This is about Season 4 episodes 6 and 7 but a little backstory tossed in for fun and he's dissing the parents because what 16 year old loves their family 100 percent of the time?

Later this fall I am going to try some dialogue driven pieces and a H/E origin story. Also plan to do some creative work with my stories. My natural go to is the character study model. Inside someone's head.

I hit a little writers block with Mothering so hopefully this gets those juices flowing...

I can do one about Stevie too as a chapter 2 to this one of you like it. Please review.

Have a great day!

Bren

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How am I supposed to focus on Calculus and History and all this school stuff? How can my parents not get that all I care about right now is Piper? I am a teenager and my body is just hormones right now and finally I am driving and I have friends and a girlfriend and they want to banish me from her Monday to Thursday. Like I can focus on the spot like that. Just say "McCord no thinking about your amazing girlfriend because some dead president did something important a hundred years ago.

We can look all this shit up on our phones. Which everyone is always telling us to put away.

I am always in trouble around here and it drives me crazy. Isn't life supposed to be about trying things and making mistakes and learning from them? My parents just want to ground me all the time and while I am glad they aren't spankers- how can I tell them that serving time locked in the house is how people become school shooters? I mean I won't because I know that's wrong on every level; but my kids are gonna get more freedom to fuck around a bit and do things. What's

My friends and I talk about this at school - we don't get high- we tried it once but get real- we know our parents did too. And alcohol? Who hasn't tried that underage? We did it as safely as we could. And if my mom wasn't actually sec state she and my dad would be glad I supported Fred Reynolds. I am allowed to think for myself - that's what Henry and Elizabeth McCord preach all the time. Be passionate and purposeful and get involved- be vulnerable and live authentically

Or is that just for when you turn 21? Or finish University? Stevie didn't feel very free when she dropped out of school. I mean Mom grounded her and she was 20 years old. I remember that - it was like 2 weeks and Allie and I stayed home most of that time in solidarity with her cuz honestly - she didn't do anything awful. She told us she thought dad was cheating on Mom and that seemed a bit nuts but when Stevie told us that dad was lying while we were in India - we could see how Stevie felt . Nobody grounds parents when they make mistakes and let me tell you my parents do a lot of good stuff but they mess up too. Don't get me wrong. I love them and respect them and I am proud of them- but sometimes I just wanna scream and throw things...

Maybe the pod people do invade your brain when you turn 30 or your kids become teenagers or something.

Because my parents are always hugging and kissing and touching one another. Always have been. It's gross to think of them being intimate but I guess it is just something people that really love one another do.

Allie says it's hard to find a good guy because no one measures up to our dad. Stevie is a mess because her fiancé stopped being romantic and sweet and they were always fighting. She said she knew it was over when she came home and found mom and dad painting the kitchen.

She said she was hit like a ton of bricks that love was having what our parents do. The easy going friendship, the partnership on like - EVERYTHING. They have been married for more than 25 years and they still love everything boring. Sharing ice cream (Piper doesn't get why we eat it with forks at our house ). Dad scrubs the shower and mom does the toilet - it's like a thing. They are one person and when Mom goes away for her trips, dad is lonely.

So I mess up some schoolwork after being this perfect student and they flip out and say that I have to prioritize my grades.

I mean Piper and I are soulmates. Can't all this school crap wait a quarter? . Why the rush to graduate and move out and be 22 and working at a job I will likely hate and needing to get a masters and a PHD and just never enjoying life.

No one stays in the same job for life! Pipers parents have changed careers twice and my folks have been in at least three. My dad says he's a teacher and now he works in intelligence but come on. We kids aren't stupid. Dad has about 7 different jobs and we never bought the car accident story from last winter. But we let Mom and Dad think we did because they think they are protecting us. Stevie, Allie and I fight but we are close and we do talk.

But now I am in my room and I I have to focus on school and not having sex because kids only have one side to them apparently. I told them that Piper and I plan to wait. We don't want to have a baby now. As cute as babies are I am so not ready to be a dad. Come back in about 20 years maybe. Also maybe never. I know we were a lot of work and worry and do I have that kind of energy? One day maybe.

Mom was all proud of me when Piper and I made dinner and she says she likes the new Jason, but the source of the happiness is weekends only? Also why are she and dad big on trying to embarrass us. Like I was going to make out with Piper in my bedroom while everyone is home. Classic old people stuff.

And messing up a quarter at school is easy to fix. I am really smart apparently and when I do apply myself I get A pluses so why can't I have a break and just be 16 and party and have some fun? I get to be an adult for like 80 years.

Dad says I have to show them my homework til my grades are up and he's gonna be checking in with the school so that makes my blood boil but apparently I have no rights. The only thing that calmed me down was texting my beautiful girl and she said her parents said the same thing.

It's fascism.

...

Ok. I showed Mom my calculus homework and she said it was good so now I am gonna go for a walk to cool off. Mom offered to come and that usually means she's willing to negotiate so I didn't snap at her. Of course DS has to follow us but that's par for the course around here.

It's cooling off. Mom shivered so I gave her my scarf and she smiled at me and said I was just like dad. She even thinks I am starting to look less like her and more like him. Me and Allie are McCords she says, while Stevie is Adams to the core.

I see that. I noticed my face is changing and my hair isn't so golden anymore. Piper says I am gorgeous and while I don't see that I do like that I am working out a bit.

Mom says she understands love and I scoff a little and then take it back. She sighs. She and dad don't like being draconian so I ask point blank why? I feel like I am being sulky but I am upset.

She takes my elbow and as we walk she explains that parents aren't perfect. That she and dad want us to be happy but that they are scared we will get into trouble that we aren't ready for and it's not about them having to take a day off work and help us. It's apparently emotionally damaging to break off a sexual relationship and that feelings are messy things. Look at Stevie and Jareth.

I get it. Sort of. She surprises me and says she knows that we all hate her sometimes. She hated her parents when the No seemed unfair. She couldn't get her ears pierced til she was 12. She wasn't allowed to date until she was 15 and she had to come home from school and do her homework right away unless she had lacrosse or riding or debating. Dad had to help out with Union stuff and his homework and chores came first before friends. I laughed with her about how helping with Union stuff was mandatory and she said that grandpa Patrick didn't do irony very well

She surprised me because she got emotional and she said that she was happy I was in love and growing up. She knew I was gonna be a decent and good man and that she knew that as a mom she would get things wrong sometimes. I am less angry.

She asked me to bear with her because she never had a 16 year old son before and that she at least had raised two daughters to this age. She laughed and said she owed Stevie a lot of therapy because everything with her was a first.

I can appreciate that and I guess I am glad the girls paved the way. I had a phone at 12, video games and a hamster. Stephanie got told no for so many more things and Stevie fought a lot of battles that I didn't have to. My mom said that she and Dad were growing up with us.

She said she would talk to dad about not banishing Piper - but she didn't promise. No sex, no drinking and drugs no porn and my grades needed to stay good. She wasn't giving in on that. No Piper for at least a few weeks until I made up the work I had let slide. I know she was an interrogator at the CIA and the news can call her cold and laser focused and I see why she is good at it. She warmed me up and then came in for the kill but made it all sound so loving. Ugh.

She said that she didn't like grounding me but that I couldn't just take money from them for balloon rides, I couldn't lie and do other dumb stuff without consequences.

I blushed, because i hate getting called out but she didn't stop talking. It's a parents job to keep kids accountable while we are having fun. She asked me if any punishment would make me happy and I squirmed. Mom was good at getting to the point and staying there no matter how awkward it got. OK lady. I screwed up and blew their trust and yes my friends get grounded for this too.

She said we had to get me to adulthood the best we could. That believe it or not I was part of the raising of me. She did apologize for my life being less normal than my sisters. Stevie made it to 20 normal, Allison to 15. I got barely 13.

That was the sucky part but I got bonuses the girls did not. We had a gorgeous home, there was more money in the budget and there were perks that came with her job- like the India trip and Westmore. Which when I hated and got expelled she and dad didn't kill me over it. Plus, she adds- parents of teenagers like when their kid is dating someone who isn't flunking out of school or drinking and doing drugs.

Fair points. I don't love it but it is how things work.

She said that being high up as she is in the cabinet and having to explain why I needed public school in terms of security every term was not fun. DS wants me to go to private school. She has to explain this a lot and people just tell her to put me in private and she sticks up for me.

Ok. That's not fair. I ask her how she feels and she says she worries about me but that Monroe seems to be good for me. I remember how much she tried to hide how much she hated my football term and how when I stood up for Allison at that school dance and got into hot water over Thad Newton - how cool she and dad were about it.

Lots of little things everyday too.

Christ I want to cry now? Why do I have to do this in front of her? But I also want her to see that I get it now. The wind is cold on my wet cheeks and she takes the scarf and wipes my face. Says we should get home and do I want hot cocoa?

Yeah I can't hate her for very long. I can see why dad loves her. She's kind and strong and beautiful and stern but compassionate. When I think about all the things she does for us all the time and how crazy her job is now - all I can do is promise to do better til I do something teenage next time.

She chuckles. She knows that she's still raising three young adults. Even Stevie who's 22 and has totally fixed her life and Allison who's in college and doing great. I had to admit that her dress for Stevie was not a shower curtain.

She going to be our mom til she dies and then she promises to haunt us. She would too. I guess I could focus on school again. It never occurred to me that the Borremons might not want Piper dating a slacker. I might be an anarchist but I am not some lazy ass loser.

And mom swears she will help with Math and take me shopping for new clothes soon so I can look good for Piper.

I guess I can cooperate with this plan. Fighting Mom and Dad never works out - they are both high pressure people and slacking off just isn't what we do. Plus I can't spend anymore time in my room playing Xbox. I know I will screw up again. We all do it. Even these perfect parents of ours have stories. I know my mom tried drinking and smoking at boarding school and got caught. My dad was always fighting with his dad and he once sank the car in the pond.

Ok. Fascism and hot cocoa.

Fin.