Sequel!! Ummm… inspired by BrieStarWarsQueen! Hope you like it! =]
Jones was hiding behind Vince's leg, clutching his favourite toy, Baby Gregg to his chest, and staring wide-eyed at the massive brick wall of the school. Vinward was shoving him lightly in the shoulder but he was not going to move.
"Come on Jonesy." Vince said soothingly, crouching down and stroking his hair gently. "It'll be really fun I promise."
"Yeah. Come on." Howard smiled, ruffling his smallest son's hair gently, which did not go down well. After much fussing and putting his hair back, Jones looked up at his dads.
"B-but… why c-can't I stay at h-home with you?" the boy asked. He was sniffing a little and his eyes were wet but he wasn't crying.
Vinward, who was hiding behind Howard's corduroy leg, was crying. There were tears rolling down his face but he was trying to hide them in the manliest of ways.
"Daddy," he whispered, tugging the brown material until Howard was forced to take notice, "I don't want to go in there." he pointed a trembling finger at the prison-like school. "Why can't we come home and work in the shop today?"
"Yeah." Jones agreed, "We'll be really good this time." he promised.
"I'll help Naboo." Richmond suggested appearing out of nowhere. Unsurprisingly, Richmond was the one least bothered about starting school but now he saw an opportunity to go home, he joined in too. And suddenly, Howard found himself met by four pleading faces.
"Vince." he warned as the younger man, still crouched on the floor, begged Howard to let them take the kids home again.
Vince hadn't even wanted them to go to school yet. He hadn't let them go to school because it wasn't compulsory but now, Howard was putting his foot down.
"No." the older man said firmly. "They're going to school and they're going to enjoy it."
Vince frowned huffily and got slowly to his feet. Deep in his heart, he knew Howard was probably right but he felt sick to the stomach. Their son's were growing up. This was a life changing moment. They weren't his babies anymore. Okay, maybe he was being a bit melodramatic, though he was nowhere near as melodramatic as some mothers. One was crying into a handkerchief and waving her daughter off like she wasn't going to see her for weeks. One was point-blank refusing to let go of her son.
"Mum." This boy was whinging. "Mum. This is well off. Not cool."
"Oh Nathan, I don't care if it's cool."
Jones pointed at the boy and giggled. The boy named Nathan snapped his eyes on the smallest Noir-Moon boy and glared at him, causing the younger boy to shiver a little as he was pushed unceremoniously by his parents towards the school door.
The teacher took the three boys into the room, with a cuddle for each of them, and ushered them into a group of about twenty other, equally terrified looking, children.
Vince sighed and slipped his arm through Howard's, resting his head on the older man's shoulder.
"That was horrible." he whispered, "Can't we home school them?"
"No." laughed Howard, "Because you wouldn't do any schooling, you'd just feed them sweets and try to teach Gary Numan as a subject or something."
"I would not!" Then Vince seemed to think about it, "Well, I might do." he conceded "but that's a vital part of musical history. You'd probably try and teach them about jazz."
"Which is incredibly important."
"Oh don't." Vince groaned, "I hear Vinward scatting all the time. It makes me want to cry. You've ruined our child."
"Well, Jones likes Numan, so we're even."
Vince chuckled lightly. "Richmond likes Numan too. He wont admit it but I saw him bopping along to 'Cars' the other day."
"Oh dear. You've corrupt our boys."
"Shut up." Vince giggled a little, stopping Howard and turning to face him, "Giv'us a kiss." he smiled and Howard obliged until he heard a woman's voice muttering to her son;
"Don't look Nathan. Honestly, they shouldn't be allowed to adopt."
Howard was about to object, explain that they were in fact the boys biological fathers. Then he played the conversation in his head and thought better of it. It was all far too complicated. He watched the woman take her son to the entrance and pass him over to the teacher. Then she turned to scowl at Howard and Vince and called,
"You're sick, do you know that?"
"Ignore it." Howard said, placing a hand on Vince's chest, subconsciously holding him back.
"Stupid woman." Vince muttered under his breath, clenching his fists.
"Oh don't get wound up." Howard soothed softly, putting his arm around the younger man's shoulder and they strolled like that back to the flat.
That, is how adults handle a difference of opinions.
This is how children handle it.
It started at break time. All the children had been let out into the school garden to play, providing they were wearing their thick winter coats. The garden seemed huge, like an adventure all on it's own. There was a slide, which Richmond, in his thick black coat, was sat on top of, refusing to slide down or get off because 'it was a nice place to sit'. There was a climbing frame, which Vinward, in his sensible brown coat, had climbed, claiming to be lord of everything. And, amongst many other things, there was a sand pit occupied by many children, one of whom was Jones, wearing some odd purple, leopard print, coat-like contraption he and Vince had stumbled across in TopShop.
Jones was moulding the sand into intricate shell shapes, when a shadow fell over his work. He looked up, squinting in the low winter sun. He could barely make out the shape when he was hit in the face with a pile of sand as the shape kicked its out of season trainers through Jones' sand shells.
The small boy leapt immediately to his feet and pushed the kid he now recognised as Nathan.
"You're mean." he said.
"You're dads are queer."
"They're not." Jones shouted defensively, though he wasn't really sure what Nathan was talking about.
"Yeah they are. My mum said. She said they're ab- abom-ni-bubble. Like the snowman."
"They're called yeti's. My daddies said and they know, coz they've met them."
"Liar." Nathan said, grabbing a fistful of Jones' hair and tugging it hard. The cry of fury could probably be heard across the world. Nobody touches Jones' hair and gets way with it.
Before Jones had chance to kill Nathan, a teacher had caught him and taken the two boys inside. It was only then, when Jones had started crying and put on his 'I'm-really-cute-and-couldn't-hurt-fly-face' that Richmond, from the slide, and Vinward, as king of the climbing frame, noticed something had gone on.
After break, Richmond and Vinward had become personal body guards. The teacher didn't like it. She wanted them to make other friends, she didn't think it would be good for them to stick together in such a ferocious way. But, however hard they tried, they couldn't stop Nathan from pinching Jones and whispering 'queers' over and over again, when they were sat on the carpet for story time. Just as they were grabbing their coats to go home, Nathan smeared a red paint-covered hand all over Jones' leopard print number and hissed,
"I'll get you if you tell your queers or the teacher."
Jones nodded, a single tear running down his face at the sight of his ruined coat.
Jones was snivelling a bit when Vince and Howard came to pick the boys up but he wouldn't tell them why and he glared at Vinward and Richmond, so they kept quiet too. Vince soon spotted the coat and assumed that was why he was crying,
"That's okay." he'd said softly, drying his son's tears with his thumb, "I'm sure Daddy Howard can fix that."
The next morning, Jones made such a fuss about going into school that Vince had to walk away as Howard handed him, kicking and screaming, over to the teacher. As soon as Jones' feet his the carpet of the classroom, he burst into tears and a certain little boy called Nathan smirked happily.
"What's wrong Jones?" The teacher asked but Jones told her it was nothing. He was aware of Nathan watching him very carefully. Vinward and Richmond on the other hand, were not going to be fobbed off so easily.
"Which one's picking on you?" Richmond asked.
"Yeah. Tell us and we'll shine lights out of our manginas to knock him out."
"That was a story Vin." said Richmond patiently. "We don't have manginas."
"Well, we'll do something." The moustached toddler insisted.
"We could…" Richmond looked momentarily excited and then, as though remembering himself, he became solemn again. "I've got a plan." he assured the sniffing, snivelling ball of Jones, "Just tell us which one it is."
Jones whispered the name so it was barely audible but Richmond, with his bat like hearing (another side affect of that potion of Naboo's he'd drunk) picked it up and turned to glare at the boy in question. Vinward also glared but he had no idea who he was glaring at.
The day carried on as normal, they all sat down to do some drawings with stubby little crayons. Jones liked drawing. He drew Baby Gregg as a mermaid and he was falling in love with a strong, handsome prince. Vinward liked drawing too. He drew his dad, Howard, marching through the tundra slaying polar bears and sharks along the way before rescuing the egg of mantwmbi; all whilst playing a saxophone. Richmond was impartial to drawing (though he was impartial to most things). He drew a black widow spider eating her husband, which caused the teacher to worry about him.
"Haha! Look!" Nathan snorted, snatching Jones' picture away. "Look." he pointed again, "Even Jones' toy is queer."
The rest of their table giggled, though it was quite clear most of them didn't have a clue why they were giggling.
"Shut up." Jones whispered, stretching out for the painting. He couldn't reach. Nathan was bigger than Jones (most kids his age were) and he had longer arms too. The table laughed again and tears pushed at Jones' eyes. He clutched Baby Gregg close to his chest.
"Awww. Jonesy's gonna cry. Boo hoo." Nathan laughed and, right on cue, the table joined in.
"You're a bully." Richmond said, his voice low and steady and yet, it managed to bring silence from the rest of the giggling children. Jones snatched his picture back and the table stayed quiet for a while. They'd been taught that bullies were bad and that they couldn't like them; even Nathan hated bullies. Realising he had to do something to regain his classmates respect he said,
"You know I've got a friend in the infants junior school." And immediately the children were looking at him in awe, "Yeah," Nathan continued, "He lives next door to me. We play together all the time. He's nine." He emphasised the age carefully.
"Wow." said the children in unison.
"He's really cool. He told me I'm his bestest friend. I go down the park with him. The park's where all the cool older kids hand out."
Luckily, they didn't have to listen to this for long because few minutes later, the teacher called them to the carpet. They all leapt to their feet and went to sit down. All, except one, who despite how hard he tried, could not get up off the seat. The three Noir-Moon boys smirked as they watched Nathan struggling to stand up. Eventually, the caretaker was called and both he and the teacher had to physically pull Nathan from his chair. There was an almighty rip and Nathan was free, the seat of his trousers, however, was still stuck firmly to the chair. It seemed someone, with a very clever little gothic brain, and someone, with a moustache, had superglued the seat of Nathan's trousers to the chair. Not that anyone would ever find that out.
Jones cackled hysterically, when Nathan turned around to reveal his blue batman pants and the rest of the class laughed too.
"Children. Shhhh." warned the teacher "Come on Nathan." she soothed, "Let's go and phone your mummy."
When Nathan got back, he sat on the carpet close to Jones and snarled in his ear,
"I'll get you back for that."
Jones shuddered and Richmond and Vinward's eyes narrowed.
--
It was home time. Most of the children had left already. Only Nathan, Richmond, Jones and Vinward were waiting; three on to one. Jones had thought he'd be safe. He was wrong. He was stroking Baby Gregg's seaweed hair gently when, suddenly, the toy was yanked from Jones' grasp.
Nathan held the doll by one leg, peering cautiously at it as though it might give him a disease.
"Give it back." Jones said, his voice cracked and high pitched.
"Ummmmmmmmm… no!" he smirked, swinging the thing around heartlessly.
"You're hurting him. Give him back."
"Hurting him? It's a doll." Nathan laughed cruelly. "He doesn't have feelings. See." he chuckled, grabbing one of Baby Gregg's legs and twisting it up.
"Stop!" cried Jones, tears were leaking down his face. Vinward and Richmond were behind him looking angry but Nathan wasn't bothered.
"You don't scare me. My friend Dan is nine. He'll beat you up." The three boys gulped. "Lets see what happens if we drop the dolly." he smirked, holding Baby Gregg high above his head.
"Don't!" begged Jones, "He doesn't want to be dropped."
"I think he does." smirked Nathan.
Just at the moment, Nathan felt the doll pulled from his hand. He turned around and smirked,
"Now you've had it." he turned back to Jones, "This is my friend Dan."
The three Noir-Moon boys took a step back. They didn't want Dan to beat them up, though, looking at him. He didn't look very angry. He was just studying Baby Gregg with a slightly bemused expression on his face.
"Who's is this?" he asked,
"Umm… mine." Jones whispered. Dan looked at the tiny boy and held the doll out to him. Jones frowned. What if this was a trick? He'd go and rescue Baby Gregg and then POW Dan would punch him. Oh well. He had to rescue his toy. He edged forward nervously."No." hissed Vinward "He'll eat your skin." But Jones ignored the madness that emanated from his brother's brain and it's insatiable love of epic exaggeration. He kept shuffling forward until he was within touching distance of the big, scary nine year old. Then, he reached out snatched the toy and ran back to hide behind his brothers. Dan smirked bemusedly as Jones peeped out from behind them to shout,
"Thank you."
He nodded at Jones and looked at Nathan. "Why did you have it?"
"Teaching him a lesson." Nathan scowled. "He glued my trousers to a chair. Or one of them did."
And Dan was laughing hysterically. "Really?" he was looking at the triplets with renewed admiration. Nathan was sulking.
"Is your mum here yet Nathan? Me and Claire have got to walk home with you."
"She's not here. Can I come over your house today?"
"No."
"Please."
"No."
"Are you going to the park today?"
"No."
"Can I come?"
"No."
"Do you want to come to my house?"
"No."
"But what if…"
"No."
This carried on for a few minutes and Richmond was watching with interest. "They don't look friends to me." he said. "In fact they resemble a dog with a particularly irritating flea."
Jones giggled a bit,
"Flea." he repeated and Richmond doubted he'd understood the rest of the sentence. Richmond was quickly realising he was some way ahead of his peers in… well, everything.
Dan continued to knock back Nathan and Vinward and Jones watched chuckling to themselves. Richmond spotted Vince first. Their dad was running over the yard towards them.
"Oh my god." he said kneeling down and gathering the three boys into his arms. "I'm so sorry we're late. Blame Howard. He got himself kidnapped by a Bigfoot who wanted to use him as a…" Vince stopped. He couldn't really tell five year olds that. "Well, he got kidnapped anyway and I had to rescue him and then it took us ages to get home and… Oh… we'll tell you tonight." he sighed. "I'm sorry we're late. Are you okay?"
"We're fine dad." moaned Vinward, as Vince smothered them. Just then, the teacher's shoes clicked on the school yard and she cleared her throat.
"Hello Mr erm…" she looked down at her register, clearly unsure which of the children's dads he was."Noir. Vince Noir." Vince grinned, getting to his feet. "Howard's surname's Moon." he said, indicating the older man who was walking briskly across the yard looking a little worse for wear. "If this is about being late to pick them up then I'm so sorry. It's just that…"
"It's not that." she cut in. "They've been fine. I think young Mr Ashcroft's been looking after them." she smiled at Dan and he gave a strange smile in return.
"Thanks." said Vince and the boy gave the strange smile to him too. It was almost as though smiling physically hurt him.
"Anyway," the teacher continued, "I was wondering if I could have a quick chat with you and your, erm, partner." she looked at Howard.
"Sure." Vince replied. "What's the matter?"
"Erm, nothing really… maybe we could have this talk in side." Then she spotted Nathan's mother storming across the playground looking furious. "Excellent." she said, "Mrs Barley. I'd like to have a word with…"
"I can't believe I have to buy a new pair of trousers already. Are they completely ruined?" the woman snarled. "I'm a very important business woman. I haven't got time to waste picking up trousers from Asda. That's why I'm late and then, of course, I get a phone call asking if I'll pick up the Ashcroft kids because their mother's not very well. It's just not on. Doesn't she know that I'm…"
"Mrs Barley." the teacher cut in sternly. "I'd like a word inside please. It's very important that you, me, Mr Noir and Mr Moon here sit down and talk."
Mrs Barley's eyes flicked to Howard and Vince and her face scrunched up a little.
"I really don't have time for this." She chewed lightly on a manicured red finger tip.
"It'll only take a few minutes." the teacher insisted, "Dan." the boy looked up, glad to have a break from Nathan's insistent chattering, "Just keep an eye on them please."
He nodded.
"He's only young too. Will they be okay." Vince asked anxiously.
"They're in a crowded playground. They'll be fine Mr Noir. Now come on."
--
Vince didn't like being sat in front of the teacher again. It brought back all the horrible memories of school. All the times he'd got an answer wrong. He grabbed Howard's hand under the desk and the older man smiled.
"Now." The teacher began solemnly. "We need to talk about bullying."
Howard ran a hand down his face. He knew the boys were a handful at home but he'd really thought he and Vince had brought them up well enough to know not to bully.
"Jones has been very brave but since the moment they walked though that door, your son, Mrs Barley, has been picking on him."
Vince glared at the woman. "You evil cow!" he spat.
"Vince." warned Howard, "It's not her fault."
"And your children aren't blameless Mr Noir." The teacher explained, "Today they glued Nathan to his chair."
Vince burst out laughing and was fixed with three angry glares.
"Sorry." he mumbled. "But I can't really blame them. They stick together. Haha; stick. D'you get it Howard?"
Howard rolled his eyes exasperatedly and gave the teacher a 'I'm sorry for my idiot partner' look but Mrs Barely wasn't so forgiving,
"So it's your sons fault that my Nathan's trousers are ruined. Well, you can buy the new ones."
"What!?" Vince cried. "You should be thanking them. Your son's trousers were a crime to fashion. They should never have been made. My sons were just doing you a favour."
"How dare you!"
"How dare you!" Vince threw back at her.
The teacher just sighed. She wasn't sure they'd ever come to agreement. She took a deep breath.
"I don't want to point any fingers." she said calmly, "but it seems Nathan is telling the other children in the class to be careful of the…" she stopped. She didn't know how to phrase the next bit without offending the two men ahead of her. "He's saying that Jones, Vinward and Richmond's dads are…"
"queer?" Vince finished helpfully.
"Well. Yes. And we can only assume he's picked that up somewhere outside this school."
"No prises for guessing who's taught him that." Vince scowled at Mrs Barley again, who just turned away without a word.
"Yes. Well." the teacher pressed on "Perhaps if you could have a word with Nathan, Mrs Barley. We like to think we have a very diverse culture in this school and accept people whatever their orientation. And Mr Noir, Mr Moon… please tell your children not to take matters into their own hands in future."
"Of course." Howard said quickly. "Thanks for letting us know."
"Mrs Barley." the teacher pressed. "Can I make sure you will have a word with Nathan?"
The woman reluctantly agreed, with a curt nod of the head.
"Thank you." she said. "Lets hope we aren't having this discussion again."
--
Howard dragged Vince away quickly, before he had time to shout anymore abuse at Mrs Barley. They found their three boys near the bench.
"Right. Go and thank Dan for looking after you." Howard said, "And then we can go." The three boys went across to the exasperated nine year old,
"Do you want to go to the cinema's with me and my mum on Saturday?" Nathan was asking.
"No." Dan deadpanned.
"Would you like to come on our bike ride?"
"No."
"Can I come with you next time your friends go…"
"No."
"Erm…" Richmond interrupted. "Dan? Thanks for watching us."
"Yeah. Thanks for not beating us up." Vinward added. Dan nodded and the two boys ran after their dads. Then Dan found himself attacked around the middle by a tiny boy with long black hair and a toy clutched in his little hand. Jones 's arms around Dan's waist squeezed tight as he whispered,
"Thanks for rescuing Baby Gregg."
Dan grinned a little, not a forced strangled grin, a genuine grin and ruffled Jones' hair and, for the first time ever, he didn't whinge about the state of his precious coiffure
"Jones!" shouted Howard, "Come on. We're going for ice cream."
The little boy legged it after them. Leaving Dan completely confused as another young boy rugby tackled him around the waist.
"Ger'off!" Dan growled pushing Nathan away.
"But you let him…"
"He's not an idiot."
Mrs Barley quickly dragged her son across the yard, calling Dan and his sister Claire to follow after her. She was a very busy woman. She couldn't possibly spend another second in this school.
--
"Dan was nice, wasn't he?" Jones said to Baby Gregg as he tucked him beside him in his bed. "He rescued you from that hideous Nathan boy."
"Hey." Howard said sternly, kissing his smallest son on the forehead. "What did I tell you?"
"I've got to be nice to Nathan from now on." Jones sulked.
"Good boy." he smiled ruffling his hair.
"Daaa-aad! Get off my hair. You've ruined it now."
"You didn't say anything when Dan touched it." smirked Vinward. Jones didn't respond, he just snuggled down further under the covers. Vince kissed him on the temple and then moved onto Vinward, kissing him lightly too. Then he went to Richmond's bed and whispered,
"We know it was you who glued Nathan's seat. You're the only one wicked and brilliant enough to come up with it."
"Sorry." the boy whispered back.
"I'm not angry. You were looking out for your brother. Just don't glue people to furniture in the future, okay?"
"Okay." he conceded and Vince kissed him on the cheek.
"Night boys." Vince whispered.
"Good night." Howard said, following his partner out of the door.
"Wait." Vinward called.
"What?" asked Howard.
"You didn't tell us what happened with the Bigfoot."
"Oh you had to tell them about that, didn't you?" frowned Howard, giving Vince a little push.
"We were late to pick them up." Vince argued, "I didn't want them thinking it was in anyway my fault."
"Tell us the story!" Jones giggled clapping his hands excitedly.
"Yeah. Come on dad!"
Vince looked up at Howard and grinned, his blue eyes pleading.
"Well you're telling this one little man."
The three boys cheered and Vince kissed Howard as a way of saying 'thank you'.
"ERGH!" cried three voices in unison.
"Oh shhhh." grinned Vince happily. "Lie down and I'll begin."
He waited until the triplets had settle and slid to the floor dragging Howard with him.
"So… it all began when Howard decided to bring in a new jazz collection."
"Err, jazz."
"Wahoo jazz."
"Shhhh." Vince hushed. "So, he gets a big crate of, what were supposed to be, new jazz records by Jimmy, Big Face, O'jazziscrap."
"That's not his name though, is it Vince?" said Howard.
"It's almost his name." shrugged Vince. "Anyway, instead of putting Big Face he Bigfoot."
"Silly daddy."
"Daddy. You can't spell."
"Stupid jazz! Wouldn't happen if it was electro."
"Shhhhh or daddy won't continue." Howard warned, secretly hoping the boys would keep talking. It was only more embarrassing from here on in.
"And daddy Howard, instead of realising it was a big bear-like creature from North Western America thought it was a man who'd forgotten to shave for a few days and invited him in for a cup of tea. Daddy Howard then bored Bigfoot with boring little stories about a pencil case mix up and Bigfoot was so bored he knocked Howard out and dragged him to his lair, where Howard would surly be killed. The end."
"That's not the end." cried Vinward. "I want more."
"I want more too." Jones piped up.
"I liked it." Richmond said, "Open ending. There's not enough of those."
"Thank you Richie." Vince beamed.
"Richmond." The boy corrected.
"Anyway, that's my style… the juicy dangler."
"Bu- but that's not fair!" Jones whinged and started chanting 'We want more, we want more.' The other two boys joined in, chanting over and over until Vince gave in.
"Alright, alright. Lie down and close your eyes and I'll finish the rest of the story." The boys did as they were told and Vince began to tell the remainder of the tale…
And whilst Vince's story may continue, this one, I'm afraid, does not.
Apologies for crap ending…