A/n: Your reviews give me life! Thank you so so much
Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyers owns all twilight characters.
Five years later
I was speeding down the highway; my mind reeling with worry.
"Leah! Slow down!" Egypt shouts from the passenger seat. "Everything will be fine!"
"Everything will be fine? That's all that you can tell me?" I got an urgent message from my kids' preschool principal. How am I supposed to calm down?
"Lee! I'm pretty positive that no one is hurt. The nurse would have called you instead of the teacher." Egypt tries to calm me.
We arrive at the school and I quickly park and head for the office. I walk up to the desk and signed in. There is a grey haired woman typing at the desk.
"Hi," I tell her, "I'm Leah Clearwater. I got a call saying that it was urgent that I get to the school."
She doesn't look up from her computer. "Down the hall and make a left. It's the last door on the right. Principal Rigby is waiting for you with the problem."
Problem? Excuse me.
I go to the office and knock on the door. A tall brown haired woman opens the door. She offers her hand and introduces herself.
"I'm Ellen Rigby. It's nice to meet you Ms. Clearwater."
"Nice to meet you. Why was it urgent that I meet you?"
She slowly moves out of the way to show me Sarah sitting in a child's chair in the corner.
"She got into a scuffle with one of the kids today. I'm required to have a meeting with both parents." Ellen whispers. "Sarah, your mother is here."
She runs over and attaches herself to my leg; she does this when she's upset.
I bend down on one knee and look her in her eye. You could tell that she had been crying.
"What happened Sarah?" I ask her calmly.
"Well, we were on the playground," she began, "and I was on the swings with Momo." I nod my head, urging her to go on. "Well Harry was at the sandbox when Jimmy Posie came over and started messin' with him. Harry started yelling back at him and Jimmy hit him in the eye momma!" she threw her hands in the air as if she was shocked. "Well everyone knows that Junior doesn't like to hit. So I went and pushed Jimmy down…"
"Tell her what else you did." Ellen says.
"I pushed his head into the ground and made him eat sand." Sarah looked away sheepishly.
I had to push the urge to smile down. Sarah has my spirit; you don't mess with the people she loves.
I put my serious face on. "I'm glad that you stuck up for your brother Queen, but you know fighting is wrong."
She pokes out her lip, "I know, but no one is allowed to hit Harry… Am I in trouble?"
I start laughing and put my arms around her. "As long as you promise not to be Muhammad Ali anymore."
She gives me a confused look "Who?"
Ellen tells Sarah to go back to her class and get her ready for the end of the school day.
"Ms. Clearwater, may we have a quick talk."
"What's wrong?"
"I'm just a little worried about Sarah. Her teacher tells me that she hasn't made any new friends this whole year and it's March. She only talks to Harry and Monae."
"So what's the problem?" I ask. "Just because she's a little anti social?"
"No. It's just that she'll be starting Kindergarten next year. This is the beginning of her educational and social life. I think that she needs to be with kids other than the ones that she lives with. She doesn't have the same living conditions as everyone else; it could be having an effect on how she treats other people."
"Excuse me?! What exactly is wrong with her living conditions?" I demanded an answer.
"Well," she stammered, "She told her teacher that she lives with you, Monae and her mom, and that young woman who showed up to the Christmas concert in the tight skirt and tongue ring. You guys are awfully young and they have no father figure around; aside from that man that people see running shirtless around your home. There could be something traumatizing her. I understand that he may be keeping you girls from being lonely, but it's not worth your children's sanity."
Well excuse the hell out of me.
"Principal Rigby, I understand that you're only telling me this because you care.
But I can promise you that she's fine." She tries to interrupt me, but I hold my hand up to silence her. "My daughter is fine, my son is fine, and Monae is fine. Sarah gets along with other kids; just not the rich snot nosed brats that go here. I have other friends with kids and she gets along JUST fine with them." She starts to say something, but the look in my eyes told her to keep quiet. "Yes me and my friends are young, but we worked our asses off to make sure that those kids have everything that they need and more; including going to this expensive school. And as for Tanner and Cassie, they are like an aunt and uncle to them. They wouldn't do anything to "traumatize" my children. The kids have enough adult figures around, even if they aren't their real fathers." I walk to the door and turn back to her. "The kids are cared for and loved, so you can go and tell your friends that they can mind their own business and stay the hell out of ours." I slammed the door behind me.
The nerve of that lady, telling me that my children have a terrible home. No one loves those kids more than us.
I storm to Egypt, who is standing by the school entrance with the other parents.
"What happened?" She sees the raged look in my eyes.
"The principal told me that our childrens' living conditions are terrible."
Her eyes widen, "What?"
"Yeah, apparently having children while young and husbandless makes us bad moms."
"How dare she? That bitch!" Egypt yells.
A group of women look at us and start to whisper, but we don't care.
"Oh," I continued, "I also can't forget that Cassie, our heathen nanny, is traumatizing our kids, while we're running around having an orgy with Tanner, the shirtless pool boy."
Egypt lets out a laugh. "Are you serious? Un-fucking-believable!"
The group of women keep staring and whispering. There's one woman in the group who keeps staring directly at me. She's dressed in a tan business skirt, a white button up shirt, and brown heels. Her blond hair is tied into a bun so that you could see her obviously real diamond earrings.
I give her my best bitch face.
"Is that what the urgent call was for?" Egypt interrupts my staring contest with the woman.
"No, Sarah got into a fight with some boy today." I tell her. "Apparently someone hit Harry."
"That's my Queen Bee." She laughs.
We have nicknames for the kids. We call Sarah The Queen Bee because of sassy attitude; honestly she acts like me. She only turns sassy if she dislikes you; and god forbid you hurt someone she loves, you're officially on her list. Monae is our Beauty Queen. She's a little fashionista; she's always playing in makeup, putting on fashion shows, or wearing two different shoes because both go with her outfit. I started calling Harry Junior when he was born. He is a spitting image of his father; same smile, same attitude, he even stands exact same way as Jake, with his shoulders up and arms crossed.
The end of school bell rang and children burst through the doors.
Harry, Monae, and Sarah run to us, a smile plastered on each on their faces. We bend down and kiss each child on the forehead.
"I heard you turned into Rocky Balboa today." Egypt says to Sarah.
"What?" A confused look crosses Sarah's face. "I'm Sarah. I've always been Sarah." We laugh at her innocence.
"She's talking about the incident at recess sweetheart." I chuckle.
"Oh." She crosses her arms. "Well I had to! He hit Junior!"
There's a tiny scar under Harry's left eye.
He MARKED my baby.
Someone clears their throat behind us and we turn around. It was the woman who was staring at me earlier. She was holding the hand of a boy around the kids' age. Behind them, the woman's group of friends stares intently.
I noticed that the expressions on the kids' faces have changed. The happy faces were replaced with an annoyed expression. It finally dawns on me about what's going on.
This is the kid from the playground and his mother.
I cross my arms and narrow my eyes at her.
"May I help you?" I spat at her.
"That child of yours beat up my son." She looks me up and down.
"Was this before or after your child hit my child?"
She acts like she didn't hear me. "I suggest that she apologizes to my little Jimmy."
"And I suggest that you and your little Jimmy keep walking."
The women behind her gasps.
"Well I've never." She pouts. "Your child is a nuisance and I suggest that you keep a better eye on her."
"Well," I shoot back, "your child is an animal and I suggest that you keep a leash on that thing instead of letting him run rampant around children."
Her jaw drops and her face turns red. She turns around. "See ladies. This is what happens when you let anyone into our schools. Their unclassy kids come and ruin our kids! "
I feel myself trembling; pretty soon I'm going to punch this woman. No one talks about my family.
Egypt steps in between me and the woman. "Listen, everyone needs to calm dow—"
The lady tries to shove her out of the way. "I'm not taking any orders from a girl who lets her child come dressed in any kind of way." She points to Monae, whose hair is covered in Dora barrettes. "Your lack of child rearing is being taken out on these children."
Egypt has a temper, but she tries to not let it show in front of the children. I've seen her in action and she's not the one someone should mess with. I was afraid that this woman was going to get the beat down of her life, but Egypt remained calmed. Instead she leaned in and whispered in the woman's ear.
"Your name is Charlotte Posie. You're married to Donovan Posie, the news anchor. You have three children with different fathers; all of whom is not your husband. From what I understand he thinks that all of those kids are his; but if a certain close friend/ makeup artist of his," she points to herself, "was to inform him of this news and also let him know that his wife is having an affair with the neighbor's 17 year old son, things could turn out very sad. Like a divorce. Then the poor ex wife, who by the way signed a prenupt, would have to move back to the farm in Kentucky." Egypt looks the shocked woman in the eye. "I have connections all over the place lady. I can't end your life like that." She snaps her fingers. Egypt turns around. "We're done everyone. Let's go. Goodbye Charlotte."
Together, Egypt and I are dangerous, add Cassie and we're an unstoppable force of nature.
It's times like this that I enjoy; it's one of our rare days when everyone isn't busy and we can spend times together. Harry's in the kitchen helping Tanner cook dinner. Monae is on the floor with Cassie, flipping through fashion magazines and telling us what's cute and what's not. Sarah is curled up with Egypt, loudly singing along to the movie Frozen that's playing on the TV. And I'm embracing it all. I honestly can't imagine my life any other way.
"Dinner's ready!" Tanner yells from the kitchen. The girls immediately run to the table.
"What's for dinner Uncle Tanner?" Sarah asks as I lift her into her booster seat.
"Boogers and Eyeballs!" Tanner says. The girls let out a shriek.
"Nuh uh, it's spaghetti!" Harry shouts.
We went on with our usual dinner banter, until…
"Mommy?" Harry calls. "How come me and Sarah don't have a daddy?"
The table went silent.
"Um," I stammered over words, "What do you mean?"
"Well, Auntie Egypt said that Mo doesn't have a daddy because she didn't need one. So why don't we have one?"
Sarah and Monae are staring at me intently, waiting for me to answer the question.
"What made you ask this?" I ask trying to avoid the other question.
"Well," he stuffs his mouth full of spaghetti, "Jimmy said that his mommy said that our daddy didn't want us because we weren't classy like him and his momma."
"Is that how the fight started?" I asked.
He nods his head, "I told him that his mommy is just jealous because she looks like a dragon and mine doesn't."
"And that's when he hit you?" I asked.
He nods his head. "So what happened to our daddy?"
"Hey, guess what I bought?" Cassie shouts. "Ice cream! Who wants some?"
The kids started to squeal and I silently thanked Cassie in my head.
The conversation stayed in my head. I didn't notice that dinner was over until Tanner tapped me on the shoulder.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He sits in the chair beside me.
Cassie is at the sink doing dishes and Egypt is sitting on the counter eating a bowl of ice cream.
I let out a sigh, "It's just not fair that I did this to them. I moved them away from their father, uncle and grandparents and expected them to never ask about them."
"Lee, you needed to get your life together." Tanner puts a comforting hand on my shoulder.
"It's never too late for them to know their other family." Egypt says.
"I know but what if my family doesn't forgive me for never contacting them? My mother is not an easy forgiver." I ask.
"She forgives you." Cassie says. I give her confused look. "She's your mother, she loves you." She quickly says.
"That is true. But what about Jake? He's probably planning a wedding in Alaska with his imprint."
"He never left." Cassie blurts out.
Egypt drops her spoon abruptly and Cassie covers her mouth as if she let out a big secret.
"Cass how do you know that?" I ask.
"YOU DID WHAT?!" I hollered. "HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?! AND YOU KEPT IT A SECRET FOR FIVE YEARS!" I was beyond pissed. I could phase right now but the walk to the woods is too far away; I didn't want to risk phasing in front of someone.
How could they go to my mother!
"Lee someone needed to know." Egypt said.
I turned away from her.
"Leah!" She stomped in front of me. "I want you to listen to me and think. You are a mother. What if Sarah was depressed and ran away and only left a note? Wouldn't you be scared?" My anger started fade away. "She thought you killed yourself Leah! That's how worried she was!"
I fell back into the chair and let out a sob. "I just don't know what to do. I'm so scared that I'm going to fall back into my old bitter ways."
I felt Egypt and Cassie wrap their arms around me.
"We can go with you if you want." I look up at Cassie. "We'll go at the end of May. The kids will be out of school, we can save up money, and you can prepare yourself. Then we go and spend the summer there."
We sit in silence while I think. After about 10 minutes I take in a breath.
"I guess I'm going back home."
