47
After winter break, Jamie rallied together enough of his friends, through both genuine interest and a slight bit of threatened force, to become members of his theoretical PFLAG organization. With Piper's help, he made blurbs on index cards to pass out, explaining the purpose of the organization so he wouldn't have to repeat himself. In his initial proposal to promote awareness of events that were occurring throughout the city, they'd contacted their local office for stickers that supported safe zones, a space or person, where people could express themselves and expect a conversation free of hate. By the end of his first semester, many upperclassmen were willing participants, and fostered teacher's participation, adding the multi-colored stickers to each classroom door front. It took a while to get over, having the co-ed bathroom idea rejected, but knowing that commentary, such as Eli's, wouldn't be tolerated, he accepted this rejection as a small defeat. Initially hesitant of her son's ambition, during his second semester, Alex contacted the GLSEN* for a couple hundred "Day of Silence" temporary tattoos, in attempt to support her son's second mission. With his friends and upperclassmen, a letter was constructed and proposed to their principal, asking that no retaliation would be enforced, for those choosing to keep their voices mute. Upon approval, faculty was notified and encouraged to find alternate means of educating for the 'day of silence,' to acknowledge those who are expected to be silent about their support everyday.
On a particular day in April, the bathroom stalls are eerily quiet, the faucets run, while students in every year, press their temporary tattoos on their cheeks, hands, necks or other patches of skin of their choice, with wads of moistened toilet paper. A few students talk, but the halls remain essentially devoid of sound. The morning announcements, that normally signal the start of the day, don't happen that morning. Whether it was due to pressure from colleagues, or change of heart, after lunch, teachers who'd continued to conduct their lessons verbally, joined the masses, and found alternate means to teach.
The sound of a mucous lined hacking cough, shoots up from the floor. Her cheek presses into the mattress and tilts over the edge to see Harper coughing in her sleep in a make shift nest on the floor. Piper places a flat hand onto Harper's back, she swears she can feel the congestion through her daughter's skin. Feeling guilty that she'd banned their daughter from crawling into their bed, as Alex always ended up sick when she was within close proximity to either of their sick children, she shakes her awake and helps guide her up into their bed. Once her daughter is settled, in a lazy daze, she pushes off their bed and tilts the pillow diagonally, to aid in keeping the small blonde thrasher away from her wife. She digs out the vaporizer, and plugs it in, sending a mist of cool air throughout her side of the bed. She nestles herself between the other two, and absentmindedly pats her daughters back with a cupped hand, until she falls asleep.
In the morning, complaints of not being able to breathe are spoken into both of Piper's ears. As Alex trudges to the bathroom, with her overly dramatic open-mouthed breathing, Harper whimpers and says she doesn't feel well, in a voice that means her mother has ten seconds to get her toward the toilet, or their bed will be covered in vomit. She practically rips Harper from their bed and gets to her to the toilet, knocking Alex's hips against the sink as she tries to stick the neti-pot into her nostril. Their daughter pukes, the warm salty water from the neti-pot runs down Alex's throat, past her gag reflex and elicits both a dry hack, and a nudge of Harper off to the side as she gets sick herself.
"Al, I cant afford to take a day off right now," she whines guiltily.
"We'll be fine, right Harps?"
"Mmmm," Harper grunts, with her cheek against the porcelain of the tub.
"I'll set you guys up for the day," the blonde offers, as she kneels on the tile of their bathroom floor with a cup of mouthwash for Harper.
"Babe, seriously, we'll be fine. I'm not nauseated, it was just the sound of the gagging combined with a bad angle. Go do your thang," she says with a nasal sounding head wiggle.
"You sound very convincing," she says sardonically, before she escorts Harper out into the living room. She makes up a new bed for Harper on the couch, with one of their oldest, worn in blankets. She changes the pillow case from her daughter's pillow, and rests her head down, while handing her the remote. A bucket is placed by the edge of the couch, and another fluffy comforter is unfolded and placed on their longer couch, while the brunette comes in complaining that Piper's making a bigger fuss than necessarily.
"Piper, we're fine! I can lay out my own blanket."
"Sure, you're fine, at this moment, and then in an hour, you're gonna be glad that I set you up here... and so will I," she mutters under her breath, knowing a sick Alex, means a whiny, baby Alex.
When Jamie gets home from school, having been gone before the rest of his family had been up and about, he sees the camp set up in the living room. He notices his mother and sister laying down, without any energy, looking like shit, "oh man, two of you are down?"
"It's not that bad," his mother tries to downplay how bad she feels, not wanting Harper to feel guilty for getting her sick. She props herself up on her elbow to pass Harper's cup of orange juice over to her and encourages her to drink.
"It's empty," Harper says through her mouth, after she sucks only air through her straw.
"Did you sleep in their room?," he asks her annoyed as he takes her juice cup, knowing her routine.
She stares back him with furrowed brows, not liking that he's made her feel bad.
"Leave her alone," Alex mumbles from the couch and gets up slowly to refill their cups of juice. At the sink, she washes them out before pulling the orange juice from the refrigerator.
"Go sit down," he says taking the carton of juice from her. "Harper what do you want to eat?," he yells from the kitchen.
"Ahhh," Alex grabs her head and glares at him. "Loud," she explains.
"Sorry," he whispers.
He walks a few feet closer to his sister, as ultimately, a sick Harper is one of his weaknesses. "I can heat up the chicken and princess noodles?"
"I don't want soup," she says sadly into the fabric of her blanket.
"Peanut butter and jelly?," he suggests.
"Yeah," she nods, as he returns to the kitchen. Alex is slumped into a chair, holding both empty cups. He pours some juice for his mom, as he knows she's useless when she's not feeling well, but continues to act as though she can conquer the world. He pours a cup full for his sister as well, and returns the carton the fridge before withdrawing the jelly from shelf on the door.
He starts to make his sister her sandwich, "do you want one?," he asks Alex as she peels an eye open.
She nods pathetically on the table.
He makes two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, careful to make sure the slice with peanut butter is on the bottom. Alex stares at him constructing their sandwiches, and shakes her head.
He walks the sandwich and juice over to his sister and sets it on the table. "Is the peanut butter on the bottom?," she asks through a nasal nose.
"Yeah it is, see?," he peels the bread back slightly so she can approve.
She nods her head in approval, "thanks Jamie."
"Drink all of your juice okay?," he says as he rubs her head, "you gotta get better!" He feels really bad when he sees she's sick and feeling down. He loves giving her a hard time based on how annoying she was that week, but when she's sick, the playing field is truly uneven, and he feels as though all that's present is the shell of his little sister.
"I knowwww," she whines.
He returns to the kitchen, to clean up,
"you know you don't actually have to put the peanut butter on the bottom, right?," Alex asks him.
"Yeah I do, she can tell if its not done that way."
Alex flips her sandhich over in her hands repeatedly, "no she can't."
"Yeah she can, when she asks, she'll know if I'm lying."
She smirks, "okay," she says thinks thinking it's sweet that he caters to his sister when shes sick.
Harper walks in a moment later to get the straw for her juice.
"Harper c'mon, you're gonna be sick for the parade and we wont be able to go! You too!," he says to Alex, as she's been designated to take them to the Thanksgiving day parade in a few days.
"I know Jamie, I'm trying," she says frustrated, as she reaches up to the cabinet to grab a new straw.
"You have to sleep in your room, even when you're sick. You practically killed mom!," he says motioning toward Alex.
"I'm fine!," Alex grumbles and sneezes all over her sandwich.
Jamie grimaces, disgusted, "you're not fine, and she's ten, it's ridiculous that she needs to come into your room for every little thing."
"Ugh enough, please stop. She didn't get me sick, I was probably on my way anyways. Thanks for your help, just...go sit in your room, please."
"Such a punishment," he says acting relieved to get away from them.
"And keep the door open," Alex tells him.
Leaving the door open while being banished to their rooms served several purposes. Grounding their children, resulted in more punishment for them than their kids, so it was soon realized that the revoking of privledges with an open door, forced insightful thought regarding the behavior, without isolating the person completely.
While being alone, was an often welcome reprieve for both Alex and Jamie, Harper and Piper showed a different level of angst while being forced into solitude. Ever since she'd lost her first tooth, when Harper pleaded to sleep in their room, Piper thought back to how she felt when she'd been sent to SHU, never wanting to reproduce those feelings for either child. If being sent to their rooms seemed appropriate, the door was left open, it was an understood rule.
Jamie becomes bored after sitting in his room for more than twenty minutes without being allowed to touch any form of media.
He goes into his bathroom and turns the water on to take a shower,
"why are there plants in my shower?," he asks coming into the living room.
"It's Echinacea," she says meeting his gaze.
He shakes his head at Piper's applications of alternative medicine.
"I know kid," she sympathizes with Piper's herbal remedies, some of which were forced down her throat that very morning. "It helps decongest or something, I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention," she laughs.
He rolls his eyes and exhales.
"J?"
He turns around before heading back to shower in the jungle,
"I'm sorry I snapped at you. I suck when I'm sick."
A few days later, Alex stands in the kitchen, after getting off the phone with Piper, who's very clearly stressed with anticipatory pre-holiday demands.
"I need your help okay?," she says to both of their kids. "This is your mother's favorite holiday, and its too much for gram and gramps to do all this cooking. Black Friday is her busiest day."
Harper nods, while Jamie leans against the counter, this thumbs wilding texting.
"Jamie put down the effing phone and help us."
His pointer comes up as if to give him a second, and walks away.
Harper dries her hands on the dish towel and is handed a potato and a peeler. "Thank you for not being a completely useless child."
"Am I the favorite?," she asks as she starts to peel.
"Yes, you're definitely the favorite," she drawls.
After the sack of potatoes are peeled, Harper begs to make the cranberry sauce, solo, this year as she remembers what she did with guidance at her grandmother's counter the year before.
"Go for it," she tells her, bidding adieu to another task she wont have to complete herself. She's determined to prepare a Thanksgiving dinner that meets her wife's expectations.
After spending the morning camped on the sidewalk watching the Thanksgiving day parade, Alex, Jamie and Harper come home.
"Did you see us?," Harper asks Piper who's got the tv flipped onto the station that airs the parade. "How is it still on?" Harper asks.
"We watched from the beginning," Alex tells her, "it takes them more than an hour to get from the front of the parade to the end, where the camera's are."
"Oh," Harper replies.
"Al, can you take the turkey out in about 10 minutes to re-baste? It still has another hour or so. "
"Yeah yeah, go shower."
"Can I help?," Harper asks as Jamie lounges on the couch and watches the end of the parade from the 34th street perspective.
As the turkeys cluck around Herald square, Jamie approaches the fridge for something to drink and watches his mother and his sister pour the broth over the celebrity of their dinner.
"You know it's kind of morbid to have those guys strutting around on tv and then were gonna eat their friend for dinner," he says.
"What?," Harper asks.
He swallows his drink, and points, "the turkey."
She narrows her eyes at him confused. And it hits her, that the bird she's helping prepare was once a living, walking, breathing animal. "W-w-what?"
"Harper, what did you think you were eating?," he asks her in awe.
"I didn't think it was a real turkey...like...like an animal!"
"Babe really?," Alex asks her.
"Is chicken, a real chicken?," her hand shakily, puts down the baster.
"Yeah," Jamie says laughing at her, "seriously? It's not like creative wording."
"Oh my God," she says revolted, "what else has animals?"
Alex shakes her head at him, trying to get him to not go through every possible source of meat that her daughter has not had any opposition to eating thus far.
"Alright lets start with the morning," he begins, "bacon, your breakfast sausage..."
"What's in those?!"
"It's pork right?," he confirms with Alex.
She purses her lips displeased with him, she shrugs her shoulder and nods.
"What's pork?!," her face is fearful.
"Pig, Harps."
Her mouth drops open, her eyes are glassy. "What else?," she demands to know.
"Cheeseburger?," he continues.
"What's the burger part?," her lids blink her tears.
"Cow," his voice becomes soft. "Harper, don't feel bad," he tries to sound earnest, but laughs just a little.
"It's not funny Jamie, who would eat them? It's so mean."
"It's not mean, there's stuff in them that we need."
Alex continues basting.
"Stop it!," she shouts, toward her mother, "how could you do that? We cant eat it!"
"Well we're not throwing it out Harper, it's already dead," she says to her daughter as if shes being unreasonable.
She shakes her head, "I'm not eating that," she says pointing to the bird. She looks at the other food in their refrigerator, "does anything else in here have animals?"
"The ham," he tells her and rubs her back.
"You're really gonna eat them?," she asks looking at her brother.
"Yes, they're delicious!," he says as if shes crazy to consider not eating them.
"I can't believe you. You knew I was eating animals and you didn't tell me!," she says to both of them.
"I can't believe you didn't realize that chicken and turkey were chicken and turkey," he says back to her.
"Shut up Jamie, why would I think it would be okay to kill an animal and eat it?!," she screams at him.
"Stop telling him to shut up," Alex pipes in.
Piper walks down in her towel, "what's going on, why are you screaming?"
"Mommy, we killed a turkey for Thanksgiving."
Shit. "Well, we didn't kill it."
"It was already dead?," her daughter asks thinking they just found a dead turkey that needed to be eaten.
"Well... I mean someone killed it."
She brushes the tears from her cheek, she feels alone, as her family doesn't seem to show any distress over the barbarity.
"It was a free-range turkey though," Piper gently offers. She shakes her head, not understanding.
"It wasn't caged or anything," she clarifies.
"Are they normally?!," her daughter asks with wide eyes.
"Not helping," Alex mutters to Piper.
"Some are," Piper says, trying to justify spending the extra money on free-range meat products.
"Can I eat something else that gives me what animals did?"
"Yeah babe, you can be a vegetarian, and get proteins and iron from other sources."
"You're not gonna eat meat ever again, really?," Alex asks her.
"No," she shakes her head, certain of this stance. "Can we go to the store tomorrow and get other foods?"
"Babe, you know I have to be at my store early tomorrow." She turns to Alex.
"I wouldn't even know where to start Harper," she says completely turned off by this newfound passion.
"Can't we ask people when were there?," her daughter asks desperately needing new food in their house.
Alex whines slightly, not pleased to spend her day off in a health food store. "Wouldn't you rather wait til mom is off?"
"No I want to go tomorrow."
"Great," she says sarcastically with an illigitamate smile.
Piper adds, "Can you pick this up as well?," she pulls the list from the fridge and stars all the items that have organic options.
Alex shoots her a glare, "why do I bother bringing my paycheck home? I may as well just open a tab there. We're all going to die of something, a little pesticide never killed anybo... ugh, alright."
"Weren't you just sick? Because you eat garbage. They get sick like twice a year, and I'd like to think this something to do with it," Piper says with obviousness and pecks her on the cheek, "thank you."
"We can't get outnumbered kid," the brunette says to Jamie, he nods, also not caring about organic foods, solely concerned about the taste of his food. "I can do this," she says looking over the list, "but im not cutting out gluten next or caving for some other ridiculous trend. I'm not cooking four individual dinners based on everyone's quirks!"
Harper looks between them, "what's gluten?," now hyperaware of every thing that's going to go into her mouth.
"It's from wheat, relax," the brunette replies.
Her blue eyes look up at her with concern.
"From a plant, it's okay."
She puts the list back on the refrigerator while Piper walks off to get dressed. She puts the turkey back into the oven and adjusts the temperature.
"Can you please not eat it?," Harper asks with plead in her voice.
"Babe its already made, it would be a waste to throw it out, wouldn't it?"
"I can't do it though."
"You don't have to," she says and plants a kiss on her daughter's head, "there's plenty of other things for you to eat."
Around the Chapman's dining room table, Piper's parent's catch up and add their unsupportive commentary toward's Harper's dietary change.
Watching Piper heatedly defend their daughter, causes the brunette to literally bite the smirk that's forming in the corner of her mouth. While Piper takes a breath, she rubs her foot along the blonde's ankle, under the table, flirtatiously.
Alex loves fucking with her in front of other people, always getting a rush while other people are within range.
Piper peers at her wife out of the corner of her eye, a subtle lustful look that's all too familiar, and the brunette can hardly believe her eyes. Piper adjusts her seat, getting Alex's attention, she pulls the waist of her blue underwear up above her pants, just enough for the brunette to catch a glimpse. Alex excuses herself from the table and shortly returns, sitting down roughly, she shoves the panties she just removed in the bathroom, into Piper's pocket. The blonde reaches down and feels the fabric in her pocket, her cheeks redden. Alex snickers and rejoins the conversation, as if she never left. She reaches for the water pitcher, and refills Piper's glass, without asking.
"What if I didn't want anymore?," the blonde says through her teeth.
"It's good for hydration."