We Are Free

A New Idea

*June 12*
Zac's birthday is the 28th. He is excited. He is turning 21 so of course he is excited. Emily keeps asking when we are going to have a baby. We told her when she turns nine she will know.
    She will be nine when we start trying. We also told her when she is closer to 10. So she can't wait to be nine now. I just want to graduate. That's what I am looking forward to more than anything.
    I don't know if it is because we are going to try for a baby, or because I am done with school. I can't wait. The next day I get a call from Ava's mom.
"Hello." I say.
"Hey Jace I need a favor." She asks me.
"Sure."
"I need to go out of town for some appointments."
"Yup just bring her over we will be waiting."
"Thank you."
"No problem." I hang up and tell Emily. We clean her room up a little bit and pull the extra bed out. We just wait and I feed them lunch. Halo cleans up and does some sweeping.
    She runs to the store to get some food. Ava shows up around 2:30.
"Once again she brought everything but the kitchen sink she owns." Her mom says. I start laughing a little. Her mom smiles.
"That's okay."
"Okay little girl." She looks at her mom.
"Be good and I will see you in a couple days. If you want to call me just ask Jace. I love you."
"I love you." She gives her mom a hug and she gets in the car. Her mom leaves and we go inside. I put her things into Emily's room. I help her make her bed. Bowser comes in the room and tries to trample her. She falls on her butt and Bowser starts licking her. She laughs.
"Bowser you know better." I tell her. She stops and looks at me. "Thank you."'I get her a wet cloth to wipe her face with. Emily comes inside and sees Ava. She hugs her and they go outside. They play and I sit on the couch with Halo.
      "Have fun?" She asks me.
      "Always." I sigh.
      "I could take them to get are nails done."
      "I think they would like that."
      "Okay, I will do that."
      "I want to take all of them to the water park. I don't know about taking Zac's kids."
       "You could take Zane but we need to watch him well. I am sure we could take Blake to. We just have to watch her to."
       "I can call them."
      "You do that."
      "Okay." I go to the bedroom and grab my phone. I call Zac.
      "Hey." Zac says.
      "Hey."
      "What's up?"
      "I am taking the kids to the water park and I want to know if I could kidnap Zane and Blake?" I ask.
      "I have no issues with that." He says.
      "Okay. How about next Saturday?"
      "They are all yours."
      "Okay." I hang up and go to the living room.
      "So?" Halo asks me.
      "We have a date next Saturday." I tell her.
      "Won't Ava have gone home by then?"
      "I don't know and if she does we can kidnap her again."
      "True." We go to work all week. Her mom got caught in a huge storm that flooded most of the area. She won't be home for a long time yet and Ava calls her at most 3 times a day. 
    The girls are having fun and Andrew is just Andrew. Saturday the kids get in their swim suits. Halo puts on her bikini and I get my swimming shorts on. I put a tank up on.
     Halo wears short shorts and a crop top. The girls both put shorts on and a crop top. Andrew puts a shirt on. We go to Zac's house. I go in. Chloe had Blake all ready and Zane was running around naked.
      "Damn it come here." Zag says reaching for him but he moves to quick. He was laughing. Then he sees me.
      "Uncle Ace!" He says.
      "Hi! You need to get dressed young man." I tell him.
      "Why?"
      "So Auntie and I can take you to the water park."
      "You." He hands me his swimming shorts. Zac hands me his swimming diaper. I put them on him. I put a swimming shirt on him. Blake had a one piece on. Chloe was holding Ryker. He was about a month old.
      "I have been trying for 10 minutes to get him dressed." Zac says.  I start laughing.
      "He likes me." I say.
      "Obviously."
      "I will get his car seat and you can take Blake. I have a bag for her and a bag for him."
      "Okay." I grab the bags. I pick Zane up and grab Blake's car seat. Zane gives Chloe a kiss and we go outside. Zac puts his car seat in my car. The girls where in Halo's car and so was Andrew. I put their bags in the truck. Zane gives Zac a kiss.
      "Be good." He tells her.
      "By daddy!" Zane says.
      "By." He waves at him and puts a sippy cup in his mouth. We leave and go to the water park. I take Andrew and Zane. Halo takes the girls. We leave Blake's car seat in the car. I take Blake. No one cares if she goes in the locker room with me.
    We meet on the other side after putting things away. I take the girls and Andrew. Halo takes Zane and Blake.
      "Now Zane you need to listen to me." Halo tells him. He knows she means business.
      "Yes!" He agreed with her.
      "If you don't I will call your mommy and daddy."
      "No!"
      "Okay then you need to listen to me."
      "Yes!"
      "Thank you." We split up. I get Andrew a life jacket so he can go in the pool. They go swimming for a little bit. I take the kids on some small water slides. They have fun and Halo and I meet up after about an hour.
    The kids were tired and hungry. We go to the locker rooms. We all change into regular clothes. Halo brought the girls into a stall and they changed. She changes. I get Blake dry and dressed.
    I lay a towel down and put her on it. I get Zane dried and dressed. I help Andrew get dried and dressed. I get dried and dressed. We leave and meet up with the girls. We put the kids in the car.
      "Did you have fun?" I ask them.
      "Yes!" They all yell.
      "That's good. Do you think Blake had fun?" I ask them.
      "Yes!" Zane answers me.
      "That's good." I say.
      "Hungry!" Zane pouts. When he gets hungry he gets crabby.
      "We are going to get something to eat." I tell him.
      "Drink."
      "Where is your juice?"
      "Lost."
      "It's here somewhere."
      "No."
      "Yes it is." We stop at the restaurant and I find his juice. I grab the diaper bag and Blake's car seat. I grab Zane and put him on my waist. We go inside and get a high chair.
    I put Blake in between Halo and I. The girls and Andrew sit on one side. Zane at the end in a high chair. I go up and order our food. I wait for it for about 5 minutes.
    During this time Halo takes all the kids to the bathroom. She changes the kids diapers and the others go potty. I go to the table and put food and drinks in everyone's spots.
    They come back and she puts Blake back in her car seat. The kids sit down and Zane gets back in his high chair. Blake eats Cheerios. We give her a sippy cup and I put Zane's drink in his sippy cup. I get a text.
      "Well your mom is coming to get you tomorrow Ava." I tell her.
      "Okay." We finish eating and leave. We drop Blake and Zane off. The run around the house when they get back.
     "How where they?"
     "Good, Zane was good. Blake was Blake and they had fun."
      "Daddy!" Blake says.
      "Hi princess!" He picks her up.
      "Mommy!" Zane yells as Chloe comes out of the back.
      "Hi. Be quiet I just put baby Ryker down for a nap."
     "Nap?"
     "Yup that is where you are going."
     "You to." She shakes her head no. I leave and we go home. The girls color at the table and Andrew falls asleep on the couch. Man, Zane is turning 3 Zac is in for a treat.
*June 28th*
It is Zac's birthday but it's a Wednesday so we just took off. He has come back to work since Ryker was born. Chloe hasn't though. She isn't ready just yet. She hasn't healed yet either.
    She goes a little stir crazy in the house with 3 kids until Zac gets home. I don't blame her. I have been thinking about Emily punching that kid. I have been talking to Halo about it to. While I am helping her wrap Zac's present I talk to her.
      "I have been thinking." I say to Emily.
      "How fast should I run?" She asks me.
      "Did Halo tell you to say that?"
      "Yes."
      "Well maybe I need to talk to her to. I was thinking and have been talking to Halo and I want to know if maybe Karate would be something that interests you?"
      "I don't know I have gymnastics."
      "We can work around it."
      "I don't know."
      "If you don't want to you don't have to. I won't make you."
      "Is this because I punched that kid?"
      "Maybe." I raise my eyebrow.
      "I will think about it."
      "Okay." We leave and go to Zac's house. I tell Halo what she said. She nods her head. We go to the house and Chloe was sipping on a beer. She turned 21 while she was pregnant.
      "Honey I am home." I say. 
     "About time, I have dishes that need done."
     "So do I." He starts laughing. "I thought you breast fed." I look at Chloe.
      "No Ryker wouldn't take it. Blake wouldn't either. I find it odd that Ryker wouldn't considering he has the traits of Zac." I start laughing.
      "Shut up!"
      "It's true."
"No one needs to know what-" He says.
"No one wants to hear you finish your sentence." I cut him off.
"Let me have like 2 beers and I don't care." Halo says.
"Help yourself." Zag says pointing to a mini pool.
"Maybe in a little bit."
"I am driving home." I say.
"Why?" Halo asks me.
"You will be hungover after one."
"No 2."
"Okay." Blake comes to me with a pacifier in her mouth. I pick her up. She was just in a diaper.
"Hi!" I say to her. She takes the pacifier out.
"Hi!" She puts the pacifier in my hand and sits there on my lap. Ryker was in a rocker. She takes it back and shoves it in her mouth before wiggling. I set her down and Zane comes up to me.
"Uncle Ace!" Zane says.
"Hi!"
"Auntie!"
"Hi honey!"
"Cars." He holds up a little match box car.
"What do cars do?" I ask him.
"Vroom vroom."
"Yup. Man he is talking a lot now." I say to Zac not sure why I am shocked.
"Well he will be three in a couple weeks." He reminds me.
"True."
"Daddy. Zane says to Zac.
"Yes."
"Thirsty."
"Here you go." He hands Zane an open water bottle. Zane takes a drink from it and hands it back to me. I set it on the table. He just settles with sitting on one of my legs and running his toy cars on the other.
"Well Halo and I have been talking." I say.
"And...?" Zac asks me.
"Well since Emily punched that kid out, we have been thinking maybe karate would interest her. " I say.
"Yeah that sounds like a good idea."
"Emily punched a kid?!" Zac's mom says totally shocked.
"Yup in the last week of school he was teasing her and pushed her down. When he tired to do it again she punched him and broke his nose. She got suspended for the rest of the year but I gave her ice cream." I smile.
"Wow, that kid."
"I don't give a damn about what she did. She defended herself."
"Well yeah."
"He wouldn't say sorry or nothing just walked out."
"What about his parents?"
"He got his punishment trust me."
"Okay."
"Jace!" Emily comes up to me.
"What?" I make a failed attempt to act like girls do when they are excited. Everyone laugh as at me.
"I did an areal." She says.
"That's awesome. Do you want to show me?"
"Yeah!" She goes in the yard and shows me Zac's mom covers her eyes. We all clap.
"She scares me." Zac's mom says. Zac is still laughing at me. I flip him off. I rub my temple with my middle finger towards him. He starts laughing.
"Don't enjoy yourself to much." He starts laughing.
"I won't trust me."
"Suck it."
"Small objects are chocking hazards. I am shocked you didn't see that on the warning label."
"You are an asshole."
"I know." I smile wickedly at him. Zane starts squealing with approval.
"Don't encourage him Zane." Zac says.
"Yes!" We start laughing.
"Okay I am hungry."
"Me daddy!"
"Okay." We all get some food. We sit down and eat.
"I was thinking, that for the 4th of July if you want to bring Emily's cake and all that I will have a party. Fire works, mud pit, food, drinks, all that jazz. Kill two birds with one stone." Zac's mom says.
"Okay that sounds great. I didn't have anything else to do."
"Okay then. If her friend wants to come she is more then welcome."
"I will get in touch with her."
"Okay, and I know she is different and I know how."
"Okay, her mom will talk to you about it."
"Okay."
"Ace."
"Do you want this?" I pick up a piece of watermelon.
"Yes!"
"Here you go." She takes it. She puts it in her mouth and smiles.
"Uh oh watermelon mouth." She starts laughing. We all laugh at her. We finish eating and Zac opens his presents. I hand him three boxes.
"These are for the kids. I saw them while shoe shopping with the kids and couldn't resist. The Minny mouse one is Blake's. The Donald Duck is Ryker's. The other one is Zane's." I tell Zac. He nods his head and hands Blake's hers and Zane's his.
     Zane rips the paper off. He opens the shoe box. I got him some Mickey Mouse shoes. They were black and red. They lit up and had Mickey's head on the toe of the shoes.
     Blake's was the same only pink and white. Hers was Minny Mouse. Ryker's was Donald Duck.
"These are a little to big." Chloe says.
"Well he can wear them longer." I offer.
"Yeah true."
"Thank you." Zane says.
"Your welcome." Blake smiles and laughs.
"Do you like them?" I ask her.
"Yes!"
"Daddy on!" Zane says.
"Okay." He puts Zane's shoes on. Blake fallows in suit.
"I'm glad they like them."
"You have no idea." We laugh and he finishes opening his presents. He got a watch, some clothes, his mom got him boxers, I got him some condoms.
"You are an asshole."
"Thank you."
"I don't think I will need to use these here soon."
"I just wanted to piss you off."
"That reminds me, Zane got into my stash and got pissed when I wouldn't let him take his tampon to the store. Threw a fit for 20 minutes. Then when we got home I gave it back to him. He was fine." Chloe says. We start laughing.
"You never told me about that." Zac whips around.
"I forgot about it." We laugh again. He shakes his head.
"I will laugh even harder if one of Halo's and Jace's kids pull what he did." Sac says.
"What was that?" Zac's mom asks me.
"I kept telling everyone I was a girl when my mom was pregnant with me. When she had me the doctor said it's a boy. She said no way. The doctor responded with well he has a penis so I'm sure it's a boy. She was so excited to have a girl and then I wasn't a girl. Then she got pregnant with Emily and didn't want to know. Then she was happy when they said it's a girl. She could use all the stuff she bought for me." We start laughing.
"We were talking about that. We said we would laugh if it happened and we would laugh even harder if it was the same scenario." Halo admits.
"I will to." I say.
"I herd you guys were wanted to try for a baby." Zac's mom looks at me.
"After I graduate yeah."
"Good for you guys. Halo do you have any plan on how to tell him?"
"No it comes as it comes. We have started thinking about names though." She says.
"What are they?"
"For a girl he likes Taylor and for a boy he likes Ethan. Me for a girl I like Rebel and for a boy I like Daniel."
"Maybe you can compromise."
"Yup." We have cake and ice cream and stay for a little bit longer. We go home around 6:00. We give the kids baths. They go to bed. I talked to Emily about her birthday and she wants to go to Zac's mom's house.
     I text Ava's mom. She said she will come. She asks if she can sleep over. I am okay with it. I am not going to tell Emily though. She will find out on the 4th.
    I have to get her some presents. She will be just excited. They will wear their swim suits there. We will bring extra clothes for her and get there around 3:00. It will be interesting.