Cain looks at his class he walks around with a book in his hand but he closes it because everyone looked so brain dead after writing and doing a synopsis of each chapter. "Class, I want all of you to stand up." Cain instructed and people groaned as they stood up. Cain sits his book down and he smiles as he walks in the midst of the desk. "I want you all to push your desk back but enough for you to have space." He added and the teenagers started moving their desk back and Cain walks over to his radio and he grabs a Jackson 5 tape, he puts it in. He looks at the kids and he walks in the front of the class. "You guys look very tired, it's early but you need to wake up so I will give free hundreds if you dance." Cain tells them and the kids all started to form a line like in Soul Train.
Dancing Machine comes on and they started clapping, Cain goes and turns it up just a little.
"Automatic systematic, full of color self contained, tuned and channeled to your vibes."
All the kids were smiling and they start going down the line one by one, Cain claps as he watches them because the whole point was to get them up and awake because he was tired of seeing them look so tired.
"Dancing, dancing, dancing, she's a dancing machine, ah babe, do it baby."
Janice looks at Cain and she motions him to dance with him, he shakes his head because he was too tall and he looked funny when dances. "C'mon, Mr. Papillon, a lot of people here can't dance." Janice smiled and he sighs as he walks around the group and he didn't want to dance because he knew they were gonna laugh but he at this point didn't mind it because he liked making them laugh.
Cain started doing the happy feet dance, everyone was not expecting him to do that and he moved down the line, everyone was clapping and cheering.
"She's a dance, dance, dance, dance, dancing machine. Watch her get down, watch her get down as she do, do, do her thing right on the scene."
He looks at Janice and he points his finger out repeatedly as he shakes his hips and she nodded as she clapped. "Pretty groovy, Mr. Papillon." Janice says and he walks out of the circle and he lets out a pant as he turns the radio off and he sighs. "My dancing days are over." Cain remarked and Leroy laughs. He was a kid that Cain genuinely hated and reminded him every day that he did. "Aren't you fifty or something?" Leroy questioned making the class and Janice shoots daggers at him. "Ha, ha, ha, no... I'm nowhere near fifty." Cain scoffed and he motions to his face. "Do I look fifty?"
Leroy nodded making the class laugh and Cain shakes his head. Janice smacked her lips. "Leroy just mad because his Momma thirty-something looking sixty. Problematic white people age bad and that's a fact." Janice laughed and the class all gasped, some kids laughed and Cain pretends to not hear what Janice said to him because he did but wasn't gonna say anything. Leroy glares at Janice then he smirked. "But I saw your Mom around The Grove and I fucked her for a dollar, tell her I will be seeing her tonight." Leroy fires back and Cain turns around, he looks at Janice and Leroy looked like he really struck a nerve because she got up and she stayed quiet.
"Leroy, get out of my classroom because we don't use that language in my class and that comment wasn't necessary." Cain tells him even though he wanted to curse that kid out and Leroy points over at Janice. "What about her?" He questioned and Cain points to the door. "I will deal with her, now, you get out." Cain tells him and Leroy groaned as he walked to the door, he slams the door on the way out and Janice looks at Mr. Papillon. "I will talk to you after class, everyone read the next chapter of your books." Cain instructed and the class goes quiet, he sits down at his desk and he writes up a report for Leroy but detention for Janice after school but really it's just tutoring because Janice will be in the wrong as well with in the principal's eyes, not his.
Class ends and Cain managed to go through the day, he sat at his desk and he was grading papers. A knock comes from his door and he turns in his chair and he smiles. "Hi, come in." He tells Janice and she sighs as she walks in. She hands her detention slip to him and he signs because she didn't need to stay, all she needed was a signature. "Are you okay Miss Carter?" Cain asked her and Janice shakes her head. "I don't like when people talk about my Mom. She's a go-go dancer at that club in town and people found out. She's not a whore, she's not a slut or a prostitute. She's just a woman who wants what's best for her kids." Janice mumbled and Cain leans forward in his chair, he nodded. "I understand, you don't have to listen to all these kids. Trust me, I know. I was bullied and talked about in school."
"About what? You're tall, attractive and smart." Janice retorted.
Cain let's out exhale as he shakes his head. "I was chubby, very French at the time and my older brother was hot shit and everyone loved him but I was the nerd."
Janice laughs and Cain laughs as well, Janice tilts her head and she crossed her arms. "When did it stop?"
"I was about seventeen-eighteen, I started working out but it was mostly forced, copied the American people speech from the radio and television and started playing soccer." Cain tells her and Janice nodded as she smiles. "I guess you aren't so cool after all. You know, Ms. Levison has a crush on you but I told her to that it wouldn't happen because you got a wife and a kid on the way, she gave me detention but it was worth it." Janice laughed making Cain laughs as well. A lot of teachers were always flirting with him or trying to talk to him or invite him to lunch. He was all about Ramona and he loved Ramona, he wasn't foolish.
"About this detention and if anyone asks, you graded papers and helped stack books okay?" Cain tells her and Janice nodded and he holds out his fist, she touches his fist with his. "And don't forget your assignment is due tomorrow." Cain reminded her and Janice groaned as she walks towards the door. "You're no longer the cool teacher." Janice remarked and Cain smirked. "That's fine with me." He replied.
____
Cain comes into the house and he was immediately greeted by Agnes, Cain smiles as he got to his knees and he starts petting her. "Hey little one." He cooed and Agnes rolls on her back, she wiggled against the floor. "Uncle Cain!" Dahlia exclaimed as she hugs him and he kisses her cheek. "Aunt 'Mona has something really important to tell you." Dahlia chimed and Ramona comes out the kitchen, she was in her second trimester and it was wobbling around. Cain would make fun of her and she would get so mad him even though she found it funny too. "Hey, babe."Ramona smiles and he leans down and kisses her. "How was your day?" He smiled and Ramona smiles as she squeezes his hand. "I-I have something to tell you." Ramona rushed out and Cain widen his eyes. "What? You're gonna finally tell me what's the gender?"
"Not yet." Ramona answered and Cain grumbled. She wanted to tell him when they have their baby shower which was around the corner and he has grown rather impatient. "So. I got a call from David Bowie's manager and we're going to go see him in concert on Friday. Which I thought was crazy because remember the last time when went to his concert, he said he was gonna make sure we see him again when it comes. But, that's not the big news even though it's pretty awesome... so me and his manager was talking, about you know...David for a while then it shifted to me and I told him how I graduated with an Accountant degree then he was like.. Well we need someone to be his David's accountant because they feel that there's money being taken away from him and his current accountant wasn't doing right. I told him to fax me the papers so I can take a look at them. He sends them and it took me ten minutes to calculate his yearly income, revenue and all that other jazz.. someone is basically stealing his money and I faxed it back to them also called back. In conclusion, you're looking at David Bowie's accountant." Ramona explained and Cain gasped as he picks her up. "I'm so proud of you, I-I wow." Cain hugs her and she smiles as he hugged her so tight.
"Hey, you forgot about me." Dahlia says and Cain holds out his arm, Dahlia joins their group hug and they pull away. Cain looks around and Chip was not in sight. "Where is Chip?" Cain questioned and Ramona shrugged. "He would be home by now, he gets off early today." Cain looks at the time, it was about six and Chip got off at three. Cain grabs his key because Chip only went to four places in this town. Home, work, the library, and the bar. He went to the library yesterday so the bar it is. "I will be right back." Cain says and he kisses Ramona's head then Dahlias.
Cain goes back into town and he drives all the way to the bar. He walks in and he looks around. It was a lot of older, creepy older men but it was hard to find Chip in the midst of them. Cain started walking around and he looks over by the corner of the room. He frowned and he sits in the booth, Chip's hair was surrounding his head and it looked like a curly but silky mop. "Chip." Cain whispered and he strokes his hair and Chip groaned as he turned his head. "It's your brother Cain, hey, I'm here to take you back home." Cain says and Chip shakes his head. "I don't wanna... I failed her." Chip mumbled and Cain strokes his hair. "Dahlia?"
Chip lifted his head and Cain's eyes widened because is eyes were dark, circles were around them and he looked sick. "Yes, I got fired Cain. I got fired because one of the machines malfunctioned, exploded and I thought-I thought I was in Vietnam. My boss thinks I'm some loon and told me that I need to go to a mental hospital but have you heard about the soldiers they're trying to help.. They're like lab rats and I don't want that. This is the fifth job and I can't hold a decent one to support Dahlia. Why did she leave me to raise her alone? I never understand why she resents me and her?" Chip cried and Cain sits next to his brother, he hugs him and he kisses his head. "Hey.. it's okay, you have me, Ramona and we're gonna help you. And Dahlia loves you so much and she will never feel like you failed her because you're the one taking care of her. I'm your brother and you know that I will never let you fall. I wished that I would have taken your spot and went off to the war but I couldn't. If I could you know I would."
Chip nodded because he knew he would, Cain would do anything for him and he doesn't think he could ever live without him. Cain looks into his brother's eyes. "I want you to come home and kiss your daughter, tell her that you love her and just be there for her because she is growing up without a mother and little girls need their mothers but in her case, she needs you twice as more. Don't worry about finding another job, you know you don't have to get one with me. Just take care of my niece and we will figure everything out." Cain assured him and Chip sniffles as he nodded. Cain smiles a little and he wipes the tears from Chip's face, something that Chip would always do to Cain when his Dad use to make him cry.
"Let's go home." Cain tells him and the two get up, they leave the bar and the head back home.
They get home and Chip walks in the door first, Dahlia who was laying on the floor drawing with Agnes laying beside her. Dahlia turned her and she smiles as she gets up. "Daddy!" Dahlia screams and he leans down, he picks her up and he kisses her cheek. "Dally, Dally, Dally." Chip chanted as he jumps up and down and she giggles as she hugs him. "I drew a picture." Dahlia smiles and Chip puts her down, she runs to get her paper and he sits down on the couch. Dahlia jumps onto the couch and she sits next to him. "See, I drew you with Uncle Cain and Aunt 'Mona, I drew Agnes too." Dahlia shows him and he smiles as he looks at the drawing.
"It's beautiful." Chip smiled and Dahlia grinned as she ruffles his hair. "Thank you, can I do your hair?"
Chip nodded and he starts shaking his hair and Dahlia chuckles because she loved his hair.
Ramona watches from the kitchen and she looks at Cain who was grabbing a slice of pizza because all Ramona knows how to do his heat up things. "I'll explain everything later but please tell me you used didn't use that bland cheese from the store?" He questioned and Ramona stares at him with a smile because Cain and Chip were like experts because it's a French thing supposedly and Ramona might not ever understand. Cain literally goes to a supermarket just to purchase these cheese that she has never heard before. "It's parmesan." She remarked and Cain grumbled. "C'est quoi ce bordel?" and Ramona laughs as she held her stomach because she loved when he cursed in French but she felt a jerk, she stopped mid laugh and she gasped as she waved her hand. "She's kicking, she's kicking, she's kicking!" She exclaimed and Cain touches her stomach.
Chip runs into the kitchen and he smiles. "I wanna feel."
Ramona grabs his hand and it puts it near Cain's, they all went silent and Cain slowly looks at Ramona. "Wait... back track.. She? So, you're saying it's a girl?" Cain questioned and Ramona shakes her head but Chip looks at his brother. "I heard she's kicking so that means.. it is girl." Chip gasped and Cain high fives his brother, Cain hugs Ramona who was mad at herself because she didn't mean for it to slip and she did so well keeping it a secret now it was out in the open.
I use to update this story a lot and I want to get back to my usual updating which is every week. If I don't update but Sunday message me and tell me to quite slacking around and stop watching Netflix because that's what I'm mostly likely doing 😂