FOTD, Vinegar 3: Mother's Day
Title: Mother's Day
Main Story: In the Heart
Flavors, Toppings, Extras: FOTD (materfamilias: the mother of a family.) vinegar 3 (keep out of eyes), malt (1306's Thanksgiving milkshake 22. keepsake).
Word Count: 2612
Rating: PG.
Summary: Not all children are yours by birth, or, the best Mother's Day present Gail ever got.
Notes: More happy.
It was a little embarrassing to admit, but Gail had totally forgotten about Mother's Day until she shuffled from her bedroom to find breakfast ready, bacon, eggs, toast and tea spread out on the table, and her family seated neatly around it, in attitudes of varying patience. Her entire family, which, since Aaron no longer lived at home and Ivy was supposed to be at college in Ithaca, was quite a surprise. She stopped mid-yawn and stared at them, blinking in surprise.
"Mom," Ivy said, reproachfully, from her seat by her brother. "We've been ready for hours."
Aaron reached over and tugged gently on one of her braids. "Try minutes, pipsqueak. Also, happy Mother's Day, Gail!"
Ivy rolled her eyes but, perhaps because it was Mother's Day, did not retaliate. Gail heaved an inner sigh of relief and turned her head to accept Nathan's kiss. "Happy Mother's Day, love," he said, and gestured to the open seat at the head of the table, one hand sliding to the small of her back. "Go ahead."
She smiled up at him, then went yawning to her seat, stooping to kiss the top of Summer's head on the way, and sat down. "Thank you, darlings," she said. "This looks wonderful."
"It's not all," Ivy said, but she was immediately shushed by everyone else, including Summer. Gail arched an eyebrow, and looked at her husband as the most likely person to cave.
"Oh, no," he said, correctly interpreting her look. "Eat your breakfast and then you can see your surprise."
"As if this wasn't enough of one," she muttered, glancing at Ivy and Aaron, out of bed and over at what was surely an uncomfortably early hour after Saturday night partying. In fact... she paused, hand hovering over her fork. What was Aaron doing here? She was not his only mother, after all. "I didn't expect all of you."
Ivy, eyes locked on her fork, shrugged. "Took the late train last night. Aaron picked me up and I crashed at his place. Are you gonna eat that?"
"Ivy," Nathan said, without looking up.
She rolled her eyes again and sat back, but did not take her eyes off Gail's fork.
Gail picked it up, then decided it would be more fun to torture her daughter for a little bit and put it down again. "And you, Aaron?"
"Mom's in Senegal," he said. "Ben's doing some kind of Doctors Without Borders or Peace Corps thing, I don't know which, anyway, she went with him. I called when I got up."
"It was stupid early," Ivy added, plaintively. "And he woke me up. And then we didn't eat anything because we were going to have breakfast here. Except then you woke up late."
Gail considered asking what planet Ivy came from that nine-thirty was considered late, but Nathan looked up and narrowed his eyes. "Ivy Sophia. Stop badgering your mother."
She snorted, and looked unrepentant. "I'm a grownup now. You can't tell me what to do."
"I am paying half your college tuition," he said. "Think again."
Ivy grinned at him, then looked back at Gail and gave her a sorrowful, big-eyed look of woe, only slightly spoiled by the dimple that kept appearing in her cheek. "Beautiful, wonderful, kindest of mothers, I'm starving and thin and hungry?"
"Sure you are," Gail said, but had mercy on her and started on her eggs. They were delicious, light and fluffy, and she closed her eyes to better savor them.
"Do you like them?" Summer asked, and she opened her eyes again to find her youngest regarding her anxiously.
"They're wonderful," she said.
Summer relaxed. "Good," she said. "I made them by myself. I wasn't sure I got the recipe right."
Ivy, who had taken Gail's movements as permission to start eating, added around a mouthful of bacon, "She did too. Wouldn't even let me hold the pan for her."
"Of course not," Summer said, sounding confused. "I wanted to make them by myself."
"You did a very good job," Gail said, and loaded up another forkful. "This is all wonderful. Thank you."
Summer beamed, got out of her chair, and trotted around the table to give Gail one of her rare spontaneous hugs. "I love you, Mama."
Touched, she hugged Summer's thin shoulders. "I love you too, sweetheart."
"We've got presents too," Ivy said. "But that's not the surprise either."
Nathan sighed, put his fork down, and covered his face with his hands. "Ivy," he said, behind them, "it isn't a surprise if you keep hinting at it."
"It's a better surprise that way!" she objected. "Then you can anticipate properly. Right, Mom?"
Gail grinned, and turned her attention to her plate to hide it. "All I want for Mother's Day is for you to leave me out of your arguments with your father."
"Granted!" Ivy said, cheerfully, then turned to Nathan. "You know that means she thinks I'm right and doesn't want to make you mad, right?"
"Keep telling yourself that, insolent child." Nathan went back to his breakfast.
"See what you get for Father's Day this year," Ivy said. "Coal. That's what I'm gonna get you."
He snorted again. "Do you hear that? That's half your tuition flying out the window."
"Did I say coal?" she asked. "I mean I'm going to get you the most expensive thing I can afford, oh beloved father."
Nathan assumed a considering attitude, then nodded. "Much better."
Gail covered a fit of giggles in her napkin.
The rest of breakfast was just as delicious as Summer's eggs, and Gail had hardly finished when Aaron and Ivy whisked the plates away from the table and, with much elbowing and good-natured joshing, cleaned everything up and put the leftovers away. At some invisible signal, Summer slipped off her chair and went into the living room, and came back with a large bag full of presents, which she placed solemnly in front of Gail.
It was remarkable how efficient one's children could become when currying favor, really.
"What on earth is this?" she asked, picking up a package shaped like a T.
Ivy grinned, smugly. "Open it and find out," she suggested. "That's from me, by the way."
Gail did so, and laughed when the wrapping paper tore apart to reveal a gavel. "Excellent," she said, lifting it in the air. "Something to whack interns with."
"Jake made me promise to make you promise not to use it on him," Ivy said. "I told him he was being a drama queen."
"He is being a drama queen," Gail said. "I'd never whack him. Far too efficient. Besides, he isn't an intern."
For some reason, that only made Ivy's smile get even smugger. "Be sure to tell him that yourself," she said.
Summer's present was a beautiful little crystal paperweight, with glittering sparkles inside that moved and twisted as the paperweight moved. "I thought it was pretty," she said, shyly.
"It's gorgeous," Gail said. "I'll put it on my desk at work."
"Speaking of," Aaron said, and shoved his gift forward, a desk set she'd been coveting. He must have asked Nathan about that one. Not that she minded; it was a really nice desk set. In fact, she'd expected her husband to give her that one himself.
What he'd actually given her turned out to be a card with theater tickets inside and a message so explicit she felt her ears burn. She shut it hastily, vowed to make him suffer for giving her that in front of their children, and said, "I intend to hold you to that."
Nathan, looking just as smug as Ivy had, leaned back in his chair and linked his hands behind his head. "I very much hope that you do."
Aaron snickered. Ivy looked torn between amusement and horror. Summer, on the other hand, just looked confused. "What?" she asked, looking back and forth at everyone's faces. "What is it?"
"Daddy gave me theater tickets, love, that's all." Oh, yes. Nathan was going to suffer.
Just then the doorbell rang, and Ivy hopped up, exclaiming, "About time!" She went to the door, opened it, and said, "You're late."
"You don't have to tell me that," said the visitor, and to Gail's vast surprise Jacob Foster walked in. He ran a hand through his disordered hair and told Ivy, "I had to call my foster mother. She wanted to talk this year so it went a little longer than I was expecting."
Ivy folded her arms, obviously not prepared to accept this. "You were supposed to be here half an hour ago."
"Yes, well," Jake said, "it went a lot longer than I was expecting. Anyway." He gave Gail a shy smile. "I hope you don't mind, Ms. Hirschfeld. You're the closest thing I've had to a mother recently, and I... well, this was all really Ivy's idea."
"You did the legwork," Ivy pointed out.
He shrugged it off. "I'm the only one with access to the records."
"I helped set up!" Summer said, practically bouncing off her chair.
"I got the camera," Aaron volunteered.
Nathan shrugged. "I gave them the place to film, while we're bragging. Are you four going to show her or talk about it all day?"
"Film?" Gail asked, faintly.
Summer got up and seized her hands, tugging gently. "Come and see, Mama," she said. "It's wonderful."
She had no idea what they'd done, and was frankly a little afraid to find out, but she got up and followed Summer into the living room.
Ivy disappeared for a moment, then reappeared with a laptop bag slung over her shoulder and the computer itself in her arms. "We couldn't get it to transfer to DVD," she explained, kneeling at the coffee table to set it up. "So Jake just put it on a flash drive, which I devoutly hope he has."
"Do I look stupid?" Jake asked, and then immediately proved that he wasn't by adding, "Don't answer that. It's right here." He produced a flash drive from his pocket and handed it over.
Ivy plugged it in, did a little fussing while Aaron hung over her shoulder and offered advice, then finally turned the computer around to face Gail. "Here we go," she said, and hit the spacebar with a flourish.
The video opened with a wobbly view of Jake's face. "Is it working?" he asked, the traditional beginning of any home-filmed video.
"Got it," Aaron said, from behind the camera, apparently. "Go ahead."
"Why didn't you edit that out?" Ivy hissed to Jake.
He replied something in an irritated tone, but Gail was not listening, because the Jake on the computer had started to talk.
"Ms. Hirschfeld, over the past year or so you've been way more than a boss to me. You've been a second mother, or a third, I guess, I don't know, anyway, definitely a lot more than I had any idea you'd be when you first hired me. So for Mother's Day, we had this idea."
The camera panned over to a blonde girl, sixteen or so, grinning wildly at the camera. "Hi, Ms. Hirschfeld!" she said, the corners of her eyes crinkling. "You probably don't remember me. It's been like ten years. But I wanted to say that you made me into a civilized human being instead of the total little monster I was, so, thanks!"
Jake reappeared. "Say who you are," he said, and ducked back out of frame.
"Oh, right," the blonde girl said, but Gail had already recognized her. Katherine Carlsson had been one of her more troublesome students, but absolutely one of the more rewarding, the more so for being in her last class. The turnaround she'd made in a year had been incredible to see, and Katherine's parents had credited it all to her. So had Katherine, apparently, grinning and waving at the camera.
Gail put her hand over her mouth.
"Move over," a bass voice rumbled, and a young man bent down to stick his face right up in the camera. He looked about twenty; she remembered him as a five-year-old, with that same incredible grin flashing out of his face. "Hi, Ms. Hirschfeld!" he beamed. "Tyler Jackson. Remember me? I used to pretend I'd done my math homework when I hadn't? Anyway, you were one of the most awesome teachers I'd ever had. You set the bar really high, and I was so glad when I heard you went into politics 'cause it meant more teachers like you would get hired. You rock!"
The camera panned again; a slender woman of about thirty, her dark hair twisted out of her face, smiled at it. "Hi, Ms. Hirschfeld," she said. "It's Emily Zhou. I was in your very first class ever, way back when, so I wouldn't be surprised if you don't remember me, but I remember you. You were so awesome. I could tell, I guess in hindsight, that you were kind of nervous, but at the time you never seemed anything but in control and calm, no matter what we did." She laughed. "I promised myself I'd be like that. I like to think I am. I hope I'm half as awesome as you."
"Hang on a second," Tyler objected, off-camera, and his face reappeared with that beaming smile. "Ms. Hirschfeld! I forgot, I got into Phi Beta Kappa. That's totally your fault. You made learning seem worthwhile, you know?"
"Oh, totally," Katherine said, and jumped in between Emily and Tyler. "I was the most horrendous brat you can imagine but Ms. Hirschfeld made me want to be better to impress her." She grinned at the camera. "You were really hard to impress, so I felt like I'd earned it when I did."
"Exactly," Emily said. "So, I think we were the only three Jake could find, but there's a lot more people out there who had the honor of being your students, and I know they feel exactly as we do."
"They better," Katherine said, making a pretty good menacing face and smacking a fist into her palm.
"Yeah," Tyler said. "There's this thing they say about teachers, something about standing in loco parentis, so Mother's Day seemed appropriate to say this on. I don't know. I hope you're actually hearing this on Mother's Day or else I'm gonna feel like an idiot. Anyway, we speak for all your students ever. You're awesome, and you were a fantastic teacher, and you're a fantastic politician, and we know you're just as fantastic a mother."
The camera whirled dizzily for a moment and then focused on Aaron's face, very solemn. "I told them so," he said, and then it whirled back to the students.
"Scene-stealer," Tyler said.
"Anyway," Emily said, quellingly. "You're amazing. Thank you so much for being our teacher, and happy Mother's Day!"
"Happy Mother's Day!" Katherine piped over Tyler's bass rumbling. Jake stuck his head into the frame and added, "Happy Mother's Day!"
It froze on his face, the movie evidently over, leaving Gail sitting on the couch, stunned beyond words and blinking back tears.
"Mama?" Summer asked, her voice gone anxious again.
"Sorry," Gail said, voice strangled around the lump in her throat. "Sorry, I'm just..." She lost the battle and began to cry. "Oh my God."
"It's all right, Summer," she heard Nathan saying. "Mama's just happy."
"Yes," she said, through tears. "So happy. Oh my God, that was incredible. Thank you all, so much."
"We tried," Jake said, softly.
She got up, went on tiptoes, and kissed his forehead. "You are like a son to me, you know," she said, and hugged him. He held on a little tighter than she'd expected, but that was all right by her.
"Thank you," he said, finally, and let go. "Happy Mother's Day."
Main Story: In the Heart
Flavors, Toppings, Extras: FOTD (materfamilias: the mother of a family.) vinegar 3 (keep out of eyes), malt (1306's Thanksgiving milkshake 22. keepsake).
Word Count: 2612
Rating: PG.
Summary: Not all children are yours by birth, or, the best Mother's Day present Gail ever got.
Notes: More happy.
It was a little embarrassing to admit, but Gail had totally forgotten about Mother's Day until she shuffled from her bedroom to find breakfast ready, bacon, eggs, toast and tea spread out on the table, and her family seated neatly around it, in attitudes of varying patience. Her entire family, which, since Aaron no longer lived at home and Ivy was supposed to be at college in Ithaca, was quite a surprise. She stopped mid-yawn and stared at them, blinking in surprise.
"Mom," Ivy said, reproachfully, from her seat by her brother. "We've been ready for hours."
Aaron reached over and tugged gently on one of her braids. "Try minutes, pipsqueak. Also, happy Mother's Day, Gail!"
Ivy rolled her eyes but, perhaps because it was Mother's Day, did not retaliate. Gail heaved an inner sigh of relief and turned her head to accept Nathan's kiss. "Happy Mother's Day, love," he said, and gestured to the open seat at the head of the table, one hand sliding to the small of her back. "Go ahead."
She smiled up at him, then went yawning to her seat, stooping to kiss the top of Summer's head on the way, and sat down. "Thank you, darlings," she said. "This looks wonderful."
"It's not all," Ivy said, but she was immediately shushed by everyone else, including Summer. Gail arched an eyebrow, and looked at her husband as the most likely person to cave.
"Oh, no," he said, correctly interpreting her look. "Eat your breakfast and then you can see your surprise."
"As if this wasn't enough of one," she muttered, glancing at Ivy and Aaron, out of bed and over at what was surely an uncomfortably early hour after Saturday night partying. In fact... she paused, hand hovering over her fork. What was Aaron doing here? She was not his only mother, after all. "I didn't expect all of you."
Ivy, eyes locked on her fork, shrugged. "Took the late train last night. Aaron picked me up and I crashed at his place. Are you gonna eat that?"
"Ivy," Nathan said, without looking up.
She rolled her eyes again and sat back, but did not take her eyes off Gail's fork.
Gail picked it up, then decided it would be more fun to torture her daughter for a little bit and put it down again. "And you, Aaron?"
"Mom's in Senegal," he said. "Ben's doing some kind of Doctors Without Borders or Peace Corps thing, I don't know which, anyway, she went with him. I called when I got up."
"It was stupid early," Ivy added, plaintively. "And he woke me up. And then we didn't eat anything because we were going to have breakfast here. Except then you woke up late."
Gail considered asking what planet Ivy came from that nine-thirty was considered late, but Nathan looked up and narrowed his eyes. "Ivy Sophia. Stop badgering your mother."
She snorted, and looked unrepentant. "I'm a grownup now. You can't tell me what to do."
"I am paying half your college tuition," he said. "Think again."
Ivy grinned at him, then looked back at Gail and gave her a sorrowful, big-eyed look of woe, only slightly spoiled by the dimple that kept appearing in her cheek. "Beautiful, wonderful, kindest of mothers, I'm starving and thin and hungry?"
"Sure you are," Gail said, but had mercy on her and started on her eggs. They were delicious, light and fluffy, and she closed her eyes to better savor them.
"Do you like them?" Summer asked, and she opened her eyes again to find her youngest regarding her anxiously.
"They're wonderful," she said.
Summer relaxed. "Good," she said. "I made them by myself. I wasn't sure I got the recipe right."
Ivy, who had taken Gail's movements as permission to start eating, added around a mouthful of bacon, "She did too. Wouldn't even let me hold the pan for her."
"Of course not," Summer said, sounding confused. "I wanted to make them by myself."
"You did a very good job," Gail said, and loaded up another forkful. "This is all wonderful. Thank you."
Summer beamed, got out of her chair, and trotted around the table to give Gail one of her rare spontaneous hugs. "I love you, Mama."
Touched, she hugged Summer's thin shoulders. "I love you too, sweetheart."
"We've got presents too," Ivy said. "But that's not the surprise either."
Nathan sighed, put his fork down, and covered his face with his hands. "Ivy," he said, behind them, "it isn't a surprise if you keep hinting at it."
"It's a better surprise that way!" she objected. "Then you can anticipate properly. Right, Mom?"
Gail grinned, and turned her attention to her plate to hide it. "All I want for Mother's Day is for you to leave me out of your arguments with your father."
"Granted!" Ivy said, cheerfully, then turned to Nathan. "You know that means she thinks I'm right and doesn't want to make you mad, right?"
"Keep telling yourself that, insolent child." Nathan went back to his breakfast.
"See what you get for Father's Day this year," Ivy said. "Coal. That's what I'm gonna get you."
He snorted again. "Do you hear that? That's half your tuition flying out the window."
"Did I say coal?" she asked. "I mean I'm going to get you the most expensive thing I can afford, oh beloved father."
Nathan assumed a considering attitude, then nodded. "Much better."
Gail covered a fit of giggles in her napkin.
The rest of breakfast was just as delicious as Summer's eggs, and Gail had hardly finished when Aaron and Ivy whisked the plates away from the table and, with much elbowing and good-natured joshing, cleaned everything up and put the leftovers away. At some invisible signal, Summer slipped off her chair and went into the living room, and came back with a large bag full of presents, which she placed solemnly in front of Gail.
It was remarkable how efficient one's children could become when currying favor, really.
"What on earth is this?" she asked, picking up a package shaped like a T.
Ivy grinned, smugly. "Open it and find out," she suggested. "That's from me, by the way."
Gail did so, and laughed when the wrapping paper tore apart to reveal a gavel. "Excellent," she said, lifting it in the air. "Something to whack interns with."
"Jake made me promise to make you promise not to use it on him," Ivy said. "I told him he was being a drama queen."
"He is being a drama queen," Gail said. "I'd never whack him. Far too efficient. Besides, he isn't an intern."
For some reason, that only made Ivy's smile get even smugger. "Be sure to tell him that yourself," she said.
Summer's present was a beautiful little crystal paperweight, with glittering sparkles inside that moved and twisted as the paperweight moved. "I thought it was pretty," she said, shyly.
"It's gorgeous," Gail said. "I'll put it on my desk at work."
"Speaking of," Aaron said, and shoved his gift forward, a desk set she'd been coveting. He must have asked Nathan about that one. Not that she minded; it was a really nice desk set. In fact, she'd expected her husband to give her that one himself.
What he'd actually given her turned out to be a card with theater tickets inside and a message so explicit she felt her ears burn. She shut it hastily, vowed to make him suffer for giving her that in front of their children, and said, "I intend to hold you to that."
Nathan, looking just as smug as Ivy had, leaned back in his chair and linked his hands behind his head. "I very much hope that you do."
Aaron snickered. Ivy looked torn between amusement and horror. Summer, on the other hand, just looked confused. "What?" she asked, looking back and forth at everyone's faces. "What is it?"
"Daddy gave me theater tickets, love, that's all." Oh, yes. Nathan was going to suffer.
Just then the doorbell rang, and Ivy hopped up, exclaiming, "About time!" She went to the door, opened it, and said, "You're late."
"You don't have to tell me that," said the visitor, and to Gail's vast surprise Jacob Foster walked in. He ran a hand through his disordered hair and told Ivy, "I had to call my foster mother. She wanted to talk this year so it went a little longer than I was expecting."
Ivy folded her arms, obviously not prepared to accept this. "You were supposed to be here half an hour ago."
"Yes, well," Jake said, "it went a lot longer than I was expecting. Anyway." He gave Gail a shy smile. "I hope you don't mind, Ms. Hirschfeld. You're the closest thing I've had to a mother recently, and I... well, this was all really Ivy's idea."
"You did the legwork," Ivy pointed out.
He shrugged it off. "I'm the only one with access to the records."
"I helped set up!" Summer said, practically bouncing off her chair.
"I got the camera," Aaron volunteered.
Nathan shrugged. "I gave them the place to film, while we're bragging. Are you four going to show her or talk about it all day?"
"Film?" Gail asked, faintly.
Summer got up and seized her hands, tugging gently. "Come and see, Mama," she said. "It's wonderful."
She had no idea what they'd done, and was frankly a little afraid to find out, but she got up and followed Summer into the living room.
Ivy disappeared for a moment, then reappeared with a laptop bag slung over her shoulder and the computer itself in her arms. "We couldn't get it to transfer to DVD," she explained, kneeling at the coffee table to set it up. "So Jake just put it on a flash drive, which I devoutly hope he has."
"Do I look stupid?" Jake asked, and then immediately proved that he wasn't by adding, "Don't answer that. It's right here." He produced a flash drive from his pocket and handed it over.
Ivy plugged it in, did a little fussing while Aaron hung over her shoulder and offered advice, then finally turned the computer around to face Gail. "Here we go," she said, and hit the spacebar with a flourish.
The video opened with a wobbly view of Jake's face. "Is it working?" he asked, the traditional beginning of any home-filmed video.
"Got it," Aaron said, from behind the camera, apparently. "Go ahead."
"Why didn't you edit that out?" Ivy hissed to Jake.
He replied something in an irritated tone, but Gail was not listening, because the Jake on the computer had started to talk.
"Ms. Hirschfeld, over the past year or so you've been way more than a boss to me. You've been a second mother, or a third, I guess, I don't know, anyway, definitely a lot more than I had any idea you'd be when you first hired me. So for Mother's Day, we had this idea."
The camera panned over to a blonde girl, sixteen or so, grinning wildly at the camera. "Hi, Ms. Hirschfeld!" she said, the corners of her eyes crinkling. "You probably don't remember me. It's been like ten years. But I wanted to say that you made me into a civilized human being instead of the total little monster I was, so, thanks!"
Jake reappeared. "Say who you are," he said, and ducked back out of frame.
"Oh, right," the blonde girl said, but Gail had already recognized her. Katherine Carlsson had been one of her more troublesome students, but absolutely one of the more rewarding, the more so for being in her last class. The turnaround she'd made in a year had been incredible to see, and Katherine's parents had credited it all to her. So had Katherine, apparently, grinning and waving at the camera.
Gail put her hand over her mouth.
"Move over," a bass voice rumbled, and a young man bent down to stick his face right up in the camera. He looked about twenty; she remembered him as a five-year-old, with that same incredible grin flashing out of his face. "Hi, Ms. Hirschfeld!" he beamed. "Tyler Jackson. Remember me? I used to pretend I'd done my math homework when I hadn't? Anyway, you were one of the most awesome teachers I'd ever had. You set the bar really high, and I was so glad when I heard you went into politics 'cause it meant more teachers like you would get hired. You rock!"
The camera panned again; a slender woman of about thirty, her dark hair twisted out of her face, smiled at it. "Hi, Ms. Hirschfeld," she said. "It's Emily Zhou. I was in your very first class ever, way back when, so I wouldn't be surprised if you don't remember me, but I remember you. You were so awesome. I could tell, I guess in hindsight, that you were kind of nervous, but at the time you never seemed anything but in control and calm, no matter what we did." She laughed. "I promised myself I'd be like that. I like to think I am. I hope I'm half as awesome as you."
"Hang on a second," Tyler objected, off-camera, and his face reappeared with that beaming smile. "Ms. Hirschfeld! I forgot, I got into Phi Beta Kappa. That's totally your fault. You made learning seem worthwhile, you know?"
"Oh, totally," Katherine said, and jumped in between Emily and Tyler. "I was the most horrendous brat you can imagine but Ms. Hirschfeld made me want to be better to impress her." She grinned at the camera. "You were really hard to impress, so I felt like I'd earned it when I did."
"Exactly," Emily said. "So, I think we were the only three Jake could find, but there's a lot more people out there who had the honor of being your students, and I know they feel exactly as we do."
"They better," Katherine said, making a pretty good menacing face and smacking a fist into her palm.
"Yeah," Tyler said. "There's this thing they say about teachers, something about standing in loco parentis, so Mother's Day seemed appropriate to say this on. I don't know. I hope you're actually hearing this on Mother's Day or else I'm gonna feel like an idiot. Anyway, we speak for all your students ever. You're awesome, and you were a fantastic teacher, and you're a fantastic politician, and we know you're just as fantastic a mother."
The camera whirled dizzily for a moment and then focused on Aaron's face, very solemn. "I told them so," he said, and then it whirled back to the students.
"Scene-stealer," Tyler said.
"Anyway," Emily said, quellingly. "You're amazing. Thank you so much for being our teacher, and happy Mother's Day!"
"Happy Mother's Day!" Katherine piped over Tyler's bass rumbling. Jake stuck his head into the frame and added, "Happy Mother's Day!"
It froze on his face, the movie evidently over, leaving Gail sitting on the couch, stunned beyond words and blinking back tears.
"Mama?" Summer asked, her voice gone anxious again.
"Sorry," Gail said, voice strangled around the lump in her throat. "Sorry, I'm just..." She lost the battle and began to cry. "Oh my God."
"It's all right, Summer," she heard Nathan saying. "Mama's just happy."
"Yes," she said, through tears. "So happy. Oh my God, that was incredible. Thank you all, so much."
"We tried," Jake said, softly.
She got up, went on tiptoes, and kissed his forehead. "You are like a son to me, you know," she said, and hugged him. He held on a little tighter than she'd expected, but that was all right by her.
"Thank you," he said, finally, and let go. "Happy Mother's Day."