Chapter 2-Gruesome Reality.
Parker sat in her last class of the day. It was almost 3 o' clock and she knew that her mother had just picked the twins up from kindergarten. She sighed and continued writing notes for the last 15 minutes of class before the bell rung and everybody got up to leave. She was the 5th or 6th person out the door and she headed straight to her car. She sat her books in the passenger seat and pushed a peice of hair out of her face after turning on the ignition.
As she pulled up and stopped at a red light about a block away from the manor, she glanced down for a second and noticed a note from Phoenix's kindergarten teacher. She knew it was for Phoenix because she had asked them to put the twins in seperate classes so that they could meet new friends. She picked up the colorful peice of paper and her eyes widened at what she read. She couldn't believe how she had forgot something so important to her daughter. She silently cursed herself and sat the peice of paper down on top of her school books and drove off to the manor after the light turned green.
She walked into the manor and heard them in the kitchen talking to her mother. She walked into the room and smiled at the twins as they looked to see who was coming in. Potter smiled back before taking another drink from his half filled glass of milk. Phoenix just kept her eyes on the kitchen counter after pushing the empty plate away that once held some of Piper's homemade cookies. Parker took a deep breath and Piper gave her a look that could kill.
"Guys, you stay here ok? I wanna talk to your mom for a second." Piper asked kissing Phoenix on the head as she walked past her.
Parker followed her mother out of the kitchen and into the sunroom and stood with her arms crossed over her chest.
Once alone, Piper exploded. "How could you be so stupid Parker? I mean I know your having a rough time with school and working and everything but missing Parents Day in Phoenix's class is just rediculous."
"I know but I had this big test this week and I just lost all train of thought and..."
Parker was cut off by Piper shaking her head and holding a hand up to her to silence her. "I don't care Parker. I don't want to hear any excuses about why you've neglected your daughter yet again. I'm sure she's getting sick of them too. But if you can't figure out how to balance out your priorities, your either gonna have to quit school or the twins are moving in here because I'm sick of this."
Parker looked at her mom horrified. "You can't do that. You can't take them away from me. And I can't quit school now, I only need one more year and I can graduate. I know I'm doing a horrible job at the mom thing right now but after I finish school everything will be totally different."
"You mean when you finish school next year?" Piper sighed as Parker's eyes filled with tears and her eyes fell to the floor. She stepped forward and put her hands on Parker's upper arms. "Sweetie, I love you, you know that. I'd never do anything to hurt you but I won't stand by and let my grandchildren suffer because your life is more important then theirs. When you moved out, I thought that you had matured enough to know that they should be your life, not just thrown in whenever you find it convenient."
"They are my life. The only reason I'm even going to college was because I want to get a good job and make a better life for my kids but for right now. You'll just have to bare with me, and so will they."
"If their so important to your life how come you'd rather take extra classes then spend time with them or go on a date with Dillon instead of stay home and give them a bath and put them to bed. You'd rather study on your weekends then play with them Parker. That's not right." Piper declared. Piper sighed when Parker didn't have a defense for her actions. "Sweetie, I don't want to take them away from you, honestly I don't but I will if things keep going the way their going."
Piper walked around Parker and into the kitchen with the twins. Parker sat down in one of the chairs and put her face in her hands and cried. She couldn't loose her kids. She didn't know if she'd survive it if she lost them. The things her mom said were right though. She does do those things but not deliberately. After a while it just became like a system. Last Saturday at the park had been the first time in a long time that she'd spent with her kids. It had been great being outside and playing with them, feeding the ducks, and pushing them on the swings. But once again, she let her own needs go before her kids and after that Saturday everything went back to normal. Parker looked up and out of the window across from her. She wiped her eyes and took a deep breath before returning to the kitchen.
"OK guys, come on. Time to go home." She announced picking Potter up off of the stool and kissing him on the head before setting him on the floor and sending him to the front door to get his school things. Piper done the same to Phoenix and she watched as her long curly ponytail bounced on her back as she ran after her brother. Without another look at Piper, she turned and headed out of the kitchen to help her kids into the car.
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Parker sighed and turned to look at her clock. It was after three in the morning and she hadn't slept at all. Her mom's words kept ringing in her ears. 'She wouldn't really take them away. Would she?' She stood up and walked down the hall, peeking into Potter's room to make sure he was ok. She smiled a little shen she saw her son. His small body layed spread out in the middle of his small child's bed. He was covered up to his chin and his blonde hair was laying sprayed across his flawless face. Her smile turned into a frown of concern as she heard small whimpers coming from her daughters room. She quickly walked to Phoenix's door and opened it. Her heart broke when she saw her daughter sitting up in her bed and huddled into a tiny ball at the head of it, tears falling freely down her face.
Parker walked over to her and went to grab her daughter into a hug, to comfort her, but Phoenix pushed her away and turned her head to where her mother wasn't in her line of vision anymore. Parker almost started crying herself as she grabbed her daughters chin and turned her face to look at her. She held her face gently wiping at the salty tears that fell from her chocolate brown eyes with her thumb. She kissed her daughter on the forhead and pulled her daughter into her lap and held her close, running her fingers through her long hair and kissing her head before laying the side of her chin against her daughters forehead. "I am so sorry." Parker repeated over and over gripping her daughter tighter as the seconds passed. Her daughters just continued to sob, attempting to push out of her mother's grasp every few moments. That just caused Parker to tighten her grip on her and start rocking slightly.
After a few minutes, Phoenix calmed down a little. Parker, who had maneuvered herself and her daughter to where Phoenix was laying on top of her and she was laying with her back against her daughters headboard still holding her tight, wiped her tear stained cheek with her thumb. "Baby, tell mommy what's wrong." Parker requested, she guessed she already knew what was wrong but she also knew that her little girl needed to talk about it.
"You don't care." The five-year-old mumbled. She had given up fighting her mom on the hug but wouldn't hug her back, she just kept her arms wrapped around herself.
"Don't say that. I love you more then anything sweetheart. I know I don't show you as much as I should but that doesn't make it any less true. Mommy's gonna change though sweetie. I need to talk to you and your brother and your daddy together first but I'm gonna change baby. I'm gonna fix it. I promise." Parker vowed to her eldest child, kissing her head.
Phoenix lifted her head to look at her mom suspiciously. "You sware?"
"It's not nice to sware sweetie but I do promise."
A smile slowly spread across Phoenix's face and she hugged her mom tightly. Parker sat up and hugged her back just as tightly and heard Phoenix yawn into her hair. She smiled and pulled back gently. "Sweetie, why don't you go back to sleep. We'll talk about everything in the morning when your daddy gets here for breakfast. K?"
"K, but you gotta stay with me all night." Phoenix said grabbing Parker's hand and pulling her back down on the bed beside her. Parker smiled and picked Phoenix up and carried her down the hall and into Parker's bedroom. She layed Phoenix down and layed down next to her. Phoenix cuddled up to her mother and soon fell asleep. Parker fell asleep quickly after that and slept peacefully until 8 o' clock the next morning when she heard Potter and Dillon in the kitchen. She sat up in bed to see Phoenix still sleeping peacefully beside her. She kissed her cheek and got up out of bed and headed for the kitchen.
She walked in to see Dillon standing over the stove and flipping a peice of sausage in the frying pan with his left hand and a very sleepy looking Potter sat on his right hip facing the stove and wiping a tiny hand across his right eye trying to rid himself of the last bit of sleep. He turned his head towards her a slightly with an entention to lay it on his father's shoulder gently but he stopped and lifted his head back up when he saw her nad smiled at her. She smiled back yawning slightly and walked over and took him from his father. She kissed him on the cheek before taking him over to the table and sitting him down in his chair facing away from her and Dillon.
Parker smirked as she walked up behind Dillon and wrapped her arms around his waist and layed her head on his shoulder blade. He layed his right hand over her two that were laced around his waist. "How'd you sleep?" he asked in a soft voice.
"Horrible until I got Phoenix to come into my room and lay down with me. She's in there asleep now."
"What happened with you two anyway? Potter said she was mad at you." Dillon said flipping another peice of sausage on the pan with his left hand.
"I screwed up and forgot about her Parent's Day yesturday that I promised I'd go to." Parker said in an ashamed voice.
"Test?" was all Dillon asked pulling out of her arms and walking over to the sink to put the dirty pan in.
"Well, yeah I actually need to talk to you about some stuff." she told him. She knew he was mad at her now too. She also knew that she deserved it.
Nodding Dillon sighed and said, "OK, after breakfast."
Parker smiled at him a little and kissed him softly on the lips breifly before joining Potter at the table. Dillon looked over to see Phoenix standing in the doorway of the kitchen wiping the sleep out of her eyes with her fists. He smiled and walked over to her and bent down and picked her up and brought her over to sit next to her mother. Parker kissed Phoenix on the head as she helped her get her breakfast on a plate and start eating. Dillon helped Potter and they ate in silence until Potter was finished. He looked at Parker and goes, "Mommy, watcha need to talk about?"
Parker took a deep breath and straightened up in her chair a little. "I'm thinking of quiting school."
"What?" Dillon asked shocked.
"Mom said that if I didn't find a way to be there for them when they need me she's going to take them and I can't think of another way so I'm gonna quit. I may go back after they get older but not right now."
"Parker, you missed one day..."
Potter cut Dillon off by whispering, "She misses everyday."
Parker closed her eyes and took a deep breath and picked the little boy up out of his chair and into her lap, kissing his hair and leaving her chin up against his head. "Not anymore." she whispered back.
"Parker, how are you going to support them?" Dillon asked.
"Well, I was thinking, maybe if you moved in here, with all three of our jobs that we could pay the bills and stuff for this apartment."
Dillon smirked at her and nodded a little. There really wasn't nothing to think about. His apartment was a hell of a whole lot crappier then this one plus the twins and everything were there and it's closer to work.
Parker smiled at him. She didn't want to quit school but she wasn't going to give up the twins. The kids are more important.
