Sweet Child O' Mine

"Do we really have to go?" Halley asked anyone from the spot by me. Her head was rested on the window and her arms were crossed. She huffed when Uncle Matt looked in the rearview mirror and nodded. "But it's only-"

"Parent Teacher Confrences. That we need to go to." nodded Dad while he pulled into the school parking lot. "I told you Halley,if you're not passing one of your classes Vile Verses is going to be on hold until you are."

While Dad got out of the car, Halley sat in and pouted like a child. I rolled my eyes, getting out of the car and over to Uncle Matt. The day I called him, he came back to my house and asked if I wanted to talk. I told him no as politely as I could, but the anger from him not being able to give up a minute of his time frusterated me like you wouldn't beleive. But since then, I calmed down, and Uncle Matt was on my good side again. Though he never knew he was even on my bad one.

"Get out now Halley." Dad said loudly hitting the front of the Silver Escalade, not hard enough to dent the new car.

She huffed, and opened the door, stepping out and closing the door roughly. She hurried up to Dad, who was already walking towards the school, trying to talk to him. But the only talk they did, was screaming at each other.

I walked closer to Uncle Matt, not comfortable with the situation between Halley and my Father's argument. It was weird seeing those two fight. Almost as weird as Uncle Zacky clipping his toe nails on our coffee table. Though, that is weird, them fighting was a different kind of weird. An awkward weird. The kind where you don't know what to do when your put in the situation to constantly hear it.

Uncle Matt smiled down at me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders but not before shaking a hand in my hair. I scrunched my nose up as he laughed and tapped my shoulder.

"I know your father doesn't have to worry about your grades," He grinned, opening the entrance door of the school. "I bet your getting straight A's."

I shrugged, my face expression falling to a sad frown.

"Halley, no." Dad said sternly. I looked away from Uncle Matt and over to Halley and Dad. His face was tilted down, and his eyes almost closed giving the 'don't say another word' look. He turned around away from her and pulled out his cell phone, putting it to his ear and answering it.

Halley, on the other hand, was glaring daggers at his back, her nose scrunched up. And after a minute, her face held pure pain while she grabbed the cast planted on her nose. Ever since she received the broken nose, she's been crabbier. Everytime someone tries to talk to her, she snaps at them for no reason. And by everybody, I mean everybody, espicially me.

"Alright. Yeah. Bye Dad." My father said into the sidekick. He hung up, and put it in his pants before turning around.

"Why'd Grandpa call?" Halley asked, forgetting about being mad at him. She picked at the cast, her eyes going crosseyed.

"He wants us to come visit him on November 1st for a family reunion, thing." He shrugged, fixing the black fedora on his head.

"Dad, I have a show that day!" She shrieked, while she looked straight at him, her hands still on her nose.

He shook his head. "You're not going to have any shows until your passing all your classes. And get your hand of your damn nose."

She huffed, and dropped her hands from her cast before trudging behind Dad who was already walking down the hallway.

Uncle Matt, who's arm was still aroudn my shoulder, pushed us forward to walk down the hallway. The path that led us towards our grades.

&&&&

"Look at it Uncle Matt! Look!" She squealed, pushing the paper into Uncle Matt's face. His head pushed back while his eyes went wide trying to adjust his vision to see it. He grabbed the paper from her and starred down at it, a smile forming.

"Only one F, that's pretty good." He nodded, giving the paper back.

"One F, isn't good. You know what that means Halley." Dad said while he walked out of the classroom his hands in his pocket.

"But I'm only 3 percent away from getting a D. And you heard the teacher. If I do extra credit, it'll be raised in two weeks." She remarked. "Plus, since it's in Math and we all know how bad at it I am, I have Halley here who can help me with it since we know she's like, the smartest math person ever." Smiling she wrapped an arm around my shoulder. And just like that, she pretended she wasn't mad at me at all.

Dad shook his head, waving out what she just said before removing one of his hands in his pockets, sliding it through his dark brown hair while sighing. "Let's just get going, I'm way tired."

"But, I still have one more class to go to."

"So does Kayla." Uncle Matt said.

"Reynolds?" Halley asked looking down, her arm still around my shoulder . I nodded pushing a blonde strand behind my ear. "Dad, Ms.Reynolds was the one with a long line. And I really want to go because she's my favorite teacher." She pleaded.

Dad looked at her blinking a couple of times before looking at me. "You have her too?"

I nodded, not verbalizing my answer.

He sighed and rubbed his head. "Fine."

Halley grinned while she took off towards Ms.Reynolds room, Dad following right behind her, and Uncle Matt and I last just like before.

When we got to Ms.Reynolds room, the line like Halley mentioned earlier, was starting to get smaller. Though it was only Ms.Reynolds first year teaching here, she had some sort of power to make her be all the students favorite teacher.

The line was small, but there was still people in front of us. A kid with dark short brown hair, and a plaid t-shirt tucked into his pants had his arms crossed, a look of pure boredness consuming his face while his mother, I'm presuming by the grey that was starting to form in the roots of her hair, was shouting into her phone. All I could make out of her harsh tone of voice was something about a hospital.

And when I heard her talk, I felt bad for the kid. The same, I felt for myself. Because just like me, the kid had it hard. His mom looked like she never paid attention to him at all. And I could only say, I know how he felt.

The lady snapped her phone shut, pushing it deep into the pocket of her jacket. She sighed deeply, closing her eyes tightly, and when she opened them up the people from the room came out and she mumbled and harsh 'finally'. The kid rolled his eyes, and I gave him that look. The look that most people hate. The look of sympathy.

"Dad, I'm serious, she's like the best teacher this school has ever seen!" Halley pressed, while she waved her arms around trying to show Dad how imporant Ms.Reynolds was.

Dad nodded, before pulling out his sidekick and opening it up to text message. Halley huffed, crossing her arms and turned around looking at Uncle Matt and I.

"Why is he so crabby?" She questioned, un-crossing her arms, and looking down sad.

Uncle Matt smiled sympathetically, and patted her shoulder. "He's just had a long day at work."

She nodded before sighing then looking up and smiling. "Where's Maddi?"

He blinked a couple of times, thinking. "Oh, at your guy's house, she's making dinner for us."

"Sweet. When she cooks it's kick ass." Halley smiled.

After Halley said that, the kid and mom from before walked out of the room. Her eyes we're lowered to thin slits while her finger was pointing at the kid. Her voice was low, not high enough for me to hear why she was scolding the boy.

"Sucks to be that kid." Uncle Matt chuckled. And all I could do was look at Uncle Matt, no expression on my face.

"Our turn." Halley nodded, she walked into the room Uncle Matt and I following after her.

"Hey, let me take this call and I'll be in there in a second." Dad pointed to his phone. Uncle Matt nodded, pushing my shoulder slightly into the room.

When we walked into the room, Halley was already sitting in a chair in front of her desk, both of them talking and nodded. Ms. Reynolds looked different. Her hair, usual curled, was so straight, making her brown hair an extra three inches longer.

She looked over in the door way and smiled seeing Uncle Matt and I, before waving her hand, saying 'come over here'. I smiled softly, before walking over there and taking a seat next to Halley, and Uncle Matt taking a seat next to me.

"Hello. I'm Ms. Reynolds, and I'm guessing you're Halleys' and Kaylas' father?" She smiled, sticking her hand out.

"Oh, no no. I'm just their Uncle Matt." He laughed, sticking his hand out to shake it. "Their Dad is outside taking a phone call."

Her mouth made an O, before smiling, and looking at Halley. "Well then I'll just wait to start until he gets in."

"You can start, I'm here now." I turned around and watched as Dad, looked at his screen, walking over here and barely looking up to watch where he was going. He took a seat next to Uncle Matt and finished up typing before putting his phone in his pocket. He looked up and I sware his eyes were bigger than saucers.

"Mel?" He asked.

Ms. Reynolds mouth dropped before she smiled. "Brian?"

Before I knew it, they were both got up giving each other hugs.

Unlike the Escalade, you could tell that my fathers' and Ms. Reynolds relationship, was nothing close to new.