Wealth Pt. 03

"I like could swear you just..." Toni said.

"I called you a self-righteous bitch," Anita said.

Anita looked at the clock, saw that it was after ten o'clock and shut off the lap top computer.

"Done with this?" she asked, indicating the bowl of dip.

Toni looked away.

"If you're done with this, I'm putting it up," Anita said.

Toni just kept staring away.

"Oh my God, you're like not talking to me?" Anita asked.

"No I'm not," Toni huffed. "I like can not believe you called me a bitch!"

Anita slapped the plastic lid onto the bowl and sealed the bags of carrot sticks and celery sticks.

"Shame you're not talking to me," Anita said as she put the items into the refrigerator. "If you were, I'd tell you that I love you and I'm feeling a little like making love tonight."

"After calling me a bitch?" Toni asked, face a mask of shock. "You like really think I'd even want to make love to you?"

"Oh yeah, I'd hug you and kiss you," Anita said as she wiped off the table. "And I'd tell you that it's you that gives me the strength and courage, I mean, yeah, buying that land might be the stupidest thing I've ever done, but it loving you gives me the guts to even try."

"And I love you too," Toni admitted, face softening.

"But you're not even talking to me," Anita said, putting the damp cloth on the lip of the sink. "So, I can't tell you any of those things."

"Uh huh," Toni said, walking toward the stairs. "Now who's like being a self-righteous bitch?"

Chapter 29

On a blistering hot August Monday, Ed, Luna, and Brooke stood by the car and watched Star, in her brand new St. Richard's school uniform, with her new back pack walk to the front doors of St. Richard Elementary School in Bender, Louisiana.

Star gave one wave as she entered the school, and then was gone from sight.

"Oh my Baby!" Brooke sobbed as she watched the door close.

"Ma'am? It does get easier," Sergeant Elise Richards smiled as she watched her two children, Henry and Jennica as they walked to the door of the school.

"How?" Brooke sobbed.

"It just does," Elise shrugged. "My two are starting kindergarten this year; Believe me, I stood right there and cried my eyes out when they started Pre K last year."

"Hi, Brooke Robertson," Brooke said, offering a hand. "My Star's going into Kindergarten."

"Sergeant, damn it," Elise smiled. "Sorry, even when I'm not in uniform, I'm still a cop. My name's Elise Richards and my Henry and Jennica are in Kindergarten too."

"Ed Weinstein and this next year I'm going to be in Pre K cutie is Luna Robertson," Ed said.

"Really?" Elise smiled and asked the girl that Ed cradled. "You want to go to school here with your big sister?"

"Uh huh," Luna agreed.

"Yes ma'am," Brooke softly corrected.

"Well, believe it or not, when I was a little girl, me and my big sister, we went to this school too," Elise said.

"You did?" Luna asked. "Did you play on the playground stuff and everything?"

"And everything," Elise affirmed.

"Y'all have a good day," Elise said and got into the police cruiser.

She delighted Luna by giving a short burst on the siren and a friendly wave as she went past.

"And your big big sister? Caitlin? She went to this school too," Ed said as he bent to buckle Luna into her seat.

"Wait, suppose Star needs us?" Brooke asked, still watching the doors as more children entered.

"Then the school will call us; they have your cell phone number," Ed said.

"But if she comes out and we're not here," Brook worried.

"Baby," Ed said and hugged her then kissed her on her forehead. "It'll be okay."

"Oh God no it won't," Brooke wailed and fresh tears started pouring.

"Honey, you had to know this day was going to come, right?" Ed asked, kissing the top of her head. "Or were you planning to home school her?"

"No," Brooke wailed.

"I remember Caitlin's first day," Ed smiled as he got Brooke into the car and backed out of their parking spot. "Caitlin walks up to this really cute little blonde haired girl, think her name was Megan or something like that, and tells this girl 'Hi, I'm Caitlin Weinstein and I'm the prettiest girl here but I'll still be your friend.' Caitlin has always believed herself to be the prettiest girl around; guess she just never outgrew that."

"Sounds like her," Brooke giggled, wiping at her eyes. "And uh, gee, I wonder where she ever got that idea? Uh, could her Daddy have been telling her that all the time?"

At Johnson's Furniture And Appliances, Nine unloaded the large capacity refrigerator they had dubbed the 'Repo Fridge' because it had been sold and repossessed twelve times since Brett bought the Kenmore at a Sears scratch And Dent sale.

"Thirteenth time thing's been in here," Nine laughed as he wheeled it in.

"I'll get it, since Ed couldn't be bothered show up this morning, Graham sneered.

"Better let him," Nine warned. "Whole house was burning up; they ain't had power in about a week at least."

"I know what I'm..." Graham snarled, yanking the door open.

"Oh holy fucking shit!" Graham coughed as the stench of rotted meat and vegetables rushed out of the steaming hot interior.

"Told you," Nine chortled as he went back outside to continue pulling the other items he'd repossessed from that one client's home.

Graham grabbed a few bottles of household cleaner and threw the liquids into the refrigerator and closed the door tightly.**

Nine finished unloading the flatbed truck, checked his docket to see if there were any other repossession or deliveries scheduled for that morning, saw that there was a delivery of a living room set and began loading it onto the truck.

"Call my boy Ed help me with this," Nine said to Graham who was stomping around, trying to find something else to occupy his time.

"Whatever," Graham said.

In McMillan Hall, Toni and Anita walked into Room 217 and smiled when they saw Honey Childress, still looking quite overwhelmed, sitting at the front of the class.

"Hey," Anita greeted the young woman.

"Hey!" Honey smiled, face becoming quite wrinkled with her genuine smile.

"Hey," Toni echoed.

"So taking Business Principles?" Toni asked as she took the seat next to Honey.

"Yeah, I don't know why," Honey admitted. "My advisor? Said I need to take one free elective every semester? So he picked this one."

"Well, we're Business Admin Majors," Anita said.

"Yeah, so we like got to take it," Toni said.

"But I'm so happy we're taking this class together," Honey said. "You guys are the only guys I know here, other than my roommate and she's being a complete bitch; won't even say 'hi' to me!"

"Oh, I hate when my roommate's being a complete bitch," Anita teased.

"Like shut up!" Toni shrilled at Anita.

A moment later, the two smiled at each other.

"Bitch," Toni mouthed at Anita, then laughed when Anita pinched her rear end.

"You guys live together?" Honey asked.

"Yeah, here," Anita said and scribbled out their address and both of their cell phone numbers for the woman.

"Oh! You have your own apartment?" Honey gasped as she read the address.

"No, we own a condo," Toni said.

"You do?" Honey whispered, amazed.

A stocky African-American male, wearing a hoody, hood pulled up (even though it was nearly one hundred degrees outside, with the humidity in the upper nineties) and jeans dangling down, exposing his boxers to anyone that cared to look, came sauntering in. He peered over his sunglasses, sneering at the students that were in the room.

The man dropped his textbook onto the desk at the front of the room, sneer still in place then looked pointedly at the clock on the wall as a student strolled in.

"Class starts at nine, son," he barked at the young man. "What time is it?"

"Nine?" the young man asked.

"Wrong," the man said. "It is two minutes past nine. real world, you'd be out of a job, boy."

He sneered at the class again.

"Of course, I cannot think of anything that's a bigger waste of time than teaching business principles to a bunch of ignorant coon asses anyway. I mean, what's your biggest industry here, huh? Crawfish and alligators?" the man sneered.

"And what's yours?" the young man that had been two minutes late challenged.

"Well congratulations, smart guy," the man laughed a bitter laugh. "Before the best you could have hoped for was a 'C' in this class but now you just failed it. Anyone else want to question my authority?"

"Like what authority?" Toni sneered.

"Oh, please, girl; we both know you just here killing time 'til you get yourself knocked up and start having dumb ass little coon asses," the man spat.

Both Toni and Anita grabbed their notebooks and got to their feet.

"Aw hey, what's your hurry girl? Can't wait get busy getting some?" the man sneered. "All right, anyone else want to prove they got what it takes fail this class?"

In his office, Dean Robert Sims was looking through a batch of proposals from Landscaping Companies in and around St. Elizabeth Parish. Why this duty had fallen to him, he still would like to know, when surely the Board of Regents could handle this.

"No, believe me, it like really can't wait," he heard a female's voice cry out.

"Penny, I'll see her now," Dean Sims said into his telephone, gratefully putting the various bids aside.

"Hi Dean Sims, I'm like Toni Delacroix and this is like Anita Lopez," Toni said, barging into the office.

"Hi, um, really glad to meet you," Anita said, feeling a little underdressed in her short shorts and halter top.

"Hi, Dean Sims smiled, waving the girls into the two chairs that were in front of his desk.

"We like had Business Principles One oh one at like nine o'clock today," Toni started.

Dean Sims looked at the clock and saw that it was now 9:18.

"And this is what we were treated to," Toni said and put a small recorder on his desk.

Dean Sims listened, then opened his mouth in shock as the man's harsh, hateful words came out of the tiny gadget.

"Where was this?" he asked when the last sounds coming out of the small recorder were of Toni and Anita's flip flops slapping against the tiled hallway.

"McMillan, room two seventeen," Anita said.

"Girls, you make a copy of that?" the man asked.

"Here, like give me your cell number," Toni said, taking a small cable out of her purse and hooking the cable to the recorder and to her cell phone.

He hesitated, shrugged and gave her the private number.

"Don't worry," Anita smiled. "We're not going to put that number all over the place."

"Please don't," the man smiled. "Last thing I need is a bunch of phone calls at two o'clock in the morning because you just found out you failed your class."

His cell phone chimed and he knocked over several papers , trying to locate the device.

Anita picked up the papers and Dean Sims bit back his groan; a good portion of her rear end was very visible as the shorts rode up.

"Oh, hey," Anita said as she glanced at the papers. "Personal question; who were you planning on going with for this?"

"Haven't decided," he admitted. "Price wise, they're all ridiculous you ask me, but right now, I'm down to nit-picking, going through with a fine toothed comb to see who offers what."

"Let me know who you go with, please?" Anita said and tried, unsuccessfully, to will her shorts back out of the crack of her ass.

"Will do," he promised.

The girls left, Anita resisting the urge to reach behind her and pull the shorts down. So, Dean Sims had an excellent view of her nicely rounded backside, as well as Toni's nicely rounded backside as the girls left his office.

"Oh, hey, thanks a lot," Penny, Dean Sims' administrative assistant complained when the sounds of bluegrass music could suddenly be heard. "Depressed him and now I got to listen to that for the rest of the day."

"Sorry," Toni shrugged.

They went to the Math and Sciences building to get ready for their Algebra 101 class. Shortly after taking their seats, they smiled as they saw Honey, still looking quite overwhelmed, as the girl came in, weighed down by a heavy back pack.

"Hey, Honey," Anita called out.

"Oh my God!" Honey shrilled. "It got even worse after you guys left!"

"Well, we like told Dean Sims about it," Toni assured the girl.

"You did?" Honey gasped.

"Well, yeah," Toni said. "I mean, that's what you like do when your teacher's being like this little Osama bin-Laden up there."

Professor Huxton bustled in, followed by a harried looking teaching assistant.

"Ms. Edwards is going to call your name," he said in his high pitched nasally voice. "When she does, please stand up so that she can see you. I hope you like your seats; these will be your seats from her on out, except for during tests. At test time, I will reassign your seating. Ms. Edwards?"

Fifty minutes later, Toni, Anita, and Honey staggered out of the man's classroom, shell shocked.

"Oh my God; I'm going to fail this class!" Honey wailed.

"Shit!" Anita agreed. "I mean, I know this stuff but I didn't understand a bit of what he was saying; you?"

"Like I think that was English, but I'm not really sure,'" Toni said.

"And now we have to run all the way to Birch Hall for American Lit," Anita said.

"Hey!" Honey said. "Wow, I got that too! I mean, not until tomorrow, but I got , oh wait, no, it's Colonial American Literature, never mind."

"Well, see you later," Toni and Anita said and sprinted for Birch Hall.

In her bedroom, Caitlin Delacroix made her bed. She know it upset their housekeeper, Quan Cho, but twenty years of habit were not going to be broken just because a paid employee didn't like it.

Then she gave a glance at her Rolex watch, determined that it had been nearly thirty minutes, then scurried into the bathroom.

Blue.

It was blue; that was definitely a blue stripe.

Caitlin screamed for joy, grabbed a hunk of tissues and wrapped the small stick, and raced out of the bedroom.

"I hear you scream I come fast fast you okay?" Quan Cho asked as she came up the stairs.

"Yes!" Caitlin screamed. "I'm great!"

Caitlin stampeded down the stairs, ran outside and jumped into her Astin Martin then raced backward out of the driveway.

Upstairs, Quan Cho stamped her foot; Miss Delacroix had once again made the bed.

At the St. Martin house, Pho Din, the St. Martins' housekeeper looked through the window as she heard a car screech to a halt outside.

"Miss Shirley, you friend she here," she called out and ran to open the door.

"Shirley, guess what? Guess what?" Caitlin screamed, barreling into the house.

"You're pregnant?" Shirley asked.

"I'm already showing?" Caitlin gasped, looking down at her concave belly.

"Afraid so," Shirley laughed, hugging her friend tightly. "It is written all over that freckled face of yours."

Caitlin screamed again, bouncing up and down in her happiness.

"And what does Barry have to say about this?" Shirley asked.

"Oh!" Caitlin gasped. "I haven't told him yet!"

At Superior Motors, Bob looked up from the Ferrari he was showing to a potential customer when the Astin Martin screamed to a stop in front of the showroom.

"Oh oh, Barry," he called out. "You're in trouble!"

"Ha ha," Henry teased.

"Uh, Henry, looks like you're in trouble too," Bob said as Shirley got out of the passenger side.

"Ha ha," Barry teased back.

"Good morning, Bob jovially said as he pulled the heavy glass door open for the two women.

"Oh Honey, guess what, guess what?" Caitlin screamed, racing into the showroom.

"I give up," he smiled as she rained kisses on his face.

"We're having a baby!" she screamed out loud.

"Oh boy," Henry playfully complained as his wife snuggled up against him.

"Well, I think that's the second best thing you ever told me," Barry smiled, trying to hug his bouncing wife.

"What's the best thing she ever told you?" Shirley asked.

"I love you," Barry said.

"Oh, I love you too!" Caitlin enthused. "And watch! I'm going to be the best Mommy ever and Oh! Shirley! We need to turn Toni's old room into a nursery!"

"Well, come on," Shirley laughed. "Babbage's has got the most adorable baby showcase."

Shirley and Caitlin scampered out of the showroom just as quickly as they had scurried in and the Astin Martin left a strip of rubber as it raced out of the parking lot.

"It safe to come out now?" the customer joked, stepping out of the Ferrari.

"Yes sir it..." Barry laughed, then the full reality hit him and he fainted.

"Oh no he didn't!" Jack laughed as he ran to the restroom to grab a cold compress.

"Damn it, never have a video camera running when that happens," Bob laughed as he knelt down to loosen Barry's tie and collar.

Jack returned and pressed the cold compress to Barry's face. He did check; Barry's pulse was fine and his color was also fine.

"What?" Barry asked as he came to.

"You're going to be a daddy," Bob told him and laughed as Barry's eyes started to roll back.

"Congratulations," the customer said. "Yeah, I'll take the car, hear?"

"Oh my God, I'm going to..." Barry mumbled.

"Hope the commission pays for the kid's college fund," the customer joked.

"Oh my God, oh college," Barry mumbled.

"Oh come on, Barry, you had to know this would happen," Bob said as he helped Barry get to his feet.

"Yeah but not for, honestly, no, no, Didn't think about this'd happening," Barry admitted.

He sat down heavily behind his desk.

"God damn, I'm too old be a Daddy," he said. "I mean, damn it, Toni's already in college!"

"Tell your wife and her momma, they don't find what they looking for at Babbage's, I got this real nice nursery set," the customer said, dropping a card on Barry's desk. "Johnny Flowers; Flowers Ironworks. Ate lunch across the street, Side By Side? Y'all want you a good steak, that's the place, hear? Anyway, looked across the street seen this place and said I better come over see what y'all got."

"Well, real glad you did," Barry said, his salesmanship coming through his mental fog.

"Good people run that place," Johnny went on. "Seen the manager walking around, something needed getting done, he was on it, tell your waitress don't want no cucumbers in your salad, well there ain't no cucumbers in your salad, never did like the taste of them things, starts the minute you walk in, though. Hostess there is, well I tell you, I'd love have a sales staff half as sharp as she is."

"Liked it, huh?" Bob asked as he filled out the paperwork.

"Walking over there minute I finish here," Johnny promised. "And uh, hey, Daddy? Come on with me; I'll buy your lunch, hear?"

"Well uh, since Daddy owns it, that won't be necessary," Henry said.

"But you know what? Come on, let me buy you your lunch," Barry smiled.

"And your car will be ready to go when y'all get back," Bob promised.

A few blocks behind Superior Motors, Toni Smiled as Anita backed the Mustang into their garage.

"And what we doing here?" Toni husked, reaching over and cupping one of Anita's breasts as the garage door slid down.

"Changing clothes," Anita snapped, opening her door. "God damn, ran around all morning, ass all hanging out. I am not going to work like this."

"Oh, but you look so..." Toni whined, trying to squeeze a handful of Anita's rear end.

"Toni, quit," Anita said, entering the condo.

"Well, can we at least eat lunch first?" Toni asked.

"Yeah, tired of Clark's," Anita agreed.

"Okay, I want some of this," Toni again cupped Anita's rear end, then grabbed Anita's crotch. "And some of this. Oh, and maybe..."

Anita bit back a sigh of impatience. When Toni was in one of her moods, there was just no dissuading her.

And making love wasn't the worst way to spend the next thirty to forty five minutes.

"Want to call in sick today?" Toni whispered in Anita's ear as they slipped out of their clothes. "We can spend the whole day in bed."