Chapter 55: I'm a Member of What Club?

The next Friday our plan was to gather at the airport's charter terminal. Beatrice had decided that it would be easier and safer if we travelled together. Maurice, Liz, and Cassidy were travelling to the airport with us. We picked them up at the school right as our last period ended. Cassidy was quiet when she met the adults, but Maurice had a huge smile on his face as he jumped into the minivan that Lenore was driving.

Jason looked at him. "Jessica invited you and she's going to be riding in the SUV."

"I know, but if I follow her around like a puppy, she might start to think that I have no personality. You know how it is man. You don't want to crowd the girl out," Maurice said in a faked ghetto accent.

Lenore started giggling. She turned to look at Angelique who was riding quietly in her car seat directly behind her. "Now Angel, this is an example of trying too hard."

"Hey! I'm just a poor boy," Maurice called out.

Jason immediately sang out. "I need no sympathy."

I smiled and followed him. "Because I'm easy come, easy go."

Lenore and Ashley burst out laughing from the front. Maurice had a completely baffled expression on his face as Jason slid the door closed and we started moving.

"You aren't with your girl?" he asked Jason.

"Girls," Jason said. "One thing I need to request. Don't talk about who you see me with once we return to school. It might get people in trouble. My girls are riding in one of the other minivans. We are taking twenty-one people."

"I thought a luxury box can only have twenty occupants," Ashley said.

"Twenty adult occupants is the limit. We're going to smuggle little Angel in under a trench coat," I said with a smile as I reached out and tickled the little girl. Angelique squealed happily as the minivan began moving.

Maurice just shook his head. "I still can't believe you got a luxury box at the Super Bowl. My father is jealous."

"Morgan has some good contacts," I said quietly. "And it was just great timing. I understand that this became available after a business went bankrupt. Morgan managed to get a bid in and purchase it before people realized that the company that had it was no longer around."

"I thought bankruptcies took months to unwind," Maurice said.

"Probably, but this one went fast. And I'm not complaining. It will be something I can cross off my bucket list. After Sunday, I can say I've seen a Super Bowl live," I replied.

"That is something to look forward to," Maurice admitted as Lenore guided the minivan onto the freeway.

"Do we care who wins?" Lenore asked. "I can't even remember who's playing."

"Who's on first," I replied.

Jason reached forward and smacked me in the back of the head. "She's asking what teams are playing. I think its Seattle and Carolina."

Maurice laughed. "They play in the same conference. You play high school football; don't you watch the games on Sunday?"

"He watches Letty's breasts bounce up and down on Sunday," Ashley sang out.

I coughed to keep from laughing. "Sorry. We actually don't watch many games. Most of the time weekends are times to spend with everyone. I think its Carolina playing Cincinnati this year."

"And we are rooting for?" Lenore asked.

"The cheerleaders," Jason and I said simultaneously.

Lenore and Ashley laughed. I could feel Maurice shaking his head. "Man, that's just wrong. Are you not there to watch some good football?" Maurice asked.

Ashley's laugh turned into a very sexy giggle. "Oh, I'm there because my man will be there, and I want to be with him. He's not going to be on the field though."

"Who'd want to be," I said. "We knew that few football players had good scores, but now that they have announced the pickup rules, it seems that no team has anyone with a score above five point seven, and many players are under five. The play shows that too. There isn't a lot of discipline at this level."

"I could show them some discipline," Lenore said. "I've wondered how that would work. Leather corset, silk thong, leather knee high boots with tall stiletto heels, and a riding crop."

"In your dreams," I said with a laugh. "Maybe I should have you serve us during the game. Of course, I'd let you wear a maid's uniform. We wouldn't want your daughter to see too much."

Angelique was dozing beside me. She stirred a little, but remained asleep as the minivan continued moving down the freeway.

Maurice shifted in his seat. "I'm sorry if my question upset you," he muttered.

"It didn't. I think it just reminded us that the game isn't that important to us. Morgan just wound up with the opportunity to purchase the luxury box. I'm not sure how, but he picked it up and now we get to say that we've attended a game," Jason said.

"It was a law firm. I believe Morgan used them for some contract work. The partners had a reception right after Thanksgiving, and most of them were picked up. The remaining ones didn't want the box," Lenore said.

"What about rooms?" Jason asked.

"Hotel rooms?" Lenore responded. "Morgan managed to reserve eight for us. I guess there have been a lot of pickups that forced people to change their plans. I heard a rumor that the game might not have great attendance despite being sold out."

"Think we can sneak onto the field?" Maurice asked. "I'd love to see a game from the field."

"I don't think so. We don't have that good of access," I said. I was going to say more, but the minivan slowed down. I looked up and realized that we were leaving the freeway. The airport was right next to the freeway, so everyone began checking that they knew what to take when we parked.

Lenore followed the black SUV carrying Jessica, Matti, Milli and Kathy as it headed to the long term parking lot. As the SUV pulled into an empty area of the lot I noticed that we had two more vehicles following.

The SUV parked. Lenore chose to park so that there was an empty space next to the SUV. As I unbuckled my seat belt, another minivan parked two spaces down from us. I could see Beatrice driving that minivan.

Everyone in our minivan started getting out. I took a few minutes to unbuckle Angelique. Once she was free I looked at the car seat.

"We're renting one once we are there," Lenore said. "That will prevent us from having to deal with luggage fees for having it packed as cargo."

I picked Angelique up and carried her out of the minivan. She giggled happily as I joined the rest of the group.

Once outside I nodded to Liz and Cassidy. The duo were standing at the back of the other minivan and holding backpacks in front of their bodies. Cassidy appeared very uneasy.

I wanted to say more, but a woman in a blue business suit walked around the back of the minivan. She had her brunette hair in a severe bun and was frowning as she led two pre-teen children. The boy had a sour expression on his face, but the girl looked cute and tragic at the same time.

The woman marched up to me. "Who is in charge?" she demanded. "That Morgan man said that he wouldn't be responsible for these two."

I looked over at Lenore. She shrugged and then sighed. "I didn't hear of any problems when Beatrice set all this up."

Before I could answer Maurice ran over and smacked me in the back. "Dude! What is a teacher doing here?"

I glanced at him and noticed he was looking at the front of the minivan. I glanced over and could see Jason. He had Letty in his arms as the duo chatted with Jana. "Jana?" I asked carefully.

"Who's Jana? Isn't that the German teacher?" Maurice asked.

"She's with Jason," I said. "But don't spread that around school."

"Wait! Jason isn't just hot for teacher, but he's..." Maurice said.

The expression on the face of the woman in front of me soured more. I quickly held out my hand to shake. "Sorry. Mark Parker," I said in introduction.

"Nancy Taggert," the woman replied coldly. "This isn't what I was told it was going to be."

"It's a group of friends and family who happen to have a luxury box for the Super Bowl in two days. We had a couple of empty seats in the box and thought to invite two children from the long-term care section of the local children's hospital," I replied.

"I was told that you were a family. You can't convince me that Maurice or that pale girl is related to you," the woman said.

"Oh, that. Well, Maurice here was invited by Jessica. She's part of the group because my sister is stalking her," I began

"Stalking?" Maurice said.

"Later," I said in an aside. "The pale girl we invited because she needs to regain her confidence. She was betrayed by her father during a pickup and moved to our fair city afterwards to try to forget what had been done to her."

The stern faced lady remained impassive. "All fine and good then. But who will watch the children? I can't be expected to watch them constantly."

I looked over the woman's shoulder. Lenore and Ashley were talking to the young girl. They seemed to be having trouble getting her to smile, but I recognized the glint in Ashley's eye and figured she had found an angle to work. The boy had been grabbed by Kathy. He still had the sour expression on his face, but was tossing a football with Kathy as Morgan organized suitcases.

"I think both children have found someone who'll watch them," I said nodding toward the boy.

Nancy turned around and looked. She said nothing as she watched the boy launch a football over Kathy's head. Milli chased after it as it bounced on the pavement of the parking lot.

"Careful!" Jessica shouted. "There will be more cars soon. In fact, we need to get to the shuttle."

"Shuttle?" Nancy asked.

"Oh, we have a charter flight, so we have to catch a shuttle bus to the terminal," Bea said as she walked up. "Mark I see you've met Nancy."

"Yes," I said. "She was worried about who would watch the children. Can you tell me much about them?"

Bea shrugged as Morgan waved us to head towards him. He had an array of suitcases in front of him. "Grab a case and follow me. The shuttle is on its way," he said.

"Why not have the shuttle pick us up at the school?" Maurice wondered.

"Do you want Cunnie to know what you did this weekend?" I asked.

"Cunnie?" Nancy spat. "You should not use that kind of language while carrying a child!"

I looked over at Angelique. She was dozing with her head on my shoulder. "I don't think she heard," I said quietly. "So do you want to introduce the children who are joining us?"

Nancy looked like I had just asked her to eat a lemon. At that moment Ashley led the girl over to see me. "Mark, this is Erica. She's at the hospital for..."

Erica grabbed her shirt and pulled it up to her neck. Her chest was covered in burn scars. "I was caught in a fire," she said.

"I'm sorry," I said as I looked away from the scars. I could hear Maurice retching behind me as we kept walking.

"My father wanted out of the marriage and didn't want to pay child support or pay the mortgage if Mom won the house in the divorce. He tried to burn the house down with everyone in it. I survived ... barely," Erica said.

"Again, I'm sorry. Hopefully you'll have fun this weekend. Do you know the boy?" I asked.

"Thomas, never Tom," Erica said disdainfully. "He's suffering from leukemia. They stopped the chemo a while ago though, so his hair is growing back."

"I'm surprised he didn't go home to his family," I said.

"They are worried that the cancer will come back," Nancy said. "The doctors have been checking him regularly and it was easier to keep him at the hospital. He had a bone marrow transplant four months ago. If the cancer doesn't return for another eight months, he should fully recover."

We had carried our suitcases over to a series of benches. Jessica moved to sit down, but one of the airports shuttled drove up. The lighted information panel said "charter". As the doors opened Morgan walked to the bus.

"Everyone is here. Do we just bring the luggage on board?" Morgan asked the driver.

"How many?" the man asked.

"Seventeen adults, three children, one toddler," Morgan said. "Not that many suitcases though, this is a weekend trip."

"Everything should fit. Climb aboard," the driver said.

I handed Angelique to Lenore and started helping Morgan load the suitcases while everyone else boarded the shuttle. Jason joined in on loading everything, and just a minute later we were sitting down as the shuttle began circling the airport headed for the charter terminal.

"Where are you going?" the driver asked.

"My man here managed to obtain the tickets to one of the luxury boxes at the Super Bowl," Beatrice said as she put her arms around Morgan. Morgan just beamed as Becky added her own embrace.

"Damn man," the driver said. "Wish I could be that lucky."

Liz was sitting across from me. She watched Morgan just sit there smiling and then looked at me. "Is he?"

I nodded. "Morgan has a six point six if I remember correctly. Bea and Becky have decided to be his."

"I thought that only mattered after you were picked up," Nancy said with a sniff.

"True," Bea said dreamily. "But there are no rules that say he can't decide ahead of time that he wants to take me with him. It just means that should he stumble on a pickup, I need to be near him."