A/N: So it looks like I only had 1 or 2 people review my last chapter...yeeeeah thats not going to work out so much. I'm not going to keep posting all of this if no one is going to take a few minutes to leave a review
It was as if everything and everyone in the town woke-up all on the very same day. Families were up and out, kids were playing in their yards, little shops lengthened their operating hours, and schools re-opened for janitorial staff, staff orientations and scheduled student appointments.
Alex had gotten up especially early to prepare for what she knew would be a long, long day. Olivia had made it very clear the night before that she had no intention whatsoever of spending any length of time 'gussying up,' so Alex quietly unwrapped herself from Olivia's arms and headed into the bathroom. She showered, blow-dried and straightened her hair by the time Olivia woke to shower.
Alex gave her a kiss. "Morning sleepyhead." Olivia mumbled something and locked herself in the shower.
Alex continued with her routine; brushing and flossing her teeth, and putting on her make-up. Olivia was out by then and the two dressed together – Alex in a grey pinstripe power suit and a light blue tank top and Olivia in a pair of black dress pants and a red v-neck. Olivia ran a handful of gel through her hair and some paste across her teeth and was done.
"I've been up for a good forty-five minutes to get this look and it takes you all of fifteen?"
Olivia kissed Alex on the cheek and left the room. "Yep." She was greeted by Mackenzie making pancakes in the kitchen.
"Hey."
"Oh hey Mom."
Olivia checked her watch. "It's not even 8:15, what are you doing up so early?"
"I have my orientation at 9:30, remember? I have a tour and then I have to pick my classes."
"Sweetie, your mother and I have our orientation at 9."
Mackenzie scooped the pancakes onto four different plates. "I know. Aunt Jess is taking me."
"Taking you where?" Alex asked, finally joining the group.
"To her orientation." Olivia answered.
"That's today?" Alex asked. Mackenzie handed her a plate and a glass of orange juice. "You should have told us."
"No, its fine. I knew you had your orientation and were going to be busy, so Aunt Jess said she'd take me."
-30 Minutes Later-
Olivia turned her brand new silver SUV into the parking lot of the Merritt building at Benton College. Alex didn't move her eyes from her window. "We should be there for her."
Olivia strained to her. "What?"
"I should be there. I've missed every first day of school she's ever had."
"Thanks." Olivia took the ticket from the parking attendant. "Ally, today isn't even her first day of school. She doesn't start till next week. Today is only a little tour and meeting that Jess set up for her." She drove into a spot and put the car in park.
"Can we join the PTA? We should join the PTA."
"Do high schools even have a PTA?" Alex gave her "The Look!" "Don't worry sweetie, we'll do something." She closed the door behind her and waited for Alex to come around the other side and join her.
Alex smiled and put her new character on. "Oh, and darling . . . call me by that Alex woman's name again and I'll rat you out to the cartel."
Olivia stood in shock. "Not even funny."
Twenty minutes later they had been meted and greeted and were now mingling about with everyone else. They had found out that Alex was to be second chair of the theatre department despite Jenn's law background. She had two acting classes, one play production class, a Greek theatre course and a class in prosecutorial law and another in legal ethics. Alex was heavily upset. "My whole background in law they wrote for me and then they turn around and make me," She checked the paper. "Head Scenery Designer and make three more hours of work every day." As head scenery designer, Alex had to work three hours every day in the shop behind the performance stage; building scenery, painting, instructing students and doing her head scenery designer duties.
"Well, be thankful you took those painting classes in college." Olivia said, forcing her smile down.
Alex grabbed Olivia's envelope and took the papers out. "What did you get?" Olivia shrugged and nearly choked when Alex reached over and smacked her. "You did not get criminalistics."
"Let me see that." She took the packet back and looked through it. She smiled smugly at Alex. "I guess I did." Alex got up and walked away. "Oh baby look, I have an after-hours self-defense class and I'm the new volleyball coach." Alex shot her an annoyed look as she continued across the room. "That didn't help my case much." Bunch of college female college students running around in shirt shorts. "Nope, definitely didn't help."
The man sitting across from Olivia spoke up. "Don't worry. She'll be back."
Olivia nodded. "I know."
"Are you two together?"
Olivia looked over at Alex and smiled. "Yeah. Sometimes I still don't believe it, but yeah. We are."
The man moved over to the chair next to Olivia. "My partner Greg and I have been together thirteen years now." He held out his hand to Olivia. "I'm Tom."
Olivia shook his hand. "Lorri. That's Jenn over there."
"How long have you been together?"
"Practically forever."
"I hear ya."
"We met ten years ago and have been living together for the past eight, so I guess you could say we've been together for . . . ten years."
"That's nice." Tom said. "You two have any children?"
"A daughter, Jordan."
"Oh, and how old?"
"She's sixteen." Olivia pulled a picture of Mackenzie out of her wallet and showed it to Tom. "She's Jenn's biologically, but I adopted her when she was eight."
"Well even so she looks a lot like you. We have two ourselves." He then pulled a couple of pictures out. "That's Max, he's four. And little Dillon here just turned eight months last week."
"She's adorable."
"Thanks. We started the process again as soon as Max turned one, but it is so hard for gay couples to adopt, especially gay men. You two ever consider having another?"
"I would like to have another, or three." She laughed. "But we haven't really discussed it. We've been going through a lot these past few years, so I'm just waiting for things to quiet down first; before I even bring it up."
"Well, you've heard about the clinic in town right? The one where they can combine two eggs to make a baby?" Olivia nodded. "Well if you two want to have a baby in the next four years I'd start now. They have a waiting list as long as the yellow brick road. Friends of ours from California came here for it and got these two gorgeous little girls out of it, but it took them a good few years. I hear they give preference to people who live here though."
Over on the other side of the room Alex was sitting by herself enjoying an iced tea when a short, bald man approached her. "Jennifer Taylor?"
Alex shook the man's hand. "Jenn."
"Well Jenn, you are one tough woman to track down. My name is Samuel Barker, from Ridgewell Reparatory Theatre. I was told you were the one to see about the fall musical."
"Oh, yes. That would be me." Construction of the school's performance auditorium had taken longer than expected and would not be ready in time to host the fall show, even if they had found an alternative rehearsal space. Rather than cancel the show, they had enlisted the help of Ridgewell Reparatory Theatre who had agreed to house the musical from auditions through performances, and even share in the profits it made. It would be fully cast, staged, built and almost 99.9 run by BC, but with one stipulation – the theatre picked the musical.
"We've come up with a few possibilities for the show, but the head of the theatre department is out on maternity leave, so I was directed to you. Now, before BC came to us, we were in the middle of our youth season and were planning on doing "Annie." Obviously "Annie" isn't going to work now. However, we are not ending our season just yet, so we came up with a few shows that still have a few youth roles, but mostly older characters."
Alex nodded. She honestly didn't know what to say as she had only been briefed on this when she arrived here this morning. It was a hell of a responsibility for someone who had only just entered the theatre world.
"First is "The Sound of Music." The leads are all adults, but there are the seven Von Trapp children who are all under sixteen, except for the eldest who is sixteen and could possibly be played by a college girl. Then there's "The Music Man." The female lead has a young piano student and an even younger brother, and then there's the mayor's youngest daughter and of course a bunch of young boys for the kids band."
Alex continued to nod and listen with as much interest as she could.
"And last is what we at the theatre are all leaning toward and that is "Alice in Wonderland," Which only has one young role. There are thirty-eight roles that can be played by actors of any age, but Alice is really a younger role for a girl around sixteen. She's written to be ten to fourteen, but because of these special circumstances I think we can push it a little."
"What about a small freshman? Someone who is naive and doesn't yet have enough life experience to have lost her youthfulness yet?"
"Ah, you see Ms. Taylor, we don't want a college student to play Alice. We are in our youth season and it is as a service to you that we are even cutting the youth roles down this much. But I will leave these with you and your department can discuss them and then call me back within the week." He handed Alex a folder and walked away, but paused and turned back around after a few paces. "You don't happen to know any sixteen year old girls do you?"
Alex shifted through the papers. "Only my daughter. Well, she's almost sixteen. Her birthday's in a little over a month."
He walked closer. "Oh you're not old enough to have an almost sixteen-year-old. . . Does she look like you? Alice is known for being blonde-haired and blue-eyed."
"No, she actually looks more like her other mother. Dark hair, green eyes."
"Would she be willing to dye her hair?" Alex looked up. "Or maybe wear a wig?"
-Later that Day-
Alex hung up the phone.
"So, Alice in Wonderland?"
Alex nodded. "Alice in Wonderland. It's decided. Auditions are the second week of school." She joined Olivia on the couch and cuddled up. "They're going to send out flyers to the high school too."
Olivia ran a hand through Alex's hair. "We have people coming over in an hour."
"So? Everything's already made. It's just a matter of putting it all outside."
"Mackenzie has to clean the barn too."
"Well, we have to wait until she gets home first? . . Speak of the devil."
Mackenzie tried to sneak back out the door, but she was caught. "Hi guys."
Alex sat up. "How was everything?"
"Good. The campus is huge."
"What do you have for classes?" Olivia asked.
"The standard; English, math, science, history and then I've got horseback riding for PE, which is amazing. They ride at the barn down the street, but they said I can just bring Serendipity down there or if there's another instructor, they'll just come here since it's a small class. Or, since we have semi-private lessons I said that maybe we could ride here and the other person in my lesson could ride Ruby, if that's okay with you."
"Yeah." Alex said. "The more exercise she gets, the better."
"Ok, good."
"What else?" Alex asked.
"Oh, well they put me in photography since like everything else was full and because I tested out of the French and Spanish, because I guess my old school's language II is this school's IV, I'm going to be taking German at BC two days a week as some sort of joint program they have. And I joined the figure skating team."
"I didn't know you skated." Olivia half-asked.
"Yeah, should be fun."
"And, the college is looking for a sixteen-year-old to play the lead in our musical." Alex added.
"I heard a few of the teachers talking on the phone about that."
"That little man had already decided on the show before he talked to me today." Alex realized.
"They said with my background I should try out. They said I could even get college credit for doing it. But I don't know. Aren't we supposed to be hiding out?"
"Yes, but you got to keep living Kenzie. We have no idea how long we're going to be here, so we should all just go on as if this is really us. Don't let this stop you from doing anything that you want to do." Olivia said.
Mackenzie nodded. "I'll think about it."
"I've got a better idea." Alex added. "Why don't you think about cleaning the barn before people get here."
Mackenzie rolled her eyes. "Fine. . . Oh, and Aunt Jess went to pick up some last minute stuff for the party and she wants this place ready by the time she gets back."
Olivia raised her hand in a mock-salute.
Taylor-Costa House Bash
They invited the whole neighborhood and many of the people they had met at orientation that they would be working with over the next year. It was a very good size crowd, so they were thankful that Jess had thought to stop and get more food and drinks. There were people in the pool, down by the horses which Mackenzie had put out in the paddock so people could see them, in the house, in the hot tub and all over the yard.
Within only a few minutes, Olivia and Alex could already tell who they were going to become good friends with. Tom, whom Olivia had met at the orientation, and his partner Greg and a couple who lived down the street, Jeanine and Dan. The three couples had practically spent the whole day together, with little breaks for Alex and Olivia to do their hosting duties and to check on the kids. Jeanine and Dan had two adorable blonde haired boys, Aidan who was ten and Parker who was eight. Mackenzie had been watching them, as well as Tom and Greg's two kids, so she had earned herself four new babysitting charges. She only hoped that people paid well in Wyoming.
Greg tapped on Olivia's shoulder to get her attention. "Lorri, this is my good friend Deidre James. Deidre, this is Lorri Costa and her partner Jenn Taylor." He looked around Mackenzie, who was being chased by a hoard of children. "That's their daughter over there." He turned back to Olivia. "Deidre runs the clinic I was telling you about earlier."
"Have you two thought about having another child?" Deidre asked.
Alex looked to Olivia. "I . . . well . . . yeah, we've thought about it, but-"
"Usually there is a waiting list and a long screening process, but since I've met you two and your obviously did an amazing job raising your daughter and I can see that you two obviously love each other and are in a stable relationship, I would be willing to do the procedure for you within the next few weeks."
"Wow, um . . . we just moved here." Olivia said.
"And we'd need to talk about it and discuss it with Jordan."
"I totally understand." Deidre said. "In fact, I would be a little worried if you had instantly agreed." She took a card out of her pocket and handed it to Alex. "I make exceptions for friends, so call me whenever you two are ready and we can set something up or if you want to set up a meeting to discuss the whole process, just call my number. This goes directly to me, so you won't have to go through my secretary."
Alex nodded. "Thank-you."
"Just something to think about. If your daughter is any indication, any other children you have are going to be gorgeous."
Olivia and Alex looked over at Mackenzie, who was now being tackled by a small little red-haired girl.
Later that Night
"I don't know Alex." Olivia began as she crawled into bed with her lover. "I want to have a child with you, I do, but we just got back together. And we were just relocated and got new jobs."
"So you're saying we should wait a little while?"
"Yeah. Just until things settle down and we re-establish our relationship. And maybe wait until Jess has moved out. Then we can be a real family."
Alex nodded. "I know you're right, but . . . it's just that I missed out on everything with Mackenzie. I just want another chance to actually raise my own child; our child. Imagine us having a child that is biologically both of ours."
"It's pretty crazy."
"It's better than anything I've ever dreamed of. I always knew we would have more kids, but either through adoption or a sperm donor." She looked up and kissed Olivia. "I love you."
"I love you too."
"How long are you thinking?"
"Let's give it two semesters. That will bring us to May. After that if everything's still working out and we can still stand each other" Alex laughed. "Then we can revisit the issue."
Alex snuggled in close. "Sounds good."
Olivia planted a kiss on the younger woman's forehead. "Very good."
