Chapter One; Brace Face
Jane and I walked into the waiting room. Today was her dentist appointment. Today was also very special because it was my son's thirteenth birthday and now he was officially a teenager. I had the hardest time in the world convincing him to get out of bed this morning though. I know the last thing in the world that he wants to do is go to school on his birthday but unfortunately I don't make the rules.
Well, actually I do since I'm his father but not about school since it didn't even exist on my planet. However Cassie came up with a cool way to motivate him with a pill that she invented called Super Strength that gives you the ability to pick up objects three thousand times your weight, and no I didn't steal it from Lilo and Stitch because she was the one who did.
Still I've got to admit that it was pretty cool to see him lift the couch above his shoulders this morning. Although I am concerned that he might accidentally pull the door off of his locker. Anyway I could tell that my daughter was pretty nervous when she sat down next to me. She just had her eyes examined, and even though she had 20-20 vision, and she was in perfect health when she had her doctor's appointment, she still didn't receive a gold star for her teeth yet.
That's when suddenly the dentist (a young woman with auburn hair bright blue eyes and freckles) stuck her head out the door holding her clipboard. "Jane Smith." She read off of it.
"Alright, go ahead." I told her with a nod.
"Aw Dad do I have to?" she asked me with a groan.
"Afraid so, after all you'll be starting school next week and you want to make sure that your teeth are in perfect healthy condition." I told her. "But I don't think that you have anything to worry about since I know that you take really good care of them." I said as she slowly stood up and walked over to the dentist.
"This way." She told her with a warm and loving smile as I watched her leave and then all of a sudden I felt my cellphone vibrate. I reached down and quickly answered it.
"Hullo?" I said.
"Hullo Doctor this is Clara." She began as I felt a gut wrenching feeling in my stomach. The last time she called me this early was because she caught Peter cheating on his history test.
"Uh oh," I began with a roll of my eyes. "what has Peter done now?" I questioned her reluctantly.
"He hasn't done anything actually. He's actually improving his grades. Although I have to admit that I was rather concerned when I saw him putting his hand through the boys' lavatory door, but I was just wondering if you were still free on coaching his basketball team this afternoon after school." She said.
"Yes, I was planning on being there actually. And as for the lavatory incident, you can blame that on Cassie's Super Strength pills." I told her.
"Oh I see, do I want to know?" she asked me.
"I don't think so." I answered with a quick shake of my head.
"The joys of teaching an alien." She said sarcastically as she breathed a heavy sigh.
"Listen Clara I have to go. I'm waiting for my daughter to get done with her dentist appointment. I'll see you later after school." I told her and I quickly hung up before she could ask why Jane wasn't in school yet. A little while later she returned and the dentist called me over to the desk to pay the bill and schedule her next appointment.
"Jane's teeth were in perfect health and she doesn't have any cavities." She told me.
"Wow, that's great!" I exclaimed excitedly.
"Unfortunately she is going to need braces." She told me as my grin immediately disappeared.
"Oh." I said simply. I should have known that already since I had gone through it before with Peter since he had recently gotten braces. He had been really quiet and dreary looking when he found out and avoided eye contact with me just like Jane had been doing now. Although unlike Jane he had had cavities before.
I turned my head over to look at her slinking into the corner before deciding to use the restroom. Then I turned to look back at the dentist. "When will she have to have it done?" I asked her.
"I can schedule an appointment for her sometime next week if you want." She said.
"Well could it possibly be sooner than that? We're planning to be out of town by then." I explained.
"Well how about at the end of the week? Does that work for you?" she asked me.
"Yes that should work out just fine. I've got somewhere to be tomorrow but it's only a few hours away and we'll be back by then." I told her as I finished paying my bill. Then she gave me a new toothbrush for Jane along with strawberry dental floss and a cherry flavored lollipop. After Jane came out of the loo we walked into the parking lot together.
"Dad, do I have to get braces?" she asked me.
"Yes you don't want to go to Hogwarts with crooked teeth do you?" I questioned her back.
"No, but I was the most popular girl in elementary school, and now I'm going to look like a total geek." She said.
"Oh c'mon your brother has braces." I told her as we neared the car.
"Exactly my point." She said as I pushed the unlock button.
"Oh that's enough, I know you really don't mean that. Besides the nice thing about it is you can pick out whichever ones you want. They can even be girly like pink or purple if you'd like." I told her before I climbed into the driver's seat and she climbed in the passenger's side and then we both buckled up before I pulled out of the parking lot and drove away.