"Luke, I know you think I shouldn't use our personal relationship to my advantage at work, but I need your help," Meg said in Luke's office.
"With what?" Luke asked not looking up from the job applications he was going over.
"I think we should sign this band, and Mitch won't budge. He wants to sign that fifteen year-old Latin singer," Meg explained.
"Well, if you weren't working under Mitch you could sign whoever you wanted," Luke told her.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Meg questioned.
"Harry Lawson got a job over at Freeland Records, and he has left us short one producer," Luke explained.
"I don't get why your telling me this," she said, "It's not like I have the credentials to be a producer."
"Meg, I didn't have the credentials to be president Eastman Music, but I got the job," he replied.
"All right, I'll do it if you are serious," Meg told him.
"I'm serious. You can start with that band you wanted Mitch to sign," he said.
"Where is my office?" Meg asked.
"You are too much," Luke whispered before embracing Meg in a passionate kiss.
Across town, David closed he locker and headed to the cafeteria. The lunch line was long, but he waited it out. He had learned the first day that it is not cool to brown bag it. Just as he was about to pay the lunch lady someone pushed him from behind. He lost his balance and fell flat on his face.
He came to moments later when he was surrounded by lunch ladies and the principal.
"We better call your folks so you can get checked out at the hospital," the principal told him.
David sat up and realized the whole cafeteria was staring at him. He leaned back and let his head bang against the floor again. When would the humiliation end?
"Apparently not any time today," David said to himself as the paramedics loaded him into the ambulance fifteen minutes later. He had told them that he was able to walk, but they made him ride on the gurney. "This," David thought, "is my mother's fault. Why couldn't she have picked me up instead of insisting I be brought by ambulance?"
When his gurney was rolled into the hospital, the first voice he heard was his mom's.
"David, are you all right? I can't believe that school was considering letting you go back to class," Meg called out as she rushed toward him.
"I'm fine. At worst, I probably just broke my nose," David replied.
David's words did not seem to calm Meg. She was already in super Mom drive. Luke was hanging around in the background trying to convince Meg a second opinion was not necessary. Finally Meg left to pick up Kate. David told her Kate would worry if Luke picked her up because Meg always picked Kate up.
"Is she driving you insane?" Luke asked after Meg had been gone for a few minutes.
"Yes," David responded.
"Well, I'll let you in on a secret. She is acting like this because she feels guilty about the night Sarah went to the hospital, and no one could find her," Luke explained.
"Hopefully, she won't convince the doctors I need exploratory surgery," David told him.
Luke laughed. He understood where his stepson was coming from. After a few hours, David was released, and he headed home with his bandaged up broken nose.
Meanwhile, JJ and Christy waited in the car in front of Sarah and Michael's school. He was taking Christy to the dentist, and Sarah was coming along so she could help shop for party food afterward. Sarah was one of the first students to exit the building, and she hurried to JJ's car.
"Were you waiting by the door?" JJ asked as he pulled away from the school.
"No, but I wish I had been," Sarah replied.
"Are you as excited as I am about Michael's party?" Christy asked her cousin.
"I could care less," Sarah replied.
"Come on, Sarah, you have to at least be a little bit excited," Christy said. "It's a high school party."
"I've been to high school parties before," Sarah told her.
"When?" JJ interrupted.
"Lots of times," Sarah responded smirking because she realized she had hit a nerve with her uncle. "Besides, this party is going to chaperoned."
"Have you really been to parties without parents there?" Christy questioned.
Sarah nodded her head while saying, "No." Christy was able to see her physical yes while JJ only heard the auditory answer.
Christy thought Sarah was the coolest, and she knew her friends would too. The party was going to be great.
"Did you leave any food at the store?" Beth asked when JJ, Sarah, and Christy returned with a trunk full of groceries.
"It's mostly soda. There is cola, diet cola, root beer, orange, grape, and a bunch of other kinds," Christy explained.
"Well, at least you just had your teeth cleaned today," Beth replied as she helped bring in the rest of the bags. "Do you have any homework?"
"A little bit" Christy answered as she searched through the brown paper mountain on the table.
"What about you, Sarah?" Beth questioned.
"Nope," Sarah told her.
"I don't understand it. Michael always has loads of homework," Beth stated.
"Yeah, but Michael is a senior," JJ added.
"No, he had a lot of homework all through high school," Beth said as Michael entered the kitchen. "Michael didn't you have a lot of homework as a freshman?"
"Yeah," Michael answered.
"Why doesn't Sarah?" Beth questioned her son.
"She does it in the library at lunch," Michael told her. "Don't you?"
Sarah nodded.
"Why?" JJ questioned.
"Because I want to," Sarah replied before going upstairs.
"What did I say wrong?" JJ asked.
"Dad, she's the new kid. She doesn't have a lot friends. You just rubbed it in," Michael explained.
"You shouldn't let her sit there all by herself, Michael," Beth scolded him.
"I can't make friends for her," Michael said in his own defense.
"Beth, just let it be for a few more weeks," JJ said.
The ringing phone cut him off, and Michael answered it. "It's Aunt Meg," he said handed the phone over to JJ.
Hmm… more Patty. I'm going insane trying to keep the story line going with characters all the characters I have now. I am thinking about splitting the story into two, but I'm trying to find a way to do it. Hopefully, I'll wrap this one up somehow. Thank you for the reviews. I know I've been dragging this story out, but you know you like it.