Disclaimer: i do not own anything HSM related
"So CJ are you ready for your first day of school this year?" Chad asked as he and Taylor drove CJ to the elementary school an early September morning.
CJ looked out the window as they approached the school. He pulled his knees to his chest and shook his head. "Maybe I not ready this year. Can we comes back later?"
"CJ there's nothing to worry about. This year's going to be so much better." Taylor promised. "Besides, there's only two months until the baby comes. You have to be big and strong for your new brother or sister."
"Can't I be big and strong some other time?" CJ asked.
"Not this year, you can't." Chad responded. "Don't worry, there's not gonna be any bullies to bother you this time. I'll make sure of it."
CJ folded his arms. "Why do we gets all the bullying? Girls are so lucky."
"No, girls sometimes have it worse. They get emotionally bullied. The way other kids make fun of them can scar them for life." Taylor noted.
"Sounds better than getting beat up." CJ muttered.
"You're not gonna get beat up." Chad promised parking the car. As he undid his seat belt, Chad caught sight of Dick, the parent of the kid who started it all. Chad eyed him briefly and slowly opened the car door. "I'll be right back." Chad approached the parent and child duo; stopping just behind them he folded his arms. "What are you two doing back here?"
Dick rolled his eyes and turned to Chad. "If you must know, my kid goes to school here. Got a problem with that?"
"Oh no, not at all." Chad shook his head. "I just thought after all the problems your kid caused to mine, he might have gotten expelled or something."
"Please, I ain't no stupid head." The kid replied.
"Yeah, well you're sure as heck no Einstein." Chad muttered to himself.
"What's your problem anyway, Curlytop?" Dick questioned. "Scared of what I'll do to you this year?"
Chad put his hands up in surrender. "Hey, I'm just trying to make sure there's no trouble this time around."
"Well the egg's on your face," Dick's boy laughed, "I'm not even in that loser's grade this year!"
Chad smirked. "Held back, huh? Sorry kid, but sounds like you got what you deserved."
Dick picked up his kid and walked away. "You're lucky I ain't reporting you to the principal."
"What was that about?" Taylor asked, going over to Chad with CJ.
Chad shook his head and turned to them. "Just trying to make sure there'd be no trouble. The kid got held back so he won't be in CJ's class."
"That's perfect," Taylor smiled, "and all the grades have lunch at different times so he'll never have to deal with him."
"Feel better about starting school now?" Chad asked his son.
"Um…maybe after lunch time." CJ said quickly.
"That's not going to happen. School's about to start." Taylor observed as the other kids entered the building. She handed him his backpack, "You be good today ok sweetie? I'll pick you up when school is over. We're going to Troy and Gabriella's."
"I'll have to meet you guys there after work. I'm working till five tonight." Chad said.
"Can we go there now?" CJ asked.
"After school." Taylor answered. "Hurry up or you're going to be late."
"I no wanna be late!" CJ gasped. He ran up to the school and followed the other kids inside. Easily catching up with his new classmates, CJ followed them into their classroom. He looked for his name on the desks; once he found it he took his seat and looked at the three other kids at his table. CJ held his backpack close to him on his lap, a little shy of what to say to them. It was especially hard since he recognized one of the boys as one who gave him a hard time last year. Luckily, the teacher entered the classroom moments later and wrote her name on the board.
"Good morning class," she greeted softly, "I'm Ms. Honeysuckle and I'll be your teacher for this year. I hope you all found your seats easily and made yourselves at home. Unless you need to sit closer to the chalkboard, you will be sitting with three of your classmates all year. So why don't you take this time to introduce yourself to your classmates and get to know each other?"
CJ looked to the two boys and one girl at his table. But he only sunk into his seat, too shy to speak to them. Luckily the blond haired girl actively spoke.
"Hi! I'm Amberly Evans! I like to eat chocolate even though I'm not supposed to cause it makes me real hyper!" she spoke, smiling widely. She pulled a couple of Hershey kisses from her jacket pocket and offered them to her classmates. "Want some chocolates? They're real yummy!"
"No, no, Amberly. No chocolates for you today." Ms. Honeysuckle said, quickly taking the candy away from the little girl, leaving her folding her arms and pouting.
"I…I'm Chester." The rather obese boy sitting across from Amberly said quietly. "You probably don't wanna get too close to me. I get really…really…ACHOO!" The three kids jumped back as Chester sneezed before he finished, "…sick easily."
"I'm Derek." The other boy said. "My mom and I like to run a lot." He, Amberly, and Chester then looked to CJ waiting for him to speak.
"Um…hi." CJ introduced himself quietly. "I'm CJ. I likes to play basketball."
Derek raised an eyebrow at him. "Hey, I member you. You were that kid me and some other guys used to pick on last year."
"Oh..." CJ responded, a little more afraid now, "…I'm sorry."
"Nah, I should be sorry." Derek replied. "Ever since my mom found out what happened, she hasn't let me hung out with those guys. And she grounded me for like tons of day over the summer. I won't give you any junk this year."
"Alright, now if everyone's gotten acquainted with their new friends let's go over our ABC's." Ms. Honeysuckle said. "Who can tell me what comes after C?"
"Ooooh, I know, I know!" Amberly eagerly raised her hand. "D!"
"That's right," the teacher smiled, "and who can give me some words that start with the letter D?"
"Doggy!" CJ called.
"Dinosaur!" Derek added.
"Derek! Derek starts with D!" Amberly added.
"Disintegrations!" Chester answered, which received some strange looks from the class. "Well it does…" he said softly.
"Ok then…" the teacher said slowly before moving on, "now let's make sure we know all of our ABC's. Everybody sing the alphabet. A B C D E F G…"
"H I J K L M N O P!" the class sang along. "Q R S T U V W X Y Z!"
After going over more of the letters and learning some basic addition, the school day seemed to go by pretty quickly. By the time the final bell rang, CJ was leaving school with his new friends.
"So what are you guys doin today?" Derek asked.
"I got a doctor's appointment." Chester sniffed. "They think I got the flu." As he pulled out a tissue and blew his nose, the three of them took a giant step back.
"I just want some more chocolates." Amberly said.
"I gets to go to my friend's house." CJ said.
"Coolness." Derek said before heading to his mom's car. "See you guys tomorrow."
As Amberly and Chester departed as well, CJ sat Taylor pull up in front of the school. He walked up to the car and hopped in. "Hi Mama."
"Hey honey." Taylor smiled. "How was school?"
"It was good. I mades new friends today." CJ said strapping in his seatbelt.
"That's great." Taylor smiled as they started driving. "I told you everything would be alright."
"I know." CJ said. "School's not so bad after all. So what we gonna do at Uncle Troy and Auntie Gabi's?"
"I think we're going to eat dinner there and hang out." Taylor answered. "You get to see Charity, too. She had her first day of school today as well."
"Think she had fun, too?" CJ asked.
"We'll find out." Taylor responded, pulling to the Bolton household. She parked the car and helped CJ out of the back seat. They went up to the door and knocked but all they heard was a 'come in'. They walked inside only to see the lights out and no one around. "Hello?" Taylor called.
Seconds later, everyone jumped out and turned on the lights, revealing balloons, streamers, and numerous baby decorations. "Surprise! Happy baby shower!" they exclaimed.
"Baby shower?" Taylor gasped. She turned to Gabriella, who happily ran up and hugged her. "Gabs, this wasn't supposed to be for another two months."
"And that's what made it a surprise." Gabriella smiled. She moved Taylor over to a chair and sat her down. "Come on, it's present time. See all the stuff everyone got for your baby."
"Cool! We're opening presents!" CJ exclaimed, jumping onto the couch.
"Shouldn't we wait for Chad to get here?" Taylor wondered.
"We can fill him in when he gets here." Troy said. "Don't worry, he won't be missing anything. So who's gift do you wanna open first?"
"Open my gift, sis!" Tonicka exclaimed, forcing her way through the crowd over to Taylor. She dropped a rather large wrapped box onto the floor. "I hope you like it, baby sister." She said sweetly.
"Wow.." Taylor breathed, "Tonicka you didn't have to go to so much trouble."
"Anything for my favorite sister." She smiled. "Come on, open it!"
Taylor sighed and began tearing away at the wrapping paper. Once she made it through to the box, she lifted to top and pulled out what was inside. "A baby swing…a pack of pacifiers…a toy xylophone…"
"There's also a moose baby blanket at the bottom." Tonicka smiled.
Taylor raised an eyebrow at her sister. "A moose baby blanket?"
Tonicka shrugged her shoulders, "They were out of ducks."
Taylor giggled and shook her head. "Thank you, Tonicka. This was really sweet."
"I know." Tonicka smiled. She then pulled out a little gift from her purse. "And something for my favorite nephew." She said, handing it to CJ.
CJ took the box and opened it. He was disappointed to pull out a pair of white socks. "Socks?"
"Hey, I'm not perfect." Tonicka shook her head. "They were the best I could find on such short notice."
"Thanks Aunt Tawni." CJ signed, putting the socks down on the couch.
Tonicka looked at her disappointed nephew. She then glanced at Taylor, who gave her an expectant look. Tonicka sighed and gave in. "Alright, I'll book an extra day at the hotel and take you to a movie this weekend."
"Thank you Auntie Tawni." CJ smiled, hugging her.
"Alright, alright," Zeke chuckled handing Taylor his gift. "Open mine next."
Taylor smiled and unwrapped Zeke's present. She pulled out a couple of baby pajamas. "These are so cute." She smiled, looking at the pink and blue footie pajamas.
Zeke shrugged his shoulders. "It was two for one. I thought it'd be perfect for either gender."
"Thanks Zeke." Taylor replied.
After a couple of hours of opening gifts, Chad walked in the door. He looked around the living room confused. "I missed dinner, didn't I?"
"Nah man." Troy laughed. "It's a surprise baby shower. Tay already opened a ton of gifts."
"Without me?" Chad gasped, pretending to sound insulted.
"Troy and Gabriella insisted." Taylor giggled. "Why don't you open their gift?"
"Alright." Chad smiled as he sat down next to Taylor. "Where's the gift?"
Troy opened their closet and pulled out not one, but five gifts. Chad's and Taylor's eyes widened at the presents. "Wow…you guys really went all out." Chad said.
"We just wanted to give you guys some awesome stuff." Troy shrugged his shoulders. "Too much?"
"No…not at all." Taylor responded.
Chad took one of the gifts and opened it, followed shortly by the others. He opened up to find a pillow, a stuffed tiger, a teething ring, shoes, a large pack of diapers, and a Winnie the Pooh bottle along with a gift card to Babies R Us.
"That's a lots of stuff." CJ noticed.
"Yeah it is…" Chad agreed. "I don't know what to say."
"We say thank you to our friends, honey." Taylor reminded him.
"I knew that." He muttered.
Gabriella giggled. "You're welcome."
"We also got something for CJ." Troy said. He went to the closet and reached into the back for another present. He gave it to CJ who then opened it.
"Cool! A bike helmet!" he exclaimed.
"Look what's inside." Troy said.
CJ pulled out an envelope from the helmet and opened it. He raised an eyebrow wondering what it was.
"Let's see, CJ." Taylor said.
CJ nodded and handed it to his mom.
"Another gift card?" Taylor gasped.
"It's for his first bike. He should be getting one soon, right?" Troy replied.
"Yeah, that was gonna be his Christmas present." Chad said. "Guess not anymore."
"What do you say to Uncle Troy and Aunt Gabriella?" Taylor asked CJ.
"Thank you." CJ smiled, hugging the two of them.
"So what'd I really miss today?" Chad asked Taylor.
"Nothing at all." Taylor smiled resting her head on his shoulder. "We got baby gifts from our friends and family, we're all here together…. Everything's perfect."
And that is the second chapter...and probably last chapter for the day. I thought it'd be nice to have a little bit more focus on CJ this chapter, give him at least half a chapter all to himself. And hey, why not have an early baby shower? And right now I am sneezing my head off so if I know what's good for me I'll quit while I'm ahead, get over this cold ASAP, finish this story (and my homework), and get started on my next story. I'd like to thank everyone in advance for reading and reviewing, and I'm especially happy that this might be my second story to reach 100 reviews so...well I just think that's a really good accomplishment for a Chaylor story since everything seems to be about Troy and Gabriella. XD So thank you again everybody, I'll say even more thank you's at the end of the next and last chapter. Hope you all enjoyed reading, and keep an eye out for the final chapter! (=