Fly With Me (a Jonas Brothers adoption story)

Chapter 32- The Teacher Said What??

Lainey's POV:

We finally got to school, after some tears from Ollie, and we had to pull over twice because Row thought he was going to hurl. Alena decided she didn't like the shirt she was wearing, and insisted she swap with Valentina, but we explained that she was 3 sizes bigger than her, and she ended up just going with what she had on.

We all decided that Dani would come to each classroom, since Alena and the twins were on the same floor, down the hall from each other, I was last, which was fine by me, as I was thinking of excuses to use the whole time we were there, as I don't think I did very good on my last math quiz.

Dani's POV:

We headed into the school, and Alena proudly skipped on over to her classroom. She showed us where she sits at the table, she showed her workbook, a random pencil she found on the floor, and her sparkly pen with an eraser at the top that we've seen probably twelve times before. She was so happy to be in Kindergarten. We spoke to her teacher and everything was fine, besides the fact that she tends to blurt out answers instead of raising her hand. As we were leaving her classroom, onto the twins class, we had to stop by the school cafeteria as they were handing out juice boxes and cookies for everyone.

"I wish Charlotte were here." Ollie says. "She likes juice boxes."

We move on to the twins class. We met with their teacher, who was a really nice older lady. Rowan had gone to play with one of his friends who was also there, and Ollie kind of just stayed hiding behind my legs. I felt like I had to remember everything that all 3 of these teachers were telling me, which may be hard to do, but I guess that's what comes with having 6 kids.

The twins seem to be doing very well schoolwork wise, but their teacher did mention a few things that slightly concerned me as their mom.

"Hi, Nice to meet you, I'm Edith" The boys teacher shook my hand gracefully, and took me over to one of the desks that had ROWAN JONAS printed at the top in all capital letters. Behind that, there was also one other name I recognized on the desk. OLIVER JONAS was printed and very neatly taped to the top of the desk. There were Manila folders on top of the desks with lots of papers in. The teacher called Rowan and Ollie over, and they started to go through their work, showing me every drawing, worksheet, and any other paper they could find in there. Everything seemed well with that, although Edith seemed to have a look that something else was on her mind.

"I wanted to talk to you a little bit about Rowan. He seems to be doing well with his schoolwork for the most part, however, his reading skills aren't quite where they should be. He is reading at an end of preschool level, which isn't very many words. In first grade, were working on figuring out how to sound out words in order to spell them, but with Rowan, whenever it comes to actually reading the words, he kind of freezes up, and has to pause frequently,  sometimes in the middle of words to figure out what to do next. So, I'm going to send you with a couple of books I think would broaden his reading level, and I also found a few books I think he will like." The teacher says, holding up a few books, one about monkeys, one about monster trucks, and other about lions and bears.

"Aw man. I don't want to read, It's so boring." Rowan peeps in.

"Reading is really important. I love to read." Says Lainey.

"Onto Ollie, Everything is going really well with him too, but I have noticed the past few days that he's been squinting his eyes to see things written on the whiteboard. Also for example, he was asking when recess was, and I told him to look at the schedule on the board, he had to go all the way up to it, and he was standing right here!"

"I'll see about getting an eye appointment set up soon." I say to her

"One more thing with Ollie, I am noticing that when I am supervising recess, I'm seeing that he isn't really playing with anybody. Now, I know he's a little shy, but he's been in the class for quite a few weeks now, so he knows everybody, but he usually just walks around the basketball court, or goes onto the swings on his own. He just tends to keep to himself." She says.

I'm sort of taken aback by this, as Ollie is quite bubbly at home, and talks a bit, but now that I'm really thinking of it, he doesn't really talk a whole lot at home either, and is occupying himself with drawings or puzzles, but i thought that was just a part of his personality.

"I'll keep an eye on him." I say

As soon as we were done with that, I texted in a group chat with Kevin, Joe, and Nick to let them know all what the teacher said, just in case I accidentally leave anything out, and then we head into Lainey and Charlotte's classroom.

Miss Deakin has always been very friendly to us, and said that Lainey was doing exceptionally well, only she did mention one thing, Math..

"Here I have the results of Delainey's recent math quiz that we did earlier in the week, and we went over these concepts a couple of times, she seemed to have them down, but when it came to the quiz, she missed a step here, then calculated the addition incorrectly when she came to her answer, and got 3 out of the 5 equations wrong. So I'd like to send home a small packet with a few practice questions for you guys to work on together, and maybe I can get you another for Charlotte too for you to turn in on Monday when she returns." Miss Deakin says, showing me the math quiz and the packet filled with numbers.

I nod and look to Lainey, she has a glum look on her face, which tells me she's not looking forward to doing this at all.

Once we made sure everything was all good, we headed to meet Charlotte, Valentina, and Denise for dinner at Cheddars. We then take Siena home with us, and then start a game night, which Lainey and Charlotte don't really join in, as it was a game more for younger kids.

They're more occupied with their phones, which I have to remember to take before they go to bed, because if I didn't, they could be on them all night. I once caught Alena up at 11pm after she went to bed at 8 with Charlottes phone. No idea how she got it.

The girls all got ready for bed, and were all asleep by 9:30, thank goodness.
Eventually, I finally got into bed, all alone.  No Kevin to keep me company and to hold throughout the night. I was starting to feel a bit lonely.

There was a lot of pressure on me now. With the guys gone, I have to raise 6 kids all on. My own, and yeah, Lainey and Charlotte are older, and can usually do most things on their own, but they all seem to still need help with a lot of things. I know this year has been a lot for them, especially Char, who had to deal with abuse and neglect, then her recent diagnosis, then getting suspended, it's all just too much for a kid to handle i feel.

Suddenly, I don't even realize that tears are rolling down my face until Charlotte comes in.

"Mama, why are you crying?" She asks, bringing her blanket up to her chin and sitting on the edge of my bed.

"I just love you so much, Charlotte. You've been through so damn much, and I'm so sorry." I tell her honestly.

"Mama, you don't need to be sorry. For anything. You've given me the greatest few weeks of my life. You'll always be Mama to me, even if I didn't come out of you like Alena did. You are trying your hardest and doing your best, and that's all I need." Charlotte responds.

Then and there, I wrapped Charlotte up in the blanket, and held her.

I didn't feel so lonely anymore.

"You are my favorite mama, forever." She whispers.

"You are my Charlotte"

GUYS! I'm so sorry its taken me so long to update this book. I've been supper busy with balancing school, a full-time job, and everyday life in general. In a little update about me: I love The Album, I wasn't able to see the boys this tour, but hopefully soon, also, I am so sad about Joe and Sophie, and i am debating if I want to keep her in this story,. However, I might, as this book is based in the Happiness Begins tour, in 2019, when they were newly married. I hope to continue updating this book, as I know i haven't been too great at it, and had a bit of a writers block. Please forgive me and be patient as I work through this!! Thanks!