Highlander Ever After

ShowTime

Anna

“Why is it that most people named Claire seem to be utter t***s or complete psychos?” I glanced at Jer and his sky-high heels and bright purple wig. Blinking at me he pouted and thrust out his hip.

“What?”

“Didn’t I say to lay off the glitter you’re shedding it all over?” He frowned and brushed some glitter off his shoulder which sent more flying to the ground. I glanced over my shoulder at Baba, Cassius and Sully, Baba looked exactly what a stereotypical Russian Grandmother, stooped over, draped in shawls and wearing lots of bangles.

“There is time to back out now if you want Cassius.” I shot him a look and he shrugged, he seemed amused by the spectacle and that was good. I was slightly embarrassed by Jer’s overuse of glitter.

Brushing some off my shoulder I glared at him and he pouted at me with purple sparkly lips.

“In his defense he was thinking of wearing the light up Marge Simpson wig.” Sully was looking like a bad biker daddy in leather pants and a tight shirt that pulled across his muscles. He even had the leather duster jacket as well.

“Stop drooling over Sullivan I know he is hot but he has a point.” I slapped Jer on the shoulder and more glitter flew off him.

“I want to know why Baba looks like she just walked out of Grimm’s fairy tales.” We all turned toward the old woman and she shrugged.

“Everyone ignores the elderly. I can sneak around and eavesdrop on people.” She pushed past us and started up the steps to the school.

Cassius put his hand in mine and gave it a squeeze.

“You can back out of this as well. We can just say something came up and you can come back a little later.” I was not going to let these people trash-talk my child.

“No this is for Caleb. They want to look down on him because of his situation then I am going to give them something to chat about.”

There was no need for the people to be the way they were, Caleb has parents and a family that loves him. We just don’t happen to be the same blood but that doesn’t mean we weren’t a family. Despite all our quirks, we were family.

A woman walked toward us and she had the skin of a dirty old couch and bleached blonde hair. “Excuse me but what are you doing here? This is a school, not a cabaret club.”

This woman standing before us must be the Claire I talked with on the phone. I heard Jer mumble something under his breath about fishy t**t and I pinched him in the arm.

“We are Caleb’s family. You invited us to your meet and greet.” She looked down her beaky nose at us and turned in a huff.

“The rest of the parents are this way. I told them you were probably not going to make it. Seeing as how you were so upset on the phone.” I scowled at her back and felt Cassius squeeze my hand again.

“Just behave, I know you want to slap the sneer off her beaky face but that won’t help Caleb.” He was right. Of course he was but that doesn’t mean I had to play nice with this woman.

“Hello everyone this is Caleb Nikolaev’s mother and her friends.” The way she said friends it was as if it were something dirty and disgusting.

“Actually I am Caleb’s Aunty Jer, this is his Uncle Sullivan and Cassius. That is his grandmother, she doesn’t speak English. And this beautiful woman is his mother.” People stood in shock and two men came over and started gushing over Jer’s glitter ensemble.

Others started to come over and I was greeted by another mother who was standing against the wall. She raised a paper cup to me and I took it.

“That was quite the entrance. I thought Claire was going to crap herself. I am Maddy Hamilton. My daughter is Virginia.” She showed me a picture of a little girl with cornrows and a gap in her teeth.

“I adopted her a few years back and let me tell you that old sour cow gave me the same reception and said my daughter was not good enough for this school.” I felt like this woman and I were going to be friends.

“I pretty much flipped my lid when she insulted Caleb. I decided that I was going to come in guns blazing but frankly, my friend Jer stole the show with his glitter catastrophe.” We looked at Jer as glitter shuddered all over Claire.

“I heard you were American and we were taking bets on whether you would roll over and accept what Claire says or if you will give her a piece of your mind.” We heard the rustle of feet and saw Claire shuffling toward us.

“It seems that you two have found each other, it would seem fitting that you would consider you both have children that have unfortunate backgrounds.” She looked smug.

“Listen, say whatever you want about me you shriveled old pig, but if you insult my kid one more time I will show you how unfortunate things will get.” Her eyes went wide and an older woman with perfect curls came over and glared at Claire.

“Is everything alright here.?”

Claire started sniveling and groveling and I stopped her.

“No, this woman keeps insulting our children because they don’t come from the same family background as the other children. She also implied that I should take my son and have him attend another school.”

“I did not say anything of the sort.” Old Claire glowered and the other woman shook her head and sighed.

“We talked about this Ms DeWatt.” There were some whispered words among the two women and the old cow glowered at us once more and stormed out of the room.

“I apologize, I am Madam Henry, headmistress for the school and this has been an ongoing problem with Ms DeWatt. Unfortunately, her husband is a huge contributor to our institute and so she believes she can take liberties and say what she wishes.”

“That still doesn’t make it right.” Madam Henry nodded and we stood in awkward silence and then she pointed at Jer.

“Your friend is quite the looker, but did he have to bathe in glitter? We are going to spend months getting the glitter out of the carpets.” I giggled and shook my head.

“That’s Jer, he likes to make an entrance.”

“So it seems. Come along let’s introduce you to the rest of the staff and parents. Not everyone is like Claire. I have always found that most people named Claire are huge twats.” I snorted and started laughing.

“I heard the same thing earlier.” It was not the shitshow I thought it was going to be but I hoped that people would be more accepting of Caleb and his crazy family once they get to know us. If not they will see my unhinged side and I will burn the world down for that kid.