Chapter Two-Hundred-Eighty-Four
Meanwhile at the Orphanage, when Brooke, Brian, and a few older boys from Brian’s Choir were finished setting up the cafeteria for dinner they opened the doors and kids started filing in. As they did, Caregivers couldn’t help but notice the members of Brian’s group were dressed up in Christmasy stuff. All of the girls were dressed in Christmas dresses with little black sunday shoes, some of them had garlands of red, silver, gold, blue, and green draped over their shoulders, or worn around their neck like scarves. Others had pretty red and green ribbons in their hair, or like Ellie, wore bells on their shoes. The boys were all wearing red shirts with black jeans and nice shoes that they too would wear to church, or something else that is just as formal. Kevin raised his eyebrow, and eyed his cousin curiously as he noticed his little girl wearing a brand new dress that he knows he didn’t buy for her himself.
“When did you take her shopping and how did I miss that?”
“Yeah,” Nick replied, wondering the exact same thing, as his two girls were dressed in outfits that he’s never seen before. Sarah is wearing a dress, and a stubborn Dakota is wearing red t-shirt and black jeans with her hair done up in ribbons.
“I didn’t,” Brian grinned. “I just know their sizes.”
“Okay, and the second question is, did you really buy all of those kids new outfits?” Howie questioned, as he stood with the boys holding Laila. He had gotten back just a few moments before the cafeteria doors were opened for the children.
“Well momma helped a great deal of a lot too,” Brian replied, his eyes twinkling with absolute enjoyment.
“And how’d you get the little ones who can’t dress themselves dressed, when you’ve been in here the whole time?” Brooke wondered out loud, as she noticed kids in between Laila and Dakota’s ages dressed up as well.
“Momma,” Brian replied simply.
“Aunt Jackie is here?”
“Yup – and dad, and Aunt Ann and your brothers,” Brian replied, indicating toward a table suddenly and they turned to see Ann, Harold, Harry, Jerald, and Tim all sitting down. “Momma will be in shortly. She’s known about the secret from the very beginning. She’s the only one though, everybody else is just about as clueless as you are.” Kevin darted off to greet his mom and Tim suddenly, as he had no idea they were even here in the first place. Brian and the other two boys as well as Brooke watched as he completely ignored Jerald. Brooke raised her eyebrow.
“Okay, what did I miss? When I know he’s ignoring his favorite brother, something is definitely wrong.”
“Kevin left him incharge of Ellie when she took off the other night and Lou almost molested her,” Brian explained, sighing heavily.
“That would explain it,” Brooke replied, needing no further explanation.
“Yeah, well I thought they’d work it out by now,” Brian replied. “He’s never been known to stay mad at Jer for too long, and Jer has done everything he can think of to apologize. He feels so horrible he was actually crying.”
“I don’t blame Kev for being upset, but he knows how sneaky Ellie can be. Everybody in the room could be staring at her, and she’d still manage to find a way out of the room.”
“Yeah, I know,” Brian sighed. “But there’s no reasoning with Kevin when he’s made up his mind about something.”
“JERRY!!!” they suddenly heard Elenore exclaim, and they looked over at the table again to see Elenore fling herself into her favorite future uncle’s arms upon noticing his presence.
“Hi angel,” Jerald grinned, as he hugged the little girl close to him affectionately and kissed her forehead.
“You came to see our surprise!!!” Elenore exclaimed excitedly.
“Course I did baby, you know I wouldn’t miss it for the world” Jerald told her, and she beamed.
“Ellie, come on lets go get your dinner” Kevin spoke up suddenly.
“You goes, I wants to stay here with Jerry,” Elenore insisted, nestling into him some more.
“Ellie, I want you to come with me.”
“No.”
“Elenore, now” Kevin replied firmly.
“No.” Elenore told him again, mocking the exact same firm tone. Kevin opened his mouth to threaten her, when Tim spoke up.
“Kevin, let her be.”
“But—“
“—I mean it,” Tim replied, with so much authority, that it reminded Kevin so much of their father. Feeling his heart strings being pulled at the sudden memory, and feeling pissed off that he is being ganged up on, Kevin stormed off in the direction of the food with a mixture of a pout and anger on his face.
“Thanks,” Jerald spoke softly, as he snuggled Elenore even closer to him when he felt her arms tighten around him as she suddenly buried her face in his neck and he felt something wet on his skin. Tim grumbled, and though he really didn’t want to end up in the middle of this, he is getting sick of Kevin’s childish behavior. He can see why he is upset and understands, and doesn’t blame him, but at the same time, he has to be seeing how this is affecting not only Jerald, but also his kid. He can’t take this out on her. And he won’t let him. But, he figures that’s the price to pay when you are the middle child. You are automatically born with the label ‘peacemaker’ tattooed to your forehead or something. Getting up from his chair, he went off after his spoiled brat little brother. He’s kept his mouth shut all day, but he’s done with that. When Tim approached, Kevin simply just looked at him, before turning his attention back on his plate.
“Tell that brother of yours that he better get up and get his child some food. If he is going to have her, he can take care of her for the time being.”
“I’m not going to play telephone for you, Kevin. Grow up.”
“I’m more grownup then he’ll ever be.”
“Oh yeah? I couldn’t tell. Because it looks to me like you are acting like the baby like you always do.”
“At least I am responsible enough to keep an eye on my five year old when I’m supposed to.” Tim rolled his eyes, grabbed the plate out of Kevin’s hands and set it on top of the bar, before grabbing his brother by the arm and yanking him away from children and other listeners.
“Is that right?” Tim asked, lightly shoving Kevin up against the wall.
“Yes, that’s right!”
“What about the airplane incident, huh?” Kevin just glowered. “You weren’t keeping an eye on her then, were you? Or how about the Disney World incident?” he added, and he noticed the hurt in Kevin’s eyes, but he doesn’t care. “Or the time when Lou nearly lured her into his hotel room and you didn’t even believe AJ when he tried to tell you! I know the Disney world thing is a tough subject, and I don’t like hurting you, but the point is as much as you try to be you aren’t perfect little brother! And neither is Jerald. You’ve both made mistakes with that child and you have to consider the child we’re discussing before you condemn him to death or something crazy like that!”
“I did consider her, she’s my baby and I don’t want her around people who can’t keep an eye on her when I ask him to! I trusted her with him Tim, there was no excuse as to why he shouldn’t have seen the incident happen!”
“I understand that and believe me I’m disappointed in him too! But think about Ellie and her personality Kevin. Everybody in the room could be staring at her and she would still find a way to get out without any of you seeing! She’s a conniving little sneak and YOU of all people know that!”
“It would’ve been different if he were staring at her Tim, but he WASN’T! He wasn’t even WATCHING her; he was doing other things! He was being irresponsible with the MOST important thing I left him incharge of and she was nearly molested by my twisted manager!”
“Like I said before, I understand that Kevin but as badly as he messed up you can’t stay mad at him forever! He is your brother and if you opened your eyes you would see how broken up he is about this!”
“He should be!”
“He is!” Tim replied, looking into his brother’s eyes with that same authority that his father always had. “He loves that little girl too Kevin, she’s brought a lot of happiness into his life again and you know it! I spent all day with him crying on my shoulder about this. He’s as sorry as a man could be!” Kevin looked away from Tim stubbornly.
“Be the spoiled brat that you are and stay mad at him for as long as you wish, but do not take that innocent little girl away from the one other person besides you and Josh that she can’t live without.” Kevin opened his mouth to protest but Tim cut him off.
“She’s traumatized enough without you taking people away from her. If you love her at all you will not take this out on her,” he insisted, and with that he let go and walked back to the table again after getting Elenore a plate of food. Kevin scowled and muttered ‘stupid meddling preacher’ before walking over to get his plate from the bar and storming off to the table that his friends have unfortunately combined together with the Littrells and Richardson’s. The last thing he wants is to be stuck with Jerald. When he got to the table, he noticed the only empty seat left is the one next to Jerald, and he eyed everybody accusingly. Ashley, who didn’t even notice this scheme being planned by the people around her, shook her head in disapproval. Sure this fight is ridiculous, but she would be pissed if they purposely placed her next to Kori during a time when she really doesn’t like her.
“Here Kev…come take my spot” she offered, grabbing her plate and standing up.
“Thanks sweetie,” he replied, before going around the table to switch seats with her and Ashley went around and took the spot next to Jerald. Kevin sat down and eyed everybody with the angriest look he’s ever given, causing them all to look in other directions and shy away from him. When no one was paying him any mind, Kevin looked over at his oldest brother across the table, and he noticed his Ellie sitting sideways in his lap and he is spoon feeding her in between feeding himself as she snuggled against his chest. Kevin has a feeling that this is the only way he is getting her to eat at the moment. He also noticed his brother’s bloodshot eyes, and it made him feel somewhat guilty. Jerald doesn’t normally cry – he hasn’t since their father died. He is normally too busy trying to be strong for him and Tim. But he also knows that him and Jerald have always been very close. He knows him and gets him better then anyone. Suddenly sensing Kevin’s gaze, Jerald looked up from his future niece and Kevin immediately averted his eyes back down to his own plate. Jerald raised his eyebrow slightly, before looking back down at Elenore, though he can sense his little brother’s stubbornness weakening. Everybody in the cafeteria sat enjoying their lunch for awhile, the noisy chatter filling the cafeteria. Then when Brian noticed the chatter getting louder, he knew mostly everybody was nearly finished eating so he decided he would use this time to get the show started. He got to his feet then and smiled at Sarah, who had noticed him get up and was eyeing him hopefully. He motioned her over to him with his finger and she slid down from her chair at the kiddie table and ran around to her uncle. He lifted her up and placed her on his right shoulder before wrapping his arm securely over her legs and he carried her off to the stage, everybody watching them curiously. When he got onstage, he shifted the microphone stand so that it was at perfect height for him to talk into.
“Alright everybody, can I have your attention please?” he asked, and the noisy chatter around the room suddenly fell silent.
“As you know, the children and I have been keeping a secret from all of you for the past few weeks,” he began. “But we figured, tonight would be the best time to let you all in on it,” he added, and he looked over at the tables that he had his choir sitting at. “Will my group please come up here in the orderly fashion that we practiced?” With his permission, all of the children that Brian had been working with stood up and went up on the stage from each side in two straight lines, some of the older kids leading the really little ones. When they all got up there, they got up on the risers that Brian had set up and stood in their spots that he assigned them. Brian turned his attention on the audience – which were filled with mostly adults, but there are a few children who didn’t want to be in the choir – only a few.
“Sarah and I put together this little choir,” he began explaining. “Sarah as my assistant, and the rest of the children – are obviously the choir. We’ve been practicing Christmas songs for the past few weeks, and I plan on taking them caroling in a couple of days from now. We’re all very excited.” Brian beamed as a few ‘awes’ chorused through the cafeteria from the adults. “But as of right now, we would like to put on a show for you. Our first song is going to be everybody’s favorite…Jingle bells.” He then turned around and prepared to conduct his choir, the audience quiet and ready to hear the kids sing. Brian led them through song as they started out with the easy fun songs that all of the kids knew, such as Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Coming To Town, and Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer. Then they dove right into the songs that Brian so obviously taught to them, which are Silent Night, Silver Bells, The First Noel, O’ Little Town Of Bethlehem, Little Drummer Boy, and Away in the Manger. After they finished, the audience clapped and the children beamed, feeling very proud of themselves. Brian grinned and turned and got the microphone again.
“And that ladies and gentlemen, was our show. I’m glad to see that you all enjoyed it. The kids worked very hard and I am very proud of them. I would like to thank all of you caregivers for being patient with me when your kids started disappearing for long hours of the day even if you didn’t know what they were doing.” A few grownups laughed at this, and Brian chuckled before turning and looking at his choir again.
“You all can sit down now. Caroling will start in two days from now. I’ll let you all know when,” he told them, and the children all headed off the stage in their two separate lines again, all of them still beaming as they took their seats. Elenore gave Kevin a brief hug as he kissed her on the cheek and told her how amazing she was, and then she went over and crawled into Jerald’s lap and was told the same thing as he snuggled with her. Brian carried Sarah offstage with him and she reached for Nick where Dakota was already sitting. Brian handed her over to Nick who took her so she was sitting in his lap also and he kissed her forehead.
“You looked very beautiful up there as Brian’s little assistant baby,” he told her and she smiled hugely and wrote ‘thanks’ on her notepad.
“That was a really cute choir Bri, good idea” Kevin complimented as his cousin sat back in his seat.
“Thanks,” Brian replied, happy that the older man was done looking at him with the evil eye. “I thought it would be fun if the kids got to go Christmas Caroling around neighborhoods and such.”
“Yeah it would, but I have a question” Howie spoke up, and Brian raised his eyebrow at him. “How are you going to get all of them around? They aren’t exactly going to fit in your car you know.”
“Ann and I have volunteered to let him use our vans,” Jackie replied.
“And I’ve rented a truck also,” Brian added. “The older kids – with supervision of adults – that would be you people, are going to sit in the back of it. Kevin raised his eyebrow.
“And I was hoping some of you would kindly lend a car or two.”
“Okay, but here’s another question,” Nick replied. “What happens if we come across some unsuspecting fan’s house? Huh?”
“Well then…that one lucky fan will be serenaded with Christmas songs by us and the children. That’s what happens.”
“Okay, let me rephrase that question” Nick replied. “What happens if we come across some unsuspecting fan who gets uh…overly excited, we’ll say.”
“You could always post about this on your official website,” Marcus replied. “Maybe if they aren’t so unsuspecting…and we tell them that we’re doing this for our kids in the orphanage, and security will be joining them…they’ll behave themselves.”
“And we can add, if they must hug us…please wait until after the songs. We’ll compromise a little bit,” Howie added.
“You’re gonna have to,” Drew laughed. “You can’t show up on a fan’s doorstep and expect them not to act like fans.”
“What neighborhoods are you planning on going to?” Kori questioned, as she, Scott, and Spencer had gotten back just before the show.
“I haven’t decided yet,” Brian replied.
“Take them through mine and Kori’s,” Ashley spoke up suddenly, and everybody looked at her curiously. “They can go around the neighborhood. We have like three blocks, and then they can stop at our house. We’ll have a table of refreshments for them in the back – and maybe we can set up a big screen with a projector and they can watch movies out in the backyard with sleeping bags and such. That would be really neat.” Brian grinned.
“Wow honey, you’re really allowing the whole orphanage to go to your house? Your house is pretty small for that, don’t you think?”
“It’s not like they’ll be coming inside, unless they have to use the bathroom. The backyard is big enough. They can go back there through the outside gate.”
“I think it’s perfect,” Nick replied, rubbing his hand over his girlfriend’s back, as he had gone over and sat next to her. He knows she is just looking for a reason to go spend time at her house. She hasn’t been there in awhile. “She’s right, the yard is big enough to hold a party.” Brian looked at Brooke then.
“That okay with you boss?”
“So long as you have all five security guards there, it’s fine with me. I think I might even join in on this party.”
“Of course they’ll be there,” Ashley replied, and she leaned back in her chair and slid her arm around Marcus who was sitting just a little bit behind her. “My buddy Marcus goes where I go,” she added lightheartedly. Marcus chuckled.
“That’s right,” he replied. “Don’t you forget it lady,” he told her gently.
“I wouldn’t dare,” Ashley replied, causing him to laugh again. He slid his arms around her from behind and hugged her close affectionately, causing her to smile some and lean back into him.
“I’m sorry I’ve been such a pain lately and that you’ve been having a rough time. We’ve all been affected by the shooting, you know that right?” Ashley nodded quietly. “That’s just how I’ve been dealing with it. I care about you too much to let it happen again.”
“I know,” Ashley replied softly. “And I love you for that, I do. You all do too much for me.”
“Really? Cause I’ve been convincing myself that we don’t do enough.”
“Well you are way too hard on yourself then. You are my super hero.”
“I think all five security guards are everybody’s super hero,” AJ replied. “They do a lot for us even when they don’t have to. I think there should be a security guard appreciation day or something.”
“Especially when they insist upon losing sleep when they don’t have to,” Nick added.
“It doesn’t bother us any, we’ve got our bodies trained” Laney replied.
“It’s not healthy though,” Jackie spoke up.
“We’ll be okay,” Q insisted. “We all sleep, just for a little at a time.”
“Like two to three hours,” Drew added, and Ann shook her head. They all sat around talking for awhile, and then when dinner was over the kids all left the cafeteria, and the grownups started putting everything a way. Everybody except Nick, who had gathered his girlfriend into his lap since Dakota and Sarah were no longer there, but were off playing on the other side of the cafeteria and Bella lay in her carseat next to their feet. Ashley slid her arms around his neck as he rested his forehead against hers and she smiled up at him some, as he leaned forward and brushed his lips lightly over hers.
“I love you,” he informed her.
“Love you too Nicky.”
“What are your plans for the evening. Didn’t you say you and Kori were planning something?”
“Yeah, after dinner. We’re going to have a movie night in our room for just the girls – that means you aren’t invited,” she told him, lightly poking him in the nose with her finger and he chuckled.
“Well fine then, maybe the guys and I should form our own club.”
“Maybe,” she smiled.
“Are you letting the kids join you?”
“Kota and Sarah yes…Ellie can if she wants to, but I think she plans on clinging to Jerry for as long as possible.” Nick tightened his arms around her waist then and he buried his face in the front of her neck, before placing light kisses on it and the two of them sat there spending time alone together before he gets kicked out of their room for hours.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Here's the next chapter.
Enjoy =)
Enjoy =)
