Who We Are (The Seafare Chronicles 2)

“Fiancé,” he reminded me with a crooked grin.

“Whatever,” I grumbled.

Finally, Georgia and Eddie finished their “Bear Rocks” speech, and Judge Higgins asked Tyson to stand for a moment. The Kid took a deep breath and did just that.

“I understand that you are very intelligent,” the judge said. “You’ve recently skipped a grade?”

“Yes, sir,” the Kid said. “I’m not one to brag on myself, but since you said it first, yes: I’m very intelligent.”

I thought this was funny. Apparently, I was the only one, so I quieted down quickly. Judge Higgins glared at me again before turning back to the Kid. “So you understand the severity of this situation, then. That your brother is trying to become your legal guardian.”

The Kid shrugged. “He already is.”

“What was that, young man?”

“Look,” the Kid said. “We all know that we’re doing this so nothing can take me away from him again. But, really? It’s just a piece of paper with your signature on it. Bear’s been my guardian longer than you’ve ever even known who we were. He’s my brother. He’s always been my guardian, and not even your word can take that away from me.” He sat back down, obviously pleased that he’d been allowed to have his say.

I would have been rendered speechless if the judge hadn’t called on me next. I stared down at the Kid as I stood. He looked up at me and winked.

Christ. I tore my gaze away and looked up at the judge.

He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a loud noise coming from outside the courtroom. We could hear voices through the door.

I recognized them almost immediately and prayed that the bailiff would arrest them all and take them to jail.

“Look, it’s got to be this one, right? Courtroom Four,” Creed said.

“I can read, you know,” Anna snapped at him. “Are you sure Bear said four?”

“Well, there can’t be that many courtrooms,” her mom said. “This is Seafare, after all. It’s not like there’s a lot of crime or other stuff that happens here.”

“You say that now,” Jerry Thompson said. “But remember when they broke up that meth lab over on the west side? Maybe we need more courts, because apparently tweekers like the beach.”

“I can’t believe my dad just said tweekers,” Creed moaned. “You’re so hip, Pops.”

“I am pretty cool,” Jerry agreed.

“So is this judge the guy that Bear said had eyebrows that looked, like, evil?” Alice asked. Quite loudly. “I think I need to see those for myself.”

“Yeah,” Dominic rumbled. “He said that he wants to bring in garlic and holy water each time he has to face him.”

“Can you even buy holy water?” Stephanie Grant asked. “It doesn’t seem like you could go to a store and just buy a vial.”

“No, I’m sure there’s a store somewhere called Christ ’N Things that you could go to and get holy water,” Creed said. “I mean, where else would they get it? It’s not like priests just go to the kitchen sinks before mass and fill up that huge bowl with tap water.”

“Should we just go in?” Alice asked. “I can’t see through the cracks in the door.”

“We’re a couple of minutes late,” Jerry said. “But they probably haven’t even started yet. Lawyers don’t do anything on time.”

“Go in,” Anna said.

“You go in,” Creed replied. “If they’re mad at us for being late, just blame it on the fact that you’re pregnant and the baby is eating your brains.”

“I still can’t believe you guys are going to have a baby,” Stephanie sighed. “You’re both just so young.”

“Yeah, well,” Creed grumbled. “Let’s not go into that again. I haven’t got the lecture out of my head from all of you in which you tried to show me how I should accurately put on a condom. I’m still insulted that you used a carrot to represent me. At least you could have used a soda can.”

Anna snorted. “Oh, please. Like that’s accurate.”