61 - Palm Springs Family - That Did Not Go As Expected
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This is a work of fiction, involving sensitive and controversial topics and sex, including M/M, M/m and m/m, as well as a few kinky topics along the way... If it is illegal or disturbing or there is any other reason you shouldn't read such stories, then please don't read this one. It is also a 'Coming of Age' story, and no gay boy can truly 'come of age' until he deals with his sexuality...
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There are two families at the heart of this story:
- Alex(35), Kevin(34), Michael(24), plus Luke, Steve, Daniel and Diego, who were adopted and brought back to Palm Springs.
- Captain Ken(36), Jared(35), Corey(24), plus Nick, Sam, Kurt and Aiden. Captain Ken was the pilot on the chartered plane that brought the boys back to Palm Springs. They're moving to Palm Springs, and will live next door.
- Javier(23) and Matteo(22), teachers of Spanish and tutors of other subjects, and part of the family
The boys are listed oldest to youngest, but all are currently twelve. Luke, Nick and Steve will be the first three to turn 13... in the upcoming months.
- Shawn(16), his brother Jaden(22) and their mom Laura(declined to say)
Others will up show occasionally, but not be a major part of the story... most of the time.
-Tim(19), very cute hunky guy who delivered their new gym equipment, and is now their new gym instructor
- Carlos Valesquez(28), husband Pedro Martinez(32), Raul(13), Antonio(12). Carlos is the Spanish teacher in charge of Immersion program, boys adopted about six months earlier.
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I really appreciate the feedback I've gotten on the story. Please let me know what you think... I can be reached at... OOMMpsf@tenpct.com ( OOMMpsf@tenpct.com and OOMM = "Out Of My Mind").
Several people have asked to be notified of new chapters, which I'm happy to do. -Keith
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Correction to previous chapter:
In editing the previous chapter, I made a mistake.
The boys are so excited about picking up their pups tomorrow, that I got a little carried away too. I accidentally put a reference to the pups in the last chapter. They haven't arrived yet... but soon.
Thank you Bruce for catching that.
Sorry.
AS ALWAYS, EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE IS FICTION
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What Have We Done?
From the gay district on Arenas Street, it's a pretty straightforward route over to the boys' new school, Raymond Cree Middle School... it's only about two miles (3 km) away from the Arenas area, and about 1.3 miles (2 km) from their house.
And the dads are all already dreading the conversation about how the boys are all going to get to and from school and home. They're expecting the boys to want to ride their bikes when they get them, and the dads are terrified.
The school itself isn't that far from their home, but the boys will have to cross Palm Canyon Drive and Indian Canyon Drive to get there and back, both of which are very busy streets.
Alex is going to talk to the other dads in the nearby houses and see if there is any interest in coming up with some kind of shared private bus or something to take the boys... there are several available, but the cost is way more than what it'll cost if they all drive the boys both ways.
But, there's still so much up in the air at this point that nobody knows if that will work either.
- -
As the families pull up, they're not sure where to park.
There is a covered parking area, shade provided by solar panels. Schools get funding to put them in, and allows them to offset the cost of their electricity, which of course helps them use more of their budgets for students, rather than for electricity costs.
As far as the dads know, every school in the desert that they can think of has solar panels over at least some of their parking, and of course with 350+ days of sun per year, it's a great investment and helps offset the cost of electricity, and reduce pollution.
Not to mention, it keeps the cars much cooler than sitting out in the hot sun all day. It's really not much fun to get into a car that has been sitting in the sun all day, especially when it's 110º F (43º C) outside... or hotter.
But they assume that that area is reserved for teachers and staff, so they park on the street and head for the entrance.
All the boys still seem just as gung-ho as ever about the Immersion Program. The dads and big brothers are way more nervous about it than the boys seem to be.
And all of this is very hard for the dads.
Even if the boys don't like school, it will still be a very big and important part of their lives, and will certainly have a huge effect on the boys' futures, and the dads and big brothers want to do everything they can to encourage them.
If the boys can approach school with a good fun attitude, instead of hating every minute of it, it will be a huge advantage to them, something that's rarely obvious to preteens or even teenagers. And, much to the surprise of all the adults, the Spanish Immersion seems to be something that they're really excited about, even if it did start just as a way to support Daniel and Diego.
And the dads also know that starting school will forever change the relationships between the boys and their dads... and older brothers too.
As the boys get more comfortable in school and make new friends, it's going to change things between them and the boys, as they turn more 'outward', and away from just the dads and older brothers.
They know it's the right thing to do, a necessary thing to do, a very important thing to do, but none of that makes it an easy thing to do.
- -
The dads do want to say something to the boys about all of this, however, because in many ways, starting school in Palm Springs really is the beginning of the boys' new lives... and the dads' new lives too. And they so want it to be a positive thing for them.
As they all get out of the car, Kevin thinks about it for a bit, but he doesn't want to overdo it.
He thought about telling the boys how proud of them they all are for wanting to do the Immersion Program, how important school will be for their lives, how it will help them meet other people and make new friends... but he doesn't want to put any more pressure on the boys than they already have.
And he certainly wasn't prepared at all for what Diego and Daniel said about them being adopted... and being Latino. To hear them need to say those words hurt the dads more than they ever thought possible.
So he just smiles big and goes with, "Guys, we're all so incredibly proud of you. Have fun sons," which of course gets him hug mobbed... along with the other dads... all the boys knowing that the word 'sons' includes them all.
- -
They head for a group of people near the building, figuring they must be here for this meeting too...
And as they get near the entrance, they spot Mr. Valesquez, standing with multiple students and parents... and of course all of our boys head directly toward him, so the adults follow.
He looks up and sees all sixteen people coming toward him, and just starts laughing, which of course causes everybody else to look, and most of them laugh too, wondering what's going on.
The dads had talked a bit about letting Javier be the first one to introduce himself, both because of his Spanish and the fact that Mr. Valesquez and Javier have already talked a bit, but as soon as the boys get close enough to people to start talking, they do!
The boys all greet Mr. Valesquez in Spanish, and shake his hand when offered... pretty enthusiastically actually...
The boys are all pretty close to Mr. Valesquez by the time all of the old slowpokes get there, and they're surprised, but the boys are actually putting together enough Spanish words to get some decent sentences...
And Mr. Valesquez seems as excited as the boys, and he's great at responding to them in simple Spanish that they can understand, just like Javier and Matteo, as well as Daniel and Diego.
He's very friendly and outgoing, and immediately tells everybody to call him Carlos, which the boys gladly do... surprisingly.
Maybe they really are getting to the point where they don't mind using an adult's first name... if the adult says it's ok, and it certainly doesn't hurt when the adult is as hot as Carlos is.
And Mr. Valesquez, Carlos, seems to want to be on an informal basis with the students and parents both, which they certainly appreciate. Apparently the boys do too, not that anybody is real surprised.
As soon as the slowpokes get there, the boys all start to run off to join the other kids.
And they're all surprised, because there are more students here than they expected, and apparently all are interested in the bilingual program... There's a range of ages, which makes sense since there are three grades in the middle school, grades six thru eight.
The guys all wade right into the middle of the other kids and parents and teachers, looking like they're all having a great time. And they really don't seem shy at all at the moment, even the normally quieter ones.
And Diego and Daniel look incredibly happy to be able to speak Spanish with everybody, and not have to worry about getting yelled at for it. They have what looks like the biggest smiles the dads have seen on them... at least since they were asked to be their sons. Don't cry.
All the boys seem perfectly happy talking to anybody and everybody, in Spanish and English, and seem very happy when they get answers back in Spanish too. Who the hell knew?
And the boys are all discovering something that Alex and Kevin discovered in German classes... it's way easier to understand what's being said, after learning some basic vocabulary, than it is to figure out how to say something. Seems counterintuitive, but it's true.
In the beginning it's too easy to get bogged down in trying to think thru the right words and grammar and genders and word order. But hearing somebody say it, if you know enough of the words, is much easier to figure out. And hearing that enough times from people who speak the language is what's needed to learn how to say it yourself.
Carlos recovers pretty quickly, calls the boys back, before they get too far away, and starts introducing some of the people around him to the dads and the boys, starting with two cute young guys who are standing very close to him, Antonio and Raul Martinez.
Raul looks like he's a little older than our boys, late thirteen maybe, or maybe he just looks more mature, and Antonio looks like he's probably around the same age as ours, twelve-ish.
It looks like our boys and those two kinda drool over each other for just a bit, and then they shake hands, holding onto each other a bit, and then keep talking to each other like it's no big deal at all, even though our boys are obviously not great in Spanish yet, and nowhere near as good as native speakers, like Raul and Antonio, but both of them seem more than happy to help them out with their Spanish... maybe with a few other things too... Hmmm...
From what we can hear from our guys, there are lots of hesitations and corrections, searching their minds for the right word, but they don't seem worried at all about making mistakes. They just laugh, back up and try again. Who knew?
And some of the other kids don't seem any shyer than our own eight, so there's quite a discussion going on among all these guys... and girls too. And probably half the people here appear to be native Spanish speakers, which will be great practice for the boys.
The dads, however, are having limited success following the rapid conversation with so many people, so they do the only thing they can... they turn back around and listen to Javier, Matteo and Carlos, having slightly better success trying to follow their conversation, which is being kept very simple, probably for the benefit of other parents who are trying to take part... and not nearly as fast as some of the kids are talking with each other.
The biggest surprise is when Carlos turns and introduces his husband, Pedro Martinez, and it turns out the two boys are their adopted sons, Antonio and Raul Martinez.
Some of the parents and kids apparently don't speak any Spanish, and Carlos and the others use English with them, as do the dads and big brothers. It's easier.
The dads are kinda assuming that the students that don't speak any Spanish are probably going to be starting the program in grade six this year too... and unless they get it at home, they've probably not had any or much Spanish at all. And some of the parents apparently aren't interested in learning Spanish either...
They all seem happy to meet each other, but if the dads had any real hopes that their boys would have a hard time leaving them standing there watching, as they all head off with their newfound friends... nope, not in the least. Not even a second thought... apparently. Well damn.
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That Did NOT Go As Planned
The dads have kinda purposely not said much to the boys about 'coming out' in school.
It's something that they don't ever want to pressure the boys to do... or to not do, and honestly none of them have any real idea of how easy or difficult it is to actually be gay and out in school these days... even in Palm Springs. It's been quite a while since any of the dads were in school.
They know that the Palm Springs Unified School District has policies to treat gay students like all the others, and as far as they know there isn't any big pushback from bigoted closed-minded parents, but that doesn't mean that being out is something the boys want to do either.
When it became clear that they were going to adopt, Kevin, Michael and Alex started talking to anybody they could about what the situation would be for gay kids in public school, but never really got a great sense of how it will be for them.
They've had conversations with Javier and Matteo about how difficult it is being gay in school these days. They certainly know that it can be a problem, but from their own days as students in Palm Springs, they don't really think it'll be a big problem, although Javier and Matteo certainly were not out at that point themselves.
And Alex and Kevin know a handful of teachers personally, none of whom seem to think being 'out' will be a huge problem for the boys, but it's something they want to leave up to the boys... and support them any way they can.
When Javier found out that they have a Gay/Straight Alliance (GSA), the boys talked about whether they'd be brave enough to join, but most of them seem to have decided that they're not going to be afraid to admit they're gay... if asked... which the adults all think is a pretty mature way to handle it. They just hope it works.
But, deciding to just announce that they're gay is not something that anybody had even thought that they want to do... until...
- -
A tall dark haired pretty girl has been watching Luke very intently since he walked up, and she really looks like she wants to get to know him... a lot better.
She stands around talking to other kids, in native Spanish, and you can almost see her standing and watching, trying to work up the courage to come over and start talking to all of the boys, but Luke seems to be the one that has really caught her attention.
She talks with some of the other students for a while, kinda glancing sideways at Luke every chance she gets.
The dads and older brothers notice her doing it, and are kinda wondering where it's all headed, looking at each other a little nervously.
Luke notices her doing it too, and it makes him look a little uncomfortable... She kinda keeps getting closer and closer to him, and he keeps trying to move farther away from her, but that's hard since he's not about to get too far away from Raul and Antonio.
So finally, when she can't stand it anymore, she goes marching right up to Luke, sticks out her hand, introduces herself as Adriana, and starts talking to Luke like nobody else is around...
Luke just stands and stares at her for a bit, takes her hand very reluctantly, and says hello and introduces himself, and then starts to turn back around to the guys, thinking that this little encounter is over... but not so fast... apparently.
She doesn't let go of Luke's hand and makes it clear that he's supposed to talk to her now.
The dads+4 are too far away to hear what's going on, but it isn't looking like it's going all that well at the moment. They exchange worried looks with each other.
She asks Luke pretty loudly in native Spanish if he has a girlfriend (una novia)... still holding onto his hand. The brothers that hear everything just stand and stare, looking very surprised... trying not to laugh... and they're also a little worried about what Luke's going to say.
Luke just stands and stares at her for a bit with his mouth open, and then he smiles really big and says happily, in Spanish, "No, but I have a boyfriend (un novio)... and this is him, Steve," and pulls his hand away, and reaches over to pull Steve toward him, kinda putting Steve between him and this girl.
Steve gives Luke an annoyed look, while trying not to laugh, and sticks out his hand to shake Adriana's. She shakes Steve's hand, but apparently dark haired, dark eyed Steve is not nearly as interesting to her as very blonde, very blue eyed Luke is.
Everybody else just stands and stares, including the parents and teachers close enough to hear what's going on.
Carlos hears enough to know what's going on, and he looks a little worried too, knowing that this could go badly. He looks at the dads with a 'oh shit' look.
His sons and ours have moved a little away from the adults, and are all still standing and talking with each other, at least until Luke was kinda hijacked, but they seem pretty interested in this discussion too, especially when Luke announces proudly that Steve is his boyfriend. Raul and Antonio both get big grins.
The girl, Adriana, just stands and stares, first at Luke, and then at Steve, not looking at all happy at this turn of events. She eventually turns and walks away, and Luke decides to get away too, while he can... and Steve goes with him...
And, of course, they head right back to Antonio and Raul. No surprises there.
- -
Adriana kinda stomps off, obviously unhappy, quickly lost in the group of kids and adults.
The dads couldn't hear much of the conversation, but they're pretty sure this isn't the end of it.
And some of Luke's brothers are trying really hard to not laugh, having a flashback to Shawn basically doing the exact same thing to Luke at the Art Center... which Luke didn't seem to mind at all... that time.
Luke and Steve kinda look at each other and blush, neither very happy with how that went, but neither has a clue what to do about it either. They look at the dads, who kinda shrug their shoulders...
Helpful as always dads.
Luke and Steve quickly wander back into the group of students, taking Antonio, Raul and their brothers with them, looking like they're really trying to blend in.
- -
Carlos tries to get on with introducing all the parents to each other.
And not all the parents here today speak Spanish by any means, so a lot of the adult conversations are in English only... Oh damn! Just kidding! But trying to do this totally in Spanish is really taxing some of the adults' Spanish, so none of them are objecting to using English at the moment.
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Two More
About that time Jorge, Richard and two of their three sons, José and Tyler, come running up. Chad isn't here, but he'll be in high school anyway.
It's been so hectic that they haven't seen each other lately, although the dads do talk pretty often.
Richard and Jorge will be moving into their new home, behind Alex and Kevin, beside J&J, any day now. The dads did call to tell them about the immersion program meeting today, and apparently José and Tyler are both interested.
- -
The boys all see each other about the same time, and it doesn't take long before they're all hugging, and introducing them to the others.
Jorge and Richard head over to Alex, Kevin and the others, who are still talking to Carlos and some of the other adults.
Jorge, as a Spanish speaker, doesn't hesitate at all to stick out his hand and introduce him and his husband to Carlos and the others nearby.
Richard explains, in broken Spanish, that his Spanish isn't very good. Carlos assures him, in English, that it's all good, and that his Spanish will get better along with the boys, which gets a laugh.
The dads+4 really hope he's right too. Richard doesn't quite look like he believes him either.
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J&J Missing
Alex also let J&J behind them know about the meeting today, but so far they're not here. And something very weird is going on with them.
The boys have asked several time why they suddenly don't see their boys anymore... and they're not happy about it. They've tried calling and texting them, but hardly ever get a response.
J&J haven't said anything to Alex and Kevin about what's going on... or anything else either, actually, but they have a disturbing suspicion, but don't know what to do about it...
Alex hasn't even heard from Jeff about any real estate coming on the market in their neighborhood, which he's still very interested in, so whatever pissed J&J off must be serious for him to potentially give up a big real estate commission.
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Long Lost Boys
When the time of the meeting arrives, Carlos announces that they're going inside to sit down and talk about the program.
He says it first in English, for the benefit of those who don't speak enough Spanish to understand, and then he announces the same thing in Spanish, because he knows that some of the parents probably don't speak enough English to understand very well.
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Just as they turn to head in, Diego says in Spanish, "Guys, look!" and they all turn and see J&J's four boys almost running toward them, leaving their dads barely out of the car, and all of our boys immediately go sprinting to meet them, everybody hugging each other as soon as they get close enough, looking like they've been hanging out every day, instead of not seeing each other for almost a month.
After greeting the long lost boys from behind them, the boys turn to J&J as they get there and say hello, and it's immediately obvious that they're both looking pretty unhappy, so they just say 'hi' and quickly gather up their boys and head back to the group... Luke kinda looking backward at J&J a couple times, wondering what's going on.
They go by and introduce the new boys, not their dads, to Carlos and his husband, and then head back to the group of kids... happy to not have to deal with their dads at the moment.
Luke does ask Thad why they haven't seen them, and his other brothers hear the question.
They look at each other and Thad, obviously unhappy, eventually says,
"We're really pissed at our dads. They told us we can't come over to your house... they even told us not to call you. We're sick and tired of it. They didn't even tell us about this today... thanks for your text message, BTW... Sorry I couldn't answer... they threatened to take our phones if we did," which leaves all the other boys with their mouths open.
"We had a huge argument about coming to this meeting today. They weren't even going to bring us to this... we told them we want to do this, and if they wouldn't bring us we were going to walk," which gets looks of shock from all of the other boys... but they decide they better not ask anything else.
Several of our boys reach over and put a hand on their backs and tell them they're sorry... and that they've missed them, which at least gets a few smiles.
Luke looks over at their dads and Danny, and how awkward they are greeting all the adults in their families... and he suddenly has an idea of what the problem is... And it makes him sad... and a little pissed off too.
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Unhappy Much?
Jeff, Jack and Danny walk up to Alex and the group of adults, and as soon as Alex reaches out to shake their hands, it's obvious to him too that they're pissed off at something... or somebody.
Alex asks, "Good to see you... is everything alright?"
Jeff hesitates for a minute and finally says curtly, "No, it's not... but now's not the time," making it perfectly clear that now is not the time... apparently.
Alex thinking to himself, "Well, thanks for the clarification... and fuck you too," but he doesn't say it out loud.
Alex, Kevin and the other dads exchange concerned glances, deciding that they must have been right about what's going on. And none of them are very happy about it either... and in fact, it pisses them off too.
Jeff hesitates but eventually says, looking kinda like somebody is trying to cram something really big up his ass, without lube, "Can I call you later. We need to talk," offering absolutely no details.
Alex has no intention of being lectured to by them, and opens his mouth to tell him to go fuck himself, especially after having that thought about his expression on his face and his ass, but he doesn't. For the sake of all the boys, he would rather see this resolved, if possible.
He says, just as curtly, "Fine," and J&J walk away to introduce themselves to whomever is in charge. Danny reaches over to shake their hands sheepishly, with a small smile of resignation, or something, as J&J walk away.
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J&J's Boys
All the boys wade back into the crowd, and our boys are pleasantly surprised that two of J&J's boys can speak some Spanish.
It turns out the two biological brothers, Chad and Thad, have had one year of Spanish in school before they ended up in a group home, and they really want to continue with it. They'll be in the seventh grade too, but with one year of Spanish behind them they should have no problem. They ended up in the same grade, despite about 10 months difference in their ages, because of when their birthdays are.
The other two brothers want to learn Spanish because of their brothers, and they know the other 8 boys are doing it too... and they figure it'll be great practice if they all do it together... somehow... if their dads will stop being fucking assholes.
And the way they know about our eight is Steve and Luke, who texted them a couple times... even though they rarely got an answer back.
- -
Carlos is standing and watching and thinking, "There's no way in hell we can handle this many new students without at least a couple part-time teachers to help out," but he has a plan... He hopes.
Several boys want to ask J&J's boys what's going on, but decide they better not. Their boys are still looking pretty unhappy. So, instead, they just have a good time talking and introducing them to the others. They linger a bit with the handshakes with Antonio and Raul too.
The kids all pretty much talk to each other, with Luke especially trying to avoid Adriana, and it looks like all the Spanish speakers are happy to have this many new kids who want to learn Spanish. And the dads know it'll be an amazing experience for their boys... and wish they had had the same opportunity at their ages.
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The Program
Carlos rounds everybody up and they all head indoors to the auditorium, Carlos figuring it'll be more comfortable than having all the adults sit at desks in a classroom.
Carlos gets up and introduces himself and the other teachers involved in the program, and gives a pretty bilingual overview of the Immersion Program, and how the students will get a 'bilingual certificate' on their diploma, if they successfully complete all the required courses.
The dads are sitting and watching how enthusiastic their boys are, and are still amazed that they still look so excited... about school.
A few people ask questions, and some of the parents look like they really don't want to be here, but most of the kids seem genuinely excited.
Carlos goes over the books that will be used, for both Spanish and science, and even typing, which all of our boys have signed up for. Javier and Matteo make plans to get a couple copies of the books, so they can start working on the lessons with the boys.
And that's another thing that Carlos is going to have to fix, and somehow find enough space and laptops to accommodate everybody for typing too.
He's very happy to have the increase in enrollment in the program, but it's stretching a few things more than he expected. They've never, ever had fourteen new students show up to be in the program at one time.
And with the new influx of boys from these families, it looks like it's about 50/50 native Spanish versus native English speakers, which delights Carlos. It's never been that close before, with the Spanish speakers usually greatly outnumbering the Spanish learners.
And Carlos had asked Javier to bring a copy of his eBook that he's creating, which he did, on a USB drive. He's hoping he can work it into the curriculum, since they have a shortage of teaching material.
Javier is too, mostly just to get some feedback and see what he needs to do differently.
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Note About Bilingual Education In California:
In 1998 60% of California voters passed Proposition 227, which required that students with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) basically had to be taught almost entirely in English.
That had the effect of dismantling the efforts that schools had made to hire Spanish speaking teachers, in addition to making it much harder on students with limited English proficiency.
Proposition 227 was overwhelmingly repealed by Proposition 58 on November 8, 2016, and schools are now encouraged to offer bilingual classes to help students learn English and Spanish, recognizing the advantage that will provide to both English and Spanish speaking students.
That has, however, left a shortage of Spanish speaking teachers as well as bilingual teaching materials and school systems are constantly on the lookout for both.
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Carlos and the other teachers cover everything they want to cover, go over the books a bit, and answer any questions that anybody has, including a few from the students.
After that's over, some head for the door quickly, and others stand around talking for a bit. Everybody eventually wanders outside.
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Pissed Dads
J&J round up their boys and tell them they're leaving, sounding not even very nice about it.
Thad makes a big point of looking at his dads and then saying loud enough to make sure they hear, "Sorry guys, I guess our free time is over. We have to go back to our prison cells," which makes both dads look like he kicked them squarely in their nuts.
Their boys make a big show of hugging ours longer than expected, in every possible combination, and it kinda looks like they do it just to annoy their dads.
The dads turn around and start to walk off, leaving the boys still hugging. The boys linger a while and eventually start to slowly follow along behind their dads, with their heads down, looking as miserable as their dads.
Damn.
Several of our boys look over at their dads with a puzzled look. Alex just shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head, looking pretty upset too.
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Pissed Luke
But Luke decides he's tired of this.
So without asking anybody, he basically chases J&J and Danny down, reaching them before they get to the car.
The dads+4, plus 7 brothers, are standing and watching, and almost panic.
Nobody thinks that J&J or Danny will actually hurt Luke, but they're seriously afraid of what they will say to him. They consider briefly running after him and hauling him away from them, but somehow that seems like an even worse alternative... somehow.
They're sure that he's pissed about how the boys are being treated, and they know it took a hell of a lot of courage for Luke to be willing to confront them like this, something so totally not like him at all, and they don't want to treat him like a kid and drag him away, but damn it...
In fact Michael, Corey, Javier and Matteo all start toward where Luke is, but Alex asks them to wait a bit. He's worried, but really wants to see what Luke is doing. He thinks.
But every adult standing here, in both families, is totally ready to make damn sure they regret it if they so much as touch Luke. Worried looks are exchanged between Ken and Jared and the other dads too.
So they just all stand with their mouths open, and more than one balled up fist, as Luke runs up to them, yelling, and motions big back toward their boys, several times, who by now have stopped in their tracks too.
They don't know what's going on either, but given how bad their dads' attitudes have been for almost a month, they're afraid for what they're going to do too.
We can all see that Luke is obviously reading them the riot act about something, looking like he's basically yelling at them. And the dads are willing to bet that it's their pissed off attitude towards their boys.
J&J and Danny take several steps back, but Luke follows them, a little too close for the dads' comfort, actually. But he doesn't stop.
They turn toward the car, trying to ignore him, and Luke literally runs to get in front of them, still giving them a loud peace of his mind, still pointing toward their boys.
After at least ten minutes of this Luke seems a little calmer, and J&J look like they've kinda been beaten into submission too. But Luke apparently has a few more, calmer, things to say to them, and then he slowly reaches out his hand, apparently ready to shake hands... after all that, whatever that was.
J&J and Danny just stand and stare at Luke like he has two heads or something, but eventually, slowly, reluctantly, Jeff walks past Luke's outstretched hand, and hugs him... for quite a while, looking like he's saying something to him for a while.
And he's followed by Jack, who hugs him even longer, looking like he says something to him too. When he stops hugging, we think we see Luke nodding.
But the winner has to be Danny, who not only hugs Luke but actually picks him up off of the ground he's hugging him so tight.
He puts him down, leans over and kisses Luke on the cheek... and says something to him.
And by now their boys are almost running to get to them, to find out what the hell is going on.
When they get there, everybody just stops and stares at each other for a bit. It looks like J&J have a not real quick discussion with them for a couple minutes, and all four mob their dads and Danny... for quite a while.
And when they come up for air, the boys all hug Luke... for a really long time... They stand and all talk to each other a bit, and Jeff says something to their boys, which gets actual cheers out of them... and Luke gets more hugs and back pats, for some reason.
They talk a bit more, before they all head for the car again, the boys still looking back at Luke some and waving a bit.
- -
Everybody in the other two families are just standing with their mouths open. They're finding it hard to believe that Luke could possibly ever say anything to them to get them to not be so pissed off, or fix whatever the problem is... but...
Luke stands and watches as they drive off, him and the boys still waving some at each other. He turns around and heads back to his dads, and the dads can see a really worried look on his face as soon as he gets close enough.
He walks up to dad Alex and hugs him tight and says, sounding worried, "Dad, I'm sorry... I... shouldn't have yelled at them like that, but they were hurting their sons... If you want to punish me... I understand.
"I figured they were pissed off about... all those kisses... and they were.... and... uhhh... they're coming over later to talk about it... I hope that's ok. They're going to call about the time... I was afraid to invite them to dinner.
"Oh, and they also said that their boys can spend the night... if that's ok with you," which gets a very loud cheer from our boys, who by now have come over to compliment Luke on not getting killed.
Outside or not, you could have heard a pin drop.
Steve leans over and hugs Luke, and kisses him, not on the cheek... in plain view of pretty much everybody still there, including Carlos and his family, who are wondering what the fuck just happened.
While the adults are trying to figure out what to say, Luke turns and walks back over to Raul and Antonio, and a few other kids who are still there, acting like all of that never happened, and takes Steve with him... by the hand.
The dads and brothers just stand and look at each other and shake their heads.
Luke looks like he's right back to drooling over Antonio and Raul, and he's not the only one as it looks pretty mutual. And they're talking a lot about something, but the dads don't know what.
- - - - - - - - -
Goodbyes
As everybody starts to clear out, our boys seem like leaving is the last thing on their minds. But by the time that only a handful of people are left, we finally hint enough that they get the idea.
Of course they spend fifteen more minutes telling everybody goodbye, and making plans of some sort, mostly with Antonio and Raul, and the dads are pretty sure they hear the words, "invite," and maybe, "pool party," several times... and of course nobody escapes without hugs, especially Antonio and Raul, although it looked that they initiated those... Hmmm...
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Adriana Redux
As they finally start to head back to the car, all of our boys yakking and talking and having a great time, some still congratulating Luke on whatever he did, really seeming excited about everything, Luke glances over and sees Adriana standing and watching him, looking pretty unhappy.
He feels bad about what happened with her. She seems like a nice enough girl, and even though he certainly has no romantic interest in her, at all, he would still like to be friends... or at least not enemies. And he really doesn't want to hurt her feelings.
He sighs bigly, and tells the dads he needs, "un momento por favor," and starts walking over to where she's standing, watching, with her arms crossed in front of her... and the dads are sure they can see him slowing down, the closer he gets. But he doesn't stop. He keeps walking until he gets to where she is, looking more down at the ground than at her.
The dads notice that he seems a lot more reluctant to take on Adriana than J&J.
The others are standing and watching pretty intently, wondering if it's going to end with Luke being slapped across the face. Spoiler alert, it doesn't, although it does look close for a bit.
The dads look over and see Carlos watching intently too. And it seems like he and the dads are all holding their breath... brothers too.
They talk for at least five minutes, although Luke's Spanish is probably part of the reason it takes that long, and the dads can finally see both of them smile... a little.
Luke starts to lean forward, the dads think to hug her, and they almost panic. They're really not sure that's a good idea under the circumstances.
Apparently Luke reconsiders too, and stops, but Adriana leans forward and hugs him gently... She leans back and then Luke leans forward and hugs her quickly... and he quickly heads back to the families, turning once and they kinda wave at each other.
Two adults standing nearby, apparently her parents, both smile at bit at the dads... which makes Alex and Kevin feel guilty as hell.
Luke gets back, embarrassed and blushing bigly, and says he's ready to go. Offering no hint at all about what just happened.
- - - - - - - - -
Dads' Turn
But this time, Alex says, "Un momento por favor," and he and Kevin look at each other and start toward the parents. He knows it'd be rude as hell to not say something to them, after everything that's happened. So they do the same walk of shame as Luke, looking about as happy as he did.
This time all the others stand and watch them. They're not expecting a face to get slapped, but they're pretty sure that they're not gonna be hugging each other either.
They stand and talk for about as long as Luke did, and at the end they smile and shake hands... They walk back with a big smile, but as soon as they get there, Alex looks at all the Spanish speakers in the family and says, in Spanish, "I really need to learn more Spanish... muy rapido (very fast)," which gets a good laugh.
He does say that they seem very nice, and looking at Luke says, in English, he has a headache from trying this much Spanish, "Luke, they were very impressed with you for doing that, and wanted to thank you. And I want to thank you too. That took a lot of courage young man," which gets a very small nod and smile from him.
They really, really want to ask... about everything, but don't. They know that they need to let him think about all of this for a while, and hopefully he'll talk to them about it after he's had some time to think about everything that happened... and it's a lot to think about.
Damn it's hard being a dad.
Alex looks over and sees Carlos standing and smiling too, so they all go over to thank him and say goodbye, which gets more hugs from his boys and ours.
They chat for a bit, thank him for everything and Carlos tells Javier he'll call him later. They all head for the car, very happy about how the boys did... And most of the adults have headaches from concentrating so hard on trying to speak Spanish so long.
Another thing all the dads notice is how happy and excited Daniel, Diego and José are. It seems pretty obvious that they really enjoyed being back among some kids that speak Spanish, and the dads couldn't be happier for them.
Although, honestly, the other boys seem about as happy as they do.
Who the hell knew?
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Gay Shopping
Really?
When they get to the car, Kevin stops them before they all head to different cars.
The dads thought that today would be a good day to let the boys get a little start on clothes shopping for school, while also letting them get a tiny taste of gay life in Palm Springs.
He starts to attempt this in Spanish, but after trying for a couple hours to process this much Spanish, his head hurts so much that he decides there's no way.
So he says, in English, "Guys, we know we're going to have to get busy getting everything you all need for school (collective moan, then laughs), starting with clothes, so we're thinking that on the way home we'll stop on Arenas Street and let you see if you can find anything you want.
"GayMart has a decent selection of clothes... other things too, of course. I'm not sure you'll find many clothes for school, but you might find a sexy swimsuit, or a jockstrap for the gym or something," which gets more laughs, but nobody says 'no'... yet.
"And we're paying... please. We'll all go out in a week or so, and let you do some serious shopping, but thought this would be a fun little outing. Is that ok with everybody?"
They're expecting complaints or at least resistance from at least one of the boys, but much to everybody's surprise Luke doesn't object either... In fact, he just kinda nods, seeming very far away in his thoughts at the moment... still holding onto Steve's hand.
Alex and Kevin look at each other a little worried. The older brothers too, especially Michael, who has rarely seen Luke look down like this.
They want to hug him and ask if everything's ok, but they know that everything that happened is probably kind of a shock to him, or maybe it's occurred to him that he just outed himself... and Steve.
But they also know that they have to respect his right to keep his thoughts to himself, at least for a while... same for all the boys. They know there's a fine line between being good supportive dads, or being pain-in-the-ass dads... thinking about J&J at the moment.
Damn this is hard.
So, with no official complaints, they all head to their car of choice and head back to the Arenas Street area. And the dads+4 talk later, and every boy in every car seems totally over-the-top happy with how today went.
And the dads are beside themselves seeing the boys excited about anything related to school.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Next: 62 - Palm Springs Family - Shopping Trip With Consequences