BRIAN

With Justin working tonight, I sat in the loft trying to decide what I was doing with it. Justin hasn’t brought it up, but do we keep it? Ted was going to be stopping by to drop off files I left after we left Mel’s this afternoon. So when the buzzer rang I didn’t think much about it, until I opened the door to Hunter standing there.

“Hey, um… I wanted to see if Justin was here?” He asks me.

“He’s working tonight, anything I could help with?” I ask him.

“I wanted to see if he would come to the school with me.” He tells me.

“Deb said that Ben was taking you, is there some reason he isn’t?” I ask him.

“He said he would but, I guess he and Michael aren’t finding the whole Jenny being dropped off as easy as they thought and… It’s just I don’t want to inconvenience them.” He tells me. 

Ted comes up the steps and I guess we’re taking the littlest hustler to school tonight. 

“Ted, you're driving.” I tell him.

“I just came to deliver the stuff you asked.” He tells me.

“Now you're coming with me.” I tell him.

“You don’t have to.” Hunter tells us.

“Why not, it’s not like Ted has a life or anything, time to broaden our horizons.” I tell them.

We got to the place and it looked more like a large two story house with teens hanging out in the front, than a school. Hunter, Ted, and I walked in and up to the front desk, where a teen is typing on the computer.

“How can I help you?” The teen asks, smiling at me.

“I wanted to come and see if this might be a place I’d like to go.” Hunter tells her.

“Can I get your name and I’ll get you a packet your  brother and father could look at.” She tells Hunter, smiling at me twirling her hair.

“I’m Hunter Montgomery, but they're not…”

“Hunter be nice to Dad, I mean he drove us here and all. He tends to need a nap, but Hunter’s education won.” I tell him, smirking at Ted.

“That’s so sweet, I’m Jessica.” She tells me, staring.

“Jessica, think we could help my other son, Hunter?” Ted asks dryly, when she seems to ignoring everyone but me.

“Sure, and I think Ms Martinez is available to walk you two around. I could hang with him, so he doesn't get bored.” She tells us smiling.

I doubt she’d be thrilled when all the twirling wasn’t going to have me a slave at her feet. An older woman came out of the office and walked over to us.

“Good evening, can I help you.” The woman greeted us.

“They were here for a tour, I was just telling them I’d get you.” Jessica tells her. “I can stick around and keep him company.” Jessica offers again.

“Jessica you have class, so I’ll handle it, I’m Ms. Martinez.” She tells us leading us away from a disappointed Jessica. .

“I’m Hunter, and a friend of mine thought this might be someplace I could go.” Hunter tells her.

“The school was developed with the idea that getting an education means an environment where others don’t make it impossible to learn, if that helps.” She tells him.

“I’m HIV positive and…”

“Hunter, do you want an education?” She asks him.

“Yes, someone told me that HIV didn’t mean my life was over.” He tells her.

“That person is right, but without an education, your future could be left uncertain.” She tells him.

“What kind of classes are you offering and will he be able to get into college if he wants?” Ben asks from behind us.

“I didn’t think you were going to make it.” Hunter tells him.

“This is important for you and I wanted to be here.” Ben tells us.

“Are we ready?” She asks them.

I wanted to see what this school was offering, so I pulled Ted, who seem to think he could leave, behind me.

“We offer to help young ladies and men, a school where there is zero tolerance for anything but learning. We have classes that meet General Education needs, in order to get a diploma, not a GED, unless a GED is was the person wants. We don’t offer extra curricular courses, but only because most of the teachers here volunteer their time, if you're interested in anything like those, we have a few schools willing to let you come to those classes during the day. It’s up to you to let us know. Can you tell me how you heard about this school?” She asks us.

“His husband, Justin, told me about it.” Hunter tells her pointing at me.

“Justin Taylor?” She asks.

“Yes ma'am.” Hunter tells her.

“Let him know I expect a visit.” She tells me, and continues on.

“Are the classes by grade?” Ben asks as we pass another room with larger than normal classes.

“We like to test each student to see where they are and place them in the appropriate grade. Sometime you have kids who are beyond where they were in school, but because of other reasons are behind or performing as well as they could. So the classes are set up more by where a student individually is in their education. When I started with this idea to help, it was having students show up at the library, but they were going back to the same environment that was hindering their education. In fact Justin and Daphne were the ones who went with me to see what I would need to do to set up a school, because Justin understood what it was like to have people make learning harder.” She tells us.

I followed behind them and can see that the school is clean and well maintained. The kids weren’t running around on cell phones but sitting in the common room studying. I stopped Ted and let Ben and Hunter go on the tour.

“I wonder what it would take to be able to offer this to those kids?” I asks Ted.

“What do you mean?” 

“We want to help them get a future, but face it, with being runaways and with things like Hunter did, it would make going to public school a nightmare for them, but a school like this is a way to offer them an education, which means more than a future at the Big Q, if they want it.” I tell him.

“Yes but setting up a school on top of what you're already planning means longer to get the center open.” He tells me.

“Not if we get Ms Martinez’s school involved.” I tell him.

“Brian this house is already overflowing and I doubt they could handle more kids in this house.” He tells me.

“Maybe offer the top floor for school, see if Mel can get what legal requirements we have to meet. Tell her to talk to Ms Martinez about what she had to do.” I tell him, when Hunter returns with Ben.

“Thanks for bringing him.” Ben tells us.

“We were just doing what Hunter needed from us.” I tell him, which seems to hit a nerve.

“We need to get back to Michael and Jenny.” He tells Hunter, ignoring me.

“You mean you do, I have plans for the week.” Hunter tells him.

“What plans?” Ben asks.

“Plans that don’t include watching you and Michael screw up, all in the name of fatherhood.” Hunter tells him.

“Hunter, you were there and saw how Mel couldn’t take care of a new baby.” Ben tells him.

“I was there and noticed that Mel had issues, you know, like most brand new mothers who were practically divorcing their partners the day they got home would.” Hunter tells him.

“We just feel that…”

“You and Michael could do better at the kid thing if you didn’t have to do more than change the diapers. Yeah I could see how Jenny would be more appealing to you.” Hunter tells him, walking to Ted’s car.

“You know, I used wonder how you and Michael got together, now I wonder why it was such a mystery.” Ted tells him, following Hunter.

“You going to tell me how I’m screwing up with Hunter too?” He asks.

“You seem to know you are, why do you need me to tell you?” I ask him.

MICHAEL

I looked at the schedule again and since Jenny was asleep, Mel could wait to feed her. I didn’t get writing down times like you had to have a schedule to feed a kid. I had to go back to the store two more times because we kept getting the wrong size diapers. I looked over at Jenny laying in the laundry basket and realized that Ben and I have to go get something for Jenny to sleep in.

Other than the diaper, that Ben had to change, nothing has been hard to do. I took Jenny over for the almost two hour feeding and checked on my shop while she was doing this. I got so involved in a debate about SpiderMan that the time just flew by. 

Lindsay called and said that she was going to dinner with her parents, and might stay at her sister’s for the night. She said to call if I ran into problems, I’m starting to think women make shit up.

“Hey Michael, did you just get back from Mel’s?” Ben asks, walking into the kitchen.

“No, Jenny seemed to want to sleep, so I didn’t bother.” I tell him.

“Michael, I think that Mel set that schedule up to so that Jenny didn’t go hungry.” He tells me.

“No, she wants to be a bitch and made it to prove her point.” I tell him.

“Michael, we know they want to prove a point, but we also need to make sure she stays on a schedule, babies tend to have problems when you don’t stick to what they know.” He tells me.

“She’s sleeping, I don’t see the point in waking her up just to feed her. We also need to go get something for her to sleep in.” I tell him.

Ben, Jenny, and I were in the middle of Big Q when the screaming started. I tried everything to calm her down. An employee suggested feeding her and I went and got some formula off the shelf, fuck Mel and her breastmilk. Only, Jenny seemed to not like the bottle, and Ben was bitching me out for not taking her to Mel’s on time. I tuned him out and fed Jenny the formula. She seemed fine until I went to burp her. She hurled all the formula on Ben and I in the car and started screaming again. I told Ben to drive to Ma’s and we could get her to take Jenny to Mel’s while we cleaned up, but when we got there no one was home. I called and there was no answer. We ended up having to take Jenny to Mel’s while covered in puke, because Jenny was screaming her head off. I handed Jenny to Mel and left, not saying a word to her. I figured Ben and I had a few hours so we headed to the house. After taking a quick shower, Ben told me that he needed to get sleep since he had early classes and I could go get Jenny. I went down stairs and switched on the TV. 

Ben woke me up. “Has Mel called?” I ask, yawning.

“I’m sure she has, but I think she gave up around six this morning.” Ben tells me.