Choosing Life

Chapter Sixty Eight

Mal couldn't help but smile as she watched Effy and Reese hug their sister goodbye as they made their way into their school. It was hard to believe how fast the years had gone by, hard to believe that the twins were now six and old enough to start going to school.

And yes, both of them were very excited about that, because they were Ben's children as much as they were Mal's so the idea of learning new things seemed to please them almost as much as dragon flights or romping around in a Cerberus form with Estelle and Nix (which honestly was probably the only thing Reese wasn't happy about when it came to schooling, the fact that Estelle and Nix couldn't come with him.)

"Now you two be good okay?" Mal said, gently kissing both of her kids on the tops of their heads.

"We will, maman," Effy and Reese promised.

Bianca (or Bee to her siblings...and parents...and aunts and uncles....okay really anyone who didn't personally know her or if she was in trouble or if her personal title needed to be used) pouted. "Why can't I go too?"

"Because you're too young, Bee," Ben said with a small smile. "But it won't be long before you're able to go to school too. But for right now, you get the castle all to yourself and you and your maman can have a strawberry eating contest when we get home."

"Really?" Bee perked up at the thought of that.

"Don't need to twist my arm about eating strawberries," Mal chuckled.

Effy pouted slightly. "I want to have a strawberry eating contest too!"

"But you get to go to school," Bee said with a pout of her own.

Lonnie chuckled as she walked over to them. "Your kids have got to be the only ones I know of that would want to go to school before they were old enough," she said.

"That would be Ben's genetics," Mal said, shaking her head. "Where's Jay?"

"He opted to stay home, thought it'd be safer though he's sorry he's missing Effy and Reese's first day of school," Lonnie said and Mal nodded. Jay had had an...interesting discovery a while back. Apparently, Jafar's genie abilities had in fact transferred over to his son however the seventeen years of living under a magic suppressing barrier had almost forced them into dormancy.

That was, however, no longer the case.

"Hey Lon!" Jay called from the bathroom where he was running a bath for their son, their daughter having already been put to bed a couple of hours ago. "Either we have really bad plumbing all of a sudden or I just made the water run without touching the tap."

Lonnie frowned slightly and got up to where Jay was standing, still holding their son in his arms in case the water started to overflow. Lonnie walked over and turned the water off before gently taking Jaxson out of Jay's arms, seeing the look on Jay's face.

"How are you so calm right now?" Jay asked.

"Well for starters, I have our son in my arms but also...I have a hunch about what's going on," Lonnie told him.

"What's going on mama?" Jaxson asked, looking up at Lonnie. "Is baba getting snow powers like Emmy?"

"Something like that, Jax," Lonnie said and Jaxson smiled.

Jay shook his head. "What do you mean? What's going on? I don't know if you know this Lon, but it's not normal for pipes to just turn on all on their own."

"Jay, breathe! You're okay," Lonnie said, giving her husband a gentle smile. "I'll give you a hint. What was your father before he was sent to the Isle?"