The Bad Boy Has A Daughter

Chapter 22- Jade

"Why are you spending elunch in the library, Jade?" I choke on the water I was swallowing; Ryker's voice startling me. I had heard him and a girl come into the library to print something, and fight with the printer.  I wanted to go talk to him, but i figured he wouldn't want me coming up to him while he was with a girl.
"Oh, hey, Ryker! I-uh, well I don't eat in the cafeteria anymore- you know, after everything with Cara and stuff..." I trail off, knowing that he knows what I meant. He nods his head. "Well, you're welcome to come sit with me and my friends whenever. I'm sure they'd love to get to know yo-"
"yoU DUMB MOTHER-" "Miss Garrick! Language!" The librarian got onto the girl again. "Mrs. Thornhill, with all due respect, your copier is a piece of garbage," the girl responds, banging the side of the printer.
"As i was saying," Ryker continued. "I'm sure they'd love to meet you. especially that one, that's Kynslee. She's been my friend since we were little; she's one of the few people at this school who know about Heaven. Actually, she's Heaven's God-Mother." He smiles softly while looking at the girl beating the copy machine. It's the same smile he gets every time he talks about Heaven.
Finally, a the copy machine spits out a couple papers and Kynslee lets out a cheer. "FINALLY!" She snatches the paper and walks over to us. "Oh, hey! You must be Jade, Ryker told me your family moved in with them! I'm Kynslee," she sticks her hand out and I shake it. "I've been telling him to bring you to our table since you moved in, but he's stubborn." I smile at her and nod. "Well, we just decided to try being friends recently... like this morning." All three of us chuckle. Before an awkward silence can fall over us, the bell rings over the intercoms.
"Okay, well, I guess I'll see you guys later. Jade, you better come sit with us tomorrow, or I'll come drag you to the cafeteria myself!" Kynslee saluted us and sprinted away to her class. "See? I told you she'd like you." Ryker chuckles and looks down at me. "Like she said, you should come sit with us tomorrow. Anyway, let's head to class. I'll see you later... Friend." "Yea... see you later, Friend." And soon, he's enveloped into the sea of students  rushing to their classes.
The rest of the day was a blur, and before I knew it, I was on my way home. I park my car and head inside. Ryker's already here, he left the school before I did. We talked a few times during passing periods, and a bit in the couple of classes we share. I think we're becoming fast friends, and maybe on our way to close friends. People stared at us like we were crazy anytime we spoke to one another, but Ryker never seemed to care, so i didn't either.
"Hey, Honey, how was your day?" My mom asked as I walk into the kitchen. "It was pretty good. Me and Ryker decided to give being friends a try, and it seems to be going pretty good," I grabbed a water bottle and sat at the island. "Oh, that's great, Sweetheart!" She continues chopping away at the vegetables in front of her. Mrs. Kaldens rushes into the kitchen. "Oh, Jade! Ryker just told me about you two being friends! I'm thrilled you two finally hit it off, he doesn't have too many friends, especially ones that know about Heaven." She hugs me. "Yeah, I gathered that. I'm excited to see how this friendship goes," I wait for her to release me from her death-grip hug. "I don't have many real friends either, or any for that matter. Well, I've got homework to do, I'll talk to you guys later." I head out of the kitchen and begin the boring trek to my room.
"Heaven, you can't hit, it's not nice. You've got to use gentle hands, see?" I peak into Heaven's open door to see Ryker holding her hands and rubbing one of them gently against his cheek. Her face was scrunched up, like she was thinking about what he was saying and doing. "Hitting is not nice, it hurts people, you don't want to hurt people, especially people who love you." If the scene in front of me wasn't so precious, I probably would make a comment about how he used to beat people up regularly. Heaven's eyes wander to where i'm standing and her eyes widen. "J-J! HI J-J!" she pulls her chubby little hand away from Ryker's and waves at me. He lets go of her, giving up on his gentle hands lecture. Heaven runs to me and I kneel down to hug her. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt your lesson." I look over at him, still sitting on the floor where Heaven left him. "Ehe, it's fine, she's still little, she probably doesn't even remember trying to hit me since she's distracted." I think about it for a second. "So you want her to forget it? And whatever lesson you were trying to teach her?" He shook his head. Heaven walks away from me to go play with a toy. "What I meant was, she's still little. Her permeance isn't developed as much as us, or even an older child. It's what I personally like to call 'the peek-a-boo' affect, it involves both physical objects and mental ideas. Once an object or idea is out of the baby's sight or mind, it's gone to them. Babies and toddlers have to work on their object permanence to strengthen it." I nod and grin. "It's funny to see this side of you," Heaven hands him a piece of toy food; he looks at me, confused. "I mean, I'm used to the you that you are at school, not the 'dad' side of you. So, to me, it's funny seeing the 'emo bad boy' talk about a toddlers object permanence." He grins. "Well, when you say it like that, it sounds funny." We both chuckle and watch Heaven gather more toys, mostly toy foods.
"Does it ever get tiring?" He looks at me, like I'm insane. "I'm a single teen dad, in highschool full time and work part time at a mechanic shop on the weekends. No, Jade, I've never once gotten tired." his voice dripping in sarcasm; if it weren't for the grin on his face, I'd think he was upset. I rolled my eyes, accepting a piece of pretend cake from Heaven. "I didn't mean that, Dork. I meant, like, hiding it. There's so many people in our school who idolize you, who would kill to have just one conversation with the infamous 'Ryker Kaldens; sexy bad boy'," He smirked at that title. "And, I know they try to talk to you; I've seen you get bombarded by dozens of kids in passing periods, or in the cafeteria. That has to get annoying, don't you ever think that if you told them about her, they'd lighten up and leave you  alone a bit?" He thought about my statement for a moment.
"So... you think I'm sexy?" I roll my eyes and toss a little toy orange at him. He laughs loudly. "Oh, please, you can't tell me you haven't heard hundreds of girls whispering about you all day all of your high school career." He nods and rolls the toy passed Heaven. She quickly toddles after it to catch it. "Yeah, Yeah, I've heard 'em. I don't hide it, by the way. I just don't tell anyone. And don't even start with the, 'well that's basically the same thing!'" he mocks my voice. "Thing, because it's not the same thing," I tilt my head. "If someone asks me about it, I'm not going to lie and say I don't have a kid, or say that she's my sister. I just don't bring her up when I talk to those people, unless they do first." I nod. "That makes sense." We continue to watch Heaven play with the toys that filled the room.