Page 114 of Bear, Otter, and the Kid (The Seafare Chronicles 1)

“Which is why we’re here now,” Mrs. Paquinn finished.

We all looked expectantly at Miz Sharp.

“So let me get this straight,” she said, to which of course Creed and the Kid started snickering. I glared at both of them and saw that Mrs. Paquinn was giggling too. “Not only are you trying to get custody of your little brother, but this whole thing will decide whether or not you get back together with someone you obviously love, but who you lied to when you broke up with him, and you have the complete support of his brother, your ex-girlfriend, and your little brother, whom you are trying to gain legal custody of?”

“And Mrs. Paquinn,” said Mrs. Paquinn, to which we all agreed.

“That sounds about right,” I said to Erica.

“And were you dating Otter before your mother left?”

I shook my head. “This is kind of a recent thing.”

The peanut gallery chuckled, but no one spoke.

Erica frowned and rubbed her hands together. “So you’re saying you recently started dating Otter, and your mother all of a sudden comes out of nowhere and tells you to break up with him? How did she know about your relationship?”

Tell him to go back to San Diego, she’d said to me. I remembered feeling a chill go down my spine at her words. But with everything that had happened after, I’d forgotten. How had she known all of this? “I don’t know,” I told Erica, hearing a high-pitched whine buzzing in my ears.

“And she said all she wanted was for you to break up with Otter, and then she left?”

I nodded, realizing only then how stupid that sounded.

Erica sighed, seemingly realizing that as well. “Well, it sounds like she’s up to something, but I don’t want to speculate. For all we know, she could have come back to do exactly what she did, to break you and your boyfriend up, maybe trying to assert that she still had some control of your life. Maybe she hired a private investigator to check into you and Otter. Have you seen anyone around lately that you haven’t seen before?”

I shook my head, and she looked beyond me to the audience. I turned, and they were all shaking their heads as well. I tried not to show anything on my face, but Erica’s words bothered me greatly. Why had Mom come back? What did she want? Was there someone following us around? That creeped me out more than the unknown plans of my mother. She might not have necessarily known when she came that Otter and I were together, but his presence at our house and his protection over the Kid and me could have spelled it out for her, even if the Kid hadn’t said anything.

Erica shrugged. “I’m sure this will all come out in the open shortly. There already seems to be a few questions I’d like to ask your mother if I get the opportunity.”

Her and me both.

She looked me in the eye. “If this works, and if you get custody of Tyson, are you going to stick by them? Tyson and Otter?”

“I have to,” I said quietly. “They’re all I have.”

She surprised us all by laughing. She stood and reached out to take my hand, jostling the Kid around in my arms. “Well, Derrick and Tyson, I will be happy to represent you. I’ll warn you now: this is going to be a tough road to travel, and there are going to be some hard decisions to be made. Your lives will be scrutinized like never before and will be for a long time to come. Your mother may have motives that we don’t yet know about. And Bear, your sexuality will most likely be brought up as well, but I believe that we have a fighting chance with this. And what’s better is that you believe it. Now, I need you to fill out a whole shitload of paperwork, and I will explain what it means to be considered a guardian ad litem and when we can expect to get into court.” She stopped for a moment, and looked down at us. “Are you ready to do this?”

The Kid smiled up at me. I felt the strong support at my back.

How in God’s name could I say no?

“WHAT do you mean you’re not coming?” Creed yelled over the phone. “This party’s going to be huge!”

It was three days after our meeting with the lawyer, and I had been dreading this very phone call ever since I decided I wouldn’t be going to Creed’s party. I didn’t want the first time I saw Otter again to be in the middle of a hundred drunken college kids. I told Creed as much.

He sighed. “You could come over early and talk to him. I still don’t know why you’re prolonging this any further.” He paused, then said, “You’re not thinking about backing out, are you?”

“No!” I snapped. “How the fuck could you even ask me that? Have you not been paying attention for the last four days?”

“I have been,” he retorted. “All I seem to remember is Otter this, and Otter that. ‘I love Otter so much that I say things and make all my friends cry.’”

“It’s not my fault you’re emotionally sensitive,” I grumbled at him.

; “Ass,” he said fondly. “Well, then, when? You’re not going to wait the entire time it takes for this custody thing to go through, are you?”

“I considered it,” I admitted. “But Erica said it can take months, and I can’t wait that long. It’s not fair to him.”