"You're fussing."
"I am not fussing!"
Warm, calloused fingers ran through her sleek curls and rested along her jaw, tilting her head up so her attention was focused on the man before her.
"You're fussing, mariposa. Stop worrying," Eddie chuckled.
"I've just never had to do...this," she said lamely, waving her hand at the school. "Am I dressed fine?"
He stepped back to study her outfit, admiring her figure under the boyfriend jeans and striped t-shirt she was wearing. Her dark hair fell around her face and shoulders, swishing along her back as she moved her head.
"You look like a mom," he said bluntly. She gasped and gently smacked him in the chest, shooting him a murderous glare. "What?! You do!"
"But I'm not a mom," she hissed. "I'm just...Christopher's friend."
"Mari," he said softly. "You're practically his mom and I'm not just saying that as a platitude."
"Can we not talk about this now? I'm nervous enough doing parent teacher conferences. No one ever went to one for me. How does this even work?"
"Relax," he laughed, dropping a kiss to her nose. "You act like you're going to be tested on this."
"Oh shit, there isn't a test, right?"
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her into the school, trying and failing to wipe the grin off of his face. However, he found himself feeling just as nervous as his girlfriend. It wasn't his first parent teacher conference, but it was certainly the first at a school as nice as this. Was Christopher being cared for? Was he keeping up with the classes? Was he making friends? Is there something that they didn't know about?
"Hey, relax," she urged him, a hint of humor in her tone. He glanced down at her and she waved the paper in her hand. "Help me find our first classroom, goober."
"Room 203," he announced as the bell rang. They turned down the hall, staring in confusion at the rooms going from 205 to 201. "Huh."
"Ooo, sign says to take a left," she mused, pointing at the directions on the wall. "Maybe we should have taken Carla."
"While I appreciate Carla very much, she isn't as pretty as you," he flirted. Mariana rolled her eyes and elbowed him in the side as they entered room 203.
"Hi, I'm Mr. Morrison," the math teacher greeted, gesturing for them to take a seat. "You must be Christopher's parents."
Mariana opened her mouth to correct him but Eddie beat her to it. "Nice to meet you. We're very excited to talk about how Christopher is doing."
"Yes! He is easily keeping up with his classwork and he never misses a day of homework. You can tell that even if he wasn't fully grasping it in the classroom, he understands it by the next day. I take it that means someone is working with him at home?"
"Oh, that's all Mariana," Eddie deflected. The latina blinked rapidly and let out a nervous laugh.
"I'm not the best at math but I try to remember stuff from school plus nursing and what I don't know, I look it up on Khan Academy and we go over his homework afterwards," she explained.
Eddie never realized that she did all that. He knew that she helped Christopher with homework and had seen her sitting at the dinner table with her laptop some nights, writing down something in a notebook she kept stuffed in her nursing bag. He just assumed it was stuff for work and never bothered to ask her about it.
They got through math, band, and science with rave reviews about Christopher. The science teacher informed them of Christopher's flippant nature towards tsunamis and Mariana had to disguise her laugh as a cough as Eddie uncomfortably assured her that they would talk to him about it.
"C'mon, Mari. All of your little habits and you had to teach him the nonchalant trauma." Eddie leaned back in the small chairs they were seated in, waiting for the English teacher.
She gasped at his words and stared at him. "The audacity! What would you have rather I taught him?"
"I'm just messing with you, sweetheart." He grinned as she rolled her eyes, nudging his leg with her foot. He reached down and squeezed her knee which caused her to yelp at the ticklish sensation and tumble out of her chair. Edde burst into laughter, reaching down to help his girlfriend back up into her seat as she cursed him out under her breath.
"I'm sorry," he snickered as she crossed her arms and refused to look at him. He leaned over and peppered her cheek with kisses. Mariana broke into a small smile and shoved him back into his seat.
"Compórtate, chato," she hissed.
"Después de esta reunión, tú y yo...nuestra cama…¿qué piensas?" he commented.
"¿Qué piensas? Pienso que esta es una escuela en Los Ángeles donde muchas personas hablan español y tú necesitas modales. Ay Dios mios, te quiero pero me sacas de quicio."
He stared at her in shock and began to ask her to repeat herself when the door opened. The English teacher entered with a sigh, smiling at the couple before her.
"So sorry to keep you waiting. My last student's father asked a surprising amount of questions," she explained. "You must be Mr and Mrs Diaz?"
Mariana once again went to correct her when Eddie smoothly intercepted the question.
"Just Eddie and Mari is fine," he greeted.
"Short for Edmundo and Mariana, I presume."
"Most people guess Eduardo."
"Growing up I had a grandfather named Edmundo," she explained. "He was my favorite. And Mariana, I've heard a lot about you from your son. Speaking of which, let's talk about Christopher. He's been doing really well in my class. His verbal skills have definitely improved. He's still a little shy about reading out loud, but he definitely understands the material. I attribute that to him being read to from an early age up until now, so bravo there."
Her statement was seemingly directed at Eddie who immediately shook his head. "No, we have his mother and Mariana to thank for that."
"Christopher tells me that you've kept it up even when Mariana is working at the hospital."
"I try to do the voices, but she's better at it. We're making our way through...what series now?"
"Just finished Nancy Drew and started on the Hardy Boys. I have Little House and Junie B. Jones next on the lineup," Mariana immediately answered. "I like to throw in the occasional Froggy books just for fun."
"They're a regular at the library now," he commented with a fondness coating his words.
"I would love to talk to you about coming in one day and reading to the class. I know you're busy enough with work but-"
"Of course," Mariana laughed. "As long as Chris is okay with it."
"That's really great that you're taking into consideration his feelings too. He talks about you and Eddie constantly. I hear you're quite the hero."
Mariana grinned brightly, tangling her fingers with Eddie's instinctively. He squeezed her hand at the sight of the pride beaming through her.
"Christopher is also one of our most popular students," Ms. Flores continued. "He loves making the other kids laugh."
"Is that a problem?"
"Not at all! He's a very sweet and kind boy. You two are doing a great job."
"Thank you," Mariana said quietly. "I think that's the best thing we've heard all year."
The fresh air felt nice after being cooped up in the classrooms for the past hour. Mariana led the way with Eddie hot on her heels. The second they were outside and away from the doors, he had her wrapped in a bear hug and spun her around as she laughed. He pressed a kiss to both of her cheeks, her nose, and finally her lips as he set her back down on her feet.
"We are raising a funny, popular, young genius," he cheered. "All thanks to you, Mari."
"Hey, no. You and Shannon did all the work. I can't be reaping the benefit for something I've done nothing to help with."
"Mari, it's been you for the past year and a half. I didn't even know that you were spending time teaching yourself math to help him. You're absolutely amazing, Mariana. I honestly don't know how I lucked out and somehow convinced you to have me in your life."
She looked both ways to make sure there were no prying eyes before she pulled him down for a searing kiss. "Let's go pick up our funny, popular, young genius from Pepa's. I think he deserves some ice cream."
"You spoil him."
"Good."
/
Mariana was content with just laying on the couch, her head resting on Eddie's chest as he ran his fingers through her hair. She let out a soft sigh and shut her eyes at the soothing touch. They knew they should get up and clean or something mature like that but frankly, a nap sounded nice. Her shift at the hospital started in two hours.
And then his phone rang.
"Hey Carla," he greeted. His hand stilled and Mariana lifted her head, frowning at his pale face. He quickly gripped her hand with his, nodding along to whatever the person was saying.
"Yes. Yeah, we'll be right there. Thank you," he finally said and ended the call.
"You're scaring me," Mariana exhaled. "What? What happened?"
"Christopher fell on the playground and was hurt. Carla said he's fine, but-"
"We're going," she finished his statement, practically jumping over the back of the couch to pull her shoes on and grab the keys to his truck. She stared at the jangling metal for a moment and took a deep breath to ground herself.
"I'll drive."
"You have work," he protested.
"Doesn't matter. I'll call Leslie and she'll have to understand. Christopher and you always come first."
They rode in silence to the school, an underlying panic buzzing through their veins. Carla said he was fine but for two first responders, any injury made them nervous. Eddie practically charged into the school and the poor front desk secretary waved them through with wide eyes.
"Carla!" Eddie called as soon as they stepped outside. "What the hell happened?"
"I told you Christopher is fine. You two didn't have to come down here," she explained. "It's just some scrapes and bruises."
"How did he get hurt?" Mariana interjected.
"Well, it turns out that Christopher and skateboards don't get along very well."
"You let him skateboard?" Eddie interrogated Ms. Flores.
"I am so sorry, Mr. Diaz. We didn't know one of the kids had brought a skateboard."
"You didn't know? He could've broken his neck."
"I know, and I feel terrible. The other kids were showing him how to ride it and they didn't know that-"
"Didn't they? No, let's push the kid with CP around on a skateboard for fun. You let them make a fool out of my son."
"Eddie, it's not her fault," Mariana warned. "How on earth can she keep an eye on every single kid here at every single moment?"
"Yes, thank you. I promise you that's not what happened here," Ms Flores stammered out.
The nurse's door opened and Christopher slowly came out, looking absolutely pitiful. Mariana kneeled down next to Eddie, carefully checking over his cuts and bruises with a trained eye.
"I'm sorry about my clothes," he mumbled.
"No, none of that. Don't even worry about that," Mariana assured him. "Are you okay? Do you feel okay?"
He nodded tiredly and she immediately opened up her arms, letting him stumble into her embrace. She carded her fingers through his hair and gently hugged him.
"I can run by the house and grab some clean clothes for him to change into. Mari, don't you need to be heading to the hospital soon?"
"Leslie said I can come in at 2," Mariana sighed as she pulled away from Chris, flattening down some of the hair she messed up and winking at him as she booped his chin.
"We're done for today," Eddie announced, scooping up his son. "Come on, we're leaving."
"But school isn't over!" Christopher whined.
"Eddie, c'mon," Mariana muttered.
"It is now."
He started towards the door, leaving Mariana to shoot Carla a look that told the older woman everything. The latina stopped in front of Ms. Flores and sighed.
"I'm sorry. It's been a hell of a year and he's just scared," she explained. "I'll talk to him about it. I'm sorry."
"No need to apologize." Ms Flores offered her a small smile and Mariana nodded, turning and following her boyfriend to the car.