Familyness

Secrets

"Hey babe, can you get out suitcases down?" I yell to Brad "I wanna start packing before Bri wakes up." He gets our suitcases out from the closet and lays them on the bed examining what I have laying out to take with.

"You taking this?" He asks holding up his favorite of my bikinis.

"Yes," I answer sarcastically "Because everyone wants to see the fat pregnant woman wear that."

He walks over to me wrapping his arms around my midsection causing the baby to kick "You aren't fat, you just have a big baby."

"That helps," I sigh as I walk to the chair "Am I really that big for 5 months?"

"No, you aren't. Every baby is different and you can't help that." He sits next to me pulling me closer to him "I think it's a boy though, you look like you did with Luke." I smile thinking about it and rest my head on Brad's shoulder for a while completely forgetting about packing.

My phone starts to ring and I see that it's the kids school.

"They should almost be home, right?" I ask Brad. He nods his head, so I answer the call.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Mrs. Pitt?" The lady asks.

"Yes, this is she."

"This is Mrs. Grey, Arianna's science teacher. I'm calling regarding her grade in my class." I don't say anything so she goes on "I sent home a report to be signed two days ago and she still hasn't given it back. She currently has an F in my class due to not completing her work, and I wanted to make sure you are aware of that."

"I had no idea. I will ask her about that when she gets home. We really appreciate you telling us. Thank you." I hang up the call and look over to Brad who is pissed.

We hear the door shut and the kids run upstairs looking for us excited because they're off from school for a week now for our vacation.

"Arianna," I stand up "Can we talk to you? Please?" Luke takes the hint and goes to check on Bri leaving Ari with Brad and I.

"Bag." Brad demands holding out his hand. She hands over to backpack and I open it to find the report with no luck.

"It's not in there." She laughs "I'm not that stupid. I knew she would call and you would look for it."

"You have 5 minutes. If you don't find it and bring it here you stay home and go to school all week while we're away." I walk her to our door "I'm getting really sick of all your shit." 

"Yeah well maybe I'm sick of all your shit too!" She yells as she walks to her room getting the paper. Brad rips the paper out of her hands to see that she currently has a 40% in science. 15 zeros.

"Why, Arianna? Why are you doing this?" Brad asks "You are so much better than this. You're smart! Why not apply yourself?"

"I just don't want to." She turns around and walks back into her room slamming the door shut. I start to follow her, but Brad stops me.

"You aren't doing this. You don't need the extra stress." He walks over and kisses me "I'll take care of it. I promise."

Brad's POV
"What the hell is this?!?" I storm into Ari's room "I don't want to hear that you just don't want to do this because I know you aren't a quiter! You never quit with anything."

I walk over and sit aside of her on the bed "I'm not stupid and your mother isn't either. You're lying to us."

"It's a stupid class, dad!" She complains "I don't wanna be a science teacher so why do I need to know the layers of the freaking earth? It's not like that's important!"

"Maybe because it's good to know? Or because you'll be lost later on if you don't know any of it?" I snap back to my original thoughts "That's not what matters."

"Well I'm not doing the work. I don't care about it so I don't want to." She turns away from me "It's so stupid anyway."

"It's not like you or mom know that stuff anyway! You're just stupid actors that act like you're smart!"

I grab her to turn her around and can see the anger in her face "You can think what you want, but we are not stupid! We both graduated with good grades and more importantly didn't give up on ourselves! You do not get to pick what you think is important or not! You do your work and apply yourself."

"I'm not giving up," She laughs "I'm just sticking to what I've decided and not doing dumb work. There's a difference. You would know that if you were actually smart!"

"Fine then, don't do it. Don't do any of your school work and then when you become a failure later on in life don't come crying back to us." I grab her phone as I walk out of her room "You either finish that work before we leave or you don't go at all. And you WILL stay with your grandmother all week."

I slam her door shut as I walk out and walk into our room to see Bri rolling around on the clothes as Jen is trying to pack them making her laugh.

"Are you playing with mommy?" I ask her. She immediately jumps up to answer.

"Yeah! Baby browter!" She replies in her cute, funny baby voice.

"She's making her baby brother jump around a lot," Jen laughs as she rubs her enlarged belly where he's moving "How'd everything go?"

"Well," I hold up Ari's phone to answer her "I told her she has until we leave to make up the work or she doesn't go. Hopefully the teacher will still accept it."

"Okay." Jen throws the rest of her clothing into the suitcase and starts walking towards the door "I'm gonna start on dinner."

"Daddy!" Bri jumps on my back "We play?" I flip her over and lay her on the bed ticking her all over making her laugh like crazy. Luke walks in a few minutes later and joins in causing her to laugh even more and swing her arms and legs around.

"Stop!" She manages to get out between laughs "It hurt!"

We stop and Luke picks her up "Let's get daddy!"

They both attack me so I'm laughing on the bed and start to tickle me all over. Bri starts to get tired after a while and just lays on me holding me down so that Luke can keep tickling me. He surprises her by starting to tickle her again and she freaks out thinking it's the funniest thing ever. She tries to squirm away towards the side of the bed and somehow manages to get in an empty suitcase and the top falls shut.

"Daddy! Luke!" She yells hoping one of us will open it for her. I know there's enough room that she's getting enough air so we both back away from it to see what she does. A minute later Jen walks back up to tell us dinner is ready and hears Bri asking for us.

"Come here, baby." She picks up Bri and looks at Luke and I disappointed, yet trying not to laugh "You two are assholes."

"She's fine, Jen." I walk over and take Bri "Right, princess?" Bri just looks away trying to act upset but ends up failing "Let's go eat dinner." I suggest making her smile. We all walk downstairs to eat and talk about our excitement for vacation.