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Party Like a Rockstar: Shade decides to party with Harper's family, Antony finds himself in a hellish mess with his anti-thesis, Harper. Sticky floors, plate throwing, and week old (or longer) pizza slices abound!

Dinner-esque: Antony meets Manny and Delilah at a fast food joint^^

Gym Class 8/1/07: Shade's first gym class! Riley's got a broken arm and Antony and Delilah chat about cartoons.

Blue Light Special: Shade and Antony meet two future guardians at Walmarket.

It was a beautifully sunny day; Jacoba had complained ceaselessly about having to wear a little terrycloth hat to protect her from the sun (and had been lathered mercilessly with SPF 900000+ anyway; Beatrix supposed redheads had very high burn times, like her own pale self) but had cheered up at getting to be out in the fresh air. She had also cheered up at getting to go in the pram, which was not usually used due to her ability to escape from it.

Beatrix Darnell herself was in a fairly good mood despite everything; she was dressed casually (for Bea, which still meant a nice demure pantsuit and not a hair out of place) and Thwomp had rested in the broad brim of her straw hat, hiding in the ribbon gumming himself up with a Skittle. She stopped at the front yard of the pink semi-Victorian eyesore and shaded her eyes out of pure habit, since it wasn't as though she was actually seeing out of them.

"I didn't know you could actually suntan," she said by way of greeting to Shade. "Being the colour you are, that is."

Jacoba sat up to look, as well. This man was a funny colour! He had a tail! She shrilled in excitement.

"MANS LOOKS WEIRD," she said.

Shade looked up from the crapptastic lounge chair that even Jack didn't know where he had gotten it from, grinning slightly. "I'm not," he said as he flipped the page of his magazine. "I'm sunbathing. I saw a special about snakes doing it, and thought it might not be such a bad idea."

Antony looked up from the book he was reading on the porch and smiled, getting to his feet. "Good day, Dr. Darnell! I'm afraid Uncle Jack isn't in at the moment, though."

His mathematics teacher returned the smile in full. "Good day to you too, Antony," she said. "He isn't? Oh, bother." (Possibly Dr. Darnell was the only person aside from Pooh Bear to say 'oh, bother' rather than 'oh, s**t'.) "I was hoping to catch him. I usually rely on the fact that he can't drive a car to save his life and usually isn't that far away. - How are you both today?"

"Sleepy," Shade said with a yawn. "I just finished teaching a self defense class in the park." Antony gave him a dark look for that.

"We're fine, and yourself?" Antony asked.

"Awake and alive, a good start," she said briskly. The picture of terrified maternity, too, she wanted to add, but didn't want to confuse Antony. "As you can see, taking my daughter out for the day. Jacoba, why don't you say hello?"

"Hulz," said Jacoba offhandedly, still looking at Shade. She was always interested to see anybody more weird-looking than herself.

Beatrix sighed, knowing full well her child was perfectly capable of saying hello. "You don't have to call me Dr. Darnell outside school," she said to Antony, but sounded pleased nonetheless at his manners. "Considering I'm like your Uncle Jack's maligned older sister, you can always call me Aunt Beatrix. - Shade, do you think he'll be back any time soon?"

"I..." Shade said, glancing up again. "Have no idea whatsoever."

Beatrix sighed heavily. "That's Jack for you. - I won't wait here; Jacoba's too much of a handful. I was actually going to stop off at the mall to buy some things for the class project. Would either of you like to come? - I'll shout you icecream, Mr. Antony, if that helps as a bribe," she added wryly, "as I promised Jacoba one too."

"ICEEM," Jacoba announced smugly. "I's like choclit an' storbry."

"Strawberry," Beatrix corrected sternly. "How many times do I have to tell you mispronunciation is not cute?"

"Storburry," Jacoba self-corrected, and blew a raspberry.

Antony looked at the little redhead blankly for a moment before smiling. "Yes, please! It's much better than watching Father fall asleep." He walked down the path to Beatrix before glancing over at Shade. "May I?"

"Sure, kid, have a ball," Shade said without even glancing up. He did wave, though. In their general direction.

"Excellent," Beatrix said, looking pleased; she also threw a halfhearted wave in Shade's direction. "Some intelligent conversation."

The little trio - well, quartet, as there was a cabbage perched underneath the pram enjoying the shade and the fresh air - started off down the sidewalk. Once they had rounded the corner - Thwomp had come off Beatrix's hat to investigate Antony again, and then went to sit on the pram - the teacher raised a smooth blonde eyebrow at her companion.

"Do tell me if you get tired, and we'll take a break," she said. "Did you enjoy the self-defence class, Antony? - I admit, I loathe that sort of thing."

"It is a good way to exercise your body and learn self control," Antony said, almost by rote. "But it's also a good way of getting grass stains on your clothing."

"Absolutely." A dog barked in the distance; Jacoba made woof, woof sounds back at it. "I had to play tennis as a child - I couldn't stand it, I hated getting messy and sweaty. I always designated your Uncle Jack the athletic one. Was everyone there?"

He sighed, feeling more at ease with her than most. She was practically family, after all. "More than I'd like," he admitted. "I prefer it when it's just me and Father, but--" He shrugged.

Beatrix just smiled; they walked along in companionable silence, turning another corner. The traffic got more heavy as they started down to the large, unlovely grey buildings that signified the mall, as well as all the signs advertising McDonald's and things. Jacoba was quiet now; she wasn't really used to her mother addressing anyone but her, and didn't like the sensation.

"You're probably more advanced than anyone else in the class, with your father coaching you personally," she said. "But having everyone watching... you have a great deal of dignity and maturity to put up with it. If I had been faced with having to perform in front of Riley and Ignacio, I might have called in sick."

"Riley and Ignacio aren't the problem," he said. "It's Harper." Then he flushed, looking guilty. "I shouldn't have said that. It's impolite to blame people." Even annoying little bastards like Harper.

"HARPER SUCK," crowed the child in the pram.

Beatrix started; then she laughed a little, as Thwomp spiralled down and pressed the button on the traffic light to wait for the little red man to turn green. "It is," she agreed, "but it's not impolite to admit you have a problem with somebody. Harper and you are total opposites."

"HARPER SUCK," Jacoba said again.

"As you can see, she's far more impolite about her opinion," said Beatrix. "I must admit - and I know you'll keep this between us - that Harper really is very immature for his age. I think he must have a difficult home life, however."

"I've seen his home," Antony said, making a face. "It's very... disgusting."

"You're lucky to have your father," Beatrix said. The traffic light beeped helpfully as it changed from red to green; Thwomp watched over carefully as the little group traversed across the street and Jacoba roared at passing vehicles. "It doesn't sound as though Harper's family are very interested in being parents." Then again, she'd only met Eliot Rose.

The mall didn't appear to be too packed; apparently everybody was out enjoying the sunshine rather than enjoying materialism, super savings and an overworked air-con system. Beatrix, with Thwomp's help, neatly mobilized them through the small throng of people and the polished floor. "How are you enjoying school?"

"It's very interesting," he said, sounding honest. "I like learning new things. In fact, I enjoy most of my classes very much. And it's good to have friends in them."

This was obviously the right answer; his teacher's expression was that of definite approval. "I appreciate all the help you give me in class time," she said. "I've noticed you helping Delilah - very chivalrous of you, indeed. She's a very shy child, and she needs encouragement from you and the rest of the class."

"I like Delilah very much," he said easily. "She seems very princess-like."

Beatrix was privately very amused, but liked Antony far too much to show it. "She is," she agreed. "She's a very pretty girl.'

"Wanna see," Jacoba demanded: there they both were, talking about interesting and fascinating things and school, and she couldn't go! "I's go school toooo-oooo."

"When you are grown up, my lass," said her mother easily. "Then you can go to school with Antony and Delilah. - All princesses need champions," she added to the child with her. "Or they'll never give their opinions. Has your father told you about knights back in medieval times?"

"No, but I have seen Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail," he said. "Did they really ride sticks and use coconuts to make sound effects?"

It took heroic effort not to giggle. A younger Beatrix would have disapproved, but older Beatrix reasoned that Antony wouldn't have understood most of the terrible sex jokes. "In no way whatsoever," she said. "They rode armoured warhorses into battle and practiced courtly love - loving princesses and noble ladies from afar, never allowed to marry them. They would wear their lady's colours to show their faithfulness to her, defend her honour and try to win her heart with heroic deeds of valour - slaying dragons, that sort of thing."

"Puff," said Jacoba.

"I don't think anybody ever set out to slay Puff, the Magic Dragon," Beatrix said gravely, "but you are right."

"My father's a dragon!" Antony said, looking shocked at the thought.

"PUFF," Jacoba said, more excitedly. She took this to mean that Antony was, in fact, the son of Puff the Magic Dragon, and was immediately and fiercely jealous.

"Not dragons like your father," Beatrix amended. "More of the wild type - you know, large as a house, breathing fire and burning up villages, that sort of thing. They would go and slay evil creatures. Your father does have a distressing love for white vests but he's far from evil, as far as I know."

"True, but he's still a dragon," Antony said, frowning slightly. "Just because he isn't evil doesn't mean they wouldn't have tried to slay him. It IS what knights do, right? And as far as I know dragons are hard to find."

"Back in medieval England, I don't think your father's species roamed around much," Beatrix said, but admitted: "But they might have attempted it anyway - besting your father would have been a big leg-up to their status. They probably wouldn't have killed him, though. When they admired their duelling opponent, knights would leave them alive out of respect to their skill."

"HONALEE," Jacoba said, still stuck on the idea that Shade was, in fact, Puff.

It jerked Antony out of his contemplation. "What, exactly, is Honalee? Or Puff, for that matter?" Clearly his kids movie education was lacking.

"PUFFTHAMAGICDWAGON," Jacoba immediately, loudly recited, terribly off-key. "LIVED BYTHA SEA. An'" - mumble, mumble - "landuv Honalee. LITTLE JACKY PAPER LOVED DAT - " mumble - "PUFF, an' brought him..."

Seeing that Jacoba was not, in fact, going to put a sock in it until she had something to stick in her mouth instead (unfortunately it was going to be sugar, but never mind) Beatrix pushed the stroller determinedly in the direction of the icecream place. "It's a child's song about a dragon - they sing it at her daycare. It's about a magical dragon and his human friend." It was also apparently an allegory for marijuana, but Antony didn't need to know that.

Beatrix immediately hunted down a table; it was a child-friendly icecream place and thusly they had highchairs that she could stuff Jacoba into. "What kind of icecream do you eat, Antony?"

"Chocolate with peanut butter and maple syrup on top," he said straight away, completely ignorant of how strange that sounded. "With marshmellows, if they have them, please."

Obviously snacks at his home were a bit bizarre.

"I'll be back in a moment," she said. "Just call me if Jacoba gets too persnickety."

With that, she was gone, leaving Antony with the tiny redhead who was giving him the evil eye. "I's gib Harper cooties," she told him importantly. "I's go school."

"You go to daycare, right?" he asked, trying to figure out what "cooties" was.

"Uhhhuh," she said, picking at the tray at the front of her high-chair. "But now I's go school. You durn't know Puff," she added scornfully, filled with hatred and jealousy that her mother was so friendly to this outsider and that he was also the son of Jacky Paper's bosom buddy. "You stoopid."

"I'm stupid because I don't know a song about a dragon?" he asked. "Well, you're... short."

"Am NOT," she responded. "You." Then, perhaps realising that this was not the best of insults: "Your hair funny."

"I will not lower myself to fight with a baby," Antony said stiffly. "And at least I HAVE hair," he couldn't help but add.

"NOTTABABY," Jacoba insisted, red-cheeked in her inability to make Antony really mad. "I's go school wif Harper."

"Yes, he probably should still be in daycare," Antony said agreeably. "You and he seem to be on the same mental level."

She didn't understand a lot of this, but she puffed up her cheeks, rolled her eyes back in her head and put her teeth on her top lip in order to make the worst possible face she could at Antony. That would show him!

He started to laugh, finding the face funnier than heck!

Just in time to save Antony from death-glares, Beatrix arrived back with Antony's sundae; Jacoba was distracted by her bowl of strawberry icecream with large amounts of sprinkles on top. Beatrix was apparently satisfied with soya-vanilla no-sugar low-cal styrafoam, or whatever it was she was eating out of her cone.

"Have you told Antony about your new brother or sister?" she asked, and Jacoba gave her mother a withering look: why tell Antony anything that embarrassing?

"You're going to have a sibling?" Antony asked curiously. "In a cabbage?"

"Uh-huh, donwanna," the small redhead said sulkily, digging her spoon into her icecream and ending up getting it mostly in her mouth. ("Good girl," said her mother, and Jacoba brightened up a little.) "Brosistas are stoopid. Wanna puppy."

Brosista? Which gender would that be, Antony wondered silently. "I have Evie, she's Uncle Jack's little girl. And Callisto, but she's more like a mom than a sister... but I don't have any real siblings," he said thoughtfully. "Or a puppy, actually."

Jacoba directed a filthy look at her mother, as if to say, Antony doesn't have to have one!. "You'll let Antony play with your little brother or sister if he wants, won't you?" Beatrix asked her gravely.

"Nooooooo," Jacoba said, alight with the twin fires of possession and not wanting a sibling anyway.

"You'll have to excuse her manners," the blonde woman told Antony as Jacoba sulkily dipped into more icecream. "She's being stubborn about her new sibling."

He nodded, understanding possessiveness, and dug into his ice cream with amazing manners even at that speed. "I suppose you'll get used to having a sibling," he said with a shrug. "Probably."

"Sucks," was Jacoba's apparent thoughts on the matter, and she settled into sticking the sprinkles up her nose as she hoed into her icecream. Beatrix finished her scoop of vanilla-styrafoam early, brushing down the front of her shirt for nonexistent pieces of dust as she stood up.

"I'll just go and quickly pick up the class order at the shop next door," she said, trying in vain to quickly dab Jacoba's face clean with a baby wipe in-between spoonfuls of strawberry. "Hundreds cubes in hand, we can start back. I'm glad you two get on so well," she added naively, and hurried off again.

Not quite knowing what to say to this, Jacoba settled for showing Antony her mouthful of chewed-up icecream before starting on the next spoonful.

"That's disgusting," Antony said almost in a commentative manner. "You should chew more before swallowing or you might choke. Father did that once."

"Once I et a slugs," said Jace contemplatively, before sticking in another spoonful. She liked straining the sprinkles through her teeth and turning her lips funny colours. "Was gross."

"So why'd you eat it?" he asked, not quite believing her. That WAS disgusting.

"I dunno." This did not seem to put her off her food: her mouth was turning a food-colouring rainbow as she slurped at her spoon. Her fingers were quickly becoming intensely sticky, but they were over the other side of the table and safely away from Antony. "Was movin' an' I caughted it."

"I... see," he said before going back to his food. Obviously babies had no sense of taste whatsoever.

"Ate Play-Doh," she added, apparently filled with the need to inform Antony of her gastronomic experiences. "Ate grass."

"At the same time?" he asked curiously.

"Nooooooooo!" The small redhead was filled with obvious contempt for Antony's utter stupidity in the face of eating both play-doh and grass. "Duhhhhhh, she added witheringly, which was pretty hilarious coming from a toddler. "Play-Doh ats daycare."

"Not anymore it's not," he said. "You ate it."

This was patently obvious. She looked down at her tummy: the Play-Doh was still in it, and she grudgingly acknowledged Antony as telling the truth. "I puke Play-Doh?"

"Not here, please," he said. "It would smell bad and ruin the ice cream. Not to mention you'd lose the ice cream you've eaten."

She gave a little wicked chuckle, digging her spoon over-full of icecream and stuffing it in her mouth. "Puke on shoes!" she said, not bothering to close her mouth, apparently entranced with the idea of doing this.

"You don't have any," Antony said, disliking where this convo was going.

"Puke on YOU shoe," she argued back, making an appropriate 'puking' noise: "Blehhhh!"

Jacoba did not seem in any danger of throwing up any time soon, however.

He moved his shoes a bit, just in case. "What else have you eaten?" he asked, more to change the subject than because he was curious.

"Dunno." This did not seem to be the most intelligent of answers. Jacoba spent a few seconds chomping sprinkles on her teeth loudly, scattering small fragments of candy on the table. Then: "Gum." Then: "I's an airplane."

He didn't laugh. He really, really didn't laugh. But he felt like it. "How are you an airplane?"

She held both her arms out at right angles to her body, spoon clasped firmly in one chubby hand. These were apparently meant to be wings. "Vreeeeeeeeee!" she shrilled (in a noise that sounded nothing like an airplane, but satisfied her) and then went back to noisily eating icecream.

He went back to eating his ice cream. Beatrix's kid was obviously insane.

HGTV, Eat your heart out: Antony's finally gotten his own room and Iggy comes over to help paint!

Apple Bobbing: At a Halloween party Antony runs into Dr. Darnell and Jace^^

Haunted House: Antony and Delilah go through a haunted house!

It's a Christmas Party! No, Really!: Antony, stuck babysitting Christian, takes the boy to a Christmas Party at Harper's.

Good Times all Around Antony meets a few new faces, as well as Harper stressed They build a snow castle in the park.

Silence in the Library, Please! Antony and Manny get together to work on a project for History. And yet another girl has grown before poor Antony xd

Snakes and Princes: Antony gets his new pet, and runs into Devi on the way^^

It was later in the evening than what Ze'zee would have liked, but as it was, it was the only time she could go. Practicing had been taking up her time, along with caring for her cabbage. Now, most people (including her conductor) thought that she was going a little mad, being on a new planet and everything. That was till she showed them the flyer for the Liberty Center.

But that wasn't why she was out here. No, she wanted to visit the daycare center. This is where her baby would be staying when not with her. Ze figured it would be best to check it out now, rather than later.

Cradled in her arms was her cabbage, in her purse-bag-thing was anything she might need, including but not limited too, the spritzer bottle for her baby cabbage.

"Know what baby? I think they're closed. That would figure, huh?" she said, looking at the slightly darkened building. "But then, it is after little one's bed times." Then she felt guilty for having her cabbage out. Or maybe she was overreacting?

"I... am covered... in chalk," Antony said through gritted teeth as he followed his father to the front of Liberty. "I might not have mentioned this--"

"You have!" Shade said cheerfully. "Several times!"

"But I dislike being this dirt--" then the boy stopped, catching sight of the strange woman standing there. Had she heard his un-princely complaining??

"Hey!" Shade said, waving to the woman. "Can I help you?"

Ze did see the boy's un-princely manner, not that she'd know any different, but she was politely ignoring it (or not knowing the difference, it would seem like she was ignoring it). These two were obviously from the daycare, so, maybe they could help her? If she could just straighten out what it was she needed.

"Uh, yeah, I'm Ze'zee and a new cabbage mom. I just wanted to see what the daycare was like, but I've seemingly come far to late," she said a bit sheepishly, offering her hand in greeting.

Now that dark one was closer (another race she didn't know), she saw that he was rather handsome.

"Oh?" he asked, breaking into a grin. "I'm Shade, I work in the school department of Liberty as the coach. I'm sorry it's closed at the moment, but Antony and I can tell you about it, right, kid?"

"We'd be happy to," Antony said with a brilliant smile. "Is that your cabbage? It looks very happy!"

"I hope so, I'm doing my best," Ze replied to Antony first, flushing in pride. This made her green cheeks look darker in their shade. Then she forced herself to get more vocal in some things she wanted to know. "Well, really, I was kinda curious as to what my child -might- look like. I know it can be so different from normal. But, well, I had wanted to see."

Not that she ever expected her baby to look like her, of course. She didn't choose to have the child a DNA sample one. But she still couldn't help but wonder!

"Ah, that depends on your definition of different," Shade said. "So how long have you had it?" he asked curiously, looking at the cabbage for a long, long moment. There was a strange expression in his eyes after a second, as if he had just noticed something, then it faded again, replaced by a cheery smile.

"I know some kids take longer to hatch than others," he went on, as if warning her. "I know of one that took a few months. But he was... a special case."

Ze's lizard like tail gave a twitch as she noticed that look. Okay, so her cabbage was a little big, but not much more than others. It defiantly wasn't huge by any means! But it was very healthy looking. The leaves were a crisp green, and strong after all.

But she brushed that aside, figuring she'd find out later and smiling at him again. "Not so long as that. And I'm not in too much a hurry-" Which was a lie. She was a mother to be, after all and she wanted to meet her child! "because I know that the child is growing. I'm just new to Gaia it's self, and I only have flyer to tell me what's what. I've never seen things for myself. That was all."

And now she felt a little foolish.

"Well, we can show you around the playground area," Shade said. "It's pretty big. And I can tell you a bit about the daycare workers. They're pretty nice guys." Although he was pretty sure they didn't like him very much. Not that he would tell her that.

"Oh yes, please," she said eagerly then looked to the boy. "But first, who is this young man?" she asked pleasantly, wanting to know both the names of her helpers.

"My name is Antony," Antony said, smiling and bowing slightly. "There's ah, no H in it, by the way. I'm from a cabbage as well."

"He's my son," Shade said, leading her through the playground areas, as well as the black top. "We were getting ready for tomorrow's kickball game in gym class," he explained, pointing to the chalk outline for the field. "Now that we're having a warm spell I thought I'd get the kids outside."

An-TONY and not An-THONY, she mentally noted. And by the way he said his name, he would not like being called Tony. And Shade worked here, as he stated. So that's what he was doing here so late!

As they spoke, Ze'zee's eyes roamed over the play area, smiling at it. Hopefully this would be a place of good memories for her child. "So, at this time of year, here is usually cold?" she asked. "I'm use to a usually warm planet. I don't think I like the cold too much," she grinned. Even in a warm spell, she had a jacket on.

"Unfortunately," Shade agreed. "They haven't played outside that much because of the snow, but that's gone now."

"Ah, well, now at least they'll be able to play in the sun again, without having to freeze," she said. "What else to do they do here? She'll be able to go to school here too?" Ze asked. She had taken to calling her cabbage child a 'she'.

"Definitely," he said. "They go from daycare to college, as far as I can tell. But honestly the oldest kids we have are two teen girls. They're still attending classes with the children, since we haven't set up classes for their age yet."

A hint of a scowl crossed Antony's face, then disappeared again. He would grow soon enough, he told himself. Then they would stop shoving it in his face.

"Oh, that's actually a relief," Ze said, visibly relaxing. "At least we don't have to worry about finding a good school and enrolling the child." She did noticed Antony's irritated look and put it together with the not yet grown to that age.

At least he showed interest in girls! (Even if that wasn't the true reason for his look or want to be a teen.)

"So, about what time does the place open?"

"Liberty's a pretty good school," Shade said honestly. "It's really small, though, so everyone knows everyone. That can be both a good thing and bad one," he admitted. "Antony here gets along with most people, but not all. I would think it was that way for everyone, though."

"Which isn't a bad thing. If they -all- got along, then when they left here for jobs or trips and the like, and met people they didn't like or get along with, they wouldn't know how to deal with them," she said, looking at the positive side of the situation.

"See, now that's the sort of attitude that works," Shade said, shaking his head. "But try telling that to teens and pre-teens. So have you thought of any names for your new kid?"

"Yes, I've been going over names for days," she told him, happy for the small bit of praising. "Austin if it's a boy, and Aurora if it's a girl. I've been thinking more and more that's it a girl. She seems to react to the Aurora name more." With that statement, she hugged her cabbage to her just a little more. The eagerness of a mother written all over her face.

"They're both good names," Shade said. "I have a fairy, she's at home right now, but she used to play music for Antony when he was in the cabbage. At least, I think she did, I never asked if it was for him or her, to be honest. But she swore he reacted to certain types more than others."

"Oh, I play music for her all the time. She seemed to react more to Jimmy Hendrix," she said honestly, enjoying this conversation. "Poor thing has to suffer through my practices though, but I don't think she minds that so much."

He laughed out loud at the Hendrix statement. "Then it sounds like she has good taste," he said. "Are you a musician?"

"Yes, I work in a local orchestra. Though I have to admit, my music isn't near as fun as Hendrix," she grinned at him, having her own laugh in her throat. He had a fairy? How interesting! "I play the violin and base violin."

"I'll pretend that I know the difference between a violin and a base violin," he said, shamelessly.

"One has a deeper pitch than the other, Father," Antony said.

"Ahhh, makes sense!"

"And one is much bigger, yes," she said, beaming at Antony. He knew which was which at least!

"To make the pitch," Antony said. "I watch a lot of educational television," he added shamelessly. But the chalk on his hands was starting to drive him crazy, and his stomach was starting to grumble.

Shade glanced up as he heard it. "Ah, we were about to go to lunch," he said to Ze'zee. "Would you like to join us?"

He meant dinner, more than likely. And she did skip her own meal.... She looked at them both. "If you don't mind?" she asked them. Then she noticed that Antony was messing with the chalk on his hands. Shifting the cabbage in to one arm, she reached into her purse-bag-thing and got some wipes. Moist wipes were always useful.

She handed one little packet to the pre-teen.

"Thank you," Antony said, honestly grateful as he took the moist wipe. "I need to get some of these," he added.

"Did I say lunch?" Shade asked, as if just realizing it. "I guess I forgot that too," he admitted. "And it's perfectly fine. What sounds good?"

"Something hot and well made," Antony suggested.

"I think I passed a sandwich-and-soup shop not to a block away, if you're hungry for that." A hot sandwich did sound good! This cool weather was not her friend. Then, of course, she grinned at Antony. "And I do have more of those, if you need them, Antony."

"Thank you," he said. "I'll probably take you up on that."

"Then soup and sandwiches it is," Shade said. "If you'll just lead the way?"

"This way, boys," she grinned at them, turning to lead them out and to where she saw the shop. Now that she was starting to relax, hints of her funner, more self assured personality was starting to show through. Her mama always taught her to be polite and kind to those you just met. No reason to give a bad example!

She lead them up the said walk where street lamps were shining, leaving no real dark place. Though if it wasn't for Shade's white hair and markings, she swore he could have melted into shadows. Maybe that's why he was named Shade?

"Where do you two live? Is it in walking distance?" she asked them.

"Yeah, we ah, room with a friend of ours named Jack," Shade said. "Nice guy, strange hobbies. But it works out pretty well. Have you got a place in walking distance?"

"It's walk able, anyway. Much easier to take a bus," she told him happily.

Now, at least, she was more content with living on Gaia. It was seeming like she was finally going to make friends with other parents, and El'mik wouldn't have to insist on her returning at any time soon. Not while she was a mommy!

"Good," Shade said. "Now I'm starving, and I'm sure Antony is as well. So let's eat!"

After School Story Time: Antony tells a story to little girls and Chris after school.

Blue Boy's First Detention: Antony is put in detention for sleeping in class (trust me, there's a reason he was) and he and Irelia have an interesting talk.