Feels Like Home

A few weeks later, Adrienne sat at her desk during her free period at school and ate her lunch. She was grateful that her free block was during lunch. She hated having to squeeze her lunch in during twenty minutes and half of which she had to patrol to keep fights from breaking out.

She was checking her mail and shoving the lettuce of her Caesar salad into her mouth. "Junk, junk, junk." She muttered to herself as she deleted several messages claiming that these pills could enhance her breasts and ads to meet men and women in her area. Adrienne had desire to do neither.

"I hate chain mail." She deleted two letters from a coworker with the title so overtaken forward signs, she couldn't read the actual subject.

"What are you up to Steve?" She clicked on the message from her brother Steve, who was a professional skateboarder. It was a short letter of congratulations for getting back with Billie Joe and several pictures of him with his new girlfriend Ava.

A knock at her door interrupted her mail time. "Come in." She put her fork down and wiped her mouth in case any dressing was on her lips.

Misty followed by Principal Sinclair came into her room. Adrienne was quite surprised at the unexpected visitors.

"No need to stand Adrienne, we just need to talk."

Adrienne sank back down into her chair. "Is something wrong?" She was feeling quite nervous.

"Not yet, but there is a situation that could potentially look poorly upon the school and I know you wouldn't want that." Principal Sinclair said firmly as he leaned on one of the school desks.

"Of course not sir." Adrienne responded, her confusion growing. What was he talking about and why was Misty here? "But I don't understand what you're talking about."

"Misty brought it to my attention this morning." He wiped his brow and nodded to Misty, who had bubble-gum pink hair. "I want you to explain it to me so I can explain it to parents." He put down a popular tabloid and a respectable magazine on Adrienne's desk. On the covers of both were a picture of Billie Joe and a smaller one of her with him, the night he took her back to his hotel a few weeks ago.

In shock, Adrienne picked one up and flipped to the marked pages with several pictures of Billie Joe dragging a happy Adrienne dressed only in a T-shirt and shorts up to his hotel room, both with naughty grins on their faces.

There were also pictures of Billie Joe with her at Joey's soccer game and even one of him with Sydney and Joey when they were trick-or-treating. Adrienne's heart pounded as the other magazine showed the same pictures. The text showed blatant wondering of who she was and if she were a gold digger or a prostitute who was pregnant with the punk star's baby and if the two children were secretly his.

"Can you explain this Adrienne." Principal Sinclair pressed.

Adrienne put her hands over her face, embarrassed at the fact that she was being paraded around the world as a slut and that their private moments were for sale beside chewing gum in stores.

"Charles, sir." She breathed heavily and took her hands down. "Billie Joe and I are together. We used to date when we were younger but we were separated because Dookie exploded and I was trying to get through school and we drifted apart. We recently got back together and everything was going so well and..." She tried to control the emotions that were raging inside of her.

"Adrienne," Charles walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. "I know this must be difficult for you. I can't imagine having my personal life broadcasted all over the country." He paused. "But I am aware of the band Green Day and their reputation. As a friend, and as your superior, I feel that maybe you should rethink this situation you have gotten yourself into."

"With all due respect Charles," Adrienne growled. "You cannot tell me who to date. Billie Joe is a great guy. He is wonderful with my kids and for the first time in a long time, we are all happy. If this is the price we have to pay to be happy then we'll pay it." She indicated towards the magazines. "I don't care what my coworkers or people think about me. I know the truth and I don't have to explain it to anyone."

"See Adrienne, that's where you're wrong." Charles was beginning to get upset. He picked up a double framed picture off her desk.

One side was the one of Adrienne and Billie Joe when they were younger and the other was a more recent one of Billie Joe asleep on the couch with Sydney asleep on top of him.

"I know you care about this man but you also do have to think about your reputation. You are an employee of the Pine school system and there are certain rules and creeds you must abide by. It's in your contract that if you engage in anything that would reflect poorly upon the school, you could be terminated."

"What are you saying?" Adrienne was beginning to see red as she snatched the pictures away.

"I'm saying that one of our teachers dating a man who sticks his hand down his pants and kisses men at concerts to draw a crowd and who named his band after marijuana is something that could look poorly upon the school." He stopped to control himself. "The superintendent and I have talked and we don't want to let you go Adrienne, you're a great teacher and you took a position that is very difficult to fill. But if you keep on parading yourself with this man and his antics, we will have no choice."

There was a silence. Adrienne was fighting tears of frustration. She badly wanted to walk out and quit but she knew she couldn't pay bills when she didn't have a job and Christmas was just around the corner.

"Adrienne," Charles tried again. "I know that this is awkward and difficult. Why don't you take the rest of the day off. It's Friday and Monday is the start of Thanksgiving break and think about it. We'll see you when you get back." He motioned to Misty to leave with him.

"I'm not leaving sir." Adrienne said to their retreating backs. "I have no reason to hide my face."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"You should have just walked out." Billie Joe told Adrienne as she talked to him on the phone as she prepared dinner.

"Billie Joe I can't do that and you know it. I have bills to pay and kids to take care of." Adrienne was in a grouchy mood and was not in the mood to argue.

"I could take care of you." He growled. He was also in a bad mood as the air line had lost one of his bags and the hotel had problems checking them in. He was also running on small hours of sleep and his eyes were burning from overuse.

"No, I can take care of myself and my children." Adrienne's voice was rising. "I can't just rely on you for everything Billie Joe. I have been an independent woman my entire life and I won't stop being that for you."

"I don't want you to I just want you to let me take care of you some. Shit Adrienne you won't let me do anything for you." Billie Joe threw a pillow across the bed in frustration.

"You do plenty Billie Joe, shut up with your whining." Adrienne slammed a pot on the stove.

"Don't tell me to shut up."

"Dammit Billie Joe, ugh."

Billie Joe threw the phone across the room, the dial tone shrieking as it went. Adrienne had hung up on him.

"Hey Billie Joe, we're going out to eat, do you... Whoa, what's wrong?" Mike came into the room and dodged a flying phone.

"Adrienne." Billie Joe cursed as he stalked over to the television and flipped it on just to turn it back off. "She's in a bitchy mood and she's taking it out on me. For some reason, the principal of her school told her that if she didn't stop seeing me she would get fired and I asked why she didn't just walk out and she said she couldn't do that because she needed a job and I told her that I would take care of her and she said she didn't want me to and it just went to fucking Hell from there." He backwards onto the bed, his lips twisted into a scowl.

"Oh, a fight." Mike sighed. "Well, why did the principal guy say anything? What right does he have to tell her who to date?"

Billie Joe waved off the question. "It's some clause in her contract that says if she does anything that may look bad on the school she could get fired and I guess dating me would make the school look bad somehow. Not that it's anyone's fucking business."

"But why did he say anything? You guys have been keeping this under wraps."

Billie Joe's scowl unwound into a pensive, confused look. "I don't know. As far as I know, we haven't been leaked or anything. How did he know?" Billie Joe sat up on his arms. His phone rang from a distant corner.

"You gonna answer that?" Mike's eyebrows were raised at the curious situation Billie Joe was in.

"Yeah," Billie Joe went over and answered it. It was his older sister Anna, who was in California.

"Billie Joe you should be ashamed." She scolded him as she held a magazine out in front of her and glared at the layout of pictures and text.

"For what?" He snapped back, he was defiantly not in the mood for games at the moment.

"Almost every magazine available is calling Adrienne a gold digging whore and saying terrible things about her kids and you haven't said anything yet. What is your problem?"

"What?" Billie Joe met Mike's eyes in shock. "I gotta go. Mike, we're going to the nearest magazine stand, gas station, whatever."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"I don't believe this." Billie Joe groaned as the pictures of him and Adrienne mocked up at him. He leaned his arms on the counter of the gas station as his hands tangled in his tussled hair, the cashier behind the counter giving them bored looks.

"Are you going to pay for those?" He asked in a monotonous tone.

Billie Joe threw down some bills and slumped out of the store, magazines before him. "How? Nobody was around, this is... Ugh fuck, shit, hell, fuck "

Mike drove as Tre' looked through another magazine in the dim car light. "Uh, I think I have an idea." Tre' handed the one he had been looking at to Billie Joe which bore a double page spread of pictures, but a quarter of one of the pages had a picture of Caylyn with the heading 'My punk rock boyfriend cheated on me with a trashy prostitute. '