Adoption Adjustment 16

Sitting in the booth Kennedy looked down at his hands in his lap as his legs swung freely as they dangled down. He paid little attention to the animatronic band that played up on the stage, he cared little for the childish entertainment, nor for the fact he was still wearing a dress and even worse now a training bra underneath. ‘Don’t say anything, be small, don’t be noticed.’ He told himself, not wanting to draw even the slightest attention from the blonde man that had joined them at the restaurant.  

Back at the store when he still had refused to answer the brats or try on any of the clothes the youngest one, Abby had taken measures into her own hands. She had literally gotten down on her hands and knees and crawled under the changing rooms door. Seeing her pop into the small room had startled him and to get her out he quickly agreed to whatever the little terrorist wanted, but saying he was done trying on the clothes had only worked out to the full load of them being bought and now sitting across from yet another adult that would only see him as a child and things seemed to only get worse from there. He obviously liked aunt Rosie with how he flirted and it looked like it was reciprocated with how she laughed or giggled. There was little to no chance someone like her would ever be with him, even in a year when he was eighteen, but seeing how easily she somehow picked up a date while out clothes shopping did little for what remained of his ego.

“So, what toppings do you girls like on your pizza?” Reagan asked knowing it mattered little with the low quality of the food that was offered at a place like this . He had gone to one of these places only once, for one of his nephews birthdays when he had been up in New York and unless they had made some dramatic changes to how they made things, then he was in store for some pizza flavored cardboard, but it was an easy price to pay if he got what he wanted.


“Mmmmmmm! Pepperoni! Abby said in nothing close to an inside voice.

McKenzie gave the bearded man a weak smile at her little sister's antics. She loved the idea of her aunt randomly stumbling into a man as she took care of them, him offering to pay for all of  their dinner and the two falling in love. It felt like one of the stories she read, the only thing that was missing was him protecting them all from a bad guy. The man, Reagan, didn't look like one of those big tough guys, he had big blue eyes, the same eyes she felt herself falling for in Kennedy before she got to know her new brother… or sister if things kept up. Unlike Kennedy, Reagan had an easy smile that she just knew her aunt Rosie would love. “She likes to pull the pepperoni off to eat them before she eats her then cheese pizza.”

“Ohhh, I see.” Reagan said, rocking his head back. In his line of work they called this kissing babies, interact with the young and feign as much interest as you could to get them smiling. Kids smiling around you was always great for photos, the polls and what he was going for this time, the ladies. “You know, I do that too sometimes.” He said conspiratorially, giving what he was told the youngest of the group a wink, before giving his attention to the little redheaded girl. Reagan had always been good with names and making friends, the key was playing to what people wanted. The eldest girl seemed to want to be mature or at least seen that way, the middle child was quiet and seemed happy to be ignored. Something he could understand with her older sister’s desire to be in charge and her younger sister's need for attention.

“McKenzie, it sounds like you have a good idea of what your sisters want. Why don’t you order for them and…” He gave a small shrug of his shoulder. “And us too.” He then glanced over to Rose to see if she would disagree, but was happy to see her smiling.

Rosemarie was pleasantly surprised to see how easy Reagan was interacting with the girls, he hadn’t said much to Dee Dee, but she hadn’t said much to anyone. She imagined the girl felt overwhelmed with getting so much at the mall. Rosemarie knew that once upon a time she would have been blown away by something like that happening and she was positive the girl still didn’t feel like she deserved it, something she would have to continue to work on. “That sounds fine. Kenzie, If you could order me a diet coke I would appreciate it.” Rosemarie said, making eye contact with her niece and motioning to her new little sister before putting down her laminated menu.

“Hey.” McKenzie said in a soft voice as she bumped her shoulder into the dress wearing boy. “What do you like on your pizza?” The only response she received was a shrug of his shoulders, he hadn’t even bothered to look up from his lap. “No shrugging or I will ask for umm.. Green peppers, do you like green peppers?” She asked, having to rub her tongue on her teeth to try and scrape away the phantom flavor of the disgusting things.

“I… I like bacon.” Kennedy said, flicking his eyes to the girl for just a moment, wishing he had brought his new book in here to read instead of having to interact with others and most of all not see the blonde guy who could actually grow a beard flirt with aunt Rosie. It was so unfair, if he could grow a beard, anything really, then maybe people would see him for a man. He liked to imagine himself getting out of a nascar, pulling off his helmet, brushing one hand through his thick trimmed beard as he flipped his long hair in the air. Two sexy girls wearing nothing but bikinis and high heels rushing over to him with a trophy. That was the future he wanted and sitting at Chuck E Cheese wearing a yellow dress, a training bra and girls Mary Jane shoes was about as far from that as he could get.

“I like bacon too.” Mckenzie said, bumping her shoulder into the boy once more. “Abby says it tastes like meat salt, whatever that means, but we could get two pizzas?” The statement to Kennedy turned into more of a question as she looked at her aunt and then to Reagan.

“Bacon is fantastic.” Reagan said, resting his chin on his hand as he leaned forward on the table. “You know Dee Dee, you have good taste. Your sisters helped me pick out a tie for an important event tomorrow, but now I’m wondering if I didn’t miss out by not waiting for you to be done trying on clothes.”

Seeing an opportunity, Rosemarie reached over and knocked her knuckles on the table once in front of the damaged girl to get her attention. Seeing her lift her face up she gave her what she hoped was a kind reassuring smile, something Rosemarie knew how to weaponize on men, but felt unsure of when talking with her nieces. In everyday life she was confident, something she learned to fake long ago, but with her family she always felt less sure. Afraid she was going to mess up and end up destroying something good she had. Faking confidence as she second guessed herself was part of life Miah had told her. “I agree, you do have good taste. What car was that on the front of your new book?”

“Ferrari four eighty eight Pista.” Kennedy was confident he was right, but you wouldn’t know it by the tone of his voice. He just felt so small and lost he couldn’t build up the nerve to even pretend to be confident. Life felt like a freefall, he didn’t know which way was up. Here he was pretending to be a ten year old girl, a full seven years younger than he was and the wrong gender, it was a nightmare, yet he had never received so much positivity from people in his life.

“Pista huh?” Reagan said to the shy girl. He had to fight down the urge to look over to the girl’s aunt. All of this was for her and he wanted to see how she was reacting, but that could give away his intentions, so instead he clamped down on that feeling. “You know, I got to test drive one of those once. A really fast car, a little too dangerous for someone like me.”

Hearing that the guy had driven the car caught Kennedy’s attention. The car went for around two hundred thousand to five hundred thousand. “You drove one!? They can umm get to over sixty miles per hour in about a minute.”

“I wanna go fast! Take me!” Abigail said, happy to latch onto Dee Dee’s interest if it meant she wasn’t left out of the conversation.

“He doesn’t have the car with him Abby bug, but my rental car goes pretty fast. Maybe you can have a turn in the front seat on the way home.” Rosemarie said, hoping to mollify the girl.

The conversation went on for a little longer till the teenage waitress, who looked like she wasn’t old enough to serve beer, came to take their order. She took note that Dee Dee pulled back into herself when the waitress came to the table, but for a few minutes she had come into her own as they discussed something she was passionate about. Making her want to see if she could use that to help the girl come out of her shell. Thoughts of seeing if there was a car show that weekend or trying to find other things she might take interest in flooded her mind. It would all still have to be balanced with what Kenzie and Abby could or would want to do, but she was damned sure she was going to do her best to make Dee Dee feel like part of this family.

With the food ordered Rosemarie clapped her hands together twice, something she picked up from one of her foster homes, one she had shared with her sister for a time. Their foster mother had always clapped her hands twice to get all six of the kids attention that she watched over. “Okay, food will be on the way shortly, but for now I think it is time for you girls to go have some fun on the games.” She said, pulling out three rolls of tokens each containing five dollars worth of coins. Handing one roll of coins to her eldest niece, she then put another down in front of Dee Dee and then last she held up the final roll. “Abby bug, I’m going to break this up into three, they are all for you, but you are going to get a third, and each of your sisters are going to get a third.”

“But!” The girl proclaimed before stopping when her aunt held up her hand.

“They are all yours, but I want you to go to your sisters when you run out of coins. I just want to make sure you don’t lose any.” That was only partially the truth, she was sure Abby would put them down and get distracted, but she also could just spend them all rapidly and making her go ask for them from the others would slow her down. While at the same time showing that she was trusting the other two with responsibility. She was sure the move would make her sister proud, so long as it didn’t start a fight.

With money, or fake money in hand McKenzie, Kennedy and Abigail went off into the arcade area. The lights from the various games reflected off Kennedy’s eyes as he looked out  across the various games. It wasn’t like he had never been to an arcade before, he had played plenty of games, just not often and had never been given a full roll of money to go spend on them. He heard the bossy brat giving orders, but not really paying attention to her till she had spoken to him.

“Abby, make sure you stay in sight of me or Aunt Rosie, but don’t go and bother her. Come to me first.” McKenzie said wanting to make sure the couple wouldn’t be interrupted. “Kenn… Dee Dee I’m going to go play skee ball, want to play with me?”

The happy smile on McKenzie’s face was clear to him, she had won a few points in his book by asking if they could get a second pizza so he could have bacon and pepperoni, but he also really wanted to go play the racing game he saw when they had walked in. You got to sit in a bucket seat, had gas and brake pedals, a steering wheel and could shift gears. “I was going to go…” He pointed off to the side of one of the three machines setup for the race car arcade game.

“I get it, you go have fun. I just thought you would want a chance to beat me after you lost earlier.” McKenzie said taunting the boy a bit in hopes he would join her. She would be fine by herself, but always found games more fun when it was a competition.

“I… I could totally beat you at skee ball or whatever.” He had never actually played the game before, but it didn’t look that hard and the thirteen year old was way too arrogant for his tastes.

“You don’t have to, I get it if you want to go play whatever. In fact, you should go have fun, I would feel bad if I beat you again.”

“Nope, nope, nope.” Kennedy shook his head. “I will show you what it feels like to lose, just try not to cry when I get more tickets than you.”

“I won't cry… but I think the winner should get the losers tickets.”

“Deal.” Kennedy said holding out his hand, each pumping their arms a few times to seal the deal. Neither paying much attention to the fact that Abby had stayed near them for just long enough for her to count her coins before dashing off to a machine that had lights spinning around, promising hundreds of tickets if the player pushed the button to stop the light at just the right time.

While the three played Rosemarie found herself relaxing as she spoke to Reagan, enjoying his easy smile. She was apprehensive about this back at the mall and still felt it, but to a much lesser degree now that they were sitting here talking. Seeing how easy he interacted with the girls made her think she had a good idea of his character. It didn’t mean she was going to drop the girls off and then go sleep with the man, but it did make her think about what it would be like to actually have a boyfriend, to be in a real relationship instead of just giving men the girlfriend experience. Rosemarie figured that she was close to a year out of no longer having to do any escort work. Her business model for her new company was a sound enough investment that the bank had given her a loan and she had leveraged that to get into more than a few conventions in Las Vegas.

“So you have an important event tomorrow? What are you in town for?” She asked.

Holding her gaze for just two heartbeats, he wanted her to feel listened to, but not stared at. He half rolled his shoulders in a shrug. “I will tell you, but try not to hold it against me. Some people change their minds about who I am, just because of what I do.” He said wishing she would hold herself against him.

Giving him a lopsided smile Rosemarie raised one eyebrow, now much more curious. “I get that, I really do. Hearing what someone does for a living makes people make snap decisions and ignore things they already know about you.”

“Yes, exactly.” Reagan nodded. “I’m here for a fundraiser, a few really. I’m what you would call a… I’m a politician.”

“Really? A city mayor maybe? Or something higher?”

“Well… no. Honestly, I’m nothing yet. I have served on a few boards and councils in Florida, but nothing even as big as being a city vice mayor. I’m trying to change that and things are just starting out, I’m trying to become a Senator believe it or not.”

“Huh.” Rosemarie said, leaning forward and resting her chin atop both her hands as she bridged them together. “I would love to hear more about that and your fundraisers.”

The two continued to talk, the gears in Rosemarie’s head shifting completely away from anything romantic as she pulled information out of him. She had been to two political fundraisers as the plus one to one of the guests and paid well for it and the chance to get some of her girls, her models in political events could go a long way for her future. She imagined having a few of her models going around the room to have polite conversation and then a few gathering together, making coy glances at a rich donor wanted to kiss up to. Rosemarie had no doubt it would also lead to some of her girls going on paid dates, but that was the nature of the business.

When the food came Reagan forced himself to eat what they called pizza, and was able to get a slice and a half down before he had to call it quits. Excusing himself to use the restroom he stopped off at the front counter to get some more tokens for the girls. He would rather be sitting in a cozy booth in the back of a bistro with Rose wearing something slinky and with a plunging neckline, but he wasn’t a stranger to putting in the work to get what he wanted and the way Rose had her beautiful green eyes locked on him he was sure he would get just that.

Coming back to the table he put fifteen dollars worth of tokens down, the same his date had given the girls before dinner. It had kept them out of their hair and it seemed like a good strategy for round two. “I hope your beautiful Aunt here doesn’t mind, but I got you all a few more tokens. I can see by your pile of tickets, McKenzie, that you are either really good, incredibly lucky or you are out of tokens.”

Giving the man a big smile McKenzie glanced down at her pile of tickets, most of them were from her own skill, but also a good portion of them were from Kennedy’s lack of skill and bad luck. “You can call me Kenzie if you like!”

“OH, oh, yeah! I’m Abby, no one calls me Abigail, but you can’t call me Abby bug, only Aunt Rosie calls me that and Kennedy goes by Dee Dee today, but you were already calling her that.”

Holding in a chuckle Rosemarie smiled at the young girl, already clutching onto the roll of tokens that had been given to her instead of splitting them up like she had done.

“I think I will do just that.” Reagan said making eye contact with the oldest of the trio of girls, giving preference to the one he was already talking to before shifting his attention to the youngest. She reminded him of his little sister Callie when they were younger, she wasn’t nearly as talkative, but he remembered once before his parents got divorced. Callie, standing on the couch in their home, her face less than an inch from the side of his head and whispering “Look at me!” Before yelling the same when he didn’t do as she asked when he was just trying to ignore her to play a game with his friends. “Abigail, Kennedy…” His eyes shifted over to the slightly older blonde. “Dee Dee, Abby.” He looked back to the youngest. “They are all pretty names and I am happy to call you whatever you like.”

Tilting her head back a tight smile grew on Abby’s face before she stage whispered to Kennedy. “He said we are pretty!”

“That isn’t what he…” McKenzie stopped herself from fully snapping back at her little sister, visually calming herself. “Thank you Reagan for the tokens, we will leave the two of you alone now.”

As the girls departed Rosemarie leaned closer to the man. “You do good with them, would you consider quitting politics to become a professional babysitter?”

Stroking his beard under his lips Reagan pretended to consider the question. “Depends, does it pay well?”

“Well, not so much in money, but you get love, affection and more than likely glitter.”

“Hmm tough sell, how about I get your phone number and we can discuss the offer later.”

With a large smile, Rosemarie leaned back in her seat. “Smooth.”

The two continued to talk while Kennedy made his way out to the arcade, happy to have another collection of coins after losing all five dollars to the tricky brat that had suckered him into a bet. ‘Skee ball shark? Card Shark, but skee ball shark?’ He asked himself. “Doesn’t sound right.” He answered his mental question out loud.

“What doesn’t sound right?” McKenzie asked.

Looking to his side, he didn’t bother to turn his head. “Nothing, I’m going to go to that game there, you go do whatever.”

Smirking, McKenzie stepped in front of the smaller boy. “Don’t want to try your luck again?”

“I am not falling for any of that, just leave me alone.” Kennedy said pushing past the taller girl and trying not to think about the fact she was five inches taller than him.

Getting away from her he sat down in one of the three seats for the racing car game, with how fun it looked he was surprised no one was using them, but was glad to not have another brat talking to him while he played. Putting his coins on top of the fake steering console he slipped a few coins into the slots and smiled brightly as it came to life. He got to choose all sorts of things, what car he got, the driver, even from a selection of wheels. While the car and driver had different statistics it looked like to him the wheels were just cosmetic.

Soon he was seeing his car near the starting line a few back from the front, numbers going down on the screen as it went through the countdown for the race to start, and then he was off. The seat had to be adjusted for his height and after the first match Kennedy had gotten it just right, one foot on the gas and the other on the brake he was ready to go for round two. Sliding a few more coins in, he reselected the same car, but chose a different driver this time selecting Danica patrick. With everything that had happened to him today he had been reluctant to choose one of the two female race car drivers from the list, but the car he had chosen had a slower start time to counter its top speed and weight. Every driver had an ability the first person he picked increased the top speed, but with all the turns on the track he didn’t think it was helping much and Danica’s ability was a faster start, so he hoped that would be a good balance for his car.

For the next half hour Kennedy sat in the plastic bucket seat the built-in speakers projecting the games sound effects and music overhead as he played, only having to put in coins once more to continue after getting fifth place on one of the tracks. Taking three coins in hand Kennedy went to put them in to continue for another set of courses when he heard a voice near him.

“Hey, racing isn’t for little girls.”

Turning his head to look at who was talking, Kennedy had to crane his neck from his seated position to look up at a teen boy who looked like he was almost six feet tall. “I’m not…” He started to say he wasn’t a little girl, but was cut off before he could even admit to his current predicament.

“Look I don’t care, just get out of my seat so I can play.”

Narrowing his eyes, Kennedy did his best to glare up at the teen. His height made him look like he was an adult, but his voice said he was still going through puberty. “Sit in one of the other seats.”

“‘I’m not telling you how to jump rope or play hopscotch, so don’t try telling me what to do. Now move out of my seat.” The overgrown fourteen year old boy said with all the confidence in the world.

“There are other seats, I’m already…” Kennedy began to say, but as he was talked over once more it was clear the giant was not listening.

“Move or I will make you move and then I will get my sister who is the manager here to kick you out. Go play in the ball bin or something.”

Clenching his jaw, Kennedy considered what he would say next, but the kid was huge and the make you move threat wasn’t one he wanted to see carried out, he had more than enough of that. ‘Stay quiet, keep your head down. That is how you stay safe.’ He told himself standing up from the seat to move out of the way. While he was going to do what the giant wanted, Kennedy did consider pulling his pants down and running or even going to get a cup full of cold water to throw at him, but before any of that could happen he found himself flying through the air.

“I said move!” The hormonal teen said, reaching down to the side of the chair to pull it all the way back and pushing the girl out of the way.

“OW!” Kennedy cried out as he fell on the ground, his side hitting one of the other hard plastic chairs.

“Go be a baby somewhere else.” The boy said sneering at the brat who just wouldn’t go away. He came in here almost every day. His sister was working for some free food and to play video games and the pipsqueak just wasn’t smart enough to understand that this was his seat.

The commotion was more than enough to draw the eyes of those nearby, one sixteen year old worker just kept walking by, having more than enough of kids and pretended he didn’t see anything. For McKenzie though when she saw the taller boy shove Kennedy to the floor she saw red. Intellectually she knew Kennedy was a boy and an older one, but she couldn’t help seeing a young girl being bullied by an older boy that had no problem physically attacking her. “HEY! I SAID HEY!!” She yelled out.

Soon as the teen that had a good five inches on her turned to her, hands on his hips she asked before he could even finish what he was saying to her. “Yeah, what do you wa…” That was when she kicked him as hard as she could between the legs.

“LEAVE HER ALONE!” McKenzie yelled out.

Unknown to McKenzie her little sister had seen it all from the beginning, she had started to run off to tell her aunt, but when she saw Dee Dee get pushed down she balled her hands into fists and charged the much taller boy. Leaping in the air she jumped and latched onto his back, wrapping one arm around his neck and yanking on his hair with the other. As his head snapped to the side, hitting her own face she chomped down on his ear. She had gotten in a fair bit of trouble for biting when she was angry, but thoughts of how she got grounded for this very activity before hadn’t even crossed her mind as she chomped down at the same time as her older sister kicked him squarely between the legs.

With his eyes bugging out the tall teen opened his mouth to scream, but only a weak groan escaped his lips as he fell to his knees. He felt whoever got on his back continued their assault as small hands pounded into his shoulders and back along with his hair being yanked on by the roots. Holding himself between the legs he closed his eyes and fell to his side, whoever it was on top of him kicked and thrashed as they were removed.

Sniffling Kennedy got up to his feet, amazed at what he had just witnessed. Kenzie kicked the boy so hard in the nuts that he wasn’t sure the kid would ever be able to have kids and Abby… the girl had leapt at him like some rabid monkey from a nature documentary. He had been beat up plenty of times, one of the reasons he had no problem stealing from the houses he was put in. The other kids and sometimes the adults physically lashed out or punished him for so much as playing with something that wasn’t his. What had never happened before was people defending him, let alone beating the crap out of someone that had hit him. He could only stand there in awe of them, even as a dark haired girl that had the words manager on her name tag.

“What is going on here? Get off of him you little…!” The restaurant's shift manager said as she pulled on the girl in the pink skirt to get her to stop attacking her little brother. “Tyler, are you okay? What did they do to you?”

“Do to him!” McKenzie said in an indignant tone with her fists on her hips. “This bully hit my sister!” She said, pointing to Kennedy who still had a few tears in his eyes, that he didn’t let flow.

“Hold on, hold on!” Rosemarie saiding rushing up to the scene with Reagan nearby.  “What is going on here?” She felt like panic was going to take over her body, she hadn’t seen what happened, not till the end when the boy had fallen down and Abby pounded her fists into him.

“Are these little monsters yours!?” Sarah, the manager, said waving her hand at the three girls.

“Monsters?” Rosemarie asked, feeling offended enough to question her.

“Yeah, they attacked my little brother and now I’m calling the police!”

Hearing the word cops, made Reagan step forward. The last thing he needed was to have his name on some police report because the person he was trying to pick up had violent nieces. “I’m truly sorry for what happened, how about I pay for our meal.” He said, pulling out his wallet. “Leave a generous tip for our waitress, generous enough to help everyone here to just walk away. The police always complicate things, is it worth all that for what, twenty dollars an hour?”

Looking down at her brother Sarah clenched one hand into a fist before relaxing it, she was seeing red and more so at the fact that the man was right. She wasn’t being paid enough for all this BS and she didn’t need her boss knowing that her little brother was here again without adult supervision. “Thirteen.”

“Pardon?” Reagan said, keeping his attention the girl who couldn’t be more than a few days over twenty while his redheaded date was checking on her family.

“I only make thirteen fifty an hour.”

That made Reagan stop to think for a second, that figure sounded made up. Sure kids made minimum wage at fast food and this place didn’t even serve food that good, but the girl was a shift manager. “That sounds incredibly unfair, someone like you, in a position that you have, you deserve much more. How about for today we bump that up?” He said pulling a hundred dollar bill from his wallet, folding it over once before holding it out between two fingers. Reagan’s eyes flicked down to the girl's name tag. “Sarah, you deserve more than this place and at least today.” He gave her a smile. “You are going to earn what you deserve, you deserve this.” He said repeating the word to help the girl feel both empowered and underappreciated.

With the manager plied with money and compliments the group was able to exit without a call to the police or even being asked to not come again. Hearing what had actually happened made Rosemarie want to punch the boy that attacked Dee Dee in the nose, but that wouldn’t be right, at least not after what Kenzie had done to him. The fourteen year old had to be in like the ninety eighth percentile in height for his age, but none of that mattered after the swift kick, the kid had still been on the ground holding a bag of ice between their legs when the group had departed.

“Well…” Rosemarie said, waving her hand up at the sign of the rat mascot. “That was an adventure, your mileage may vary.”

“It was that… you get your girls home, I had fun, really.” He lied. “I will give you a call later tonight, maybe after their mother gets them to bed we could get some coffee.”

“Mmm tonight isn’t good for me.” She replied, thinking about the fallout when her sister found out about the battle at Chuck E Cheese.”

“Tomorrow then.” Reagan said, lying again. Rose was pretty, but things showing up in the papers as part of a domestic disturbance and battery call would scare the donors off.

While the two said their goodbyes, Kennedy just kept looking between the two girls. One thirteen, the other eight, almost nine and they had not hesitated for a second to come help him when a giant had shoved him. He wouldn’t do that for anyone, no one would, and yet… that is exactly what they did. Neither of them said how he owed them one, just asking him if he was okay. Kennedy was truly not sure how to process what had just happened.