The bell for lunch rang and the first thing Lee did was head over to Marc's office. It had been a long first half of the day. Though she had to say she got a kick out her students; they were all brilliant in their own ways. Some of them reminded her Devon and Jude, even her parents at times.
"Holy Shiznits!"
"Huh?" Lee turned around and arched an eyebrow at the person standing behind her, Marc.
"Sorry," said the Hispanic man sheepishly, "I'm not allowed to curse on school grounds, sets a bad example for the kids. But wow Lee you look…different, almost conservative. I mean you took out most of your piercings, you covered up your dyed hair, you can't see any of your tattoos. You almost look like a completely different person."
The British woman smiled. "That was the idea, now come on I want to talk to you in your office. We didn't really get a chance to catch up during dinner."
They walked to his office and shut the door behind them. Silently they pulled out their respective lunched, for Marc a PB&J an apple and some milk, for Lee it meant a complicated homemade traditional Russian dish and some sparkling cider.
Mr. Molina looked at his friend's lunch and laughed. "You always were a cook Lee, I wish my wife was like you."
Lee, who had been taking a sip of cider choked and spat it out. "Your WHAT???!!!!!"
"Oh…my umm…wife?"
Only one other time had Marc be subjected to Lee's Stare of Death, it was not a pleasant experience the first time around and the second time was just as unpleasant.
"Were you ever going to inform me of this little fact babke?" she asked icily practically freezing him in his seat with her glare.
Mr. Molina cleared his through uncomfortably, "Umm…maybe?"
Wrong answer.
"I mean yes! Yes of course I was going to tell you," he said hastily when her gaze only got frostier. He swallowed and decided his life was worth more than his pride, "Alright, alright, alright I'm sorry! I didn't tell you because I think I married the wrong person! She's crazy my wife! I was out with my female cousin and she broke down my door! I never told her about you because she would get extremely jealous and probably go after you with a machete!"
Lee gave him an incredulous look. "Did you tell your wife that we met when you were studying abroad and I saved you from a crossing dressing prostitute in the Red Light District in Amsterdam?"
"No," said Marc firmly, "I avoid telling that story as much as humanly possible."
Lee let out a loud "Look-At-Me!" laugh and didn't stop for a good minute. When she did stop her cheeks were flushed and there were tears streaming down her face, and not the good kind either. It wasn't often the Lee cried but when she did it was hard for her to stop.
"Those kids remind me of them all so much," she whispered as her make-up began to run down her face, "I don't even know why. Some of them are the complete opposites of my brother and parents…but there are little things. Like when they're complaining about homework, or having relationship drama…or when they have that "light-bulb moment"…I didn't think it get harder being farther away from it all."
Marc chewed his lip in guilt. It was now or never to tell her the real reason he offered a job here. He knew she'd probably hate him and never speak to him again…that is if she didn't kill him first.
"Yeah…about that…your first class of the day…do the names Boykewich, Juergens, and Underwood sound familiar to you?"
She took a bite of her meal and chewed and swallowed before replying. "Yeah. She's that pregnant girl, her baby's father, and her boyfriend. They form that cliché little…a brokh tsu dir!"
She stood up so fast her glass of cider came crashing to the floor. The dark-eyed Brit turned to her friend with such a fierce expression that he actually feared for his life.
She began yelling very loudly and very quickly in Yiddish while making angry hand gestures. Finally she calmed down enough to start speaking in English, which wasn't exactly much of an improvement. Lee had a deadly tongue when she cared to use it.
"I can't believe you Marc!" she cried in rage, "I came here to forget! Not to have it freakishly replayed before me!"
"I thought you could help them," replied Mr. Molina somewhat meekly, "I thought they could learn from your example…from Ber-"
"Don't say his name," hissed the burgundy haired woman slamming her hands down on his desk. Behind her furious expression Mr. Molina could see tears threatening to spill over.
"Alright," he said making a reconciliatory gesture with his hands, "I'm sorry Lee I really am. I just thought…never mind. You're right, I had no right bringing up old pains."
Lee ran her hands over her tear stained face and took a breathy sigh. "It's ok babke…just never do it again…please."
Meanwhile in the school cafeteria…
"Hey Amy," said Ben shifting nervously from foot to foot, "do you want to sit with me? I mean you don't have to if you don't want to but you know…if you want to ."
The pregnant teenager bit her lip. On the one hand she desperately wanted to go back, back to the comfort and stability of having someone who didn't care that she was pregnant by another guy. She wanted to have that safety back and yet…
And yet she couldn't deny how liberating it was. How much simpler her life became now that she didn't have to answer to Ben's clinginess.
Before she could answer she felt another presence behind her, a warm male presence.
"Hey ready to find a seat?" asked Ricky pointedly not looking at Ben or even acknowledging his presence.
Amy bit down on her lip harder, caught in the middle.
While this was going on Jack, Henry, and Alice looked on.
"Uh-oh," muttered the football player under his breath.
"This is not going to end well," whispered Alice fighting the urge to smack her forehead.
"My money's on Ricky," said Henry earning him a slap on the head from Alice. "Owww!!! What? You know in a fist fight Ben would be crushed."
"I'm siding with Henry on this one," said Jack, "Plus Ricky's already really jealous of Ben so I doubt he'd let him beat him in a fight."
The Asian girl merely rolled her eyes and glared at the two boys.
'Breathe in, breathe out. Remember what your shrink told you about anger management,' though Ricky as he desperately tried to control his jealous rage from boiling over.
"Look," said Ben, "Amy I think we need to talk and I thought now would be a good time."
"Ummm I kinda planned to have lunch with Ricky today," replied Amy nervously, "We were going to talk about the baby."
'Ha-ha! Take that wuss.'
Ben looked like he'd been kicked in the stomach. "Well…ok then I-I better go then."
"But if you want to come over later then we can talk then," the hazel eyed girl added quickly.
'Damn it!'
Her ex-boyfriend brightened considerably and said, "Cool! Yeah umm…does seven-thirty work for you, cause if it doesn't then I could come earlier or later or-"
"Yeah seven-thirty works fine for me," she said smiling a little. They both smiled at one another and walked away.
"I thought we were going to hang out tonight and try to pick out baby names," said Ricky in a tight voice as he and Amy sat down.
The mother of his son gave him a confused look. "We are…then Ben is coming over. I mean surely you have better things to do than hang out with me all night. You probably want to hang with Adrian or Grace or someone."
"No I don't," he snapped, a little harsher than intended, "Amy if I say I want to hang out with you tonight I mean it. There's no Adrian, no Grace…just you, me, and our son."
Amy was stunned into silence. She'd never heard Ricky sound so serious…ever.
"Look where are Madison and Lauren?" he asked impatiently, "I need to talk to them."
"About what?" the brown haired girls asked in surprise. She knew that her friends weren't the biggest fans of Ricky and he wasn't too fond of them either. So what could they possibly have to talk about?
"Just stuff ok," he replied, though he softened his tone considerably. "Look I'll catch you after lunch ok?" With that he stood and gave Amy a soft kiss on the cheek, something he'd never done before.
Ricky smiled as Amy's face turned brilliant red, he thought it was cute she could blush like that. He placed a piece of hair behind her ear and said softly, "I'll see you soon ok?"
"Yeah…soon," trailed off the fifteen year old girl as she saw the father of her child walk off to find her two best friends.
No less than twenty feet away two girls watch the tender scene with visible amounts of envy.
"What does he see in her?" asked Adrian as she cast a scornful glance over to where Amy was sitting, "I mean she looks like she's twelve! She definitely had no experience before him, she dated that clingy loser…I just don't get it."
"Maybe it's just until the baby is born," replied Grace. She could never be as mean-spirited as Adrian but she did wonder what drew someone like Ricky to someone like Amy.
The raven haired Latina snorted. "I highly doubt that. It seems he wants to make something out of his twisted relationship with Amy."
"Ben doesn't seem too happy about," observed the devout Christian, "I think he wants to get back together with her."
"Yeah well he clearly has competition," muttered the other girl, picking at her food.
"Well…Amy could not be interested in Ricky," said Grace hopefully, "I mean she did marry Ben. She put the ring on her finger, said her vows before God and promised to stay with him forever. That has to count for something."
"People break their marriage vows all the time," said Adrian rolling her eyes, "Plus they're only fifteen and got married with fake IDs. I don't think that counts."
"Maybe," sighed Grace, "But I know Ben's going to think it counted."
"You can't! It would violate your parole!"
"I have to say something," said Ricky running his hands through his hair in frustration, "I need her to understand that I want to be with. That I want her and me to be a family, a real family."
"You need to let her make up her mind between you and Ben," said Lauren firmly.
"But how will she know that I want to be there for her in more ways than just being the baby's dad?"
"Actions speak louder than words Ricky. Show her how you feel."
"You sound like your old man sometimes, did you know that?" snapped the soon-to-be dad in irritation.
"Ricky you can't blame us, or Amy, for being cautious," said Madison, "You have been known to jerk girls around. I mean between Adrian, Grace, and all the other girls you've slept with-"
"I get it," interjected the six-teen year, "But it's different with Amy. I mean she is carrying my son in her."
"Ricky you've said you're in love before," said Lauren sadly, "How do we know, even though Amy is pregnant with your child, that this is really love and not just you being well…you?"
The drummer sighed and ran a hand through his hair once more.
"Because…because I didn't want to have sex with her from the get go…it just sorta happened. I thought she was cute but too innocent…too sweet for someone like me. Then after we…well I still wanted to talk to her, in school and stuff. I didn't ignore her like I usually do. Then I found out she was pregnant and…I don't know. I started thinking of her as…mine somehow. Even when I wasn't sure I wanted to be involved in the baby's life she was always my Amy pregnant with my baby."
"You're starting to sound like Ben," muttered Madison. She flinched at the glare the boy sent her way.
"Well you are! She's not a thing, she's a human being and so is her baby. You can't own a person."
"I don't want to own her! What I meant was that I always felt drawn to her. She…she's given me an opportunity to prove to myself that I can be a better person than my dad. I want everything for her and our son…I want her to be the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see at night. I want to be with her not just because of the baby but because I really do think I could make myself a better person for her."
The two friends exchanged looks at the end of his little spiel.
Lauren sighed and said, "Fine…we'll help you get Amy to fall in love with you."