Building A Family
Summary: When Dot and Larry decided to become foster parents, they never imagined a year later they’d be caretakers to six, filling their house with angsty teens and rambunctious kids
***
“Dot! Larry!” Remus screamed off the top of his lungs.
The couple came rushing into the room.
“What’s the matter?” Dot asked, kneeling down to console the crying eight year old.
Remus sniffled. “Roman stole the toy I was playing with.”
Larry sighed. “Roman, come here, now.”
Roman trotted in, very clearly aware he was about to get in trouble.
“Remus wouldn’t share,” he said before any punishment could be dealt out.
“I was playing with it first!”
“You were only playing with it because you knew I wanted to.”
“Stop it, both of you,” Dot said, standing up. “There will be no fighting in this house.”
The twins quieted down.
“Now Roman, you can’t take a toy-“
“I didn’t take it,” Roman said. “Patton gave it to me.”
Dot and Larry shared a look.
“Patton,” Dot called. She looked back at Larry. “Can you take care of these two?”
“Yeah,” Larry said. “Come on boys, we have a lot to talk about.”
“This is your fault,” Remus muttered as they followed Larry out of the room.
Patton passed them as he walked in.
“Is something wrong?” He asked.
“Come sit with me,” Dot said as she sat down on the floor. “Look, Patton, you can’t go around parenting other kids.”
“I was just making sure they shared,” Patton said.
“I know things were hard at your last home-“
Patton stood up. “You said we never had to talk about that.”
“I’m sorry Patton,” Dot said.
Patton stared at his feet. “It’s okay.”
“If the other kids are having an issue, let them sort it out or tell Larry or me, you need to stop trying to solve it yourself.”
“I was just trying to help,” Patton said, his stare not moving.
“I know sweetie, but we don’t need you helping us parent, you’re eleven, we need you to be a kid.”
“I’m trying.”
“I know sweetie, I know,” Dot said. “If you want to help with something, you can help me up, I didn’t think this through.”
Patton took Dot’s hand and helped her up off the ground.
“WHAT ARE THOSE!” Larry yelled from the other room.
“I am not getting a break today.” Dot sighed and walked out of the room, Patton in tow. “Patton, go finish your homework.”
“It’s finished.”
“Go have fun then, let me take care of this.”
“Right, sorry,” Patton said, walking away.
Dot walked into the living room to see Larry standing in front of Janus, their newest foster kid. She walked up next to Larry to see Janus sporting some snake bite piercings he didn’t have when he went to school that morning.
“Oh my G-where did you get those?” Dot asked.
“My boyfriend did it for me, what’s the big deal?” Janus crossed his arms.
“Boyfriend?”
“The problem, young man, is that a random teenager put metal in your face,” Larry said.
Janus rolled his eyes.
“It looks nice though, doesn’t it Larry?” Dot said.
“It-I-wha-”
“Doesn’t it Larry?” Dot gave him a look.
“Yes?”
“I’m going to my room.” Janus walked past them and down the hall.
“Metal...in his face...he could...infections Dot,” Larry whispered.
“I know Larry, but he’s fifteen and going through more than he should have to, I’ll remind him to clean it properly and we’ll keep an eye on it, if it looks like there’s an infection, we’ll take him to a doctor,” Dot said.
“None of the others did anything like this.”
“They all tested us in their own way.”
Larry pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’re right.”
“You know what, let’s go out to dinner tonight,” Dot said. “It’ll be a bonding experience.”
“Are you sure, restaurants can be overwhelming for the twins,” Larry said.
“We’ll go to Dino’s, they have coloring pages to distract the twins and it’s a Wednesday, not a lot of people will be there.”
Larry grabbed his keys. “Alright.”
“Boys! Get your shoes on, we’re going to dinner!”
In a couple minutes, five kids made their way out the door and into the car.
“Larry,” Dot said.
“I’m taking care of it.”
Larry walked back into the house and into the room Janus and Virgil shared. Janus was on his bed staring at his phone.
“I’m not going,” he said, not looking up from his phone.
“Dinner isn’t optional,” Larry said.
“I’ll make myself something.”
“You’ll make yourself get into the car and enjoy a family dinner.”
Janus sat up. “You aren’t my family.”
“You want to be with your mom, I get it, I want you to be able to go back too, but until then, you’re stuck with us.”
Janus looked angry. He stared at Larry, but Larry didn’t budge.
“Fine.” Janus got up and followed Larry to the car.
“Alrighty then,” Dot said as they shut their doors. “Seatbelts everyone.”
The restaurant only had a few patrons. They were seated right away and Roman and Remus were given crayons and a coloring menu.
“Anything look good to you Janus?” Dot asked.
“Not particularly,” Janus said.
“Larry, why does Janus have piercings on his lips?” Patton asked.
“Mind your own business,” Janus said.
“I like it,” Remus said as he scribbled green across his menu. “Can I get my lip pierced.=?”
“Uh...” Dot and Larry shared a look. “How about we start with the ears and see how that goes sweetie.”
“Cool.”
“If Remus is getting his ears pierced, I want my ears pierced,” Roman said.
The waiter came over to the table. “Are you ready to order?”
Dot looked around the table. “Everyone?”
There were shrugs and nods of agreement.
The waiter took everyone’s order. It wasn’t long until before their food was brought out, Dino’s was always quick with service.
“How are your classes going Logan?” Dot asked.
“Excellent,” Logan said. “My AP astronomy teacher assigned us to choose a planet and write an essay about it.”
“That sounds like fun,” Dot said.
“Sounds lame,” Virgil said.
Dot glared at the seventeen year old.
“Which planet did you choose?” Larry asked.
“Haumea.” Logan took a bite of broccoli.
“That’s not a real planet,” Roman said. “You made that up.”
“It’s a dwarf planet, and it’s fascinating,” Logan said.
“It’s dumb,” Roman said.
“Space is cool, stupid,” Remus said.
“Remus, we don’t say stupid,” Dot said.
“How about you Virgil, how’s classes going?” Larry said. “Your last report card showed improvement.”
“School’s school.”
“Janus-”
“Pass.”
Dinner went by a bit awkwardly. When they got home, the kids all went straight to their rooms, not talking to Dot or Larry.
“That could’ve went better,” Larry said, sitting down on the couch.
“Yeah.” Dot joined him on the couch. “I don’t know what’s going on with Virgil.”
“He’s not going to tell us.”
“Never does.”
Larry rubbed his face. “I knew kids were going to be hard, but not this hard.”
“Remember what Dr. Picani said: be patient, this kids are hurting and we need to be here for them, but we can’t push them.”
Dot put her hand on Larry’s leg. Larry held her hand. They looked at each other, finding calm in one another.
“We got this Dot.”
That moment was one of those rare moments of peace they occasionally got. It was nice.
“Larry! Dot!”
***
I might write more for this if people like it, I have ideas, but no coherent story in mind
I take constructive criticism
