A/N: Okay, this chapter takes place 4 years after chapter 1. Expect this fic to be jumping back and forth on the timeline a lot, okay?
Umm, this is my attempt at plot. I'm pretty excited about it. Please let me know what you think!
Also, this features Kevin Price the Guidance Counselor. This amuses me, a lot. I'm pretty sure he's the best guidance counselor ever because everyone's self esteem boosts at least 20 points after his pep talks.
002. Twice, down an elementary school hallway.
It took Sean McKinley three tries to push open the door. His palms were sweating and his temples were pounding and his thoughts were way off in the distance, practically in Aruba.
Except Aruba was nice and warm and beach-y, and Sean's thoughts were jumbled and distracted and nervous.
He tip-toed down the long linoleum hall, pausing here and there to glance at the third grade self portraits, which were colored in obnoxious shades of magenta and turquoise -this was a school that stressed creativity- and the spelling tests hanging outside the second grade wing. Apparently those tacky rainbow smiley faces were still in.
Sean was careful not to make any noise. Even though he was 35, he wouldn't put it past a hall monitor to jump out from behind a corner and yell at him. He seemed to recall getting that a lot back when he was seven and his shoes squeaked and he didn't know how to shut up about the movie he had seen last night. But 10 subsequent years of the American education system had instilled in him one crucial value: how to shut up (and avoid getting beaten up).
After the long walk down the perfectly silent second grade corridor, Sean turned the corner and found the main office, where he had been instructed to come and sign in. Doing so, he attached his visitor's nametag to his shirt (ahh, fond memories).
"Hi, I'm looking for Kevin Price?"
"He's in the counseling suite. Straight down this hall and make a right. It's room 215 on the left side."
"Thank you."
Such began Sean's long exodus down yet another two elementary school hallways until finally he reached a heavy wooden door with a plaque, in English, Spanish, and Braille -this was a school that stressed diversity- that proclaimed "Counseling Suite." The door opened to a small waiting area, which in turn had three more doors. On the far right, Sean found what he was looking for: Kevin Price, Guidance Counselor.
The door was slightly ajar; Sean knocked.
"Come on in."
Sean stuck his head around the door and grinned.
"Hey there! I wasn't expecting you for another 10 minutes."
Sean shrugged, letting himself in.
"I took off early."
Kevin got up from his desk and walked the length of the small office to hug Sean. Sean offered him a peck on the cheek and a quick, "I missed you today," before letting his husband go, while he moved to sit on the counter space behind Kevin's desk.
"By all means Sean, go ahead and sit there. Never mind the millions of papers that are stacked in perfect alphabetical order and if you spill any of them Mr. Wiseman will have my head." But Kevin was smiling as he said it, so Sean wasn't worried.
He instead looked at the hand-drawn signs decorating the cabinets. Scribbled with crayola markers and decorated with flowers and rainbows, they all said things like "We love Mr. Price! From, Rachel and Jenna and Gabby" and "Mr. Price is Awesome! Love, Mr. Daly's second grade class."
Sean smirked.
"These are cute. You must be popular."
Kevin grinned. "I know. I am."
Shaking his head, Sean fished around in his backpack, pulling out last night's pasta with pesto and a spare plastic fork.
"You can't eat in here." Kevin swatted Sean's hand, a somewhat difficult feat as Sean was sitting a good two feet away.
"I'm hungry!"
"I get that from my first graders every day. Sean, you are a terrible example."
"I'll let you have some."
Kevin rolled his eyes.
Sean leaned forward to place the fork-and pasta-into Kevin's open mouth. Then he grinned. Sharing food like that at school was so- rebellious.
He noticed Kevin side-eying the rest of his pasta. Grumbling, Sean reached rummaged through the rest of his backpack, pulling out a plastic bag of chocolate chip cookies. He tossed them to Kevin.
"Here. Don't eat my lunch."
"Thanks, hon... hey, these are good!"
"You made them, Kevin."
"Oh, right! I knew there was a reason I shouldn't feel bad about taking your lunch."
A small pair of brown eyes, aided by several bouncing braids, peered through the door. Kevin greeted her.
"Why, hey there, Lisi, what are you doing out of class?"
In a jean skirt and a yellow polo, the girl, who looked to be about seven, leapt forward towards Kevin.
"I have a doctor's appointment! My mom's downstairs. Mr. Price, can I have a lollipop?"
Kevin smiled indulgently.
"Go right ahead. You know the rules."
"No eating in your office!"
"That's right!"
Kevin turned around and mock glared at Sean, who hurriedly put down his pasta container.
Lisi giggled as she watched Sean hold up his hands in a universal proclamation of innocence.
"Who's your friend, Mr. Price?"
"This is Mr. McKinley."
"Hi, Mr. McKinley!"
"Nice to meet you, Lisi."
"Mr. Price, can I help you sort the tests tomorrow?"
Kevin glanced over at the piles and piles of papers on his desk.
"Sure, Lisi. That'd be amazing. You can come in at lunch. Did you get your poems done?"
"Yep!"
"Well, good for you. I'll see you tomorrow then. Will you let me read them?"
"Maybe," Lisi said, smiling coyly.
Kevin matched the impish gleam in her eye with one of his own; Sean's heart nearly melted.
"Maybe, huh? All right then. Have a good afternoon."
"You too, Mister Price! Mister McKinley!"
"Bye, now."
And she left.
Kevin glanced at his watch, it was almost three o'clock.
"Hey, I think it's time for me to go grab Max."
Sean sighed. He got up, Kevin moving with him. Sean grabbed Kevin's hands and held them to his chest.
"You ready for this?"
"Probably not."
"Would you like me to go get Max?"
"Nah, that'll make it worse. You're just his father. At least I work here and I can pretend this is school related."
"Okay."
The room had taken on a melancholy feel and Sean felt his shoulders drop as he released Kevin of his hold.
"I'll meet you there."
"You know where to go?"
"Think so. Main office, right?"
With Kevin's nod of assent, the two men headed out of the small office, out of the waiting room, and in opposite directions down the hall.
Kevin climbed the stairs to the fourth grade wing, finding his way to Ms. Thompson's classroom. Max, who was sitting in the back row, was the only student who didn't join in the "Hi Mr. Price!" chorus from the rest of the class.
Kevin smiled and waved at them all.
"Hi, Mrs. Thompson, I need Max."
"Go ahead. I assume he won't be back?"
"Nope. Thank you."
"Go ahead and pack all your stuff, Max. I'll see you tomorrow."
Solemnly, Max did as he was told and a few minutes later, he and his father were walking down the hall, silent.
"How are you feeling?" Kevin asked.
"Okay."
"Just okay?"
"I dunno. You and Daddy are all mad at me."
"Max, sweetheart, we're not mad at you. We don't understand what happened and we're disappointed by what we've heard."
"It wasn't my fault!"
Kevin sighed-it wasn't any use going this route again. He took Max's hand and squeezed, gently, because he wasn't going to leave his son alone to the shark-infested waters of elementary school, no matter what crime he had committed.
By the time they reached the Principal's office, the room was already full. Mr. Wiseman, an imposing figure in his blue tie and thinning hair, sat behind his spotless desk. Tucked against the back wall of the room sat a family of three: a mother with an awful dye job, a father with a bulging briefcase and a stocky brunette boy, Max's age, with a buzz cut, narrow eyes, and fancy sneakers.
Closer to the door sat Sean, already waiting, and looking rather lonely by himself and surrounded by two empty chairs. Kevin took a seat in one, leaving Max to sit between his two dads. Sean leaned back and whispered to Kevin, "Thank God you're here. I was sure they were all about to start yelling at me instead."
Kevin wanted to make a joke, but he had a feeling his husband was being completely serious- school hadn't been all buttercups and roses for him, and he probably had gotten yelled at plenty of times for just sitting there. And sitting on a scratchy green chair for a good five minutes, alone, knowing you're about to face an elementary school inquisition, probably didn't make it much better.
So Kevin didn't say anything -though he desperately wanted to kiss Sean somehow- but nodded at the principal to begin.
"Well, hello. Thank you all for meeting me here today. It's come to my attention that last Friday we had a- a disturbance at lunch, if you will, and these two young men were at the center of it all. Why don't we start by getting our facts straight? Daniel, what happened?"
The squinty eyed boy wasted no time with his story.
"Well, I was minding my own business at lunch and Max just comes up to me out of nowhere and punches me! I got a nosebleed, it was really bad. I didn't even do anything, either."
"That's not true!" Max burst out.
The principal silenced him.
"You're next, Max. Anything else?"
Daniel nodded. "There was blood on my shirt and it ruined it. I don't know why he had to do that. I thought fighting wasn't allowed at this stupid school."
Daniel's mother made a production of hugging her son; Kevin bristled.
To be honest, Kevin had no idea what was going on. He knew Max had been sent to him in the middle of lunch on Friday with an angry note and a demand for a conference, and other than the paltry explanation in the note ("Your son was involved in a fistfight. This is unacceptable."), Kevin had no details. Max had refused to tell him, or Sean, anything.
"Now, Max, you say you were provoked, is that correct?"
Max nodded resolutely.
"So? What happened?"
"He called me a- a- he called me a fag."
The last word came out as a whisper. Sean felt himself go pale.
"I'm sorry?"
"Daniel did too start it. I was the one just sitting at lunch doing nothing, and Daniel came over and told me my answer in math was really gay and I was probably a fag and that was disgusting. I had to hit him. It's not fair to say stuff like that."
Kevin was absolutely positive he could feel the gears clicking in the other parents' head. Poor kid. With homosexuals for parents, where's he going to learn any sort of right and wrong? We need to keep those gays far away from our son.
"Daniel, is that right?"
"Well, uh, I might have said something like that."
"Very well. Boys, Max, Daniel, you two can wait outside. Mrs. Barnes will wait with you, so I expect you two to behave."
Sulking, the two boys left the office. Kevin moved over a seat, next to Sean. Meanwhile, Daniel's mother seemed less than pleased.
Like, a significant amount less than pleased.
"I really hope you're not thinking about penalizing my son for any sort of comment he might have made. This young man here beat up my son- do you know the pain we went through? Knowing this school isn't protecting him? That he can be bullied at any time? I don't care what my son might have said- there's no justification for this kind of brutality, Mr. Wiseman. And certainly it's not my son's freedom of speech. I don't know what kind of morals you sorts of people instill in your son, but they're certainly not mine! That's disgusting." She directed the last bit of her mini-tirade at Kevin and Sean, neither of whom could say they were surprised that the meeting had turned so personal so quickly.
Wow, Sean thought, I really did think this was a school that focused on diversity. But I guess you get some in every bunch. He was shaking pretty hard, and was grateful for Kevin's hand against his own. I... I don't understand. I thought this was about our kids. Why am I being attacked?
Mr. Wiseman had begun to speak again.
"Thank you, Mrs. Anderson, let's stay calm here. This is not about penalizing either of your sons. We'll deal with that in a minute. But I'm sorry, I simply can't have you speak to anyone in this room like that. It's uncalled for. Blame is not what this meeting is about."
Mrs. Anderson huffed, but didn't apologize.
"Kevin, Mr. McKinley, we don't tolerate fighting in this school. For whatever cause, or provocation. Since it seems to be without a doubt that your son threw the first, and only punch, that translates to a third-level infraction on our school code, which is... I'm going to have to ask Max to stay after school for the rest of this week and next. I'm going to suspend his recess privileges and I need him to write Daniel a letter of apology."
Sean nodded, trying to remind himself that he wasn't the one being punished. Max had been fighting. This was only fair.
"But we do have a no bullying code at this school as well, and that covers sexual orientation, so I will be having a talk with your son about that, Mrs. Anderson."
Mrs. Anderson looked ready to argue, but thought better of it.
"Hang on a minute," said Kevin. "What about creating a safe space?"
"A what?"
"In this school's mission statement. It says one of our goals is to create a safe space for everyone. That includes my son. How is he supposed to feel safe if he's harassed based on who his family is, or even something he's not?"
"I, uh, I understand that, but this is a matter of fighting here, not-"
"I'm sorry? This is a matter of my son being respected. Of me and my husband being respected and not being expected to sit back and take what's coming to us because we supposedly 'live in sin.' You're telling us we're- what? Not deserving of the same protection under your rules? Because why? You don't want to anger the school board? Your higher-ups? Afraid they'll take their homophobia and come after you? You think you can just avoid addressing the real problem here, and avoid them? Well, guess what. Some of us aren't so lucky. We can't just avoid your ignorance, or your smug ability to treat us like we're inferior. Some of us are unlucky enough to put up with this every single day, so excuse me, but I need to know that you're going to make sure my son is safe. That he can come back to school here and not punch anyone because no one's threatening him. Because no one's hurting him. I need to know that you're living up to your one tiny promise of keeping my kid safe. Cause right now, I don't see you doing that. You're not sending any kind of message. You're all but letting this kid get away with bullying my son, and that's absolutely wrong. And ridiculous. It's also ridiculous."
Kevin sat back to take a deep breath and felt, of course, all the eyes on him. Sean might have been smiling, but it was such a sad one he couldn't tell for sure.
"I, uh, okay, um, thank you. Mr. Price. I mean, Kevin. I mean, Mr. Price. I'll keep that in mind when I talk to Daniel, okay? Okay. I, uh, okay. Let's go, then, I think this meeting's over. We're not going to get anything else done here- okay. Thank you for coming in. Have a nice evening."
As Mrs. Anderson passed Kevin and Sean on the way out, she hissed, "perverts."
Kevin shook his head and whispered in Sean's ear, "Well, if that's really the best she can come up with..."
So the two fathers picked Max up from the couch outside the office. He was waiting patiently, his hands folded in his lap.
"C'mon, Max, let's get out of here."
Max trailed behind his dads until they reached the car, where Kevin pulled him up into a big, sweeping hug.
"You know I love you, right?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Your father defended you quite valiantly in there," Sean added helpfully, realizing Max hadn't yet figured out Kevin's new stance that Fighting Is Okay When You're Fighting Back. (He, personally, wasn't sure he agreed with his husband on that one- you'd think years of political campaigns would teach you that vindication is necessary, but on the other hand, violence was so not one of Sean McKinley's ideals.)
"Really?"
"Really. And though he couldn't get you out of your two weeks' detention or your end of recess or even out of that apology note you have to write to Daniel-" (Here, Max groaned.) "-he did an awesome job of sticking up for your rights. I think we're pretty lucky."
"Yeah. Probably." Max hugged both his fathers and climbed into the backseat of the car.
"Max, honey, why didn't you tell us what that other boy said earlier?"
"I thought you'd be upset."
"At you?"
"No. I dunno. I didn't want to make you sad."
"Max, your father and I have been putting up with this sort of hate for years. You can always tell us stuff."
"Okay. Cool. Thanks."
Sean couldn't help but smile a little at the non-reaction. He changed the subject.
"We're taking you to soccer?"
"Yeah."
After dropping Max off at soccer practice, and remembering that the girls were at friends' houses, Sean finally noticed he and Kevin had the afternoon off together. For the first time in... well, a really long time.
"That really was awesome, Kevin. I was so proud."
"Work's gonna be really awkward tomorrow. Terrible. I really messed myself up, didn't I?"
"Yeah, well, you did your job. I mean. Standing up for kids and all. I think you did perfectly. But I guess- Max needs to know the consequences of just plain punching people. I hate to say it, but I feel better knowing he had a reason. I was really worried there."
"Yeah, me too. Well. I hate to say it, but good for Max. Aren't these lovely people we get to put up with? You sorts of people. Ha. Well, you know what, Mrs. Anderson? My sorts of people at least know what the heck respect means. And what love means, I bet she doesn't know that either. And she sure doesn't know how to dye her hair. Goodness, that looked awful."
Sean giggled and took a swipe at his indignant husband.
"All these idiots we put up with? It's worth it, though."
Kevin looked thoughtfully over at Sean and took his hand, rubbing circles on his palm.
"It sure is. Can't you see, Sean? We're so totally worth it."
Sean kissed him there, in the front seat of the car.
It was long, and loving, and a little bit overexcited, and maybe some of the soccer moms noticed, but it didn't matter because it was so totally worth it.