The Academy In My Head

Happy Mother's Day

Jessica skidded into the room in stockinged feet. “Kota… can you take me to the mall?” Her eyes were wide with panic behind her pink framed glasses.

Kota pushed his glasses up with one finger. “I guess.” He glanced at the clock. “Really though, Jess? The mall at 7 pm on a Saturday night?”

She nodded, glancing at Sang and the rest of the boys who were in various spots in chairs around the kitchen, eating cookies that Luke and Sang had made earlier in the evening. “Tomorrow’s Mother’s Day, Kota. I don’t have anything for mom yet. Do you?” she raised an eyebrow at him and reached up to fix the end of her braid. She glanced around at the boys when they all stopped talking and stared at her.

“Mother’s Day?” Sang asked.

Jessica nodded again. “Yes. What did you get for your mom?” she asked innocently.

Sang paled. “Uh, well, actually, Marie and I don’t get her anything for Mother’s Day.” She admitted.

“Never, ever?” Jessica stared at her.

Sang shrugged. “Maybe once.” She muttered before dropping her gaze to the cookie in her hands and she started to tear bits of it off and put it on her napkin.

Victor cleared his throat. “If you don’t want to take her, I can.” He volunteered. “I should pick up something for Mother.” He glanced at Sang, wanting to divert attention from her and he looked at the others.

“Oh!” Luke sat up straight in his seat. “Remember when we were little, Erica always made sure we made something for Mother’s Day?” He reminded them.

North’s eyes narrowed slightly. “But your mom wasn’t around…” He said, a faint note of disbelief coloring his tone.

“I know.” Luke said, matter of factly.

“So, why did you make something for Mother’s Day?"

“Because she didn’t want him to be left out.” Kota smiled patiently. “He liked doing things with us and making stuff too.”

Gabriel nodded. “And she always had super great ideas of things that we could make. She always tried to not look at Kota’s while he was making them.”

“What did you do with them?” Silas leaned forward in interest, staring at Luke.

Nathan snorted, covering his amusement by shoving a cookie in his mouth as Sang glanced up, also interested in the answer.

Luke shrugged. “Uncle’s got a lovely collection of handprint plaques and Happy Mother’s Day mugs.” He smiled.

The boys all laughed.

“Except for the few that he managed to slip to mom.” Jessica said with a shy smile. “anyway. We don’t want to be late so who’s going to take me to the mall?”

There was a general scramble as they all pushed back chairs. “We’re all going.” Nathan said as Kota blinked at them in surprise.

“Really?’ he asked, pushing his glasses up again.

There was a flurry of silent conversations that left Sang and Jessica smiling at each other before the boys stood up. “Of course,” Victor patted Kota on the shoulder. “Erica’s been a mom to all of us over the years. It’s rather appalling that we forgot Mother’s Day was this weekend.”

“We’ve forgotten about that in the past few years too.” Nathan said. “She always looks out for me since mom left.”

Gabriel nodded vigorously. “Fuck… erm fudge, yeah. She’s the only mom that I’ve had since mine died.” He shrugged.