AN: Thank you again for the reading and reviewing. Disclaimer, I don't own Fosters.

Brandon Foster is 5 years old. He is a now a big kid. He has his backpack, filled with a pencil case, a lunch box, and indoor shoes. He was able to do up his own seatbelt in his booster seat. Yes Brandon Foster was a big kid and was on his way to his first day of school.

The drive was silent. Stef looked in the rear view mirror to find her son with a smile on his face. She has had a lot on her mind. With their court date coming up to finalize their divorce and the paper work of sharing Brandon, Stef has just felt emotionally drained.

Pulling up to the school, Stef sees Brandon smile kind of wavier. His feet kicking as stopped and he has stopped looking out the window, now focusing on his backpack. "Hey buddy we are here are you ready?" Stef unbuckled Brandon helping him out of the SUV. Brandon just nodded his head.

She and Brandon walked to the pathway that lead to the elementary side of the school. The first person Stef saw was Lena greeting the new students and their parents. Stef turned her body away and squatted down to Brandon's level. "Are you ready to go in?" Brandon looked at the other kids walking by. "Hey buddy, don't worry about a thing. You are amazing and Jeremy is either here or arriving so you will know at least one person. I bet by the end of the day you will have another friend." Stef winked at him.

"Where is mama at?" The boy looked around to find his brunette mother.

"She's on her way." She tried to smile through it but seeing Michelle still hurt and she doesn't know if this pain will ever go away or if she will just learn to live with it. She turned around to look at the parking lot. There she saw her soon to be ex-wife. Stef straighten ups and runs her fingers through her long blonde hair.

"Hey B!" Michelle waved at the boy, slightly running towards him. "Oh my goodness I can't believe that my baby boy is going to school." Michelle pulled him into a hug and placed kisses all over his little face.

"Mama stop!" Brandon tried to wiggle out of her grasp. Michelle stopped and placed him back on the ground.

"I will come and pick you up than we can go out for a late lunch early supper to talk about your first day."

"What about mom, is she going to join us as well?" Brandon was told by both his parents that their house was being worked on and that's why he has been staying at Grandma Cooper's house. He was content with that answer and never asked again. Although he has asked why it's just mommy and him, and why mommy cries every night, even when he is supposed to be asleep, or why the three of them don't do anything together anymore. He has never gotten an answer, but was told that they would talk about it later.

Michelle looked up to Stef who was watching the other parents walk past instead of her and Brandon. "Well that depends on what mom is doing after your done school."

Stef looked down at her baby boy's brown puppy eyes. He usually uses them when he really wants something. "Of course I'll be there bud. There is no way I'm missing that." With that the three of them walked towards the school.

"Hello Brandon! I see that you are set for your first day. What about you moms? How are you two doing?" Michelle talked for the both of them, "It was an emotional morning but we made it here and are ready." She smiled at Lena and Lena smiled back.

Lena woke up not prepared for this day. No matter how much she works during the summer it seems that there was never enough time to complete the school work before school actually began.

Making a quick toast for breakfast and throwing in her leftover supper of tacos into a plastic container, Lena was ready to head to school and greet the newcomers. Pulling into her staff parking lot, Lena sees the concrete parking barriers has been changed.

Lena Adams

Vice Principal

With a smile on her face she pulls her car into the space. Grabbing her bags and headed into her new office. Realizing that she straighten her hair last night for the staffs nigh out, it became half her normal curls and half straight. Lucky she has a pack of hair elastics in her desk. Quickly throwing her hair into a high pony she heads out to greet the parents. For all the work and extra hours that Lena has put in over the summer, seeing the kids come in with awed eyes makes up for everything.

With still a half an hour before the bell rings and she has yet to see Stef and Brandon. She tried to text Stef last night but she didn't get a reply. Thinking that she was getting ready for the day, Lena went to sleep with no thought of it.

Every time she saw a blonde haired women, Lena's spirits picked up. It wasn't until she saw Stef, Michelle and Brandon walking up to the doors. Lena couldn't help but check Stef out, in her blue striped two buttons on done and blue jeans. Once they passed her, she belittled herself for checking out a married women in front of her.

Stef and Michelle stayed like all the parents to show their child where their hook was in the cubby room and where to take off their outdoor shoes.

As VP Lena felt responsible to make sure that the parents can make it back out. Walking out into the hallway she was surprised to see Michelle on the phone talking to someone else. She knew it was bad to eavesdrop but when you are talking and it just happens to be loud enough for people to hear than it shouldn't be considered eavesdropping.

"We are taking him out for lunch. Yes all three of us. Yes Stef will be there. I promise. I love you too babe." Michelle headed back into the class and walked out with Stef, who had tears in her eyes and saying goodbyes to Brandon.

"Have a lovely day!" Lena waved to them and just got a head nod from Stef.

Lena sighed when she looked at the time, 5pm. It seems that every first day of school can't go on without a hitch. There have been high schoolers wanting to get out of classes. A 7th grader had an allergic reaction to a fruit. Closing her laptop Lena leaned back into her chair. Closing her eyes, the first image that her mind reminded her of was the phone call that Michelle was taking.

"There has to be reasonable explanation. Maybe her family is one of those family's that talk like that to each other." Lena's face shrilled up into disgust at that mental photo. "Maybe they have another kid." Looking into the file of Brandon Foster it doesn't say anything about another sibling. "There is no way that Michelle would cheat on Stef." Lena shook her head at the thought. "Stef is like the perfect person, why would anyone want to hurt her."

Lena knew that she needed to figure out what was happening. She sent a quick text to Stef,

I miss our lunch dates. Plus with all of your knowledge on bad dates I need your help spotting a bad date in the making. – Lena

Packing her bag, she hears her phone signaling that she got a text.

I miss them too. But with Brandon starting school and my work picking up I just don't have time. I can tell you that it depends on the first stop. A crappy restaurant fake a stomach ache. Gotten me out of some blind dates. LOL – Stef

Lena sighed, she missed everything about Stef. Her smile, laugh, the way that she gets this laugh line around her eyes. Throwing her head back in the driver's seat, Lena tries to think of when a good time for Stef would be. It's around 7pm when Lena is ready to go to sleep. The first day always seems to zap the energy out her.

Coming out of the bathroom with her toothbrush in her mouth, she hears the landline ring. Racing to the sink to spit and rinse her mouth out, Lena is ready to answer the phone. "Hello." She says with a smile on her face.

"Hello darling. We are just calling to see how the first day of school went." Her smiled faded a little, wanting to have Stef on the other end.

"It was good. Pretty much the same work except I get to see more kids and problems." Lena slowly walked backed into her bedroom, picking out her clothes for the next day. Her and her parents talked for the next 10 minutes, when Lena couldn't hold back a yawn. It was always great to talk to her parents but she would rather to Stef. With a sigh after hanging up Lena was ready to close her eyes.

Stef arrived back at her mom's house after dropping Brandon off, with a lunch plan that she and Michelle talked about on the way back to their respective cars. She saw that her mom must have gone out to get groceries. She knows that for the past couple of weeks she has been using up her sick days just as way to hide away for a couple more days. Entering the house Stef saw how Brandon's toys over spread over the use-to-be spotless house.

Picking them up and placing them back into his little room. Stef hears the home phone ring. Running out of the room and into the living where one of the landlines was located. "Hello." Stef said out of breath.

"Hi is this Stefanie Foster?" The voice on the other sounded female. At this point she starts to worry.

"Yes, and who are you?" Pulling out her phone making sure that she didn't miss any texts. Seeing nothing new she listens to the other women talk.

"My name is Marie Welsh. I'm calling you as I'm from Craven and Welsh. I'm Mrs. Fosters' lawyer. I have been told to contact you about your lawyer's information." Stef couldn't believe that Michelle's lawyer would be calling her personally. She was actually shocked that Michelle was going to represent herself. Craven and Welsh is the firm that Michelle works at, and she has heard about lot of the other lawyers but this Marie Welsh wasn't ringing any bells.

"Um yeah can you hold on a minute please?" Stef laid the phone down as she went to the office in the back of the house. Opening the top left draw she pulls out the package of paperwork that hardly ever sees sun. Walking back into the living room she picks up the phone, "Sorry about the wait. The name is Nathan Vadovic. His number is 858-974-4900 extension number 4758. He works for the law offices of James D. Scott. He should be in now. He has all my information, so please direct all questions to him." She placed the phone down. Running her hand through her hair Stef felt drain. All of this was hard. She slept on the couch most nights, that's when she sleeps.

She hardly eats, which makes her is the reason why she has no energy. She tries to keep her mind busy but it's hard when all she thinks about is Michelle and how their marriage ended. Placing the final handful of toys into the bins, Stef has two thought. One, Brandon has too many toys in both houses. Two, she needs to get back to work. Laying on the couch she waits for her mother to come home from her fitness class. Which she has tried to get Stef into, telling her that it's a bunch of friends just working out and talking.

Hearing the front door open she thinks about Brandon and his first day at school. Asking herself if he is ok, whether or no he is making friends, or about what he is learning. These thoughts move to Lena. She thinks about what Lena is doing, and if she is having any fun at her work. What type of work she is doing, if she will be out on time. Stef wants to be close with Lena, but it means opening her heart and seeing as her heart just got ripped out of her chest, curb stumped, and slashed into a million pieces, being around someone that potential do that again keeps Stef from contacting her.

Sharon Cooper is a mother. She loves Stef and Brandon with all of heart. But when she heard that Michelle had cheated on her that just broke her heart for Stef. There were days when Sharon wouldn't care for Michelle, but those were the dating days. She grew to love Michelle with her heart, now when she sees or thinks of the women she can't think of anything nice. There is just pure dislike and anger harbored in there for the next time that she sees that women.

She knows that Stef has been depressed lately and Sharon knows that when Frank died she didn't leave the house for months. It wasn't until her mother and mother-in-law pretty much had to drag her out. Sharon knew that this was Stef's to grieve for the loss of her marriage and Sharon would be there every night to hold her. She also knew that would be a time for Stef to step up and start getting her life back together. As much as she loves these two in her house, it is starting to be painful. She has tripped over Brandon's toy every morning that she goes to wake him up.

Walking into her house, Sharon lets out a soft smile as Stef is sleeping on the couch, something that Sharon has noticed a lot. Pulling the blanket off the chair she covers her daughter up and places a light kiss on her forehead. No matter what age she is Stef will always her baby.

Stef woke up a couple minutes later. Getting a whole 10 minutes of shut eye before her the alarm on her phone went off. Throwing the blanket off, which she knew that her mom placed on her, on to the chair Stef walked into the kitchen to grab something small to eat before heading out to meet up with Michelle and Brandon.

"Stef you should be leaving if you want to get there on time." Sharon called from the laundry room.

"I'm leaving now." Stef called from the front door. Looking at her phone for the address of the restaurant that Michelle picked. Rolling her eyes. 'Of course she would pick right by the old house. She is probably trying to get Brandon to live with her and her whore of a boss.' Stef thought as she drove over.

Getting to the restaurant had Stef feeling happy and excited to hear all about Brandon's first day of school, as well as anger for having to see Michelle. She always couldn't forgot about the call that she received earlier this afternoon. She face spilt into a smile when she saw Brandon run to her once she exited her vehicle.

Crouching down to brace for impact, the little hit her with force. "Hello my baby, how was the first day of school?" Stef placed a kiss at the side of his face.

"It was amazing! I love it. Can I go back tomorrow?" Standing up Stef and Brandon walk to Michelle, who is waiting by the entrance of the family restaurant.

"Yes you will be going to school every day, from Monday to Friday." Acknowledging Michelle, the three walked in and waved to the staff members. Taking a seat at their regular table, they are greeted by MacKenzie. A short, 5'5', 17 year old women. She is the Marty's, the owner daughters. Dyed platinum blonde hair.

"Why hello ladies. We haven't seen you around for a while. But we heard that today was a big day for a boy named Brandon." MacKenzie said.

"Hey my name is Brandon, and I had a big day." Brandon jumped from his chair.

"Well I don't know. This Brandon went to school today." Mackenize winked at the moms.

"Yes I went to school. I go to the beach school." Brandon was so excited that he started to jump in his spot.

"Well than I guess you are the Brandon that we are looking for. Trevor told to give this to the boy named Brandon who went to school." She pulled out a ticket from behind her back. Brandon reached to grab and said a small thank you. Stef leaned over to see what it said.

1 Free Slice of Cake

From Burns' Bakery Cake Selection

"Every new Junior Kindergarten gets a free slice of cake. Well only if their parents say its ok." Brandon looked at both his mom with his puppy eyes.

"Please. I will eat all my food." He continued to look at his moms until they broke and said yes. He pumped his little fist and sat back down gentle placing the ticket by his plate. The family ordered their regular meal. Stef gets the Lumberjack Burger, filled with bacon, grilled onions and mushrooms. Michelle gets the Chicken Ranch Wrap, filled with grilled chicken, lettuce, tomato, bacon, shredded mozzarella, onion and ranch dressing. The two usually share a twisted salad. While Brandon gets his own 4 slice pepperoni and cheese pizza.

Halfway through Stef started asking Brandon about his first day. "It was good. Jeremy and I played outside and we met a couple of new kids. There is this guy named Kevin. He is really cool. He likes sports. There is also Braeden, his name is like mine. He and Kevin are best friends but all" Brandon pulled out his fingers to count on his hands how many of them there were. "1. 2. 3. 4. 4 of us played together. We all played dinos. Mrs. B is cool. She let us play with the dinos during math. We did counts and writing."

"Well I'm glad to hear that everything went well today." Stef said before she took another bite of her burger. The three sat in quiet as they finished eating their meals. Afterwards Brandon and Michelle went up to cakes to use Brandon's ticket. Stef used this time to think about all the great times that they shared at this restaurant. Stef and Michelle used it for date night. They spent family nights eating here, than went to the park just a couple of minutes away. It was there place for celebration. With this divorce, this place will just be a painful reminder of what they use to have.

"Mom, can we spend the night with mama." Stef's eye focused on Brandon seating beside her.

"Um well I'm starting work tonight so I guess it's just you and mama." Stef looked at Michelle, with a look that could kill. They agreed that she would keep Brandon this week. Michelle never fought it. "You guys need to head back to mama's so that you can get ready for school tomorrow B." He finished the last bite of his cake. She lied to show that there was nothing wrong with her. That she was living her life.

"Mom's right." Michelle picked her purse up, as Stef and Brandon left outside. Realizing that Stef left her pay Michelle rolled her eyes. She wished that they could just be friends. Michelle couldn't wait until one day she and Stef would be able to be in the same room without Stef wanting to look like she would bury her.

Walking outside she saw the side of Stef that was always there. The mother side that she did love about her. She had the door opened helping Brandon into his car seat. Most likely telling him that she loved him and not to cause her too much trouble. "Hey buddy. Say goodbye to mom. You will see her tomorrow when she picks you up." Turning towards Stef she sees the blonde waving at Brandon through the window.

"I will pack his lunch and before you say anything. Brittany won't be here tonight or for the whole week actually. She is away for an out of town court case. So it will just be me and him." Stef crossed her arms, waiting for something else to be said. Michelle huffed. "Fine. I'm sorry that I didn't ask you. I just missed him and I promise that next time I will ask you."

"What about the lawyer. You had her call me this afternoon, to talk about meeting up with my lawyer. Jesus Michelle I wish you would have told me that she would have been calling today." Stef started to feel her face go red. She looked around before starting her next sentence. "You will never do that. I don't want to hear from your lawyer first." With that she walked away.

Driving back to her mom's she feels empty. It is the first time since their break that she has felt empty. She feels like she should be driving back to their house, playing dinos or whatever Brandon wanted and then having a glass of wine on the sofa with Michelle. By the end of the night Brandon was in bed ready for another day.

Now though she heads to her mom's house to get maybe 4 hours of sleep, an hour more if she cries herself to sleep. Stef is grateful for her mom but she knows that she can't stay in this slump forever. Once inside the house Stef grabs a notepad and heads into the home office. Pulling up website after website of apartments that are on the market that are also close to the school and to the station. She spends hours writing and comparing prices. She calculated how much she would need to make to have the feed her and Brandon, pay the rent, and have extra money just in case.

Through her pen down she looks up to see her mom. "I haven't seen you do that much math since high school. What are you doing?"

"Figuring out my next step in life. I love it here, but there will come a time when I need to get my life back." Sharon walked to her daughter and pulled her hand into hers.

"I will be here for every step. Don't forget that." A kiss to Stef's forehead Sharon left Stef to figure out her next step. Stef saw her phone light up. Looking to see that Lena texted about missing their lunch dates and wanting Stef's help. She looked back at the computer and then at the phone. She did miss them but right now she just couldn't be around anyone that made her open heart to another person that could potentially hurt it. Keeping up with her lie she told Lena that she was working late and couldn't make it.

Stef continued back to the numbers until she was happy with what the numbers were saying. Finding a happy medium it was one of the first nights that she got around 6 hours of wonderful dreamed filled sleeps.