Life in Stoneybrook #1 - A Flier and a Plan
Title/Prompt - A Flier and a Plan (Table 1, Prompt 071: Plan)
Author - Bookplayer
Word count - 1516
Rating - PG
Summary - After the BSC disbanded everyone had gone their separate ways. Kristy and Mary Anne stuck together, they fell in love and have a baby daughter. But Kristy can't rest until everything is perfect, and even though Mary Anne won her battle with cancer, everything is not perfect for her.
Link to table - Over here.
Author's note - Kristy/Mary Anne, obviously. I know you read the c-word up there, but this isn't angst. Really, I mean it. A brief summery of the cancer thing, but nothing else to warn for that I can think of.
“Are you sure this is a good idea, Kristy?” Mary Anne said, as I clicked print.
I smiled at her. She was holding our daughter in her lap, stroking her hair. Allie was snuggled up to her, and started to fall asleep.
Allie was a year old last month, and had chin length brown hair and big brown eyes. Mary Anne and I both had brown hair and eyes, so she looked could belong to either of us, which was how we wanted it. Mary Anne's hair was shorter then Allie's right now, but she was growing it out. I would have cut my hair short too, but that would mean going to a salon every now and then and I figured that was a waste of time. So it was long, usually in a ponytail or a bun, and I just trimmed it when Mary Anne told me I should.
“It's a great idea. Just a casual, open meet-up in the park. No one has to do any extra work, the kids will want to go to the park anyway, and it's a weekend so I'll be right there next to you.”
“But what if nobody comes? Or. . . none of the other parents like us?” She asked, worried. It sounded like a silly question for a grown woman, she probably wouldn't have said it out loud to anyone else, but I knew that it was all she would think about for the next week.
“Then we'll have a beautiful day at the park. And we'll find other parents somewhere else.” I said. I really hoped we found a few people who liked us. Mary Anne was staying home with Allie while I worked at a law practice in Stamford, and she was really lonely during the day. I'd always been her best friend, from before we both could remember, but these days I was her only friend.
Things were different when we got married three years ago. She was a teacher at Stoneybrook Day School, and we had friends and went out. Then, she got cancer. She stopped teaching and going out, mostly because of the chemo, but she also admitted that she was afraid to talk to people. There were too many questions she didn't want to answer. She finished the chemo a year and a half ago, and all her tests were clean, but she was still afraid of people. She had always been a little shy, but most days she didn't talk to anyone but me and Allie, unless Dawn called her.
I got up from the desk, and walked over to the couch where she was sitting. I sat down next to her and put my arm around her, kissing Allie on the head and Mary Anne on the cheek. “Mary Anne Spier, you are a beautiful, kind, talented, amazing woman. I promise you, we'll make friends who'll see that.”
She blushed, but she smiled a little. Then she said quietly, “I know you think that. But everyone else just sees a cancer patient, or a lesbian, or-”
“Dawn doesn't. And no one in my family thinks that.” I said, without thinking.
She sighed and shook her head, and I realized I said the wrong thing. What I said was true, my family didn't think a thing about it, and her step-sister Dawn was always there for her, even if she lived in California. But mentioning it just made her think of her father, who couldn't get over either of those things.
I reached a hand up and gently turned her head to face me, “Do you honestly care what those people think?”
She thought about that, and whispered “Sometimes.”
“Don't. The people who think like that aren't our friends.”
I could see her starting to cry a little, and she said, “We don't have any friends, Kristy.”
“We will. I'll find us some. I'm going to take care of this. I always take care of you, right?”
She fought back tears and nodded.
“We're going to the park this Saturday. And there will be other parents there, and we'll be friendly and nice, and I'll bet we have dozens of friends by the end of the day.”
“I'm not sure I want dozens of friends.” She said, smiling a little.
I grinned, “Then we'll have to narrow them down. I'll make up an application, and you can pick one or two you like.”
She laughed, and it felt like home.
Then the phone rang. I got up and answered it. There was no greeting, just, “Kristy. Cancun.”
“Karen. Graduate.” I responded.
“I'll have you know that I'm working very hard, and that as of May you will be speaking to Karen Brewer, BA. In Cancun. Which is what I called to talk about.”
“That's nine months away, we'll talk when it gets closer.” I had heard about this plenty already. Karen wanted to take a sister's only trip, just me, her, and Emily, to Cancun for her graduation. Technically, Karen was my step-sister and Emily was my adopted sister, but I hadn't thought of them that way in years.
“I knew it. You don't want to go.”
“Of course I want to go, but I have a job, and a wife and a kid to take care of. A week away from all of that is a lot.”
“People do, traditionally, take vacations from work. And while I know that you have the most co-dependent marriage in the world, it's only a week. One week. Mary Anne is perfectly capable of talking care of herself and Allie for a week.”
I ignored the jab at my marriage. Karen usually thought it was really romantic that I'd married Mary Anne after being friends for so long, but sometimes she was a little jealous of it. I took a different track, “It's in the middle of softball season.”
“Kristy Thomas, there are thousands of other people in Stoneybrook who know how to play softball. I know this because you taught most of them. Someone else can coach the team for a week.”
That was a little dramatic. I doubted there were thousands of people in Stoneybrook, let alone ones who could play softball, even if I had coached a lot of kids over the years. “There are other things, too. I signed up to do a Habitat for Humanity thing with people I work with-”
“Unless you are building that house veeeeery sloooowly, it should be finished before May.”
“- and there might be more things like that. I'll try, Karen. Really. But I can't just jet off to Mexico.”
“If you don't come, I'll make sure I get arrested and you have to come bail me out, because you're my lawyer.”
I laughed, “Are you kidding? I'll let you rot in a Mexican jail if it means missing softball practice.”
“I'll sound really scared and pathetic. I'll tell you how they're making me eat worms. Without tequila, even.”
“Don't you have something better to do right now?” I said.
“Only if I want to graduate.”
“No graduation, no Cancun.”
“You stink. Fine. I am opening up my computer as we speak, and I am preparing to write a paper for psych on emotional manipulation as it relates to big sisters, school work, and Cancun.”
I rolled my eyes, but I was smiling, “Sounds fascinating. I can't wait to read it.”
“You can read it if you promise to go to Cancun.”
“I love you, Karen. Bye.”
“Love you too. Seeya.”
I hung up the phone, and Mary Anne was grinning at me. “The sister trip again?”
I nodded and sighed, “Because I can drop everything in my life to go party for a week.”
I sat back down next to her and laid my head on her shoulder, watching Allie sleep.
She laid her head on top of mine, and said softly, “I know it's important to you. We'll be fine, honey.”
I sighed, “I do want to go. Not that I care about Cancun, but who knows if I'll get to spend that much time with both my sisters again? One of them might move across the country.”
“It's not that bad.” she said, trying to cheer me up. For most of the time they'd been step-sisters, she had been in Connecticut while Dawn was in California.
“I know. I just feel like I should go, but I don't want to be that far away from you and Allie, and the office, and during softball season on top of it.”
“Like you told Karen, it's nine months away. That's plenty of time to plan. And maybe by then we'll have some friends who can help you out.”
I smiled, “We'll have friends by this weekend.”
Mary Anne smiled and kissed my forehead, “I know better then to argue with you.”
Author - Bookplayer
Word count - 1516
Rating - PG
Summary - After the BSC disbanded everyone had gone their separate ways. Kristy and Mary Anne stuck together, they fell in love and have a baby daughter. But Kristy can't rest until everything is perfect, and even though Mary Anne won her battle with cancer, everything is not perfect for her.
Link to table - Over here.
Author's note - Kristy/Mary Anne, obviously. I know you read the c-word up there, but this isn't angst. Really, I mean it. A brief summery of the cancer thing, but nothing else to warn for that I can think of.
“Are you sure this is a good idea, Kristy?” Mary Anne said, as I clicked print.
I smiled at her. She was holding our daughter in her lap, stroking her hair. Allie was snuggled up to her, and started to fall asleep.
Allie was a year old last month, and had chin length brown hair and big brown eyes. Mary Anne and I both had brown hair and eyes, so she looked could belong to either of us, which was how we wanted it. Mary Anne's hair was shorter then Allie's right now, but she was growing it out. I would have cut my hair short too, but that would mean going to a salon every now and then and I figured that was a waste of time. So it was long, usually in a ponytail or a bun, and I just trimmed it when Mary Anne told me I should.
“It's a great idea. Just a casual, open meet-up in the park. No one has to do any extra work, the kids will want to go to the park anyway, and it's a weekend so I'll be right there next to you.”
“But what if nobody comes? Or. . . none of the other parents like us?” She asked, worried. It sounded like a silly question for a grown woman, she probably wouldn't have said it out loud to anyone else, but I knew that it was all she would think about for the next week.
“Then we'll have a beautiful day at the park. And we'll find other parents somewhere else.” I said. I really hoped we found a few people who liked us. Mary Anne was staying home with Allie while I worked at a law practice in Stamford, and she was really lonely during the day. I'd always been her best friend, from before we both could remember, but these days I was her only friend.
Things were different when we got married three years ago. She was a teacher at Stoneybrook Day School, and we had friends and went out. Then, she got cancer. She stopped teaching and going out, mostly because of the chemo, but she also admitted that she was afraid to talk to people. There were too many questions she didn't want to answer. She finished the chemo a year and a half ago, and all her tests were clean, but she was still afraid of people. She had always been a little shy, but most days she didn't talk to anyone but me and Allie, unless Dawn called her.
I got up from the desk, and walked over to the couch where she was sitting. I sat down next to her and put my arm around her, kissing Allie on the head and Mary Anne on the cheek. “Mary Anne Spier, you are a beautiful, kind, talented, amazing woman. I promise you, we'll make friends who'll see that.”
She blushed, but she smiled a little. Then she said quietly, “I know you think that. But everyone else just sees a cancer patient, or a lesbian, or-”
“Dawn doesn't. And no one in my family thinks that.” I said, without thinking.
She sighed and shook her head, and I realized I said the wrong thing. What I said was true, my family didn't think a thing about it, and her step-sister Dawn was always there for her, even if she lived in California. But mentioning it just made her think of her father, who couldn't get over either of those things.
I reached a hand up and gently turned her head to face me, “Do you honestly care what those people think?”
She thought about that, and whispered “Sometimes.”
“Don't. The people who think like that aren't our friends.”
I could see her starting to cry a little, and she said, “We don't have any friends, Kristy.”
“We will. I'll find us some. I'm going to take care of this. I always take care of you, right?”
She fought back tears and nodded.
“We're going to the park this Saturday. And there will be other parents there, and we'll be friendly and nice, and I'll bet we have dozens of friends by the end of the day.”
“I'm not sure I want dozens of friends.” She said, smiling a little.
I grinned, “Then we'll have to narrow them down. I'll make up an application, and you can pick one or two you like.”
She laughed, and it felt like home.
Then the phone rang. I got up and answered it. There was no greeting, just, “Kristy. Cancun.”
“Karen. Graduate.” I responded.
“I'll have you know that I'm working very hard, and that as of May you will be speaking to Karen Brewer, BA. In Cancun. Which is what I called to talk about.”
“That's nine months away, we'll talk when it gets closer.” I had heard about this plenty already. Karen wanted to take a sister's only trip, just me, her, and Emily, to Cancun for her graduation. Technically, Karen was my step-sister and Emily was my adopted sister, but I hadn't thought of them that way in years.
“I knew it. You don't want to go.”
“Of course I want to go, but I have a job, and a wife and a kid to take care of. A week away from all of that is a lot.”
“People do, traditionally, take vacations from work. And while I know that you have the most co-dependent marriage in the world, it's only a week. One week. Mary Anne is perfectly capable of talking care of herself and Allie for a week.”
I ignored the jab at my marriage. Karen usually thought it was really romantic that I'd married Mary Anne after being friends for so long, but sometimes she was a little jealous of it. I took a different track, “It's in the middle of softball season.”
“Kristy Thomas, there are thousands of other people in Stoneybrook who know how to play softball. I know this because you taught most of them. Someone else can coach the team for a week.”
That was a little dramatic. I doubted there were thousands of people in Stoneybrook, let alone ones who could play softball, even if I had coached a lot of kids over the years. “There are other things, too. I signed up to do a Habitat for Humanity thing with people I work with-”
“Unless you are building that house veeeeery sloooowly, it should be finished before May.”
“- and there might be more things like that. I'll try, Karen. Really. But I can't just jet off to Mexico.”
“If you don't come, I'll make sure I get arrested and you have to come bail me out, because you're my lawyer.”
I laughed, “Are you kidding? I'll let you rot in a Mexican jail if it means missing softball practice.”
“I'll sound really scared and pathetic. I'll tell you how they're making me eat worms. Without tequila, even.”
“Don't you have something better to do right now?” I said.
“Only if I want to graduate.”
“No graduation, no Cancun.”
“You stink. Fine. I am opening up my computer as we speak, and I am preparing to write a paper for psych on emotional manipulation as it relates to big sisters, school work, and Cancun.”
I rolled my eyes, but I was smiling, “Sounds fascinating. I can't wait to read it.”
“You can read it if you promise to go to Cancun.”
“I love you, Karen. Bye.”
“Love you too. Seeya.”
I hung up the phone, and Mary Anne was grinning at me. “The sister trip again?”
I nodded and sighed, “Because I can drop everything in my life to go party for a week.”
I sat back down next to her and laid my head on her shoulder, watching Allie sleep.
She laid her head on top of mine, and said softly, “I know it's important to you. We'll be fine, honey.”
I sighed, “I do want to go. Not that I care about Cancun, but who knows if I'll get to spend that much time with both my sisters again? One of them might move across the country.”
“It's not that bad.” she said, trying to cheer me up. For most of the time they'd been step-sisters, she had been in Connecticut while Dawn was in California.
“I know. I just feel like I should go, but I don't want to be that far away from you and Allie, and the office, and during softball season on top of it.”
“Like you told Karen, it's nine months away. That's plenty of time to plan. And maybe by then we'll have some friends who can help you out.”
I smiled, “We'll have friends by this weekend.”
Mary Anne smiled and kissed my forehead, “I know better then to argue with you.”