Adoption Adjustment chapter 13

It wasn’t long before Rosemarie came back to the child care area and signed the three out. Abby had wanted a piggy back ride to the parking lot, something she was happy to provide. Her youngest niece's excitement was the other side of the coin to Kennedy’s mood and it made her heart weep to see the young girl so scared and skittish and hoped she could help the girl so that she knew things would be better, or at least kindle the hope inside of her.

“Okay, girls.” Rosemarie said as she walked backwards down the tiled hallway as they made their way from the building. “Before dinner we were given a quest.”

Abby scrunched up her face clinging to her aunt as she walked backwards while giving her a piggyback ride. “A quest?” Turning her head slightly to see her youngest niece out of the corner of her eye Rosemarie nodded, giving her a bright toothy smile.

“A quest is something you have to do that is really important. Normally only the bravest of knights get to go on quests, do you think you could help me with one?”

To Kennedy it all sounded childish, but seeing the gorgeous woman smile in his direction made much of the world and his own troubles fade away. Pressing his lips together he swallowed as he gave a few small but vigorous nods in her direction. Despite his mood it felt almost impossible not to smile at least a little when the freckled beauty looked at him so happily.

As if stars were in Abby’s eyes they practically lit up as the girl’s jaw hung open with a smile when she thought about the Quest for Camelot movie and the show Mike the Knight. She mouthed the word quest, like if she said it too loudly she would scare it away. While McKenzie crossed her arms and leaned her head forward. “Are you using the word quest instead of chores?” The young teen asked, suspicious of her aunt. If they had to do something around the house before they got pizza she would do it, but she wasn’t going to be so easily tricked like her sister.

With a tight smile Rosemarie shook her head slightly.”No, your mother asked if we could take care of your new sister. She needs a few things, like a haircut, do you think you could help me watch her and Abby?”

Squinting, Mckenzie bit the bottom of her lip before speaking. “I can, but Kennedy won’t want to do that.” She was ready to elaborate and repeat what she had told her aunt before, about Kennedy not being a girl, but before she could her aunt asked the dolled up boy a question.

“Kennedy, do you want to go to the mall and get a haircut?”

Still walking, Kennedy felt the dress swishing about his legs as he reached up to touch his hair that had the yellow and white alice band in it. He liked his hair and it did feel better after being washed by Miss Miah and he down right melted when she sat behind him to brush it. At the same time he also knew if it was shorter much of today’s problem wouldn’t have happened and then there was the fact she thought it was all some joke or game that he was a seventeen year old boy. His mind flip flopped from wanting it cut to not several times, but through all his thinking the woman’s gorgeous green eyes stayed on him, patiently waiting for his response. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he answered. “Whatever you want.” He said dreamily wondering if he could get her to hug and hold him again.

Exasperated that Kennedy wasn’t even willing to help himself, McKenzie huffed. “Fine, sure we can get my new little sister a haircut. I’m sure she will look cute as can be.” The young teenager said with more than a little attitude in her voice as she glared at Kennedy.

Glancing behind her, Rosemarie stopped walking. Her eldest niece's attitude was plain to see and the way she was looking at Kennedy made it clear why. She figured McKenzie might be feeling left out with another person in the household, someone else her mother had to split her attention from. From what she recalled Miah saying it took McKenzie little over a month to accept the idea she wasn’t an only child. Now it was happening all over again and the mistreatment and lack of acceptance Kennedy was used to was clear on the younger girl’s face with how hurt she looked as she looked back at McKenzie. All the while Rosemarie really had no idea what was going through either of their minds.

With a bright idea in her mind, Rosemarie helped Abby off her back, sitting her down on her rental car and she stepped back to look at each of the three girls. “I tell you what, how about while we are at the mall we get your ears pierced. Or in your case Kenzie, maybe we add a second set of holes in your ears like what I have.” Rosemaire turned her head to the side moving some of her hair out of the way to show her niece her triple pierced ear.

Pressing her lips together McKenzie only held out for a second, she had asked her mom for that before and she had said no. “Umm, could I get an earring here too?” She asked, pointing to the upper cartilage of her ear where her aunt had a piercing.

“I want one too!” Abby happily yelled as she jumped off the car she had been sitting upon.

With her youngest niece's request Rosemarie looked from Abby and then back to McKenzie. “Let's stick to just one extra piercing for now. Or just getting your ears pierced in your case, Abby bug. What do you think, Kennedy?” She asked, wanting to make sure the girl felt included.

“Hmm? Oh, umm, yeah.” He said distracted by the yellow twenty-twenty Chevrolet Camaro that Rosemarie had sat the brat on. “Is… is that your car?” He was fascinated by the muscle car.

Glancing behind her again, Rosemarie nodded. “Yeah, it is a camaro. It matches your pretty dress.”

Ignoring the comment about the stupid Kennedy walked up to the car, putting his hand on the yellow painted car. “V8, over four hundred horsepower.” He half whispered, imagining himself driving the car.

Rosemarie wasn’t really knowledgeable about cars, but was surprised a ten year old girl was. “Sounds about right, do you like cars honey? Where did you learn about them?” She asked, hoping the girl's fascination stemmed from a happy memory from one of the homes she had been in.

“Mmm.” Kennedy nodded. “I used to read all about them in one of my foster parents magazines.” He used to read them and dream about driving off to freedom. It was a dream that had blossomed into the wish of being a race car driver.

“How about this then, you can sit in the front seat and tell me all about the cars you love.” Rosemaire said, seeing the scowl on McKenzie’s face. She had just fixed or started to fix her eldest niece's feelings and had taken a step back. “Then on the way to dinner and home McKenzie can sit in the front, she is the oldest after all.” She expected a protest from Abigail, but the eight year old was currently distracted by a plane taking off from the nearby airport.

It was on that car ride to the mall where Kennedy happily told the pretty girl about his passion, he had read and reread those magazines over and over again and was completely thrilled to have someone not only ask him about cars, but encouraged him to talk about them. It also helped that he had more than a little crush on the women. “So it wasn’t until two thousand and thirteen, well it was unveiled in thirteen, but in fourteen this body style came out for the Camaro and I love it!” Kennedy said with high levels of enthusiasm. It wasn’t just that the girls aunt was the first person to ever ask him about cars, it was also the fact that everyone was treating him like a kid, they always had and this felt like a real adult conversation.

“Yeah? Well I love it too and I love that you have a passion. Never lose that.” Rosemarie said, smiling and giving the blonde girl in the passenger seat a wink. “So tell me Kennedy, do you have a nickname? Something you go by or does everyone use your full name?”

Opening his mouth, Kennedy quickly closed it and looked down at his lap as he touched the tips of his index fingers together. He was about to say everyone calls me Ken, but she already didn’t believe him about being a boy. ‘But she did really listen to me just now… screw it.’ He thought. “Everyone called me Ken.”

“You can’t be Ken!” Abigail called out from the backseat, finally happy they weren’t talking about stupid cars. “McKenzie is called KEN-zie!”

Looking in the rearview mirror Rosemarie looked at Abigail. “Abby bug, she can go by Ken if she wants.”

Biting the inside of her cheek for a second, McKenzie kicked the back of her seat where Kennedy sat, still very much angry at him for making her aunt think she was lying. “Ken sounds too much like a boy's name. How about Keke? Or… Dee Dee.”

Feeling the back of his seat get kicked, Kennedy grimaced at the feminine names. “Dee Dee? Like from Dexter’s lab?”

Looking in the back seat to McKenzie, Rosemarie was happy she was getting involved and not sulking. Helping pick out a nickname was a good bonding experience. “Do you like that cartoon?”

Nodding his head he scowled as he felt the seat get kicked again. “Yeah, bu…” He stopped talking as it got kicked a third time. He wanted to climb into the back and hit the girl. He never would, instead he just shut his mouth. Kennedy had learned long ago the best way to not get hit or yelled at was to be as quiet as he could, to be forgotten and while he gave into the instances now, they weren’t going to assist him this time.

“Good, then it is settled. From now on we will call you Dee Dee and soon enough you will be Dee Dee Adams.” Reaching over Rosemarie took the young girl's hand in her own. “Would you like that honey? Would you like it if I were your aunt?”

Feeling her smooth skin on his own hand Kennedy swallowed hard, it wasn’t a romantic touch but still his male hormones started to rev up. “Yeah…” He said dreamily, entwining his fingers with the gorgeous women’s.

Kennedy held her hand for as long as he could, but had to let go when they had parked. Getting out of the car he ran around to the other side of the car. The ride had been fun, especially when Rosemarie had stopped and revved the engine in an empty part of the parking lot before pressing her foot down all the way on the gas pedal. He didn’t even so much as have a learners permit and he hoped Miss Miah would take him to get it as soon as this little girl thing passed. For now he was going to keep up the act, there would be a reckoning when everything came out, but that was a problem for future him he figured. ‘Past me is always a problem and future me is a sucker…’ He thought briefly about some of his encounters in the homes he had been in. Purposely breaking a vase or a lamp because of the way he was treated, only for his actions to cause even more problems. He didn’t want to do any of that here, even though the idea of putting on girl's panties earlier that morning had put more than a few ideas in his head on how to get back at people.

It wasn’t until the group had gotten to their first destination that Kennedy realized what he had agreed to. He thought the girls were just talking about getting their ears pierced for themselves. Kenndy did have a piercing, it was in his eyebrow. He had done it himself, but had taken it out to get good and clean on one of the first days in the Adams’ household and hadn’t been able to find it since, but what they were wanting to do was different.

“Don’t worry Dee Dee, it doesn't really hurt. Abby didn’t have any problems, did you Abby bug?” Rosemarie turned her head from Kennedy as she looked to her youngest niece who now sported a pair of pearl stud earrings that matched the ones in McKenzie’s ears.

Turning her head from left to right Abigail pointed to each of her newly pierced ears with a wide smile on her face. “Nope! I didn’t cry at all!” She had teared up a little as the older teen girl got closer to her with the piercing gun, but she hadn’t cried and that was all that was important.

Sitting in the chair it was then Kennedy felt someone take his left hand on their own. Turning his head he saw the aqua colored eyes of McKenzie. She was holding his palm in one hand and patting the top of his hand with her other as she spoke. “You can do this Dee Dee, I’m here for you.” She sounded sweet, but it felt patronizing.

Rosemarie gave her eldest niece a smile and a wink so she knew that she was appreciated. Wrangling all three, while trying to support each emotionally was a large chore for her. Abigail needed to be treated in a way that she felt she was getting the attention she deserved, that was different from how McKenzie wanted to be treated. She needed to be included and spoken to like she was an adult or close to it and Kennedy needed to be treated with a mix of supportiveness so she knew she could rely on her. The young girl also needed firmness because she was so unsure of herself. Rosemarie had no problem doing it, but it felt exhausting as much as it did rewarding. From her experience, the little she had is that most kids didn’t have a lot of empathy and here she saw McKenzie showing just that with her new sister. McKenzie had come a long way from being that four year old that dumped her little sister out of her baby carrier and crawling into it.

Holding the thirteen year old girl's hand, Kennedy winced and squeezed it a little as he felt a pinch to one of his ears. He told himself he was a man and could take it, he wasn’t going to tear up like the little brat and he hadn’t, but he couldn’t keep himself from wincing before each time his ear was stabbed. In the end he had the same real pearl earrings as the two Adams girls. Getting down from the chair he gently touched each of his earlobes, they stung a little, but it mostly felt odd from the weight now hanging from them. Having earrings wasn’t that big of a deal, a lot of guys got them. They just didn’t wear pearls, that was something only girls did.

“Come here.” Rosemarie said, wrapping up Kennedy in a hug like she had done with each of her nieces after they got their ears pierced. The only difference between them was McKenzie got the pearl earrings in her existing holes and a new heart shaped stud in the new ones. “Now I need you to take good care of your new earrings, they are a special gift from me to all of my nieces to show how much I trust and love each of you.” She said, not wanting to bring up the cost of them. As they grew older they would learn that on their own and appreciate the gift that much more. She had just met the girl, felt for her on a deep level with their shared experiences of the woes from being in the adoption system, it wasn’t love, not yet, but she could easily see herself adoring the bright blue eyed girl. Just hearing her go on and on about her passion had taken her partially there, even with her clients her favorite part of any of them talking is if they went on about their passion. Everyone was always happier when they talked about their special subject. She didn’t really have one of those, no hobby or cause that brought that passion. The only thing she had was her sister and her nieces and that was more than enough for her.

The older woman was a good eight inches taller than him, but when she hugged him he was happy to press his face into her soft bosom. Wrapping his arms around her he squeezed her back, wanting the moment to both never end and wishing she would see him for a man and visit in his new bedroom. ‘She doesn’t love me, no one does, but… she did just spend almost four hundred dollars on earrings for the three of us. She spent the same on me as she did her nieces, why would she do that?’

“Do… do you really care about me?” he asked while his mind answered the question. ‘How could she? She thinks you are a little girl and even if she saw the real you.. You know no one cares about you.’

The question felt more like the girl saw through her lie, she just met the girl, no one loved her, how could she? Holding her tighter Rosemarie rocked her small body from side to side. “You are a good person Dee Dee and I promise to always care about you. You are worthy of love, you are worthy.” She whispered in the girl's ear, saying the words she wished had been told to her many years ago when she felt worthless.

Kennedy may have promised himself he wasn’t going to cry because he was a boy, a young man when his ears were stabbed, but hearing those words caused a flood of tears to come to his eyes. Pressing his face as hard as he could into her, this time it wasn’t about enjoying her feminine aspects, but because of the tears in his eyes. Shaking his head he physically denied what she was saying. How could he really be worthy of anything, if he had then he wouldn’t have been passed from home to home, beaten, ignored or ridiculed. “I’m not.. I’m not” the dolled up boy said in a weak voice as tears kept on coming.

“Shhh, shhh.” Rosemarie continued to rock the girl, she felt out of her element. As an escort she would sometimes just be there to keep someone company and listen, most of the time it was just sex, but calming down a blubbering girl that didn’t think she was worthy of anything, that she had no experience with. No one had been there to tell her she was worthy, she had to figure that out on her own, had to feel she earned it and even now as she tried running her own business she still struggled with those same feelings. Feeling the need to get a client, to make them happy, to make herself feel like she deserved love and here she was trying to convince a girl of something she didn’t even always believe about herself. “It's okay, it's okay.”

Tears still flowing from his eyes, Kennedy felt the woman he was crying on pull away. The cool air conditioned air of the mall blew across his tear streaked face. He felt Rosemarie’s hands, one was on his shoulder and the other held his chin, making it so he had to look her in the eye. He really enjoyed looking into her eyes, and didn’t want her to see him crying like some baby. Kennedy tried to hold them back as he sniffled. That was when he felt someone hugging him from behind, the small arms told him it was Abby and shortly after that he felt his upper arms squeezed from McKenzie.

“I promise you, you are worthy, you are worthy of love. You are a beautiful girl with an older sister and younger that will be there for you. Miah…” Rosemarie paused to correct herself. She wanted the girl to feel like this wasn’t just a family, but her family. “Your new Mom and your much prettier and younger Aunt will be there for you too.” She said making small good natured digs at her sister who wasn’t here to defend herself. “Okay?” She watched the sniffling girl nod her head before she continued. “Now let's dry those tears so we can go get you a haircut so you can be as pretty as you can be.” She said before hugging the girl one more time,  this time she was joined by both of her nieces, making her feel proud of them.

Kennedy hugged them back, not just Rosemarie, but each of the girls. He had thrown away the glittery poster they made him on more than once occasion, each time when he wasn’t paying attention it ended up back on his wall over the bed. He had resisted them, but they had been welcoming of him in their home. It didn’t diminish how bratty they could be, but it was a far cry from one of the ones he had stayed at where he was yanked from his bed the first night he was there so an older boy could take his blanket and pillow. Kennedy didn’t want to be dressed as a girl, didn’t want to be thought of as some baby, those were some steep downsides, but right now he felt something he couldn’t remember having before, love. It made him think of his real parents.