Teen Trials

School Blues

Hunter knocked on the guest room door. "Emma? Time to wake up baby, can I come in?"

"Yes sir." Emma called.

Hunter had been expecting the teenager to still be asleep, it was five-forty-five after all. When he walked in, he saw her dressed in her clothes from the day before and perched on the edge of her bed, reading a book.

"Did you get any sleep?" Hunter asked.

"Yes sir." Emma said softly.

"Why don't you go wash up. Amy's almost done with breakfast." Hunter told her.

"Okay...uh yes sir." Emma faltered.

"If you aren't given a direct order, or you aren't in trouble, it's okay to be a little less formal." Hunter told her.

"Alright, I'm gonna go to the bathroom, and then I will be out."

"Sounds good." Hunter said.

"Mr. Hart?" Emma called as he started to shut the door.

"Yeah E?"

"Where is the bathroom?" She asked.

Shit were they really this bad at parenting, Hunter wondered. "It's the door across the hall from yours. When you get home tonight, we will do a full tour, okay? Have you not used the bathroom since you've been here?"

"I went before we left the hospital." Emma said quickly. She stood up to go though, because she really did need to pee.

Hunter let her pass by and then went into the kitchen and sat down at the table. "We forgot to tell her where the bathroom was."

Amy whipped around from the stove. "Oh my gosh, we suck."

Hunter watched tears form in her eyes. "We are just learning, Aims. It was night one. We will get better at this, especially if she is going to be here a quarter of the year."

"Speaking of that, I was going to reach out to her teachers today to..."

"Why would you do that?" Emma asked, coming into the room.

Amy's face instantly lit up; she pulled the girl close to herself. "Hey baby, how did you sleep?"

"I slept okay..." Emma told her, allowing herself to be hugged. She wasn't used to talking to people in the morning, and most certainly wasn't used to being hugged like this.

"Good." Amy kissed the side of her head. "I'm making eggs, do you want scrambled or fried?"

"I'm not really hungry." She said, going to take a seat next to Hunter.

"Not an option," Hunter told her. He picked up her schedule that was on the table still. "At school alone today, you have like three hours of physical activity, then then two and a half hours of dance after school. You need to eat."

"Fine. Scrambled." The teen said irritably.

"Try again." Hunter told her, still looking at the paper.

"Scrambled please, Amy." Emma said. Gosh, talking to people in the morning was really overrated. "Why are you going to talk to my teachers?"

"Coming up!" Amy told her. She took a minute to make plates for herself, Hunter and Emma, while leaving breakfast for when Niko woke up. She set the plate in front of Emma and Hunter, then sat down to her own breakfast.