~~~~
"What started as a simple disagreement erupted into a screaming match, I felt so bad for the other guests. I haven't been that mad in such a long time, Tai," Kari said sadly to her older brother the next afternoon. Matt had picked Tuesday up from school and Shinji from home and driven them to Shugotenshi Notes so they could spend the rest of the day at work with him.
"Well what did she say?" Tai asked.
"Awful things..." The young woman sighed. They sat on the sofa in the living room, snacking on riceballs from a previous lunch and drinking some tea Tai had prepared.
"She's got four kids in the school system and she's a really influential member of the PTA, I really think she's going to try to get my job taken away from me."
"Just because of your family!? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Tai said angrily.
"TK was so mad when I came home last night, I had to stop him from calling up Mrs. Toshi's house and badmouthing her."
"He should have!" Tai grumbled, glaring out the glass doors of the terrace.
"Tai, that would have just made things worse." Kari took a sip of her tea, finishing off the cup and setting it back down on the coffee table. "I'm so worried now, though. There's a real possibility that I could lose my teaching position."
"Not if I have anything to say about it..." The brunette said, forming his hand into a fist.
"We're not kids anymore," Kari said, always the voice of reason. "You can't solve things by fighting your way out, it just doesn't work that way...."
"Well it should!" He yelled. "If I had my way I'd march right down to that lady's house and show her a thing or two."
Just then the front door to the apartment opened and a little goggle wearing toddler came scampering in.
"Shinji, take your shoes off!" The tall blonde man said that walked in after him with Tuesday in his arms.
"Yami, why are you home so early?" Tai asked, pulling Shinji into his lap and tugging the sneakers off his little feet.
"Tuesday's been crying since we left the school," he said grimly, removing his own shoes and his daughter's before setting her down. The little girl had tears in her eyes and she poked at the carpet, sniffling softly.
"But she was ok when she left the classroom," Kari said, kneeling down to hug her niece.
"Some older kids were picking on her while she was waiting on the sidewalk for me," Matt said, collapsing into the armchair facing the coffee table. "One of them was that Toshi woman's older son, her kids are just as bad as she is."
"What did they do!?" Tai said.
"They were throwing pebbles at her and yelling that she had two dads..." He hissed, narrowing his eyes. "I was so close to beating the crap out of those brats. I told them I was going to hang them from a tree by their skanky little underwear if they didn't leave her alone, and they ran off."
"Matt, you really shouldn't have said that..." Kari said, looking up at him.
"Yeah, well, let them go cry to their mothers. If that woman is going to be such a bitch about this then so am I," he growled.
"Mrs. Toshi and her supporters are going to be all over this now," Kari sighed. "She's probably going to claim that you were abusing her children."
"Well her children were abusing my daughter!" He roared, scaring Kikoutei and sending her racing down the hallway into the other room.
"This makes me so mad!" Tai said. "It's like there's nothing we can do."
"There's always something we can do," Kari said, getting back up on the sofa and holding Tuesday in her lap. "We just have to go about it the right way. If Mrs. Toshi brings the issue to the school board, we have lots of friends who can help us that are important members of the community."
"Ken can bust in and shoot up the place," Matt said, grinning, imagining the calm and mild mannered blue haired man breaking down the door of the school with Davis and his noodle cart close behind.
"Izzy can confuse everyone to death with some high tech mumbo-jumbo," Tai giggled.
"And Cody knows the law inside and out, we won't let anything slip by," Kari said, chuckling. The mood had lightened, and all three adults were now smiling, but someone in the room was still not satisfied.
"Daddy!" Shinji screamed.
Tai blinked and looked down at his son.
"I wan snack!" He yelled, pointing at the kitchen and struggling to get out of Tai's lap.
"Oh yeah, I promised to give them a snack when we got home," Matt said.
"Can Aunt Kari make something?" Tuesday asked.
"What's the matter with my snacks?" Matt said, folding his arms across his chest.
"Aunt Kari is a teacher so she's smarter," Tuesday said, hopping off her aunt's lap and skipping into the kitchen.
Tai and Matt both looked over at Kari with one eyebrow raised each.
"I didn't tell her that, honest!" She laughed, waving her hands in front of her in defense.
"Sure, Kari, whatever you say," Tai said.
"A likely story," Matt added.
"You two are impossible!"
~~~~~
A week later, on Friday, neither the Ishida spouses nor Kari had heard any word from the school board about Mrs. Toshi's complaints, and hoped that her bark had been much worse than her bite. A normal schedule resumed, until one day school was canceled for parent teacher conferences on a day Matt and Tai were both busy. So, instead of dropping Tuesday off at kindergarten and Shinji off at daycare like they normally did on busy days, the children were dropped off at Ken and Davis's apartment early in the morning, since both men had luckily been free that day.
"Uncle Ken, why are we here again?" Tuesday asked, pulling her shoes on at the front door, shortly before lunch time.
"Because there's no school today, and your daddies both had to work," he answered, helping her tie her laces.
"So are you and Uncle Davis my baby-sitters?" She said.
"That's right."
"I thought girls were baby-sitters, Auntie Sora is my baby-sitter sometimes, did you know that?" She said, kicking her feet around absentmindedly, making it very difficult for Ken to tie a proper bow.
"Boys can be baby-sitters too," he said, once the shoes had finally been tied.
"Ken! Can you come help me!" Davis yelled from the other room.
"Stay here for a minute, Tuesday," Ken instructed, setting her on the sofa.
Davis was wrestling with something on the edge of their bed, and happy baby giggles could be heard underneath all the commotion.
"What's the matter?" Ken asked.
"Matt and Tai said just leave him in a diaper today 'cause he doesn't know where our bathroom is that good but he won't hold still and let me change it!" Davis cried, being kicked in the face by Shinji the entire time, who was finding much delight in the whole situation.
Ken smiled and walked over to help his struggling husband. On the floor were five clean diapers, a bottle of baby power knocked over, and Davis's goggles, which had apparently been kicked off his head.
"Distract him while I put the new diaper on," Ken said. He kneeled down at the edge of the bed while Davis hopped onto the mattress and leaned over Shinji.
"Hey, look over here Shinji, look at Uncle Davis!" Davis crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue out, causing the toddler to laugh at first. "That's right, don't pay attention to- OW, ow, ow, Ken he's got my nose!" Davis shouted.
"Hold on a second," Ken said, finally fastening the fresh diaper in place and quickly rescuing the maroon haired man on the bed from Shinji's baby grip of death.
"What's with this kid, anyways?" Davis asked, rubbing his nose.
"Matt told me he's going through a grabbing phase," Ken said while pulling a pair of overalls on Shinji.
"Yeah, well you better keep your hair away from him," Davis said, motioning towards Ken's navy blue hair that fell past his jaw.
Just then, a loud metallic crash came from the living room. Ken scooped the baby into his arms and he and Davis hurried out the bedroom door to find Tuesday covering her mouth and looking guiltily down at the floor.
"I didn't do it!" She squeaked, running to hide behind Ken's legs.
"My soccer trophy!" Davis wailed, kneeling down to find one of his most prized trophies from high school broken right off its base.
"Davis, we can fix it easily enough," Ken said, Shinji wiggling wildly in his grasp.
"Yeah but, this was my favorite one!"
"They're all your favorite one," Ken said, glaring slightly and letting Shinji to the floor when he started screaming. He then bent down until he was eye to eye with Tuesday, who looked close to tears.
"Can you please tell Uncle Davis you're sorry?" He asked.
She nodded and scampered over to Davis, still examining his busted trophy on the floor. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.
"I'm sorry, Uncle Davis," she said softly.
"Aw, don't worry about it, Tuesday, we'll fix it later," he sighed.
Ken beamed happily at the precious moment until a loud buzz and grinding noise was heard from his small office right next to the living room. Shinji was nowhere in sight.
"Shinji!" Ken dashed across the room and grabbed the baby, hoisting him over his shoulder, bringing nearly an entire ream of paper from the fax machine with him. "That's not for babies!" He said frantically, pulling the paper from Shinji's hands and pressing every button on the fax machine simultaneously to make it stop beeping at him.
"Ken, are we ready to go yet?" Davis asked, entering the room.
"Yes..." Ken groaned. All the chaos that had taken place that morning was actually in preparation for a trip to the park. After finding Shinji's shoes, making sure Tuesday had gone to the bathroom, cleaning up an overflowed toilet in said bathroom, digging Shinji out of a potted plant, getting Tuesday a glass of orange juice, finding Shinji's shoes again, packing the baby bag, dragging everything and everyone into the elevator, going back upstairs to let Tuesday use the bathroom again, getting back into the elevator, traveling to the eighth, fourth, second and ninth floors because Shinji had gone on a field day with the buttons, and Davis running up five flights of stairs because the elevator was in use and they had forgotten Shinji's bottle, they FINALLY piled both children and themselves into the car and headed to the park for a picnic. By now, lunch time was nearly over.
Later that day, Tuesday skipped across a grassy field to pick flowers with an ice cream cone in her hand, a new hat on her head, and a new teddy bear under her arm.
"I hope she's finished, 'cause I'm running out of money..." Davis said, looking into his painfully thin wallet.
"We've spent over five thousand yen in only a few hours but I just don't know how to say No to her," Ken said, holding a tired out Shinji in his arms.
"And of course everything she wants, he has to have one too," Davis said, looking at the sleeping baby.
"Look, Uncle Ken!" Tuesday said, scampering back over. "I picked a pink one for you!" She held up possibly the tiniest pink flower bud he had ever seen, roots still attached. He took it and smiled gratefully, and Tuesday ran back across the field to add to her bouquet.
"But it's worth it, right?" Ken said, beaming down at the flower.
"Yeah..." Davis said, grinning happily as they both watched Tuesday play in the patch of flowers she had found on that lovely day.
~~~~
Monday, the next day of school, came quickly. Tuesday bid good-bye to her fathers on the sidewalk just like she did every morning, and entered the school, skipping the entire way. She found her kindergarten room, the one with the great big picture of the orange kitten on the door. She always remembered, since her own cat Kikoutei at home was orange.
She walked inside, children were already gathered there for their morning routine of handing in their homework paper to Kari, or in this case, Mrs. Takaishi, taking off their shoes and coats, hanging up their backpacks, and taking their seats. Tuesday pulled her shoes off carefully and slipped them into the cubby with her name on it, but when she reached for her pair of classroom slippers, she was pushed aside roughly by another girl.
"Hey! It's my turn right now!" She said, standing back up and stepping in front of her cubby.
"My mom said don't play with you..." The taller girl said, sneering at her and pulling out her own pair of slippers. Tuesday pouted for a moment but quickly forgot the incident, she had never played with that girl anyway. She hung her jacket in the closet and removed her homework from her backpack to hand in. Last night it had been writing all the numbers up to fifty.
She walked up to the desk where Kari was sitting writing something, and waited for the boy in front of her to turn in his paper.
"Here Aunt Kari!" She said when she stepped in front of the desk, peeking over the side.
"Thank you, Tuesday, and don't forget to call me Mrs. Takaishi in school, ok?" She said, accepting the paper.
"Oh, I forgetted..." She hopped away from the desk and sat down in her own chair, looking at the writing in the corner of the chalkboard. Though she could not read very well yet, she knew her aunt would tell them all what it said later, it was the day's lesson plan, and was different every day.
"Class is starting!" She heard Kari announce, and saw her stand up from her desk. "Everyone get in their seats, please." Any children who were still putting their things away hurried to their seats.
"Did everyone have a good weekend?" Kari asked once all the students were seated.
"Yes, Mrs. Takaishi," most everyone said in unison.
She checked the name list quickly to make sure everyone was accounted for and flipped through the class planner after that.
"It looks like today is Tuesday's turn to tell about her weekend," Kari said.
Tuesday had almost forgotten, it was her lucky day! Each week, a different member of the class got to tell the story of what they had done the previous day, and she was even more excited than she would have normally been, because school had also been out on Friday.
"Go ahead, Tuesday," Kari said, smiling. She sat down in the armchair at the front of the class that she also read the students stories from, and began listening attentively.
"On Friday we had no school and my daddies had to go to jobs so my baby brother and me went to Uncle Ken and Uncle Davis's house. Um... we played with toys and then went to the park and ate food outside on the grass. Uncle Ken bought me a new hat and---"
"Hey!" A black haired boy on the other side of the room interrupted.
"Kenichi, please don't speak while someone else is telling their weekend story," Kari said sternly.
"But why does Tuesday have two dads and no mom?" He said.
Another boy raised his hand quickly but began talking before he had even gotten permission. "My dad said Tuesday's family is bad," he said loudly.
Two or three more children began talking suddenly, and Kari rose from her chair.
"Everyone, please, quiet down!" The noise level subsided and attention was at the front of the room. "Right now is Tuesday's turn to talk and it's against the rules to speak while someone else is speaking," she said. She tried hard to maintain her composure, but it was hard to be fair when her own family was being insulted. "You'll all get your turn, so no one interrupt again, please," she instructed.
Kari sat back down in the armchair, turning to face Tuesday.
"You may continue now, Tuesday," she said.
"I'm.... done..." Tuesday said sadly, though she had been far from it. Why was everyone being mean to her today?
Later at recess, Tuesday hurried over to the swing set, her favorite place to play. She hopped onto a swing and started moving back and forth, her pigtails flying in the breeze. As she tried pumping higher, she called out to two of her classmates who always played on the swings with her.
"Somebody push me!" She giggled. The two girls looked at her for a moment, but then hurried off to play in the sandbox without saying anything. Tuesday stopped pumping and watched them run away. "How come nobody will play with me...?" She said.
Instead of getting a push of speed though, someone ran up and pushed her right off the swing into the dirt.
"Hey!" She yelled, brushing the sand off her knees and turning to face her attacker. It was a first grader, now was also their time for recess. The boy standing by the swings seemed much older and taller than any first grader she had seen before, and sassy as she was, how could she stand up to someone so big?
"Go away," he said, kicking sand at her.
"I was here first!" She said, getting up and glaring him in the eye.
"You can't play here because your dads are gay, that's gross!"
"They are not!" She shouted, assuming it was some kind of insult, she did not even know what he had meant.
She shoved the boy out of the way and tried sitting back on her swing, but again, she went flying off, this time landing on her elbow and scraping it roughly on a sharp rock. Tuesday looked at the blood on her arm, and of course, since she was only four, now came the time to cry. She sat on the ground sobbing while the bully stole her swing and didn't care in the least about her injury. But then Tuesday was taken by surprise, when HE went flying to the ground.
"Leave my cousin alone!" Someone shouted, and threw a clump of dirt at the boy's head.
"I'm telling!" He whined, and ran off.
"Tuesday, are you ok?" A young blonde boy, slightly bigger than Tuesday herself, knelt down on the ground.
"Why do people keep picking on me today, Yamachi?" She sobbed, her lower lip protruding as far as possible. Yamachi, who was now six years old and in the first grade, looked over his little cousin carefully and saw that she was bleeding.
"Come on, let's go inside," he said. He took her by the wrist and helped her up, and the two children ran inside the school building to Kari's classroom.
"Mommy, Tuesday's bleeding," he said when they had come through the door.
"What happened!" She said, rushing up from her desk to examine her niece's injury.
"Somebody pushed her on the ground," he said.
"Tuesday, who did this to you?" She asked, leading the little girl over to the sink to wash off her wound.
"I dunno..." She said, still pouting and sniffling a bit.
"Yamachi, do you know the person's name who knocked her down?" Kari asked her son.
"No, he's just an ugly kid in my class." He said.
"It's not nice to call people ugly, even if they are mean to others," she scolded, but couldn't help but agree with him. Whoever would push an innocent little girl down without a care had to be slightly ugly on the inside, at least.
"Excuse me, Mrs. Takaishi?" Kari and the two children looked at the door that led outside to see Shinji's teacher standing there, with the bully who had hurt Tuesday right behind her.
"I need to take your son to the principal's office with me for a moment," she announced.
"May I ask why?" Kari said, standing up straight after having placed a Band-Aid on Tuesday's elbow.
"Apparently he's been throwing things at other students on the playground," she said, glaring down at the blonde boy, still standing protectively next to Tuesday.
"I threw dirt at him 'cause he pushed my cousin!" Yamachi said defensively.
"Is this true, Hiroshi?" She asked the boy by her side.
"No, he just threw it at me and pushed me," he lied, sticking his tongue out at Yamachi once the teacher had turned away again.
"Please come with me, Yamachi," she said, striding over and grabbing him by the hand.
"Pardon me, but my niece is obviously injured, so I believe my son is telling the truth," Kari said to her coworker, pulling her child away from the woman's grasp.
"I think we'll let the principal decide that," she said coldly.
Kari led Tuesday and Yamachi with her to the door and all five headed to the principal's office, for what she feared would be a losing battle.