As Told By Tuck & Axel

Mom-I'm Gonna be A LAWYER!

Chapter: Mom-I'm Gonna be A LAWYER!

Author: Axel Otto

Sometime in February or so, my parents came to school to take me and Tuck and Ryan out to dinner. The three of us were excited to finally get some food that wasn't straight out of the PSU cafeteria, and my mother was just dying to see Tuck.

"MUTTI!" Tuck was running into my mother's arms as soon as he saw her enter in through the glass door of the up-scale Pittsburgh restaurant my father had made reservations at. And yes, Tuck did call my mother the same thing I called her: the German term for mommy.

"Mein Tuck, Ich verpasst, baby!" The relationship between my mother and my other half was actually kind of gross. After she was done kissing his forehead, I was next.

"What am I, chopped liver?" My mother laughed, and pulled me into a rocking embrace.

Tuck and my father shook hands like usual, and I gave him a hug. I introduced my parents to Ryan, and we sat down for dinner.

"Maggie was so sad she couldn't be here," my mother said, looking directly at Tuck, who instantly reddened and looked down at his plate. If my father weren't here, my mother and Tuck would have talked for hours about his little relationship with my sister. I swear my mom was like a teenage girl sometimes. She even looked like one.

"I'm sure," I said, a bit too sarcastically for my mom's liking. Ryan snorted though, and he gave me a fist bump under the table.

"Tuck, how's the law program coming? Your mother must be thrilled." My father was very interested in Tucker's future career. He thought law was promising and respectable, unlike sports medicine, a fact he had not neglected to tell me many times.

Strangely, I had forgotten to tell my parents that I had changed my major a few weeks earlier, only due to three sentences a law professor told me, and a job he got me in response to one of Tuck's impulsive outbursts. The story was actually quite funny, and I thought my parents would be proud of me for choosing law over sports. I figured my dad would actually be proud of me, and my mom would be excited to bestow all her ledgers onto me.

Tuck looked at me for approval. He was going to tell my dad about my switching majors. I nodded. Tuck turned back to my father, who was now sporting a quizzical look.

"Actually, Mr. Otto, Axel has decided to go pre-law as well. We've even got an internship from one of our professors. He says the dynamic between the two of us is inspiring, apparently."

Both of my parents were stunned.

"Law?" my father said, looking directly at me. "What happened to all this talk about helping athletes? What about all the books I bought on sports medicine? What the hell happened Axel? Just because Tuck wants to be a lawyer, now you do too? I didn't raise you to be some dependent follower! I taught you to be your own man! I didn't-"

My mother cut off my father's German rant with one word: "Enough."

I gulped. Papa was not pleased one bit.

She took a deep breath and turned to look at me. "Axel, what happened to sport's medicine?"

She had essentially asked the same thing my father did, but with much less of a tone. I felt Tuck squeeze my knee for reassurance.

"I, uh, um..." The pressure of having both of my parents staring at me with that 'oh-boy-what-has-Axel-done-now' look was causing my words to get caught in my throat.

"Axel is talented," Tuck said, interrupting my embarrassing stuttering to address my parents with a confidence I needed but only he had. "He is at the top of our class alongside me. He wasn't planning on going into law. He showed up to one of my classes because I forgot my phone at home, and the professor asked him a question about law just to make a fool out of him. Ax knew a thing or two from Rachel, and instead of allowing the professor to embarrass him, Axel shoved his knowledge in the guy's face. He probably knew more about being a defense attorney than half the class, and they had been studying law for two months. It would be stupid of Axel to waste a talent like that on an under-paying, shitty career path like sports medicine," he breathed, and turned to look at me. "No offense, Ax."

I whispered a "none-taken" under my breath, far too mesmerized by the fierce look Tuck's eyes held.

"Well," my father said after a few seconds. "If he's as talented as you say, why couldn't he find the confidence to tell me that himself, Tucker?"

Like I said earlier, I love my dad with all my heart, but he's a hard ass. He's only that way because he wants me to succeed, but sometimes it comes off the wrong way. This time, it came off the wrong way.

I abruptly stood up out of my seat.

"I can't do anything right, can I?"

"Now Axel-"

"Nein, Papa, stop!" I switched the language I was speaking. "Zunächst ist es die physikalische Therapie, und jetzt recht? I'm tired of you acting like everything I do is crap! Nothing ever pleases you, Papa. Why don't you just ask Mrs. Oaks if Tuck can be your son instead? I know how much you'd prefer it."

I stormed away from the table after that, practically throwing my chair on the ground. The silence that had now surfaced in the restaurant pissed me off even more. I headed for the exit, and slammed that door too.

Tuck, of course, was grabbing my shoulder a minute later. "Ax, stop running! It's me!"
I hadn't even realized I was running. I stopped, looked down at the pavement, then looked back at Tuck. He was breathing heavily.

"You know he didn't mean that," Tuck was trying to stick up for my dad.

"The fuck he didn't mean it! Did you even hear what he said?!"

Tuck nodded solemnly. "Ax, you did kind of spring that on them suddenly. Hell, you sprung it on yourself kind of suddenly."

"That doesn't mean he has to be a dick about it!"

Tuck sighed. "I know. Your dad is a dick, and I'm sorry. But running away from him isn't going to do anything good for you. It'll give him a reason to perpetuate his attitude for longer. So go back in there, and kick some ass or something. Go be Axel."

I nodded, a bit reluctantly, then allowed Tuck to fling his arm around my shoulder. "We also left Ryan in there alone with a very pissed off Eadmund Otto, so we should kinda hurry."

We did, and when we came back in, the two of us sat down wordlessly. I flashed an apologetic look at my mom who squeezed my knee under the table. "So, have we ordered yet?"

My question seemed to relax everyone, and things went back to normal for the rest of the dinner. When we left to go find the car, my father grabbed my shoulder, pulling me away from everyone and telling my mother to pull the car around. Tuck lingered.

"Well, you may as well stay, son, considering the two of you are essentially one person these days." My father's lighthearted tone made Tuck crack a smile.

"These days?" I asked, looking up at my dad. "We've always been one person."

My dad chuckled. "I know." He took a deep breath. "Listen, Octavius. I want you to do what you love, and for you that has always been sports. So while at first I didn't like the idea very much, it seemed like it made you happy, and that's why I was worried about you switching to law. I didn't want you to just do it because this moron was," he nodded over towards Tuck. I smiled cheekily at him. "But now that I'm thinking about it, the only thing I can say is that I'll make sure to invest in whatever you two decide to call your firm one day."

Later that night, Tuck and I decided on Otto & Oaks: A Criminal Defense Partnership.