"This is Dean Withers," she introduced herself indignantly over the phone. "This is regarding your daughter, Ariel."
"Is something wrong?" Marc questioned. Usually Brendan was there to tell him something first, if he knew about it.
"Ariel's gotten into a fight at school. I've already called the parent of the other child, and I'd like to talk to both of you and have you come pick her up."
Marc swore. "Fighting?" he echoed. Ariel didn't do those kinds of things.
"Yes, I'll give you more details when you come in."
She was six. How could she be getting into anything serious enough to get a call from the Dean? Kids fought all the time, didn't they? And it wasn't like this was a recurring thing. Marc sighed and took another early lunch for the week to drive himself in.
If they were sending her home for the day, he didn't know what he was going to do with her. Take her to work? She'd sit in an office all day with her. Maybe he could send her to the visual department. Was that artsy?
He showed up and went into the office, seeing Ariel sitting with a boy of about the same age and a blonde woman waiting by his side. She was dressed in a business suit herself and didn't look happy to be there either.
"I'm Alice," she introduced herself. "And my son, Eric." She glanced down towards the equally blond boy.
"What happened?" Marc just wanted to know that simple fact.
"He was teasing me—" Ariel started quickly, right as Eric spoke up with, "Well she hit me first!"
The Dean shushed both of them quickly. "Eric was making fun of Ariel's art," she explained. "And so Ariel hit him. Then he hit back and the playground supervisor pulled them apart."
Ariel took the first hit? Marc kept silent and nodded grimly. "Is she being sent home?"
"Just for the day," the Dean explained, like it was that easy. "Just so that they can both cool off. They've both gotten warnings, and another one will result in an infraction."
Marc nodded and ushered Ariel out of her chair. That's when he saw the swelling of her other cheek, and noticed the nice split lip that Eric had. Apparently it couldn't have just been a nice hit. They'd actually done a number on each other.
Marc nodded apologetically to Alice as he was hoping to get out of there. He didn't want to have to deal with anymore of this. He'd sit Ariel down and talk with her on his own time.
"Hold on," Alice insisted though, stopping him at the office door. "Eric, go wait over there for me," she said, pointing ahead to the doors of the main office.
"Um," Marc looked around for a place to send Ariel, so he sent her off towards the secretary.
"I think we should set up a playdate for them," Alice decided.
"What?" Marc pulled back. "They just got into a fight; I don't think they're friends."
"I think this is all going about a little wrong," Alice said, pausing. "There's that stupid belief that people think boys need to be mean to the girls that they like... I think he has a crush on her, and I want him to learn that he needs to be friends with, and be nice to the girl if he likes her. So I'd like to get them to try and hang out as friends, not playground rivals."
Marc glanced towards a guilty looking Eric at the front of the office. He'd never done it at that age, but then he wasn't Eric. "She really likes the movie Lilo and Stitch," he muttered. Watching a movie couldn't be too bad of an idea, could it?
"I'll call you. I have to get back to work," she said.
They exchanged numbers, and she left first with Eric. Marc took Ariel out to the car and buckled her in. "Am I in trouble?" she squeaked worriedly, holding on to her backpack.
"Yes and no," Marc replied unhelpfully. "You know fighting isn't okay. Violence doesn't solve anything, and you shouldn't want to hurt people. It's not nice." He paused. "Eric is going to watch Lilo and Stitch with this weekend, so you two can try to get along."
Ariel let out a groan of complaint. "I don't want him to come over!"
"Eric's mom suggested it." And surely she must know what she's doing, at least to some extent more than Marc. "She and I will talk more about it, but I don't think it's a bad idea. He was just teasing you, people do that sometimes."
"Well it's mean," Ariel grumbled sourly.
"It is," Marc agreed on a sigh. "But it happens. And you can't jump at it every time, okay? Now you're coming into work with me. You have your sketchbook right? Because it'll be a while. We'll stop to get food on the way to the office."
Ariel wasn't pleased about the idea of eating out but there wasn't another option. Marc got them something to go and took it back to the office with them, and towed Ariel in behind him. She got everyone's attention at being something new that wasn't work related.
Marc explained that she was in trouble and had to sit in the office with him all day—so no, he wasn't letting anyone entertain her. Besides, she would be happy enough drawing for a few hours.
Still, he decided to send Brendan a quick text since he wouldn't be by after he school. He kept it brief and short: Ariel got into a fight and had been sent home for the day, so she was at the office with him. Brendan texted back asking if everything was okay.
Marc said it was—if it was really anything like Alice had said, it was just kids being kids. Still, he would think Ariel knew better than to hit someone. He hoped his talk to her had been enough, or maybe he could get Brendan to say something to her as well. It was another one of those things where he didn't know who to talk to about it.
At the end of the day Marc helped Ariel clean up the strewn mess of pencils and colored pencils that had taken over his office floor. They took the elevator down as he tried to think of something to do with her outside of the house. "Do you want to go anywhere?" he asked. "Shopping, or out to see a movie?"
Ariel hummed. "I want to go to a pool."
"Pool?" Marc echoed with disdain. Hell, he wasn't even sure he could remember how to swim, and the last time Ariel had been was probably with her mother. And maybe that was it. Marc sighed. "I don't know if we can do that today, but we'll do it this weekend. Is there anything you want to do today?" Maybe he would get Terri to take her, and he could supervise from the side. He didn't want to get in the water. He really needed to find someone else other than Terri.
"Could we go see Brendan's studio again?" she asked.
Apparently she couldn't want to do anything simple. "I don't know if he would be there tonight. What else?"
Ariel groaned and glared at him slightly. "A playground, then," she said.
Marc could do that one. They drove back to their neighborhood, and he parked along the curb in front of one of the smaller playgrounds. There were a few other kids there, and what looked like a number of nanny's involved. He had always thought about getting on for Ariel, but he wasn't going to be that dependent on someone he didn't know. A babysitter was a lot different than a nanny.
He sat on one of the open benches, intent on keeping to himself and watching Ariel as she ran for the monkey bars. He probably should have had her change out of her school uniform, but they had a washer and dryer at home for a reason.
"Is she yours?" a woman asked, coming over even though he'd gone through an effort to stay away.
"She is," Marc answered, glancing towards her only briefly before going back to watch Ariel. Who's else would she be?
"It's nice to see a dad actually out with his daughter," the woman chuckled, sitting on the other end of the bench from him. At least she wasn't in his bubble.
"Do you know of any public pools around here? Or is there a private one that's close?" he asked. He really wasn't keen on all this information.
"There's a rec center just outside the neighborhood and down a few blocks," she said. "They've got a pretty nice pool with a slide and everything."
Marc nodded curtly and would have to look it up on the internet. And possibly buy both himself and Ariel some swimwear. She had probably outgrown hers since the last time, and he hadn't owned anything since he was a teenager.
"I'm Jones," she introduced herself. "I sit for the girl in the pigtails." She pointed out a dark haired girl on one of the swings.
"I'm Marc," he said shortly. He really wasn't interested in the trite idea of sleeping with a nanny, of that's what was going on.
She seemed to get the hint and fell silent, though she didn't move away. Eventually her little girl fell and skinned her knee, so they left. Ariel tuckered herself out and so they drove the rest of the way home. She went upstairs to take a bath and change out of her uniform, and Marc sunk down in front of the TV.
Brendan called him then, asking more about what happened. "Some boy apparently has a crush on her which meant he was teasing her about her art, so she hit him and he hit back. She's got a swollen cheek and he's got a split lip." Maybe that should make him proud that she'd done such a number, but he wasn't.
"Oh." Brendan grumbled something. "Art is always really touchy, and she's probably self-conscious about it. So teasing is one sure way to get a reaction out of it. I know in seventh grade, I bit some kids who would make fun of my drawings."
Marc chuckled. "I can see you biting people," he said. "but I'd still obviously rather Ariel not go punching people over every comment about her art. Or just punching people in general."
"It happens. You talked to her about it, right?"
"Yes, some. I don't know if I explained it very well. And the other kids mom—her name is Alice—is suggesting a playdate so that they can get along for a little bit." Marc shrugged.
"Maybe," Brendan chuckled. "I can try talking to her at school tomorrow."
"That would be nice." Marc sighed. "And I need to take her to the pool at some point this weekend." He paused. "Do you know how to swim?"
"I do, do you?" Brendan answered.
"Of course I do." Marc could probably do a decent doggy paddle if he wanted to—but he didn't want to. "But maybe you'd want to come?" He could imagine Brendan having fun at a pool.
"Is that an invitation?" Brendan questioned, somehow sounding smug over the phone. "You want to do things with other people?"
"Are you going to come or not?" Marc groaned. If he was going to suffer on the side of a pool, it would be more entertaining if Brendan was there with him.
"I'll come," Brendan laughed.
***
Ariel and Eric stared each other down at the door. Both had a look that said they were waiting for the other to start throwing punches again. Marc put his hands briefly on Ariel's shoulders and gave a slight squeeze, trying to get her to relax.
"Mind if I stick around and do some work?" Alice asked, holding up a couple of thick folders and glancing to the kids. So at least she wanted to supervise too.
Marc nodded and invited them both in. They set Eric and Ariel up on the couch and Marc started up Lilo and Stitch. Alice sat at the rarely used kitchen table—it was covered more in junk mail than anything else—and started looking through papers.
Marc brought down his laptop so he could work as well and sat across from her at the table. He tried to get a peek at what she was working on, before forcing himself to start up a manageable conversation. "So what do you do for work?" he asked.
"I'm a college professor," she answered shortly. "For business. I've got three sections of classes that just turned in some papers to me yesterday." She held up a stack in presentation. "Some of them just need to go over their English basics again, jeez," she added, talking maybe more to herself.
Marc chuckled. "Teaching seems interesting," he commented. He hadn't seen much of it, and he was sure Brendan's way of handling high school students was different than what Alice did.
"What about you?" she asked.
"I helped start up a company that gets more businesses out there in social media. We develop a lot of phone apps and other platforms to get people interested. I was a business major in college, too," he said.
"Maybe you could write a better paper on how you plan to gain work experience in your field," she snorted. "All I'm reading about is internships and part time work. Nothing like doing something on their own."
They both got more involved in their work, only stopping when Eric or Ariel let out an occasional shrieking laugh or repeated a line in a loud voice. By the end of the movie the two were quoting it together and then laughing at each-others imitations of the voices.
Alice seemed satisfied with that, smiling as she reorganized all of her papers. "See, it worked out," she said. "Hopefully no more fights."
"Hopefully," Marc agreed.
Alice and Eric left shortly after, and then Marc had to take Ariel out for a new bathing suit. It was getting late in the fall so he wasn't sure why she wanted to go swimming, but either way, the pool was indoors so it didn't really matter.
It was still early enough in the afternoon to go, so he texted Brendan as a heads up. They stopped to pick Brendan up from his house and then back towards the rec center. Marc had to pay some fee since he didn't have a membership, but got them into the pool area.
At the locker rooms he stopped between the two gendered doors, glancing down at Ariel. He certainly wasn't going into the women's, and he didn't know what she might see in the men's.
"Family," Brendan pointed a little further down. "So you can go in with her."
Oh. So at least other people had thought that part through. "You're coming in too, right?" he wasn't doing this alone.
Brendan chuckled and lead the way to the family changing rooms. Marc took her down to the family locker room, where they changed in small stalls with curtains. Marc had gotten himself a pair of plain blue trunks, and kept a t-shirt on. He locked up some of their stuff in a locker before adventuring out to the pool area. Brendan joined them a moment later, wearing bright green swim shorts and a partially zipped up hoody.
Ariel immediately wanted to go on the slide, but Marc wasn't even sure how well she could actually swim, or if she was even allowed to go by herself. "Shallow end first," Marc declared. "And show me how well you can swim."
He sat on some of the lounge chairs not too far and watched her prance around in the water. Brendan sat next to him and looked around. "Actually kind of busy," he commented. "Oh, hey, there's Gracie. I'll be right back I'm going to say hi." And then he was gone.
Marc watched him go chat briefly with what he figured was another student and her parents. Brendan came back after a few minutes and sat down again. "Aren't you going in?" Marc asked. Ariel was playing by herself, but looking with interest at some of the other kids.
"Aren't you?" Brendan pointed out.
"I don't like swimming," Marc admitted.
Brendan sighed and unzipped his hoody, shrugging it back onto the chair before heading for the water. Marc could see a few people already staring at Brendan's tattoos, which were more than just his arms apparently. Some people looked impressed and some people looked appalled. Brendan had another tattoo up his back, almost like an X-ray image of bones. A spine traced up the center of his back, and the right half had a ribcage on it. It was mostly black, with a slight red outline at parts, and some text or quote on the left side.
He got into the shallow end with Ariel and took her by the arms, pulling her around in the water. Brendan got Ariel to try and chase him through the water, but he was able to keep away.
Marc saw the woman he met at the park the other day off in the distance, and hoped she didn't notice him. What was her name again, Jones? He watched Ariel and Brendan, while off-handedly checking that Jones hadn't noticed him.
She did eventually come over, smiling and looking towards Ariel in the pool. "How are you today?" she asked.
"Good." Marc kept his attention on Ariel and Brendan in the pool. He half wondered what the chances were she had come because he had asked about the pool, but he didn't want to be thinking like that.
"They play well together," she commented, tilting her chin out towards Brendan. "She takes more after you though, I think."
"More after me compared to who?" Marc frowned in confusion.
"Compared to your uh... friend," she said awkwardly, giving him an equally confused look. "I mean, aren't you two...?" she trailed off and left the rest open.
"No," Marc protested quickly. "I'm not gay." Brendan was but that wasn't any of her business.
Jones flushed and her eyes got wide. "Oh, I'm sorry," she fumbled quickly. She smiled awkwardly at him and then took off, going back to where she had been sitting.
Marc scowled after her for a moment before going to watch Ariel. So, two guys couldn't go to the pool together or something? Or had he somehow given off those kinds of vibes? He had never acted on anything like that. He decided to ignore it just went back to supervising.
Brendan and Ariel got out and walked to the line for the slide, and he rode down with her a few times. She returned to the shallow end then and Brendan came back to the chairs and wrapped up in his towel. "I haven't been swimming in forever," he said, shivering slightly.
Marc grunted an watched Brendan closely for a moment. Did they act like a couple or something? He could see how Brendan was attractive—he was lean, and just on the border between masculine and androgynous. His hands were long an sinewy, and—shit, Marc caught himself. He hadn't thought about someone like that since high school. Marc looked over the tattoo on Brendan's back, and his eyes noticed a decent scar emerging out from the tattoo.
"What happened there?" Marc asked, gesturing towards it.
Brendan wiped his face with a towel and met Marc's eyes. "I told you about it already."
It took Marc a moment to connect it all together. "The camps?"
Brendan nodded and finished drying himself off. Marc swallowed hard and twisted his fingers together.
"If you have problems with your dad, why do you still talk with him?" Brendan asked.
"Because he's my dad." Marc felt that was at least obvious. Family still meant something.
"So what?" Brendan retorted. "My parents are who they are, but I don't talk to them. Them being my parents is no excuse for sending me to those places. I don't talk with them."
Marc didn't know what to say to that. He'd never thought about it like that. He didn't even know how to properly explain it to Brendan.
"Sorry," Brendan spoke up after a while. "That was maybe over the line on my part."
"It's not," Marc croaked. "I do try and keep my distance from him. But Ariel's mom already left, and... I don't want her to think her family doesn't want her." It still wasn't a good excuse, though. "He does love her, and want to be in her life. I just don't allow it."
He glanced over at Brendan again, fixing himself on the scar on Brendan's back. If anyone was going to understand it, it would be Brendan.
"I think it's getting close to dinner time... we should get going," Marc suggested, changing the topic anyways.
Brendan nodded in agreement and put his hoody back on. Marc called Ariel out of the water and they went into the changing rooms. Marc took them all out to dinner, where Ariel complained about eating out again.
"I really am going to e-mail you some recipes, now," Brendan decided.
They ate quickly since Brendan said he had to get home and work on some grading. Marc drove Brendan home from there, all the while trying to find the right words.
When they got to Brendan's house Marc stepped outside of the car as well, closing the door so that Ariel couldn't hear. "I would like to talk to you," Marc said plainly. He couldn't find any way to be subtle about it. "I'll get Terri to babysit again sometime this weekend, but... text me some time that works." Because if Brendan didn't force him to do it somehow, Marc knew he wasn't ever going to do it himself.
Brendan nodded. "I will," he promised.