Dimension

"So you're dropping Tyler off at Spencer's on your way to work, right?" Freddie said as he slid two plates of eggs in front of Emma and Ashton.

"Yeah," Sam said as she packed the kids' lunches. "Hopefully this meeting doesn't take that long, but Carly says it seems pretty important."

"Well yeah, if they're making you actually come into the office, I'm sure it is," Freddie said.

"Still don't know why I have to go," Sam mumbled as she wiped cereal from two-year old Tyler's face in his high chair while trying to avoid getting any residue on her skirt. "I just work there part-time. From home. I thought I'd be done with these stupid meetings."

"Supeed!" Tyler beamed happily. "Supid, supid, supid!"

"Aw man," Sam moaned. "Not again…No Tyler, don't say that word. It isn't nice."

"Well, it's better than what he was saying last week," Freddie sighed.

"That was funny," Emma giggled.

"No, it wasn't," Sam said firmly. "Now finish your breakfast so daddy can take you to school. Hey…where's Jason?"

"I don't know, I thought he was awake," Freddie said.

"Jason!" Sam yelled loudly. "Jason, let's go! You're going to be late for school!"

"Mom?" Jason said, shuffling into the kitchen, still in his pajamas. "Mom, I don't feel well."

"What's wrong?" Sam asked as Jason sat down.

"Um, my stomach hurts," Jason replied. "And-And my head."

Sam felt his forehead. "Hmm…you don't have a fever."

"But I feel sick," Jason said. "Do I have to go to school?"

Sam glanced at Freddie. Both of them knew Jason actually enjoyed school very much, and had never been the type of kid to fake an illness to try to get out of a test or assignment.

"Well…I guess if you really don't feel well, you should stay home and rest," Sam said. "But…man, I-I'm not going to be home to take care of you. I have to run into work. I guess maybe you can just go with Tyler to Uncle Spencer's house and we can see if he'll be able to-"

"You know what? I can stay home with him," Freddie said. "I don't have much going on at work today."

"You sure?" Sam said.

"Yeah, it's fine," Freddie nodded. "I'll keep Tyler here with me too. You can just drop the girls off at school before you go to work then."

"Okay, I guess that works," Sam said. "Alright, Jason, go ahead and go back to bed. I'll bring you some toast and ginger ale before I leave."

"Thank you," Jason said, turning to head back upstairs.

"So now Tyler, see, this model is a 1953 Pioneer," Freddie said, holding up one of his model trains. "It was used to transport cattle. See, you can tell because it doesn't have any passenger cars."

"Tain!" Tyler said, reaching for the train.

"Very good," Freddie smiled, holding his model out of his son's reach. "But remember what daddy said. We don't touch these. It's hard enough keeping mommy from destroying them."

"Dad?" Jason said, coming downstairs. "I'm bored. And hungry."

"Okay, well I'll make you some soup," Freddie said.

"I don't want soup," Jason said. "I want ham."
"Jason, ham's probably the worst thing for your stomach right now," Freddie replied. "You need bland foods."

"Can I play trains with you at least?" Jason asked.

"I dunno," Freddie said. "You really should be getting some rest."

"I don't need anymore rest, I'm not tired," Jason said. "Please, dad?"
Freddie sighed. "Alright, alright. You can play with the trains. Just don't break them. And don't let Tyler get his hands on them. You remember what he did to my Proton Cruiser…I'll go make you guys some lunch."

Freddie headed into the kitchen just as his phone began to ring in his pocket.

"Hello?" Freddie said, answering.

"Hey," Sam said on the other line.

"How's your meeting going?" Freddie asked.

"I'm barely keeping my eyes open," Sam replied. "It's so boring. And long. And they won't let us bring snacks into the conference room. I'm on a lunch break right now, but Carly thinks we're gonna be stuck in there for at least another three hours, so you're going to have to pick up Emma and Ashton from school."
"Alright," Freddie said. "I can do that."

"So how's Jason?" Sam questioned.

"Actually, I think he's feeling a lot better," Freddie told her. "He's complaining about being bored and hungry, so that's a good sign. I'm thinking maybe he just ate too much last night and that's why he felt weird this morning. I mean it was pork chop night, and he broke his personal record."

"Probably," Sam laughed. "Well, at least he'll be ready to go back to school tomorrow. Alright, well I'll see you tonight. Love you."
"Love you too," Freddie said.

….

"You know you're the world's messiest eater, don't you?" Sam smirked as she sponged maple syrup out of Tyler's hair the next morning.

Tyler simply giggled happily.

"Daddy, can I have an extra cookie in my lunch today?" Ashton asked as Freddie handed her and Emma their lunchboxes.

"And why should you get an extra cookie, Ash?" Freddie chuckled, rolling his eyes.

"Because I'm sweet," Ashton said, smiling up at Freddie sweetly.

"Aw," Freddie said. "Well…I guess you can-"

"Hey!" Sam said. "Didn't we talk about you not letting the girls manipulate you anymore?"

"What's manipulate mean, mommy?" Emma asked.

"I'll teach you all about it when you're older," Sam said. "Okay, now where's Jason? His waffles are getting cold."

"I don't know, I thought I saw him getting up earlier," Freddie said. "Maybe he fell back asleep again or-"

"Mom," Jason said, walking into the kitchen. "Mom, I don't feel well."

"Huh? Again?" Sam frowned. "You seemed fine last night."

"But my stomach hurts again," Jason said, taking a bite of his waffle.

Sam and Freddie exchanged suspicious looks. Now this was strange.

"Honey, what's going on?" Sam asked.

"Nothing," Jason said quickly. "I-I just don't feel well."

"Well maybe you'll feel better once you get to school," Freddie reasoned. "I mean you bounced back pretty quickly yesterday when you felt like this."

"No, I-I feel worse than yesterday," Jason said.

Sam gave him a scrutinizing look. "You sure you're really sick? Really, truly sick?"

Jason nodded.

Sam sighed. "Alright, well…get up to bed."

"Okay," Jason agreed, turning and heading out of the kitchen.

"So what do you think?" Freddie whispered to his wife.

"I dunno," Sam replied. "I mean maybe he really is sick. He loves school, after all. He's never not wanted to go before. But it does seem a little weird. I'll keep an eye on him while he's home today and see if I can get anything out of him."

"Sounds good," Freddie said, giving her a quick peck. "I'll see you tonight, baby."

….

"I don't see why you guys both have to do this project," Sam mumbled as she helped Emma glue a Styrofoam ball to a popsicle stick. "You're twins! One should be enough for both of you. Your teacher knows this is just making more work for me."

"I'm home!" Freddie announced, walking in through the front door.

"Daddy!" the twins yelled, jumping up and leaving their project with Sam as they raced over to their father.

"What are you guys up to?" Freddie asked, hugging them both.

"We have a project," Ashton told him.

"Oh that sounds fun," Freddie smiled.

"Yeah, it's real fun," Sam mumbled. "They each have to make a three-dimensional shoebox model of the rainforest. Guess you know what the two of us are doing all weekend. You know, I think this is karma coming back around to bite me for all of my own homework I never did."

"Maybe," Freddie chuckled, sitting down next to her. "So where are the boys?"

"Tyler's already asleep," Sam said. "And Jason's probably playing up in his room."

"How was he today?" Freddie asked softly.

"Oh, he's definitely faking this sick thing," Sam whispered back.

"How do you know for sure?"

"He's been running around up there all day," Sam said. "From the second you left this morning. He's fine."

"I don't get it," Freddie frowned. "Why is he faking sick to get out of school? You think maybe he did bad on a test or something?"

"No, I checked his grades online this morning," Sam said. "He's got all As. Every time I tried to talk to him about it today, he'd pretend to be sleeping. I was thinking maybe you could go up there and see what's up. Maybe it's a guy thing."

"Alright, I'll give it a shot," Freddie nodded. "Good luck down here with the rainforest."

"Thanks," Sam said, rolling her eyes.

Freddie headed upstairs to Jason's room and knocked quickly at the door before opening up and letting himself inside.

Jason, who had been sitting on his bed, flipping through comic books, made a swift dash under his covers at once.

"Jason…" Freddie said. "Come on, I know you're awake up here."
"Oh, um, hi dad," Jason said lamely, peeking out from under his covers.

"Well, you seem better than when I saw you this morning," Freddie said.

"Oh, um, yeah," Jason nodded.

"Weird, though," Freddie said. "You were feeling fine yesterday afternoon too, but this morning you were right back to being sick again. So should we expect another illness tomorrow morning too?"
"Er, maybe?"

"Jason," Freddie said. "Talk to me. What's going on? We both know you're not suddenly allergic to mornings. Why don't you want to go to school?"

Jason looked down at his sheets, but didn't reply.

"You can tell me," Freddie said, giving his son a comforting smile. "What? Are they making you sing in music class? Did they take away the computer carts?"

"No," Jason mumbled, still not looking up at his father.

"Well then what is it?" Freddie said. "What's so horrible about the fifth grade that you suddenly want to avoid school? I mean you've got a pretty great set up there. You get fun movies, field trips, recess-"

"Some of the kids are mean to me," Jason suddenly said.

Freddie frowned. "W-What?"

"There-There are some kids in my class that pick on me," Jason said heavily, his face bright red.

"They pick on you?" Freddie repeated softly.

Jason slowly nodded. "They-They call me names like geek and loser. And-And they laugh at me when I answer questions in class. And at recess they say I'm a whimp because I'm not good at dodge ball. And-And one of the kids stole my lucky eraser from my desk last week. It was my favorite!"

"Oh…Jason," Freddie said gently. "I-I had no idea. How-How come you didn't say anything to your mom or me?"

"Because it's embarrassing!"

"No, it's not," Freddie said.

"Yes it is," Jason nodded. "Only babies get picked on."

"That's not true," Freddie said. "You're not a baby or a whimp because some kids are jerks to you. Those kids…they-they'll target anyone, really."

"But why's it got to be me?" Jason moaned. "I didn't do anything to them."

"I know," Freddie said. "Listen, you know…when I was a kid…before I even met your mom or Aunt Carly, I-I got picked on at school a lot too. And you're right, it's the worst. It makes you feel bad and you start not even wanting to go to school anymore."

"So I don't have to go back to school?" Jason said hopefully.

"No, you-you've got to go back," Freddie said. "You love school, Jason. You don't really want to stop going just because of a few bullies, do you?"

"But they're just going to keep being mean to me!" Jason said.

"Look," Freddie said. "The thing I learned about bullies is they-they just want to get a rise out of you. They tease you and make fun of you because they want you to react. And by you hiding away here they-they got that. But you know what? If you go back there and you just pretend that you could care less about what name those kids call you, they'll get bored and soon they'll leave you alone."

"They will?" Jason said.

"Uh-huh," Freddie nodded. "Just ignore them. Those kids will hopefully learn one day that they can't keep acting that way. So…just try that out, okay? If that doesn't work then you can talk to your teacher or your mom and I will and we'll see what else we can do, but I think you'll be just fine."

"You do?"

"Yeah," Freddie smiled, squeezing his shoulder. "I do. And just know…you can talk to me and your mom about these things. You don't have to keep them all to yourself."

"Alright," Jason nodded.

"So, you think you're going to make it to school tomorrow?" Freddie asked.

Jason looked up at his father. "Yeah…I think I'll go."

…..

"He's been bullied?" Sam exclaimed later that evening in her and Freddie's bedroom.

"Sam, calm down," Freddie said.

"I don't believe this! How dare anybody bully him?" Sam snapped. "He's such a sweet kid! I swear, when I find whose been doing this-"

"Baby, seriously-"

"Names, Freddie, I want names!" Sam said fiercely. "Did you get names?"
"Sam, what are you going to do?" Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "March down to the school and beat up a bunch of ten-year olds?"

"If they were making fun of Jason, yes, I am!" Sam said.

"Alright, well even ignoring the legal aspects of that, how do you think that's going look for Jason?" Freddie said. "You think kids aren't going to make fun of him for having his mom storm into school and make a huge scene? I mean what you have done in school if some crazy mother had-"

"Oh my God…" Sam said softly, her eyes widening. "Oh my God…I don't believe this…this-this is all my fault!"

"What is?" Freddie frowned.

"Don't you see?" Sam moaned. "I-I was one of those kids who has been making fun of Jason! I-I was a bully and-and now my son's getting bullied! It's like payback!"
"You weren't a bully," Freddie said.

"Are you kidding me?" Sam snapped. "You were the target of most of my bullying!"

"Okay, well, I think there was some other stuff going on there," Freddie said. "Besides, I've been bullied. For real. A bully makes you feel worthless about yourself for no good reason. I never felt that way from you. Sam, you-you weren't shy about calling people out in school, sure. But I'm serious, you weren't a bully. You never went up to a kid just out of the blue and shoved him into a locker. You did it if that kid was picking on some other student. I mean one time when one of the football players was trying to steal my lunch money you came over and gave him a wedgie so bad he couldn't play for three straight games."

"Yeah…yeah I did hate it when people would pick on kids just for the heck of it," Sam said. She sat down on the corner of the bed. "I just hate the idea of Jason going through that. I-I just wish there was something I could do to protect him…"

"I talked to him," Freddie said. "And I think he's going to be fine now. If this keeps up you and I will go in and talk to his teachers."

"Can't we do that now?" Sam asked.

"Baby, you can't fight all his battles for him," Freddie said. "Believe me, I know you'd love to be able to rush in and save him but we've got to at least give him a chance to try and handle these things on his own."

Sam sighed. "I guess you're right…"

"He's a strong kid," Freddie said. "I mean he's your kid, after all. He'll be okay."