I'm lying in bed with two small but strong hands
shaking me, trying their hardest to get me to
open my eyes.  I figure I should get up before
she starts actually making any noise and wakes
Peter up, if the shaking hasn't already.

"Hallie,"  I glance over at the clock next to the
bed:  4:57 a.m.  "Why are you waking me up?"

"Miiiiiiiichael...I have to go to *school*
today!"  she exclaims matter-of-factly.  She
sounds so much more grown up than five sometimes.

I just look her over, amazed at how
self-sufficient she is.  She's already dressed in
pink corduroy overalls, a white turtleneck, and
her white and pink sneakers, tied perfectly.  She
had refused the offer of velcro shoes; instead,
she had dedicated herself to learning how to tie
shoelaces.  Her dark brown hair is in pigtails
tied with pink ribbons.  All before Pete and I
woke up...

"What are you guys doing up?"  Pete has just sat
up in bed, looking quizzically at Hallie and I.

"Daaaaaaaaaaddy, I have *school*!!!"

"That you do, princess, but it's not exactly time
for school."

Hallie has crossed her arms over her chest.
"Well, why didn't you tell me this?"

I can't help but laugh.  "We thought you knew to
wake up when we got you up."

She grows more indignant by the moment.  "You
shouldn't assume so much, Michael.  Now get up,
if I'm up you should be too!"

"Alright, alright...are you all ready?"

"Yes."

"Well, just go watch TV for right now, we'll be
out in a little while."

"Well, okay..."

Hallie walks off towards the living room, and I
head off to shower.  Just as I get stripped down
to my boxers, I feel Pete's arms wrapping around
me from behind.  He kisses my neck once,
twice...mmm...feels good...too good, can't do
this now.

"I have to shower, we have a *very* anxious
little girl who is not above attempting to drive
herself to school, and I really don't think
either of us want to deal with that..."

"Damn...worth a try."  Pete grins at me and walks
off.

I shower quickly and get dressed. I leave the
bathroom and walk into the living room.  Hallie
and Pete are watching Nickelodeon.  As soon as
Hallie sees me, she jumps up.

"Okay, can we gooooooooo now???"

"Yes, we can goooooooooo now...don't forget your
bookbag."

"I've got it!"  She's been sitting the entire
time with it on her back.

"Let's go then."
****************
When we get to the school, Hallie jumps out of
the car and runs ahead of us.  I run to go catch
her, because number one, we're in a parking lot
and some lunatic might be driving through not
paying attention to the fact that there could be
small children running around.  Number two, she
doesn't even know where she's going.  Come to
think of it, neither do we.

I grab her from behind and pick her up.  "Slow
down, Hallie...we don't even know where your
class is!"

She fidgets in my arms, so I put her down and
just hold her hand.  Pete grabs the other, and we
walk through the halls looking for a chaotic
classroom full of five year olds.  It doesn't
take too long to find it.  We walk in and
Hallie's immediately trying to get her hands out
of our grasps to play with the other kids.

"Just a minute, princess."  Pete says.

She pouts for a moment, but simply drops our
hands and stands with us as we talk to her
teacher.

"Hi, I'm Ms. Watson."

"Hi, I'm Peter, this is Michael, and this is
Hallie."

"Hi, Hallie."

"Hi, Ms. Watson.  Can I go play now, Daddy?  I'll
be with her all day!"

Pete smiles.  "Alright, Hallie, Michael and I are
leaving now.  Listen to the teacher and be nice
to everyone.  Love you, princess."

She hugs Pete and he bends down for her to kiss
him.  "Love you too, daddy."  She turns to me and
does the same.  "Love you,  Michael."

"Love you too, Hallie.  I'll be here to pick you
up after school."

"Bye!"

She waves goodbye and runs off to a group of
kids.

Pete and I watch her for a minute, then I put my
hand in his and we walk out.

"Man, I can't believe she's growing up so fast.
Seems like it was just yesterday when the
hospital called me about her."

"Yeah...can't believe it's been five years since
you walked into the daycare at the college and
convinced me to watch her for the day."

"Best day of my life."  Pete said grinning.

"Mine too."
*************************
I'm home now, washing dishes while Nickelodeon
plays softly in the background.  We forgot to
turn the TV off this morning, and now I just want
something on while I'm doing this.  The phone
begins to ring.  I dry my hands off with the
towel next to the sink and run to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Michael Cole?"

"Yes..."

"This is Ms. Watson from Hallie's school.  You
and Peter need to come down here as soon as you
can."

Oh God, what's happened?  "Okay, what's going
on?"

"There's just been a little incident, and we need
to talk to you."

"Okay then, we'll be there in a little while."

"Geez, could she have been a little more vague?"
I mutter annoyedly.  Anything could have
happened...and that's all I can think as I go to
tell Pete all this.
*****************
When I pull up to the site where Pete is working
today, I honk the horn.  He sees me and gives me
a 'one minute' hand signal.  I motion for him to
come quickly, and he looks at me quizzically
before heading over to the car.

"What's up?"

"The school called, something's happened and they
need us to come up there as soon as possible."

Pete looks panicked and runs over to who I assume
is his boss, says a few words, and runs to get in
the car.

The ride is silent, both of us wondering exactly
what we're going to be hearing when we get there.
When we get to the school we run in and to the
class.  There's someone that wasn't in the room
in the morning reading to the children sitting on
the floor in a circle.  I notice that Hallie
isn't in the circle, then I hear Ms. Watson's
voice calling.

"We're in here."

'Here' is the coat room.  Pete and I walk into
the room and see a small boy sitting on the floor
crying, his eye somewhat purple.  Ms. Watson is
sitting in a chair next to him, and Hallie is
sitting on the other side of the chair.  Her arms
are crossed and she's glaring at the crying boy.
There's a woman in a chair across from them, and
two empty chairs next to Hallie.

"Okay, everyone's here now.  Michael, Peter, you
can sit in these chairs."  She motions toward the
empty chairs.

We sit down, then Pete speaks up.  "So what's
going on here?"

"Well, to make a long story short, Hallie punched
Dylan.  I don't know why, she didn't want to tell
me anything without you two here."  Ms. Watson
explained.

"Hallie!  What happened?"  Pete's shocked, and so
am I.  Hallie does have a temper, but she's never
really been violent before.

"Your little savage of a daughter attacked our
poor little boy, that's what happened!"

"Mrs. Cottrell, please let Hallie explain what
happened."

The woman scoffs, but doesn't protest further.

"Okay, can I talk now?"

"Yes, Hallie, you can."

"All right.  See, I walked up to Dylan and said
'Hi, I'm Hallie, wanna play?' cuz that was the
polite thing to do, and I wanna make as many new
friends as I can...so anyways, I asked him and he
said, 'NO!'.  He was *very* rude, daddy."

"Princess, you know not to hit someone just
because they don't want to play with you..."

"Daddy, I'm not finished.  Anyways, he says 'NO!'
so I ask him why not.  And he said it was cuz he
saw you and Michael holding hands and that was
really gross and I must have something wrong with
me and that was why he didn't want to play with
me.  So I said 'Why is it gross?' cuz I *know*
that you and Michael aren't gross, daddy.  And he
said because I'm supposed to have a mommy and a
daddy like him, not two daddies.  And I told him
that he was just jealous because you and Michael
love each other and me more than his mommy and
daddy love each other and him."

The boy's mother makes a shocked noise.  Hallie
glares at her and continued.  "Anyways, after I
said that, he shoved me.  And I *knew* that I
shouldn't, but I was *so* mad, so I punched him
right in the eye.  That's it."

"Oh dear."  Ms. Watson said.

Pete is fuming mad, and I can tell that if I
don't say something, he will.  So I speak up.

"Hallie, I know that you know that what you did
was wrong.  I also have a feeling you know that
you weren't the only one who did something
wrong."

Hallie nods her head to both.  Dylan's mother and
Dylan look as if they don't know what I'm talking
about.

I roll my eyes in spite of myself and continue.
"So I think that you should apologize for hitting
Dylan.  I also think that Dylan should apologize
for the things that he did."

"My son didn't do anything wrong!"

"Mrs. Cottrell, Dylan pushed Hallie down, which
was a physical assault.  Not to mention the fact
that he insulted her family, which was an
emotional assault.  If your son won't apologize,
I will find a way to ensure that he never comes
back to this school.  Five year olds don't learn
things like what Dylan said on their own.  And if
you want to turn your child into an ignorant
bigot, you do it on your own time.  He won't be
bringing that attitude back into my class."  Ms.
Watson is fuming mad, and I'm shocked.

"That's just FINE!  I don't want my son in a
class with the daughter of two fags anyway!  Come
on Dylan!"  The woman snatched the boy up by his
arm and started to walk out.

"You hold it right there.  You do not treat that
child that way.  Not anytime, but certainly not
in front of me.  You could have pulled his bone
out of the socket jerking him around like that.
Don't be surprised when child services are
knocking at your door.  Goodbye Dylan, I'm really
sorry that this all had to happen."  Ms. Watson's
face had been growing more angry every second,
but it softened as she talked to the little boy.

The boy's face was red, and he was starting to
cry again.  "I'm sorry, Hallie..."  he said
sniffling.

"I'm sorry too, Dylan."  Hallie had climbed onto
Pete's lap and was crying with her head on his
chest.  She was smart enough to know that this
had become about much more than the fight between
her and Dylan.

"I'm sorry that all this happened...I know Hallie
knows that what she did was wrong, and I'll make
sure that this situation gets taken care of.  You
all can leave now, I know Hallie doesn't need to
stay any longer today.  I'll see  you tomorrow,
right Hallie?"

Hallie nods her head.  Pete gets up, holding
Hallie against his chest.  I go and grab Hallie's
bookbag.

"Goodbye, Ms. Watson.  I hope the next time we
see you will be under better circumstances."

"Goodbye, Michael.  I hope so too."

We walk out of the class and get into the car.
Hallie is still sniffling as Pete sits her in the
seat and buckles her in.  Pete gets into the
driver's seat.  The car starts up and we're on
our way home.  After we've been riding a few
minutes, Hallie speaks up.

"Daddy, Michael, is Dylan going to be okay?"

"Yeah, princess, I think he's gonna be fine.  Ms.
Watson's gonna take care of things."

"Why does Dylan's mommy treat him that way?"

"Hallie, honey, Dylan's mommy has some problems
that she needs to get help with."

"Oh.  Well, I hope everything will be okay, I
think me and Dylan could still be friends."

"That would be really good, Hallie, I think Dylan
needs some good friends."

"Daddy?  Michael?"

"What is it, Hallie?"

"I know that what Dylan said about you was wrong,
and that he didn't know any better...I think his
mommy told him those things.  But why?"

"Princess, some people don't understand the way
Michael and I love each other.  They don't think
it's right."

"How can loving somebody not be right?"

"It can't.  But they think it can, and when those
people have kids, the kids usually end up the
same way, unless they decide that they want to
change."

"That's not fair."

"It really isn't.  But we can't change all of
them.  We just have to never let them make us
believe that we're not okay."

"Oh...okay.  I love you, Michael.  I love you,
Daddy."

Hallie amazes me...she seems to know when we
really need to hear that.  "I love you too,
Hallie...and I love you, Pete."

"I love you too, princess...and I love you too,
Michael."

It's times like this that I can almost forget
everything that's wrong with the world, because I
have the greatest family anyone could ever ask
for.

*End*