Cheer Up, Daddy!

Class is in Session (Part One)

-Chapter Eight-

(Class is in Session -Part One- )

Jackson was petrified.

The plan was simple. Kids played while Jackson watched. That was what Andrienne instructed him to do after she ushered him into the playing room before answering the call in her office. And Jackson did exactly that, which was rare but anything to keep him away from Andrienne's crazy talk. He watched over most of the kids, mainly on his own because everyone seemed to want to play with the twins. Jackson was grateful they were not being teased by the older kids, he knew he was being ridiculous because all of them were barely above the age of three, still bullying started at a young age.

Maybe Jackson kind of growled at a boy who tried to talk to Jeremy, but he regretted immediately as he saw the tears forming in the boy's eyes. Just when he thought the waterwork was going to break out and a raging Andrienne bursting through the door, James was already there to give the sobbing boy a big smile, using his nonchalant baby words to distract him away from his idiotic father. Eventually Jackson learnt to stay in a corner and just watched them from afar, praying Andrienne to show out any minute. 

Apparently Alex had other plans, she'd been trying to lure Jackson out from his man-cave. She was helped by another girl (Tina, don't you ever forget that), both of them were trying hard to pull Jackson out. He was grown-ass man and two little girls' strength simply wouldn't make him budge that easily. Then Tina started to call out for reinforcement, and Jackson soon found himself surrounded by kids. The boy who he growled at kept his distance from him while letting the others doing the hardwork. Jackson's arms were getting sore from the tugging and Tina wouldn't stop shouting at him to play with them.

He caved, anyway. It was very amusing to see the kids went to a great length to involve Jackson in their play-time when they could just ignore him. Jackson didn't have much experience with children since he was the youngest and his mother refused to visit her side of the family. He was taught that children were annoying and a pain in the ass to look after, they wanted too much attention and it just made you regret everything in your life with their voices.

Jackson wasn't wrong, they were annoying yet it was not because they wanted attention, it was that they thought you wanted attention. Children might be selfish with toys or snacks but not with their affection, they wished you would feel welcomed as long they were welcomed in your world and Jackson realized that when Leo, the boy he scared, put a toy truck in his hands. He belted a loud laugh and raised his fist up, this made Leo recoil slightly away from him again but Jackson asked him to raise his own fist up. 

"What?" 

"You're supposed to bump it," Jackson nudged against Leo's knuckles with his own, "like this."

Like a blind man who just saw the sun, Leo had a look of blank amazement on his face and his fist was hanging in the air.

"Go on," Jackson encouraged.

Slowly, Leo bumped his fist against Jackson's. This put a big smile on both of their faces, and Leo ran away in excitement to join his friends at a small table. It seemed they were preparing a tea-party for Jackson, busying themselves by gathering extra chairs from the other tables and left-over snacks. Jackson took the chance to check on the twins, James was already snoring lightly while hugging a small teddy bear Leo gave him close to his chest. Something tugged at this heart when Jeremy clapped happily as if he was thrilled to see his father again. Jackson would rather die to admit this moment as he cooed over Jeremy, scooping Jeremy into his arms. 

Jackson reached up to wipe at the drool on the boy's face. "You're hungry?" he asked earnestly, receiving another excited claps from Jeremy. Andrienne didn't mention if she had fed the boys and what time would they be eating. It's already a big headache for Jackson that the twins weren't drinking breast milk, Jenna refused to pump willingly for them and the only way Jackson would ever convince her to breast feed would be giving her another million. But he had come to term that he would not give that woman a penny more so he ended up buying formulas, which was not a wise choice for growing babies. When he voiced out his concern to Dustin, he mentioned a website selling foreign breast milk in the internet and then earned a hard whack on the head.