Chapter Preview: Is John growing up to be just like Ricky? Adrian drama on hold for now

Amy and John

Amy and John had just gotten through the front door of their small apartment when Amy's phone began to ring.

"Oh god what? What is it now?" Amy thought in frustration, as she struggled to get herself and the three bag of things she was carrying through the door. John meanwhile managed to squeeze himself around Amy, and walked in kicking his shoes off and dropping his backpack right in the middle of the hallway. Before Amy could tell him to pick it up and put it away properly, John had already disappeared into his room, while her phone continued to ring.

"Oh for crying out loud" She said as she finally fished her phone out of her pocket, swiping to pick up the call just in time before she missed it.

"Hello?" She walked around John's backpack making a mental note to make sure he came back and put it away properly.

"Hi Mrs. Underwood?" A voice she somewhat recognizes said from the other end.

"It's Jeurgen's actually. Underwood is my partners last name" She corrected. She had gotten used to saying partner since the term 'boyfriend' didn't seem quite right when referring to the man she shared a house and a child with. It was also confusing to those who didn't know them well since she was the only one of the three that didn't share the same last name.

"Oh my apologies, is this Amy? John's mother?" Asked the voice

"Yes, this is?" she said it almost as a question, worry starting to creep in her mind.

"Hi, Ms. Jeurgens. It's Amanda Clements. Logan's mom. Our son plays hockey together and I believe they're also in the same class at school" Amy's worry subsided a little bit as familiarity crept in. Amanda was one of the nicer hockey moms from John's team. They've chatted a few times, but they weren't close. She wasn't really close to any of them really, but it was mostly because the moms were just a bit older and she had nothing in common with any of them. Ricky on the other hand seemed to get along well with most of the dads. She attributed it to the fact that guys pretty much stayed at the same maturity level no matter what their age was. Hockey dad's especially. They were all bred the same.

"Hi yes, I know Logan" Did they miss some important practice they were suppose to go to? Was she the head of some social committee she didn't know about and they've missed an important event? Amy's mind was running away from her with a bunch of reasons why this woman she barely spoke to could be calling her.

"Yes, I'm so sorry to bother you Amy. I got your number from the parent contact list" She started them paused, as if thinking of what to say.

"No, no it's alright please go on"

"Right, so the reason I'm calling is, well my son came home with a hockey stick today that is definitely not his. It also appears to be brand new. When I asked him about it he said he won it from a bet"

Amy pinched her eyes. Oh god. She already knew where this was going. Please don't be something stupid and embarrassing she thought.

She wasn't exactly sure how to respond so she just said "oh?" inviting Amanda to give her more details.

"Apparently Logan made a bet with your son, and your son offered him his brand new stick. I just want to apologize and know that Logan IS going to give it right back. I know how expensive these equipments are".

Aaaannd there it was. Exactly what she figured happened.

"Oh my goodness. I hope it wasn't over something serious? Please tell me they didn't do anything dangerous, did they?" She wasn't so much worried about the hockey stick as she was about the act that caused him to give it away in the first place, like betting someone they couldn't eat something poisonous, or something equally disturbing. God forbid, the last thing she needed right now was a phone call from the principal of John's school some kid getting sent to the hospital over a bet or a dare.

"No, no it seems like they were playing a game and they decided to put a wager on it. I mean it sounds so silly, they're only 9 and they're basically gambling already" She laughed. Amy decided she had a friendly laugh. "I don't think it's anything to worry about. I just wanted to make sure my son isn't just taking advantage of other people and taking things that aren't his over silly bets. I talked to him about it and told him he's not to play games where he ends up with other peoples things. Certainly not $200 hockey sticks"

Amy sighed, relieved. Thank goodness. But in her mind she was already blaming Ricky. If there was anyone John would learn this behaviour from, it was most likely Ricky and the cast of hooligans that he hangs out with.

"Oh well that's a relief. I'm glad it wasn't anything serious. Although I'm sure the boys know better than to do things that would cause them harm or danger. Anyways thank you for letting me know. Would it be alright if I call you back to discuss this? I'd like to talk to John about it as well"

"Yes of course, of course. Did you need my number? I'm listed on the parents contact as well"

"Its fine thank you, I have call display – is this number okay to call you back at?"

"Yes it's my cellphone, so that'd be fine Amy"

Amy thanked her again then hanged up.

"JOHN UNDERWOOD!" Amy yelled out.

"Yeah?" A voice called out from the second bedroom.

"Get your butt out here right now mister"

John appeared moments later

"Yeah?" He asked cautiously. He could tell right away this was not a good thing.

"So interesting enough, I just got a phone call from Logan's mom. You wouldn't have any idea why she would call me would you?"

"No?" John stood by his bedroom door. Not exactly sure what his mom was talking about.

"Really? Well what's also interesting is that I can't seem to locate your new hockey stick? You know, the one your dad got for you just this weekend?"

"Oh" John said realization starting to sink in.

"John…"

"What? At gym Logan bet me that I couldn't get make 10 shots in a row in under 8 seconds, even though I already did like so many times and I would have gotten all 10 if it wasn't for this other stupid boy who threw a ball and interfered with my last shot!" John was practically whining.

"First of all, I don't ever want to hear you calling anyone 'stupid'. It's not okay and I'm sure you wouldn't want people saying that about you and second of all…so you bet your hockey stick? After you basically begged your dad to get you a new one because the one you had before wasn't as good anymore and was making it hard for you to play? And you just gave it away?"

"I didn't think I'd loose. I already did it before! Like so many times!" John was definitely whining this time.

"John that isn't the point. You don't just gamble away your things. You might not think it's a big deal now, but your dad bought that for you. So you can use it. For hockey. Your dad and I work really hard to get you things, and how do you think he's going to feel when he finds out you gave you new stick, which cost a lot of money I should add, over a bet with your friend?"

"Dad makes bets with me all the time!" John said naturally defending himself.

Amy didn't have a good rebuttal for John, because what he was saying was true. She's warned Ricky many times about this bad habit he was teaching their son. Of course, he laughs it off like it's nothing. Tells her not to worry. Well he's not the one getting embarrassing phone calls from other parents.

I'll kill him. Amy thought to herself, and let her mind wander in frustration. He's done. I'm done. I'm flying away to New Mexico. I can leave, become a world renown journalist. Win awards. Other journalist would write features about me. I'll be famous, sign autographs everywhere I go. Be invited to make commencement speeches at Harvard. Ricky and John could live as they please, betting their whole life away. Hell they can walk around in paper bags as far as she cared. It's not like either of them would listen to her anyway. This was her life living with two boys. It was always 2 against 1.

Realistically though, she wasn't going anywhere. But she was definitely going to have a talk to Ricky about this. And it was going to be tonight, and she didn't care what kind of mood he was in. And god save him if he tries to protest with her given her current mood. Also right now, at this moment, she wasn't an award winning journalist living in New Mexico. She was a mother to a 9 year old boy and she had to act like it.

"I'm going to have to let your dad know about this and we are not done talking about it. Right now I want you to pick up your things off our hallway, put it away properly and you can either choose to do a chore or do homework. No games" Amy said sternly knowing that the reason why John disappears so quickly in his room was so he can get on his IPAD.

"Oh come on!"

"John don't test me right now"

"Can I play after when I'm done" he asked still in a whining tone

"Chore or homework, John? What is it going to be?"

"Okay, okay fine. I'll do homework" John said walking over to where his backpack was.

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Amy was making dinner when she heard keys unlocking the front door. She glanced at the clock, it wasn't even 5:00, less than an hour after she had the conversation with John. Who was, as he said, doing his homework on the small kitchen table.

That can't be Ricky already she thought. The door opened causing both John and her to look up in surprise as Ricky walked in through the front door. They have gotten so used to him coming home late, sometimes even after John had already gone to bed.

"Dad!" John exclaimed in surprise from the kitchen table.

Ricky dropped his things, not bothering to take his jacket off and walked over to kiss John on top of his head and ruffle his hair.

"You're home early" Amy said a bit surprised.

Ricky walked over to Amy, and enthusiastically picked her up "And how's my girl?" he asked as he spun her around and giving her a quick peck on the lips.

John has shifted his focus back on his math homework. He only had a few more questions to do and then was hoping his mom would let him play on the Ipad even though she never gave him an answer earlier.

"Well someone's in a good mood" Amy said suspiciously as Ricky set her down.

He knew in the back of his mind that he wasn't completely off the hook from the night before. And given the formal way she was addressing him at the moment, he knew that it was her way of letting him know that he definitely wasn't off the hook. But right now he was in too good of a mood and his one goal was to lighten his girl up and spend some time with his son. Something he hadn't done in a while, especially now that one of the biggest load he was dealing with was finally off his back.

"I got it!" Ricky exclaimed before giving her one final kiss and walked over to the fridge, still with the biggest grin on his face. He took of his jacket and put it on the back of one of the stools before grabbing a cold beer from the fridge.

"I got Below Zero to commit to us for another three years!"

"Well I kind of figured they would" Amy said not surprised at all "That project you did for them is doing really well"

And it was, their adds were plastered all over the place and she remembered Ricky talking about the company's quarterly report having gone up. If he wasn't thinking about marketing, he was checking the stock value of the companies he worked for as a way to measure the success of their marketing project for that company, since he didn't have access to any of their financials.

"Got it signed today…so what do you all say we all go out for dinner tonight?" Ricky exclaimed.

This got John's attention, who looked up from his homework.

"Yesssss" He said pumping his fist. Maybe they'd go to grandpa George. He'd eat burgers from his grandpa's restaurant everyday if his parents would let him.

"What? Ricky, I already started dinner" Amy said protesting a little.

Ricky looked over at the counter to see what Amy was putting together "Aimes, babe you put garlic in a pan and you're chopping up carrots. We can save the chopped up carrots for something else another time" Ricky quipped, as a way to point out that Amy hasn't really gotten that far with dinner anyway.

"Well where would we go?" She asked still using a serious tone and continuing to chop at the carrots

"Let's get burgers from Grandpas!" John said not missing a beat.

"I'm okay with that?" Ricky looked questioningly at Amy.

Amy took a few minutes to stare into Ricky's enquiring eyes, who was looking a bit smug knowing he'd won her over. She slightly shook her head at him with a slight look of disbelief, but couldn't help letting a small smile escape her.

These two, these two - were seriously going to be the death of her. She wants so bad to be upset with the two of them at the moment but sometimes it was so very hard to stay mad. They might pull at her strings but they were just two big goofballs at the end of the day and they were her goofballs.

"Sure that's fine" Amy said with a final sigh, letting them know that she'd given in and turning off the stove.

"BUT" she started looking straight at John. "That doesn't mean YOU are off the hook about this afternoon. I am still going to talk to your dad about that, then we'll decided what we're going to do about it. Got it?"

John nodded.

"What happened this afternoon?" Ricky asked, raising a brow.

"Oh don't you worry, you're going to hear all about it later" Amy said turning her attention to Ricky, still using a serious tone, and then changed it to a lighter one "but for now let's get over to Grandpa's"