Chapter 36

Jerome

       The Halloween party and being around so many people completely trained him, so he was now in one of his never wanting to leave the house mood, not to mention his nap all day and stay up in the middle of the night mood.

       At least I was somewhat of a heavy sleeper so I wouldn't have to stay awake listening to Nolan type on his laptop. 

       I did, however, woke up to Kingsley stirring around in his crib. Was it bad that I wished I could sleep in when he woke up at times?

        I guessed it was my father instinct.

       I still pretended to be asleep in hope that Nolan thought I really was and he would deal with Kingsley. He was awake anyway, now watching a movie on his laptop.

       Nolan paused the movie, then unfortunately said, "I know you're awake, Jerome. You can actually get up and help me with our son."

       I sighed and opened my eyes to look at my husband. "But I'm so tired."

       "You're tired?" Nolan asked. "Oh, then by all means, go back to sleep. It's not like that's all I want to do."

       I got up from the bed before heading over to the crib and picking up Kingsley. "I really think you should see a doctor again," I said. "You haven't seen your doctor for a long time."

       "Are you talking to Kingsley or me?" Nolan asked. "I sure hope it's not me you're talking to because you know what my answer would be. I fed Kingsley about an hour ago, by the way, she he probably just wants to cuddle."

       I sat back down on the bed, and Nolan paused the movie he was watching before setting his laptop on his nightstand before holding out his arms towards Kingsley. I handed Kingsley over to Nolan before leaning back into the bed. "I'm guessing I was out cold when he started crying?" 

       "Yep," Nolan said. "I was out cold for a bit, by the way."

       "Really?"

       "For, like, ten minutes. I probably wouldn't have remembered falling asleep if I wasn't confused as to why I seemed to have missed a lot of scenes in the movie. One minute, the main characters weren't together and the next, they were."

       "You know what you should do about it?"

       "Get used to my strange sleeping schedule and enjoy watching movies late at night while my husband looks so adorable sleeping?"

       "No. Go to the doctor."

       "Go mind your own business."

       "Your business is my business."

       "You might think that, but I think otherwise. I'm not going to the doctors, Jerome. I'm perfectly fine."

       I sighed, not even bothering to argue with him any further. It was basically impossible to win an argument against him.

       Well, not for two certain people.

       Once Kingsley fell back asleep, I took it as my cue to fall asleep again. This time, I didn't even wake up until eight o'clock when Kingsley woke up because he was hungry. Nolan was finally asleep by that time, so I got out of bed and brought Kingsley downstairs to feed him and let Nolan sleep without any noises to wake up him. Kingsley fussing or crying was the only thing that could wake him up, after all.

       Anything else? Nolan stayed fast asleep.

       After Kingsley was fed, I headed back upstairs and placed him back in the crib. He immediately grabbed his stuffed otter with a happy squeal.

       Before biting it.

       He might as well be a vampire with everything he was biting.

       I got changed before grabbing a piece of paper off of Nolan's desk and wrote a note for him:

       Went to run some errands and brought Kingsley with me so you could actually sleep. Call me if you need anything. I love you.

       I placed the note on my pillow, then got Kingsley ready to head out to head out to my wonderful family-in-law's house.

       I got there at the perfect time.

       Not really.

       There was a lot of chaos since Poppy and Grayson were trying to get Tulip and Rose ready for school. It may have not seem like it should take so much effort to get two children ready for school, but the Princes never seemed to like the ordinary.

       When I showed up with Kingsley, both Tulip and Rose ran over to us. "Jerome!" Rose said. 

       "Hi," I said. "Shouldn't you be getting ready for school?"

       "No," Rose said. "School is stupid."

       "Rose," Poppy said in a warning tone.

       "What?" Rose asked. "We started doing math, but I already know math. One plus one is two, two plus two is four, four plus four is eight, me plus school is bad." 

       What a sassy five year old.

       "Would you enjoy it better if Kingsley and I took you there?" I asked.

       "Yeah!" Rose said, then quickly went to get ready.

       "You don't have to do that, Jerome," Poppy said.

       "I don't mind," I said. "I just came for a quick visit to get some advice on my stupid husband since you and Grayson will know how to handle him."

       "Hey, don't call my son stupid," Grayson said. "He's probably smarter than you."

       Never insult a Prince with their family members near by. 

       I really had to learn since I was part of the Prince family now.

       "Oh, I know he's smarter than me," I said. "Well, sometimes. Not when it comes to his mental health. He's not doing so well and I keep telling him to go to the doctor's just for a check up, but he doesn't want to."

       "That's Nolan for you," Poppy said. "He's as stubborn as can be and likes doing the complete opposite people tell him to do, especially if they keep telling him or bringing it up over and over again."

       "Yeah, it's the one thing he got from me," Grayson said. "He just had to get everything else from his mother."

       "Excuse you, but I don't see why you're complaining," Poppy said. "Not when the rest of our children are like you. Anyway, like I was saying about Nolan, you should probably use reverse psychology on him. Say something like 'You don't have to go to the doctor's if you don't want to'."

       "Yes, and knowing him, he'll say 'Sweet, thanks', and then eat all our food," I said.

       "Okay, and now he's my advice," Grayson said. "The better advice."

       "Uh, did I hear right?" Poppy said. "Did you just say the better advice? No offence, but I know Nolan better. He's my mini-me."

       "Exactly," Grayson said. "You're a lot closer to him than I am, which means you'll go easier on him. I say Jerome should just make the doctor's appointment for Nolan anyway, say they're going to go out without telling him, and take him to the appointment. He can't really say no one the spot."

       "That might work, but then he'll be mad at me," I said.

       "Then buy him food afterwards," Grayson said. "I always did that when I forced him to do something he should but didn't want to, and he was completely fine after. You know what place he loves to eat at?"

       "The 50's diner?" I asked.

       "Exactly," Grayson said. 

       "I'll try that," I said. "Thanks. And as repayment for your advice, I will take your two lovely daughters to school."

       "Thank you," Grayson said. "I don't have work today, so I can just be lazy and not leave the house."

       "Just for that, I want to make you take your daughters to school," Poppy said.

       "Don't be rude, Flower," Grayson said. "Your favourite son-in-law is offering to spend quality time with Rose and Tulip. Don't take that away from him."

        I really loved this family, and I was really happy I could be a part of it.

       After Tulip and Rose were ready for school, I led them outside and to my car. Rose was really happy to sit beside Kingsley in the car and played with him the entire drive to the middle school so I could drop Tulip off.

       And embarrass her.

       "Make sure you don't go talking to any boys!" I called after her.

       Tulip turned around to look at me. "Jerome!"

       "I'm getting Athena to keep an eye on you!" I said. "If you talk to any boys, she's going to tell me!"

       "My other best friend is a boy!"

       "Then don't talk to him otherwise you'll be in big trouble!"

       "Fight me, Roy!"

       "Prince-Roy!"

       "Whatever!"

       I chuckled as I pulled out of the parking lot. Whatever; a sure sign I won the argument and embarrassing her.

       I drove to Rose's school to drop her off. Once I pulled into the parking lot, Rose said, "You have to come and wait with me," she said. "They don't want kindergartners to be left on their own. Not since one of them wrote 'Otters' on the wall by the door."

       "And that couldn't have possibly been you," I said.

       "Of course not," Rose said. "I don't vandi-- vando--."

       "Vandalize?" I asked. 

       "See? I didn't know the word, so I couldn't have done it," Rose said.

       "Obviously," I said, taking off my seat belt. "Alright, let's go."

       Rose got out of the car while I got Kingsley out, then she led me to where the door to her classroom was. Kingsley started squirming because he wanted to be put down, so I placed him on the ground.

       Where he immediately laid down.

       I didn't understand him at times.

       He was the weirdest eight month old ever.

       I sat Kingsley up, and he played with Rose until the bell rang and she had to go to class. As soon as her teacher opened the door, Rose gave me a hug. "Can you come visit after school?" she asked. "With Nolan?"

       "Nolan doesn't really want to leave the house right now," I said. "But I'm sure if you ask your mom and dad, they'd be more than happy to come over with you so you can see Nolan and he wouldn't have to leave the house."

       "Okay!" Rose said with a smile before giving me another hug. "Bye!"

       "Bye," I said.

       Once Rose was in her classroom, I picked up Kingsley. "Come on, let's head home."

       "Da!" Kingsley said.

       "Yes, and see Dad," I said. "What about Papa? You love me, right?"

       "Poo!"

       Of course my child would call me Poo.

       We headed back home and by the time we got there, Nolan was awake eating a bowl of chips. "Can't you ever eat something normal for breakfast?" I asked.

       "I don't discriminate food," Nolan said. "If something wants to be eaten for breakfast, I'll eat it for breakfast. We shouldn't label them."

       "Only you wouldn't want to label food," I said as I placed Kingsley down, who immediately started crawling over to Nolan.

       "Food is food," Nolan said. "So, where were you?"

       "Running errands," I said. "Didn't you read the note?"

       "Yes, but I would like to know the errands."

       "I just went to go visit your parents," I said.

       "Why?" Nolan asked. "I mean, I definitely don't have anything against it, but you never really go visit my parents without me."

       "You don't want to leave the house, Nolan," I said. "It's kind of hard to visit them with you. Oh, speaking of, they might come over in the afternoon. Rose wants to see you, so I told her to ask your parents if they can come here after school. You'll be fine with people coming over, right?"

       "If it's my family, yeah," Nolan said. "I do miss them. I just wished I didn't feel like I have to stay in the house all day."

       So did I.

       And I knew he was going to get mad at me for making a doctor's appointment for him, but I didn't know what else to do.

___________________

I relate to Nolan. (because he is me lol)

I feel like Rose is one of the two Prince siblings (Lilac being the other) that haven't really been written about, so I wanted to give Rose some time to shine. She's as amazing as the rest of her siblings.

ANYWAY, I've been binging a show and now a new book idea is sparking inside of me oops. Like I told the group chat, someone can breathe and I can get a new book idea.