The New Ever After (The New Ever After Series) (22 page)

After a summer that Heather would never forget, it was the first day of school. The beginning of school brought with it the stress she had left behind; buying 44 jumbo glue sticks, sharpening 96 pencils, making lunches, getting up early, getting on the bus, doing homework, PTA and volunteering. After a summer of unpredictable big time stress, Heather was happy to settle for petty little annoyances. She was also ready for the kids to get back to school. She was anxious to have a schedule and actually have a few minutes to herself.

Peter was the first one up and out for a run. Heather was packing lunches in the kitchen when he returned.

“Ready to put this summer in the history books?” he asked.

“Absolutely. There were definitely some things I could have done without. But it’s bittersweet. Half the time I want to push the kids out the door and on the bus and the other half I want to grab them and keep them with me forever.”

“You could homeschool them.”

“Are you crazy? I’d end up in handcuffs!”

“Speaking of handcuffs, what did you have in mind for me the other night when I so carelessly fell asleep?”

“Nothing with handcuffs, that’s for sure.”

“Feel free to show me anytime you’d like.”

“Hmmm…ok. Mr. Adamson, I’m pretty busy right now though.
Mind waking up the big kids?”

“Not at all.”

The kids trickled down slowly dressed in their new first day of school outfits. Heather fed them breakfast and lined them up on the stoop to get the obligatory first day of school picture. They packed up their backpacks and were off.

Heather played with the twins on the floor for a bit, reveling in some one on two
time with them. They were getting so big and more and more independent. She knew it would be a blink of an eye before they would be off to kindergarten and Hayes would be off to college.

While Peter was in the office working on his next bestseller, the phone rang.
He answered it and brought it over to Heather.

“It’s the school,” he whispered. “They want to talk to you.”

Crap, the school calling on the first day is not a good sign,
thought Heather.

“Hello, this is Heather.”

“Are you kidding?” she asked turning bright red.

“I am so sorry.”

“Yes, I will speak to him when he comes home.”

Heather hung up and looked at Peter.

“What happened?”

“Well, Henry was out at recess and he brought a little toy with him from home.”

“What kind of toy?”

“A tampon.”

“A tampon? What the hell did he do with that?”

“Apparently, he’s turned them into mini rockets. He had about a dozen stuffed in his pockets they said and he launched them all off of the top of the slide.”

“Ingenious!”

“I am so embarrassed. Leave it to Henry to make this a first day of school I will never forget or stop hearing about.”

“Remember, it’s all fodder for your books. It doesn’t matter. It was harmless.”

“Maybe I’ll post it on Facebook before anyone can yell at me for it.”

“Good plan, my proactive babe,” Peter said as he rubbed the tension out of her shoulders.

Knowing she couldn’t beat them at their own game, she decided to join them and put a post on her public author page about the first day of school incident.

Heather Meadows Adamson: Most embarrassing thing ever?
Getting a call from the principal telling you your second grader had a dozen tampons that he was launching like rockets from the top of the school slide.

By the time Tanya got around to commenting on her post, Heather had 146 likes and tons of LOLs. And a bandwagon of people that jumped on Tanya when she yelled at Heather for not being careful with her feminine products. Heather laughed and thought about how much she had learned this summer. She treasured her husband more than she ever had after almost losing him. She honored her friendship with her best friend even more after almost destroying their bond. And she realized the importance of every moment and vowed to make each one as good as she could.

             
Before she went to sleep, after reprimanding Henry and explaining things that she didn’t want to have to explain to a seven-year-old boy, she wrote a post for her Facebook wall.

Heather Meadows Adamson: The new ever after isn't always happy. It's filled with sadness and tears and overwhelming happiness. It's messy and chaotic and highly structured. It's days filled with nothing and hours scheduled by the minute. It's love and hugs and slobbery kisses. It's wishing the kids were all in college and crying that they are going to kindergarten. It's finding sand in weird places. It's not wanting to roll over and kiss the one you're with and it's the hottest sex you've ever had while you're tied up to a headboard in a foreign country. It's fighting with your best friend and realizing there's no way you can live without her. It's life, and it's your life and it's passing you by with hours that feel endless and years that are gone with the blink of an eye. The new ever after, it's what real fairy tales are made of.

There was only one comment when she closed her eyes that night.

From Tanya: He tied you up? What kind of weird sex stuff are you doing over there? Henry better not bring anything else to school.

Heather laughed, closed her eyes and slept peacefully. Finally.

Julie Farley is a mother of four fabulous children and a wife to an amazing husband who puts up with her Adam Levine obsession. Julie is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and resides in Richmond, Virginia with her family. Follow her adventures and read about
the third book in The New Ever After Series on
www.juliefarley.com
.