The next day he had all the kids cleaning, none were happy about it.

“I don’t see why I have to clean. I didn’t make a mess and our room is already clean,” Gus said.

Gus was his seventeen-year-old and the one that Brian butted heads with the most. Soon he would be off to college and he would miss him…he guessed. It’s what everyone says, you miss your kids when they leave. He thought about shipping every last one of them off to boarding school a few times a week. Well, not the littles, Alicia his eight-year-old daughter, Logan his six-year-old son and Leia his three-year-old daughter.

“I don’t care who made the mess, everyone is helping clean it up,” he said as he cleaned something sticky off the table.

“I’m going out with friends tonight,” Gus said as he pulled the cushions off the couch to clean under them.

“That’s fine as long as the house is clean by then,” he told him.

“I’m going out too,” Lola said.

“Me three,” Eric, his sixteen-year-old son said.

“I’m going over Jenna’s,” Mindy added.

That just left him with his ten-year-old twins, Noreen and Natasha, Alicia, Logan and Leia. With only five of them he might actually try and take them out. He had been feeling bad about not getting the kids out to socialize them outside of school and their activities, but ten kids is an insane number to take out. He had bought a fifteen passage van years ago to take them all with him, but it was a hassle still.  

Justin decided to take his four youngest to a star show at the planetarium. He’s been promising his eight-year-old, Mitch that he would take him when things calmed down. Now Justin knew that would never happen, he might as well take him while he was young enough to think Justin was an amazing dad for taking them. The four oldest all had other things they wanted to do. One had a date, one hanging out with friends, and two were sleeping over at a mutual friend’s house.

“Dad, is it time to leave yet?” Mitch asked, bouncing on his toes. Mitch always had his nose in a book, while he wasn’t as socially awkward as Krista he was just as shy. Krista and Mitch were his two introverts while the other six were very much extroverts.

“Almost, make sure your brother and sisters have their shoes.” He was dropping Bea off at his sister’s. While his parents cut him off, as soon as she turned eighteen, she reached out to him. She’s the fun aunt and just got hired on at a law firm, she hopes it helps as she finishes law school.

He went out to make sure his van would start. On more than one occasion one kid or sometimes two would leave a light on in the van causing his battery to die. Too many times he had been late to work or late driving kids to activities. All his school age kids rode the bus, his younger two he took to nursery school. But he had to get a van, it was a ten seat so just large enough to fit all his kids, him plus one person more. He had hoped when he bought it maybe he could meet someone and that person could sit there, making his family complete. But then he looked at his eight children and thought he couldn’t get more complete than that. He couldn’t do anything alone, so he was never lonely. All the kids had their own beds but at least four of them found themselves sleeping in his.

Luck was on his side, the van started on the first try. He hadn’t done anything with the kids in a long time. Too many kids and too much work to keep everything from going crazy. When Sadie was a baby George wanted to do something fun with all the kids. Krista, Nina and Freddie were all so small Justin didn’t think it was a good idea, but George want to do it. They took them to Disneyland, and it was a complete disaster. Krista threw up after just one ride, Nina was scared of all the characters and Freddie wouldn’t let him put him down, which was hard when he had a six-month-old to care for.

Going back inside he found Mitch putting on Bea’s shoes, badly. Justin laughed as Bea pulled off the shoe that Mitch just put on. “Just leave them off. She doesn’t need them. Go get Hannah and Lucas and tell them it’s time to go.”

Giggling kids came running down the stairs, Hannah, his three-year-old daughter a little slower than the rest because her shorter legs.

“What are you wearing, Hannah?”

She was wearing a blue short with one of Lucas’ shirts, it was an old one that was torn and tattered.

“I’m pretty,” she said, twirling.

“Yes, you are but you need clothes without holes. You can keep the shorts, but you need to put on another shirt, one of yours,” he told her. “Help her get a new shirt, Mitch,” he told him.

“We have to hurry, Dad,” Mitch said before running back upstairs.

Mitch came back downstairs moments later with a white shirt that had a Pride flag on it, a gift from a woman at one of the marches. She saw the kids and just lost her mind over them. All their cheeks were pinched and face paint that Justin had put on was fawned over. He marched with the Birther Fathers, a strange group but he was one of them. There were probably lots more men that could give birth but hard to tell when they never have a chance to accidently get pregnant.

Once the kids were loaded into the van, he blocked out the whining, Hannah always whined in the van. She didn’t like car rides but at least they didn’t make her sick.

Molly was waiting outside her apartment building when he got there, so all he had to do was get Bea out of her carseat and give her to Molly.

“Where’s her diaper bag?” Molly asked.

Justin’s eyes widened. “I forgot her bag.”

“Don’t worry, Dad. I got it,” Mitch said, carrying the bag with a bear print on it.

“Where would I be without you?” Justin asked, smiling at his son.

“You always forget something,” Mitch said smiling back at him. It was true, with so many kids he never had everything he needed for them.

“Say bye bye to daddy,” Molly said, getting Bea to wave at him.

“Ba Da,” Bea said.

The kids waved goodbye to their sister and Justin pulled away from the curb. He was running a little late but had already gotten the tickets online. Mitch was already starting to worry about missing the beginning of the show.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get there on time,” he told Mitch.

“Daddy, I’m hungry,” Lucas whined.

“We’ll eat after the show. Remember we talked about this?”

“I know,” he said with a sigh. “Hey, I got a new joke. Wanna hear?”

Justin inwardly groaned. Lucas was his little jokester. He repeated ever joke he heard a hundred and one times, he also played pranks on everyone in the family. Thankfully, it was nothing more than pretending he broke something of his siblings just to yell ‘fooled you’.

“Sure, go for it.”

“What’s worse than finding a worm in your apple?” Lucas asked.

“I don’t know. What?”

“Finding half a worm.”

Justin laughed, that was a new joke. He needed to prepare himself to hear it for the next week straight though.

“That’s funny, Lucky. Where’d you hear it?”

“A boy in my class, his name is Logan.”

“I haven’t heard of Logan before. Is he new?”

“No, but he moved from Mrs. White’s class to mine.”

“Oh, why is that?”

“He said his dad told the office. His dad said Mrs. White was homophomiac.”

“Homophobic. Yeah, I would have pulled you out of that class too.”

“He said it means she didn’t like boys who like boys or girls who like girls or anything not the status quo. What does status quo mean?”

“It means normality. It’s just words, it doesn’t mean anything really. Remember that, there is no normal just people pretending to be what they think normal is.”

The parking garage was packed when they arrived, he was lucky though and found a spot next to another van, it was a newer model, more expensive and bigger than his. Probably belonged to some charity or something like that, maybe a church.

“Alright, no one runs off and always stay in my sight.”

Call him a paranoid parent but he wanted them in his sight. He stayed up watching too many true crimes shows to be fine with them running around. He blames growing up with stranger danger.

“Hold my hand,” he told Hannah. The boys walked beside him as they made their way for the street.

He just hoped he wasn’t making a mistake, taking three kids to a show should be child’s play compared to his usual day.

He already knew he had fucked up. Alicia and Logan were fighting the whole drive. Noreen and Natasha were also fighting, which wasn’t unheard of, but they usually were of the same mind. Leia started whining, he should have found a sitter for her. But no, he had the genius idea to take his newly three-year-old to the planetarium. He just hoped she fell asleep during the show because if she didn’t it would be a nightmare; she didn’t have the attention span to stay for a whole hour during the show.

Before he left the house, he made sure all the kids were in their best clothes. Leia was wearing a cute red dress with white flower print. Logan was wearing khakis and a green polo. The twins were in matching black slacks and purple shirts. Alicia had on a green dress that brought out her hazel eyes, green was always good with her red hair.

“Can we get pizza after the show?” Natasha asked.

“Yes, pizza,” Noreen seconded.

“No, I want Chinese,” Alicia said.

“No, I want hamburgers,” Logan put his two cents in.

“If you can’t decide what to get as a group, we will eat sandwiches at home.”

The groans were instantaneous. He hoped they worked something out because he really didn’t want to make sandwiches when they got home. They all liked different ones, even the twins.

They were one of the first to arrive, so they got in easily. It was mostly young adults and old couples. No small children but his. It looked like teens wouldn’t be caught dead there. He remembered when he and Michael were teens, they’d get high and have Keith, the guy who cleaned the auditorium sneak them in to watch the laser shows.

As the kids sat down the old couple behind them started to mutter about loud kids. He ignored them; he didn’t want the kids to pay attention to the couple.

“That’s Lucas from my class,” Logan said, dragging Brian’s mind back to the present.

He looked to where Logan was pointing and saw Justin, the blond from the night before. There was three kids with him, a little girl a little older than Leia, a boy Logan’s age and a boy a few years older than Logan.

They were headed to the same aisle that Brian and his kids were in. Justin saw him and Brian could swear he saw the man blush. Justin sat down beside him, and his kids sat beside him. Brian noticed the little girl not wanting to sit in her seat, so Justin put her on his lap. Seeing that Leia thought that was the right idea and climbed on his lap.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Brian said.

“Thought it was a good idea. The kids had started barking at passersby’s, I should socialize them more.”

Brian laughed. It was true kids were animals. His more than others.

The lights dimmed and it was time for the show. Justin smiled at him before standing up and telling his kids to move down one seat. Then put his little girl in the seat that he had been in. Then Justin leaned down to talk to Leia. “Do you want to sit with Hannah?”

Brian was shocked when Leia nodded and climbed over the arm rest and sat down beside the other little girl. Justin adjusted the seat so the girls could lie back and watch the show before taking the seat beside them.

“Wake up.”

Brian opened his eyes; he couldn’t believe he fell asleep. Looking over he searched for his kids. They were staring at him. Then looking over at where Leia had been setting, he saw Justin on the other side of them smiling. Leia was fine and giggling with the other little girl.

“I can’t believe I feel asleep.”

“It’s alright. I made sure we didn’t have any escapes. You must have been tired. Also, it was a little boring, I lost one to the show. Justin pointed to the side of him and Brian saw that the little boy Logan called Lucas was sleeping with his thumb in his mouth.

“I missed the whole thing,” Brian said, not that he really cared. The draw when he was younger was the pot and flashing lights.  

“You were lucky, it was the dullest narration I’ve ever heard,” Justin said.

Brian laughed. “What are you and your group doing after this?”

“Promised the kids we’d go eat.”

“Same. Where are you going?”

“They haven’t decided. I’m tempted to just go home and make them grilled cheese and tomato soup.”

“There’s a little diner on Liberty Avenue. I have an in with the owner. Want to try it?”

“Liberty Diner? I haven’t been there in a while. Sure, sounds great,” Justin said smiling.

They put Mitch, Lucas and Brian’s four older ones in a booth. Justin, Brian and the two little girls sat at another booth. It was still early in the night, so a lot of the partiers weren’t out yet.

A waitress came over, she had long brunette hair and a nice smile.

“Hey, Kiki, the boss in?” Brian asked her.

“She’s in her office making out next week’s order sheet. What can I get you all?”

“I’ll have a hamburger and fries with a coke, no ice. She’ll have the chicken fingers. Also, whatever the kids over there want is on my tab,” Justin said pointing towards the kids table.

“I’ll have usual and Leia will have the mac and cheese,” Brian told her.

After the waitress left to take the kids order, Brian and Justin could finally talk.

“Three kids, they’re very well behaved,” Brian said.

“Don’t let that fool you, they have their moments. Also, I have more than three. The others are with friends tonight and one with my sister.”

“Oh, really?” Brian asked, eyebrow raised.

“Yep, eight ranging from one to fifteen.”

Brian started laughing. “Of course.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’ve got ten, ages three to seventeen. I think we’d be insane to date.”

Of course, it had been too perfect. Gorgeous, smart with a great career and kids. He would have to have a baseball team. Nothing could go his way.

“Yeah, I’d have to agree. I thought maybe you had one or two kids. But your ten and my eight, that criminally insane to even consider,” Justin agreed.

“Logan said Lucas is in his class. I wonder how many other kids have shared the same class.”

“I realize now I don’t even know your last name,” Justin said, as Kiki put the food on the table.

“I want chicken,” Leia cried when she saw Hannah’s chicken fingers.

“I want mac and cheese,” Hannah whined.

Brian smiled at him and rolled his eyes before grabbing the plates. He put half of Leia’s mac and cheese on Hannah’s plate and put three of Hannah’s chicken fingers on Leia’s plate.

“Problem solving for the win,” Justin said.

“I knew there was a reason for my fancy college degree,” Brian said, grinning. Justin liked his grin; it was wicked in a way.

Justin looked over to make sure the other kids had their food and were getting along. He was glad to see they were smiling and laughing.

“So, you have a baby?” Brian asked.

“Yeah, Baby Bea is one. She’s my last, no more.”

“I bet that’s what you said after the last seven.”

Justin laughed. “You know it.”

“Do you mind if I ask how you got so many?” Brian asked.

“Same as you, I presume.”

“You said your oldest is fifteen, that means you were what fifteen when you had them?”

“Yeah, I just wanted to keep my boyfriend, so I had sex, even though I wasn’t ready for it. I didn’t know I was going to have a baby until Krista was trying to make her escape.”

Brian’s face paled some. “You’re a birther?”

“Yeah, that’s one of the nicer words people call people like me. You would think the LGBTQ+ community would be more accepting, but it is what it is.”

“Do they all have the same father?”

“Blunt, I see. No, eight children four fathers. Four are my high school boyfriend, Ethan’s. Two are a man I lived with for a while, he took good care of us and made sure the kids had enough money to live in the lap of luxury, not that I let them. I won’t have spoiled brats in my house. Then two are one-night stands.”

“Haven’t you ever heard of protection?”

Now Justin was getting pissed. He could deal with questions. Hell, he could deal with people being judgy about have so many children by different men but this asshole thinking he was unsafe, that was too much.

“Maybe with Ethan, I didn’t know better but after him I always used protection. The thing is accidents happen. But I wouldn’t trade any of them. I just seem to have more than most.”

“I didn’t mean to pry. Everyone says I’m an asshole, I guess they’re right. I have no room to judge. I used protection every time and my wife still got pregnant ten times.”

“Wife?” Damn, Justin couldn’t believe he misread the situation so much.

“Yes, one stupid night in college lead to the birth of our oldest. I married her because she begged me, not out of obligation. I’m too much of a selfish ass for that. I used protection like I said but I wonder now if she had done things to them. I would check but never found anything wrong with them but what are the odds the times we did have sex a child was produced?”

“Well, not impossible, my kids are to show for that. It looks like the kids are finishing eating. I think when we leave tonight, we should just leave it at that.”

Brian nodded. “Yeah, I can’t see this working.”