Critical (Jamilton)

23. I Can't Find Usnavi

Jefferson

A week or two passed since the slapping incident and Thomas was glad to not have anything more than a light argument with Alexander. Alex wasn't trying to leave at all in that time, but there were times where something would happen that trigger something and instead of running away from it, he'd try to talk about it with Thomas. That is to say, things were going fine. 

Even with Andre, things were going fine. Thomas didn't like him or trust him in the slightest, so if he thought he was going to be anywhere near where Hamilton was going, Thomas would protectively tag along. Ham seemed grateful for that. 

Apparently, though, John found a job as a band director in the Jefferson twins' school, which again seemed coincidental, but Alex convinced him that it was just him being paranoid.

"Of course he's going to work at one of your siblings' school," Alex had said. "You have an army of siblings in every school in the district." 

Thomas didn't understand how Hamilton was being so relaxed about it, but he didn't want to ruin it. 

But back to the arguments. 

One of the more memorable ones that happened was the argument over what was the right answer to a riddle. 

"You're being stubborn!" Thomas yelled as he went down the stairs behind Alex. "Just admit that you're wrong!" 

"I won't because I'm not!" Hamilton yelled back. 

"What are you two fighting over now?" Mary laughed from the table. 

"Okay," Alex said, sitting in front of her. "So here's a riddle. The ages of a father and son add up to sixty-six, right? And the father's age is the son's age reversed. It's got to sixty and six, right? Just add a zero if front of six! It's simple math!"

"But who writes a zero in front of a six and who has a kid at fifty-something? The answer is fifty-one and fifteen, nitwit." 

The two went back and forth bickering about who was right while Mary did the math herself. 

"Actually," she said, quieting the two men in front of her. "You're both wrong. Forty-two and twenty-four."

Suddenly all three of them were fighting over whose answer made the most sense, everyone overlapping each other so no one understood anything. Finally, Jane came out and wanted to know what was happening. Mary told her the riddle and the three sat on edge as she figured out the riddle for herself. Jane asked what everyone thought the answer was, laughing at each of their different responses. 

"You're all right," she clarified. 

Mary, Alex, and Thomas stared at each other and groaned loudly and dramatically. Apparently, none of them wanted to be wrong so much that they hated all being right. 

"Well anyway, that's enough of that," Jane said. "We have to get to Randy and Anna's band concert and if we don't leave now, we're not going to get any good seats. Lizzy and Martha are meeting us there."

Everyone jumped up to throw shoes on and grab something to do for the wait. Normally, people wouldn't really want to get the front row seats for a seventh-grade band concert, but the Jeffersons were nothing if not a family of supportive and loud siblings. They were unquestionably the types of people that couldn't care less about the "no clapping until the end" rule. When their family was called, you could definitely find them screeching and whistling and cheering. 

After yelling at Lucy to hurry up, they were off to see their siblings playing instruments on a stage. 

Jane was right, they did get a front row. That's it. An entire row was filled with Jeffersons and a Hamilton. Obviously, Alex was sitting next to Thomas, their hands clasped together and Ham leaning his head contently on Jefferson's shoulder.