Diva Princess (Laurmani / DC3)

Chapter 20

A/N: Be on the lookout for my new Laurmani fic coming soon. It will be called Photographs in the Park. Also, you can watch my latest Laurmani video above, but it may not be available on some mobile devices due to a copyright claim. 

By the time we got home, it was dark. We stalked out of the vehicle exhausted from the long day. The porch light wasn't on, so the front part of the house was almost completely in blackness. As Dinah approached the door, she almost tripped over a little body.

"Oop! Jarvis. What are you doing here?"

The little boy jumped up and wrapped himself around Dinah's leg. She turned her head to look at us standing behind her. We were just as baffled as she was. Normani spotted a note on the door and reached out to pull it off. Dinah and I stared at her with anticipation to hear the message.

"What does it say?" I asked impatiently.

Normani shook her head. "The mother said that she's leaving Jarvis with us because she can no longer take care of him. She's moved to Nevada with her boyfriend."

"What? Let me see that." I took the note from Normani's hand to look it over. I was about to crumble it up, but stopped myself when I realized that it could be evidence. "We have to call the police and report this."

Dinah carried Jarvis inside while Normani and I followed. I got on the phone with dispatch. Normani prepared hot cereal for the boy while Dinah played with him. About twenty minutes passed before a couple of officers knocked on our door. We told them what happened and showed them the letter. One officer went to the boy's mother's house to see if anyone was home while the other officer phoned an investigator.

Once the investigator arrived, he asked if he could use one of our rooms to check the boy for any injuries, and I told him he could. The other officer came back and reported that he found nothing, but did take pictures of the area around the house as evidence. The next step was for them to locate a family member with which the boy could stay, but that search turned up unfruitful.

"Normally, we would take him to the children's shelter," the investigator told us. "But, they're at capacity. I know this is a lot to ask, but would you mind keeping him for a few days until we can find a place for him?"

"Sure. Most definitely," I answered.

One of the officers broke into the conversation. "Thank you very much. We need more people like you."

After the officers left, Normani and I made a quick trip to Walmart to buy some clothes for the boy while Dinah watched him at home. Because she was more experienced at this, Dinah also gave the boy a bath and put him to bed when we came back. Then, we all went to sleep after a long, exhausting day.

The next day, Normani volunteered to watch Jarvis while Dinah went to work, and I went grocery shopping. They sat on the floor in front of the TV watching Caillou and eating cereal. The house phone rung in the middle of the show.

"Hello," said Normani when she answered the phone.

"Hi, I'm Shane, an assistant on TLC's show. May I speak to Normani, Dinah, or Lauren?" said a man on the other end.

"I'm Normani."

"Great! I mean...um...I'm sorry, but I have bad news for your group," Shane stuttered.

Normani sighed, "What is it?"

"Well, the producers decided that 12 acts were too much. They're lowering the number of acts going to the next round to 10. And, unfortunately, your group was one of the two groups they decided to cut," Shane explained.

"What?" Normani snapped. "Why would they cut us? We were one of the favorites?"

"TLC and Demi said you were at the bottom of their list," said Shane.

"That's bullshit! I know what this is about. This is about me and Lauren dating," Normani shouted.

"Look, ma'am. I'm only the messenger."

"Fuck you." Normani slammed the phone down so hard it startled Jarvis. "I'm sorry Jarvis. Don't be scared. Some mean people just made me a little upset."

When I arrived home, Normani came outside to help me with the bags and handed Jarvis a small item to carry because he wanted to help. As we put away the groceries in the kitchen, Normani kept making faces at the vegetarian foods I bought, which made Jarvis giggle. I rolled her eyes and tried my best to ignore them.

"Hey, Lauren. I have something to tell you," Normani notified me.

I put an item into the refrigerator and shut it. "Okay."

Normani informed me of what occurred during her phone conversation with the talent show's assistant laced with sarcasm. "Apparently, they had too many acts. They only want to go with 10, and since we were the worst ones, we were one of the acts dropped."

"You know why this happened, right?" I questioned.

"Of course, I do."

"I'm sorry this happened, Mani. I know this was a dream of yours," I said.

"I'm not going to let it bother me," said Normani. "Now that we have Jarvis, we won't be able to be away from home long anyway."

"Normani, we're only keeping him for a few days."

"I think this could turn into a long-term thing," Normani shared.

"Where are you getting at, here?" I asked.

"I think we should adopt him or at least become his foster parents," Normani stated.

I struggled to find the words to tell Normani my aversion to the idea. "Look, I love kids. You know I do, but we aren't in a position to take care of a child right now. We don't make a lot of money, I'm still in school, and it's going to take a while for me to get my practice going."

"If we wait for you to get customers for your quackery, we'll never adopt," said Normani.

"You know what, Normani?" I turned and walked out of the kitchen toward the bedroom.

Normani ran after me and pulled me back. "Wait! Wait! I'm sorry. I was just thinking this might be our only chance to start a family. Since neither one of us is going to be making a lot of money, we may not be able to afford to adopt in the future."

"Do you really think they're going to let us keep him?" I asked. "Besides, I thought you didn't like kids."
"I lied. I just don't like Dinah's brothers and sisters," Normani admitted.

I shook my head, but kissed my girlfriend. "We'll think about it and see what happens over the next few days. Right now, I'm about to watch Formation."

"Lord, Lauren!" Normani complained. "I love Beyonce, but you've been watching that almost every day since it came out."

"Normani, how dare you belittle the biggest cultural event for our people in years?" I snapped.

Normani looked to be in no mood to argue with me about the "our people" part, but I knew she wanted to. She just let it go.