Chocolate Eyes

The night before Evander's first day of school he refused to go to sleep, claiming that if he did morning would come sooner and he'd be dropped at school all alone. Brian tried to comfort the boy to no avail and finally had to leave the EJ in his room to fall asleep alone.

In the morning, EJ pretended that he couldn't wake up until Brian finally made him, then as he got dressed, he complained he had a stomach ache.

"You're fine, Evander," Brian replied as the boy stood in the middle of the room, his arms wrapped around his tummy. "You're just nervous, you'll be fine."

"What if I throw up on someone?" EJ asked, his eyes widening, "Then they really won't like me."

Brian sighed softly and stepped away from his son's closet. He turned around and crouched down in front of EJ, touching his back reassuringly. "E, you'll be fine," Bri promised, rubbing his back, "You're going to make so many friends and everyone is going to love you."

Evander frowned and frustratedly pushed his growing blonde hair off of his forehead. "Can I go tomorrow?" he asked in a quiet voice, realizing that his dad wasn't going to let him back out of it.

Brian smiled and shook his head. He lifted EJ up and turned back to the closet so the little boy could pick out his own clothes.

Within an hour Brian was pulling his son out of the house. EJ dragged with him his brand new backpack, one with the Batman icon on it since EJ had recently discovered the world of superheroes.

"What are you doing here!?" Evander yelled as he saw his uncles leaning against his dad's car, "Are you coming to school with me?"

Zacky walked over from where he was standing near the front of the car. "We figured we'd see you off," he said, lifting his nephew up, "And you can tell people we're your body guards if you feel like anyone is being mean to you."

"Which they won't," Matt added as he pulled open the back door of Brian's vehicle after he unlocked it. "But just in case, you can tell them we'll beat them up or something."

EJ giggled, obviously relaxed by the idea of having all his uncles with him on the way there. Zacky handed EJ over to Johnny who strapped in him to his car-seat. The guys climbed in around seven-thirty and were pulling up to Huntington Seacliff Elementary school within fifteen minutes.

"I changed my mind!" Evander shouted loudly as the guys started getting out. Through the open door he could see just a few other kids and their parents walking into the huge white building.

"You never made up your mind in the first place, Ev," Brian stated as he yanked his reluctant child out of the car and into his arms. "You're going."

"But Daddy," Evander complained, trying to shimmy out of his arms, "I want to spend more time with you."

"You'll see me and the guys after school. We're going to be right here to get you at two-thirty."

Walking up to the school, the four of them looked very out of place, and with a young, wide-eyed boy with them, some parents and teachers were sending them second and third glances.

"What's your teacher's name?" Johnny asked as they headed inside the main doors.

"I don't know!" EJ whispered desperately, trying to ignore the groups of other kids and parents as they headed to meet their new teachers, too.

"Ms. Fadden," Brian responded, pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket, "Room nineteen."

Th guys headed down the wide hallways, counting the room numbers as they went. They rounded a corner to a hallway with huge glass windows on one side and classroom doors on the other. Brian lifted EJ higher in his arms as he spotted room nineteen, the first one in the hall.

The door was covered with artwork from previous students and below the window "Ms. Fadden" was written on a decent sized poster.

"You ready, little man?" Brian asked, looking back to his son's identical and nervous eyes.

"No, lets go home," he replied, grabbing onto Matt's shirt so that Brian couldn't take another step towards the door.

Matt chuckled and tried to pry the little boy's fingers off of him. Evander just grabbed on with the other hand before Brian could step away.

"Just come with, Matt," Brian instructed, sighing at his son, "Even though everything will be alright," he added.

EJ's eyes widened when he was carted through the door with both of them while Zacky and Johnny waited outside.

When they stepped through the door, Brian looked around the empty room for the teacher that he had yet to meet. Up until now, he'd been completely composed for EJ's sake, but now he recognized the swirling in the pit of his stomach to be nerves. He honestly didn't want to leave EJ as much as EJ wanted to be left, but he knew that it was time for school and there wasn't much he could do about it.

All night crazy thoughts had been running through his head and he wondered if he should've chosen a private school for EJ instead of one so open. He worried that the news of his son was rising and eventually some insane fan would make their way here.

Before EJ ever came into the picture, he and the guys had talked over beers about wanting their future kids to be normal kids and grow up just like they had. Public school was a different atmosphere than private, and Brian wasn't really interested in the conformity of school uniforms or the idea of separating his son from the real world and kids with everyday parents.

But standing here now, Brian started to second guess his decision, wondering if a private school building would be more secure.

"Relax, man," Matt whispered so EJ couldn't hear, "Everything is going to be fine. They don't let anybody walk in off the street."

Brian nodded reassuringly, not bothering to wonder how Matt knew what was bothering him. They'd been friends for so long that they could basically sense these things in each other.

Brian looked up to a short-haired, red-headed woman as she walked through a door on the left of the room, a few kids younger than EJ following her through. "Hello, I'm Terryn Fadden," she greeted politely, looking between the three of them as she stepped up in front of them.

"Ms. Fadden," Brian noted, putting a smile on his face as he set his son on his feet, "My name is Brian Haner and this is Evander." He touched his son's head softly before sliding his hand to the boy's back to push him forward reassuringly.

"Evander," Ms. Fadden said as she crouched down in front of him, "It's nice to meet you." She grinned and held her hand out to the wide-eyed boy.

EJ just stared at her, refusing to shake her hand.

"EJ," Brian grunted, lightly hitting the boy's back.

The four year old sighed and reached out to shake his new teacher's hand. Ms. Fadden chuckled and stood up so she could talk to his father and the man standing next to him.

"You're a new parent here, aren't you?" she asked, knowing she didn't meet him at the end of the previous year like she had with most of her new students' parents.

"I'm a new parent, period," Brian replied, a slight smirk-like smile on his lips as his son glared at the younger kids in the room. Matt caught Brian's eye and Bri nodded to EJ. Matt crouched down and scolded EJ for glaring, warning him that being mean wasn't any way to make friends.

"You two seem good with him," Ms. Fadden replied, smiling at the guys and their boy. "How long has he been with you?"

Brian grinned when he realized what she thought. "He's my biological son," he explained, "Matt is my best friend, we're not together or anything."

Terryn nodded quickly, pushing those thoughts away as the man in front of her chuckled, not upset by her assumption. "I'm sorry," she murmured, smiling at the dark-haired man in front of her, "I just don't get too many guys bringing in a child together."

Brian shrugged. "EJ wanted a body-guard..." he trailed off, not needing to explain why he picked Matt for the position. "Plus, my friends love the kid."

Brian glanced at the clock on the wall above the row of large windows. "I don't mean to use up all your time," he stated, his eyes moving back to her as Matt lifted EJ up, "But there are a couple things I'd like to talk with you about before I just leave him here."

"Yeah, of course," Ms. Fadden replied, nodding understandingly. "I figured that's why you came so early since the morning daycare started much earlier. Would you like to have a seat at my desk? I'm sure Evander would like to look around."

Matt gently smacked the boy's arm when the four year old began to glare again, the idea of leaving his dad and Matt so quickly not appeasing him.

"Knock it off," Brian instructed, "Uncle Matt will help you make some friends. So, get lost." He ruffled the unwilling boy's hair and turned his attention back to his teacher, allowing her to lead him over to the large desk in the corner of the room.

Brian sat in the wooden chair next to her desk and pulled his right ankle up to rest on his left knee as Ms. Fadden motioned for him to talk about what he needed to.

The red haired woman played with the ends of her short hair as she waited for the father in front of her to begin. She didn't know who he was, but the t-shirt that his son was wearing sparked some kind of recognition in her that she couldn't explain.

Brian pulled the all-black fedora off of his head and ran his fingers through his dark hair, unknowing where to start without sounding like a conceited rock-star.

"Mr. Haner," Ms. Fadden started, trying to get him to relax. It was usual for a new parents to be worried about their child, especially if this was the child's first year of school. Many of her students this year had spent their last year in this school and returned to the same school for kindergarden. "I promise you that your son with be perfectly fine in my class. He seems like a good boy, he'll be happy here."

Brian nodded. "I know he will, but there is one other thing I need to talk to you about," he continued right away, "I'm in a pretty widely-known band and the media and the fans are just beginning to find out about EJ. I'm a little worried about the security of the school. I don't want anyone to be able to walk in and swipe him from the building after school."

The teacher was a little surprised to learn that he was in a band and that it was famous enough to have fans who might threaten the safety of his son but she nodded professionally and replied, "Of course, Mr. Haner-"

"You can call me Brian," he cut her off, smiling politely as he motioned for her to continue.

"Brian," she started again, her smile unable to match the amount of charm in his, "I promise you that no one will get their hands on your son. If you would like I could personally wait with him everyday and we can set up a file that has the pictures of people who are allowed to pick him up," she motioned towards Matt and EJ on the other side of the room, "Because I see how close you are with your friends, so I'm assuming they might be picking him up in the future."

Brian was immediately relieved by her words and he nodded gratefully. "That sounds like a good idea," he breathed, glancing back to his son, "I want him to be able to go to a public school like kids with normal parents, but I'm just so worried that something is going to happen to him."

"I understand," Ms. Fadden replied, smiling softly as she watched the man in front of her watch his son. She still had so many questions about how he came to be with the child, but she knew it wasn't her place to ask. She was just his son's teacher, his personal life was none of her business. "I'll look out for him."

"Thanks," Brian murmured before he called across the room for Matt and EJ.

EJ came racing across the room, running between the mini tables and chairs. He jumped into his dad's lap, wrapping his arms around the dark-haired man's neck. "You're not leaving yet, are you?"

"I'm going to have to leave sometime, E," Bri replied, glancing at the clock on the wall. "Plus, you're not going to want your dad around when you make friends. They're going to think that we're weird."

"I don't care," EJ muttered, his words muffled against the shoulder of Brian's black leather jacket.

Bri pushed EJ back and stood up with him in his arms. "It's only for a few hours, Buddy," Brian assured, "I'll be here afterwards to pick you up. Crispen said you've done this before. Is that where your mom and Jake met?"

EJ shook his head, pouting. "I didn't go to school before," he explained pitifully, resting his head on his dad's shoulder, "Mommy and me would go get mommy's friend lunch. Sometimes Mommy and Sue would let me stay and play with the other kids during recess."

Brian was once again surprised by the amount of control Claudia had over her son. He never imagined that she would keep him out of school so that she could watch over him. In the information that Victoria Rochotte got from Jake Taylor, it said that Claudia had decided to homeschool both boys this year but Brian couldn't imagine keeping a little boy away from other kids.

Brian helped EJ find the chair with his name on it and stayed while EJ decorated his name card. When other parents started showing up to drop off their kids, Brian knew that it was time to go, whether EJ wanted him to or not.

"Don't go," EJ begged, grabbing onto his dad's arm, "I don't wanna stay."

Brian tossed his car keys to Matt and told him that he would be out in a couple of minutes. Matt nodded and left the room, ignoring some of the strange looks he was getting from a few moms and dads.

"E, just pick a kid who looks cool and go and talk to them, I promise you that nothing bad is going to happen while I'm not here," he repeated once again, hoping that EJ would calm down before he worked himself into a tizzy.

"Daddy, no please," EJ begged, tears coming to his dark eyes, "Please, don't leave me here alone."

Brian motioned for Evander to give him a hug and the little boy practically rocketed into his dad's arms.

"Okay, E," Brian said after a moment, "I love you and I'll see you after school. I'll be here first thing to pick you up."

"No, daddy," EJ responded as Brian set the little boy back in his chair, "Please!"

Brian kissed his son's head and stood up as tears fell from EJ's eyes. Bri knew he would be fine once he was gone but the longer he stayed the more attached EJ became to having him there.

Brian walked out of the school alone, his hands shoved in his pockets as he fiddled with EJ's ipod. Since Brian had picked EJ up from Child Services, walking away without him was the hardest thing he'd done, even if it was the right thing to do.

There were going to be many more hard times in their future, Bri knew that, but along with the nerves, Brian was proud of the both of them. They were finally acting like a real family, doing important things together that would impact their future.

It was slightly ironic that becoming the son of a famous guitarist was the push EJ needed to start acting like every other kid.