I Won't Give Up

The drive to the school was a fairly quiet one, the only sounds in the car was the steady breathing of Junior and the faint orchestral music from the CD I popped in before we left the house. Dawson was currently fiddling with his phone, looking uncertain, and glancing back at Ameila, I saw that she was looking more nervous than before. Popping the CD out, I threw in the only Celtic Thunder CD I owned, skipped all the songs until I got to the one song that I knew she liked.

The song started, and I turned it up just enough that we could all hear it clearly and it wouldn't wake up Junior. I saw her eyes light up, and she looked at me expectantly. Gently, I sang, "When you wish upon a star, it makes no difference who you are. Anything your heart desires, will come to you." I turned the corner and pulled up to the sidewalk in front of school.

Before I could continue, Dawson joined in, "If your heart is in your dream, no request is too extreme. When you wish upon a star as dreamers do." As we turned the car off and got the kids settled outside, me holding a sleeping Junior and Dawson holding Ameila's hand, we continued to softly sing as we went to the front door's of the school.

"Room is this way," Dawson said when we got to a 2-way hallway, indicating to go left. As we walked, Junior woke up and looked around with sleepy eyes. I checked his diaper, and noticed he was in need of one soon.

“Go on ahead, Dawson. Junior here is loaded,” I said, pressing a kiss to his head and then Ameila’s. Walking into the bathroom, I popped open the changing table and carefully set Junior down. He started gurgling, making me smile and tickle him a bit. His laugh came out in a squeal and I chuckled.

One he was in a clean diaper, I tossed the dirty diaper and picked Junior back up. Walking out, I saw a few kids running from a teacher. The teacher and the aid grabbed all but one, who was running towards my direction. Once he was close, I scooped him up and made my way to the teacher. “I believe this one belongs to you,” I said, smiling as I handed the young boy over.

“Thank you so much!” she said, looking thoroughly relieved. “Sometimes I wish I had four arms. It would be so much easier!”

“Tell me about it. I’m having a hard time with Junior here and my daughter. I can’t imagine any more,” I replied, looking at the small group of kids they had. “Well, I better go find my better half. Hope you don’t have any more runaways,” I said, waving goodbye as I stalked off.

Turning the corner, I immediately saw Dawson and Ameila, both standing outside of a classroom as Dawson talked to the teacher. Striding over to them, Ameila immediately hitched two of her fingers in my belt loop. The teacher looked over at me then and started looking between the two of us. “Are you two … together? Their parents?” she asked, indicating the kids.

“If us being together is going to affect Ameila’s education, I’m going to go raise something ugly,” Dawson said, getting defensive.

“Dawson, calm yourself,” I said, gripping his shoulder. “Is our being together an issue?” I asked, the teacher, looking at her directly.

“No, it’s not,” she said, causing Dawson to ease up just the slightest bit. “It just shocked me a bit at first,” she went on, looking uncomfortable.

“Come on, Dawson,” I said, grabbing Ameila’s hand. “Clearly Ameila isn’t welcome here.” Dawson glared one last moment at the woman before wrapping grabbing Ameila’s other hand.

“Daddy, why am I not welcome here?” Ameila asked once she was buckled in her seat. I stared back at her for a long moment before responding.

“Some people don’t agree with the special love between your mother and I,” I said, earning a slight nod from her. As we pulled away, she said the one phrase that made more sense than anything else in the world.

“Well, they must not understand love at all.”