GEN IV: Chapter 28

Early one morning, just before five, Logan woke up on the wrong side of the bed. He had had a restless night, and started the day with an attitude.

Going about his usual business, the toilet clogged up throwing him a bit off his routine. After a slight hissy fit about that, he fixed the clog and headed to the shower, hoping against hope that it didn't break too. Thankfully it didn't break, but the hot water failed to work.

Grumpier than when he woke, he emerged from the bathroom and went to the kitchen to make his breakfast. 

At first he thought a bowl of oatmeal sounded great, but they were out. 'Fabulous, anything else? Maybe a bowl of cereal.' He thought. Nope. they were out of that too. 'Boy we really need to go shopping!' He settled for some pancakes that were leftover from the morning before, though he really didn't want them.

He started to load his plate in the dishwasher, but on his way back to the kitchen he tripped and dropped his glass. It shattered all over the floor. He started to really loose his temper at this point, but only just started when he realized it was pointless. So his face turned completely expressionless, and his body language became stiff. He swept up his mess and took out the trash, came back inside and washed his hands just in time for the bus to come.

The bus stopped in front of the school, Logan stepped off and looked at the looming building in front of him. There was a cluster of noisy teenagers jumping around and talking in front of the door.

"Fuck this, I'm not going today." he said aloud.

Logan glanced around for something else to occupy his day. The pool. That sounded great. Not much could go wrong there right? He ran the half a block to the neighborhood swimming hole and dove in, first chance he got.

It was very fortuitous that he happened to pass that corner at the time he did, only 5 short seconds later, Jennifer ran by the same corner. She was coming from the hospital to do some immunizations in the park.

Jennifer started to work right away, she only had a few hours to give as many vaccination shots as she could to the populous of Sunset Valley. As soon as she got there, people came from everywhere flocking around. She wished they would form some kind of line, but knew that it was not going to happen. So she just tried to remember who had been there the longest and tried to get to them as quickly as possible. Pretty soon her supplies ran down to null and she had to leave. There were quite a few people left that got kind of upset about that, but she told them to go to the hospital if they would like their shot. 

Back at the pool, Logan had his fill of swimming and decided that a nap in a lounge chair would top his day off perfectly. He was so glad that he was alone here, no witnesses to a teen skipping school.

Logan was very happy at this moment, so thrilled to have a day without someone hounding him about school work, or house work. Happy that he was alone. It was not often that he got these opportunities, but he might have to try this more often.

Or maybe not.

When he got home he was greeted with a distraught Adelaide.

"What do you think you are doing skipping out on school like that? Do you know how worried I was? You are lucky, young man, that I'm not going to tell your father about this. If he found out he'd be furious! Where were you all day?"

Logan was surprised. 'How did she find out?' he wondered.

As if she could read his mind, or maybe his expression, through clenched teeth she spit out, "You're bus driver told me he picked you up, but you weren't there when he came to bring the students home. I made a call to the school and come to find out that you hadn't gone at all!"

"I.. I'm sorry. Addy, I just really needed a day off." Logan hung his head. "Am I grounded?"

Just about then Carla walked by, she waved but it wasn't with a smile. She could tell that Logan was in trouble, and could hear that it was regarding school, so of course she wasn't going to interrupt.

Adelaide's anger faded quickly, and her face softened. "Oh honey no. I guess we all need a day off sometimes, but you should know: I'm very lenient with that, if you need time by yourself, out of school, just tell me. I'll write a note, and let you do whatever you want. So long as your dad doesn't find out. Okay?"

'Wow, I wasn't expecting that.' Logan thought, then nodded with a quiet "Okay." He tried to hide his shock, and delight at the fact that all he had to do was ask to skip school. He'd remember that.

Adelaide dismissed Logan, and he went inside. Only to find Carla there, and that actually irritated him for some reason.

"Oh Carla, what'd you do today? Study for a Chem Test? HA! I got to swim all day! Loooooooser!" He teased, throwing his hand up to his forehead, in the shape of an L.

Carla made a funny face back at him, then stuck her tongue out. "Yeah, and you got in trouble for it too. Geesh Logan, what crawled up your ass today?"

Logan thought about that for a moment, he didn't really know - but he wasn't going to admit that. "What are you here for anyway?" he demanded.

"Duh, your baby brothers birthday. Wake up dude."

With that she turned and walked out of the room, leaving Logan behind trying to remember what day it was.

Just before sundown, they celebrated David's birthday. Brian had called to invite Dylan and Carla earlier that morning.

Brian gladly held his little man and blew out the single candle for him.

After David's body finally reflected his age, he sat and watched the adults sit at the table and eat cake. He knew that his mommy would give him some as soon as she was done, so he waited patiently.

Adelaide did just that. As soon as she finished her slice of cake she came over to pick David up, but before she put him in the highchair that was waiting for him, she tickled him until she heard him giggle with delight.

She placed him in his seat and mushed up some cake for him. Since he had never had solid food before, she tried to make it as easy as possible for him to eat. She didn't mind of course if he got dirty, that's what toddlers are for.

While David ate his first piece of cake, Adelaide turned and talked to Dylan.

"How's Carla doing? I know it has only been a week, but this is a big change for her."

"Oh, she seems to be doing okay, I called her teacher today just to see how she's been behaving at school. They said she's been quiet, and keeps to herself, but she does her work perfectly." Dylan told her.

"That's good. I know she isn't normally so quiet with her friends, but she'll get back to her normal routine before you know it." Adelaide said.

Brian saw that David had finished his food and looked like he was about to fall asleep where he sat. So he picked him up and gave him a good cuddle before taking him upstairs to bed.

Meanwhile, in the main bathroom, Logan had decided to rig the sink for the next unsuspecting victim that wanted to wash their hands. After that, he looked around. He wasn't satisfied enough with that, he needed something bigger. School. The school had really ticked him off today, by confirming his skipping to Adelaide. He was going to get his pay back.

He grabbed a roll of toilet paper and snuck out the front door, only because he didn't want his parents to know he was leaving, and hopped on his bike to get to the school. The principals office was the perfect place. He crept inside and started to throw toilet paper everywhere, some of it wadded up and wet, some streaming across the room.

Someone came in the door behind him. Busted. The Principal had forgotten some paperwork and came back to get it.

"Don't move young man." The principal said as he pulled out his phone.

Pretty soon Logan saw flashing lights outside. Sunset Valley's finest had arrived. 'Oh man, did he have to call the cops?'

The police woman spared Logan any handcuffs, but gave him a verbal lashing before placing him in the front seat of her cruiser. As she drove him home she mumbled under her breath. Logan didn't catch everything, only random words like "Hoodlums" and "Troublemakers" also small phrases such as, "Need more severe punishment". The police officer pulled out her cellphone and dialed Brian's number to inform him that his son was being escorted home.

After a minute he stopped listening, he was starting to worry about what his dad would do to him. No way he could hide this one, she had called him directly. He didn't even think Adelaide would keep her cool when it came to this.

Logan was dropped off in front of the house, the cop didn't get out of the car but stayed there until Logan stepped in the front door.

Logan could hear his father's footsteps coming down the stairs.

"Logan James Fuller. You are in big trouble. What in the world possessed you to toilet paper your Principal's office? I don't even believe that it is my son standing before me! Who are you? Since when did you become this person? I don't like him at all!" Brian's hands flew out beside him.

Logan put his own hands up in his defense, thinking that he was about to get smacked for the first time in his life.

Instead, Brian flung his arms upward. With big groan of frustration Brian pointed at Logan. His hand moved a little quicker than he had intended and he saw Logan flinch.

"Don't even think about leaving this house. Not for anything do you understand? Nothing! You're grounded, and no computer either!" Brian turned and stomped off back up the stairs.

Logan stood there for another second. 'I've had a really bad day. This sucks.'

To be continued...