Chapter Two
Claire watched as John and Dominic stared at each other, each one waiting for the other to blink. "How are you doing that?" She asked, looking away and shaking her head. She couldn't look at that unnerving Bender stare anymore, it was already creepy when John did it by himself, let alone when he had his cousin doing the exact same thing. They'd obviously gotten that from their fathers.
Andy felt himself starting to nod off, his Walkman tape starting to rewind for the hundredth time. "Are they still at that?" He yawned, refusing to watch for the same reason as Claire.
Allison nodded, pulling a pixie stick from her bag. "It's pretty cool once you get used to it."
John shushed them, never breaking eye contact with his cousin. "Don't distract us."
Janet Vernon watched the two boys in front of her, shaking her head. "How did you manage to find those two?" She asked, turning to Clarissa.
She shrugged, looking at the near identical cousins. "They just wandered up like lost puppies."
Amelia tilted her head, unsure of what was happening. "Are your eyes stuck?" She asked, noticing how neither one had blinked or moved in the last three minutes.
John tried not to laugh, pressing his lips into a thin line. "Go bug your brother." He smiled, his concentration breaking just long enough to make him blink. "Fuck!"
"John!" The parents scolded, amazed that he hadn't built up a filter yet.
"Sorry." He rubbed his eyes, lifting Amelia into his lap as Vernon turned into a truck stop off of the interstate.
"Who has to use the lavatory?" He asked, chuckling as everyone's hand went up. "Get a move on. I'll fuel up."
John let Amelia climb onto his shoulders, her hands rubbing over his slowly growing hair. "Your head feels funny."
John pulled on her feet. "Your feet smell funny." He countered, as they left the bus.
Clarissa rolled her eyes, unable to believe that John had ever been from the home he was. "How he ended up the way he is, I have no idea." She looked to Mary Johnson, pointing to the pair. "She just loves him."
Mary nodded, a small smile creeping onto her face. "She thinks that he's a knight from a fairy tale." She looked the other mom in the eyes. "We can't thank him enough for what he did."
Clarissa smiled, watching as John jumped over every crack in the pavement. "I'm not sure how we would even start." Her smile faded as she remembered how sick he'd been a few months ago, how they were constantly worried that every night would be his last. She remembered the night that he'd been ready to give up, tears pricking at her eyes. "He's an amazing child."
Jan took her hand, looking between the four other moms. "Can you believe, that we are the co-mothers of fourteen kids? Only two of them under the age of fourteen?"
The other women laughed at that, Kathrine Reynolds sighing as she finally thought about what they'd gotten into. "Oh goodness, what have we done?"