Guest- I'm sad too as it's been fun to repost. Like that book you liked has finally been returned to the library and it's your turn.
Guest- thanks for pointing out the stuff you like. It's always good to hear
turchina84-I'm leaving it up for a bit, not sure how long but I'll guve a heads up when I'm gonna take it down. I really liked how (mostly) season 1 would go from past to present with their segways. I tried to do the same.
17Vauseman17- I know I have 0 self control w all things Orange. I've taken the day off of work every year to watch it at 3am and usually rewatch twice the same weekend so it's all absorbed.
Sandfromoz- I'm sentimental (you don't say?!) the bar seemed low key and possible w a low budget. The real place doesn't have a yard but one can dream, right? Lol.
51
The crinkling of the bags, ceases as they set the numerous amounts of wedding paraphernalia on the floor in their apartment. The floor boards creak as Piper jumps up and down, before throwing her arms around Alex's neck, "you married me!"
Alex laughs a relieved breath, "I did." She bends down to look through the bags and pulls out the top tier of their wedding cake. "Go put this in the freezer before you crush it."
"Mmmkay," Piper takes it and plants a kiss on her cheek, "whatever you say, my beautiful wife."
Alex rolls her eyes, despite the hanger-in-mouth smile. She takes their wedding dresses and hangs them up over the closet door of their bedroom, Piper follows in shortly after with the majority of their bags.
The blonde falls onto her back on top of their bed, her hair is still beautifully styled from the wedding, "I still say we should've sprung for a hotel room."
"We're kind of broke? Unless you know of some other secret funds?" She pulls their painting out from the bag, and leans it up against the side lamp.
"No," Piper says at her disproval of where the painting's displayed, "and no I don't know of any secret funds. But I bet we made a nice nest egg. We got a zillion envelopes," she says smiling and lifting her head up to look around at the bags, "somewhere in there."
"I'd rather save the money from a hotel room and add it to that," she gestures toward the bags, "for a bigger nest egg." She holds up the painting against a wall. "Yes?"
Piper nods and lays her head back down, "bigger nest egg for what?"
"What?"
"You said save it for a bigger nest egg. For what?"
She clutches the painting to her chest. "I don't know, nicer furniture? A down payment on an apartment to own?"
"Is that all?," she frowns.
"Don't start with me, even jokingly," she says setting the painting down on their bureau. "I just married you, " playing this card for all it's worth. She begins pulling the pins from her hair.
"I know! I can't believe it," she chuckles.
"I was totally tricked into it," she says setting the multitude of pins on her nightstand.
Piper puckers her lips and blows Alex a kiss. She leans onto her elbows, over Piper, and looks into her eyes, "hi wifey."
Piper smiles widely, "hi." She bites her lip, trying to hold back her excitement. She pulls Alex down to lay beside her. Propped on an elbow, Alex traces her face, and sighs happily. She runs her hand back and forth over the length of Piper's arm while giving her a look of adoration.
"What?," Piper asks.
"Can't believe we did it," she lifts her head, to look at Piper properly. "I married you." Her head collapses onto the mattress in awe. "Like you said 'yes,'" she laughs.
Quickly a wide smile spreads across Piper's lips, "I did." She turns to her side, mirroring Alex, and kisses her. The kiss becomes more passionate, moans elicit, hands start to wander.
"I never want to sleep apart again," Piper interrupts, "last night was horrible," she says with a pout.
Alex runs her pointer over Piper's bottom lip, "sorry wifey," she says teasingly.
"It's okay, you get one free pass," she runs her hand along the brunette's torso, dipping below the waist of her sweatpants. She hooks her finger underneath the edge of her underwear and pulls it slightly up over her hip... "I found your something blue."
She nods, she looks into Piper's eyes, "I spy something blue myself." Piper looks around herself and looks confused.
Alex quickly stops her head from roaming, "your eyes." Her breath catches, "Piper you look so beautiful today, more beautiful than I've ever seen you... and that's saying a lot."
"Al...," she says toying with the fabric of her wife's panties, she tilts her head and the look of sentimentality she's receiving. "You're gonna make me blush."
"I hope to make you blush for a lifetime."
Piper pulls her close again, kneading the flesh below the sweatpants. "You will," she bites her bottom lip, "try to..., every time you take me."
Alex's desire surges at the challenge, her lust filled peer causes Piper to plant her feet on the bed and push back. Alex hooks her thumbs into the elastic of her own sweatpants and wiggles them lower and lower until she's able to kick them off.
Piper's heat starts to build as she comes closer, at a panther-like crawl, she hovers over the blonde. Piper's arms wrap around her back and pull her in closer. Dark hair hangs loosely around their faces, Piper catches a glimpse of the painting through the brunette's hair. Alex begins to palm Piper's breast, firmly she kneads her flesh, causing Piper to draw in her breath. She deeply inhales the brunette's scent before removing Alex's glasses and sets them to the side. She looks deep into her eyes, "talk to me. "
The brunette squints.
"I want to know what you want."
What I want? She thinks. "You." All I want is you. With you, I have the world, I want for nothing else.
"You already have me," she whispers, stretching her arms across the bed, "I'm all yours. What do you want?," she asks her again.
The sexiness in the blonde's tone, builds her need, but she wants to make Piper elicit those sweet sounds she covets more than anything. She tongues her cheek at the sound of the blonde's desire, her breath hitches as Piper pushes her blue panties down the length of her thighs with her feet.
"Ask me my secrets and I will paint for you landscapes," she turns around and backs up, her center hovers over her wife. She bends her neck down and looks at the blonde, catching her peek, Piper smiles back at her.
The husk in her voice is thick, "in the early hours, before the world wakes, whispering. My tongue, my paintbrush," she breathes against Piper's center, "your thighs," she licks her inner thigh, "my canvas." She slowly paints the sensitive skin with long draws of her tongue. The blonde's skin glistens, her hips move ever so slightly at the heightened longing. She hears her wife exhale, "they will make you sigh, and you will struggle for breath." She feels Piper's hands wrap around her thighs and pull her lower, she moans at the contact, "as songs spill from your lips too, drenching me in stories of your own."
Their mouths are gentle, it's a love that's on a level, like no other they've ever known. The desire is strong, but their tongues move slowly, mapping out the perfection that meets their mouths.
This is forever, mine, and no one else's, she thinks, taking in the blonde fully, her taste, her smell, her sounds.
She knows this body well, immeasurable moments of intimacy flood through her mind. She relishes in the changes, since their first time. Their first time. She remembers her preoccupation with making her feel good and doing it quickly, convincing the blonde that a mouth can do many a splendid thing. She hears Piper pant, "faster," but she takes her time.
"Don't rush," she stops to whisper. "This is what I want."
"Alex," her voice is heavy with what she craves.
"I want to take my time falling in love with you, all over again."
Piper closes her lips around the brunette's most sensitive spot, as the flat of her wife's tongue strokes the length of her soaked core. They work each other slowly but steadily, barely stopping to get some air. She lets herself sink fully along Piper's mouth, knowing the grip she has on her thighs means she's close. She feels Piper's body rise up, she flicks across the spot that's only hers, making her wife choke out her name.
They lay still for a moment, coming down from the high.
"I love you," she hears Piper hear from behind her.
She feels the brunette's smile widen, into the flesh of her thigh, "I love you too."
Piper squeezes her bottom, her hands linger sweeping over the skin.
Alex squeezes her muscles involuntarily, making Piper laugh, "stop."
"Lemme get my ass out of your face," she softly giggles, "I know its not in the best shape." She leans up to turn around, when Piper pins her in place.
"It's perfect."
She lays against the moisture that coats the blonde's skin, "maybe we could do this sort of thing everyday, you know married couples workout."
Jamie comes home all sweaty from soccer, kicks off his shoes messily at the coat rack and almost trips over Alex's sneaker.
"Hey you wanna not destroy the house? You've been home five seconds."
"You don't even use these, why don't you just put them in the closet or something?"
"Because I wanna get into working out again."
"Wanting to, and actually doing it, are two different things."
"Thanks, I need the reminder that sitting on my ass isn't making it look all that great."
He grimaces, "it's not that bad. Just start off with something small," he says reaching up a hand to be helped up.
"I know that, but realistically, it's just really hard to make time or find the energy."
"But afterwards you feel better and sometimes you feel like you have more energy, instead of feeling like a slug."
"Would you...," she stops and brushes her hand as if erasing what she said.
"What?"
"Would you wanna help me? You know just to get started til I'm motivated enough to go on my own?"
"Yeah. Okay," he shrugs his shoulder, "but like what do you wanna do?"
"I don't know. I'm not a runner, I've tried that."
"Well you have to do some cardio with weight training and stuff to see fast results."
"Okay oh wise one, what do you suggest then?"
"I don't know. I'll come up with something. Are we starting tonight or what?"
"What? No. I need a night to let it settle in. Have my last doughnut and shit."
Over the next few weeks, after spending summer days with his friends, he comes home and drills his mom. She's found every excuse to avoid his workout, but he never relents.
"C'mon ma two more," he says putting a fist on the floor under her head to keep it off the ground.
"I'm gonna kill you," she hisses as she completes her last crunch and lays flat on the ground. "What happened to slowly easing into it?"
"It's been two weeks. When's the last time you worked out?"
"I don't know, last year?"
"Okay well it's gonna take a while for it to feel easier. But you're almost done, thirty seconds of jump rope, get up."
"I can't get up."
"Ma, get-up. You're doing really well...besides all the unscheduled breaks."
"People need water J!"
"That was a lot of water."
"This isn't like working out with your friends."
"Yeah I know we would've been done like 20 mins ago."
She goes to swat him overhead but misses and flips him off.
He grabs her finger, "mom wouldn't appreciate such gestures. I believe you asked me to help you."
"Well maybe I changed my mind," she half laughs, not able to find the energy to get off the floor.
"C'mon pain is weakness leaving the body."
"Is that from one of those stupid motivational posters they have hanging up in your gym? Propaganda."
"Oh my God, it's from the Marine Corps. Get up!," he yells at her like a drill sergeant.
She whines on the floor as he comes behind her to help her off the floor. -
Finn lays on the floor, after throwing a tantrum.
"Get up," Alex tells him curiously peering at the small child laying on his back in defiance.
"Help him up," Piper tells her, "he's cranky and tired, he's not just going to stand up."
She crouches down on the floor and pulls him upright. "C'mon kid."
He looks at her strangely, as if he didn't expect her gentle hand. He reaches his arms out to be carried.
"Uh," she lifts him up and holds him a foot away from her body. He stares at her and smiles. "You can't hold him like that," Piper laughs, as Finn dangles limply, in her girlfriend's hands.
" If he faces away from me, I get the back end and I don't know what can come out of that thing. If he's facing me, he might throw up but at least like this, I have a safe distance."
"Here," Piper helps situate him on Alex's hip, "how's that?"
"My arm is underneath his butt."
"He has a diaper," she says obviously.
"A diaper? Isn't he like three?"
"He's not even two," she laughs at her.
She sulks, "I'm not an idiot," she says, insulted for not being able to properly gage how old he is.
"I've never called you one."
"I'm never around kids," she looks at him, he seems to be okay with the way shes holding him, "I don't know when they're supposed to do stuff."
"Anytime I mention anything even remotely close to kids, the first thing you say is, you're never around them. Well now you are."
"Is that what this is? An initiation?" She shifts his weight off her hip to hand him to Piper.
"No," Piper steps back, "you hold him," she exhales dramatically.
Finn repeats the dramatic exhalation, Alex turns her head to look at him.
Piper laughs.
He laughs back.
She watches Finn eye her glasses, then her necklace; he holds her necklace, becoming more comfortable in her grip, he pays close attention to the stones.
"He likes stones," Piper explains, "any kind of rock really."
He pokes one of the green stones on her necklace, "ees a wok."
"What?," Alex asks, not understanding.
"Yes, it's a like a rock. It's called jade," Piper clarifies.
"Jade," he repeats.
"Yeah."
He looks at it curiously for a moment before refocusing on her eyes, "wassat?" She turns to Piper for translation.
"This?," she points to Alex's glasses.
"Uhn."
"Alex's glasses, so she can see."
"Ayix gyasses."
She scrunches her nose and smiles at her name, "yeah! that's my name." She bounces him once or twice, naturally but she stops, "is he gonna throw up if I shake him?"
"Maybe. If we fed him, he's probably starving."
"Well won't he say if he's hungry?"
"Sometimes. But sometimes not. He needs to eat every few hours, more like snacks throughout the day instead of full meals."
She nods her head, while adjusting him on her hip better.
"Go sit with him, I'll find something for him to eat."
She nods and relaxes with him in the living room. He pulls out the collection of books Polly packed for him, several are about dinosaurs, some are clearly for an older child, about rocks and minerals. She leafs through it for a moment, while he takes it upon himself to plop down in the gap between her legs. He stops her on a random page, on "metamorphic rocks. See because when it gets really hot, the rock changes. But these rocks are different," she points to the igneous kind, "these were made from molten lava!"
"Lavaaaaa!," he whispers.
She laughs out loud and Piper pokes her head out of the kitchen, she breathes easily at the site of her godson sitting in her girlfriend's lap.
He turns the page and looks over the images, there's several different types of rocks, igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic.
He points,"mamofic."
"Yeah metamorphic!" She's amazed at his ability to differentiate.
Piper comes out and sets a plate down with apples, peanut butter and honey. He blindly takes a piece of apple and swipes it through the dip.
"Pipes, he like understands the different types of rocks."
She nods, "he has this genuine fascination with them, you explained it to him?"
"Yeah but just once, but this book is like..." she stops as he places his hand coated with honey on her wrist, to adjust his position.
She gives Piper, an "are you kidding me?" look, and shoves her wrist in his face, "um hello, gross!"
He sees the blob of peanut butter and honey and tries to wipe it off with his sticky hand, but only makes it worse.
"Finn c'mon, dude, I'm all sticky," she whines.
He looks at her concerned, he sucks in his breath a little staggered. He looks like hes gonna cry.
"Oh my God, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Don't cry. Look," she licks the stickiness off her arm,"it's fine, all gone." She pulls him back so he can sit like he was before. She rests her chin on his head and tries to re-immerse him back into his book. She looks at Piper, sorry that she screwed up and almost made the kid cry.
Hours later, Polly comes to pick him up, "how was my boy?," her voice goes up an octave while he sits with Alex on the couch. His face lights up, and scrambles to get off the couch, Alex guards his descent with her hand.
"So how'd it go?," she asks Alex already knowing via text with Piper that it went pretty well.
"Well. He's so funny."
"Funny?"
"Yeah, the stuff he does, his faces. You know, he really likes rocks?"
"Yes, I know," Polly chuckles, as if this was an absurd statement.
"Like, rocks."
"I know, its weird."
"You know, there are these baskets of stones at the Museum of Natural History. I mean I'm sure they're fake and stuff, but he'd probably like them."
"He probably would, they're a little small though," Polly offers.
"Right," she shakes her head, annoyed with herself for not realizing it would be a choking hazard.
"But if you watched him, it should be fine. You should get them for him, he would really like those."
"Me?"
"Yeah, it would be a nice present. From you."
"Okay...," she says with hesitation.
A few weeks later, the bag of stones hangs from the doorknob of their hall closet for the next time they had Finn over.
"Don't give them all to him at the same time," Piper says as Alex looks through the bag.
"Why not?"
"Because he's gonna have a million and one questions to ask you about every one."
"That's okay, whatever I don't know I'll look it up."
"Alright suit yourself."
She took Piper's advice, and over the course of the year, whenever they hung out, Alex gave him several new stones. She sat with him patiently, reading over the contents of the little pamphlet that came with each stone, explaining every third word in detail. He sat snuggled into her, asking question after question, Piper never got tired of watching his face take in every word her wife had to say.
"He never stops talking," Alex would always recount once he was gone. She'd complain of her exhaustion, relieved, once he was gone, for the quiet. Piper didn't want to push the subject any further about having their own child, she wanted to give Alex the opportunity to come to her when she was ready, but as time pressed on, she wondered if Alex would ever get out of the "getting to give him back," phase.
Each time she thought her wife built immunity, to the less desirable features of a small child, she mumbled something like, "such a mess," as she cleaned up the aftermath.
But today, she has a softened look about her. She picks the crumbs of Goldfish out of the carpet, without complaint and brushes her hands over the trash.
Piper catches her taking a moment to look at a picture of her with Finn on a jungle gym when he was younger. She smirks some and rubs a hand gently over the frame.
"He loves you because you coddle him and you always go out of your way to answer his questions."
Alex immediately becomes defensive, denying that he's created a soft spot in her heart. But after Piper calls her on it, she thinks it over as they get ready for bed. She enters their bedroom, Piper is propped against their headboard, reading a book.
She tries to formulate words out of her nervous energy, not entirely ready for her confession, but she supposes, she never really will be. She thinks of Finn while she caresses Piper's skin, she smirks at the memory of his smell, "syrup and cheese."
"Heh?," Piper questions.
Alex laughed while tracing a finger on Piper's lower abdomen, just above her shorts. "Finn. He always smells like syrup and cheese."
Piper drew her knees up and Alex turns over to look at her. Here it goes. "I think I'm ready, well as ready as I can be. I want our own baby."
He tiptoe's into their room, clutching the SAT prep course permission slip in his hands. His mom's are cuddled tightly, their limbs are intertwined, his ma's arm rests over his mom's, she has her pulled in close. Eight out of ten times, he would bet his money, that he would find them just like this. He watches them for a second, feeling guilty for waking them up, as they both look sound asleep.
"Mom?," he gently rubs Piper's arm.
"Hmmm?," her eyes slowly flutter open.
"Can you sign this quick? I gotta go."
"What time...," she looks and sees it's still early, thankful for the remaining 20 mins before her alarm is due to go off. "What is this?," she asks not being able to make it out.
"Just a study thing."
"What study thing do you need permission for?"
"It's a prep course for the SAT."
"You want to take a prep course?," her eyebrow raises as she remembers herself, fighting tooth and nail not sit through the course.
"I just wanna do my best."
"You don't need a prep course," Alex grumbles into the back of Piper's neck.
"Yes I do. There are strategies on how to do better, or these classes wouldn't be in existence for all of these years."
"Many things have been in existence for years, that suck, so there goes that theory."
"I want to get into a good college, why wouldn't I wanna do whatever I can to make that happen?"
"What good college would that be?," Alex inquires with her eyes still closed. "I don't know, Stanford?," he says laughing, "UC Berkeley..."
She cuts him off, shooting up, "why are those both on the complete opposite side of the country?!"
"... NYU, Brown, Syracuse... I just listed those first."
She sits up all the way and puts her glasses on. "Are you really thinking about going to a school on the other side of the country?"
"I'd like to apply to whatever school matches what I'm looking for."
"Can we not get ahead of ourselves," Piper tries to mediate the tension, "these classes aren't free J."
"I know, I don't want the money. Just sign the slip."
"And who's paying for it then?," she asks.
"I can..."
"Yeah or who else? Who'd you get to give you the money? Aunt Nicky? Aunt Polly? Grandma?"
"Please just sign it. Most parents would be thrilled?"
"I just don't want you taking special training, you should go where you get accepted based on your hard work throughout your academic career not where a score on one test, dictates your acceptance," she reasons.
Alex pipes in, "no I don't even care about that, I just don't want you applying somewhere three thousand miles away. For what?"
"Why can't I go away if I get I to a school I really want over there?"
"Because the best schools in the country are within a 3 hour drive of here, and you should go to one of them."
"Why so you can come play beer pong with me on the weekends?"
"No, not so I can play beer pong, and if I did I'd kick your, and all of your smarty pants asshole friends' asses too." A look is shot at her from Piper to quit being so nasty. She sighs, "what if you need something, or get sick and you're all the way across the country?"
"I'm sure there are doctors on the western side of the United States ma. I'm not saying I'm gonna go, I would just like to have the option, and if I did want to go there, your support."
"Well I don't support it, I think it's really fucking stupid."
"Alex," she whines at the language.
"What?!," she snaps.
"How often are these classes?"
"Twice a week for six weeks. One day is math, one is verbal. The test is in January, so I have to start today." He hands her the form, clearly having waited til the last possible minute.
Alex throws the covers off of herself, heatedly and heads out of the room to start a pot of coffee.
"Don't pay her any mind, I'll talk to her. You know how she gets. You do what you have to do, and apply wherever you want, okay? Don't worry about making anyone else happy."
He exhales, unsettled and nods.
She takes his consent form and signs. "I'm not asking who, but whoever gave you the money either give it back or void their check, can you get my bag?"
He walks out past the kitchen, he hears Alex mumbling to herself. She doesn't look up at him, too fixated on her task at hand. He grabs Piper's purse and brings it back. She writes him a check and tells him she'll see him later.
She pads into the kitchen a few minutes later, "why're you making him feel guilty about going away to school?"
"I'm not making him feel anything. And why are you so devil may care?"
"I'm not but he shouldn't limit his options because you don't want him to go away to school."
"You want him to?"
"I... no, not across the country. But I think it's extremely liberating to go away and be on your own."
"It's not like we smother him."
"We do a little."
"No we don't. He goes out, we let his girlfriend hang out and shit in his room when we're not home. What the hell else does he need to do?"
"It's just a different experience, making your own way, taking responsibility for your life. Not doing things because you have to come home and answer to someone, but because you want that for yourself."
"He's already pretty responsible and clearly wants things for himself."
"Alex, he needs to venture out at some point ok? Don't take it personally. He's growing up." Alex flicks her hand at her.
"What did you bust his ass for all this time, if not to go onto college and get a job that he loves?" She takes a sip of her coffee shakes her head at Piper's rationale coherence.
"You can't do this, you're not going to win."
"And we're not gonna fight over little things that old married couples fight over," Piper tells her.
Alex leans her head back on her bent elbow, amused as they already do, "like what?"
"Like leaving small amounts juice in the carton instead of finishing it. Or leaving things out that have a proper place."
"Is this your way of telling me you get annoyed when I leave a sip of juice in the carton?" Piper raises her eyebrows in confirmation.
"And what do I leave around?"
"Nothing, its just hypothetical."
"Uh huh, hypothetically, what do I leave around? Cause this apartment? Chronic Piper tornado."
"No it is not," Piper leans up defensive.
Alex smirks, "uh yes it is. Piper your sh... stuff, is everywhere, it always is. And I don't care, but then don't come and whine when I leave an occasional thing out. Lets stop the effrontery now."
Piper's mouth drops at being called guilty for her own accusations.
"You don't get to win anymore," Alex mocks from the bed swirling her wedding ring around her finger.
Piper whacks her with a pillow, "I never got to win."
"Oh that's a bold faced lie, I always let you win."
Piper shoves her.
After he closes the door to their apartment, leaving that early Saturday morning, Alex comes storming out of the bathroom, having pent up her feelings for the last two weeks.
"And this," she points a clump of blonde hair at Piper, "how many years will it take for you to clear out the drain?"
Piper just stares at her, refusing to respond to this tone.
Alex stares back, her frustration diminishes, her eyes are worried.
"You cant have mixed feelings while he goes off to take this test."
"I haven't said a thing to him."
"He can sense how you feel, you need to root for him," she looks at the clump of hair Alex is holding in the wad of tissues, "and that's gross, throw it out."
"I know it's gross, I've been telling you that for twenty years. Why should I have to get into the shower and step on a mini toupee?"
Piper scoffs at the same argument they have on a regular basis, "I'm sending him a text from both of us," she says whipping out her phone. "Harper c'mon," she says calling her for dance.
"Tell Nicky I say hi. If you're home before him, resist the urge."
"Resist the urge to what?," she hisses.
She bites her lip, refusing to let the words that she feels describe her wife in this moment, fall from her lips.
When he walks in the door early that afternoon, Alex practically knocks him over, "So?"
"What?"
"What? How'd it go?"
"It was fine."
"Did you get your score?"
"Mmmhmmm," he says leaning into the fridge taking four different snacks out of their kitchen and into the living room. She follows him, he flops down and stares at the tv, he tries to change the channel, but she's blocking him. He leans around her to change it.
"And?"
"I did fine."
"Fine?"
"Mmmhmmm."
"What's fine?"
"Well."
"Well enough?"
"Enough for what? I don't know what you want. You confuse me."
"I confuse myself."
He shakes his head, annoyed at her blockage of the TV. She steals the remote.
"I scored well enough to make my application competitive."
"That's great," she says with a melancholy smile.
He nods, standing up and walks into his room. Unbeknownst to him, she's two inches behind him.
"Th...," he goes to yell and stops startled by her proximity, "shit, you scared me."
She hugs him tight, pressing all the air out of him, "I'm really proud of you, I'm sorry I've been giving you a hard time."
"It's fine," it's not he thinks, but there's no point in dragging it out. "There's some campus tours and open houses that I got the dates for. My counselor said I should check out my top 5."
She nods, "which are?"
He flips through a notebook and tears out the page with the names of some schools along with scribbled dates and hands it to her.
She looks it over, all on the east coast.
"So, can we check them out?," he asks, after her continued silence.
"Yeah. What happened to Cali?"
"It's too far."
She sighs, "J, I don't want you to rule out the schools you were interested in because of something I said." She exhales. "If you like those, we can check them out."
He shakes his head, "it's too far."
"It's a 6 hour plane ride," she tries to downplay the distance.
"But I won't be able to come home for all the holidays. I'd miss out on a lot of stuff, there's a bunch of other schools that I'm just as interested in, that are closer," he says gesturing toward the paper.
"You're sure?"
"Yeah."
"We'll go, this one's first," she points to the third on his list, "do you have more info on their programs and stuff that you can see online?"
He dumps out the contents from his backpack and spreads it out, looking for something in particular. When what he's looking for isn''t there, he crawls over to a stack of notebooks under his desk, that topple over after he rummages. He spreads them out until he sees the specific folder he's looking for. "Here it is," he says pulling out a folder and hands it to her.
It's heavy, she notes as she rifles through his papers. "Jesus J," she says looking through the folder at the full packets of info, listing the points he was sold on, with pros and cons. She starts to laugh.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing, you'll get annoyed," she says turning a page and her eyes go wide at the tuition.
"No I won't, tell me."
"I'm having a déjà vu moment from when we went searching for your preschool."
"Maaaaaa," he drags out, not wanting this experience to be equated with something as insignificant as preschool.
"What? Your mom drove me crazy with packets just like these, with applications and requirements and all sorts of stuff. Its just eerily similar, that's all."
He nods.
"This tuition is slightly more daunting than the preschools were."
"I know but I can get a job and I'm gonna try to get some scholarships for soccer."
"And we'll just have to take out loans and be in debt like everyone else in America. Don't pay attention to the numbers, not that you have," her eyes go wider at another universities tuition. "This is kind of ridiculous, you'll spend your whole life paying this back."
"But at a job I like though right?"
"Yeah, that's the goal."
Piper's arm is linked with Harper's as they sit on the subway after dance. She seems solemn, she's not been as talkative and enthusiastic since she started junior high, but today she seems even more down.
"You okay peanut?"
She nods her head and leans into Piper's shoulder.
"You sure?" She feels her nod her head against her arm.
She rests her hand on her daughter's knee cap and brushes her thumb back and forth.
Once they're home, Alex swaps info with Piper about the upcoming open houses, while Piper tells her something is up with Harper.
They split in different directions to talk with the opposite child.
"So she seems okay with all the schools," Piper says to Jamie enthusiastically.
"Yeah I showed her the packets like you said, thanks for making those."
"Did you really think she wouldn't come around?"
"No, I just... when we go though, she needs to like the school in order for me to go there. I can't go away and attend one that she doesn't like."
"She may find something she doesn't like about every place," she says with a chuckle.
"I know, I could see that happening."
"So you did really well huh?"
His eyes go wide and nods pulling out the hardcopy of his results.
Across the hall, Alex knocks and comes into Harper's room. Her daughter's laying on her bed, watching some video on her phone.
"What's up baby?"
"Nothing."
"You seem sad."
"I'm not sad."
"What are you then?"
"A flat-chested 'baby-peanut,'" she says with a serious face.
"For now, you're... you're not flat-chested."
"Everyone has bigger boobs than me."
Alex chuckles slightly.
"Ma, it's not funny."
"I'm not laughing at you, they'll get bigger...probably."
"When?"
"When they do. Your mom's never had big ones, you might not either."
"But you do."
"You didn't come from my body though babe."
"I never cared until now."
"Don't start caring over something like this. You've got this cute little bod, and all this gorgeous curly blonde hair because of your mom."
"You're just..."
"...And I'm not just saying that cause I'm your mama, you're beautiful."
"I just want them now."
"I know. And I used to hate when people said this to me, but don't be in such a rush to grow up."
"Can I get a bra with the liner, so I look like I have bigger ones?"
Alex sighs her laughter, "you and your brother team up, to try to kill me, don't you?"
She smirks a little with hopeful eyes, "is that a yes?"
"Yeah I guess," she says shaking her head, as her daughter bounces off the bed, ready to go.
A/N: again spazzed during the OITNB proposal when they're both kind of in disbelief that the other said yes. Premonitions?