First day of school for the twins. For more free flash reading check out the list of authors at the bottom of this post.
Chapter 20
“I do not want to go to that place!” Danny said.
Trent tried to keep calm. “Danny, you have to go. It’ll be fun. You’ll learn stuff and find new friends.”
“Will not be fun. I know it won’t be fun. Everything that’s fun is here at home.”
“And everything will still be here in a few hours. Then you can have fun stuff at home, and fun stuff at school.”
Danny wiped a tear of frustration from his eye. “Did you go to school? Was it fun?”
“Da and I both went to school. Da went to more school than I did. We both learned a lot.”
Danny stopped squirming and looked at Trent. “But did you have fun?”
Trent thought back on his school days, and cringed. He studied Danny for a few moments as he tried to think of how to tell him the truth without making things worse. “Some days were fun. Especially when I was your age. But some people don’t like anyone who’s different. Da and I are different, so sometimes they were mean.”
“I’m a girl. Everybody is a boy here. Are people not going to like me because I’m a girl?
Trent turned to find Sammy and Josh standing at the door. He shifted his gaze to Josh as he tried to work out an answer. “You can jump in here anytime you’d like.”
“You’re doing fine. I’m just listening.”
“Great. We’re gonna chat later.” He shifted his attention back to Sammy. “Come here, sweetie. Both of you.”
Trent sat on the bed and let the twins climb onto his knees. “Okay, first. You’re both going to have a great time. You are good kids and other kids will want to play with you too. But some people won’t like you, and usually it’s for stuff you can’t even control, like the color of your skin, or who you fall in love with.”
“Like you and Da? How you explained some people will be curious because we have two dads?”
“That’s right. But some people have odd ideas about what’s right and what’s wrong…and it kind of rots their brains.”
“Trent…”
Trent jerked his head up to see Josh cocking an eyebrow. “Hey, you know I’m right.”
“Trent.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know.” He turned back to the kids. “Some people won’t understand about our family, and that’s not your fault. But most people will be your friends, and it will be fine.”
Sammy almost whispered. “What if they’re mean to us?”
“Then you deck ‘em,” Trent said.
“Trent!”
“Okay, okay. Don’t hit anyone. You just tell your teacher.”
“And what will she do?” Danny asked.
“They will talk to whoever is being mean and tell them they need to stop.”
Danny nodded and Sammy wrapped her arms around Trent’s neck and hugged him. They raced off to their room to grab their backpacks and finish getting ready. Trent watched them as they left before turning Josh with an eyebrow cocked. “You know it’s not going to be sunshine and cotton candy for the kids. This is small town western Oklahoma.”
“I know. We’ve talked about it enough. But it won’t do any good to have them thinking everyone will hate them.”
“We may avoid it for a little while, but they’re going to run into kids who won’t like them just because of us. It kills me that we might be making our kids lives even a little more difficult.”
Trent considered for a moment and shook his head. “We didn’t do anything wrong. Sometimes life is hard, but we didn’t intentionally make the kids have a hard time. I think we’re damn good parents.”
Josh held up his hands in mock surrender. “Okay, okay. You win. Let’s get this wagon train moving.”
The trip to school was uneventful. Sad that the kids were already going to school, and knowing he would miss their times together, Trent knew Josh was right. They would deal with the problems as they came up, and he didn’t need to go looking for issues.
They parked the truck and walked into the building with the twins. They located the classrooms and Josh went with Sammy while Trent took Danny into his room. They walked through the door to find controlled chaos, and a teacher who looked thrilled with it. She waded through the kids to greet them.
“Good Morning, I’m Mrs. Anderson. And who might you be?”
“I’m Danny.”
“Nice to meet you, Danny. I think we’re going to have a great year. Let me show you where to hang your backpack.”
Danny took her hand and crossed the room to put up his bag. Once that was accomplished, Danny stood watching another little boy who was busily building…something.
“Hi. I’m Danny.”
“Hey, I’m Ryan. You want to help? I’m building a castle.”
Trent grinned, relieved that at least one of the twins had found a friend. The teacher walked back and motioned him into the hallway.
“He’ll be fine. He’s already got a buddy in the class. Don’t worry about him.”
“Oh, he’ll be worrying until this afternoon when he picks the twins up.” Trent turned to find that Josh had returned.
“Everything go alright?”
“I think so. Sammy found a little boy and when she told him she has her own horse, she was his best friend.”
Trent turned back to the teacher and explained. “We have twins. So it’s twice the drama today.”
“So you are…”
“Oh, sorry. This is my husband, Josh.”
Her face froze in place as her flesh seemed to transform to granite when Trent shared this bit of information.
If you’d like to see a snippet from the other Wednesday Briefs authors you can go to the groups website. Or click on the name listed below to go directly to the story.
Jon L Keys 