Alot has changed in the last few months. Perrie got a full time job as an English Teacher at a Highschool. Leigh-Anne's numbers are higher than they ever. Claude gang has merged with Leigh-Anne's Father's gang and she's The second in command to both. And Jesy. Jesy is just living her best life.
Leigh-Anne was walking into Jesy's school building. Jesy was waiting for Leigh-Anne she already had on her sweater and her lunchbag in hand. Once she saw Leigh-Anne pass by the door she called for her. Leigh-Anne put her finger to her lips.
"Quiet down please Jesy. We have two more minutes to share. What was your favorite part about today and what's one thing you learned?"
"My favorite part of the day was play time and I learned that red and yellow make orange."
"Good job!" Ms.McCants was asking everyone else about their favorite parts.
"Okay class. It's time to go. Please remain in your seats until your parents,siblings or guardians come to pick you up."
Jesy was kicking her feet back and forth excitedly. She hasn't seen Leigh-Anne all day. Perrie dropped her off. Now that they had two cars one usually dropped Jesy off and one picked her up. The teacher opened the door and Jesy ran over to Leigh-Anne hugging her tight.
"Thank you. Have a good day"
"You too. See you tomorrow Jesy"
"See you tomorrow Ms.McCants" jesy waved at her teacher taking her mothers hand.
"How was your day babe?"
"It was boring. We didnt have nap time because we had a hard lock down."
"That doesn't sound fun."
"It wasn't."
Leigh-Anne opened the door for Jesy. She got into her seat. Pulling her seatbelt trying to buckle it.
"Need help?"
"No"
Jesy clicked the piece in and Leigh-Anne closed her door and walked around to the driver's seat.
"Can we get McDonalds mommy?" Jesy asked when the passed one.
"Maybe another time bubba" Jesy nodded.
"Do you think mama is home?"
"She should be on her way." Now that perrie worked at a highschool she had to drive a little further as she worked in the city.
Once home Leigh-Anne gave Jesy a snack and let her run around while she did some work. Jesy was in the living room watching TV and coloring. Usually she would be home alone with Perrie but now that she was home alone with Leigh-Anne she was doing whatever she wanted. She ran to her storage container in the corner of the room where her parents left her toys. She took out a container of slime.
"Honey I'm home!" She announced as she walked into the house.
"Perrie take your shoes off" Leigh-Anne didn't even have to turn around to know that perrie still had on her shoes.
"Mama!!" Jesy ran to Perrie hugging her.
"How are you cutie patootie?"
"Good. Want to play with my slime?" Perrie nodded telling Jesy to let her get comfortable first. Jesy went back Into the living room while perrie walked to the table where Leigh-Anne was sitting.
"You alright babe?" Perrie asked leaning down to peck her wife's lips.
"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about something."
"Okay, let me go shower real quick" While perrie went to go take a shower Leigh-Anne closed her laptop heading into the living room.
"Jesy" She turned around looking at Leigh-Anne.
"Why do you have all of these toys out. Put them back unless you're using them please"
"But I'm using all of these mommy"
"You're not coloring or doing this puzzle." Leigh-Anne picked the items up putting them back into her storage container when she noticed what Jesy was playing with.
"Jesy" She sighed.
"Whats wrong?"
"I asked you not to play with your slime on the couch."
Jesy scooped her slime off the couch taking it to the table. Leigh-Anne stared at the red stain on her white couch.
She sat down waiting for Perrie to come down. Which wasn't too long. She walked into the living room in a T-shirt and shorts sitting next to Leigh-Anne.
"Whats up?"
" You know how I told you that there are a lot more workers at LMX?"
"Yeah"
"So that's good for business. But people are bringing their kids and little siblings. They figured that as long as they do their part and go to the accountant that it's okay to keep bringing non working people into my ring"
"I mean, they're not bothering anyone or disrupting right?"
"No, but It just makes me feel a way when I see young kids running around where their mothers and fathers are selling themselves to provide for them. I've been thinking alot about what you said and I want to help them."
"Leigh-Anne"
"I am where I am because people helped me. I wonder if someone would've helped me earlier if I would still be with my mom . . ."
"Dont think about that Leigh" Perrie hugged her knowing that her biological mother was a very sensitive subject.
"I know but don't you think I would be with her"
"It depends, babe. But what about Amina, if what happened didn't happen you wouldn't have met Amina and what about you dad. Wouldn't have met him either."
"Yeah but i'm still curious about what she was like. And Sairah told me that we have an older sister and i didn't even know"
Perrie knew where this conversation was going to go so she tried to change the subject.
"So how can I help?"
"I was thinking, maybe a few days out of the week you can come teach a bit. I know you're a high school teacher, there are some teen-"
"Teenagers!? I hope you're not letting them work and they're just there with their family."
"No, I don't let anyone under the age of 23 work. But a lot of people have teenage siblings and children. Oh. Maybe you can do GED prep so they can have a chance at a normal job?"
"Since when did you care about normal jobs babe? Is something bothering you?"
"I don't know. But they have random strangers in their rooms having sex with them with their family in the rooms with them. That's disgusting. Normani started teaching a dance class to get the kids out of the rooms but I have to do something Perrie. It turns my stomach." Perrie could tell that it was really bothering Leigh-Anne so she agreed that on Tuesdays and Thursdays she would come teach the kids and their parents and/or siblings.
_____________
Tuesday came and it was the end of the school day for Perrie.
"Remeber, there is a quiz on Thursday so please study"
"Ms. Edwards can you you repost the study guide on Google classroom?"
"Yes Daniel I will do that"
"Any other questions, Comments or concerns?"
The 15 year olds shook their heads.
"Alright have a good day. Youre dismissed"
"By Ms.Edwards" the kids said to Perrie, leaving the classroom. She quickly became a student favorite as she didn't really give a lot of work and didn't over do it with the rules.
Perrie waved at the last few kids packing her things up. She was on her way to Leigh's Job.
She had texted Leigh-Anne asking if she had picked Jesy up.
Leigh-Anne told her that her parents picked her up from school. They had taken her home so that Leigh-Anne and Perrie wouldn't have to come pick her up.
It took her about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to LMX. She entered the hotel taking the elevator to the top floor.
She walked towards Leigh-Anne's office where she heard the four having a heated argument. But when she walked in everyone got quiet. All eyes fell on her well most. Leigh-Anne had her head down.
"Hey perrie"
"Hey pez"
They greeted her.
"Hey guys. Everything alright in here?"
"Who knows. Conversation gone wrong" Normani said taking a sip of her drink.
"Babe?" Leigh-Anne looked up at perrie.
"Oh no. What did yall do to my baby"
"She asked me a question and I answered it" Claude said nonchalantly.
"Get out." Leigh-Anne stood up opening her door.
"I'm serious. All of you"
"Are you serious?" Brenda asked looking up from her phone at her bestfriend.
"Dead serious" the three left the room and Leigh-Anne closed the door locking it.
"What happened babe. Did someone say something?"
"Yeah claude."
"What did he say?"
" Something about my mom. I dont want to talk about it"
Perrie nodded. "I asked to borrow some GED books and they gave them to me because it's now computer based. So these are for the Adults and I printed a few worksheets for the teens. I'll give then a lesson. Have them do a few examples and then let them do the packet over the course of the week. Is that okay?"
"Yes, that sounds great. Thank you so much"
"Do we start today?"
"Yeah. Let me make a quick announcement"
Leigh-Anne announced that there would be two sessions taken in turns groups A and B. A being adults and B being kids and those under 23. Group A will have dance class with normani while Group B would be learning with Perrie.
Leigh-Anne brought her into a decent sized meeting room. It was still empty as Leigh-Anne didn't have a reason to use it up until now.
An hour later it was time for perrie to work with the kids. They were a bit loud and rowdy just like her highschoolers but nothing she couldn't manage.
"If everyone can quiet down and take a seat please."
Most of them sat on the floor in front of Perrie. One girl seemed to go unnoticed sitting in the back of the room.
"Today we are going to do math and Thursday we will do English. Does that sound okay"
The teens nodded and Perrie began reading from her lesson plan that she made especially for them.
"Okay. I'm going to ask a few questions to see who was paying attention. How do you find the slope of a line with only two points"
"Anyone?" The kids were quiet, acting like they were thinking when it wasn't really that hard.
"Should I reread this section?" Again no response.
"Okay pay close attention. I'm going to read it again." Perrie began reading the section when she heard a whisper.
"What was that?"
"Use the slope formula. m equals rise over run. The change in y over the change in x" The girl said a little louder.
"Yes. Very good. Would you like to come up and give an example?" The girl shook her head.
Perrie reread the section anyway for the other kids and once she finished she handed everyone a work sheet.
"I want you guys to work in groups. First group to finish everything correctly will. . . " perrie was trying to think of something to reward the kids.
"I'll bring candy on Thursday for the first group to finish."
The kids began to work the thought of a reward making them focus more.
She sat down doing her the problem herself to have an answer key.
"I'm done" She looked up to see a girl who was holding out a paper. She looked to be around twelve or thirteen.
"Okay. Give me a second to finish so i can look it over. write your name on the top please." The girl wrote her name handing the paper to perrie and went to go sit back in the corner of the room. Perrie finished the last few problems comparing her answers with the girls answers. Everything was correct.
Perrie stood up.
"We have a first place winner." She glanced down at the paper.
"Jade has finished first and got everything correct."
The other groups groaned not bothering to finish.
"Dont stop there is still a second and third place." The kids got back to work and Perrie went to go find Jade. She sat down next to her.
"How old are you Jade?"
"Thirteen"
"Youre really bright. This is junior level work and you got everything correct."
"Thank you" she noticed that the girl didn't look up.
"Are you here with your mom or sister?" She shook her head. Perrie was hoping she wasn't seeing customers.
"Do you perhaps work here?"
"No I just sneak in for meals, showers and dance class. Please dont tell Leigh-Anne, she's already yelled at me for being greedy."
"Dont tell Leigh-Anne? She's yelled at you?"
"Yes. She told me to get out of the line because i ate already but I was really hungry that day. I didn't eat for a few days." Jade forgot to mention that she was a bit of a repeat offender.
"Stay a bit after today's class. We'll go talk to her"
"Please no. I dont want to get kicked out and I don't want you to get in trouble.
"I can't get in trouble with Leigh-Anne babe, but she can get in trouble with me" Jade looked at the woman for the first time smiling. Perrie gave her a warm smile, standing up.
"Has anyone else finished?"
"We're almost done but I don't know if it's right." One boy answered and the rest of his group nodded.
"Okay. It's getting kind of late so I will collect them on Thursday and we will go over it then. This is your first homework assignment. Yes?"
The kids nodded standing up with their papers.
"Okay. Great job. All of you. You're dismissed"
"Thank you miss!"
"You're welcome" The kids left and Jade stood up.
"Come on" Jade followed behind perrie. She was afraid of Leigh-Anne. Perrie pushed Leigh-Anne's door open.
". . . Yes, can I call you back . . . . Okay thank you." Leigh-Anne hung up looking up at Perrie confused as to why she just burst into her office like that.
"What happened babe, how was it?" Perrie smiled.
"I have a few issues. I need my kids in desks. They looked too uncomfortable on the floor."
"Done" Leigh-Anne wrote a reminder on a postit sticking it to her computer
"And I want to know why you yelled at her for trying to eat?"
"Who?"
Perrie stepped aside revealing the shy teenager.
"I didnt yell- well maybe I did but I told you that there were a lot of people coming in and that I was trying to help everyone. I can't do that if people are coming for seconds and thirds and fourths " She glared at Jade.
"Its okay miss, I'm going to go now."
"Wait. Apologize"
"Perrie" Leigh-Anne sighed
"She's a baby Leigh-Anne, literally the youngest person here. She said she hasn't eaten for days and you're shouting at her for trying to nourish her body. How would you feel if someone shouted at Jesy because she wanted seconds."
"Alright im sorry kid. Now run along" Jade nodded.
"Bye miss" She waved to perrie with a timid smile. She knew that tomorrow she would be kicked out.
"Why would you yell at her?"
"I was probably just having a bad day or something"
"Babe don't so that. It's not fair to them and it makes them scared of you."
"Good they should be"
"No they shouldn't. Let's go" Leigh-Anne packed her things up following Perrie to her car. The drive home was Leigh-Anne and Perrie discussing ideas of furniture and supplies for the kids and adults that Perrie taught.
Once home Leigh opened the door taking her shoes off and making her way into the kitchen.
Next chapter will be the last time skip (for now) but Jade's here! She was here since last chapter but you know.