I've been SUPER busy the last few weeks, so writing took a back seat. I've also been trying to think of new chapters.
I got a few comments/messages saying I should try and write a chapter/continuation where Happy gets pregnant/they adopt another child. I've been pondering it, and I've got about 4 different versions of that, but none of them seem to fit right. I don't like the way I've been writing them, and I haven't decided which rout I'd take in terms of a story line (adoption, pregnancy, even miscarriage?) or if I even want to publish one of those. I'm being overly picky with it because I don't know if that's a plot line I really want to write, and if I did, I'd want to do it justice.
"Can you call Ralph and ask him if he wants to play with me today?" Lucas asked as he walked up to Paige in the kitchen of the garage.
"Ralph's got some projects to work on, sweetie. I don't know if he has time today. Is it important?" She asked as she was preparing some fruits for Isabelle.
"I just wanted to talk to him about something. I need help with…uh…school work." He said shyly.
"You know that there are 4 other geniuses that could help you with it, right?" said Paige curiously.
"I know, it's just…It requires someone with EQ and IQ and Ralph's closer to my age, and I want his help. Can you call him for me?" asked the boy as he hopped down from the chair he had climbed onto.
"Sure, I'll let you know." She replied as Lucas walked away.
A while later
"What do you want?" Said Ralph as he walked up to Lucas who was tinkering with some wires.
"I need your help. But it's secret. Rooftop." He said as he dashed up the stairs to the roof.
Ralph rolled his eyes and followed.
"Okay, now tell me. What's going on?" Asked Ralph
"I like a girl in my school. She's a normal. But she's always in trouble at her other schools, which is why she's in my class. She's older than me though. She's 6." He spit out quickly. He had been holding it in all day.
Ralph smiled "You know who's good with that stuff? Your mom and dad. They helped me with my first crush. Fireworks. We made literal fireworks for her."
"I don't know if I want to talk to them about it…They're older." He said shyly looking at his shoes.
Ralph laughed "They're not that old. Besides, they're good at the romance thing…your dad is anyways. Talk to him, he's better at it then I am."
"You sure? It's not weird?" asked Lucas.
"Everything about us is weird. But no, your dad's great at the people stuff, Remember?" he said as he messed up Lucas' hair and headed for the stairs.
"Wait!" Said Lucas as he chased him.
Ralph turned around and asked what he wanted.
"I really like her. What if she doesn't like me back?" he asked
"Dude, I haven't talked to the girl we made fireworks for since I was in 4th grade. I'm sure you'll both get over it if it doesn't work out." He smiled and walked back downstairs with Lucas following him.
Later that night
When they went to say goodnight to him he asked Toby if they could talk. Toby already knew what it would be about, Ralph had texted him and given him a heads up.
"What's on your mind, kiddo?" he asked as he took a seat on the bed.
"I like a girl in my class." He said shyly and softly.
"That's great buddy! What's she like?" he asked curiously, he wanted to find the best way to help Luke.
"She's 6. She's normal. She's pretty, and she's funny. But she goes to my school because she's always getting in trouble at normal schools, so they called her a bad kid. I don't think she's bad though." He said with a little smile.
Toby made a mental note to look into the girl, later.
"That's great! So is she your friend? You talk to her a lot?" he asked with a grin on his face. He was so excited to be helping his son out with the "ladies".
"Yeah. We're in the same class room. And we sit at the same table sometimes." He responded.
"Well, why don't you invite her over this weekend? You guys can play in the backyard, or play the pool. She can meet your bunny!" offered Toby. "We might even be able to work out something special."
"That's a good idea! I'll ask her tomorrow." He smiled. "Thanks dad!"
"No problem, buddy." He smiled and kissed his head and headed out to the living room to meet Happy. She was already watching some sit com.
He took a seat on the couch next to her quietly. About 30 seconds later he began to tell her about Lucas' crush.
"I'm just not sure how I feel about her potentially being a bad kid." Said Happy. "He's easily influenced by normals."
"Were you not labeled a bad kid? We should give this girl a chance. We can look up her parents tomorrow and see if we can dig anything up, we can ask his teachers about her too." He offered.
"Fine. But if she's not good for him, she's not coming over." Replied Happy.
"He needs to learn about love, and heartbreak, and how to get out of situations with not so good people. He needs to learn how people work. He'll never do that properly if we keep protecting him from it. Who knows, maybe she's just like you were." He smiled.
"I was a trainwreck when I was 6. I beat up a few kids and I also had an attitude despite the selective mutism. I also broke things and took things apart to build new things. I manipulated people to get what I wanted. So no, I don't want him hanging around someone like me." She stated.
"We'll give her a chance. One playdate. If she's awful, we'll deal with it from there, alright?" he said placing his arm around her.
"Fine." She reluctantly agreed and snuggled in closer to him.
The next day
Toby took it upon himself to try and find out any information he could about this young girl and her family.
Toby had also talked to the teachers when he picked Lucas up, and he was informed that the girl was disruptive, but had a bubbly personality and a short attention span. They had also informed him that she was from a rich family and her parents were both business people, working very long hours and her nanny was the one who picked her up more often than her parents.
Upon watcher her in class for a few minutes he had figured out why she had been labeled troublesome. She had gone undiagnosed with ADD. Coupled with her lack of parental support and involvement, caused her to act out a little more. She looked like a very nice kid, just misunderstood. Toby felt for her, and thought she'd be a good friend for Lucas, if he wanted.
Once they were back at the garage Toby approached Happy and informed her of what he had found out.
"So you think she's an alright kid?" asked Happy standing at her desk.
"I think she's not awful, just circumstances that got in the way. She's got potential. Her parents aren't great, but she's cared for by her nanny." He said as he leaned over and rested his hands on her desk.
"Okay, she can come over. Go be a responsible parent and call her parents or something. I don't know how to plan a date for 5 year olds." She said with a slight smile.
"Yep, I'll talk to her nanny tomorrow when I pick Luke up." He said getting ready to walk away.
She grabbed his jacket and pulled him down for a quick kiss "I don't want you running off with a nanny, you're mine, got it?" she smiled at him. She knew that wasn't something he would ever do.
"Never. Not with anyone other than you….Unless she's a smoking hot –OOOUCH" he said in a mocking and joking tone just to annoy her.
Happy cut him off with a swift elbow jab to the ribs.
"I mean I love you my beautiful amazing wonderful wife." He said in a slightly painful voice. –man she could really hit hard when she tried.
The next day
"Ralph said he got fire works for the girl he liked. Can I get fireworks for Stephanie?" Asked Lucas from the back seat of the car as they drove him to school.
"She's coming over for lunch, we can't have fireworks during the day." Happy pointed out.
"Buddy, why don't we make a fancy lunch?" Asked Toby.
"Okay. Can I dress up and can we light candles?" he asked innocently.
Happy smiled at how adorable it was. "I think that's a great idea."
Saturday
Happy and Toby were in the kitchen preparing lunch. While Lucas and Stephanie played with the bunny outside.
"He gets all this crazy romance crap from you, you know." She said as she was cutting up some fruits.
"Well, he definitely didn't get it from you…" he said sarcastically.
"Hey! I could do romance if I wanted to, you're just always doing the grand gestures first." She said throwing a grape at him.
"Yeah, but we both know it works out better that way." He said as he walked behind her, and kissed her cheek. He quickly smooshed some potato salad on the front of her shirt while pulling her in for a hug.
She turned around swiftly and smooshed a handful of cake in his face.
"Oh it's on Quinn!" He yelled as she took off running around the kitchen island.
"Try me Curtis!" She said as she started to throw handfuls of fruits at him.
He dodged most of them by ducking down behind the island but she was faster and more agile than he was so she managed to get cake all down his shirt.
He didn't hesitate to smoosh berries down the front of her shirt either.
They were running around their kitchen like children yelling, letting out random yelping sounds and egging each other on.
Lucas and Stephanie were quietly playing with the bunny in the backyard feeding it veggies and trying to train him to do tricks.
They could hear the commotion from inside the house through the screen of the patio door.
"Your mom and dad are fighting." Said Stephanie while looking down at the bunny "My parents fight a lot a too."
"Oh, they're not fighting. They're playing. Listen, they're laughing and see, look, they're throwing food everywhere. They're making a mess." He said correcting her. "But I'm sorry your parents fight. That's not fun to listen to."
"My nanny says it's because they're stressed about their jobs, I usually just play on my iPad when it gets too loud." She said petting Tesla while he are a carrot.
"I remember when I was really little my foster parents used to fight a lot like that." He said trying to relate to her and help her any way he could with his limited knowledge of normals and EQ. "But then my parents adopted me and they're good, they don't yell."
"I just get scared when they fight. I don't like yelling." She said
"That's not fun. You can come over here more where there's no bad yelling." He said with a smile. "I mean, they yell jokingly like they're doing right now, but it's not scary, it's funny."
"Your parents seem really happy. I wish mine were happy like that." She said as they both looked through the patio door to see Happy kneeling on the counter with a handful of food and Toby standing in front of her with his hands up begging for her not to shoot while both laughing.
Lucas grabbed the bunny and headed inside with Stephanie following him.
"Mom. Let him go." He said as he struggled with the screen door.
"You're telling me what to do?" She said with a grin on her face.
When he finally got into the house Toby threw a handful of food at him and Lucas dropped the bunny on the floor. Good thing it wasn't even a 2 foot drop. He ran towards the closes piece of food he could find and threw it back at Toby. He then turned around and threw some at Stephanie.
They continued the food fighting chaos for a few more minutes until there was no more food left to throw.
"Kay, how about you kids go get changed into your bathing suits, rinse off and then go swimming to clean up. Dad and I will clean this mess up." Said Happy as she headed to the closet to grab a broom other cleaning supplies.
"How about we go out for lunch after? Wherever you guys want to go. Since your mother here decided to ruin the wonderful lunch we prepared." Said Toby eyeing Happy and grinning.
Lucas and Stephanie agreed and ran off to go get changed and headed to the pool.
"Your family is awesome." Said Stephanie.
"They're good." Said Lucas with a smile.
"So where do you want to go eat?" Asked Stephanie.
"Wherever you want. You're my guest." He replied splashing in the water.
"Pizza. Pizza is good." She smiled.
Toby and Happy had taken turns cleaning themselves up, since someone had to stay close to the patio door or outside with the kids in the pool – It wasn't very deep and both kids knew how to swim, it was a safety thing they didn't want to risk being too far from hearing any screams.
Once everything was cleaned up they got the kids out of the pool and changed into their clean clothes they headed out for pizza.
"I like you guys. You guys are funner than my parents." Said Stephanie.
"We try." Responded Toby taking a bite of pizza.
"My parents are always too busy for me. We don't do fun stuff together." She said softly.
"Well, you're always welcome with us, kid." Said Happy with a small smile.
"Thanks Mrs. Curtis." Said Stephanie with a smile before taking a bite of her pizza.
"Oh god, I'm not old enough to be Mrs. Just call me by my first name, please." Said Happy.
"We're too cool to be formal. First names are fine." Said Toby with a grin.
Once they were done eating they went to drop Stephanie off at home. On their short 10 minute drive Toby spoke up just before they arrived at her house. "Well I hope you enjoyed the date, even though we ruined the first lunch, the pizza was good."
"DAD!" yelled Lucas.
"What? Did she not know this was a date?" he asked.
Happy shot him a glare "Way to say it again"
They pulled up to her house and her nanny came out onto the front porch to watch Stephanie get out of the car and to greet her.
"I had a fun day. Thanks Luke!" she said as she leaned over and kissed his cheek and hopped out of the car.
"Ouuu I think she likes you!" Said Toby in the teasing voice of a 4th grader.
"DAD!" he said again blushing.
"What now?! It went well! She had fun, you had fun, she kissed you, and I didn't blow it for you." He said turning around dramatically in his seat to face Lucas.
Happy just smiled to herself listening to them bicker the rest of the ride home.