning a long time ago. You're dreaming bigger. You've got something Elizabeth and I'm not just saying that." I nodded my head. "Now walk back in there like you belong in there." He pointed me back into the kitchen. I pulled my shoulders back and walked confidently back in. I found the chefs that passed by me. They smirked at me again, mocking the motions I was doing earlier. "I will be a head chef one day, and a damn good one. So FUCK YOU!" The head chef covered his mouth laughing as I returned to my station. I must've said it pretty loud since I could hear both James and Rebecca laughing their ass off. Good thing we hadn't opened for dinner yet!

[ayyoitsalex]

Chapter 8 - Troop Mothers

Finding hobbies at a young age isn't always easy; You're not quite sure what you're good at or what you suck at. It's a lot of trial and error, and in my experience you keep your hobbies to yourself until you're convinced by someone else that you're good at it. Growing up I tried different sports and extra curricular activities to make friends or get outside, but it was a lot of misses. I tried soccer, two left feet. I tried girl scouts, no patience to go door to door. I tried softball, couldn't hit even if it was a beach ball. My siblings found their calling right away, and low key it was a little frustrating to being the designated fan of the family. Finally I started playing basketball with my dad and took to it like none of my siblings could, but never went out for any team. In my own selfish way I think I just wanted the games to just be about us. It's one on one time I spent with my dad at parks until dark, or until mom would call him to bring me home. And you know how the rest of my relationship with basketball goes. Sam and I are always trying to nudge our guys into getting out there. I don't want them growing up wishing they could've had memories. Though nothing seemed too interesting to them, but none the less they'd try. While I wanted them to have hobbies to make friends I didn't want them to feel like I was forcing them thus it becoming a chore. One afternoon walking through the outlet with Sam and the kids. We weren't there for anything in particular other than walk around and let the kids get some fresh air. There was a park nearby, so after not really buying anything we decided to hit the playground. The boys quickly ran off while Sam and I took Charly to the baby swings. "Not too far okay?" I shouted. They both gave me the thumbs up. I took video of Sam pushing Charly and posted it to my story because why not? Right then AJ ran back tugging on the legs of my jeans. "Mommy mommy!" He said excitedly. "Yes AJ what is it hon?" I knelt down. "C'mere I gotta show you something!" I smiled as he continued to pull me over. "Okay okay what do you wanna show me?" I followed behind him to a group of boy scouts. I started to get the idea. "The boy scouts?" I asked. "Yeah! Some of my friends are over there. Can I join?" His eyes looked at me eagerly. I was just as excited on the inside that he'd shown so much desire for something. Charly and Sam followed. "Baby! AJ wants to join boy scouts." I smiled from ear to ear. "Buddy! That's awesome! Of course let's get you signed up!" Sam gasped. Sam and I found the troop leader who looked like he was a father to one of the other boys. "Hi excuse me?" I tapped his shoulder. "Yes?" He asked turning around to us. "Is it too late to have my son join the scouts like is there scout season? We're not too familiar with..traditions or whatnot." He laughed at my question amused. "No no we take scouts all year round. You're all from around Oceancoast right?" We nodded excitedly. "Yeah my son has classmates in this troop we just found out." "Great great then I'm sure he'll have no problem blending right in with the troop. What about your son ma'am does he also want to join?" Sam tilted her head slightly confused. "..well yeah he's also my son." The troop leader immediately realized his mistake, and both Sam and I were waiting on the next words out of his mouth. "OH! I'm so sorry I didn't realize. I really do apologize I didn't know." He looked sincerely sorry, so we believed him. "No it's okay you couldn't have known. I guess I really should've said our son." He took a sigh of relief that we weren't about to kill him. "Then let's get your son all signed up, we have some forms here to sign and things you'll need  to get before the next meeting. This ones just about finished." "Alright, AJ! C'mere." He raced over to us while Cole waited with Charly by the stroller. Aj walked over from his friends. "This is gonna be your troop leader Mr...we didn't catch your name." "Oh! I'm not the troop LEADER, I just help out the leader. Here. Honey!" He shouted. Whoops I guess we made a mistake too. A woman blew a whistle before jogging over to us. "What's up?" Both Sam and I both began smiling even bigger. "Oh you've gotta be shitting me." Eve motherfuckin' Hunter out here teaching boys life skills. "Well it's been a long time ladies." "Wait..am i missing something?" Her husband looked around at us. "I played high school basketball with these two knuckleheads." "I thought you lived in LA!" Sam exclaimed hugging her tight. "Well we did, but y'know how things go." We all kinda drifted off from each other after Peyton and I graduated. "This is awesome! Our boys can be friends! AJ this is Ms. Eve." "Aha so you wanna join our troop?" AJ nodded a little unsure of what just transpired. "Well firstly, in my troop we are vocal and make our voices heard, so again you wanna join our troop?" "Yes Ms. Eve!" AJ smiled, and saluting for good measure. "Our salutes a little different here buddy." She showed him and he signed back. "This'll be great I can reconnect with you guys again." "Shoot all we need is Peyton and we're all here again." I said. "Wait is Kayla back too?!" Eve gasped. "See maybe social media isn't such a bad thing." Sam smirked showing her an instagram post. "Anyway our meetings pretty much up, and it looks like Dan got you all the forms you need. We normally don't have our meetings here it's usually at the rec center but still on Saturdays. Don't be late!" We nodded before waving bye. Sam and i looked over the forms and the things the scouts would be learning to do, and we both agreed it was a good thing for AJ. We spent the rest of the afternoon driving to get AJ his uniform and other things he'd be needing. "He's gonna have so much fun." Sam said reading through the scout handbook. "I think so too, but there's one thing we gotta talk to him about." "What's that?" "I think we should talk to him about being able to stick with it." "Oh for sure I think that's a good idea. AJ can you come in here please?" He poked his head through our office door. "C'mere baby we gotta talk to you." "Whats up?" He asked sitting down. "So this scouts stuff, we know you're excited. Promise us now you're going to stick with it." Sam said seriously. "I promise!" He put his hand over his heart. "Okay we'll remember this talk. Cause we're excited for you too and think you'll have a lot of fun." "I think so too especially since one of your friends is our troop leader." "Mhmm I'm sure you'll learn a lot from Eve." The next week AJ got dressed for his first meeting, and Sam and I couldn't contain our excitement. He looked so cute in his little navy blue uniform and hat. We went over the handbook since he'd need to know some scout oath before he officially joined. I snapped a picture of Sam with him and sent it to everyone I knew. My sibling group chat immediately responded. "OMG LOOK AT AJ IN HIS LITTLE UNIFORM! Augh my heart!" -Natalie "WOO! You go godson!" -Nathan "IM SOBBING DUDE HES  SO CUTE TELL HIM THAT I LOVE HIM! TELL HIM!" -Elizabeth the always dramatic. We drove over to the rec center, parking by what looked to be Eve. She was unloading a box and greeted us. "Hey guys! Whoa look at this little dude! All ready to be a scout?" She said looking at AJ. "Yes Ms. Eve!" He said proudly. "That's what I like to hear! Now they're all waiting inside you can join your friends and we'll get started in a minute." AJ raced inside eager as ever. "You guys can stay and watch if you want, if not we finish at seven. If you're late picking up your kid more than twice I will not have him back with me." Sam and I were a little taken back by the warning. "Sorry didn't mean to shake you, but I'm just required to say so." We nodded our heads. "We'll be on time to pick him up Eve don't you worry!" Sam saluted the boy scout way. Eve rolled her eyes laughing. "You never did change did you Sam?" "NOPE! ITS WHY THIS ONE LOVES ME!" Sam shouted as we walked back to the car. We had a little bit of separation anxiety for a minute because we didn't leave right away. "Look he'll be fine. This is good for him." "Right..right.." I took a breath. "Okay let's go..It's only two hours." We went back to my parent's house where they were watching Cole and Charly. It felt a little weird just having the two kids with us. Sam and I fed them dinner, and gave Charly a bath to pass the time until pick up. Around six thirty we left my parents to go pick up AJ. I was ready to hear all about it. We arrived a little early so we stood by the door and watched with some of the other parents. Sam and I also took the time to introduce ourselves to some of the other families since we figured we would see a lot of one another in the times ahead. The group of boys sat in front of Eve listening intently as she demonstrated knot tying. Even I took some mental notes. At the close of the meeting they all huddled together before howling goodbye. The boys high fived one another until AJ spotted us. He ran right over smiling big. "Have fun sweetie?" I asked. "Uh huh! I can't wait to come back next week!" "My kind of scout!" Eve smiled walking from behind him. They high fived. I never knew Eve had this kind of touch with kids, but then again I never really knew all that much about Eve to begin with. "How'd our little guy do?" Sam asked. "Oh like a fish in water fit right in." My heart couldn't be more full at the moment. "He did a great job. You wanna show your moms some of the stuff we learned today?" AJ pulled a set of strings from his pack and proceeded to show us the different knots. When he finished we all clapped for him, and I could tell it made him feel good. "Thanks Ms. Eve." "Aha you're welcome. Now be sure to practice and do some of the handbook reading with your parents." They saluted one another before Eve began to walk away. "Alrighty lets get you home so you can have dinner, finish your homework, and get ready for bed."

[ayyoitsalex]

Chapter 7 - Pour Me One

Every now and again my friends and siblings get together, not for any particular occasion but to let it all hang out. More specifically we just trade stories that make us laugh and moreso because we're usually drunk when we're telling them. So when we all have time to get together the drinks come out and guts will be spilled. We just like to spill tea on people we know. It's a bad habit, but I can't help to indulge on a bit of shit talking every now and again. =Saturday- Sam and I dropped the kids off with my parents, Natalie and Wes dropped their kids off with his parents, and Nathan and Sophia paid Elizabeth to babysit Daisy. We gathered at our house, and I ran down the checklist of everyone's preferred drink of choice. That meant four bottles of wine and a case of beer. I poured Sam and I a glass of wine. The first of our guests arrived, Nathan and Sophia. "So what type of stuff we sippin on this time?" Sophia smiled rubbing her hands together eager. "Well we got this wine down at a tasting a few weeks ago and I think you might enjoy." I offered her a sip from my glass. Her eyes widened. "Babe pour me one of these!" Nathan nodded as he made his way to the kitchen. He returned with the wine glass in one hand and beer in another. They clinked their drinks and began the night. Sam being an over achiever that she is walked into the room with a full spread of snacks, setting them on the coffee table. This followed by another arrival of both Natalie and Alijah with their significant others. Unlike Nathan and Sophia, these guests brought food to share with the group. Though we don't hold it against them since they were nice enough to have us at their house last weekend for dinner. We all sat around getting settled in at first getting in our first few drinks and bits of food until things began to settle down in the couches. "So who's got a good one?" Nathan laughed sitting back with his arm around Sophia. I could tell Nathan's lips were a little looser than normal from the two empty beers in front of him. Sam and I both looked at each other. "Well the other day..Charly ate a rock." I cringed just saying it. Natalie clearly couldn't take what I just said almost spraying all of us with a wine mist. "WAIT WHAT. LIKE A ROCK ROCK." Natalie was dying laughing at the thought. I nodded my head slightly ashamed. "Yeah so she was running around the backyard while I was playing with the boys and I guess when I wasn't looking put one in her mouth." "Then I looked over at Selena and was like I think there's something in her mouth. When we finally got to her we looked around in her mouth hoping it was just like on the side of her cheek. But nope.." Sam sighed finishing the story. "We asked her and she nodded." "did you y'know ever find it?" Sophia asked slowly. We both nodded and a collective sigh of relief was shared from all of them. "...YOUR KID ATE A ROCK" Natalie continued to laugh, clutching her sides. "Someone else go." I rolled my eyes at Natalie continuing to laugh hysterically. We stopped for a brief moment to refill drinks and indulge on pizza and wings that Sam ordered. It's not a pretty sight to be eating and have a sudden laugh come on and projectile food. My walls have enough markings on them already from Charly attempting to draw on them. We're trying to minimize the mess as best we can. Normally we're not eating as much junk  as we are right now, but like I've been taught it's nice to TREAT YO SELF. Besides I'm sure my parents are loading up the kids with all types of stuff we normally don't do. "Who's next?" Sam asked falling back into her seat with me. "Well..Daisy walked in on us last week.." Nathan said slowly. "OH MY GOD THAT POOR GIRL." Sam gasped. "NO WONDER SHE DIDNT PLAY GREAT IN THAT TOURNAMENT!" "Shut up! She didn't see anything!" Nathan said. "Why is it that small now?" Alijah laughed. "Sophia! What did you do to this man!?" "OH FUCK OFF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEANT." Nathan folded his arms. "I don't know why we do this!" "Cause it's supposed to be fun." Natalie shrugged her shoulders. "Alright fine then you tell a story!" Nathan said tossing a throw pillow at Natalie. Ah it's like the old days. Sam and I were just glad to be out of the way until it was our turn to share again. Natalie was reluctant to share since in her mind she doesn't do anything embarrassing and she's perfect. So we turned to Wes. "Oh I got one." Wes smirked looking at Natalie. Her eyes grew big unsure of what Wes was about to divulge. We knew something was up. We leaned in anticipating something good. "So as we all know Natalie's very fond of her celebrity crushes and I pay them no mind. Though lately she's very into a particular app and rediscovered her love of anime." "NO NO STOP!" Natalie covered her face with the pillow. "YOU'RE ON TIKTOK!" Sophia exclaimed. Natalie's face began turning red. We got her. "Oh my god do you have any saved!?" "OH TRUST. She sends me all this nonsense before posting."  We all huddled around Wes' phone and text exchange he had with Natalie as he played a video with a character I had never seen before. "YOU'RE THIRSTY FOR THIS BIRD MAN!?" We all burst out laughing falling back into our chairs. "HE IS SO FINE YOU DONT UNDERSTAND!" "Clearly!" We all said together. "Oh lord you're ridiculous Natalie Brianna." I laughed clutching Sam. "Whatever you're all just haters!" Natalie huffed. "Can't belive you sold me out like that!" She smacked Wes in the leg. "You're supposed to be on my team!" "Well it's supposed to be fun remember?" Nathan said mockingly. Natalie was fuming. She sipped hard on her glass of wine before finally settling back down. "You fucking weeb." I could feel the heat of Natalie's glare from my comment, but I stood by it. "It's fine I accept you Nattie. I did say for better or worse when we got married." Wes put his arm around Natalie comforting her a little. Natalie back handed Wes at the latter comment, then she stuck her tongue out at us. The redness in her cheeks slowly going away.

We took a moment to catch our breath and massage our cheeks from all the laughing. It's only every so often that we get like this and it's some of my favorite times. Don't get me wrong I love having my kiddos around, but sometimes it's fun for all of us to just be us again. Everyone decided to leave around eight, and my parents dropped the kids off a little bit after everyone had left. -Knock knock- The boys stood at the door with my parents, my mom holding a sleeping Charly.   "Thanks again for watching the kids. Were they easy tonight?" I asked slowly taking Charly from my mom. "No they were fine, but someone clearly had fun tonight." Mom smiled looking around the living room at the empty pizza boxes and bottles of alcohol. I tried to come up with a quick response. "Good to blow off steam every once in a while." "Yeah definitely well needed. Did you and dad need a lot of these kinds of nights?" They both nodded. "What! No way where'd we go cause I  dont remember being at anyones houses like I do with the kids." "No it was right after you were born, you were such a pain in the ass mom and I needed drinks all the time." Dad laughed.  "When Natalie and Nathan were born we had to stop cause we'd be alcoholics if we didn't." I gave them both a deadpan look. "Ha ha." "Alright boys say thank you to grandma and grandpa." Sam said leading them up the stairs. "Thank youuu!" They shouted racing one another. "Good night Sel." They hugged me both as I continued to cradle Charly. I locked the door behind them and got the kids to bed.

[ayyoitsalex]

Chapter 6 - Play Time

When Daisy finally recovered from her sprained ankle she was full of energy and ready to go one hundred miles a minute. It's part of the reason Sophia and I call her crazy Daisy sometimes. She'd built up so much energy from having to lay around for two weeks that it was all rushing out of her. To be honest it was getting a little exhausting and I was sad to admit I was getting my ass handed to me by a seven year old. Sophia and I both decided to throw a little get together at our house so Daisy could be around her cousins and hopefully playing with all of them could help her tire out some. -Ding dong- Daisy propped up a little footstool to see through the peephole. She smiled big and opened the door for Alijah, his wife, and their son Jackson. "Hi uncle Alijah, Auntie Sasha, and Jackson!" Daisy hugged all of them tight. "YOU JACKSON! YOU LOOK LIKE A JACKSON!" I shouted from the backyard. I could feel Alijah rolling his eyes from here. "Between him and my dad that joke is never going to end. I warned you about this when you wanted to name him that." "Well excuse me for wanting to name him after my dad! Anyway hi there Daisy you seem to be looking a lot better." Sasha said checking out her ankle. "Oh yeah check it out." She jumped as high as she could. "Doesn't hurt any more!" "That's good, so where's your parents?" "We're here!" Sophia shouted from upstairs. She made her way over and greeted them. "Hey Sasha." The two hugged as she walked them to the back yard. "Hi aunt Sophia." Jackson hugged her back. "Where's uncle Nathan?" "He is out back getting all the stuff prepped." "I'll go give him a hand." Alijah said. Alijah popped out back holding a plate I was meaning to bring out. We greeted one another and he stood back while I continued brushing down the grill. Alijah walked over to the cooler to get us drinks and catch me up on the goings on of his life. More guests continued to arrive all being greeted by the eager Daisy. Before I knew it the sound of scampering kids filled the house. Tegan's parents arrived to the backyard making themselves comfortable among my family. I'd had difficulty in life making new friends outside of the ones I grew up with. Sure I'd make friends in school and stuff but never ones I really felt like were a part of that inner circle. Having Daisy and Sophia helped change that a little since they're both social butterflies. Sophia took a seat on my lap eating her lunch. "Yeah sure welcome." I laughed looking up at her. "Well we have lots of guests coming and I figured we could just share. Unless you have a problem then I can find another seat." "No no what's mine is yours sweetie." She kissed me. "Gimme a bite though." She rolled her eyes and lowered her food down to me. "Whapsh!" Alijah snickered. I leered over at him. He just shrugged his shoulders. Sasha took notice and followed Sophia's example. "Y'mind baby?" Sasha said taking a more rough approach just planting down on Alijah's lap. "AGH! Oh no of course.." He mouthed you suck to me and I shrugged back. A little after I soon found Daisy draping herself over my shoulders as well. "Well hey there my little energizer bunny. You running low on power yet?" She shook her head. "So what's up Daisy?" "Nooothin. Just wanted to say love you. Oh! and you too mommy." She gave us both big kisses on the cheek before running off once again. My fucking heart is melting. Everyone looked at one another before giving us a group "Aw". My sisters welcomed themselves inside with their families next and Daisy had all her favorite playmates. It was always so funny watching them all play around together. I'd think Cole would be the one organizing what games were going to be played but by nature he's too laid back. Daisy was usually the one leading the charge and leading the cavalry of children. Natalie and Selena sat across from me carrying both plates of food and babies. "Hey brother can you be helpful and please get us drinks?" Selena asked. "What are your legs broken?" I laughed. Though they both looked none too amused. "Okay okay I'll be right back." "Thanks youuu." They said in unison. I set the drinks in front of them while they started to eat. "See that's being a good host." What seemed like twenty minutes later an exhausted Elizabeth joined us in the backyard catching her breath. We heard shouts for Elizabeth echoing in the front yard "Whoa what happened to you?" Sophia giggled. "All..the..kids..chasing me..I dont wanna be fun aunt Liz right now can I tag someone in?" We all threw our hands up. "This is your life Lizzy." Selena smirked rocking Charly in her arms. "Aw c'mon I haven't even eaten yet. I like sat down and Daisy was pulling me up to play tag, hide and seek, and everything else!" "Okay okay. Daisy!" I shouted. She popped her head out the screen door. "Yeah daddy?" "Aunt Lizzys not playing right now okay? Let her sit down and eat. Just play with your cousins and friends." Daisy nodded her head before racing back to the front yard. Elizabeth collapsed in the chair next to mine taking a big drink of water. "Okay now I will devour this food. Because it is free, and I am starving." "Go right on ahead you earned it." I laughed. Elizabeth started eating like she hadn't seen food in years. Though as quickly as it begun, it was just as quick in ending. "..I think I ate too fast.." She had almost a sick look to her. Typical, Elizabeth always thinks she can eat so much but never finishes. What can I say though she is somewhere in the middle of the body type Natalie and Selena had at her age. Like a good sch-medium. I didn't expect her to finish the whole plate she assembled for herself filled to the edge. "Can I wrap it up? I can eat it back to my apartment for later.." "Aha yeah sure lemme get that for you." Sophia offered taking her plate. "Aw baby sister.." I teased poking her in the sides. "Nathan stoooop!" She fidgeted protecting her sides. "I'm too full to play this game..You might make me throw up." "Ew okay enough said." When the sun began to set I set up the fire pit so the kids could make s'mores as dessert. Daisy sat up on my lap focused on her marshmallow in the fire looking for the perfect amount of toast on it. Sophia held her plate with the graham cracker and chocolate. She plopped the golden brown marshmallow on the cracker, her eyes lighting up as to what was to come. She took the first bite and immediately had bits of melted chocolate and marshmallow threads sticking to her face. Daisy offered both Sophia and I bites and we graciously accepted. "Oh lord sweetie lemme wipe your face." Sophia pulled out a napkin. Being messy while eating s'mores is part of the experience and all the parents were finding out. "Can we make another one?" Daisy asked looking up at me. Normally I'd say yes, but being with Sophia made me look to her. "No Daisy it's late. Besides you've had enough sweets like all day." Daisy huffed in disappointment. Though she slowly forgot as she continued just watching the fire. I made my own s'more and while Sophia wasn't looking I tapped Daisy's shoulder. She took a quick bite, and we laughed at the sneak. "DAISY NICOLE" Sophia looked stern at her. "I thought I told you no."   "But I didn't make it!" Daisy threw her hands up in innocence. Sophia leered at me. "How'd you even find out she ate one!" I asked baffled. "Nathan she has chocolate all over her cheeks." Remember what I said about being messy? God damnit it haha. "We gotta teach you to make careful bites." Daisy nodded in agreement. When it got late we put out the fire and cleaned up. Daisy helped Sophia put away the dishes while I took out the trash. "Alright, let's get upstairs and shower up. You were in the sun all day and probably got all sweaty." Sophia nudged Daisy in the direction of the stairs. "Can you finish up here love?" I nodded. When the downstairs kitchen was finally all squared away I met the girls upstairs. Sophia was drying and brushing Daisy's hair. I just watched them talk and every now and them Daisy would wince at the brush being pulled through her golden brown hair. With her pajamas on and hair finished, Daisy ran over to bed. She dove underneath the blanket while Sophia tucked her in tight. "We all tucked in?" I asked checking the covers. Daisy yawned, batting her eyes to try and fight it. She nodded her head. "You want music tonight or no?" "Music!" Daisy answered right away. "Alexa play Daisy's night time mix for one hour." Sophia said. "Playing Daisy's night time mix from spotify for one hour." The music started from a list cultivated by Sophia and myself of songs we'd play for Daisy when she was a baby. It's good mix of a little of everything, but for the most part it's all pretty slow and gentle songs. "Good night Daisy we love you." Sophia and I sandwiched Daisy's face with kisses from each side. "Love you too..good night.." She said yawning again. I switched off the lights and close the door slightly. She doesn't like the door closed all the way since she can still see the night light in the hallway. It's not that she's afraid of the dark, but she just doesn't like complete darkness. Sophia and I closed our door behind us, falling into our bed. We were surprisingly tired for only eight thirty, but mission accomplished I think Daisy had run out all her excess energy form the past two weeks. I turned on netflix on our tv for just some noise while Sophia and I talked before drifting to sleep a few hours later.

[ayyoitsalex]

Chapter 5 - Girl Dad

-Game Day- "Nathan can you get the case of water into the truck please!" Sophia shouted from the kitchen. "Alright I got it." I hauled the water into the car in preparation for the long day to be spent in the gym. Today is the last day of one of Daisy's  basketball tournaments, and we do everything we can to be involved with her sports and extracurriculars. As of right now she's really into basketball and dancing. I met Sophia back in the kitchen who was prepping snacks for the team. When she finished packing up the last ziploc into the cooler she blew her bangs out of her face from exhaustion. "You're like the best team mom." She smiled taking a seat. "Whatever it takes for our girl right?" I nodded. We shared a morning kiss before checking the time. It was eight o clock. We might've gotten a little too excited. "..wanna go back to bed?" Sophia laughed. "Aha yeah sure." I yawned before stretching my arms. "Carry me?" Sophia pouted out her lower lip. I let out a sigh before ultimately agreeing. "I loooove you." "Mhmm." I laid her in bed before falling back in myself. We struggled around in bed as you do trying to find a good spot before settling into a half spooning position. We laid there for a minute in pure silence our eyes both closed. Almost out of just instinct I started running my hands up and down Sophia's leg. She turned closer to me snuggling close. We pulled the covers over us. Before we knew it little bits of clothing we being thrown out from underneath the blanket. We "played" around for a little bit knowing there was a good amount of time before we needed to get up to leave. We tried to be as quiet as possible. -Door opens- "Mom dad we gotta-" "AGHFUFRU!" Sophia yelped pulling the blanket to cover herself. "AHH!" Daisy screamed back shocked at Sophia's yell dropping her gym bag and basketball. "Oh Daisy..um uh what were you uh saying sweetie." Sophia cleared her throat and brushed down her hair while still clutching the blanket to her chest "Oh..um it's nine we gotta get going soon. Did I wake you and daddy up?" She tilted her head curious. Thank god she only thought we were sleeping. I tried to stifle my laughter a bit. "Okay we'll  be down in a few minutes.." Daisy slowly closed the door behind her as she skipped downstairs. Sophia fell back into bed next to me and we couldn't help but laugh about the whole thing. We got dressed in the team colors yellow and white and went downstairs to meet Sophia lacing up her shoes. "How we feelin today Daisy?" I asked hugging her. "Mm good. Just three wins and we get a trophy!" "Well however you end up doing today we'll be right there proud of you sweets." Sophia winked. Daisy piled into the car and we drove over to the rec center already crowded with families from around the county. We met with some of the other parents on Daisy's team to tailgate so to speak before the games actually began. Sophia and I had gotten particularly close to another family who were the parents of Daisy's best friend on the team Tegan. Her parents were Chelsea and Daniel, and they were close to our age. "Sophia, Nathan!" Chelsea called from their car. We walked over with Daisy eager to see Tegan. The girls went off to meet other members of their team leaving Sophia and I with Chelsea and Daniel. "So how's daisy after all the games yesterday? i know some of the parents were telling me their kids are exhausted still." I looked over at Daisy sprinting around laughing. "Oh she's good to go. My sister's been working with her over the summer." "That's right! Your sister's like a basketball coach here at Del Rio right?" Chelsea said looking over to Daisy as well. "Yeah so when she found out Daisy had an interest in basketball she pretty much begged me to let her train her. Even her wife played college ball helped her out." "Well it's definitely showing through the tournament." "C'mon guys their opening up the doors, let's get a good spot." Daniel said closing up his car. We walked into the gym, voices of all the kids and parents clammoring. We picked out a spot in the middle bleachers high enough to see, but low enough so the girls could find us. Daisy and Tegan met with us in the bleachers. "We gotta get ready." Daisy said before taking a final drink of water from Sophia's hydroflask. "Mmkay honey you have fun out there okay?" Sophia said giving her a big hug. "You're gonna do so good out there baby." I took my turn to hug her before she left pulling her hair into a tight ponytail. My phone buzzed in my pocket. "Hey where're you guys sitting?" Selena texted me. "Who's that hon?" Sophia asked rummaging through her bag. "My sister, did you invite her to the games today?" "Yeah our whole family coming that’s why I reserved that space behind us." Before I knew it the whole squad rolled in behind us. Both sets of grandparents, my sisters and their families, and Sophia's brother and his family. Daisy would have no shortage of support today. "Where's our girl at?" Selena asked leaning in from behind. "She's getting ready over there. Our games first so you came just in time." "Sweet, I can't wait to see what all Sam and my training did for her." Selena whispered excitedly. "ALRIGHT LETS GO LIGHTNING!" Selena screamed next to my ear. Daisy heard and waved over at her whole cheering section. The first game began, and I've come to learn watching seven year olds play basketball it's not going to be pretty at times. I'd only ever seen pro games or Selena's games. Though when Daisy would get the ball she could usually score. It was so adorable watching our little number ten do her thing . When the first half of the game ended, Daisy came over to hug and see everyone that came to support her. "Hi grandmas and gradpas." She got engulfed in a big group hug from our parents. "How am I doing aunt Sel and aunt Sam?" Daisy was still catching her breath. "You're doing really good, but just remember you have other teammates too. You don't gotta do it all on your own." "Yeah don't try and spend so much time dribbling the ball. Work around the court." Daisy nodded focused on what both Selena and Sam had to say. "Now go get em!" Daisy smiled before giving Sophia and I another hug and running back to the court. The morning went on and we had won the first game. The girls were given a break and sat with their families until the start of the next game at noon. "WOO! Only two more!" Daisy pumped her fist sitting between Sophia and myself. We made sure Daisy had enough water, while Selena and Sam continued to give more pointers. The start of the next game wasn't nearly as easy to watch as the first. Things weren't coming easy for Daisy, and I could tell she was getting frustrated. To be honest I was getting upset too, since the game was beginning to get a little rough with no calls being made. Daisy had taken some bumps but didn't complain. Sophia and I would wince every time Daisy would fall onto the floor thankful every time she got up. She simply brushed herself off and continued to run up and down the court. Daisy took a seat on the bench for substitution to catch her breath, and I hoped getting a breather would help her get a rhythm back. When she checked back into the game during the third quarter things still weren't going her way. She tried different approaches to impacting the game, but it was like a bad dream. No one could make shots from her passes, and she'd even lose to the ball trying to make plays. On a possession playing defense, Daisy stood her ground but was run through by another player. No call came and Daisy laid there on the floor. "Hey c'mon ref you gotta call that!" I just shot out of my seat. "She was right there! They've been knocking my girl around all day make some calls here!" Daisy's teammates picked her back up. She wiped her eyes. Our team of parents started booing the officiating but I don't think it helped win their favor. Daisy finally found an open shot and took it with a jumper. A defender walked into her space to land and I knew exactly what was coming. "Daisy watch it!" Too late. "AH!" Daisy's foot landed on top of another players and her ankle rolled. She fell to the floor holding her ankle screaming. "Daisy!" Sophia and I both raced down there as she laid on the ground sobbing. She rolled onto her back, tears now flowing. Everything stopped as we ran onto the court. I picked her head up and cradled her a little as we both knelt down beside her. "It hurtss!" Daisy wailed. "I know Daisy. I know it's gonna be okay." I wiped her eyes and helped carry her over to the bench. We unlaced her shoe and saw the swell right away. Sophia turned away, I could tell it was hard for her. The trainer on hand told me she wasn't going to be playing again today or for a few weeks. We didn't leave the bench, Daisy was adamant to watch the rest of the game through. We lost the game, and it crushed her even more. We earned third place in the tournament. The ride home Daisy clutched her small trophy and remained silent. When we got home I carried her inside. "You played really well today sweetheart. Do you wanna put the trophy up on your shelf?" Sophia asked putting away Daisy's bag. "I don't want the dumb trophy..we lost." "Daisy Nicole!" Sophia exclaimed. "That's not a good attitude to have. It makes you sound like a sore loser. You guys played your best as a team. Sometimes you’re not going to win all the time, and you can’t act like that when it happens." Daisy nodded. I brought Daisy into my office and sat her down. "Mommys right Daisy. Look I know you wanted to win really bad, but you'll have plenty of chances to do that." "I know..I just wanted to win a trophy like you did, aunt Sel, aunt Sam, and grandpa." "You're not in competition with any of us Daisy, you don't have to win something to be like me or anybody. We're proud of you no matter how you do. What matters is you’re trying your best and being a good teammate. Look lemme tell you something, when I was in high school about sixteen. I was playing a game to get a trophy like you were, but I broke my arm and we lost. When the next year had come around I put in a lot of work to try and make sure I won." "Did you win?" "Mhmm, and y'know what I appreciated what it felt like to win so much more because I had to deal with all the bad feelings I had when I had lost. So sometimes you gotta learn what it means to lose before you can win. You get what I'm saying?" "I think so. Daddy can you help me put the trophy up in my room? My walkings not so great right now." We shared a small laugh.  "Sure thing honey." I offered her a ride on my back and carried her to her room. We put the trophy up next to some of her other awards. "Next time I'm gonna win." Daisy smiled looking intently at her reflection in the bronze. "That's my girl."

[ayyoitsalex]

Chapter 4 - Calling All Collins

-Saturday- The kids and I were up early this morning on account of a special occasion. It's Sam's birthday, so we're taking the weekend to celebrate her. First thing was making Sam's favorite breakfast of chocolate chip waffles with whipped cream. We made everything by hand, and we were serving it to her in bed. The boys also made a card which they both signed, and had Charly put her hand print on. I plated up the food and we all crept upstairs slowly. The boys giggled excitedly walking with the tray of food while I followed behind with Charly. They set the tray on the nightstand next to Sam before standing next to me. I mouthed "1-2-3!" and we all shouted. "Happy birthday mommy!" Sam shot out of bed eyes popping out of her skull. She took a minute to catch her breath before AJ and Cole piled into bed to hug her. "For me!? C'mere my boys!" Sam laughed cuddling the kids. "We made you breakfast mama." Cole smiled proudly pointing. "My favorites. You guys.." She set up the tray in front of her while we all sat up on the bed together taking bites from her. "What about my sweet Charly girl does she want some?" Charly crawled over from the foot of the bed to take a bite. "Mm did mama and brothers do a good job?" Charly just flashed a toothy smile before turning back around to the tv. "Happy birthday love." We shared a small kiss before I smeared a bit of whipped cream on Sam's nose per my family's tradition. She looked at me none too amused but eventually laughed as I kissed it off. -DING DONG- I looked at Sam to see if she knew who would be here this early, but she gave the same look in return. I set Charly next to Sam to investigate downstairs to who was at the door especially so early. When I opened it up I couldn't believe my eyes. "Where is she?" I couldn't even speak I just screamed. Sam bolted up with Charly and the boys to see the commotion. "KAYLA!" Sam shouted running downstairs with Charly. We all hugged while the boys looked at us like we were nuts. "It's been like years!" "I had some time, and your birthday seemed as good an occasion as any to finally stop by and see you guys other than on facetime." "Boys c'mere." They walked over slowly. "This is one of mommy and I's best friends in the world. This is your auntie Kayla." She smiled sweetly at them while they both waved awkwardly in return. "Oh! Honey come on in." Sam and I were both excited for this too, since we'd never met Kayla's daughter in person. She was a spitting image of Kayla and her mom. "This is Kara." She smiled at us waving. She was a little older than Cole, and  in my head I just wanted them to grow up to be best friends. "Hi I'm Kara!" She said extending her hand to Cole. "I'm..Cole." He answered slowly before shaking her hand. "Hey sweetie, why don't you and AJ show Kara the hoop out back to play a little." Kara's eyes lit up as soon as I said hoop. Most definitely Kayla's kid. She couldn't get out there fast enough and before we knew it the kids were laughings and playing. Both Sam and I sat down with Kayla while I held Charly. "So what brings you home?" I asked pouring Kayla a coffee. "Well my overseas season ended and my contract in Seattle wasn't renewed. Just trying to find something to do until someone calls again." "Aw Kay I'm sorry about the Storm." Sam said. "It's okay, I got to be a part of a championship season finally." She showed us her ring and we were both in awe. "Apart from ours that is." "Kara is like an exact copy of you and your mom." Sam said. "Thank god. I'd be kicking myself if she looked like her dad..though I'd still love her regardless." "Things still rough I take it?" I asked pouring everyone a fresh cup of coffee. Kayla nodded hard looking annoyed just thinking about it. "Well atleast you have full custody." "Not like the court had a choice. I'm the only one with a job and a place to live." "So when you're in season overseas where does Kara stay?" "Well we have our place in Seattle and for the most part my overseas seasons are in the summer time. So when I have to leave my sister comes up and stays with her or my parents for the summer. Or I let her go down here to spend the summer. What about you guys? Must have your hands full with three!" "We get by with a lot of help." I laughed. "Yeah both our parents love picking up the kids and letting them stay in the afternoon, and we have no shortage of babysitters to call on." "Right I mean all of your brothers, and Selena's got her siblings. Do either of the boys play ball yet?" Sam and I both shook our heads slightly disappointed. "Mm well maybe later down the line." We both crossed our fingers. "Hey if anything maybe little missy here will play for mommy." Kayla's definitely come a long way with kids from when we first met. Charly reached out for Kayla and she didn't hesitate to hold her. "Well hello! Aren't you sweet. We haven't met before, but your mommies keep sending me pictures." "Augh! My heart just melts looking at them." Sam cuddled close to me. Kayla smirked shaking her head. The kids came back inside catching their breath and sitting down in the living room. "What game over already?" Sam laughed. They all nodded still trying to catch their breath. "Oh! I almost forgot about your present." "Kay you didn't have to get me anything!" "I did so! You two are my best friends, and what kind of friend would I be if I didn't bring gifts for your birthdays." Sam and I looked at one another before shrugging our shoulders in agreement. Kayla handed Sam a bag, to which Sam proceeded to throw around the paper like an animal. Her eyes lit up when she pulled out a frame with her high school jersey and a picture of all of us on our championship night. The boys and Kara gathered around us to look at the photo. It seemed like a lifetime ago, but there we were holding the trophy. "What's on your knee there mama?" AJ asked me. "Mm mommy hurt her knee in the game before this one, and didn't get to play in that game." "Good thing I was there to save the day." Sam laughed hugging me. I rolled my eyes. "Ahem excuse me I was also playing in that game." Kayla leered over at Sam. "So you and mommy were friends even a long time ago huh." AJ said. "A long time ago! Excuse you Adam Justin Ryan, mommy and I aren't that old!" Everyone laughed as Sam huffed.   "Where's that trophy now?" Cole asked. "It's in the gym at school where I coach sweetie. It's in the case next to grandpa's trophy he won when he went to school  there. Maybe someday one of you guys will win one there. Or like auntie Kayla said earlier maybe even Charly girl." Charly flashed a smile at the sound of her name.   Kayla eventually departed to see her family, and we had our own set of people to see for Sam's birthday. All of Sam's brothers were in town for dinner, which meant a rowdy house. Sam and I were just glad it wasn't our house. To be honest I had to have Sam give me a crash course on just exactly who was who since it'd been so long since we'd seen all of her family at one time. I used to think my family was big, but Sam and her brothers take the prize. Five brothers, five sister-in-laws, over ten nephews, and three nieces. If anything I just implore my technique of not using names when talking with someone that remembers me and fake my way through. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Sam's parents house practically erupted from everyone jumping out at us walking through the door. Before we knew it we were getting hugs and kisses left and right from the entire family, and I could tell it was a bit much for the boys. All of Sam's brothers were watching a game in the livng room. "Sammy!" They all rushed her and dog piled on top of her. She managed to squeeze her way out as they turned their attention to me and the boys. A giant group hug enveloped us. I braced myself. "Agh hi guys." I gasped for breath. "Say hi to your uncles boys." I nudged them forward. "Hi uncle, Carson, Scott, Ben, Ronnie, and Darren." Both AJ and Cole made their way over to their cousins in the other room all surrounding a TV and some kind of game system. Sam and I made our way to the rest of the adults to continue our greetings. We all caught up with one another asking the typical questions like how things are going, how's work, etc. A tap on my shoulder and Carson was behind me holding two drinks for Sam and I. We hugged, greeting one another. "So how're the boys? Sam sends me updates every once in a while, but I hate not being so close." "They're good, though we did have an issue like last week. Nothing that couldn't be resolved the old fashioned way. Y'know talking it out, bein-" "You or Sam punched someone didn't you." Carson smirked. "Okay maybe." He shook his head laughing.  I'm closer to Carson more so than any of Sam's brothers cause...y'know he was my last straight relationship . Though you might think that makes things weird, but Carson is happy in his own life with his wife and we're both happy for one another. Carson's wife came over with their little one. "Hey Selena! Oh my god look at Charly lil cutie." Charly flashed a modest grin like yes tell me how cute I am. Carson's kid was just a few months younger than Charly, but by weight you couldn't tell. This was a thicc boi with two c's. We did a typical baby exchange. Avery looked relieved at how light Charly seemed in comparision. "Honey! C'mere check out baby Tommy." Sam's eyes grew big at the sight of the chubby cheeked baby. "Holy fuck lemme see this chonky boy. Yep this ones definitely a Collins alright" It'd been a while since we'd seen Tommy, and when we did he was still newborn. I handed Tommy over to Sam. She started hugging up on him, which didn't please Charly too much who started whining at the sight. Carson, his wife Avery, and myself couldn't help but laugh. "Aw sweetie c'mere it's okay." Carson passed her over to me. She buried her face into my shoulder out of jealousy. "Mommys just giving your cousin some hugs." Charly was having none of it, and just clung onto me for dear life. When it came time for the cake Sam sat alone at the table while we all gathered around to sing. Both the boys stood next to her and we all finished the song clapping as she blew out the candles. As pieces of cake were being handed out to the kids and wives, none of Sam's brothers were to be found. While talking with another of her sisters-in-law I spotted them as they signaled me to keep quiet. I nodded slowly not really knowing what was coming. I pulled out my phone to record, trying to look as innocent a possible. They all snuck up from behind Sam and smashed a cake into her face. I couldn't help but laugh as she started to sprint after all of them. "I AM GOING TO GET ALL OF YOU FUCKERS!" Sam's voiced echoed through her parent's neighborhood. When Sam ran out of gas the boys walked back into the room to see Sam brushing frosting from her face. "You guys are lucky this tastes good.." She growled taking a paper towel to her face. The brothers high-fived me as they walked by me. "Babe! The fuck!" Sam held her arms out demanding an explanation. "Well! They went SHH!" Sam just glared at me while I laughed nervously. "Oh they went SHH. Good one." "I love you?" Sam walked slowly her face still with bits of frosting. I didn't know exactly what was coming, but I just let it happen. She hugged me tight grasping both arms. and smeared her face against mine, getting every possible bit from her face onto mine and my clothes. "Yeah..I deserve this one." Sam nodded furiously. Carson took a picture and posted to his story. Sam looked at me smiling, most of the frosting moved from her face to mine.

[ayyoitsalex]

Chapter 3 - Mama Bear

The entire car ride home Cole didn't say anything as much as I tried  to make any sort of conversation. I'm sure the whole thing just left him a little rattled, so after a while I just let him be. My mom had AJ and Charly, so I went over to get them. Sam was texting me about the whole thing, and she was just as mad as I was. Usually the cooler of the two of us, but Sam was out for this lady's head along with her kid. I parked the car by the curb, but left it running so Cole could just wait for me. Mom met us outside, leading AJ while carrying Charly. "So what happened with Cole today?" Mom asked with obvious concern on her face. I took a breath. "Lemme just get them in the car first." I took Charly from my mom and buckled her in while AJ sat himself behind Cole. "Cole got into a fight at school, and the souvenier he got from one of the wrestlers we saw over the weekend got ruined. He won't tell me much more." "Oh my poor guy...He's not too banged up is he?" "Well not physically, but he's still pretty upset about the whole thing. I mean it sucks I can't just be there so he doesn't get bullied." "It's the struggle hon. You just hope your kids make it through their day without being harrassed. Lucky for you guys none of that happened. Even if it did I know you'd be cracking heads." "Yeah..Cole's just different. He's more mellow and even tempered." "Mm well I'll let you guys get going." "Okay bye mom, l-o-v-e you." Mom chuckled. "L-o-v-e you too smarty pants." Even to this day it's my favorite way of telling my mom I love her. When I got back in the car, Cole was still not talking. As soon as we got home he made his way right to his room, and closing the door behind him in the process. I got AJ and Charly situated at home before another attempt at asking Cole what happened. I knocked slowly. "Cole? It's mom can I come in?" The doorknob slowly turned and he stood before my the door cracked open slightly. He looked up at me. "Can you open the door sweetie?" He nodded and opened the door. We walked over to his bed and sat down. He laid his head against me. "You wanna talk about it?" I asked stroking his hair. "We were all at recess..and I was showing my friends what Adam gave me and they were saying it was so cool." "Then what happened?" "This kid came over..started telling me how wrestling is stupid and fake..I told him it's something special I share with my mom..and that it wasn't stupid. He just kept going and going..so I started walking away. Then he pulled on my armband and it ripped.." Cole started sniffling. "I just..got so mad cause it was from Adam!" I pulled him in closer to settle him down. "And I just..pushed him down and started punching. Then the playground duty got us.." He let out a big sigh and wiped his eyes before looking at me. "Am I in trouble?" "No Cole..So I know I've told you not to fight and to y'know keep your hands to yourself. But in this case it seems like he didn't really give you much choice. Sometimes it's right to fight when you're standing up for yourself and things you believe in. You felt like wrestling was something special with us and you thought it was wrong this boy was calling it stupid. So with that said I'm not saying pick fights whenever you disagree with someone okay?" "Okay mom.." "Good now c'mere. Love you." I hugged him tight, kissing the top of his head. "Haha l-o-v-e you mom." "So okay wash up dinners soon." I got up and saw Sam standing there waiting for me. She smiled before putting her arm around me as we walked downstairs. I wiped the small tears out of the corner of my eye. "Some good parenting there love." Sam said kissing my cheek. "Thanks..I'm sure you would've been just as good.." "Well AJ and Charly are already downstairs waiting for dinner, and I finished up what you had in the oven." "What would I do without you?" I smirked giving Sam a kiss. "Mm good thing you'll never have to find out." We sat down to dinner and everything seemed to be back to normal. I sewed up Cole's arm band and he was as ecstatic as the day he got it. He placed it up on his dresser next to his other prized posessions like action figures and whatnot. I walked back to the bedroom and Sam was there with Charly cradling her in bed while she watched tv. I crept in slowly next to them and snuggled up against Sam but leaving her enough room so if she wanted to get up she could. "Hey so I was thinking I'd walk with Cole to school tomorrow. Make sure nothing happens to him." Sam suggested. "Yeah okay sounds good." I yawned. "If you're gonna take the boys then I'll drop Charly at my mom's before work." "So did you get a look at this kid at all?" "Who?" "The one that got in the fight with Cole." "No I didn't see him..I only saw the mom." "What'd she look like?" Sam tried to ask non-chalantly. "Aha Sam you're not gonna try and look for this lady tomorrow are you?" "No..of course not." "Okay good." "So..white..?" I rolled my eyes before turning myself over to go to sleep. -The next morning- I drove the kids to school while maintaining an eye as to what Cole was looking at on the way there. As much as I tried to keep my calm about the whole thing, if there was anything I could do you're damn sure I was going to. I walked them to the gate, dropping AJ off first at his playground. "Okay sweets have a good day." I knelt down to hug him. "Bye mama love you." He hugged me tight before running over to meet his friends. I continued walking with Cole, and for the most part he was okay. When we got to the second grade part of the campus I knelt down again so I could say bye to him. "You go have a good day Cole." I hugged him extra tight to hopefully make him feel good about his day.   "Thanks mama." He pecked my cheek quickly and turned around looking at something. There was another parent with their kid walking nearby. "Everything alright baby?" I asked concerned. "Yeah.." He continued to look over. "Is..that the boy you got in a fight with?" He nodded his head. "Well if he starts bothering you again, you walk away and just tell a teacher. Don't care if anyone calls you names." He nodded again. "That's my boy." I hugged him one last time before letting him meet with his friends. The father of the boy walked by me. I raced up a bit to catch up to him. "Excuse me!" I said tapping on his shoulder. "Yeah?" He asked with a confused look. "Hi my names Sam Ryan, I think our boys got into a bit of an incident earlier this week." "Wait..I thought my wife said his mother had dark brown hair." "Mm..I'm also his mother. That was my wife." "Wait this is the kid thats into wrestling?" "I don't see why that's an issue." "Well maybe if he had positive male role models in his life he wouldn't need to find interest in something like that is what I'm saying." He attempted to walk away, but I grabbed his arm. "He has positive role models and their gender has nothing to do with it. From the way you just said that your kid probably needs some better role models. What my son watches and bonds with his mother over is none of your guys' business. He's doesn't need to be worrying about whether or not some punk is gonna mess with him about it." "Don't you think it's a little naive to think he's gonna go his whole life without being bullied?" "It might, but he's eight. So I'm not asking for anything difficult here." "Yeah sure I'll get right on that." He shoved his way past me. I shoved him back and stood my ground. He looked back astounded at me. "What do you expect me to do?!" He yelled at me shoving back. "Be a parent! How about teach your kid not to be such a piece of shit!" A full on shoving and screaming match between us broke out. Teachers rushed out to separate us before the principal arrived to bring us into the office. "I just had your spouses in here not too long ago.." The principal said sternly. "What exactly are we doing?" "Just..a little parental disagreement." I said. "We are here to set an example for the children. This is not one of those examples." We both left separately, and this time I didn't pursue. -After school- I picked up the kids at the gate and this time no signs of my current arch-enemy. Cole seemed to be in a good mood so that made everything better. He hugged me tight. "Good day at school bud?" He nodded and smiled. "Mm well that's awesome. Let's get AJ and then we can go get your sister." Before I knew it I felt a shove in my back. This time it was a woman, and I could only assume this was the one Selena had met. I just looked at her stone faced. "That's from my husband for this morning." She said proudly like she did something spectacular. I shook my head and rolled my eyes. "I'm gonna walk away before you do something you  regret." I was trying to set an example for Cole as much as I knew I could absolutely kill this lady. "C'mon sweetie." Cole looked up at me as if asking if I was okay. I winked at him to give him a little sense of relief that everything was okay. "Yeah walk away! Like your bitch wife too!" I clenched my fist hard. "Cole, go get AJ. Let me take care of this." He nodded and proceeded to walk towards the kindergarten gate. I walked back towards this woman. "You don't say anything about my wife ever. You hear me?" She scoffed at my threat. "What exactly are you gonna do little gi-" I shot my knee right into her stomach. I felt the air rush out of her as I made contact. As she began to keel over I whispered. If I did learn anything from watching wrestling with Selena it was a good knee lift haha. "That's from my wife. Now you leave me and my family alone. Tell the same to  your punk kid." She nodded slowly while she tried to catch her breath. Luckily that time there was no one there to catch what I did. I caught up with the boys and started to drive over to pick up Charly. To my own surprise Selena was already there. She met us at the door with Charly. "So eventful pickup?" Selena asked. I gulped hard. She knew something. "Mhmm yeah one of my teacher friends saw what happened, but don't worry he's not saying anything. Apparently a lot of families don't like this one." I breathed a sigh of relief. "But so much for trying to keep calm haha." "Babe you didn't see her. It just had to be done." I threw my arms up. "Trust me I know. I bet I'd do the same. How's Cole?" "Better. Hopefully it stays that way now."

[ayyoitsalex]

Chapter 2 - Bay Bay Boy

Making sure all three of our kids gets the adequate attention they need and deserve is a struggle for Sam and I. It's hard especially when they all have interests that don't really intersect anywhere. I feel now both Cole and AJ need some time to feel a little bit special since it might feel like Sam and I are always taking care of Charly. Both our guys are being champs about it and not complaining much, but I can tell sometimes they wish they had some more of our attention. So Sam and I made it a point to take days where one of us spends the day with one of the boys so they have our undivided attention to do something they like. This time it's Cole's turn, and we're doing something even I'm stoked about. I am an absolute freak fan of wrestling, but problem is no one else I know really can relate. Sam will tolerate watching it with me and she'll be entertained, but it's just not something she'll watch on her own. Cole is with me in my fandom. It's nice to have something to bond over since none of his other interests are things I understand. So for our day I had bought tickets to a live event in San Diego. It's not something that's gonna be on TV, but still we're going to be ringside to see our favorite stars. -Saturday morning- I sat up in bed next to Sam who was still asleep. I was just scrolling through my instagram feed, enjoying the little time I had where no one needed anything from me. I was so excited for the show I could barely contain myself, but I had to keep it from Cole until it was time. It was around eight-thirty to my surprise Charly hadn't cried out for anyone to let her out. *CRY I spoke too soon. I hoped she would calm herself down, but to no avail. I had to get up before her crying ended up waking up the boys. Sam stirred next to me so being the good wife I am, slowly got out of bed as not to wake her up too. When I walked into Charly's room I checked to see what was the matter. Low and behold her pink blankie was on the floor. "What's wrong my girl? Do you need mama to get blankie?" Charly nodded still crying. I handed her the blanket which she clutched close to her body. "Do you want to come to mama's room?" She held her arms out, so I picked her up to bring her back. When we got there Sam had woken up and her eyes widened at the sight of Charly. "Is that my Charly!" Sam smiled holding out for her. "Good morning sweetie, and good morning to you too love." She kissed both of us before cuddling Charly on the bed. The small giggles from Charly always made me smile. I crawled back into bed, Charly between both Sam and I. She curled up next to Sam looking at what Sam was doing on her phone. Slowly Charly's eyes started batting slowly before falling back asleep on Sam's chest. *Beep My phone rang next to me with a text message from Elizabeth. "Hey! busy?" The message read. I answered back; "No just relaxing in bed. About to make breakfast soon for the family. What's up?". Elizabeth answered back quickly. "Mom and dad left me at home to hang out with aunt Haley and aunt Alana. YOURE MY ONLY FAMILY LEFT." I laughed quietly to myself. "Okay dramatic, you can come over here and help me make breakfast." Before I could even set my phone down I had gotten another reply. "Well..I was already hoping you'd be awake..so I'm already here LOL." Elizabeth never fails to make me laugh at how crazy she is. I walked downstairs leaving the sleeping Sam and Charly to let in Elizabeth. She stood at the door coffee in one hand, phone in the other, and dressed in sweatpants and a hoodie. While she might look like a carbon copy of mom their personalities could not be more opposite. Elizabeth is definitely the wild child of us all, and could not give two fucks about what anyone thinks. "Looks like someone had a fun night at mom and dad's." We hugged before walking into the kitchen. "Aha if by fun you mean did laundry for free and ate food that I didn't buy then yeah totally." "I remember those college days. Atleast you can drive home on the weekend." I opened up the fridge. Elizabeth sat down at the counter keeping me company.  Cole walked donw sleepily before parking himself at the table awaiting food. Sam soon followed with Charly, setting her up in the high chair. "Good morning Cole!" Elizabeth said sweetly sitting next to him. He simply nodded his head and yawned again. Looking slightly annoyed Elizabeth took a short breath. "I SAID GOOD MORNING COLE!" She said directly in his ear before putting him in a headlock. "AGH! GOOD MORNING AUNT LIZ." "What's that? I can't hear you." She proceeded to noogie him as well as Sam and I looked on. "I SAID GOOD MORNING AUNT LIZ!" "Oh okay didn't hear you at first." She kissed his cheek as he fixed his messy hair. "See it didn't have to be so difficult. I'm a simple girl Cole, I just want my nephews to say good morning like they love me. Y'know like they should." AJ jumped off the stairs gliding into the kitchen chipper as always. Elizabeth looked hard at Cole. "Well good morning AJ." Elizabeth said with her arms held out. "Morning auntie Liz." He hugged her tight and even gave a kiss for good measure. Again she turned her attention to Cole. "Y'see that's how it's done there buddy boy." Cole rolled his eyes. I plated up breakfast for the boys and Elizabeth, while stirring a bowl of oatmeal I'd made for Charly. I parked myself directly in front of her determined to get her to eat. I held the spoon out in front of her and it was like I was holding a dirty sock in front of her. Charly turned away from every which way the spoon came from. "Charly you need to eat. See look mama likes it." I took a fake bite to entice her, but no luck. I turned to Cole. "What about brother, see he thinks it's good." I held the spoon to him hoping he'd play along. I mouthed please to him, and he obliged with a bite. "Mmm see so good." There it was, now she wanted it all for herself. I winked at Cole. "Good girl sweetie all finished." I set her out of the high chair to watch a show on tv to keep her occupied. When we we finally finished breakfast it was almost ten. "Hey AJ when you're done can you start taking a shower and getting cleaned up please?" Sam asked from the sink washing the dishes. Cole looked over at me slightly confused. "What about me mom?" Cole asked Sam. AJ stopped from going upstairs to hear the answer as well. "Mm well I'm taking AJ and Charly to the zoo today with nana Renee. You and mommy are doing something else." "Where we going?" Cole turned to me. "Well I was hoping to keep it a surprise but I just can't help myself." I took a deep breath. "We are going to see an NXT show today! We are ringside!" Cole's mouth dropped open and he didn't move for a solid minute before running laps around the living room excited. I knew I'd made the right call. Both Sam and Elizabeth laughed while filming Cole frantically run around chanting "N-X-T". "Aw Cole gets a day alone!" AJ pouted slightly. I looked over at him and waved him over. He walked over slightly dejected before standing in front of me. "Look AJ, this is just something Cole and I like that we get to do together. Like remember when we went to that baseball game last month?" "Yeah but-" "Ah no buts AJ, this is a day for mommy and Cole. Besides you know you'll have fun at the zoo with me, your sister, and nana." AJ nodded his head and continued to head upstairs. "Hey..well if you guys are going to the zoo. Can I come?" Elizabeth asked.   "Sure! I'd love an extra set of hands I'll even spot  your ticket." Elizabeth went to hug Sam. "BEST SISTER IN LAW EVER! I'm gonna head back to mom and dads then for a minute to change. Gotta put on something cute." "Aha I'm telling Sophia  you said that!" Sam laughed. Elizabeth just shrugged her shoulders before heading out. I helped Sam finish cleaning up before getting Charly. I brought Charly upstairs to get her cleaned up and dressed for Sam. Digging through her closet I tried to decide what would be nice for her to wear for this warm day. I settled on an animal themed shirt with some shorts for her to be comfortable. I walked her over to our bathroom to get a quick bath. Charly loves being in the water but hates when it's time to leave. She'll just start screaming before finally just accepting it. But for those few minutes of her just yelling next to my ear it's pure torture. When we finally got back to her room I laid her on the changing table all wrapped up cozy in her towel. "Alright let's get you all changed for mama so you can have fun seeing all the animals." She struggled while I tried changing her into clothes and diaper before just giving in to me. It was all finished when I dried and brushed her hair. "There all clean and cute. Let's get your bag all ready so mama has everything she'll ever need." I packed an extra set of clothes, diapers, wipes, and sunscreen into our backpack. "AJ!" I called out. He walked over to the door and stood before me. "Take this downstairs to the car please." He took the bag along with the keys I had in my hands. I checked in on Cole in the next room to see how he was doing getting ready. To no surprise it was taking slowly. "C'mon bud gotta hustle here. Take a shower and get dressed. Or I might just have to take aunt Liz with me instead." The vague threat got things moving.  Sam took over with Charly to give me a chance to get myself ready. I knew exactly what I wanted to wear. The undisputed era shirt with black jeans and nikes is probably one of my favorite outfit choices. I just feel so cool. Sam looked at me modeling in front of the mirror while holding Charly. "I still can't believe you've convinced me to name our sons after wrestlers." Sam smirked. "It wasn't my intention but you've gotta admit it's funny. Besides if it was really on purpose Adam would've been first then Cole." "Touche. You're just lucky I liked both of those names and didn't use my veto." "I'm so excited babe." I jumped up and down giddy. "So glad he's got something to bond with his mom about. I can't find myself interested in other things eight year olds like." "Yeah it's rough, but hey atleast there's this." Sam started to leave with AJ and Charly. "Okay we're gonna get going. I'll text you when we're on the way home." We kissed before saying bye. "Go say bye to mama." She nudged AJ and leaned Charly over to me while still in her arms. "Mm have a fun day babes." -Driving- We approached the arena and I could see how visibly excited Cole was. "Ready bud?" I asked. He shook his head vigorously. When we made our way into the arena my first idea was to get him a new shirt. "Alright Cole which one?" He scanned the wall of merch and finally pointed his finger. The concession worker picked it up and handed it over to Cole while i paid. He put it on immediately and turned to me. "How do I look?" I smiled. "So cool dude. and that is undisputed." He smiled big at me before giving me a hug. A collective awe from the wwe universe around us made me feel good. I walked around like the best mom. Being in a wwe crowd is like nothing else I've ever been to in my life. It's not like a concert or a regular sporting event, or even a play. It's so fan interactive. Cole and I watched the matches intently screaming as loud as we could whenever we could, chanting along with the crowd and trying hard to get picture with the superstars that would pass by. We were hoping for one in particular, and that was the champ. Then we heard the ominous "SHOCK THE SYSTEM." and we knew what time it was. Cole jumped from his seat and cheered his little heart out. Despite him being the bad guy, Adam Cole is the cool bad guy you just want to be like. When he got into the ring, Cole and I knew when it was time. I pulled my phone out to capture what was going to happen next. Adam Cole got into the ring and stood in the very middle. He threw his hands up and the crowd in attendance roared alongside him "ADAM COLE BAY BAY". When the match ended, Adam Cole marched around the ring and slapped hands with fans at ringside. Cole and I both screamed to get any sort of his attention. Apparently the matching undisputed era gear caught his eye and walked over to us. Cole held his hands out and he stopped in front of us. "What's your name?" He asked Cole. Cole sat there starstruck before answering. "..Cole..Cole Ryan.." He smiled back at Adam. "Like that part of your name. This your mom?" He asked. Cole nodded. "Well she's obviously raised you to have very cool taste." He knelt down near us and unbuckled his championship. "Hold this for me." He draped the title over Cole's shoulder. I couldn't believe what was happening. I was so incredibly happy for Cole. We snapped the picture together then Cole handed the title back. As a parting gift, Adam took the undisputed era arm band off and gave it to Cole. "Cole Ryan bay bay" He said before walking away. Cole fell asleep on the drive home clutching the armband. I felt like tonight I'd done something right as a parent giving my son an experience he's never going to forget. When we got home I carried Cole up to his room, and just laid him in his bed. Sam was still up with Charly on her chest while she watched tv with the sound off. I climbed into bed with them. "He looked like he had an amazing time." Sam said leaning her head on my shoulder. "He was so happy babe.." "Such a good mom." She kissed my forehead before I ended up falling asleep myself. -Monday- I was at my desk in the middle of the day grading papers, but still thinking about the NXT event. I just wanted to be back there. My phone lit up with a number I didn't recognize. "Hello?" I answered confused. "Yes is this Mrs. Ryan?" A voice asked. "Yeah who may I ask is calling please?" "Hello ma'am this is Principal Granger over at Oceancoast elementary. We need you to come down as soon as possible." "Oh my god is everything okay?! Are my sons okay!" I began to panic packing up my things to leave. "Yes this is in regards to your son Cole he is okay. There's been an incident that we'd like to discuss when you arrive here." "I'm on my way." I drove like a mad woman to the school, and I'd already texted Sam that something had happened. When I got to the office there was Cole sitting in the hall with a defeated look on his face. I knelt down in front of him. "Hey sweetie. Everything okay?" He shook his head. "Wanna tell me what happened?" He shook his head again. The principal signaled me into the office. "I'll be right back Cole." I walked in with another parent sitting in the chair opposite of the one empty one. "What's going on here?" I asked as calmly as I could. The other woman leered at me as what i guess was her attempt to be intimidating but I couldn't care less. "There was an altercation between Cole and another student in his class. While neither one is willing to disclose as to what that was we do know there was a scuffle. We do not tolerate that here. However seeing as it is their first incident I'm willing to allow you parents to deal with it. Another incident like this and there will be repercussions." We both nodded and proceeded out. The other parent and I didn't say a word to one another, but I just walked back to Cole. "What happened Cole?" Finally he looked up and opened his hand to a torn Undisputed Era arm band. He sniffled hard and tried to hold back but small tears streamed down his face. I hugged him tight before taking the arm band into my hands. "It's okay Cole..I can fix it." I memorized the face of the woman in the office. This wasn't the last time she's seen me, and that is UNDISPUTED.

[ayyoitsalex]

Chapter 1 - A Whole Different Story

I haven't spoken to you all lately and I think that needs to change. A lot has been done over the past few years that may surprise you, and some might not. I of course am your host for this program; Selena Joy Ryan. As I've been for years past this part of the story begins with me and where I am now. When I finished my college career I got my teaching credential and moved back home with my then girlfriend Sam Collins. You all remember Sam, she was the girl who became my best friend on the basketball team in high school, and a whole lot of shit happened. With her boyfriend being a psycho, mine dying, which I'm not speaking of lightly by the by, Sam being gay, me discovering I have a love for girls too, moving away to college together, and yeah. After a few years being back home we both felt it, and when I say it I'm talking about the feeling of just finally settling down. Sam proposed to me and I said yes. Our engagement didn't come without it's own backlash as some people within the community didn't feel comfortble with my sexuality while being a teacher. They tried as they might to get me fired but my bitchin' lawyer of a sister Natalie helped me in suing for prejudicial termination. We won and it was a big deal for Sam and I. Eventually we married, my sister Natalie being my maid of honor, Aunt Haley, Sophia, and Kelsey acting as bridesmaids. Elizabeth was our flower girl, so it was a whole family affair. Sam decided to take my last name to hyphen along with her's, so she is now Samantha Ashley Collins-Ryan. The next logicial step was to start our family but with us being two ladies some issues arose. We thought about adopting, but in the end we decided to go the donor route. We couldn't really decide which one of us would be the one becoming pregnant at first. In the end I was the one who went through the pregnancy. Our first son Cole Harrison Ryan was born and I'd never fallen in love so quickly. He's got my dark brown hair and green eyes it's like if I were born a boy. Cole is sort of a mix between myself and Nathan when it comes to his personality. He's very observant of people and isn't super social right away until he feels comfortable with the people he's with and then he's great. Though we didn't just stop with Cole, Sam took on the next pregnancy my thinking is cause she just didn't want all of our kids looking like me haha. Then our second son Adam Justin Ryan was born, but cause we're cool moms we call him AJ sometimes. AJ reminds me of Sam's brothers with their messy dirty blonde hair, freckles, blue eyes, and goofy smile to go along with their sense of humor. He definitely gets it from his Collins family influences.  YOU THOUGHT WE WERE DONE?! Nope, we finally had our baby girl Charlotte McKayla Ryan, but we like to call her Charly. I may be a bit biased but she is absolutely the cutest child I've ever seen.  I took on that last pregnancy, and after that I can say we were done. At last our whole squad was finally complete. My brother and sister have families of their own, and I'll let them tell their story when it's their turn. But until then you're stuck with me. I still teach at my old high school, but now I've upgraded from teaching freshman to seniors with regular and AP english. My parents are still around so they help me out with the kids from time to time as do Sam's parents. Our parents both were over the moon when we told them we'd be having kids, and their love translates to them spoiling the crap out of them every chance they get. Weirdly the person I didn't expect that from my dad is the biggest culprit of this especially with Charly. I think it's cause she reminds him of me when I was a baby. Well let's get into a day in my life? -5 am- *CRY* I turned over from my face being buried into my pillow. Sam still fast asleep I let her be to go and get Charly. As soon as I opened the door to her room she stopped. She's too smart for her own good. She reached out for me and I smirked. I'm getting out worked by someone that's not even two years old. I picked her up to snuggle her a bit. "You know exactly how to get mama up don't you.." She flashed a toothy grin at me. "Mhmm yeah don't act like you're all innocent Charly girl." I laid her on the changing table. When I finished cleaning her up we went downstairs so I could fix the boys breakfast and pack lunch. Sam followed downstairs sleepily her eyes barely open. The smell of coffee immediately revived her while myself I popped open an energy drink. Don't even begin to judge me. "Morning." Sam yawned before kissing me. "And hows Charly this morning." Sam's voice got progressively higher as she proceeded into her baby voice, it's the cutest thing. I gave Sam food to give to Charly and she fed her while I got things started. My mom always set the example of eating breakfast was imperative for a good day, so I made sure when I had my own family I continued that belief. Hell look at how I turned out. I'm not attributing it all to breakfast but it had to contribute somewhere. Boom eggs, bacon, and toast. Nothing super fancy but it'll get you to lunch. Sam struggled to finish feeding Charly, so I had to laugh for a minute while watching the fight. "Charly. We are not doing this. Please just ahh for mommy." Seeing Sam make the most ridiculous faces to coax the baby into eating is one of the small joys in my life. She heard me snicker and Sam immeditely glared to me while trying to hold in her own laugh. "Need me to finish that?" I said sarcastically. "No I'm perfectly capable getting her to eat." She flipped her head back around to Charly determined to prove me wrong. I rolled my eyes then went to wake the boys. I got AJ first and he slowly crawled out of bed before going downstairs he's the easy one. Cole isn't exactly a morning person, so I proceeded with caution. I sat at the edge of his bed nudging him gently. He stirred for a minute bfore pulling the covers over himself. I nudged him again slightly firmer, and again he didn't wake up. The last attempt I took a deep breath and YANKED THE BLANKET OFF. He shot straight up hair a mess and practically falling over. "Wake up Cole!" He plumetted back onto his pillow letting out the loudest sigh. "Aha c'mon bud gotta get ready." He nodded and rubbed his eyes. "Morning sleepy." I leaned in and kissed his forehead before he gave me his own morning kiss on my cheek. He thinks he's too grown for that but HE NEVER WILL BE. "Breakfast downstairs we're leaving at 7:30 no later okay?" "Mhmm.." Cole stretched out his arms. He followed behind falling onto my back for me to carry him downstairs. He laughed as I obliged. What can I say he's my first born, my dad did it plenty for me. When we got to the kitchen, before sitting down at the table he gave Sam a morning kiss as well. "Morning mom.." He yawned again shaking his head to waken himself up more. "Morning honey. Did mom have to pull the covers off?" Cole refused to answer so Sam knew she was right. "Gotta get up when she gets there the first time bud." Sam shrugged her shoulders. I took Charly out of the high chair so she could play in the living room. I put on some PBS kids show I'd never seen but it keeps Charly company. Sam would continually remind me of time to make sure we'd be out of here on time. I heard some laughing at the table come to see Cole and AJ horsing around with each other. "Hey!" I developed my mom voice slowly over the years and they both looked at me stopping whatever it was they were doing. "Let's get cleaned up and ready quit playing around." They shoved their way up the stairs. It was really satisfying to have things like that happen so quickly. Sam just nodded smirking. When it came time to leave I kissed Sam bye before loading the kids up. "Ah! Say bye to mama first." I pointed the boys back to the direction of Sam who was waiting at the front door. They hugged her and sandwiched her face with a kiss on each side. "Bye loves have a good day!" Sam waved as we pulled out of the driveway. I dropped the boys off at school walking them to the gate while holding Charly. I knelt down so they could say their byes. "Bye guys learn some stuff." I hugged them tight. "Bye mom I l-o-v-e you." Cole smiled. "Love you mom." "L-o-v-e you too Cole. Love you too AJ. Say bye brothers." Charly waved her hand. They both waved back and it was small things like that, that make me love these guys so much. "Okay let's drop you off with grandma." Mom met me at the front door always eager to care for Charly. "Ah! There she is there's my Charly girl!" She knew exactly who my mom was now and was always eager for her embraces. Some times she'd even reach for my mom first before Sam or myself. "I'll be here at like five to get the kids. Unless Sam can get them before I can. You gonna have fun with grandma Charly?" She smiled big clinging to my mom. "We always do, and I think everyones gonna be here today so we might do big dinner if you all wanna stay for that." "What's the occasion?" I tilted my head confused slightly. "No reason just sometimes we don't get together as much. Besides you know all the kids love being together." "Hope you and dad are making a lot haha." "Don't worry we have a good helper huh Charly!" Mom looked at Charly who proceed to throw her hands up. "Okay you get going we got it from here." I hugged my mom before leaving for work. As far as works concerned I still work with my aunts Sabrina and Camryn. They make eating in the teacher's lounge more tolerable, plus sometimes they share their snacks. Along with just my school hours job of teaching English, basketball always called for me. I was also the boys coach. I'd taken over for coach K and while some of you are wondering why didn't her daughter Kayla do it? Well Kayla's off doing big WNBA things playing for the Seattle Storm. She'll drop me tips from time to time cause to be honest she's better than I am no question, so it's always good to get some advice from her. When work finally finished I blew my last whistle to end practice. "Alright good job today guys no practice tomorrow." I walked away with thank yous from the collapsed players on the hardwood floor. The days of wanting to just die after practice still lived vividly in my head as I walked by my championship banner. *RING "Hello?" I answered pinning the phone between my ear and my shoulder. "You having dinner at mom and dad's tonight?" Nathan asked. "Most likely, I'm sure Sam will appreciate a night of not having to cook or wash dishes. What about you and the girls?" "Yeah we'll be there, Natalie called me before this so it'll be full house." I smiled from ear to ear, I love being surrounded by my family. Sam called me immediately after hanging up with Nathan to just let me know she'd be heading over after work. I rang the doorbell hearing the commotion already going on inside. Elizabeth answered the door giving me a tight hug. "Hi sister!" Elizabeth's going to school not too far in San Diego but it's still a bit of a drive to get here. "Mm hi there Liz, how’s everything?" Before I knew it voices called out for me. "Aunt Sel!" Daisy ran up from behind me hugging me. I twirled her around to face me. "Well hi Daisy!" "Can we play basketball later?" I love that the legacy of basketball is continuing within the Ryan family. "We'll see what time we finish dinner sweetie. We can play if it's not too dark out later." Daisy is Nathan and Sophia's only child and shes a year younger than Cole. She ran back to hang with the boys while I saw Nathan.  "I can't wait until I can coach her." "She's getting really good. Though Soph is always trying to steer her towards dancing." Another knock came at the door. "Late as always." Nathan smirked at Natalie while she rolled her eyes. We all hugged a big sibling group hug. Natalie's son Julian came in behind her with her husband Wes who was holding their daughter Alexis. "Hey guys, and hi Lexi!" I greeted them all as we walked into the living room. We were soon summoned for dinner by mom. The tables were split into parents with the babies, and kids at a table in the other room. Every now and then one of us would check in to make sure food was actually being eaten. "So how's everything at school Liz?' I asked her while sucking up bits of spaghetti. "It's okay just still getting into the groove of the semester after being on break for so long. Anything new with the kiddies?" All of us took a minute to think if there was actually anything new to report. "Oh! Daisy is joining an AAU league soon with some of her friends. She's pretty stoked on that." Nathan said. Both my dad and I high fived just at the notion of basketball with everyone laughing. "So proud." Dad said smiling. "What about you Nat?" "Well I mean nothing from work. You'd know dad haha" Dad being Natalie's boss at the law firm. "As far as the kids go I mean Lexi's talking more huh sweets. Say yes mama." She looked over at Lexi in the high chair next to Charly. She looked back almost thinking hard about it before repeating it back to Natalie. So cute. Before I could get a chance to answer calls for mom rang from the other room. So Natalie, Sophia, and myself all went to investigate. "What is it guys?" I asked peeking my head through the doorway. "We're all done can we go out back to shoot the ball?" Cole asked. They all awaited the verdict. The moms all looked at one another practically thinking the same thing. "Alright but clear up here first. Then thank grandma and grandpa for dinner, and properly." I hate to say it but I sound more and more like my mom every day. It's such a cliche that you grow into your parents but it's true. In a line they brought their plates to the sink and washed them before giving the grandparents hugs and thank yous. Afterwards it was a dead sprint to the backyard to play. "Only for a little while guys we still gotta go home to do homework." Collective groans came in response. My mom looked proud at me as I took my seat. As soon as I took my seat it hit me. I turned to Charly who as always flashed this sheepish grin. Both Sam and I winced at the smell before laughing. "Charly! Oh my god did you just-" "Augh Charly we’re eating!" Sam got up to get her. "I'll take care of this babe. Does she still have stuff upstairs mom?" Sam asked, holding Charly a bit away from her body. Mom nodded before Sam proceeded upstairs. Lexi followed Charly's example so both Wes and Natalie looked at one another. Natalie leaned her head against Wes as if to say PLEAAASE. To no avail, Wes just smirked and shook his head. "No way it's your turn after what I dealt with this morning." Natalie let out a groan. "FINE! C'mere smelly..I mean Lexi. Haha just kidding mommys just being silly." Nathan and Sophia looked at one another giggling. "See aren't you glad we're past all that with our one?" Sophia smiled. "I still think you guys should have another one." Mom shrugged her shoulders. "Aha maybe mom we'll see. For now we're happy with just Daisy." When Sam returned with Charly I checked the clock. We let the kids play out a little more while we continued talking with everyone. When it came to be about seven we called them all inside. "We gotta get going the boys still got homework. C'mon Cole! AJ!" The two boys hustled inside. I said bye to my parents along with my siblings. "Hey say bye to everyone okay?" Cole and AJ made their rounds to everyone as I watched content at my beautifully behaved children. Well they’re beautifully behaved most of the time. We all have our moments. When we got home Charly was in the process of passing out, and I took the liberty of putting her to bed while Sam made sure homework was done for the boys. "C'mere sweet girl." She curled up to me as soon as she left the car seat. As I brought her up to her room she slowly woke back up but still laid her head over my shoulder clinging like a baby koala. "Let's change into some jammies." I undid the bazillion snaps from her regular clothes to put her into cozy fleece pajamas. Still awake I sat with her in the rocking chair in her room, and I did what never seemed to fail to put any of my children to sleep. I started singing, Slowly as her eyes closed my singing just turned to humming. Cole stood at the doorway of Charly's room just watching us. "Hey sweetie." I said softly smiling at him. "You finish all your stuff?" He nodded as he continued to lean against the door frame. "C'mere." I scooched over a little to make room on the rocker. Hesistant Cole slowly sat down with us. I put my arm around him and continued humming while running my fingers through his hair. "Can you give Charly kiss goodnight Cole?" He leaned in slowly and pecked her chubby cheek. "Aw thank you." I could feel Cole's body slowly succumbing to the rocking as well as his eyes batting to stay awake. I got up slowly and put Charly into her crib. Cole and I crept out so we could go to bed as well. "Good night cole lights out twenty minutes." He nodded slowly closing his door behind him. Sam was in AJ's room reading him to sleep. She tucked him in and we both kissed him good night. Sam and I slipped into bed pulling the covers over ourselves. I yawned slowly curling up to Sam as she put her arm over me. We kissed good night. "Love you.." I said slowly while my eyes began to close. "Love you too Sel.." Sam replied letting out a yawn of her own. Before I knew it we were both falling asleep. I looked over at the clock on my night stand and it said ten thirty.  Not exactly the times I was sleeping in my prime but hey I've got three kids. Before falling asleep completely I made sure to turn on the monitor. It's the life I always thought I'd have when I was younger, okay sure I thought I'd be married to a man..but things change! Here I am living the dream. -2 am- *CRY What was that about living the dream again?

[ayyoitsalex]

Chapter 5 - The World We Live In

Being a teacher at my old high school is still a bit weird considering it hadn't even been a whole decade since I even went here. I'd only graduated about eight years ago, and here I was calling the teachers I once looked up to for guidance my peers. Though there was a certain new teacher hazing process I dealt with. I had last choice of classroom, supplies, parking, and no one really sat with me in the teacher's lounge. All the better because I felt weird eating with them anyway. I'd either have lunch in my classroom or pop into aunt Bri's office. I absolutely loved being back home, and being able to do so while supporting myself was all the better. Pay itself wasn't exactly top notch, but with Sam we made enough to live nicely.

-Friday-

"Alright class, today's writing assignment will be on someone that is or has been in your life that made a significant impact. I'll leave it up to you to decide what is meant by significant because it's kind of a subjective question. There's no real wrong answer here, but I want some thought put into how you talk about this person. I want a page and a half by the end of the period. Feel free to talk amongst your group to get ideas, but I want you to remain on topic."

I sat down at my desk, inputting grades I had yet to catch up on. Jazzy approached my desk, waiting for me to look up. "Yes Jazzy what's up?" I set my pen down. "So does this person have to be currently alive?" "No, because you can write about like a family member that's passed away or a friend." "Okay cool. I think I can start." "Good, look forward to reading." Jazzy is a very good student, and so far actually one of my favorites. Opposite of what her brother was as my student during my job tutoring. I continued my grading as the class worked. As the bell rang for the end of the period, I stood by the door collecting papers, sort of like an exit toll. Jazzy whipped her bag over her shoulder before handing the paper over to me. She wiped her eyes a bit. "Everything okay Jazzy?" "Oh yeah Ms. Ryan, I just got kinda emotional writing my paper." "Okay just checking to see if you're alright." "Yeah thank you I'm okay." She walked away. I looked down at the paper, and as I suspected she had written about Alex. The paper was written beautifully, and I can see why it made her a bit emotional. I got a little choked up too just thinking about him. I ran my hand over the tattoo on my hip. "She misses you so much Alex..just like I do." Sam knocked on my classroom door, holding up a bag of food. I waved her inside, and she took a seat in front of my desk. "Aha how's school today Ms. Ryan?" "Shut up haha, what brings you here?" "I had some time, and I figured I'd bring my love some lunch." My eyes widened, and I could smell it was italian takeout. Sam knows the way to my heart is through carbs, and especially pasta. "I got your favorite, chicken parm with penne." "You are the best, thank you so much." I leaned over and gave her a kiss. "So how goes your day so far? Looks like a lot of grading ahead." She flipped through the stack of papers on my desk. "I'm getting through it." "Have you told Jazzy that you know her. Well knew her and Alex?" "I have no idea how, or even if I should. I don't know what purpose it would serve either of us. It looks like she's very happy, and I don't want to just come in and bring up that her teacher was basically there when her brother died." "True, so I guess just keep an eye out on her. Probably what Alex would want." We finished up lunch before Sam had to head back to work. "I'll see you tonight." "Alright thank you for lunch again." "You're welcome. Now teach  the future leaders of this country. Inspire them and whatnot." "Haha will do." We kissed quickly before a flock of students sat down for the next class. The rest of the day went off without any hitches. My eyes hurt from staring at the white board all day, and I needed a pick me up.

-RING-

"Hello?" I answered. "Hey Sel, can you do me a big favor?" Mom asked with the sound of a busy background. "Sure, what's up?" "Can you pick up Elizabeth? Your dad and I are caught up with work, and Nathan and Natalie couldn't find time either." "Yeah no problem." "No ice crean trips on the way home Selena. She barely eats dinner as it is." "Of course not mom. I wouldn't think of it." Come to think of it, I hadn't had ice cream in a while..hehe.. "Okay I'll be there soon to pick her up." "Thank you sweetie. Love you." "Love you too mom." I clicked the line. Right then I got another call from aunt Alana.

"Hello?" "Selena! Glad I caught someone. Can you pick up Holly from school?" Jesus christ what do I drive a bus? "Yeah sure, she just goes to the same one as Liz right?" "Yeah same place. I usually pick them both up, but today-" "I get it, Seems like everyones busy at work today." "Thank you so much!"

I parked in front of the school, spotting the little blonde one with Holly. They pulled at the front seat doorhandle arguing immediately. "No! I get to sit in the front!" "I'm older Elizabeth!" "Well it's my sister's car! Selena!" She pouted her lip at me knowing full well it was something I could never resist. That and her huge green eyes. What can I say, I spoil the crap out of her she's the baby. "Holly sit in the back please." She groaned, finally giving up. Elizabeth climbed in, giving me a kiss, and subsequently pointing her tongue out at Holly laughing. "How was school guys?" I asked, making awkward small talk with small people. "It was fine." Elizabeth yawned. "Tired, and want to go home." "Oh thats too bad, I was thinking maybe we get ice cream." Both of their faces lit up as soon as I said ice cream. "But you gotta keep it a secret or else I'm gonna get in trouble." They both nodded their heads furiously. We stopped in at the local shop, and got cups with a few scoops each. I went with some basic chocolate and vanilla. While the girls went crazy on the newer weird flavors. When we got home, mom was in the kitchen with pizza for dinner. This was just a good day, and I sat down for a piece. "Elizabeth eat dinner." Elizabeth groaned, and I knew my secret was going to be uncovered. "I don't feel like eating mom.." She sat down next to me. Immediately mom leered at me. "Did Selena take you for ice cream?" Mom asked sternly. She nodded her head slowly. "Selena?" "C'mon mom it was one time and I hadn't been able to do that for a while." I pouted my lips like Elizabeth earlier. "Nice try. Next time listen to me." Damnit. "Way to keep a secret Lizzy." I rolled my eyes laughing. "Sorry." She giggled, taking a slice of pizza to appease mom.

-Next day-

I got into school a bit early, and went to the classroom to get settled in. Before school even started I had a few parents knocking at my door. I opened the door a bit confused as to why I was getting parents so early in the day and so early in the semester. "Can I help you?" I asked feeling a tiny bit uncomfortable. "You're Ms. Ryan?" One of the fathers asked. "Yes?" "We're here because we have students in your class." "Yeah I sort of figured that out. Can we kind of y'know get to the point?" At this point I was more annoyed than anything. "We don't feel comfortable with someone with your lifestyle teaching our children." One of the mothers in the back spoke up. "My lifestyle?" I asked raising an eyebrow. "Some of our kids found out that you have a girlfriend. And while that's your business we just don't feel comfortable with you teaching." "Um..I teach english. It's not like I speak a different kind of English because of my sexuality which by the way is none of your goddamn business. Look you can request a different teacher for your kids, but trust me when I say I'm very qualified for my job to teach. I do my job well and professionally. Take this little mob of whatever the hell this is, and get away from my classroom I have a job to do. Now whatever issues you have you can take up with the district." They stood there silently staring at me before backing away.

I took a seat at my desk a bit shaken that I'd even had to deal with something like that. For fucks sake I live in California! I thought we were all progressive and believed in equality. Well I guess not everyone. Class filed in as the clock hit eight, and for a bit I just gave some independent reading time, as I handed back the essays. I proudly gave Jazzy her A paper, along with a gold star. Yes I still believe stickers are great for grading papers.

Right when I thought to get the actual class started a knock came at my door, and this time it was Sabrina. The look of concern was painted across her face. "Hang on class." I met her outside the door. "We have a problem." "What's that?" "There are a group of parents-" "You mean the group of parents that showed up at my class this morning who have a problem with me having a girlfriend?" "Yes. One of the parents is very close with someone down at the district. They're claiming you're not qualified, and your job is simply due to my relationship with you." "That's totally not the case! You said there weren't any other condidates with my qualifications." "There weren't but they're just using this as the reason to get you out. Instead of the sexuality which would have no bearing. So it's either I resign, or-" "I'm gonna fight this aunt Bri. This is some bull. I'm hiring a lawyer. We're not losing our jobs because there's people out there that can't live in the real world. Can you call a sub for me, I have some business to take care of." Sabrina nodded, and I stormed away whipping my phone out of my pocket. I dialed quickly. "Hey, wanna make your first big case?"

[ayyoitsalex]

Chapter 4 - Like Strangers

I continued sitting at my desk staring down at the ring. Thoughts blew through my mind as waves of emotions ranging from all over swept over me. It gets like this when I have time alone, so I try my best to keep busy. Hence why Sophia's company is in such demand. We're both broken in a way, and we just help sort of keep each other from falling apart. -BEEP- I looked down at my phone, Sophia just texted me. "Hey, down to come over? (;" "Not tonight." "Everything good? Are you in one of your funks?" "No I'm fine. Just feel like just hanging out here." "Even if I look like this?" She followed her text with a very sultry picture, biting down on her lip, and a big t shirt and no pants. God damn it. She's good. Before I knew it I was picking up my keys. She met me at the door of her apartment and things picked from there. We started from her living room and ended up on her bed. We laid there catching our breath, and I looked at the clock and it read 1:32 am. "Is this how you imagined your life being?" I asked. "Why was this not fun?" She looked up at me pouting her lower lip out. "Not what I mean. I just..don't you want to just be settled down with someone by now?" "Jesus Nathan you really know how to make really know how to make a girl feel good after sex. But yeah I get what you mean. I thought the last relationship I was in was gonna be the end game, but clearly we both wanted other things in life." "It's almost too perfect that we both ended up like this." "Aha how so?" "Well I mean both of us had our last relationship pretty much fuck us up emotionally." "What did happen exactly? You were never really clear." "Do you really want me to tell you? Only Natalie and Selena know what really happened. Well that and Kelsey." She turned to me with eager eyes. "I figure if we're gonna be so intimate, why not share a few of our secrets. You know what happened to me. It's only fair." "*sigh alright. When Kelsey and I graduated from Michigan, when we got back to California I asked her to marry me." Sophia covered her mouth as she gasped. "WHAT." I nodded my head. "She told me that there was still a lot she wanted to do and wasn't even sure she wanted to be married just yet or even at all." The surprise was painted across Sophia's face. "I didn't hold it against her, but it hurt. I got really sad, then for months I was really angry, and now I just have moods about it I guess." "Nathan.." She curled closer to me. "I'm sorry for that. It must've hurt so bad." "Yeah we haven't been the same since. It's like we're strangers to one another now." "She was weird at lunch when your name came up.." "Yeah like I said we're not exactly best friends." -Sophia- What Nathan told me, I couldn't wrap my head around. For the longest time I was sure those two would end up married, and it was practically Kelsey's high school dream to be with Nathan. It baffled me that she wouldn't just want to be the one and only for him. What did she want in life that she couldn't share with him? I'm not saying I'd marry Nathan right now, but I'm not opposed to marriage all together like Kelsey made it sound.  My nosy self wanted to dig further, though I couldn't let it slip that this came about after having sex with him. I called up Kelsey for lunch. We met up at a place by her work. Kelsey is the like head of a day care center franchise. I sat down at a table with my ticket for food while she took her seat. "Hey how's it going?" I asked trying to feel her out a bit. "Pretty good, there's good days and bad days with some of these kids. This was a good day. How's business on your end?" "Wedding seasons coming to a close so I'm not gonna be as busy. I'm relieved for that since I've had a couple of intense couples lately." "Oh I bet. Planning a weddings gotta be like one of the best and worst aspects of getting married. WIth it being so stressful but at the same time getting to design your every want." Well this segwayed nicely. "You think you'll ever get married?" I asked as casually as I could. "Mm not sure. I've just seen equal parts good and bad come from people getting married. But I mean y'know maybe." My phone buzzed on the table, it was Nathan. Kelsey caught a glimpse of his name and immediately it was like something hit her. I picked up the phone and started to reply. "So..how's Nathan?" There was that awkward tone again. "He's good I guess. You guys don't talk?" "No..not really I mean we're both just super busy all the time." Mm not good to tell lies Kelsey. "Here I'll let him know you said hi." Her eyes widened as I fake texted. "You guys hang out much..?" She asked twirling her hair between her fingers. "I mean sometimes. We'll like watch movies or go to lunch." I snickered in my head at all the other things I wasn't letting on.  "Weird to think you guys don't hang out anymore, you both were so close." I could tell I was pushing things a bit as Kelsey began to look a bit uncomfortable thinking. "Anyway, you looking forward to the sleepover this weekend?" "Yeah should be fun." The fake smile got put on quick, but I could tell the wheels were still turning in Kelsey's head. As we got up to leave after lunch and more small talk, I just impulsively grabbed Kelsey's wrist. She looked at me like I was nuts. I took a step closer to her. "Sorry..I just thought I had something I wanted to say." I held myself back. "Okay..? Well I'll just see you and Natalie this weekend." She smiled back at me waving. I almost couldn't go a day without letting it slip. After my last client I met up with Nathan at a bar. Nathan for some reason kept looking at his phone, like someone was texting him. "So who's texting you?" I finally asked. "Why is it making you jealous?" He smirked. Fucking smart ass.. "Get over yourself" I laughed tossing a fry at him. "You just seem really distracted." "Well yeah to be honest. Kelsey out of nowhere texted me." "Oh? Whats goin on with that?" "Not really sure. It's like she wants to catch up on things and wants to hang out." I know Nathan way too well, and this was a familiar theme. Nathan is way too quick to forget when it comes to people he's felt really strongly for in the past. He's very intense when it comes to his emotions, but sometimes they get the better of him. He'll either hold a grudge way too long or be way to quick to forgive. "You gonna hang out with her?" I asked skeptically. "Not sure yet..the whole thing came so far out of nowhere I'm kinda shook." "Mm, so my place or yours tonight?" I held his hand, setting his phone face down on the table. "Aha easy girl we just sat down." "I know. I'd just like something to hold onto tonight." He smiled at me. Weird, part of me wanted to have his attention all to myself, but that's like a girlfriend...but we only just sleep together...as friends..did I want to be his girlfriend? Or did I just not want kelsey to get back together with him so it wouldn't ruin our fun. AGH TOO MANY EMOTIONS.

[ayyoitsalex]

Chapter 3 - Casual

Sophia and I stared back at Natalie as she continued to wait for an answer. To be honest it'd been a few months now, and I can't even explain how this came about. I'm sure you're wondering what happened since my first year at Michigan I was living with my then girlfriend Kelsey. Clearly we're not together anymore, and now I'm doing things with Sophia. I'd dated Sophia in the past, but this wasn't exactly dating. "A few months.." Sophia squeaked nervously feeling judged by Natalie. She stood up, still holding my bedsheet to cover herself. "You didn't mean to tell me you're sleeping with my brother?" "And exactly would you have liked me to tell you that Nat?" Sophia scoffed. "Ugh okay whatever. We're all adults I'm not gonna make this a big deal." Natalie walked away clutching the bottle of wine. "I'm going to bed. Don't be FUCKING TOO LOUD." The door slammed behind her. Sophia and I looked at one another. "So you still-" "No I'm not in the mood anymore. Let's just go to bed." Sophia pulled me to bed. She pulled my arm over her and we laid there falling asleep. The next morning none of us had work. Sophia and I walked out of my bedroom, meeting Nataile in the kitchen. "Morning.." Sophia said tentatively. "Look okay let's clear the air. I don't want things to be all weird." Natalie cleared her throat. "I honestly don't care that you're..doing...intimate..okay sleeping with Nathan. I care that you were keeping whatever this relationship is a secret. What were you going in and out of the apartment while I was asleep?" "Kinda...I just didn't know how to tell you! And it's not like in high school where it was just oh I'm making out with your brother, now it's like I'm..y'know." "I'm so uncomfortable right now..." I said getting myself a bottle of water.   "Okay so what is this exactly. Are you guys dating or what?" "We...just-" "Have sex." Sophia finished the sentece, me almost spitting out the water I was drinking. "You know casual..you know what never mind you're both grown, and I'm not mom." Natalie threw her hands up. Natalie got ready to run errands of her own, leaving Sophia and I to talk about things. "So I know I've talked about not having this just be casual." "I know Nathan. I'm just not ready to be in another committed relationship, and I know you're probably not either. But for the mean time I do know I'm ready to get back to what we started last night." She looked seductively into my eyes before grabbing at my collar and pulling me towards her onto the bed. I didn't know how long we went at it, but when we finished up we went out to lunch. I don't know if the whole casual sex thing is healthy, but for once I wasn't caring. I just followed Sophia's lead, and that lead typically ended in one of our beds. We didn't go anywhere too fancy, but just walked down the road to eat by the water. We split fish and chips, before Sophia had errands of her own to attend to. I went back up to the apartment to find Alijah there waiting for me. I'd forgotten I had invited him over the day before. "Dude where you been?" "Sorry I just finished up lunch with Soph." "Are you guys still doing the whole casual sex thing?" "I don't wanna get into it. It's bad enough Natalie knows now." "SHIT HOW'D THAT HAPPEN." I let us in, and immediately Alijah went for beers in the fridge so I could begin my story. "I didn't know Natalie was gonna be home so early last night, and I called Sophia over. Before I know it Natalies at home calling my name, and while Sophia's hiding in my closet Natalie notices her underwear on my floor. Not only that Sophia sneezes and falls flat onto the floor, only wearing my bedsheet." "Jesus christ dude. How'd she take it?" "Mm wasn't particularly pleased but it could've been way worse had this been like high school Natalie." "So why the whole casual thing anyway?" Alijah asked as he powered up the tv. "Sophia just got out of a couple year long relationship a few months ago, and she knows what happened with Kelsey and I." 'Mm how are you with that? Do you still think about it a lot?" "Not as much, but I can't lie and say I don't think about it. Sophia helps with that a lot." "Oh I bet it does." Alijah snickered. "Shut up. How're things with Sasha and the kid?" "You mean your future godson? They're doing good, she's due in like three months." "Good thing you're a doctor and can afford to have a kid. Bet your moms stoked." "Pfft still stressful. You know how many people I see giving birth every day? And yeah she's been counting down days for a new baby to have around." "Nope and don't wanna know." I fell into the couch, twisting the cap off my beer. Alijah hung out for a few more hours before being called away to work. I sat there alone before heading into my room. I sat down at my desk, opening up the drawer. "Maybe I'm not ready to commit again." I said looking down at a ring laying there. I held it in my hand and thought back. It hurt still even if it had been a while. Nothing like thats made me forget completely, but the pain subsides. Scars remain but just cover them up I guess.

[ayyoitsalex]

Chapter 2 - Objection!

Did I know right away in life I wanted to be a lawyer? I can't say that's true. Originally I had no idea what I wanted to do in college. Seeing as I was there on scholarship for cheer and gymnastics, sports came first. When it came down to finally deciding on a major my second slash third year, I landed on criminology seeing as I was always watching some kind of law and order I thought I might be good at it. Boy was I right. I took to criminology like a duck to water. I breezed through and applied to law school as soon as I was finished. Thats when the hard times came in. There was countless nights of studying and crying from stress, but at the end of the day I came out the other side. LAWYER BITCH. I work at the firm Griffen & Ryan, and yes my dad is the partner to this firm. It's not nepotisim if I'm qualified as fuck, though my dad often reminds me not to say things like "as fuck" while we're in the office. I'm only a junior attorney, since I haven't had any major case wins, but still I've made it into the adults world! I make pretty good money, but a good chunk of it goes to repaying my loans I took out for law school. Good thing I was on scholarship for my undergrad or else ya girl would be broke as hell. If you're wondering how things are on the field of my love life it's about as barren as the people willing to take a chance on me as their lawyer. I'm a catch! I'm pretty, educated, and can do a backflip. Talk about the whole package am I right?  Nathan tells me that my standards are just too high, but I just think I know what I want out of a relationship.   With no one taking the chance on me to be their attorney in high stake cases, I spent a lot of time either on the computer or reading. Being on the computer typically wore thin quick because I'd end up on facebook looking at pictures of classmates seeing what they were doing with their dumb lives. If I took shots for every pregnancy reveal without them being married I'd be drunk off my ass. -Ring- "Hello Griffen Ryan law firm this is-" "What Natalie, didn't I call your cell phone?" Sophia asked. "Oh sorry force of habit. What's up?" "You got time to take a lunch with me? I've got down time in between clients." I checked over my shoulder to see the time. I put the phone to my shoulder. "Ms. Julie?" I called. "Yes?" "I don't have anything coming up do I?" "Mm not you sweetie, just your dad and the other two guys. What's up?" "If I'm not doing anything here then I'm gonna take a lunch break. Do you want anything while I'm out?" "No thanks, appreciate the offer. I'll call in case something comes up." "Alright thanks." I threw my blazer on and picked up my purse. "I'll be back in like an hour and a half tops." I met up with Sophia at the mall which was about ten minutes from work. We did the usual hug before getting down to the real business. "So what do you wanna eat?" Sophia asked, scouring the map. "I don't know, doesn't really matter." "What about pizza? Quick, easy, and I can get salad so I won't feel as guilty." "Okay but where? This place built like four spots to get pizza." "Na pizza." "You're the one who suggested pizza now you don't want it?" I turned to her raising an eyebrow. "What? No! I mean the place NA pizza. Look!" She pointed to the sign at the bottom of the directory. "Oh...weird name.." Regardless we treked over and sat down. "So how're things?" "Can't complain business is doing well. Gotta love wedding season." "Isn't it stressful though dealing with so many like bridezillas?" I asked biting into a breadstick. "Mmm I guess, but it's nothing a glass of wine at the end of the day can't solve." "What about you? Has anyone asked you to represent them in an actual case not like arguing tickets?" "NO" I said exhasperated. "It sucks cause how's anyone supposed to know I'm any good if they won't give me a chance?" "That's tough. Oh hey I invited Kelsey too that's fine right?" "Oh totally it hasn't been all of us in a while now." "Are you happy your sisters back?" "Of course, it makes our family just feel whole again." Kelsey waved over at us while she made her way to the table. "Hey guys thanks for the invite." "Sit down! It's great to be back as the holy trinity haha." I said hugging Kelsey. "Holy? Nothing can be holy with you spawn of satan." Sophia laughed taking a sip of her water. I shrugged my shoulders because who was I kidding it was probably true. We caught up with one another and it made me notice that we weren't as close as times before. We'd become so busy and these small get togethers weren't enough for me. "Hey so I was thinking, let's hang out more. Like y'know the old days. We can have a sleepover at the new condo. We're literally in the harbor." "We?" Kelsey asked her mouth full of salad. "Oh yeah Nathan and I share." Kelsey didn't respond. "Totally sounds like fun." Sophia said helping herself to another piece of pizza. "We really don't hang out as much as we should." "Yeah..fun. I'll let you know if I'm busy." Uh oh my bad liar sense is tingling! I let it go because I wasn't about to open up old wounds over lunch. When I got back to the office I was assigned a bunch of BS work, but I just put my nose to the grindstone. When it finally came time to call off work I threw my briefcase into the front seat and made my way home. Living next to the water has always been a dream of mine, to be able to see the sun set on the horizon. I got in at about nine, the lights all off. "Nathan you home?" I called, throwing my keys on the counter. I opened up the fridge for the wine pulling the cork out and taking a swig straight from the bottle. I'm not an alcoholic by any means I just like my wine is all. "Nathan?" I heard some fumbling around from his room along with some shusing. "Yeah I'm coming!" Nathan said in a rushed tone. I walked over slowly to his room, andn immediately was greeted by him opening the door, barely peeking his head through. "What's up?" His breaths seemed fast and he looked messy his hair all fucked up. "Did I interrupt something..?" I looked on the floor noticing various articles of clothing strewn throughout. A few I'm pretty sure didn not belong to Nathan. "And..are those your panties?" "No no-'" "ACHOO!" I heard the sneeze from his closet. I gave Nathan an unamused look. "Are your clothes having allergies?" I asked smugly. "Look I don't care if you're sleeping with someone just don't BS me. You have needs clearly and I respect that same as I would hope you would for me." "Yeah of course." "So carry on?" Before I knew it a girl fell out of Nathan's closet tripping over things across the floor falling flat onto the ground.The light blonde hair made my eyes widen and jaw fall. She looked up at me, clenching a bedsheet covering herself up. "SOPHIA?! NOW HOW LONGS THIS BEEN A THING?!" Sophia and Nathan just looked at one another and both shrugged.

[ayyoitsalex]

Chapter 1 - Home Again

It's been a while since we last spoke. Eight years have gone by and I've finished up with college, worked for a few years, and I'm coming home. I've been living away from the town I call home from too long. There's my family, friends, and a new job waiting on the horizon and I've got my best friend slash girlfriend coming with me. If you're wondering, yes I do mean Sam. I've gotten my teaching credential along with my degree in English. It helped that my godmother was the principal of high school, so offering me a job was a no brainer. Sam had graduated with a degree in kinesiology with her mind set on working at any physical therapy clinic she could find. There's lots of other backstory to tell, but why give it up all at once? We'd been driving now for almost the entire day making our journey from Stanford back down to San Diego county, taking the occasional bathroom break and stop for food. it's not the easiest drive in the world, but atleast I wasn't going it alone. Though Sam was asleep, I powered through the last stretch of highway until I reached home. Sam and I had already rented  a place of our own, eager to be back in familiar territory. It wasn't the biggest house by any means, but it was enough for us. The house was in a good neighborhood, close to both our families, so we didnt hesitate. Our stuff was still arriving so we decided to have dinner at my parents. Mom especially was excited to have me back so close to home since I didn't come home from college right away. -RING- "Hello?" I answered turning the speaker phone on. "Hey where are you guys now? Moms wondering when she should start setting the table." Nathan asked. "Jesus what did she make a whole feast?" "Yeah you could say that. She's very excited. As are we all, it's about time you came back home." "Well estimated time is about twenty minutes, but I'm hauling ass." "Don't get a ticket- "OH! IF SHE GETS A TICKET I CAN LAWYER-" "NATALIE! Okay we'll see you soon." "Kay love you brother!" "Aha bye love you too." I hung up the phone, and if in case you were wondering what Natalie was getting at, she had recently graduated from law school and passed her bar. She was beginning her new life following in the footsteps of dad, and it made sense for Natalie to make a living out of arguing her way out of any situation. It surprised the hell out of all of us, but I'll admit kudos to her. She wanted to be a lawyer and she did it. We finally arrived in my neighborhood, Sam finally stirring awake. She texted her family, scheduling out her eventual meetings with them. "Glad to be back home?" Sam looked at me, setting down her phone. "Yeah. Being away was good for us, but I think it's time to be back around family and friends. Not that we didn't make friends..you know what I mean." "Sure sure. I'll admit I'll miss not having to worry about anybody else but us, but you're right I miss my parents and brothers a lot." "A new chapter." I parked in the driveway. We knocked on the front door, answered by a loud scream of excitement. Elizabeth answered the door, and it trips me out to this day how big she's getting. As of right now she is eight going on nine, and she might grow up taller than me. Fingers crossed I can keep my rank as tallest daughter. "Selly!" She hugged me tight, reaching for Sam as well. "So you're back home for good?" "Yesss baby sister now we can hang out all the time. Well when I'm not working. Now coolest big sister is finally home." "COOLEST SISTER?! You must be referring to moi." Natalie waltzed over smirking at me before finally giving me a hug. Elizabeth laughed at our back and forth before our sibling quartet was finally complete. "Are you too big and grown up to give your sister a welcoming home hug?" Nathan rolled his eyes and walked over. He hugged me tight lifting me up off the groud a bit. Nathan looked practically the same except now he grew beards but he kept them fairly trimmed as to not look so young as he likes to put it. I met with my parents, mom almost refusing to let me go in fear I'd leave again. "No more years away right?" Mom asked, her face buried in my shoulder. "Haha yes mother I have returned. Though did you go through all this trouble when Nathan and Natalie moved back for good?" Both Nathan and Natalie nodded furiously. "Oh..okay yeah I'm back." "Sam, it's also great to see you too, c'mere." Mom the everloving hugging machine. "So where're the twins living at?" I asked as we sat down to dinner. "They live downtown Oceancoast by the harbor." "Whoa how'd you guys swing that?" Natalie smiled proudly as she readied to answer. "Natalie helped a realtor stay out of jail." Nathan said. Natalie's jaw dropped feeling the thunder being stolen from her. "I WAS GONNA TELL THAT WHOLE STORY!" She smacked Nathan in the arm. "Jesus! Ouch!" Nathan chin-checked her in retaliation, and things began to escalate. Both Sam and I tried to hold back just exploding from laughter. Though mom cooled the situation immediately with a strong deathly stare at the both of them. Things ended then and there. Hopefully I inherited that little stare thing so if I'm teaching I can just WHAM stare and end whatever nonsense is happening. "Hey mom." I whispered. She turned to me with a raised eyebrow. "How'd you do that?" "Do what?" "That little end fighting death stare thing." "Over twenty years of parenting. That and refereeing fights between your father and Camryn." As dinner began to wrap up a familiar knock came at the door. I knew right away who it was, and I practically jumped straight out of my seat with excitement. "AUNT HALEY!" I ran to the door. Aunt Haley always knocks three times and rings the doorbell, it's like her OCD calling card. I hugged her right away, almost knocking over Uncle Brian, Austin, and Hannah. "Mm hi buddy. Glad to have you back home." I made my way through hugging the rest of her familly. "So, we're gonna be co-workers?" "Haha don't say it like that it makes it sound weird!" "But that's what it is! I teach dance and body dynamics, and you're teaching freshman english. So should I save you a spot in the teachers lounge? There's a mug with your name on it." "Aughhhh stopppp haha, and besides you know I think coffee is gross." "Ah thats right you're just like your dad. Energy drinks make you a person." "Exactly. FLOWS THROUGH MY VEINS." "So question girly." "Hm?" "Do you ever plan to get married?" "I mean I'd like to but I'm not sure if Sam is." "Never know unless you ask right? Look don't let me feel like I'm pressuring you, I just wanna make sure you get to do all the things in life you wanna do." "I know." Around eleven Sam and I left my parents to head into our house for the first time. There were piles upon piles of boxes, along with our furniture. We pushed the mattress into the master bedroom and opened up boxes to find pillows. We figured we didn't need sheets for tonight. Sam and I collapsed onto the bed together curling close to one another. "I love you. You know that?" Sam whispered running her fingers through my hair. "I love you too." I yawned as I nestled closer into Sam. Slowly we drifted to sleep. -Next Monday- I got up early for my first day of work, trying to find the perfect outfit that made me look professional, but at the same time not so uptight. Y'know..a cool teacher. Which I'm sure no ones ever said about an english teacher. When I got on campus I was getting flashbacks from when I went here. The keys unlocked my classroom that i'd spent the week before decorating and i just thought about all the work I put in to get here. After a while I realized I had gotten here with enough time to stop in to see another old friend. I knocked on the door of Principal Erikson. She smiled at me, waving me inside. "Welcome aboard Ms. Ryan." "It's so weird being here as a teacher aunt Bri. I mean I was here! Less than ten years ago." "Aha don't worry that's normal. I remember my first time teaching here before I became principal. It'll pass, but don't let those older teachers intimidate you cause you're new. Don't let them feel like you're here cause of me either. I hired you because I know you and how hard you work." "Thanks a lot aunt Bri. I mean I really can't thank you enough." "Just don't make me look like I made a bad decision." "You won't regret it." Before I knew it we'd talked for a good thirty minutes and the clammor of students could be heard. "Alright, do me proud." We hugged and I went off to my first class. There was a line of students waiting for me to open the door. Ah the looks of young freshman still optimistic about high school, unbeknownst to the trauma ahead of them for the next four years. I welcomed them in while they took their seats, the obvious friends sitting next to one another. I made it a point for this not to happen. "Okay class welcome to English, I'm gonna be your teacher; Ms. Ryan." I wrote my name up on the board. "So first things first, I noticed a lot of you have friends in this class and thats all well and good, but we're gonna make sure that we're all gonna get to know one another. So stnad up please." They stood up tentatively. "I will hand you a number at random, and you will sit at that assigned desk for three weeks. You will be partnered with the four people in your row for that period of time when we do group activity. Understand?" "Yes ms. Ryan." I handed out numbers and the new groups were formed. Clearly there was a feeling our period for their new surroundings. "Alright now everyone get comfortable and get to know your new partners for the next three weeks as I take roll." I ran through roll call as I tried my best to match faces to names. "Derek Cruz?" A hand raised. "Jasmine Davis?" Something about that name. I looked around the room for a raised hand. "Here!" A girl walked into the room, and I nearly dropped my clipboard. I stopped dead into what I was doing. She looked just like Alex, and that's where I remembered. Alex had a sister named Jazzy. "But I prefer-" "Jazzy." She tilted her head. "Um..yeah..how'd? "Oh..I um just good guess. Take your seat please, here's a number." The whole rest of class I just let the class socialize, as I sat there trying not to stare. She had the same messy brown hair, icy blue eyes, and wore a black vest similar to the one Alex would wear. I knew I couldn't let her know, but I wanted to tell her so badly that I knew her. She was such a little girl that I wouldn't want to bring back any painful memory from that long ago. She looked to be in a good place. I walked around the room making sure everything was fine. I noticed a picture of the mother; ms. Julie from dad's office. It was definitely her.

[twxstedbliss]

[ayyoitsalex]

Chapter 4 - Perks of Being Caffeinated

Moving all the way out to North Carolina hasn't exactly been the easiest thing in the world, and even though Sophia is here too it's just not the same. We go to rival schools, and that here means a whole lot. North Carolina and Duke are the biggest rivals in the state, with some people taking it to extreme lengths. When I got off the plane in Raleigh, I was wearing my Duke cheerleader shirt, and someone wearing a UNC sweater literally just stared and gave me the finger. Like what the actual fuck am I right? It's not all bad, I got set up in a pretty sizable dorm suite. Albeit I share with three other girls. Two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen. It sure beats the hell out of some of the dorms I saw when I toured here last year. Now I bet you're even wondering why I even chose Duke. Valid question, and yes while I did receive offers from other school for athletic scholarship as well, Duke was the farthest away. It's not that I didn't want to be close to my family, I just saw it as the biggest leap out of my comfort zone. And I did feel a certain connection when mom told me that my grandma was accepted here, though she didn't finish since she got pregnant with mom. I'd been named after my grandma, so I felt some kind of responsibility to make sure I made her proud despite not having known her. -First Day- The sound of girls arguing outside the bathroom had become a typical sight in the mornings. I heard my three other roommates; Becca, Rachel, and Erika all with first day jitters and desiring to look their best. I on the other hand could not give one less fuck. I had an eight thirty class, and I was determined to go in comfy clothes. I sprayed dry shampoo in my hair, and ran a brush through the tangled mess growing from the top of my head. Once I looked somewhat presentable, I put on some yoga pants and a tank top and picked up some breakfast on the way to class. "See you guys later." I said, picking up my keys on my way  out the door. I locked the door behind me, throwing on my sunglasses to complete my ensemble. I left early enough that i could stop by the Devil's Brew. It's the local coffee shop by campus that I've come to love. Had to get my early caffiene fix so I could be a person in front of a class today if need be. I came up to the counter and said; "Yeah, hi can I get a large blue devil latte?" "Can I get a name please?" The barista asked. "Natalie." "Ah that's my sister's name." Useless small talk is like the bane of my existence before I've had my morning coffee. I literally hate everyone and everything until I'm fueled up. Though I  was a good girl and smiled back at the barista. Waiting on my caffiene is the absolute worst, but it's all made better when I hear my name called. The warmth of the coffee cup against my hands almost warms up my heart so I'm not a fucking asshole to the rest of the world. I cheerfully now made my way across campus to my first class. I took a seat in the middle of the pack of students as we awaited the beginning of our lecture. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to major in just yet, so for the most part I was just taking general education classes. First up, sociology. "Welcome to Soc 101, I'm going to be your professor." The teacher stood up at the white board, proceeding to write; Mrs. Bradley in big letters. "And first off I'd like to say I wil not be allowing drinking or eating within my class, so young lady if you will." I groaned internally, but stood up slowly and went on to throw away my cup of what was four dollars and fifty cents. "Thank you, and your name please dear?" "Natalie. Natalie Ryan." "Well let's just mark you as here." The way she spoke was oddly nice but at the same time felt a tad condescending. Whatever, I remembered what my mom told me before I left for school. DO NOT GIVE YOUR TEACHERS ATTITUDE, SABRINA CANNOT SAVE YOU HERE. Class went by pretty quick, and I walked by the trash where my lonely coffee was slowly dying. I wept a little inside for the loss of caffiene. I moved forward, and just settled on a pepsi from the machine. I had a cheer meeting next, followed by a gymnastics practice. For only doing this for a year and a half now, I honestly feel incredible. Also the leotards make me feel sexy, not to sound weird or anything. Getting back to the dorm, it was finally quiet with everyone either taking some kind of nap or glued to some kind of screen. I walked into my room and saw Becca sitting at the desk with her headphones on. We waved at one another, but she was clearly too busy for a conversation. I let her be, and got on my laptop. Nathan and Selena were both online, so I messaged them both. "Heyyy!" It took a minute for both of them to respond. "Hey Nat!" Nathan replied. "Yola Natty, how's the first day?" "Eh it was alright, just school." "Have you guys talked to mom and dad today?" "Nah not yet. I have practice soon." "How's being back at Stanford with Sam? YOU GUYS SEXING YET LOL?!" "OMG STOP ITTTTT LOL. SAMS LITERALLY RIGHT HERE." "JESUSSSS WHY AM I IN THIS CONVERSATION WITH MY SISTERS?!" "LOL sorry just figured I'd ask. And hey atleast if you did she can't get you pregnant. AHEM NATHANIEL DO NOT IMPREGNATE KELSEY." "I hate you guys so much rn." I could feel that Nathan wasn't having it, so I let off. "Anyway, I'll text you guys. I'm going to practice." "Bye twinnnn! Throw the things! xD" -Nathan has signed off- "Omg lol. Bye Nathan. I gotta go too. I have a shift at the library." "Alright fiiiine. Leave me!" "Overdramatic much? lol I'll text you." "Kbyeeee love you." "Love you too." -Selena has signed off- I sat up in bed, and Becca finally set down her headphones. "You wanna grab some food?" Becca asked, stretching her arms out. "I'm thinking of pizza." "Yeah I'm down. We gonna bring Rachel and Erika?" "I don't know. Maybe haha. YOU BITCHES WANT SOME PIZZA WITH ME AND NAT?" "YES!" They both yelled back. "Answer your question? C'mon let's go." I threw on my leather jacket and gallavanted with my roommates. It was fun walking around the streets of the city. It was just so much different from what I was used to. We got a table at the restaurant, and naturally I scanned the place for eye candy. Sadly if you're wondering at this point I am not still dating Wes. Wes and I both decided it was going to be hard for both of us to continue being in a relationship. It was mutally agreed, and I have no ill feelings toward him. Just as sadly everyone was pretty fuckin ugly, so color me disappointed. "What're we having tonight ladies?" We all looked at one another and mutually agreed on half pepperoni and half supreme. "One large with half supreme and half pepperoni please?" I spoke for the group. "Alright, I'll send this right in." "Thank you." We all replied. “I still don’t understand why we couldn’t get hawaiian..” Rachel moped slightly.  “Because no one likes pineapples on pizza Rachel!” Erika snapped. “I do...” Rachel hung her head for a moment, but it quickly passed. A few minutes after waiting, a basket of breadsticks and wings came to our  table, and we all looked at one another confused.

"Um..excuse me we didn't order these.." Becca said awkwardly. "These are from that table of gentlemen over there." They waved over at us smiling like a bunch of drooling dogs. Right now I'm not really in the market for a boyfriend. I'm more into window shopping and admiring. Y'know like any broke college student. Our pizza arrived a bit after and we all mowed down dinner. Gotta love the athletes metabolism am I right? Eat pretty much anything in sight. When we paid the bill, I noticed the group of boys following behind us. They sped up to catch up with us. "Hey hope you enjoyed dinner." One of them flashed a toothy grin. "Yeah it was great, thank you for sending us that stuff." Erika loved humoring people. "Well how about we all hang out? It's still early." I looked down at my watch that read eight-thirty. "Mm..I don't think so...I have an early day tomorrow." I pulled on Becca to get back to the dorm. "No wait." One of them grabbed my arm, pulling me back. "I think you all might owe us a little." "Oh yeah? For what a couple of pieces of bread and some chicken?" I scoffed. He gripped my arm tighter. I pulled slightly, and he wasn't getting the signal. "You really need to let go of my arm. Or I'm not gonna be responsible for what happens." "What's that-" BAM! My foot soared up right in between his legs, I think I might've heard a crack as his voice went up a few octaves. "When a lady says no. You take it as such." He laid there in a fetal position on the ground as the rest of them dispersed. I rolled my eyes as we walked back laughing as to what just happened. Some people just don't get the message, and if it means I gotta break some balls to get it across then so be it. I fairly warned him. If this is any signs of things to come in my new life here, I'm not sure what to think.