"Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions."
-Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Dylan tossed his book bag into the corner of the hallway and stood staring at it for a long moment trying to decided what to do. An absent-minded melody drifted down the hall from the living room. He frowned. His mother was singing to herself; something she never did. This had started in the car on the drive home after she finished gushing about Jonathan Turner. Dylan suddenly felt like he was going to puke. Turning on his heel, he forced himself to head into the living room.
In the living room, his mother was doing what she'd been doing every day after school for the past month: going through all the boxes in storage looking for something. Because their apartment was so small, they had to go to the unit after school, take a few boxes out, then go back the next day to take those boxes back and get more. Dylan asked her what she was looking for every day and every day she told him the same thing: pictures. This made no sense to him because all of the family pictures were together in albums in the bookcase in her bedroom.
Just as he took a step into the room, his mother cried from her place on the floor, "Oh, here's one!"
"What?" Dylan looked suspiciously at the photograph she was holding.
"Dyl, look."
Dylan looked at the photograph she held out to him. He blinked. All he saw was an empty, ancient-looking school cafeteria. There weren't even any people in the picture.
"So?" he asked unimpressed.
She gave a wistful sigh. "This is where we met."
Dylan looked at the picture again, squinting as he tried to see what exactly was so nostalgic about it. "I don't get it," he said feeling as though he'd missed an obvious punchline to a joke.
"This is where Jonny and I met, honey."
The teen curled his lip up in disgust. "Oh."
His mother sighed as though there was more to the picture than an empty room. He thought it was a weird picture to take, let alone keep.
Katherine's eye suddenly lit up. "The others must be in this box, too!"
Dylan groaned and got up. He wandered into the kitchen and grabbed a soda. At his mother's shriek of delight, he rolled his eyes and slowly wandered back to living room. He was in no hurry to see more pictures of empty spaces.
"Oh, Dylan, look. Here they are." She had a handful of old Kodak pictures hugged to her chest. For the next hour Dylan was subjected to Katherine's cooing over these pictures from the 90s. There were a multitude of pictures of the superintendent in various settings. He had long hair and an earring. Dylan found this incredibly distasteful for a man of his age, even back then. Other pictures where just photos of places often with no people in them or just people in the background. The backs of these pictures had explicit details of the event that happened there. Out of the stack of photos there were only three that were of both the superintendent and his mother. Dylan couldn't help but notice that Mr. Turner didn't look nearly as happy as his mother did. The boy frowned.
"Why do you want these old things?" he asked petulantly. "The picture quality is terrible."
Katherine was too happy to be exasperated with her son. "Oh, Dyl, I know you don't understand, but these are pictures of the happiest days of my life."
Dylan still wasn't impressed. For all the rambling she'd done about this man-this Jonathan Turner- she'd never given him one specific reason why he was so extraordinary. "Why do you want to go back to the 90s so bad, Mom?"
Katherine reached out and gave him an affectionate pat on the cheek. "It's not the 90s, Dylan. It's this," she pointed to the picture of her with the superintendent. "It's Jon."
"And? Mom, he looks bored in those pictures. Doesn't seem like such a great guy to me if he can't even be bothered to smile for a picture with," Dylan swallowed hard, finding the words difficult to say, "his girlfriend."
She sighed. "You're too young to understand. Jonathan is the love of my life. The only one I could ever see a future with. I should have married him. He's just so wonderful. He's an excellent teacher and superintendent; father and man..."
"Husband," Dylan grumbled as a dark cloud descended over his face. He was very annoyed to hear his mother talk as though his father didn't exist.
"Oh, I'm sure he will be!"
The boy stared at his mother who was looking dreamy-eyed at the photo in her hand, completely lost in the past.
"He is now, Mom," Dylan said as bluntly as he could, trying to jar her back to reality.
"I know, Dyl. But that's temporary."
Dylan frowned, not sure what to make of this. Given the age of the superintendent's oldest son the marriage didn't seem too temporary to him. "Why? Has he told you they're breaking up or something?"
"No." She gave him a secretive, knowing smile. "But he doesn't have to. I can tell, Dylan. I've been through a divorce so I know the signs."
"Like what?"
"Like the long hours he spends at work instead of going home. That's an excuse to stay."
Stay? Stay where? At the District Office? The man didn't seem to love his job that much. Even though, Dylan had only spent a few days at the District Office from what he'd seen Mr. Turner wanted to leave sooner than anybody else. "Why?"
She smiled and blushed, but didn't answer. Dylan bit his bottom lip in concern. As he watched his mother pour over the pictures once again, dreamily recounting the events surrounding each one, he began to worry. His mother had always be very nervous and anxious in the years leading up to his parents' divorce. Her anxiety kept her awake for days; she had severe migraines from the lack of sleep and this would lead her to explosive arguments with his father over his most recent exploits. Once the divorce was finalized and over the course of three years, the insomnia faded and the migraines lessened, but the anxiety was still there as was a new depression that seemed ebb and flow in ways that Dylan didn't understand. His mother had been to a therapist for awhile he knew and that doctor had prescribed a medication she no longer needed to take. Dylan thought she was doing so much better, especially since she and his father started to spend time together again. And she was doing better until this stupid job came along. Given the way she was acting now, Dylan was very, very concerned that this superintendent, this ex-boyfriend, would take advantage of her. Under no circumstances would he allow that to happen.
"You know," Katherine said remorsefully. "I hate to tell you this, sweetie, but you and Julia will be step-brother and sister."
"Huh?" It seemed that his mother had taken a very large leap into the future while leaving him behind in the present.
"I mean you couldn't date her," she explained. "That would not be a good situation, unless..."
"Unless what?" Dylan was growing increasingly concerned about his mother.
"Julia could just stay with Audrey permanently. Then you could date her. As long as you aren't under the same roof, I don't see a problem with you dating."
Dylan didn't know how to respond. Although he didn't know Julia, from what he'd observed she was very much a Daddy's girl. "I think she might have a problem with that."
Katherine gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. "It'll be different once she gets to know you."
"No, I mean, not living with her dad. She seems really close to him."
"Yes." A dark expression fell over his mother's face. "Much too close. She's exactly like Shawn. Those two need to grow up and let Jon live his life."
The teen didn't miss the bitter edge in her voice when she said Shawn's name. "I can kinda understand Shawn 'cause he's old, but Julia's still a kid."
"Who'll be worse than Shawn if boundaries aren't set now," Katherine snapped, staring at the space in front of her. "This is what her mother should be doing but she isn't. So she can take full responsibility for what she's creating. Maybe she'll learn not to coddle and overindulge her children."
Dylan felt very funny about this rather harsh judgment of Julia's mother. Maybe she wasn't the best mother, but the maybe his mother was wrong. He didn't know. However, it seemed like she wanted to punish Julia for being close to her dad and he didn't think that was fair. Anxiously, he picked at a worn spot on the sofa.
"Maybe she'll end up living with her older brother," he shrugged offhandedly, not realize the anger the comment would stir up.
"He is NOT her brother!"
Dylan jumped, caught off guard by his mother's anger. "But I thought..."
"I don't care what she says or what Jon says, Shawn is not related to them in anyway. He is not Jon's son and he is not Julia's brother."
"Who is he then?"
"Some troubled kid Jon took pity on that's grown into a troubled adult that won't leave him alone."
Dylan leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and folded his hands. Essentially, nothing his mother had said so far made any sense to him. He thought back to what he'd seen over the past week and tried to put that together with what his mother was saying. It didn't make sense. What did make sense was that Shawn was the superintendent's son and Julia's brother.
"But," Katherine went on regaining control over her emotions, "that will change from this point on."
"How?" he asked worriedly.
A smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth. "Shawn made such a pest of himself this week that Jon is insisting that I stay close to him and make sure that Shawn doesn't have anything to mess up."
Dylan's frown deepened. That wasn't what Mr. Turner said that afternoon when he, Shawn, and Julia left the District Office just ahead of him and his mother. He shook his head frustrated and unhappy. Whatever, the truth was, he did not want his mother spending more time with this guy.
"Yeah, well, it's getting late, Mom," the boy said, standing up. "I think I'll head to my room and try to get some studying done.
Katherine beamed at him. "You're such a good, smart boy, Dyl. So responsible, too."
He nodded and high-tailed it upstairs, relieved to be away from his mother's fantasy world. He closed the door to his room and sighed. He saw his brother's Philly's hat on his desk and gave it a smack that sent it skittering over the wooden tabletop and onto the floor. Mathias was at their dad's this weekend and next weekend they would trade places. Then they'd swap again. In three weeks' time, they'd be together at their dad's and then the following weekend together at their mom's. Or was that two weeks' time and mom first then dad? He could never keep track of the ridiculous custody arrangement his parents had spent years fighting over. Custody arrangements were supposed to benefit the kids but who could benefit from something so confusing? For all the Family Courts claims to be for the kids did they ever actually talk to the kids? Not as far as he knew. No one ever talked to him about the break down of his family.
Dylan flopped into his desk chair with no intention on working anything school related. Instead he stared at his computer screen worrying over his mother and the situation at her job. He was very suspicious of Mr. Turner. He was his mother's age wasn't he? Older? At any rate, he was probably getting bored in his marriage and couldn't land a younger woman like his dad could so he was prowling around his mother. The more he thought about Mr. Turner the harder it was for Dylan not to hate a man he knew nothing about.
Hmm...
The teen clicked open his Internet browser and began to type a search query:
Jonathan Turner superintendent New York City schools
He had to weed his way through results for Jonathan Turner, superintendent of New York City schools, and a plethora of other results that had little to do with what he was looking for. Finally, he came across a news article from a couple a years ago about the District's newest superintendent. It was a essentially a very boring biography that told him what he already knew about Mr. Turner's education history thanks to his mother. It was only at the very end of the article that it mentioned his family: his wife, Audrey, a former dancer with the American Ballet Theater, and their five children.
Five kids? Dylan was under the impression that it was only Shawn and Julia. Or just Julia, if his mother was correct. Although their ages weren't given their names were listed: Shawn, Julia, Grayson, Jamie, and Isabella. He frowned. Shawn's name was there; if he wasn't their kid why would he be mentioned in the article? It was also interesting to note that the article had Shawn's last name as Turner. Was his mother wrong when she introduced him as Shawn Hunter or was the report wrong?
Dylan continued to search, this time focusing on social media, but he could not find the right Jonathan Turner. If the superintendent wasn't online, someone in his family had to be so he focused his attention on Audrey. The search results for "Audrey Turner" were overwhelming and it would take forever to sort through them all. Trying to refine his search, he tried Jonathan and Audrey Turner, but nothing came up, not even the first article he had found. Then he remember that the article mentioned her previous ballet profession. He added American Ballet Theater to his query and suddenly his results were significantly narrowed. Unfortunately, there was no way this could be the right Audrey, either. There must be more than one ballerina with ABT named Audrey Turner. Frustrated, Dylan clicked on the American Ballet Theater Instagram search result that mentioned on of the Audrey Turners.
The picture that came up was one in a series of eight. The first seven photos were throwbacks to the early 90s of a very young, very thin, very pretty redheaded dancer in both ballets and backstage settings. The last picture had been taken two months prior and the woman in the picture was far too young to be the Audrey Turner he was looking for, but her eyes looked strangely familiar. Ready to give up, Dylan decided, as a last ditch effort, to click on the profile that was tagged in the last picture. AudreyNYCBallet was a pretty typical profile that took advantage of the new IG setup: lots of pictures of places and ballet of course. Bored, Dylan quickly scrolled through the profile, then suddenly stopped. In the middle of all the dance pictures was a photograph of her with a curly headed brunette he certainly recognized- Julia. Dylan stared at the photo very confused. The caption simply read: With my mini-me. And there was no doubt that she was: Julia looked just like Audrey except for her hair. The very next picture was of Audrey with her arms around the superintendent. They were in swimwear and looked to be on a boat in some tropical setting. Dylan found it impossible not to compare this with the photos of his mother and Mr. Turner. Where Mr. Turner looked bored with his mother, he looked smitten with his wife. The caption read: Happy Anniversary, baby! and was followed by some other mushy text about how wonderful he was. She sounded just like his mother except that she was able to name specific things that were great about him. The weren't many photos of Audrey's family life, but there was more than enough to confirm her identity. There was even a picture of her, the superintendent, and Shawn taken when the younger man was a teenager.
Dylan sat back in his chair trying to process all this new information. He was more confused than ever. And worried. Does Mom realize who Turner is married to? He wondered. She's young, well at least a lot younger than than her or Turner. Unless she's some horrible person, why in the world would the superintendent even consider leaving her for anyone else? It was most likely, Dylan decided, that "Jon" was the horrible person and he felt very sorry for Julia's pretty mother.
With a renew sense of purpose, Dylan went to Facebook and began to search it for Audrey Andrews Turner. If he was going to protect his mother from her awful boss, he needed some inside information. Julia, he knew, would not be the one to help him, even if she did warm up to him. Perhaps, once she saw how much he loved and protected his mother she would be impressed with him and agree to be his girlfriend in spite of her awful father.
Audrey's Facebook profile was private; but he could see who her friends were. So he began to research her, collecting everything he could find so that he could create a convincing profile of a former dance colleague's son.
Another first with his family occurred that evening just before dinner when Cory showed up at the door. Shawn was expecting him; he'd texted his best friend that he needed to meet with him and Julia ASAP. He was not, however, expecting for Cory to bring Riley and Auggie and several suitcases.
"Hey, Shawnie," Cory greeted him enthusiastically. "Here." He dumped two suitcases and three duffle bags into Shawn's arms. "This is what Riley brings for just a weekend. We have to rent a van if we go anywhere just for her stuff and Topanga's."
"Oof!" was Shawn's surprised reply.
It turned out that every month there was a weekend sleepover between the Matthews/Turner clans and this month they were at the Turner's. Julia reminded Shawn that it was Family Night and after dinner they wouldn't have time to talk until really late. With the extra kids, it took longer to get everyone distracted enough so that Shawn, Cory, and Julia could get away. Cory asked Riley to help Audrey with dinner and told Auggie to to stay close to Uncle Jon and help him in any way he could. Auggie knew that something was up. He was proud that they trusted Uncle Jon to him and took his job very seriously. Perhaps, a little too seriously.
"So what's going on?" Cory asked him as soon as the door was closed.
Shawn gave a weary sigh. "I did my job too well. I showed Dad what his life could be like if the secretarial job was done right and now he's gonna make Katherine to do it and she in 100%. She thinks he wants her around him, not that he just wants her to her job." Distraughtly, he ran his hand through his hair. "I really screwed up."
"There's no way you could have seen that coming, Shawn, " Cory told him. "What I was hoping for was that she'd get fired for not doing her job and you'd get hired instead."
"You know why that can't happen, don't you?"
Cory rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Union. The good side: it protects good teachers and staff. The bad side: it protects bad teachers and staff."
Shawn began to pace and Cory joined him, matching him stride for stride.
"She is so weird," Cory grumbled. "I mean, half of Jon's problems at work are her fault, but then she acts like she's doing him some favor by doing her job."
"Right," Shawn replied, still pacing.
The one person in the room who was not pacing was Julia. She stood by the bunk bed nervously picking at her fingernails. This was something Riley did when she was upset and it unnerved Cory to the extreme to watch the picking. He grabbed her hand to stop her and pulled down her to sit next to him on his bed. "Jules," he said, trying to distract her. "We gotta stay calm and think through this."
Cory looked at Shawn. Shawn looked at Cory. Then they both at Julia.
"You two don't know what to do either do you?" she said unhappily.
"No," Cory admitted as Shawn shook his head. "We still don't know exactly what she's planning to do. We don't really have any proof that she is doing anything... I mean everything we've got is circumstantial."
"Not everything."
Cory and Julia watched Shawn with curious looks as he pulled out his phone and began to scroll through it's image gallery.
"I found this while doing a quick scan of her browsing history," he said, holding the phone out to them. Julia and Cory crowded around it.
"Unreal," Cory breathed shaking his head in disbelief. "You expect to see this kind of stuff on Lifetime movies, not in real life."
Julia was silent. And that was not typical of the girl. Julia's expressions of emotion tended to mirror her father's. When Jon was angry and silent the silence never lasted. He tended to yell, especially when his anger was sparked by fear or worry- Shawn had experienced that many times over. Audrey, by contrast, would simply go silent. The angrier she was the quieter she was. This was because, as she told Shawn once, her emotions were one of the few things she had complete control over. There was only one time he could recall every seeing her truly angry and it was the night Jon confronted her about the her eating disorder. She was so quiet; the look on her face and the trembling of her body with rage was far more terrifying that Jon's yelling ever was. To their credit, it was rare that either got to that level of anger.
Shawn watched Julia sit still and quiet, a tumultuous storm was brewed behind those gray eyes and it was deeply distressing. She stared at Shawn's phone through tear-laden eyes and began to shake. When she looked up at him, there was no trace of Jon to be found; there was only Audrey in a 15-year-old who did not have the control over herself that her mother had.
Shawn suddenly began to worry that it was a mistake to include her in this. He and Cory didn't know what they were doing and they did not know what the consequences of what they were attempting to do would be. Shawn viewed Julia as his protégé; a successor to the family rebel who would follow in his and Jon's footsteps and he often forgot that he and Julia were not the same. Their upbringing was radically different and Julia did not have the experience that he had at her age. In many ways, she was far more sheltered than he, Cory, Topanga, Jon, or Audrey ever had been. He now feared he was putting her in a situation that she could not handle and should not be expected to deal with. But she was involved and Shawn felt terrible about it.
"Jules," he said quietly, kneeling in front of her. "Hey. What are you thinkin'?"
She stared at her brother with wide eyes brimming with fear and anger. With Audrey, it was best to stay out of her way, not to touch her, and let the storm pass. However, Shawn had never seen fear in Audrey's silent moments. Hesitantly, Shawn reached a finger out to push a stray curl out of Julia's eyes. At his touch, she blinked. Then blinked again. Finally, with a heavy sigh, she said in very quiet, very scared voice, "This is really real, isn't it? I keep thinkin' that maybe she just got caught up in this gross daydream about Daddy and was usin' it to taunt us because she hates us so much. But she's really serious about tryin' to take Daddy away from us."
Shawn felt a great empathy for his little sister as he knew exactly how she felt. Julia leaned forward until her forehead was resting against his shoulder and he wrapped his arms around her. Looking over her hair at Cory, he said, "Mom suggested I volunteer at the District Office. I'm gonna try to be there as much as I possibly can. I've still got the blog to write for, but I'm gonna try to fit that around the volunteering."
"You think that'll work?" his best friend asked, moving a little closer to the girl he considered his niece. Cory took the phone from her and handed it back to Shawn. Then he took Julia's hand and enclosed it in both of his.
Shawn shrugged. "If it doesn't and I lose the job, I'll find another one. We just have to get through the next month is all. Between the three of us, we can keep Miss Tompkins away from Dad."
Cory arched an eyebrow. "Why a month?"
"Because, we're all gonna go back to Philly for Spring Break."
"We are?" Cory and Julia asked simultaneously.
Julia sat up and gave Shawn a funny look. "Why?"
He got from the floor and sat on the other side of Julia. "I need to go back and tie up some loose ends. One of those things is letting go of Dad's old apartment. I figure if we all go back; back to where this all began, we can sort through the mess of what happened after everything went wrong." Shawn bit his bottom lip, still plagued by guilt over the years that stood between him and Jon- the 17 years that didn't have to happen. "Dad and I've never talked about what happened after that summer trip to New York to see Mom. We've never really talked about the why. I can't bring it up here; it's too much to deal with and too much going on here. But if we can go back, maybe Dad and I can finally make peace with the past."
Cory nodded his agreement. "Do you think Jon will agree?"
"He already has," Shawn told them. "And I'm gonna make him keep that promise. Even if we have to forcibly take him back."
Cory smiled slightly at the thought. "You need anything for that trip?"
"Yeah," he said seriously. "I wanna to go back to the apartment, to your house, to the trailer park, to John Adams High- anywhere we went back then, Even Chubby's. And I need you and Topanga there."
"You got it, Shawnie," Cory said quietly. "I'll make sure Topanga clears her schedule for those two weeks."
"I'd like Eric to be there, too, if he can make it."
"I'll call him tonight and tell him."
"Your mom and dad, too."
Cory nodded.
"Mr. Feeny."
"Jack?"
Shawn frowned and slowly shook his head. "No, not Jack. I want everyone there who was a part of my family's beginning. Jack wasn't there for that. Honestly, I don't even know where he is." The last time the brothers had spoken, it had not gone well. After the inevitable shouting between the two died down, Shawn and Jack had mutually agreed that they weren't family, just related by blood.
Julia looked up at him with eyes that were still stormy. "What about me?"
Shawn smiled and put his arm around her shoulders. "I need you most of all. You're the bookend to our family's chapter in Philly."
Julia smiled and leaned against him.
Shawn shot Cory a dirty look. "Thanks for tellin' me about that by the way."
Cory attempted to explain himself but fell flat. "Look, Shawn, once you have kids you lose half your brain cells to 'em so..."
Shawn gave his best friend a wicked smirk. He knew they needed some levity and to get Julia's mind off of Miss Tompkins and their father. "So you got one, then?"
Cory looked indignant, then caught the look in Shawn's eyes. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he reached around behind them. "Yeah, that's right one and a pillow."
"A pillow?" was all Shawn got out before getting hit squarely in the mouth with his own pillow. He launched it right back at Cory who ducked and came up with two pillows. An awkward throw caught Julia in the side of the head. Two pillows came at him at once and the next thing Cory knew Shawn had him pinned faced down on the floor.
"Go for it, Jules!" Shawn cried as his best friend struggled against him.
"No!" Cory cried through tears of laughter as pillows rained down on his head.
After dinner, Auggie carried his bag up his uncle's room, ready to start the night's fun. His father and Shawn were already there and in the middle of a conversation.
"...so I've silenced his phone for the night," Shawn was saying. "I'll keep an eye on it in case something important does come up. Otherwise, I'll just let a few trickled through over the weekend and the rest can show up Monday."
"Sounds good," Cory replied. He smiled when Auggie walked into the room, but that smile disappeared the second his son put his overnight bag on the bottom bunk.
"Why are you putting that there?"
"Um," Auggie looked at the bed and then back at his father. "'Cause I have to put my stuff somewhere so I thought I should put it where I'm sleepin'."
Cory put his hands on his waist. "But you're not sleeping there."
Auggie blinked and looked around the room. He didn't see anywhere else to sleep. Normally when they stayed at Uncle Jon's, he slept in Grayson and Jamie's room, but since this was the first time it was happening with Shawn home, he wanted to stay with his uncle and father. "So where am I sleepin'?"
"I don't know, but not there."
"Why?"
"It's my bed."
Auggie frowned. "Can't I sleep with you?"
"No way. There's not enough room." This wasn't really true, the bunk beds were wider than most, however Cory had no desire to wake up with a foot in his face or on the floor on the first sleepover ever in Shawn's room.
Auggie inspected the bed. "I can too sleep here. You're not that big."
"Auggie, I said no."
"Why?"
Cory leaned over so he could look his son in the eyes. "It's my bed and I don't wanna share it."
"It's not your bed," the boy protested. "It's Uncle Shawn's. And you share a bed with Mommy!"
"It is my bed," Cory retorted. "Uncle Jon bought this bunk for Shawn and me. Not Shawn and Auggie. Shawn and Daddy. And I wouldn't share this one with Mommy, either."
"Are you kiddin' me?" Auggie's unintentional impression of his Uncle Jon was dead on.
"No, I'm not."
Auggie could not believe his father was being so ridiculous over a bed. He shook his head. "Where am I sleepin' then?"
"Go sleep in Aunt Audrey and Uncle Jon's room. It's big."
Shawn gave Cory's arm a reprimanding smack. "Cory! That's the last thing they need!"
"Okay, okay," Cory said , waving his hands in front of his son. "Don't bother them. Go to Grayson's room like you usually do."
Auggie was floored by the unfairness of this and stomped his foot. "I wanna stay with you and Uncle Shawn."
"Cory, c'mon," Shawn entreated. He stood by Auggie and put his hand on his shoulder. "We've got room for him."
"Fine," Cory said, flopping down on the bed. He stretched out to take up the entire bunk, knocking Auggie's bag on the floor in the process. "Then he can sleep with you."
Shawn and Auggie exchanged doubtful looks. Then Auggie stomped to the door, having had enough of his father's nonsense. "I'm tellin' Aunt Audrey you won't share the bed with me!"
"Tell Aunt Audrey," Cory threw his hands up in the air. "See if I care."
As Auggie stormed off, Cory looked triumphantly at Shawn who was regarding with him with raised eyebrows and an amused smile.
"You just fought your son over the bottom bunk," Shawn said. "The bottom bunk."
"And won," Cory said proudly.
"Uh-huh."
The smile faded from his face. "And I'm really glad Topanga isn't here for him to tattle to."
Cory and Shawn were just about to head to the family room for Game Night when the door to Shawn's room was thrown open. A scowling Auggie stood in the doorway and pointed an accusatory finger at Cory. "He's being so silly about a bed! He won't share!"
Cory, who had his back to the door, rolled his eyes at Shawn and made a face. Shawn, who could see who walked in with Auggie, tried to get Cory's attention but was ignored.
"I'm not sharin', Auggie. Get over it." Cory continued to unpack his own overnight bag and put the contents into Shawn's dresser as though he was staying for much longer than the weekend.
"See?!"
"Auggie, I'm your father. And what I say goes. You are not sleepin' in this bed."
Shawn tapped the man on the shoulder "You might wanna turn around before you say anything else," he advised him.
"Shawn, I love your mom," Cory said with all sincerity. "But she can't make me share."
"Yeah, well, it's not Mom that he brought with him."
"Yeah, who'd he bring? Topanga?"
Shawn gave him a nod of confirmation. "Hi, Topanga," he said with a small wave to the woman standing behind his best friend.
Cory didn't appreciate the joke. "Oh, haha, Shawnie."
"No one's laughing, Cory."
At the sound of his wife's voice, Cory jumped and guiltily turned around to find himself face to face with the woman who was supposed to be working on a lawsuit through the weekend.
"Topanga!" He greeted her with a grin. The grin immediately faded. "Why are you here?"
Topanga folded her arms over her waist and titled her head to the side. "Nice to see you, too, honey. Why are you upsetting our son?"
Cory went back to his unpacking. "Because our son thinks he should get my bed."
"Share!" Auggie cried. "I want to share the bed!"
Cory put his clothes down and turned back to his wife. "Topanga, listen to me," he implored. "You know how important this is to me. You know how long I've waited for this moment. Years. I've waited years."
Topanga knew very well how long he'd waited- for as many years as she'd heard about staying in Shawn's room. But she wasn't about to let her husband off the hook as he had so upset Auggie with his refusal to share the moment with him. "Where am I sleeping, Cory?"
Cory went back to his clothes. "I don't care, but not here."
Topanga glared at him then straightened up and made eye contact with Shawn. "He's all yours, Shawn. Have fun."
Shawn laughed, but Auggie was still unhappy. "I wanna stay with you, Uncle Shawn, just this once. Please."
Shawn looked at Cory who folded his arms across his chest, stubbornly shaking his head no. He looked at the young boy then back at Cory. "Sure, Auggie. There's an air mattress that you can sleep on. You okay with a bed on the floor?"
Auggie's curls flew as he nodded. "Yes, that's fine with me, Uncle Shawn." He stuck his tongue out at his father's back.
Topanga rolled her eyes at her husband. "I'd never thought I'd see the day."
"What?" Cory asked, looking over his shoulder at her.
"That Shawn is the more reasonable of the two of you."
"What are you sayin'?" he asked suspiciously. "More importantly, where are you stayin'?"
"I'm sayin'," Topanga expounded in annoyance, tossing her long hair over her shoulder. "I don't wanna room with a bunch of stinky boys anyway. No offense, sweetie," she said to Auggie who shrugged. "Relive your teen years, Cory. Back when it was just you and Shawn. You deserve each other."
"Yay!" Cory said with his fists in the air and a big grin. He turned to Shawn as Topanga started to leave. "No showers this weekend!"
No showers on the weekend may have been a staple of their childhood, but some things had changed with time and this was one of those things for Shawn. "Hey," he called after Topanga. "It's not too late to take him with you!"
"Oh, yes it is!" She put her hand up. "I'm reliving my teen years, too. No boy/girl sleepovers."
Cory grinned at Shawn who pointed a finger at him. "If you stay with me, you're showering."
"Oh, you sound just like her," he pouted, making a face.
Auggie stared at his father and uncle. "My family is sooooo weird."
"Hey, Cory!" Jon yelled up the stairs. "Come get this trunk outta my hallway."
"What trunk?"
"Topanga's hair stuff."
"What?" Cory raced down the stairs. At the sight of his wife's old, worn trunk he scowled. "I thought we agreed to two separate bags and to get rid of this thing."
"Yeah, well," Jon said, stepping around the luggage. "One of you clearly didn't agree to that."
"Are you gonna help me with this?"
"Nope."
Cory stepped onto the landing and prodded the trunk with his foot. "You never do. Not once have you helped me with this thing. Not even in high school. How come?"
"She's your wife now and she was your girlfriend then," his former teacher responded. "Besides, I've got Audrey."
"I've got Riley."
"I've got Julia. And Bella in a few years,too."
"Well, fine." Cory conceded having run out of women in his household who had ridiculous amounts of hair products. He thought about claiming Morgan to force a tie between them, but he knew Jon wouldn't accept that since she didn't live with him. Grabbing the handle of the trunk, Cory began the slow, clumsy ascent up the stairs. Topanga never allowed him to see the contents of the trunk as she was packing it and he sometimes wondered if it contained only hair care products or if she added a few bowling balls to it for fun. It seemed to get heavier every year.
Once everyone was congregated in the upstairs family room, Shawn, Cory, Julia, and Auggie played what looked like to Topanga a strange game of musical chairs as they chose their seats. She watched curiously as the four of them constantly got up and sat down until they had forced Audrey onto Jon's lap by crowding them down to the end of the sofa even though there was plenty of room elsewhere for them to sit. Topanga sat on the love-seat by Riley with Bella in her lap and shook her head. Her husband and his cohorts looked more than a little uncomfortable in their congested seating arrangement.
Towards end of the movie, Shawn's burner phone went off. Cory was so crammed up against him he felt the phone go off. Shawn struggled to get the phone out of his pocket and not push Julia into her father anymore than she already was and inadvertently elbowed his best friend in the chest. As discreetly as he could, he checked the notifications.
Jon, it's Friday night. Couldn't we get the kids together for just a little bit this weekend?
Shawn growled under his breath. His movement accidentally elbowed Cory again and caught Julia this time who looked at him and then the phone with a worried look. Shawn showed it to them briefly before shutting the screen off; he didn't want to attract attention to it since they were sitting so close to Jon.
Several minutes later, Audrey leaned her head against Jon's and whispered in his ear. Because Julia and Shawn were so close, they could hear their mother ask if he had received the schedule for Julia's competition on Sunday; she had not gotten an email. Jon replied that he had and would forward it to her. Shawn cringed when Jon picked up his phone. He hadn't taken the time to remove the notification of Katherine's text from the phone and he regretted it now. A few minutes went by, then the burner phone buzzed again; this time a long short long vibration pattern indicating the phone of origin was responding. Out of the corner of his eye, Shawn could see Jon still had his phone in hand. As discreetly as he could he pulled his phone out again and checked it. Unfortunately Jon, after he had sent Julia's schedule to Audrey, responded to Katherine's message:
Can't. The Matthews are spending the weekend here.
When did this happen?
It happens every month.
You never said anything about that.
I forgot.
Can't you and Julia come over Sunday?
She's got a competition in Lake Placid Sunday. We won't be here.
What am I supposed to do then? Dylan has his heart set on seeing her.
A sudden thump was heard as Jon tossed his phone into the box that sat on the end table. While Audrey and Topanga gave Jon a perplexed look, Cory and Julia turned to Shawn for answers. But before he could do anything, the superintendent tapped Julia's shoulder.
"Jules," he said, trying to deflect attention away from himself. "Go get Balderdash and set it up please."
"Sure, Daddy." She gave Shawn a look as she got up and went to the closet to retrieve the game.
Cory made sure that he and Julia sat on either side of Shawn. At one point during the game, Shawn handed his burner phone under the table to Julia with Miss Tompkins' texts pulled up. After she'd read them, she slid the phone back to him and he passed it to Cory. They were not being nearly as discreet as they thought they were because as Cory was handing the phone back to Shawn, Jon cleared his throat and said, "Uh, guys, no devices during the game. House rules."
Shawn and Cory froze afraid that Shawn would have to give up the burner phone and that someone would discover it's purpose by mistake. But Julia, who was rather adept at getting around the no device rule when it suited her, jumped up and in a flash had a meme that she knew her father would be amused by held out to him on her phone. He laughed as she knew he would and then took her phone from her, putting in the pile of phones in the box that he'd thrown his own phone into earlier. As she sat back down, Shawn squeezed her hand in gratitude and she gave him a tight smile. He returned his attention to the game and looked up, he saw both Audrey and Topanga regarding him with quizzical looks. Topanga pressed her lips together and frowned.
"Get out, Topanga. No girls allowed."
"You know Cory, just when I didn't think you could be more ridiculous you go and prove me wrong."
As long as they had been married, Topanga really shouldn't have been surprised to wake up the next morning and find Cory treating her more like his 7th grade girlfriend than his wife. Sometimes, when it suited him, Cory took the things she said too literally.
"You said we were reliving our teen years," he reminded her. "You said no boy/girl sleepovers. And I'm sayin' no girls allowed."
Topanga leaned against the counter top and put a hand on her hip."What age did you go back to, exactly?"
"Twelve or thirteen. Why?"
"You referred to our children as and I quote 'children who are not mine because I'm too young to have kids' this morning."
Cory nodded in confirmation. "I was not nor am I ever gonna be a teen father. I guess I have you to thank for that."
"Ya know what, Shawn," Topanga regarded her husband through narrowed eyes. "I don't want him back. You keep him from now on."
Shawn looked at Cory with one eye closed and took a drink of his coffee. "Yeah, about that," he said wrinkling his nose. "You two made a vow to be together until death do you part. It'd be wrong for me to to make Cory break that vow."
Topanga gave him a knowing smile. "You didn't sleep much last night did you?"
Her childhood friend made a face "Hardly at all. He snores! And not like he does when we nap, either. He's loud!"
"Don't I know it."
Cory gave Shawn a look of annoyance. "What? Are two on the same team now?"
"Not really," Topanga answered for them. "Although Shawn and I do make a good team. If we can ever get you out of the middle."
Shawn saw the look in her eyes and knew she was just giving her husband a hard time because Cory was taking everything so seriously.
"Look, Topanga, I love you and all," Cory said having missed the look. "But this weekend is special. It's the most special weekend of our lives to be here in this house."
"Cory," she said, trying to maintain a straight face. "We've been here lots of weekends. In this house."
"This one is different."
"Why? Because Shawn's here?"
"Yes. Now get out."
Topanga shook her head. "Cory, we're in the kitchen. It's a common area. You can't kick me out."
Cory looked over his shoulder. "Shawnie, a little help here."
At the look Topanga gave him, Shawn, playing fully along now, pointed at her and said, "She's your girlfriend, Cor. I told you to date other girls but you wouldn't listen to me."
"You know what Cory," she said really struggling not to laugh. "I'm tellin' Mom and Dad you're being a jerk."
Cory put his hand on the counter by hers and leaned towards her. "Your mom and dad aren't here."
"Dad's right there," she retorted, pointing to Jon who had just walked into the kitchen for his morning coffee.
Cory looked at Jon and laughed. "He's not your Dad, Topanga. He's mine."
"Yours?" Topanga was no longer feigning exasperation. "You have parents! Why do you get Jon too?"
"Because," he said matter-of-factly putting his arm around Shawn. "He's Shawn's dad and we're brothers, so that makes him my dad."
Jon shot the men a bewildered look. He look like he regretted walking into the kitchen when he did.
Topanga threw her hands up and turned to face Jon. "That's not fair," she complained to him. "Cory has parents. I barely know mine. It's like they're completely different people every time I turn around."
With his coffee and Audrey's in hand he stared at the three of them, then, as he backed out of the room, said, "Look, whatever's goin' on: I don't wanna know."
One good thing about the Matthews' staying over was that it forced Jon to take a break from work. With Shawn in control of the messages he was getting, Jon didn't seem to be too concerned with trying to get anything school-related done. He was still more tired than he should have been, but his mood overall was better than before and he seemed far more relaxed. There was something about Audrey, though, that Shawn noticed and it bothered him. In the past when the family had been out, Audrey tended to stay close to her husband but usually had a child in her arms or was busy parenting while she talked to him and whoever else was with them. She was never overly focused on Jon and was pretty laid-back as was her personality. Today, however, was noticeably different. She was very attached to him, holding on to him either by hand or waist even when it inconvenient for her or him due to one of the kids. She was anxious and that was very much out of character for her. At Topanga's where they were having breakfast, while family was seated, Jon stayed at the entrance to the bakery talking to one of the fathers of Grayson's teammates. Audrey seemed very uneasy to be separated from him, even though he wasn't far away and didn't talk long. It wasn't until he was seated next to her that she seemed to relax. This change of behavior worried Shawn as he wasn't sure how to account for it.
Katy Hart was working that morning and Riley knew that meant that Maya had to be close by. She'd text her best friend the night before that they were staying with Shawn and that she should come over, but she refused. Riley found this hard to understand as Maya was always bugging her about when Shawn was going to be around so she could show up in the same place he was. But ever since Uncle Shawn had announced that he was staying with Aunt Audrey and Uncle Jon, Maya had not been around at all.
Katy knew as soon as Riley slid up to her with those brown eyes looking so big and innocent what she wanted. "Maya's not here," she said at a louder than normal volume.
Riley pushed her bottom lip out slightly, confused and hurt by this. Maya knew they were going to be at Topanga's for breakfast. Why was she ghosting her?
Katy leaned over and whispered in her ear. "She's in the kitchen. Probably hiding behind the door and trying to see what's going on out here without being seen."
"Oh," said Riley. She smiled. Ducking behind the counter so Maya couldn't see her coming, Riley sneaked back to the kitchen. She threw the door open causing Maya to jump, both from being startled and to avoid being hit by the door.
"Riley!"
"Maya!" Riley was surprised by her best friend's obvious annoyance and nervousness. "What are you doing back here?"
"Minding my own business."
"Well, come on. We're eating out there." Riley grabbed her hand and started to pull her out into the restaurant. Maya stubbornly resisted and yanked against her.
"Maya," she couldn't understand what had suddenly gotten into the other girl. "Stop being silly. I'm hungry."
Maya pulled her hand away from Riley and refused to move. The young Matthews girl stared at her friend in confusion. "What's wrong with you?"
"I can't go out there."
"Why?"
"He's out there." She out of the window of the kitchen door with a forlorn look in her eyes.
"Who? Uncle Shawn?"
"No." Maya breathed, looking suddenly afraid. This confused Riley even more. There was no one out there but her family and Maya's mother.
"Who?"
"Him."
"I don't know who him is."
"Mr. Turner!"
Riley opened her mouth to reply but no words came out. Who was afraid of Uncle Jon? Only bad people were. Maya wasn't bad, just a little rebellious sometimes. Uncle Jon could handle that with no problem.
"I don't get it."
Maya let out a heavy sigh and stood behind the kitchen door, looking wistfully out at the family that was chatting happily among themselves, desperately wanting to join them. "Mr. Turner hates me."
Riley wasn't the most practical person in the family; she often daydreamed her way through the day, but even with a vivid imagination, she was not creative enough to come up with any reason why her uncle would hate her best friend. "Uncle Jon doesn't hate you, Maya. He barely knows you."
"He does know me, Riley!" she cried in despair. Her gaze was still transfixed on the people out at the table "He knows I'm the kid who got him put on administrative leave and investigated by the school board for kissing his own wife!"
Riley frowned. She had forgotten about the entire incident; it seemed like it had happened years ago and she had not heard anyone, including Uncle Jon, mention it since. "Maya, you've talked to him since all that happened. Don't you remember when Miss Burgess got fired and he brought her back? He was fine with you then. He came over to our house while you where there. You even sat by him and asked him about Uncle Shawn. Everything was good."
"No, it wasn't, Riles," Maya sounded exhausted from the guilt she was unnecessarily carrying. "You just don't get it."
"No, I don't."
"He was Mr. Turner the superintendent when all that happened. Even when I was at your house. He had to treat me like that; like he treats all students because I was Maya the student. The bad student," she added dejectedly.
Riley twisted a lock of hair between her fingers trying to understand her best friends point of view. But she just couldn't wrap her head around her friend's fear.
"This," Maya nodded to the table of people. "This is real life, Riles. I can't go out there. I can't face being rejected by someone so important. That's Mr. Turner out there. Not Mr. Turner the superintendent. Mr. Turner- Shawn's dad."
"I know."
"If things work out the way we planned, he won't just be Shawn's dad either; he'll be my grandfather." She turned to her best friend with damp eyes full of anxiety and despair. "Riley, I don't want my grandfather to hate me. I want him to love me. Or at least like me a little."
Riley stood by Maya's side and looked out the table of her family with here. She always knew Maya idolized Shawn before they'd ever met, but she had no idea that she also idolized Uncle Jon. She gently squeezed Maya's hand in an understanding way, then started to leave. Maya gave a sigh, greatly relieved that Riley was going to let this go. But she should have known better. Just as Riley was about to walk out of the kitchen, she grabbed Maya's hand in a painfully tight grip and yanked her out of the kitchen with her.
"Hey, everyone," Riley loudly announced when Maya tried to run. "I found Maya!"
Audrey and Topanga greeted her cheerfully and Cory invited her to join them with Shawn's welcoming approval. Maya, who was trying to hide behind her long hair and wasn't looking when Riley dragged her to the table, didn't know where everyone was sitting so when she peeked out from behind her hair she looked up right into the eyes of the one person who had yet to say anything to her: Mr. Turner.
Like a deer stunned by the headlights of car, Maya froze unable to say anything or move. She watched with unmasked panic as Riley marched up to Mr. Turner until she was nose to nose with him. "Maya thinks you hate her, Uncle Jon."
Maya's mouth fell open in a horrified, silent, "Riley!"
Jon was surprised to hear this. He looked at Maya and blinked. "Oh?"
Maya couldn't break her gaze away from him even though anxiety robbed her of her voice. Tears pricked her eyes and that made everything much worse.
"Maya," he said with concern. "I thought that this had been resolved."
She tried to be agreeable to whatever he said and shake her head yes but she had no control of her body either. Her head gave a wobbly bobble instead.
Audrey slide her hand around her husband's arm and whispered something in his ear to which he gave a nod of agreement. Then he slid out of his seat. Taking Maya by the shoulder, he walked her away from the rest of the group so that they could talk. Riley tried to follow but Cory grabbed a hold of her and made her stay put.
"Maya, what's this all about?" Jon asked pulling a chair away from a nearby table. He sat down so he could be eye-level with her.
"I don't know," came out in an embarrassing mewl.
This was not a side of Maya Hart he'd ever seen before, and the superintendent wasn't sure what to make of it. What brought this side out of her was very personal and directly related to him, but he had no idea what he'd done that caused it. "Maya, you can tell me."
"I'm really sorry!" exploded out of her. Her eyes went wide and she clapped both hands over her mouth.
"About what?"
"I didn't mean to get you in trouble with the board." Though tears threatened to fall, she did manage to hold her voice steady enough to be understood. "I just really loved Miss Audrey and thought she was in trouble. I just wanted to help her. I didn't know!"
Jon stared at her for a moment as this particular event had been banished to a quickly fading corner of his memory. His countenance softened and he smiled. "You didn't get me in trouble. It was just...an inconvenience. That's all."
"You're not mad?"
"There's nothin' to be mad about."
Maya stared at him.
"I love her, too, ya know," he said, trying to make her smile.
She nodded. Now that she had his attention and knew that he didn't hate her, she didn't want to let him go. There was still something else that she needed to know. "I just...I just...I just want..."
"You just want what?"
"I just want you to like me." she blubbered as tears came to the edge of her eyes. Maya didn't know why she kept sabotaging herself with embarrassing reactions to everything. She felt like throwing up. Mr. Turner may not hate her, but surely he would think she was a crybaby and that might actually be worse.
"I do, Maya," Jon regarded her with genuine affection. "Really, I do like you."
"I'm a bad student," she admitted as though he didn't know.
"Yeah, well that can be improved upon. You're a good kid."
She nodded in disbelief but would not question him.
He saw this and gave a quiet chuckle. "You don't believe me?"
She nodded again.
"Maya, why is this such a big deal?"
She wouldn't tell him. She would get herself together and show him that she was mature for her age. Witty and sarcastic like him. Cool with just a little bit of rebel so that he would see Shawn in her and love her like he did his former student. That's how it went in her head. But what came out of her mouth was a trembling, "Because you're Shawn's dad. Like really his dad. Not he's like your son and you're like his dad. You really are."
"Oh," Jon said as the picture suddenly became clear. He figured this ultimately had to be connect in some way to Shawn. "I see."
As a few stray tears rebelled against her and slid down her cheek. Jon saw how embarrassed she was to cry in front of him, so he wordlessly wiped them away with his thumb. "Listen, Maya, we're gonna go to Central Park after breakfast. Why don't you join us?"
Maya looked up at him surprise. When she and Riley planned out her life, Maya tried to be cool about anything beyond getting Shawn together with her mother. It was only when she was alone very late at night did she allow herself to really dream about being fully accepted into Shawn's family. To be invited on a family outing by the man she prayed would be her grandfather when the man she prayed would be her father would also be there was a dream come true. A grin slowly spread over her face. Without warning, she threw her arms around Jon's neck and hugged him. Caught off guard and a little uncomfortable with a kid he didn't really know hugging him, Jon looked around for help and saw Shawn standing nearby.
Shawn saw the look on Jon's face and stepped up quickly to help him. "Hey, Maya,"
The girl partially let go of the superintendent to turn to look at him. The happiness on her face turned to hopefulness. "Yeah?"
"I'd really like for you to come with us."
Maya's grin became impossibly large. She reached out for Shawn's hand and, still holding onto to Jon, walked back to the table between them. Audrey slid over for Maya to sit in between her and Jon. The young blonde happily snuggled up to her and hooked her arms between Jon and Audrey, forming a happy link between them.
Katy stood nearby watching all of this through her own tears. Topanga smiled to herself, then turned and caught Katy's eye. She got up and walked over to the waitress.
"It's kind of quiet this morning," she said.
"It usually is after the morning doughnut rush," Katy replied, not taking her eyes off of her daughter.
"Yeah. Why don't you take a break and join us?" Topanga nodded in Shawn's direction.
"I don't want to intrude."
"You aren't." Topanga grinned and took her friend by the arm. When they reached the table she tapped her husband on the shoulder. Cory glanced at her, smiled, then returned to his conversation with Shawn. Topanga rolled her eyes and smacked his shoulder.
"What?"
"Katy's gonna join us for a while."
"Oh, that's great. Hey, Katy." He went back to talking to Shawn.
"Cory! Get up!"
"What'd I do?" he protested as it looked like his wife was going to forcibly remove him from his seat. After a short tussle, Katy was able to slide in next to Shawn. Topanga let Cory go and he sulkily sat next to Katy.
"Oh, sure," he mumbled. "I just get Shawn back and my wife immediately gives him away!"
The morning was bright, sunny, and much warmer than it usually was at the end of February. With that came more people than usual to the City's most famous park. Maya Hart was so over the moon about being included in this outing with Shawn and his family that she frequently forgot Riley was with them until her best friend complained about being ignored. Maya hovered nearest to Jon, wanting to be as close to him as possible but too shy to take his hand. To her relief, he didn't seem bothered by her constant shadow, either because he'd fully accepted her or because he was so use to having kids underfoot that he didn't notice one more. Either way Maya was giddily happy.
Riley was insistent upon riding on the Central Park Carousel as their first stop of the day. Nobody had particularly strong opinions about this so that's where the family headed. Maya was not usually a fan of such stereotypical ventures, but she was cheerfully agreeable much to Riley's surprise. There was absolutely nothing that could dampen Maya's mood, not even a a ride on a Carousel that she'd been on many times before.
Since she'd drank nearly a gallon of orange juice out of nerves at Topanga's, Maya suddenly had to use the restroom, which was not too far from the Carousel. On her way out of the lavatory, she was suddenly thirsty again. Her mother, who had to stay behind to work, had given her some money, so she stopped at a nearby vendor to get a soda. The line moved slowly and Maya, anxious to return to Shawn and the Turners, got bored and started to eavesdrop on the conversations around her hoping for a juicy tidbit of something.
"They're right over there." There was teen boy with wavy auburn hair not much older than she standing in front of her with an older woman she presumed to be his mother. He was pointing in the direction of the Carousel.
"I don't see them." The blonde woman stood on her toes trying see over the heads of the crowd.
"Right over there. See Julia's hair?"
Maya instantly perked up at the name of Shawn's sister. Her eyes narrowed a bit and she took a step closer.
"No," the woman sighed in exasperation. "Dylan, there are a lot girls here with hair like hers."
"There's Shawn," he told her, pointing again.
They now had Maya's full attention and she wondered who they could be. The boy was not someone she'd ever seen before and the name was unfamiliar to her; he must not be someone that Riley knew.
"Oh." the woman's voice was flat and Maya didn't care for the tone. "Yes, I see them. But where's Jon?"
At the mention of the superintendent's name, Maya edged even closer. She had a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach about these two.
"Who cares?" the boy snapped sullenly.
Maya took great offense at his disrespectful tone and shot the teen's back a dirty look.
"Dylan..."
"I don't know. He's around somewhere, I guess. Or maybe he didn't bother to come with them."
"I hope he's here," the woman fidgeted nervously with her purse and kept smoothing her hair over and over. "I haven't been able to get a hold of him since last night."
Maya frowned at this. Who was this woman and why was she communicating with Mr. Turner?
"Oh! There he is!" the woman squealed. "I see Jonny!"
Maya couldn't see it but she and Dylan had the same revolted reaction to the woman referring to Mr. Turner as Jonny. Maya couldn't explain why but she knew something was very wrong with this situation.
"That's amazing, Dyl." The blonde woman hugged the boy. "They're right where you said there would be. How'd you find out?"
Dylan shrugged unhappily. "I have my ways."
That was all Maya needed to hear. Forgetting about the soda, she left the line and wove her way through the crowd, going straight to Shawn.
She caught him just as he was about to get on the Carousel with Bella and grabbed his hand.
"Shawn!"
"Maya," he smiled distractedly as he tried to convince Bella to walk herself onto the ride. "You're just in time. Get on."
"No," she tugged at his jacket sleeve with great urgency. "I have to talk to you."
"Can't we talk in the sleigh?" Bella refused to be put down and kept pulling her knees up to her chest when Shawn tried to get her to stand up.
"No. I need to talk to you privately."
Shawn gave up and put his little sister on his shoulder. "Maya, we're kinda holding up the line. Let's get on."
Maya's mouth twisted into a dismayed frown. She looked up at him with troubled blue eyes. "Do you know a kid named Dylan?"
Shawn stared at her with his mouth slightly open. This was not a name he expected to hear from her. Quickly, he handed a surprised Bella to Topanga and headed back down the Carousel stairs, pulling Maya along with him. He stopped when they were tucked just out sight of the family. "Who did you say?"
"Dylan," she repeated. She could tell by the look on Shawn's face that her gut instinct about the kid was right.
"Where?"
"Over by the hot dog vendor," she said, pointing out which food cart she'd been at. "I was gonna get a soda. They were in front of me in line."
"They?"
"He was with some blonde woman. His mom, I guess."
Shawn put a hand over his mouth before slowly pulling it away. "Did they say why they were here?"
She shook her head. "I'm not sure but it sounded like she was looking for Mr. Turner. The woman got all excited when she saw 'Jonny'."
Shawn looked furious and growled which startled Maya a bit as she'd never seen him like that before. "Shawn, when she asked how he knew where your family was going to be, the Dylan kid said he had his ways. What's goin' on?"
Trying to maintain his cool as his temper sparked white hot, Shawn inhaled deeply. "The woman is Miss Tompkins and she is his mother," he told her grimly. "She's my former teacher and Dad's ex-girlfriend who's now his secretary. She's been after Dad for the last eight months."
Maya was appalled. "But I thought Mr. Turner and Miss Audrey were happy together." A wave of panic hit her at the prospect that the people she adored and who were supposed to be her grandparents could split up. Maya could not accept that Mr. Turner could be like her father and leave his wife and kids for a new family.
"They are." Shawn assured her, not wanting to involve another person in this mess but he had no choice now. It was better that Maya brought her questions to him than take them to Jon. "Honestly, I'm not sure what Miss Tompkins wants more: Dad or destroying my family like she did when I was a kid."
They stood there for a moment, with Shawn trying to figure out what to do and Maya worrying over him and herself. If Shawn's parents' marriage fell apart she had little hope that he would even entertain the idea of marrying her mother.
Finally Shawn said, "Only Cory and Julia know about Miss Tompkins and what's going on. No one else does. You have to be very careful what you say if they catch up to us. Miss Tompkins will use anything you say or do against us. Mom doesn't know any of this is going on and I don't want her to. I'm gonna stop this before it reaches her."
Maya nodded resolutely. She now saw a chance to make things up to Mr. Turner and protect Audrey from a real threat: Miss Tompkins. She was completely on board with whatever Shawn wanted to do and would follow his lead. "If you need me..."
Shawn smiled and squeezed her shoulder. "I hope it won't come to that but I'm glad you're here."
Maya smiled back and took his hand. Together they walked back to the Carousel on high alert for threats to their family.
When Katherine Tompkins walked up to Jon as their youngest children were getting off of the Carousel, it was the first time in twenty years that Audrey and his former girlfriend had seen each other. Over the years, Audrey and Jon had run into his former girlfriends both in the City and in Philadelphia when they visited in the summer. These interactions were always initially very awkward for Audrey but tended to end up oddly enjoyable. Most of the women had happily moved on with their lives and even the crazier, clingier ones had matured into decent people. A few had even thanked Jon for being slow to commit as they would have missed meeting the love of their lives if he hadn't been.
There was only ever one former flame who sought Jon out and showed up at their home unannounced after they moved away from Philadelphia. That was Jon's first girlfriend, Melanie who had moved to Philadelphia with the hope of reestablishing their friendship only to find that he no longer lived in the city. She had tried once before to become a part of Jon's life back before they were married and Shawn was living with him. At the time, Melanie, like the others, knew nothing about her as she was still Jon's student teacher. It wasn't until she showed up at their home in the Village that they met for the first time. It was an awkward meeting to be sure and not one Audrey cared to ever repeat. She was intimidated by the woman and more than a little jealous as Melanie had grown up with Jon and had shared so many firsts with him. But it ended amicably enough. Once Melanie saw that Jon was happy with his life as a husband and father she left without issue. That was almost ten years ago and they had not heard from her since. Although Jon's mother did offhandedly mention once that Melanie had gotten married and was running some "quaint" little bookshop somewhere in Pennsylvania with her husband.
Meeting Katherine Tompkins was nothing like any of those previous meetings however. For one, none of the women had ignored her the way Katherine did. Audrey stood quietly by Jon's side and watch the woman talk to her husband as though none of the rest of them existed. She even managed to ignore the scowling Bella who demanded to be picked up by her father as she had no tolerance for strangers speaking to him. She glared at the woman with deep dislike. Interestingly, Katherine's son had the exact same expression on his face and kept his glare focused on Jon with the same level of disgust. His gaze flitted over to her once and she saw in the boy's eyes a pitying expression that she didn't understand.
To the passerby, there was nothing sinister in what Katherine was doing; she was just engaging Jon in small talk. The problem with Katherine's small talk was that it was one-sided and allowed for no one to get a word in. Jon never once had the chance to introduce her to anyone; he wasn't even able to respond to her initial greeting. Instead, he stood there straight-faced while juggling Bella and holding onto to Audrey's hand. The more Katherine talked the tighter Jon gripped her hand until she squirmed under the intenseness of his hold. He didn't seem to be aware he was doing it. Audrey looked up at Jon to see that Bella had her cheek smashed up against his. He was frowning. The worry that was hidden in the frown made Audrey curious. He wasn't typically unfriendly with colleagues.
Then Audrey remembered that when Shawn first moved back home, he had inquired about Katherine and her working for Jon. He didn't like it and found it hard to believe that she had no problem with it. At the time she didn't have an issue with it, but now she was beginning to wonder if Shawn had been right to be concerned. She looked over her shoulder at Shawn and saw him, Cory, Julia, Maya, and Auggie standing shoulder to shoulder like little soldiers, glaring at Katherine.
Jon, for his part, had no idea how to handle Katherine's sudden appearance. He was upset with her refusal to respect his decision about Julia and Dylan not spending time together that weekend and that she would show up where he was with his family when he told her he was busy. But more than that he was extremely worried that she might bring up that he hadn't responded to her texts. Guilt nagged at him as he had not told Audrey about those texts nor the invitation to come over to her place with Julia. He didn't say anything about this to her because he was hoping that the issue would go away if he left it alone. Clearly, it wasn't and he was now in a precarious position.
It was Jamie who finally forced his way into the one-sided prattle. He knew better than to interrupt an adult who talking especially if his father was there, but he was anxious to do something and the day was wasting away; in short he was bored.
"Hey, hey, lady," he said, tugging on the leg of her jeans, "Why are you talkin' so much?"
Katherine stared down at him clearly offended by the six-year-old's rudeness. The look on her face quickly drained him of his boldness and he ran back to his mother, hiding his face under her jacket.
Audrey had a choice to make. She could very easily put the woman in her place and let her know that her rapt attention on her husband was not appreciated or she could kill her with kindness. Sweet-faced Audrey who people tended to underestimate due to her looks and petite stature, chose the latter.
"I'm so sorry," she said as though she was embarrassed by her son's outburst. She was not but Katherine did not need to know that. "Jamie's just very excited about today."
"Oh?" Katherine gaze flitted over Audrey as though she was a child before refocusing on Jon.
"The whole family's here," she said gesturing to the group behind her. "We have a big day planned."
"That's nice," Katherine gave her a tolerant smile. "Who are you?"
Audrey gave Katherine the most syrupy, naive-looking smile she could manage. "I'm Audrey."
"My wife," Jon quickly injected wanting to get out of the area as badly as Jamie did.
"Oh, Audrey, right," the other woman said with a tight smile. "The student teacher. Sorry, I didn't recognize you."
There wasn't one adult in the group who believed that. Out of all them, Audrey had changed the least over the years. As for the kids, they all knew Miss Tompkins had insulted Audrey they just didn't fully understand the insult. Even Riley caught the edge in the other woman's voice. She gave Topanga a worried looked and took her mother's hand.
Audrey retained her naive smile. "Oh, I recognized you, Katherine," she said sweetly. "You haven't changed much at all."
Jon gave his wife a funny look because that had be a lie; she previously claimed that she didn't even remember Katherine's name, so how could she remember what she looked like?
The secretary turned her attention back to Jon. "So where are you off to, Jon?"
"We staying in the Park. The kids want to go to the Central Park Zoo and The Ancient Playground, " Audrey said, much to Jon and Shawn's dismay. Neither of them wanted the woman to know their itinerary as they knew her appearance was no coincidence.
"Wonderful!" Katherine exclaimed as though it was Jon who answered her. "Dylan just loves Central Park."
There was a moment of silence as everyone stared at her, even Dylan, as they tried to decipher the comment. He really didn't care about the Park that much. Maya could hold herself back no longer and sneaked up to Audrey's side. Out of respect to Shawn, she did not say what she wanted to say to the woman, she just put her arms around her future grandmother.
"Yeah, that's great," Jon said hurriedly. He put Bella back into her stroller. "We've got to get going."
"Okay," Katherine said cheerily. "Should I pick Dylan up at your place later then?"
Jon stared at her in disbelief. Then he, Shawn, and Cory started to respond all at once. Audrey put her hand up to silence them.
"Not this time," she told the woman, still as sweet as pie. Audrey knew exactly what the secretary was up to and she wasn't about it allow it. "You see we have family spending the weekend with us. Julia won't have time to spend with anyone else; her time is promised to Riley and," she gave the blonde next to her a squeeze, "Maya. I'm afraid Dylan would get lost in the crowd and wouldn't enjoy it."
"You're right about that," Dylan muttered. The superintendent's wife was so unbelievably sweet and gracious that he couldn't help but like her.
Katherine narrowed her eyes and Audrey could see that she was getting ready to challenge her so she said with a sunny smile. "Why doesn't he come over to our house the next weekend he has available?"
Julia's eyes went wide with indignation and she almost protested this until she saw the look on her mother's face and realized that this suggestion was not what it appeared to be. So she took a step closer to Shawn and waited.
Katherine was clearly not expecting this and had no response. "Well, sure," she faltered after a moment. A confused frown flashed across her face. "That'd be great. He's with his father next weekend."
"So the weekend after then?"
"Okay," she agreed. There was little else she could do without coming off in a very bad light in front of Jon. "I'll be in touch with Jon about it."
It was then that Audrey revealed her hand and her motive for inviting the boy over became clear to her group. It was only Katherine that didn't realize that this little girl act was just that- an act. "Oh, you don't have bother him about that." Audrey let go of Maya and put her arm around her husband's waist. "Jon has so much on his plate with school that I don't want him worrying about the after school stuff." As she spoke, Audrey pulled out her phone and pulled up her contacts list. She had a list of Jon's coworker's numbers including his secretary's. " If you call him, he'd just have to get me anyway to go over Julia's schedule. So rather than bother him, I'll text you my number and you can contact me directly."
Nice one, Mama! Shawn had a hard time containing his pride in what Audrey had just done. When he, Cory, and Julia tried to figure how to launch a counter-attack against Katherine it felt as though they were throwing darts in the dark, not knowing how far was too far or where she was moving to next. Who would have thought that Audrey, a civilian in this cold war, would be the one to launch the most damaging attack yet? She had just made things infinitely harder on Katherine and forced her to retreat.
At least for the time being.
Defeated for the moment, Katherine withdrew with Dylan and said goodbye only to Jon. Audrey turned to her husband and the rest of the family as though nothing unusual had happened. She was eager to get the rest of the day going and forget about the mild inconvenience that Katherine had caused.
The kids followed Jon and Audrey and Cory started to follow them only to realize that his wife wasn't with them. He turned to see Topanga standing in the same spot staring at the place where Katherine had been with a deep frown on her face.
"Hey, Topanga," Cory walked over to her and touched her shoulder. "You okay?"
"Miss Tompkins," she said. Her frown deepened and he could see the wheels of her mind turning.
"What about her?"
"Where do I know her from?"
"High school," he said with a sigh. "She was my and Shawn's social studies teacher for a year."
"I didn't have her." Topanga was clearly trying to recall anything she could about this former teacher.
"No, you were one of the smart kids, remember?" he said, hoping to distract her and make her smile.
She didn't react to the remark. "What is it that she does now?"
Cory grimaced. "She's Jon's secretary."
Topanga looked up at him and he was surprised by the deep worry in her eyes. "Cory, I know something's going on with her and it has to do with Jon. I know you and Shawn have been up to something. I wanna know what it is and I wanna know now."
"Not now, Topanga." He pulled her close to him, putting his forehead against hers. They may annoy each relentlessly at times, but he adored his lifelong love as much as Jon adored Audrey, perhaps even a little more. "But I will tell you as soon as we get back to the house. Shawn should be there too. He can explain better what's been going on than I can."
She nodded, hugged him tightly, then followed him as they rejoined the group.
It didn't take long for the bizarre encounter with Miss Tompkins to be put behind them and the family was able to relax and enjoy the day and for that Shawn was very grateful. However, the idiom too many cooks spoil the broth kept nagging at the back of his mind. There were too many people getting involved in this. Three was more than enough and Julia probably shouldn't be involved at all. Now Maya was a part of it, Auggie to an extent, and Audrey had now put herself into the mix. Somehow, Shawn had to regain control over this or else the pot was going to boil over and he was afraid the wrong person would get burned.
AN: Inevitably, the Girl Meets World characters are going to be included a little bit more. Like a lot of BMW fans I felt like GMW wasn't all that great largely due to the network it was on. While I really liked the characters of Maya, Auggie, and Ava; Riley, Farkle, Lucas, and Zay were just meh for me. I also had a huge issue with them taking the established, well developed Shawn and suddenly marrying him off to the new and underdeveloped Katy and expecting everyone to be on board with it. This was a bad as the honestly pathetic "reunion" between Mr. Turner and Shawn. I mean seriously, what was that? AiP was originally a way for me to give Mr. Turner's story the closure we didn't get at the time; now it's become a way to give Jon and Shawn a proper reunion and an explanation for how Shawn got to the point where he could be a husband and father to Katy and Maya. That being said: Shawn and Angela forever! (They so could have adopted Maya; Katy was unnecessary, imho. lol).