Bruce and Danny Chapter 6: The Reveal

By: BeatleNumber9

The first two weeks of school had been going great. Me and Josh pretty much did everything together since we met.

Before we left, Mrs. Ramos gave us a reminder.

“Don’t forget that this Friday is the school’s Parent-Teacher night.”

I had a feeling dad wasn’t going to like that. I didn’t understand it at the time but dad was always insistent that he and mom hide their existence from the school, wanted me to take the bus instead of picking me up and dropping me off, and having me take any paperwork they needed to fill out to school with me instead of him or mom dropping it off themselves. Mom didn’t seem to share in his avoidance, saying it was dumb for him to act like that.

So, as I boarded the school bus I wondered how dad was going to get out of this parent teacher night.

As we ate dinner, I could see Danny was eating a little slower than usual. It kind of looked like he had something he wanted to say.

“You feeling alright, Danny?” I asked.

“Uh…” He unfolded a piece of paper he’d been keeping in his pocket and slid it over to me.

Uh oh! I thought. Did he get in trouble or something? I unfolded the paper only to see the words “parent-teacher night”. I let out a mild groan at this, both out of relief Danny wasn’t in trouble, and annoyance that this time had finally come.

“What’s wrong?” Emma asked.

I just slid it over to her. She just looked at it, then looked over at Danny.

“Well, looks like we’ll have to clear our schedules for Friday night.” She said, giving Danny a smile.

“So, we’re going?” Danny asked.

“Well, it says attendance is mandatory so, yes.” She said.

“Yeah,” I sighed, “I guess we are.”

“Yes!” Danny cheered quietly. “You can finally meet my friend Josh.”

“Yeah.” I said, trying to sound happy.

After we put Danny to bed I talked over this whole parent-teacher thing.

“Ugh, I’ve been dreading this.” I said.

“Well, you can’t say you didn’t see this coming. You couldn’t avoid going to Danny’s school for the rest of his academic life.” Emma pointed out.

“I know…” I sighed. “I just… I don’t know, wanted him to feel normal for a little while.”

“I just don’t think it’s going to be as bad as you’re making it out to be.” Emma reassured, as she got ready for bed.

“You won’t be saying that once we’re the only Anthros in a sea of humans.” I said.

“So, we’ll stand out?” She said. “It’s not like they’re going to chase us out of the building or tell us that our son can’t go to school there anymore.”

“It’s not about that, it’s about how the other kids’ll treat him afterwards.” I clarified. It’s just…It’s not going to be easy for him anymore.”

“Hey,” She said, putting her arms around my shoulders and looking up at me. “it’ll be fine. We’re just two parents going to their son’s parent-teacher night like everyone else.” She kissed me. “I know you worry about Danny, I do too, but we can’t shield him from everything at school. If something happens, we’ll handle it. It’s what we do.”

“Okay.”

Well, it was time, we made the short drive there, though it felt like an eternity for me. I parked and looked at Emma next to me before getting out of the car. I walked over to Danny, and lifted him up in my arms.

“Come on buddy.” I said. “Let’s do this thing.”

Thankfully there weren’t that many people in the front of the school now, since we were arriving a little late, at least Emma had granted me that. By now most parents had arrived and were meeting with their kids’ teachers. We went up to a lady sitting at an end table with some fliers on it.

“Excuse me, we’re here for parent-teacher night.” I said, trying to hide the reluctance in my voice.

“Hi, Mrs. Miller.” Danny greeted.

“Oh,” She said, looking surprised to see us. “You’re Danny’s parents? I didn’t realize… You know what, never mind,” She smiled, brushing off the awkwardness of the conversation, “just head down that hallway and the kindergarten teachers will be in the gym.”

“Thank you.” I said.

Well, that wasn’t nearly as awkward as I was expecting. I thought to myself as we made our way down the hallway to the gym. Maybe Em was right? Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as I was making it out to be?

When we walked into the gym, it took a minute, but conversations started dying down as I could see everyone’s attention quickly zoning in on us, I could overhear one guy aske quietly “Did they come to the wrong school?”. I could see a few people at least trying to be polite, a wife tugging her husband’s shirt sleeve trying to get him to look away from us, another group trying to continue their conversation they were having before we walked in.

“So, where’s your teacher?” I asked Danny.

“There she is!” He said happily, pointing over to a short Hispanic woman, who looked to be in her 30s.

“Hi, Mrs. Ramos!” Danny greeted as we walked over to her.

“Hello Danny!” She greeted back, with a happy, but clearly surprised look on her face. “And you must be Danny’s parents.” She said, extending her hand to me, with a small hint of nervousness in her voice.

“Hey there.” I said, taking her small hand and gently shaking it, while still holding Danny in my other arm. “I’m a little taller than you thought I’d be, aren’t I?” I tried to joke.

She laughed at my dumb joke, and it sounded pretty genuine.

“Well I can see where Danny gets his charm from.” She shot back.

Both me and Emma gave a chuckle at this.

“Danny’s told us a lot about you.” Emma said. “He says you’re a cool teacher.”

“Oh, did he?” Mrs. Ramos gave Danny a playful look, to which he responded to by burying his face in my chest, looking slightly embarrassed.

“Hey dad?” He looked back up at me. “Can I go find Josh?

“Sure buddy.” I said, setting him down.

“Just stay in sight sweetie,” Emma told him, “and we’ll come find you when we’re done.”

“Okay.” He said before walking off to find his friend. We turned our attention back to his teacher.

“So, how’s our boy?” Emma asked.

Once I broke away from mom and dad, I went looking for Josh. It didn’t take me long to find him, by one of the snack tables with his folks. I cheerfully run up to him.

“Hey Josh!” I greeted.

“Uh, hi Danny.” He sounded a little nervous.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, noticing his restless state.

“Who’s that?” He asked pointing over to my parents.

“Oh, that’s my mom and dad.” I said matter-of-factly.

“But… they don’t look like you…” He said.

“I’m adopted, remember?” I reminded him.

“Oh yeah…” He said.

Then Josh’s parents walked over to us.

“Is this that friend of yours you were telling us about, Josh?” His mom asked him.

“Yeah…” Josh said shyly.

“I’m Danny.” I greeted.

“Very nice to meet you Danny.” Josh’s dad said reaching out and shaking my small hand.

“You too.” I said back.

I didn’t know what dad was so worried about, this was going fine, but I still noticed how nervous Josh was.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Well… I guess I just haven’t seen that many parents like yours…” He said.

“There are no Anthros where you live?” I asked curiously.

He shook his head.

“Weird, there’s tons of them where I live. I’m like, the only human.”

“So… are your parents nice?” He asked.

“Of course they are!” I said, a little confused, why wouldn’t they be.

“But yeah, Danny’s adjusting very well in class.” Mrs. Ramos said.

“That’s wonderful to hear.” Emma said before chuckling a little and patting me on the arm. “Bruce here was pretty worried about our boy’s first day. But I told him it’d be fine, looks like I was right.” She kissed me on the cheek.

“Yeah, I guess so.” I said, smiling and rolling my eyes. “It’s good to hear he’s got no problems making friends.” But I wondered if I should bring up my concerns.

“Well it’s very common for parents to be worried about their kids starting school.” Mrs. Ramos reassured.

“Right…” I said. “But, uh, there’s a reason I was so worried. I mean, being the kind of family we are has given us a few bumps in the road. I’m just a little concerned about bullying…” I confessed.

“That’s very understandable.” Mrs. Ramos said.

“I’m even more worried now that we showed up here today…” I said. “He’s just been so happy going to school the past few days, I don’t want it to get ruined by a few kids who think he’s different because we’re his parents.”

“I understand.” She said. “I’ll make sure if anything happens he feels comfortable coming to me to talk about it and we’ll deal with it.”

“That’d mean a lot.” I said.

“Well, we’re happy he’s doing so well in your class.”

“Well, if there’s nothing else you want to discuss,” I said after a bit of an awkward silence, “I think we’ll go find Danny and take off.”

“Okay, I’ll let you go then.” She put out her hand and shook both of ours. “It was very nice meeting you both.”

I looked around the gym, trying to ignore the few people still staring at us and murmuring to each other, and spotted Danny talking with another boy and his parents. Me and Emma headed over to him. My heart sank a little when I saw how his friend reacted to us walking over, moving slightly behind his mom and looking really uneasy. I tried not to let my disappointment show.

“Hey, Danny.” I said, rubbing his shoulder. “Is this your friend you’ve told us about?”

“Yeah, this is Josh.” Danny said, cheerfully.

“Well, hey there Josh.” I said, giving a slight wave.

“Josh, don’t be rude, say hello to Danny’s parents.” His mom said.

“Uh…hi…” He said quietly.

“Aw, he’s just shy.” His dad said, before holding out his hand for me to shake it. “Nice to meet you, I’m Richard.”

“Bruce.” I said back, shaking his hand.

“Emma.” My wife said, shaking his hand after I did.

“I’m Krista.” Josh’s mom said. “Nice to meet you.”

“Well, it’s getting late and we don’t really have anything else to do, so I think we’re just going to head home.” I said, picking Danny up.

“It was nice meeting you.” Emma said.

“You too!” Richard said.

“See you Monday Josh.” Danny called back.

“Okay!” Josh called back.

Well, it least it didn’t seem like we completely scared his friend off, I thought to myself as we left the school and walked to the car.

“See, wasn’t that relatively painless like I said it’d be?” Emma asked as we got in the car.

“I guess.” I said, rolling my eyes a little, starting the car and driving home.

I watched Danny play with Angie, Tyson, and Owen as I talked with Karim.

“I’m just worried how Danny’s experiences at school might change after this week. I mean, he just seems so happy, I’d hate for that to change just cause some kids think it’s weird that his parents aren’t human.”

“Well, how did the people there react to seeing you and Emma there?” Karim asked.

“About how you’d expect.” I said. “Though it was more like half the gym stopping to stare and gawk at us as opposed to the entire gym.”

Karim chuckled a little. “Well, it’s not like they’re going to start a petition to kick Danny out of school.”

“Pssh, I hope not…” I said.