Author's Note: Posted this story about a month ago, then took it down. Decided to repost again, because I liked it too much to just throw away.

"A little higher on the left," Jenna instructed.

From her position on the ladder, Clare threw her an exasperated look. "You keep telling me that," she snapped.

"Because it's crooked," Jenna insisted. "Just move it up like a half an inch more, Clare-Bear."

Clare whirled around and inspected her efforts from atop the ladder. "It looks fine from here," she said stubbornly, hands on her hips.

"I'm telling you, it's crooked."

"Okay," Eli piped in. He stood mirror to Clare, on another ladder, holding the right side of the banner in his hand. "Why don't we do this. Jenna can help me hang this, and Clare can be the monitor. Alright? Or else we'll never get this hung, and I wanna go home."

"I thought you wanted to help me decorate the school for Valentine's Day," Clare said.

Eli rolled his eyes. "It's only fun to think about your own Valentine's Day with your amazing, wonderful, sexy girlfriend. Everybody else's, I don't really care about."

"Eli!"

"Okay," Jenna relented. She motioned for Clare to step down. "Fine. We'll trade. K.C.'s mom is going to be here any minute to pick me up."

Jenna scrambled up the ladder and grabbed her end of the banner, as Clare stepped about ten feet back to observe their efforts. "How's it looking now, Clare-Bear?"

Clare shielded her eyes under the fluorescent lights and studied their work. "A little more on your side, Jenna," she called.

Across from her, Eli snickered.

Jenna made a face at him. "Oh, shut up."

He threw up his hands playfully, still grinning to himself.

"Jenna, just another inch or so on your side, and it should be alright," Clare called.

"Why not just make Eli lower his?" Jenna snapped back.

"I got it," Eli whispered. Stepping down a rung, he lowered his edge, and tacked the banner to the wall. "That good?" he called to Clare.

She threw him a thumbs-up. "C'est magnifique!" she smiled. She came over to them and reached for Eli, who bent down to her from his perch. Stepping on the tips of her toes, she closed her eyes as their lips met for a kiss as bright as a bride's blush.

Jenna looked away, fiddling with the straps on the banner and trying not to feel like a voyeur. She could feel her heating up as the couple beside her didn't pull away- in fact, they didn't even seem to remember she was there.

Suddenly, her pocked buzzed, and she grabbed her phone to check the new message.

"Oh, come on," she groaned.

Clare broke away from the kiss for a moment to look at her. "Everything alright?"

Jenna rolled her eyes and shoved her phone back in her pocket. "No. K.C. just texted me to tell me that he's staying at Drew's for dinner. Again." She sighed. "He knows Thursday nights are our dinner nights. It's the only night that Lisa doesn't have to work, so she watches the baby while we go out to dinner. But the past two weeks, all he's done is hang out with his friends. He's almost never home anymore, even on school nights."

Clare gave her a sympathetic look. "Have you told his mom? She might talk to him about sticking around more."

Jenna shook her head. "I did," she replied. "And Lisa said she'd bring it up. But that only makes K.C. mad, and he started getting into a lot of fights with his mom." She leaned against the wall tiredly. "I know that Lisa's right, but she made K.C. feel like we were ganging up on him. And right now, I need all the help I can get, so it's just easier if I keep my mouth shut."

"That's not fair to you, though," Clare argued. "He's Jordan's dad; he should help raise her."

"In theory," Jenna said drily.

Eli, his arms still wrapped around Clare, gave Jenna a compassionate look.

"Hang in there," he said gently. "You're being a good mom. Keep focusing on her; K.C. will come around in time."

"Yeah," Jenna mumbled. "I really hope so."

Her phone buzzed again. Expecting another text from K.C., she checked and saw it was from Lisa; she was here to pick her up. With a sigh, Jenna shrugged into her enormous overcoat and hoisted her bag over her shoulders. "Later, guys," she called.

Clare and Eli both waved to her. "Thanks for your help!" Clare called after her.

Lisa's car was pulled right in front of the gym; Jenna gingerly stepped her way through the muck of slush and muddy snow at her feet, nearly slipping and falling on her behind as the sole of her boot tread over a patch of ice right near the car.

The woman grinned at her as she scrambled inside. "Brrrr," she teased. "It is freezing out there. Thought my nose would turn into an icicle and freeze off just walking from work to the car."

"Yeah," Jenna agreed. She turned around in her seat and saw Jordan in her car seat, bundled up in a pink snow outfit that made her look like a microwaved marshmallow.

"Hi, munchkin," she called brightly. "Did you miss your mommy?" She leaned into the backseat and kissed her daughter's forehead. "I missed you all day long."

Lisa smiled at her. "I hope you and K.C. are getting something hot for dinner tonight," she said. "It's only supposed to get colder tonight."

Jenna frowned. "You'll have to ask Mrs. Torres what they're having," she muttered. "He's staying at Drew's for dinner."

"Again?" Lisa said incredulously. "But it's Thursday. I thought Thursday was your date night."

Jenna shrugged, staring out the window. "Guess not."

Lisa focused her eyes on the road, but kept peering over at her concernedly. "Do you want me to talk to him?" she asked.

Jenna shook her head. She knew that he would only get mad; as much as she was pissed he was bailing on their only night to spend together, she would talk to him about it herself. Involving his mother would only make him mad and defensive, and they'd just get into a big fight that would leave both of them nowhere.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. "I'll talk to him myself."

"Okay," Lisa said, but didn't sound too convinced.

Jenna couldn't exactly blame her. Things were pretty tense at home lately; it hadn't been easy on any of them, especially Lisa, who often got stuck in the middle of their fights.

She sighed, frustrated. She had thought moving in with her boyfriend would be easier than this.

Right before Jordan had been born, they had talked about it, and both of them had agreed that neither of them were ready for that just yet- not to mention Kyle didn't want her moving almost forty minutes away. But when Jordan was three months old, it just seemed easier to move in together. It was so complicated, trying to work out where the baby would stay on what nights with whom, and since Kyle didn't allow K.C. to stay the night, the pinballing from house to house and the instability of never knowing what was happening day to day had caused them too much stress. So while Kyle disliked the idea of Jenna taking the baby and moving in with K.C., even he had to admit that it was probably the best plan. Now, at least, both parents would be living under one permanent roof.

It looked like the best possible solution, and on paper seemed to kill multiple birds with one stone. The transportation issues were solved. No more moving baby stuff- or the baby- back and forth nearly every night of the week. Knowing that they had a steady roof over their heads brought peace of mind to two already-overstressed teen parents. And most importantly, it was best for Jordan to have a permanent place to live, instead of being bounced from house to house- something K.C. was dead-set against, given the group facilities and foster homes he had spent his youth in and out of, like a revolving door.

Things had been alright at first, and it was nice not having to house-hop all the time, but Jenna knew that the strain of living under roof with an infant was really beginning to wear on both of them. Not only did they not have jobs yet (both had been applying since before Jordan was born, but it seemed like nobody was hiring anywhere) and were entirely dependent on Kyle and Lisa for support, but the stress of school, money, and having a baby was grinding away at what little stability they had. It seemed to Jenna like all they did lately was fight.

Because neither one of them wanted to argue in front of the baby, they tried their best to be civil at the very least, but Jenna thought that was even worse. It was like living in a pressure cooker. Both of them just bit their tongues and turned away; instead of facing their troubles and talking things over, they just made little passive-aggressive stabs at one another that only led to bruised feelings and bad tempers.

Neither one of them would say a single word, yet at the same time, they were both determined to have the last one.

When they reached a red light, Lisa glanced once more at Jenna, and then looked in the backseat at Jordan, nodding off in her car seat.

She turned back to Jenna with a smile. "We'll have our own dinner tonight," she promised. "I've wanted to make lasagna for awhile. We could have a regular Italian dinner, just us girls." She turned back to Jordan and squeezed her foot. "Right, baby? You, me, and Mommy, all gonna have a girl's night?"

Jordan made an indistinguishable sound, and Lisa turned back to her with a grin. "Sounds like she likes the plan."

Jenna tried to smile back, but all she could think about was how much K.C. seemed to be one foot out the door these days.