A Fine Day Indeed

Amy Ford scurried around the small house, throwing various items into her oversized purse, kicking over various cans and TV meal trays. She made a mental note to give Mrs. Greer, her housekeeper, a bonus on her next payday.

“Ames?” called an anxious voice from up the stairs.

Not breaking a stride as she continued her tirade around the living room, she called back exasperatedly, “Yeah dad?”

Darrell Ford descended the stairs carefully and peered over the banister, “Are…you leaving…again?” He drew out the words uncertainly, his left hand shaking on the railing.

“Yeah, I have to go to work now dad, but Mrs. Greer will be here in about thirty minutes,” replied Amy, stopping her frantic routine and coming to lay a hand on her father’s unsteady one, “By the way, you’re speech is getting really good.” She flashed him a toothy grin.

A beaming smile overtook his face, “I’ve been p-practicing.” It was in that moment that Amy could see the man that her dad used to be. Perhaps even the guy that her mom had fallen in love with all those years ago. Under the graying hair, crooked nose, cleft lip, and the frequent outbursts was the man that she looked up to and admired.

“I can tell,” she conceded, patting his hand, “but I really have to go now, take your meds, ‘kay Pop?”

He nodded and smiled sadly, “I wish you…didn’t h-have…t-to go.”

Amy grimaced; they had been going around in the circle every day for the past ten years and she knew had the routine down, “I know dad, but someone’s got to make sure we don’t starve.” She gave him a wink and turned toward the door, grabbing her keys.

“Love you, princess.”

She paused slightly and called over her shoulder, “Love you too, dad.”

Once she closed the door, she let out another sigh and let a genuine smile cover her face. If he kept up this good attitude with the speech therapy then maybe his speech would return to normal and that would be one less thing for her to worry about.

---

“Alright class, I would really encourage you to look over your Chaucer info. And by encourage I mean that it will appear on your test,” said Amy over the din of students gathering their notebooks to head to lunch. Because the school she taught at allowed students an open lunch, everyone was eager to escape the school for a precious forty minutes, “Caden Alton, please see me for a moment.”

She smiled when the afore mentioned person came up to her desk, a look of annoyance crossing his features. He looked at her expectantly and she handed him a paper with a large red ‘D’ on the front, “Not your best work Caden.”

“Nope,” he said, barely glancing at the paper and handing it back to Amy.

The smile she wore slipped into a frown, “This is your second ‘D’ paper, Caden, at this rate you’re going to receive a poor grade for the semester which will drop your GPA. This is your junior year, now is not the time for you to be slacking on your schoolwork.” She let this sink into his mind as she took a moment to look over his appearance. He wasn’t a bad looking kid and with the exception of a mild case of acne he could be considered handsome.

Caden brushed his shaggy brown hair out of his eyes and glanced at the clock, noticing that five minutes of his lunch period had been wasted and in a last ditch effort to appease his teacher, “I’ll try harder next time.”

“I’m afraid that won’t cut it this time, Caden, I need you to take this to your parents or guardians and have them sign it,” Amy replied, handing the paper back to the boy.

His eyes shot towards the teacher, “Ms. Ford, I thought I only had to have things signed if I were failing.”

“At this point, Caden, you are,” said Amy, a look of regret on her face.

Taking the paper, Caden walked out the room, a million thoughts running through his mind, but the main thought being: Jimmy isn’t going to like this.

---

When Caden entered the gym, he was instantly hit with the stench of sweat and the sounds of his brother’s shouts piercing through the air.

“Grafton, if you step with your left again, you’re going to be running laps until you puke,” boomed a deep voice from across the gym, “and I don’t care if you have a fight tomorrow night.”

Caden was surprised when Taylor Grafton, a seasoned boxer with a bit of an attitude didn’t make a remark like he usually did. That usually meant that Jimmy was on the rampage and not in a good mood.

“Great, just what I need,” muttered Caden, not really wanting to make his brother even angrier, but wanting to get the inevitable speech over with.

Jimmy looked away from Grafton and frowned slightly when he saw his brother walk towards the ring, “What took you so long, squirt?”

The younger boy shrugged and extracted the paper from his pocket and handed it to his brother, turning a bit sheepish, “My English teacher wanted you to sign this.”

Snatching the paper from Caden’s hands, Jimmy took one look at the grade at the top and closed his eyes briefly, trying to recollect himself before drawing his brother’s name out, “Caden.”

“Jim, I know what you’re going to say, but with the match coming up-“

“No Caden,” started Jimmy, jumping from the ring and leading Caden to his office, so they wouldn’t be overheard, “When mom and dad let you come out here, part of the deal was that I would not let your grades suffer. Well they’re suffering. Maybe I should take you out of the fight this weekend…”

Caden shot out of the chair he had been occupying, surprising Jimmy slightly, “Jim come on! It’s just English, don’t take me out of the fight cause I’m failing one class.”

“One class turns into three and then you drop out of school. I’ve coddled you too much,” said Jimmy, more to himself than to his younger brother, he shook his head, “I’ll sign your paper, but one more failing grade in this class, Caden, and you’ll be cut from competition. No arguments.”

Knowing that there was no way to change his mind –what Jimmy said went- Caden nodded, and snatched his paper from the desk and headed back out to the gym to collect his things to head back to the gym.

“Kid,” called Jimmy from his office doorway. The younger Alton turned, eyebrow raised, “What’s your teacher’s name?”

“Ms. Ford,” replied Caden, turning away from his brother and heading out the door. Jimmy looked after him, a pensive look on his face. He did want his brother to do well in school, and that was something that mattered to him. He didn’t want Caden to not be able to get into school like him. Turning back into his office, he strode back to the phone and dialed the school’s number; he may have to help the kid along a bit.

---

“Amy?”

Amy tore her eyes away from her book and smiled at the portly secretary who always reminded her of what a grandmother should be like, “Yeah, Doris?”

Doris smiled and motioned towards the phone, “There’s a Mr. Alton on the phone for you, he says it’s regarding Caden’s assignment.”

“Well let’s hope he agree’s and doesn’t try to tell me that I’m the one that’s the wrong one and that his son is a genius,” joked Amy, wiping imaginary crumbs from her skirt and heading to the lounge’s phone while Doris headed back into the main office.

“Hello?” she greeted, turning a bit away from the other teacher’s in the lounge. Not that it really mattered; she didn’t feel like she fit in with the older, seasoned teachers anyway. Sometimes the drama of her colleagues surpassed that of the actual students.

“Mrs. Ford?” asked a gruff voice from the other end of the line.

She automatically said, “Miss, actually.” Then, realizing her rude tone, “I’m sorry, Mr. Alton?”

“Jimmy, actually,” he joked with her. She smiled, thinking that this guy’s voice sounded much too young to be Caden’s father, “I was calling about Caden’s paper and his grade. Is there anything he can do to bring the grade up…like…extra credit or something?”

Amy was mildly surprised that he didn’t immediately accuse her of issuing an unfair grade, but shook her head and cleared her throat, “Well, we have a test on Monday, so if he took the weekend to study, and made at least a low A on the test, that would at least bring him out of the D range and put him at a low C.”

“That’s all he has to do?”

She shrugged to no one in particular, “Caden is a smart boy, Mr. Alton, and he knows the material, he just needs to apply himself a bit more. There is an extra-credit reading assignment plus reaction paper I will be assigning within the next few days so that would definitely help his grade if he chooses to do it.”

The other line was silent and Amy took the opportunity to look around the lounge. The bell had rung and the lounge was empty, save for a few teacher’s who had a planning period. Though she was not one of those teachers, her third period class was a meek bunch and could more than likely handle a few minutes alone. Suddenly Mr. Alton spoke up, “Alright, I’ll make sure he does the extra credit and we’ll be studying this weekend for sure. Thank you Ms. Ford.”

“No problem, thanks for showing an avid interest in your son’s work, not many parents would feel the same as you,” complimented Amy, checking the clock on the wall, trying to wrap the conversation up. Her brow creased instantly when she was met with deep laughter.

Jimmy, taking a breath, amended, “Nah, Caden isn’t my son, he’s my little brother.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. My mistake,” apologized Amy, her face turning ten different shades of red in the span of two seconds.

“It’s alright, lots of people make the mistake,” he replied, “But I don’t want to keep you from your classes, thanks again Ms. Ford.”

“No problem,” she replied, hanging up the phone. It seemed like ever since she had taken her position at Lake View High School, she had more trouble trying to fit in and make friends as well as appease parents, or guardians, than she did handling students. As she left the lounge and headed to her classroom, she couldn’t help but think that some day’s life would be easier if she just stayed at home and looked after her father.

---

“Oh Amy, by the way, I have extra tickets to a boxing match in Ridgemont, do you think you’d want to go? It’s for tomorrow evening,” asked Amy’s friend, Olivia, later that evening as the two sat in her living room unwinding after a long day.

Grimacing, Amy took a sip of her wine and placed the glass down, “I don’t know…leaving my dad alone for a whole evening might not be a good idea.”

Olivia waved away her statement, “I have plenty of tickets, bring him along, he might actually enjoy it. I know how much you hate boxing, but it’ll be something to do.”

“Did Mark get you those tickets?” Amy teased, taking another drink of the wine. By the sheepish look on her face, Amy already knew the answer. She was so jealous that her friend had found a great guy. While Olivia was short and petite with seemingly perfect honey-colored hair and stunning almond eyes, Amy was taller and with dark auburn hair and dull green eyes. Not that she was terribly unfortunate looking; she just thought that Olivia was much prettier.

“Well, I can ask my dad, I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to yell at actual people rather than the TV,” said Amy, causing Olivia to beam.

Once her friend had gone home, Amy spoke to her dad about the match and wasn’t surprised when he expressed extreme interest in going. She couldn’t help but be a little excited about going out the next evening even if it was to watch boxing.

A/N: Okay, so I was bored and now you get a new story, let me know what you think ;)