My sweet Magnolia. (COMPLETED)

The seven minute drive

Seven minutes. That's all it took Luke, Alex, Reggie and Willie to get too Maggie and Alma's school.

Seven minutes of silence, seven minutes of the four wondering what had happened to their two seven year old daughters that was so bad they had to come in and talk to the principal.

They had taken Reggie and Luke's van, all four of them were grateful that Emily and Mitch had offered to take the three babies off their hands while they dealt with whatever this was.

As soon as they stepped out, all four of them put on sunglasses, they didn't want to risk being seen right now. Shortly after Maggie was born, the band had started to gain some popularity, and over the last two years the band had blown up significantly.

The four of them walked into the school and sat outside the principals door, taking off their sunglasses when they thought nobody was around. They were wrong.

Almost straight away, a man practically ran up to them. "Excuse me sorry for running up to you but I just wanted to tell you I'm a huge fan of your band!". Reggie smiled up at the man, "that's so nice of you to say!"

"How come you guys are here? Are you performing for the kids?" The man struggled to catch his breath, sitting down on one of the empty chairs outside the principals office.

"Oh, no, the principal called us in because something happened with our daughter. And their daughter as well." Alex chimed in, also noticing that the man seemed to avoid looking at Willie. "Oh! I didn't know you guys were married! Where are your wives?", he asked, as the guys stared at each other in confusion. Luke tried to clear up the mans confusion, "What? Oh no, see Reggie is my boyfriend, and Alex and Willie are a couple." The man stared at them with disgust. "How are you a fan and not know this? Luke and Reggie have four kids together and Willie and I have a daughter named Alma." Alex laughed slightly. The man didn't say anything. They heard the principal address them, "Gentlemen, please come in, your children are waiting."

The five of them stepped in, Luke and Reggie sat down on either side of Maggie, Alex and Willie sat either side of Alma, and the man sat down next to his daughter. The principal cleared her throat, "unfortunately, an incident occurred on the playground today involving Maggie, Alma and Lydia.".

Reggie and Luke glanced at each other, both of them took a deep breath before Willie asked "what happened?". The principal sighed, "well, it is to my understanding that Maggie and Alma were playing when Lydia came up to them and said that they couldn't play together, and that was as far as we got before you all arrived. Maggie would you like to tell us what happened next?".

"I was playing with Alma when Lydia came up and said that we couldn't play together, then she tried to drag me away from her and Lydia said that I can't play with those people, whatever that means. And I kinda got mad and pushed her onto the ground and ran back to Alma", Maggie looked up at Alex and Willie, who were obviously boiling with rage, but were desperately trying to hide it so they wouldn't freak out the kids.

Willie wrapped his arms around Alex and Alma in a very protective manner, Luke doing the same with Reggie and Maggie. They knew that at any second Alex or Reggie, or even Luke, could snap. "Lydia go wash your hands right now, I don't want you catching whatever disease they have." The man gagged, practically pushing his daughter up off of the seat and out the door.

"What's wrong with you sickos?!"  The man screamed, about to slam the door before Reggie stuck his foot out in front of the door "our new album is out next week! Tell your friends!". Before Willie slammed the door, "accidentally" hitting him on the ass on the way out. Just before the door fully closed, Alex laughed when he caught a glimpse of the T-shirt he was wearing under his coat. It was a white T-shirt, with sunset curve in black writing written on it.

While they did laugh during that moment, but the entire car ride for Luke, Reggie and Maggie was silent. The walk home for Willie, Alex and Alma was a bit more talkative, with them discussing everything that had happened today.

"Am I in trouble?" Maggie asked as they entered their home. "Sweetheart you're not in trouble at all, you did the right thing today." Luke picked her up and sat down on the couch with her in his arms. Reggie lay next to them, smiling at the two. "Why did Lydia say 'those people'? And why did Lydia's dad call you two sickos? Do you guys need to go to the doctor?." Her dads laughed slightly at her second question, before sighing when they remembered her first question.

Reggie sat up straight, lying against Luke's chest and playing with Maggie's hair. "Well bub, sometimes people are rude to people who don't look like us. Sometimes people are really mean to people who have a different skin colour to the rest of them, and that's not okay, cause skin colour shouldn't matter." Reggie tried his best to explain, he wasn't quite sure of what to say.

"And no sweetheart we aren't sick. You know how you and Alma have two dads instead of one dad and one mom?" Luke smiled at her reassuringly, seeing that the situation had upset her. "Well a lot of people don't think that two men, or two women, or two people who were born one gender but want to be another should exist. And that's also not okay. That's called being homophobic, which is what Lydia's dad was being in the principals office, and he was also being racist. And you gotta promise me and your other dad that you will never be mean, racist or homophobic to anyone, okay?" Luke asked, pointing his finger at her, as she smiled and nodded her head.

Luke knocked on his parents front door, "hi mom!" He greeted his mom as she opened the door with Corey in her arms. "Hi grandma!" Maggie giggled, running up and hugging Emily,  "hi sweetie! Hey guys! Come in! Mitch is playing with the twins in the living room." Emily greeted them all with a hug.

Maggie ran in to go play with her sisters and her grandpa. Luke took Corey from his moms arms, he and Reggie then followed her into the kitchen where they sat at the table. "So, why did you guys get called in?" Emily asked, sensing the slight anger that was still there.

"Just some kid being a racist asshole, so Maggie got mad and pushed her, and then some stuff happened with her dad when we got there" Luke explained, letting one year old Corey play with his fingers.

"That sucks, but I'm glad she stood up for her and her friend." Emily smiled, Reggie and Luke both nodded their head in agreement. She looked down at Corey, who was being his usual quiet happy self, and smiled. "So, is Corey going to be your last baby?" She asked.

Luke and Reggie smiled, looked at each other, then at Emily, "actually.." they said in unison.