All my Friends
(Sung by Amos Lee off his Amos Lee Album)
In Point Place on the Wednesday morning at the Pinciotti-Foreman residence Kitty was preparing breakfast officially for seven children aging from four to seven but with the three Kelso's now arriving the child count went to eleven and the upper age went to thirty-one with Betsy and Michael Kelso following them into the kitchen.
They all sat down at the huge kitchen refractory table, able to seat an army, which with ten children and three adults left a fair amount of space. Kitty laughed as she put bacon, sausage and pancakes on the table and went to check seven packed lunch boxes to make sure everybody had enough to survive on for the day at kindergarten/school.
When she finally sat down next to Red she was looking a little frazzled and said "Thank goodness they all go somewhere for the day I'm getting a little old to looking after so many kids and with at least four more baby's on the way we need seriously need some help."
"Donna said something about opening a crèche and kindergarten at the office as she now had about 30 staff expecting and about 25 children below school age as well including our six 'grandchildren'." Said Red. "She also said something about you being in charge but that she wanted to talk to you about that."
"Grandma's in charge, Grandma's in charge," sang Lucas who was the spitting image of his twin sister Erin who in turn was the spitting image of Donna.
"Luke pipe down, before everybody starts." But it was already too late as Erin picked up the chant followed by all the four year olds.
Red was saying "That's one of our problems you can't say anything around here without at least one pair of small ears hearing it. I'm only surprised they aren't all swearing like troopers with the way their parents and me talk."
"The girls rigidly enforce a no swearing zone around the kids which seems to have worked for the little ones so far although the larger ones occasionally slip in a (whispers into Red's ear)'dumbass'
Brooke came dashing in gabbling something about Hyde have a brother.
"Brooke sit down and drink some coffee, it'll calm you down or at least stop you babbling for a moment." Red said making space for her to sit.
After taking a sip of her coffee and saying hi to the kids who were all ears she went on to say "Donna called and said she was faxing me a birth certificate for a Jake McRoberts' at the office. She wanted me to compare it to Hyde's as she thinks they may be twins."
Kitty gets up and goes to the living room and comes back holding Hyde's Birth Certificate. "You know Hyde was born in the Point Place Hospital but I wasn't on Duty because I was pregnant with Eric at the time. There will be a sealed record of the birth if adoption was involved although we should be able to get the name of the adoption Agency that was involved."
Betsy, the spitting image of Brooke with her brains but Michael's lack of co-ordination, was pulling Brookes sleeve and asking if Hyde had a brother and if so would he be an uncle.
The older kids all heard this and started whispering amongst themselves.
Betsy was saying to Robby, "Uncle Hyde has a twin brother."
Robby who had inherited his mothers' hair, his fathers eyes, his co-ordination from his mother and combined both their brains to be smarter than both of them. "I wonder if he's got kids and if he's going to move to Point Place from where-ever he lives now."
"He must be Californian like Great Auntie (grandma to Robby) Midge. That's where Auntie Donna is this week."
"OK kids time for your exercises before the school bus gets here." said Red. "You know the way these kids are lapping up this 'King Fong' and 'tea chi'. Donnas' going to have a well-trained army on her hands, especially with at least four more in the oven. Its a little spooky when a seven year old is leading the training."
The kids thought that the training was fun especially with Robby leading. He thought up ways to make the lessons fun and it stops the school bullies in their tracks.
There was a new girl at the school bus pickup point, whom the bus driver asked Robby sit next to. She had just moved to Point Place from Chicago and was looking nervous. She had moved into the house two doors away from the old Foreman house, which meant that after the rebuild they would be next-door neighbors'.
She was Betty-Sue Davis, a skinny seven year, nerdy looking girl with long sandy blond hair and grey/blue eyes, but very cute in Robby's eyes.
What she saw was a strapping red haired seven year old with green friendly looking eyes.
Robby said "Hi I'm Robby Foreman, the bus driver asked me to look after you and make sure you get to the principals office. Where do you come from"?
"I'm Betty-Sue Davis from Chicago. My parents have just moved here. We're almost next door neighbors' I saw you come out of the house two doors down from us with your sisters."
"No they're not my sisters, they're my cousins more or less." Turning in his seat he introduced Betty-Sue to Stevie and Nici Hyde and to Betsy Kelso saying that's "she's our new neighbor once the houses have been re-built."
Stevie and Nici looked at each other and both thought that this is the first time Robby has shown any interest in anyone outside their small group so they both checked her out to see what she was wearing and how her hair was styled (remember these are Jackie's twins so a fashion check is inherited from their mother).
Both thought so that's what Chicago kids are wearing now, maybe it's time to push mummy for a trip to the Chicago shops, even though they were expecting a dividend from the Los Angeles trip. All in all it looked as if Betty-Sue got a conditional approval so they both asked her about school in Chicago.
Robby took her to the principals' office and as she was in the same class he was told to show her the school and take her to class when the bell rang.
By the time the bell rang Robby knew what she liked in music and that she wasn't very good at ball games though she was a good runner.
At lunch Betty-Sue had money for lunch whereas Robby had one of Kitty's overfilled packed lunches so Robby joined his cousins and saved a seat for Betty-Sue.
In the lunch line she was just ahead of a rather large 5th grade Neanderthal who, seeing she was new, decided to coerce her into giving him her lunch money.
Looking up Robby saw what was happening and ran to where Betty-Sue was and grabbed the Neanderthal's hand and pulled him around to face him. The boy pulled his hand away and tried to punch Robby who blocked it and swept the boys legs out from under him and walked away, before the canteen staff even realized there was a problem, holding Betty-Sue's hand saying that she could share his lunch as Kitty always packed to much food.
Stevie and Nici look at Robby holding Betty-Sue's hand as they came over and Nici said "it looks like Robby's finally got a friend from outside our group."
"Yeah a scrawny little neighbor girl. "Oh well we had better divi up Kitty's lunches, it looks like some-ones going to be sharing with us."
After school Kitty heard the door bell ringing and upon opening the door found Susan, Vladic and Betty-Sue Davis standing there with a pie in hand.
"Why hello there I'm Kitty Foreman, don't stand there, come in and introduce yourselves" showing them through to the living room. Various four year old heads popped up and from around doorways to see what was going on.
After many introductions Susan said that they wanted to thank Robby for rescuing Betty-Sue (explaining in the process the Betty-Sue was named after both her grandmothers).
"Luke can you tell Robby to get up here there's' some people here to see him."
As Robby came into the room and saw Betty-Sue he smiled.
Kitty introduced him to Susan and Vladic Davis who thanked him for rescuing Betty-Sue.
"Why don't you take Betty-Sue down to the basement and introduce her to the rest of the kids."
As Robby left he heard Susan ask how many kids there were and Kitty's reply of " oh heavens where to begin."
In the basement Stevie was sitting on an old dining chair while Nici sat on an old sofa with Betsy on a camp chair and they were all watching old re-runs of Happy Days.
Robby and Betty-Sue sat on the sofa next to Nici. "Do you want a popsicle or something? Kitty's always got some Piggly Wiggly ones in the freezer."
"Don't you guys have homework to do"?
"Yes but we usually do it after dinner and we have training before that."
"Training"?
Nici answers "We train everyday in Martial Arts and Tai Chi. Robby's mum and dad learned it when they were in Africa but they're away in LA with our mum and dad at the moment so we're only doing Tai Chi and Robby leads."
"Can I watch, my dinners' not for another hour or so."
"If Gran's on form you're invited to dinner with us but be warned that means about fifteen people." said Nici.
"Robby said "why not join us I can teach you the basics. The good thing about Tai Chi is that we can use the push pull method to teach you the basics. Then you can join us everyday."
Again Stevie and Nici looked at each other as nobody outside the family had ever been asked to join in before.
Olivia, Oli and Danni Fez and Laurie's kids ran into the basement expecting only their gang to be there, ready to start their exercises.
More introductions were made after which Robby grabbed Betty-Sues hand and started for the basement door shouting "last person out has to tell Red he's a dumbass."
Danni was last and resignedly turned around and ran up the stairs to Red and shouted "Dumbass" while running for the door proving that she was not a dumbass.
Kitty said, "Now Red don't call her back after all it's your own fault that she knows that word at-all. What have I always said about little pitchers"? And walked to the door." Now Danni you shouldn't use such words if you don't know the meaning of the word. Oh Betty-Sue you and your parents are staying for dinner." and walking back in "thought to herself, now who does she remind me of at the same age."
Robby showed Betty-Sue how Tai Chi worked and later sat with her at dinner chattering together about Chicago, Point Place, TV and what toys they had and wanted.
