The Sanders

1

Lena
"Hi....mom." She said as she looked at me. Her eyes were glossy and her lip was quivering. "Is it really you?" I asked as my eyes grew watery. She nodded before coming to me giving me a hug. I held her tightly and just couldn't let go. "How? Where did you find her?" I asked Jay as I looked at him. "She was at the adoption center. She never left." He said. I looked at her and kissed her forehead. "I'm so glad I could finally see you again." I told her. "You're even pretty in person." She said. "So are you. Have you met the others?" I asked her. She nodded her head. "So you all knew he went to adopt her?" I asked. She all looked at me and smiled. "When I leave from here, we're gonna have the best time together." I told Aaliyah. She smiled and wiped her eyes. "Aunt Stacy bought me some clothes and shoes. She even bought me a IPhone. We went out and got some hot wings too. And dad showed me around the house and he showed me my room and-" "Dad?" Jay asked. "Yeah, am I not suppose to call you that?" Aaliyah asked.

"It just caught me off guard. I've never been called dad before...well except for when-" "Anyways, you like the new house so far?" I asked cutting Jay off. He looked at me and laughed. "I love it. It's bigger than I ever imagined my adoptive home would be." She said. She was a happy body. I giggled and looked up as the doctor came into the room. "The babies are all healthy and everything is as it should be. You're free to go home but take healthy precautions. You should wait til all vaginal pains go down before going back into work. Also, it is required you wait 6 weeks before having any sexual contact with your partner." The doctor finished telling me what was needed before walking back out the room.

"Ready to go home?" Jay asked as he looked at me. "Yeah, I'm ready to go home." I said with a smile.

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"Okay so, we have to get you enrolled into school. You are in what grade?" I asked as I started looking for schools nearby. "I'm in 9th grade." She responded. "9th grade? Geez, I feel old as heck now." I said making her laugh. "I have 4 schools up here you can choose from. Come look and see which one you'd like to go to." I said. She looked at the computer then looked at me. "What?" I asked. "These schools are full of white kids." She said. "What's wrong with that?" I asked. "I wouldn't fit in there. I don't have a problem with people of a different race but I wanna go somewhere I feel welcomed you know? Somewhere I won't feel misplaced." Aaliyah said.

"Liyah, your mother is high classed. She likes preppy shit. I meant stuff." Jay said as he came out the kitchen. "Send her to the high school I went to." He said. "What?! That school is known for bad behavior." I said. "It's also known for having the best varsity football and basketball teams. The band is great, the teachers actually care, and the female sports go crazy. She'd love it there." Jay said as he searched his school up. "Bradford High?" Aaliyah read off the screen. "All you see is black kids, a few of them are from different races but majority of them are the same race as us." He said. "I wanna go here, to Bradford." Aaliyah said. "But-" "She'll be fine Lena. Ease up, add some ghetto in your life." Jay said making Aaliyah giggle.

"Well if this is ghetto, what do we call everything that's happened." I mumbled. "We call that a beautiful masterpiece." Jay said making me laugh. "What happened?" Liyah asked. "It's a long story." Jay said. "It's our past and if we want to move forward from it, we'd keep it in the past." I said. I looked over at Jay who was drinking whatever he had in his cup. "I'm confused." Liyah said. I giggled and looked at her. "Don't be. Everything is as it should be." I told her. She nodded and smiled. "We're gonna get you registered so you can start your first day. Go and shower, you gotta get up early tomorrow." I said. She nodded and hugged me before going to shower. "Goodnight mom. Goodnight dad." She yelled. "Goodnight." We yelled back.

"She seems to be taking it a lot better than what other adoptive kids do." Jay said. "That's because she's with her real mother. Hopefully she knows I wouldn't hurt her." I said. "I think she knows Lena." Jay said as he kissed my cheek. "Go take you a shower and get you some rest. I'll register in and watch the twins." He said. "Thank you." I told him. We gave each other a goodnight kiss before I went into our room.