Adopted

Chapter 40

"How was school?" Mom asked.

I shrugged.

"Homework?"

I nodded.

"Jess, are you okay?"

I shrugged again.

"What's the problem, sweetie?"

I sighed.

"We had an assembly this morning," I said.

"Okay. And?" Mom said.

"Evidently there's a kid in the seventh grade with AIDS," I said.

"Ohhh." Mom said. "Well, we knew that was going to happen. They didn't say it was you, did they?"

"No. I don't think they're allowed to. But now I have to find a way to tell my friends."

"You're worried they won't be your friends anymore?"

I nodded, tears started forming in my eyes and dropping into my lap.

"Did they say something that made you think that was the case?"

I shook my head.

"No. They all said they'd just be careful, basically. But what people say and what they do is sometimes different. Like when I was at the orphanage and parents would come and maybe want to adopt me. Then Matron would tell them and they'd be like 'oh. That's too bad. Okay, we're going to go look at other kids,'."

"That must have really hurt when you were younger," Mom said.

"Yeah," I whispered.

Mom turned the car away from our street.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Well, I think when someone is upset and needs to talk things through, ice cream always helps," she said. I smiled a little.

We pulled into an ice cream parlour and Mom ordered us a sundae to share.

We sat outside in the sunshine and ate and talked.

"So," Mom asked. "Are you going to tell your friends?"

"I want to but I don't know how.  Like. Do I just walk up to them and be like, 'hey, the kid with AIDS is me, surprise!'? What if they get mad that I didn't tell them right off?"

"I guess it's hard when you've only known them for two days, huh?"

I nodded. Sure, they'd been cool with me being Brendon and Sarah's kid, but this was bigger in a way.

We talked some more and decided maybe I wouldn't say anything right away, but keep sort of putting feelers out to see how they really might react.

It wasn't the best solution, but it would work for now.

We got back in the car and went home.

As soon as we got in, my phone rang. It was Dad.

"Hey Dad. Don't you have a show tonight?"

"I do, and I go on in about an hour. Aren't I allowed to call my favourite daughter and see how day two went?"

"I'm your only daughter," I reasoned.

"And therefore my favourite by default. So there,"

I rolled my eyes and laughed.

"So, how was school?"

"Do you remember what middle school was like?" I asked.

"Sort of," he said.

"It was sort of like that. I went to classes, got homework, and came home,"

"That exciting?"

I didn't want to tell him about the assembly because I didn't want him worrying before his show.

"Yup,"

"Can I talk to Mom?"

"I don't know. Can you?"

"Give the phone to your mother, you brat," Dad laughed.

I handed my phone to her and started pulling out my homework to start on.

"Hey Babe. How's it going?" Mom asked.

"Truthfully, she had a bit of a rough day. The school held an assembly about the seventh grader with AIDS," I frowned at Mom. She shot me a look of 'if you don't tell him, I will.' 

"No. They didn't say who. We're not sure legally they're allowed to anyway. She was upset when I picked her up because she's worried about telling her friends.  It's okay, B. We talked about it.  I know, I know. She does too. She will, B. Hon, please don't worry too much about it. We have it under control. She's doing her homework like the responsible seventh grader that she is. Okay. Have a good show sweetheart. Love you,"

"Love you Dad!" I shouted.

"Did you hear that?  Okay. I will," she hung up and handed me back my phone.

"Dad says he loves you too, and to not worry about telling your friends yet, like we discussed."

"I didn't want to worry him before the show. I wanted him to focus on being awesome and not worrying about home."

"Well, he's your dad, and he deserves to know what's going on with us. He'll be fine. Promise. So what's for homework?"

"Math, English and Biology," I said.

"Anything you need help with?"

"Not yet," I said.

Mom started doing stuff to get dinner ready for us; cutting up vegetables for a salad for starters.

"Do you want spaghetti tonight or hamburgers?" She asked looking at the ground beef she'd taken out of the fridge.

"Ummm. I don't know," I said. "Both sound good. How about spaghetti burgers?"

"What on earth is a spaghetti burger?" Mom asked.

"I don't know. I just made it up," I grinned.

"Your father is right. You are a brat. We adopted another Brendon in female 13 year olds version," Mom rolled her eyes and laughed.

"What are you in the mood for?" I asked.

"Chinese food," she said, looking at the ground beef. I laughed.

Mom put the beef back in the fridge and pulled out the menu from their favourite Chinese food restaurant and we ordered a bunch of dishes.

"We'll have burgers tomorrow night," Mom said.

"Or spaghetti with meat sauce," I said.

I finished my homework just before dinner came, packed it in my bag and put it by the door, and sat to eat with Mom.

We talked some more, watched some TV and then she sent me to bed. Bogart followed me upstairs and curled up at the foot of my bed. Mom came in to say goodnight.

"Looks like Bogey knows you had a bit of a rough day. You okay if he stays here?"

"As long as he's not after Mr. Bunny, yup," I said. She laughed, gave me a kiss on the forehead and said goodnight.