Sofie and Sage were unashamed and very aware as they sat in the principal's office. Their parents stood behind them, Lorenzo behind Sofie and Carly behind Sage. Both had their hands on the girls's shoulders, though Lorenzo's grip was somewhat firmer than Carly's. Both girls stared straight ahead, each with identical smirks and steel eyes that said they didn't care at all what the principal said. It wasn't their fault.
Their brother, however, would probably have something else to say, though he'd never admit it outside of their home. Michael slouched in a chair off to the side, an ice pack over his left eye. He was sure it would be purple by the end of the day and green within another twenty-four hours. He was pretty sure that he was the only person in this room, including his mother, stepfather and the principal, who was completely and utterly innocent. Everybody else was somehow to blame for his black eye.
Another not-so-innocent person walked in the door and Michael sighed. He slouched in his chair as his father walked in. AJ looked down at him with hard eyes and Michael groaned. He wanted to say that it wasn't his fault, but he had no idea how to get that done without causing more trouble for his sisters. He'd just been trying to stop the fight before either of his sisters seriously hurt someone. They had all learned enough about self-defense that they could easily break a jaw or limb with the proper force. Should that have happened, they would have been at the PCPD instead of the principal's office. Of course, with the adults in the room, he wasn't too sure which was worse.
AJ reached down and pulled the ice pack from his son's face, then put it back. He groaned and looked around the room. As usual, his eyes landed on Carly. "Care to tell me what trouble they got him into this time?"
Her eyes narrowed. "I would expect that from you. Blame a couple of innocent girls for something before you even know the details. Ya know, AJ, I am not about to take sides between my…"
Lorenzo cleared his throat and reached out to Carly. His fingertips touched her shoulder, then drifted down her arm. He played at her fingers before taking her hand. She looked at him and he said, "I'm sure AJ doesn't expect you to choose." He turned to AJ. "And none of us know what happened, yet. We were waiting for you to show up."
AJ looked at Lorenzo and would have loved to strike out at him, but he wouldn't. He may have been a recovering alcoholic, but he wasn't an overly violent man. Yet, it annoyed the hell out of him that Lorenzo was so calm. He was a criminal, but his gentile and loose demeanor always made him out to be the respectable guy, the responsible guy… the level-headed guy. If AJ punched him in the mouth, he'd just be giving more credibility to what everyone already thought of him. That he wasn't worth the time that a few members of his family had put into him.
The one thing that kept AJ even remotely calm was the fact that he had been called in about the incident. Had Lorenzo and Carly been the only ones called, he would have been undermined as the parent. He didn't want that gangster being the definitive parent to his child. It was bad enough that Jason had been called a few times before he had. It was about time that the school realized that Lorenzo Alcazar was not the father of AJ's son, and Michael's last name was Quartermaine.
"Can we explain?" Sofie rolled her eyes and leaned back. Her father's grip tightened on her shoulder, but she didn't wince. "You could at least give us the chance to explain what happened. It's not like we told Michael to get involved."
"In fact, I'd have never hit him if he'd just stayed out of it." Sage groaned. Carly put her hand on her head and jerked her back to look at her. She groaned again. "I didn't mean to hit him, Mom. He got in the way of my foot. I was trying to kick the sh-- The hell out of Patrick Sweeney."
"In their defense," Michael said, "she did give the guy a warning. And, there were at least three of them. Sofie and Sage were completely defending themselves. They were getting picked on."
"And you just couldn't let your sisters get picked on." AJ sighed. His son was a better older brother than he had been, and he knew that. All AJ had managed to accomplish was turn his brother into a criminal and get most of his family to hate him, or at least barely trust him. "You were looking out for them."
"I was trying to get them out of fighting, but I stepped in at the wrong time and…" Michael lowered the ice and showed his eye to the room. "Things happen, and I swear to God, I can't wait for them to stop happening." AJ would have expected his son to look at Lorenzo, but instead Michael stared at Sofie and Sage, as if to tell them that they were going to hear about it when they got home.
The parents in the room all stared at one another, then Lorenzo turned to the principal. "What I see here is that two girls were picked on, threatened, and could have gotten beaten up. So, instead of calling us down here because some young men are upset they were beaten by two young girls, you should be teaching your students to be responsible and not to pick on those smaller than them. Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe we'll take our children home and when school starts again on Monday, I expect this to be taken care of."
"Mr. Alcazar…"
"If the parents have issues, they know where to find me." Lorenzo stepped back and first Sofie rose, then Sage. He led his daughters out of the office, with Carly bringing up the rear of the Alcazar bunch. AJ pulled Michael out of his chair and the two followed the others out. They all kept their mouths shut on the way outside of the building, no one willing to say anything within the confined walls of Port Charles High School.
Once they were far enough from the building, standing next to the Lexus that had driven Lorenzo and his guard to the school, they stopped with Lorenzo beside his daughters and AJ beside his son. Lorenzo looked to all of the teenagers, then finally said, "I think it'll be a good idea if Michael stayed with AJ for a while."
"What!" Carly's head whipped around quickly. "What the hell do you mean? Michael is my son and he lives with us. I'm not…"
"Carly, please." Lorenzo sighed. He reached out and touched her, but unlike usual, his touch didn't instantly ease her. He could still see her seething, waiting for the chance to explode. The only thing that was probably stopping her was the fact that AJ would have loved nothing more than for her to cause a scene in public. They were well beyond the days of trying to gain full custody, but both wanted to look like the better one in Michael's eyes. If Carly threw a fit, there was no way that would happen.
Lorenzo sighed again, then looked at AJ. "There are things going on right now, and it might be best if Michael stayed with you. It's dangerous, and if I could get the girls to stay somewhere else, if I had anywhere else for them to stay that I thought they would stay, I'd send them there. I've already got a guard that's going to be taking him and the girls back and forth to school."
"As much as I hate to say you're right…" AJ groaned. "I'm sure Mom would suddenly love me if she knew Michael would be at the mansion for a while."
"And if I don't want to go to the mansion?" Michael looked around and realized that no one particularly cared what he wanted. "Fine, I'll go to the mansion, but if Edward starts with me, again, I can't be held responsible for my actions. I've spent too much time with Sofie and Sage, so there's no telling what I'll do."
"You'll probably call Jason and complain about it." Sage rolled her eyes. "So, Michael's gonna get locked in the mansion and we get locked in the penthouse? That's just great, Dad. Wonderful."
Lorenzo rolled his eyes and smirked. "Then I'll be sure to tell your uncle and Jason that you'd both rather be out kicking teenage boys in the head than seeing them."
"Wait a minute!" Michael dropped his ice pack, then bent down hastily to pick it up. "Luis is in town? So, I get Edward complaining at me and getting on my nerves AND Dad's while they get to hang out with Luis? Now that is what I call unfair." He turned quickly to his father. "Not that I don't wanna hang out with you. 'Cause I do, it's cool, but… it's just not fair!"
AJ sighed. "We'll stay in the boathouse. And you can go visit. But, for the most part, you're staying with me until I'm sure your house doesn't get blown up."
"You know what, AJ? I'm about five seconds from slapping the hell out of you." Carly groaned. She didn't know that Luis had arrived either. She'd already been prepared to have a row with Lorenzo over the choice of Zander as her bodyguard when the situation with the kids came up at school. Now, they were definitely going to have a talk. If Luis were in town, things were worse than she knew them to be, and Lorenzo hadn't even told her. "I'm letting you take Michael because, despite what your family things, I am a good enough mother to put my son first. But, I'm not about to let you scare any of these children or get your digs in on Lorenzo. Why don't you just be a man about it, huh?"
"I'm being a parent about it, and if you were smart, you'd take the girls and go somewhere, too."
"I can't just pull them out of school. Classes just started up again. Besides, if the freaking Quartermaines haven't run me out of town yet, I'll be damned if some idiot with a gun will."
"Yeah, you're a great one, Carly. Just stay there and let the girls get into fights. I can guess what happened. Someone came up to them and called their father a criminal. Oh, and let's not forget Jason."
Sofie sighed. "I'll have you know that it was drug kingpin. And that Jason was a murderer. And they said you were an alcoholic, and Michael got mad, but we know he doesn't fight, so we decided to do it for him."
"And we're not leaving the country," Sage said.
"Would you all just stop?" Michael groaned and shook his head. "You're all acting like… like… us! I mean, come on. Decision's made, right? I'm going home with you and they're going home with Mom and Lorenzo. Case solved. So, would you all just back off?" He sighed and shook his head. "Seriously, guys, enough already. Now, I'm going to go get some stuff from the penthouse, check in on Uncle Jason, say hi and goodbye to Luis, and then I'll be at the mansion. Whatever the hell you all decide to do, be happy at it."
They all watched Michael walk off, trudging in the thin layer of snow until he reached his car. The Ferrari had been a compromise, considering that he had two sets of parents, both claiming that they would be the ones who would buy his car when he turned sixteen. Not to mention Jason's offer to get him a motorcycle. In the end, they all went in on the Ferrari, and Michael got to drive around Port Charles in style.
Lorenzo opened the back door and slid into the car. When the door closed, he rolled down the window and put his head out. "Sofie and Sage, catch up with your brother. You came to school together, you'll leave together." He sighed and shook his head. "Let's all just get out of here before anythinge else happens. Who'd have thought Michael would be the one with the most common sense out of the bunch."
