FIC: pg, Melt
Title: Melt 1/1
Rating: PG
Character/Pairing: Kirk/McCoy, Joanna
Wordcount: approx 3,000 words complete
Summary: Jim and Bones go and see Joanna’s Christmas pageant. They’re called into the Principal’s office beforehand.
Warnings: schmoop, cute kids, more schmoop and some fluff. (Is there a difference between schmoop and fluff?)
Disclaimer: I mean no offence and court no profits, these boys belong to others more talented and deserving, I merely borrow them, play a while then return them all cleaned up and smiley.
Author’s notes: I apologise for the lack of porn. I had to get this fic out of my system. And it’s dedicated to all the teachers out there - imagine what it would be like to have Jim and Bones sitting in the front row at the school Christmas pageant?
Thanks to abigail89 for beta’ing - hope your teeth are ok! For space_wrapped
Intriguing snippet: “My daddy says hobgoblin too, so it can’t be a bad word because he never says bad words,” Jo-Jo huffed, folding her arms. Her legs swung several centimetres from the ground. She didn’t have shoes on, just her socks and the rest of her costume. This was bad timing. She’d been all happy and the grown-ups had spoiled everything again.
Melt Also posted on Archive of Our Own and The Kirk/McCoy Archive
Melt
1. detention
Jo-Jo was having a Bad Day. There had been a lot of those lately with Mommy crying, Daddy being so far away and then losing Tigger.
At least Mommy had stopped crying so much since she made a new best friend who had a beard which smelled of cigarettes and who didn’t seem to know how to talk to Jo-Jo without sounding like one of those idiot kids’ TV presenters.
And the best thing was that Jo-Jo had seen Daddy again for the first time since she’d been a little girl, and she’d met Uncle Jim!
She’d given up on Tigger.
But today was a Bad Day because Jo-Jo was in Trouble.
She’d tried to tell Daddy that he shouldn’t phone the school to find out how she was doing. She was doing just fine. Why couldn’t he just believe her?
Jo-Jo thought back to how she’d been playing chess with Uncle Jim in their hotel while Daddy spoke with The Principal on the vid phone, only he wasn’t speaking much other than, “Uh-hum…yes…I see.”
And here they were, the next day, right before The Snowflake pageant, in The Principal’s office. Daddy sat in one chair, Uncle Jim to one side and Jo-Jo on the other. Mrs O’Brien didn’t have a desk - later Daddy said it was ‘cause she was pretending to be all eagle-tarian or something.
Thing is, it wasn’t Jo-Jo’s fault - it was just that some kids were so damn stupid and they thought they knew everything and they didn’t believe her when she said her daddy lived on a starship. Then they hid things that belonged to her.
~~~~~
“We do not tolerate language like that, Joanna McCoy,” Miss Carr, her homeroom teacher had said. She hadn’t sounded cross, not like Mommy did right before she started crying, but Jo-Jo could tell Miss Carr was by how she took a deep breath before she spoke and how her eye twitched. Her daddy used to talk to her about Mr Spock, the Vulcan on the Enterprise. Maybe Miss Carr was a Vulcan, only she didn’t have pointy ears. Before Daddy came back, Jo-Jo liked to watch his video-messages over and over, sometimes before she went to sleep.
“I called Spock a hobgoblin, Jo-Jo,” Daddy said once, and his face came closer to the screen and his voice got like when he told her a secret so she had to lean close too, “but don’t tell the captain or he’ll put me in the brig!” He laughed really loud after that. The brig was like where the old kids in big school had detention. Her daddy’s laugh made her go all warm inside like hot milk and then she was giggling too and chanting, “Hobgoblin, hob-goblin!”
“Shush, Jo-Jo, or you’ll get my ass whooped!” And his eyes were all crinkly and dark.
~~~~~
She could feel three pairs of eyes on her in The Principal’s office.
“My daddy says hobgoblin too, so it can’t be a bad word because he never says bad words,” Jo-Jo huffed, folding her arms. Her legs swung several centimetres from the ground. She didn’t have shoes on, just her socks and the rest of her costume. This was bad timing. She’d been all happy and the grown-ups had spoiled everything again.
Jo-Jo raised her eyebrow and looked across at Mrs O’Brien who was smiling but she didn’t look happy. Another Vulcan. Jo-Jo hadn’t been into the Principal’s office before. There were some nice paintings on the wall; one was of a lizard and it was from Australia. Jo-Jo looked at the way its toes were all spread out and tried to do it with hers inside her socks.
“Doctor McCoy?” Mrs O’Brien said.
“Jo-Jo?” Daddy said, “I think you should say you’re sorry to Mrs O’Brien.”
“But I didn’t do anything. Saleem is so annoying. He said he knew where Tigger was and that he would never, ever tell me. “ Jo-Jo could feel her eyes get all hot and wet. She clenched her hands and swung her legs some more.
“Jo-Jo,” Uncle Jim said, and she looked at him. He had very bright eyes, like blueberry jelly beans. “Have you tried making friends with Saleem? Sometimes boys are rude to girls when they want to be friends, you know?”
Why did everyone think one thing and act a different way?
“He’s an asshole, Uncle Jim. I don’t want to be his friend.”
Uncle Jim looked like he was about to burst out laughing, and then Daddy kicked his foot.
“Joanna McCoy, you apologise this instant for cussing in front of The Principal. I’m sorry, Ma’am.” Daddy’s voice went all warm again, and he stood up and bowed a little like a fairy tale prince. Uncle Jim looked up at him then leaned across and took Jo-Jo’s hand,
“Come on, honey, you know that’ll make you feel good. And we’ll see about taking Saleem out for a milkshake or something to help you two get along. Perhaps he’ll find Tigger, meantime?”
Jo-Jo nodded. She wriggled forward in the chair and reached one toe to the floor then the other. She took a deep breath like she did when she was going to jump from somewhere high up and braced herself:
“I’m weally sorry, Mrs O’Brien, I promise to talk like a lady and be more polite in future. I do.” She curtsied and looked over her shoulder at Daddy who arched his eyebrow at her, and nodded.
“I accept your apology, Joanna, and I hope we never have to talk like this again. Now, perhaps you can leave me to talk to your daddy alone and you can step outside with Mr Kirk.”
“He’s a captain, not a mister, aren’t you, Uncle Jim?”
Uncle Jim showed her all his bright white teeth and took her hand, “Yes, I am, Jo-Jo.” And he said to the others, “We’ll be right outside.“
“And he’s famous!” She called over his shoulder as Mrs O’Brien closed the door on them.
Uncle Jim was warm and his arms were very strong, just like Daddy’s. He smelled all clean like trees did. She looked at the side of his face as he leaned against the wall and held her. He had sprinkly, beard dots all over his chin and he had pink lips like this rabbit she’d held on the school farm.
“Do you like rabbits, Uncle Jim?” she said.
“I like the ones with big floppy ears a whole lot.”
She’d never seen the school corridor from this height before and she prayed one of her classmates would walk past and see her. She wrapped her hands around Uncle Jim’s neck and touched his hair near his ears. It was sticky from some glue or something he’d put in it to make it stand up. Daddy was being a very long time.
“Jo-Jo, I’m going to have to set you down - you’re kinda heavy.”
“Do you know what I'm supposed to be, Uncle Jim? You can guess, if you like.”
Uncle Jim rested her gently on the floor and looked her up and down. “Let me see…white knee length socks, so you must be a character who could get cold…umm…big white t-shirt with big buttons down the front- are they real buttons, Jo-Jo?”
Jo-Jo giggled. “Don’t be silly! Mommy drew them on with a marker pen. Did you see they had smiley faces too?” She spread her knee length t-shirt out so he could see better. Mommy had bought it from a grown-up shop especially for the pageant.
“I did notice that. Was it Mommy’s idea?”
“No, it was Miss Carr’s idea. She’s my homeroom teacher. You still haven’t guessed!” Uncle Jim crouched down next to her and cocked his head to the side. He chewed his lip.
“You’re wearing a big warm scarf with bobbles…Are you a snow queen?”
“Silly, snow queens don’t get cold and they don’t need scarves. Have another guess, I don’t mind!”
“One more guess?”
“You can have three,” she said, “and you’ve used one up already.”
Uncle Jim put his hand on his chin and looked up at her paper crown. “Are you a princess?”
“Princesses have dresses and shoes!”
“One more?”
Jo-Jo nodded.
Uncle Jim scrunched up his eyes, he pulled at his bottom lip with his finger and thumb and stood up so she had to tilt her head up to see him, “I’ve got it!”
“Don’t say a polar bear ‘cause that would be lame and they’re extinct anyway.”
“A snowman!”
Jo-Jo threw herself against his legs and hugged him, “Daddy says you’re a young upstart but I’m going to tell him how clever you are then he won’t say it anymore!”
Uncle Jim laughed and tapped the end of her nose. “You need an orange nose, you know, like a carrot?”
“That would be silly, Uncle Jim.”
“There’s nothing I don’t know about snowmen, Jo-Jo. In Iowa we have snow every winter. Why is your play about snowmen when it’s warm enough to wear t-shirts outside?”
Jo-Jo beckoned him down so she could whisper in his ear. “I tried to tell Miss Carr. I said it would no more likely snow in Georgia than pigs might fly, and that it was a damned fool idea, but she wouldn’t listen. No one ever listens to me, Uncle Jim. Did that ever happen to you at school?”
“Sometimes. Maybe they just aren’t ready for your ideas yet. It’s always the way with smart kids. ”
“Like Einstein!”
Uncle Jim laughed. “Just like!”
The door opened and Daddy came out. He rolled his eyes.
“Did you get detention?” Uncle Jim had a cheeky face on, like the boys who talk back at the teacher.
Daddy’s eyes went very dark and he frowned at Uncle Jim. Jo-Jo suddenly got scared that they’d fight because Daddy had his cross face on and Uncle Jim had sassed him, but Uncle Jim took Daddy’s hand and Daddy’s eyes twinkled. When Uncle Jim winked at Miss O’Brien, Jo-Jo noticed she looked a little pink around the cheeks. Maybe she was hot.
“Okay, baby girl, we’ll talk later. For now, you go do your best and Uncle Jim and I will be sitting out front.” Daddy leaned and kissed her and they walked towards the school hall and she skipped alongside Mrs O’Brien back to her homeroom to join the rest of the snowmen.
2. snowmen
Jo-Jo never got chosen to read the big parts. It wasn’t fair. She listened to Lucy, who had long blonde hair and pigtails and a sweet smile, recite the opening part of the play without even looking at the words Miss Carr held up while she kneeled in front of the low stage.
“The little children waited and waited. They waited for something white and very, very cold - something which is good for fun and games!”
Jo-Jo hated Lucy’s baby voice and she hated that all the boys liked her best. She figured the baby voice may have had something to do with it.
Then all of her class ran onto the stage and sang a song about snowflakes and how fun it was trying to catch them with your hands; they sang how they were cold on your nose and on your fingers and on your tongue. She liked this song best because, at the end, all the children got to stick their tongues out at the audience when they ‘caught’ snowflakes. Everyone laughed and Jo-Jo saw Uncle Jim nudge Daddy on the arm and Daddy scowl.
For the next song, the children in a different class pretended to get dressed up in warm clothes so they could go outside and make snowmen. They sang a song about ten fat snowmen standing in a row, and they made their bodies all wobbly when the sunshine made them melt and they sat down on the stage until there was only one fat snowman, standing in a row.
Jo-Jo looked at Daddy and Uncle Jim. They had suits and shiny shoes. Uncle Jim kept looking at Daddy’s face and Daddy kept looking at Jo-Jo with his big eyes. She knelt up and waved with her fingers then Miss Carr shook her head and Jo-Jo sat down.
Saleem stood up and tip-toed to the front. He looked all stupid and she wanted to stick her tongue out at him. She caught Daddy’s eye and pointed at Saleem.
“That’s Saleem,” she mouthed at Daddy. He pursed his lips and looked at Saleem and not her. It wasn’t fair. He didn’t believe her either. Jo-Jo tried getting the message to Uncle Jim instead and then Miss Carr, from where she knelt in front of the stage, put her finger on her lips to tell Jo-Jo she should be quiet.
“There wasn’t lots of snow. The children were dis-“ Saleem got stuck on that word again, the damned fool, “dis-ap-pointed,” he finally managed to say.
Jo-Jo could see that Daddy whispered something in Uncle Jim’s ear. He would get a detention if he kept talking ‘cause it wasn’t allowed.
“There was enough snow for one snowmen and the children got cross. They all wanted to make a snowman,” Saleem finished and he stayed at the front and stared at all the faces.
Daddy and Uncle Jim were right in the front - Daddy’s tie-clip was a reindeer with a flashing red nose and Jo-Jo watched as it blinked and twinkled. Uncle Jim had brought it and she’d watched him clip it on for him earlier. They thought she’d been watching TV but she’d peeked because she wanted to know what the little present was. Daddy had kissed Uncle Jim on the nose and it was the grossest thing she’d ever seen.
Saleem was still at the front and he ignored Miss Carr who was waving and waving to get him out of the way.
It was Jo-Jo’s turn anyway so she stood up and went to him right across the stage. She took his hand.
“This way,” she said, and led him to the side where he sat down near to Miss Carr.
Jo-Jo took her place in the middle of the stage, and stared at Daddy. He smiled at her. She folded her arms and scrunched up her face. Then she stamped her foot on the stage and everyone laughed. She waited like Miss Carr had told her, until they were quiet.
“The children got vewy angry with each other,” she told the audience. There was more laughter and she saw Uncle Jim gazing at Daddy’s face again.
“This is a cross song,” the children sang, all making cross faces and stomping about the stage,
“This is an angry song,
Boo-hoo-boo-hoo,
Oh dear, what an angry song.”
The children stood with their hands on their hips looking cross until the children dressed as little suns in yellow t-shirts and wearing sunglasses, had run onto the stage too. They hugged the cross children.
“Don’t be angry, be friends,” Loren said to the audience, “We can make the snowman together!”
And that was the next bit, all the cross children made a snowman; two made the body (which was really a great big pillow stuffed full of old clothes so it looked like a body), another the head and balanced it on top, then they had buttons and eyes and teeth (all cut out of paper) and a scarf and hat. And Uncle Jim had been right. The snowman looked like a real one because it had a pretend-carrot nose.
Jo-Jo didn’t watch this bit; she’d seen it lots of times so she knew what was happening. She sang with the rest of the children while watching how Daddy’s face twitched and how he chewed his lips. She didn’t know why Uncle Jim’s hand touched Daddy’s cheek for a second - maybe he had some food on his face or something, but Daddy didn’t turn to look at Uncle Jim, only found his hand and squeezed it tight.
In the end, the children danced about, sang another song, then ‘went to sleep’ on the stage. They were tired out from all the snowman building.
The audience clapped and clapped and Jo-Jo liked bowing, but Miss Carr had told her she mustn’t so, because she wanted to make Daddy happy, she did as she’d been told. They were told to smile, big smiles, that was all.
She waved at Daddy and Uncle Jim and then turned to Saleem who still looked a little stage struck.
“Is your Mommy here, Saleem?”
“I’m not supposed to talk to you-“he said, lowering his eyes, “You say bad words.”
“Do you want to come for a burger with me and Uncle Jim and Daddy? If your Mom lets you!”
3. burgers
On Friday, school finished and Jo-Jo would be going home with Mommy after. So she had one more evening with her Daddy.
On Thursday, he picked her up from school.
“Can we still get a burger?” she said, looking at Uncle Jim for support. “You promised.”
“I hardly think a burger’s-“ Daddy was going to say no, she knew it.
“Come on, Bones,” Uncle Jim said,” once isn’t going to kill her.”
“Well, I suppose…”
Jo-Jo jumped onto Daddy’s lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Plus we’ve got a double-date, by the looks of it, “Uncle Jim said, winking at Daddy who snorted.
“I’ll make sure you get your free toy, don’t worry, Jim.”
Later, Jo-Jo looked at their reflection in the big window of the organic burger bar. It was the only one Daddy would agree to going to. Daddy and Uncle Jim were in their scruffy clothes now. Uncle Jim fed Daddy french fries while Daddy tried to slap his hands away. On the other end of the bench, she sat next to Saleem and told him all about how Uncle Jim had saved the Earth.
Saleem slurped his shake and pushed his plate away. “Joanna, I know, stop telling me, okay?”
Jo-Jo smiled and picked Tigger up off the bench and sat him so that he showed up in the reflection too. He had on a brand new Starfleet science uniform shirt like the one her Daddy wore.
“Thank you for finding Tigger for me, Saleem,” she said and planted a chilly nosed kiss right on his cheek.
“Eeeew!” he said wiping his cheek with the back of his hand and shuffling away from Jo-Jo.
“Oh, and Merry Christmas to you too, asshole!” Jo-Jo grumbled.
“Joanna McCoy!” Uncle Jim and Daddy both said together.
“So-rry!” she giggled, and waved at their reflection, “but he’s such an infant.”
~FIN~
A/N: The Cross song is not mine!
The masterlist of all my fanfiction is here
Rating: PG
Character/Pairing: Kirk/McCoy, Joanna
Wordcount: approx 3,000 words complete
Summary: Jim and Bones go and see Joanna’s Christmas pageant. They’re called into the Principal’s office beforehand.
Warnings: schmoop, cute kids, more schmoop and some fluff. (Is there a difference between schmoop and fluff?)
Disclaimer: I mean no offence and court no profits, these boys belong to others more talented and deserving, I merely borrow them, play a while then return them all cleaned up and smiley.
Author’s notes: I apologise for the lack of porn. I had to get this fic out of my system. And it’s dedicated to all the teachers out there - imagine what it would be like to have Jim and Bones sitting in the front row at the school Christmas pageant?
Thanks to abigail89 for beta’ing - hope your teeth are ok! For space_wrapped
Intriguing snippet: “My daddy says hobgoblin too, so it can’t be a bad word because he never says bad words,” Jo-Jo huffed, folding her arms. Her legs swung several centimetres from the ground. She didn’t have shoes on, just her socks and the rest of her costume. This was bad timing. She’d been all happy and the grown-ups had spoiled everything again.
Melt Also posted on Archive of Our Own and The Kirk/McCoy Archive
Melt
1. detention
Jo-Jo was having a Bad Day. There had been a lot of those lately with Mommy crying, Daddy being so far away and then losing Tigger.
At least Mommy had stopped crying so much since she made a new best friend who had a beard which smelled of cigarettes and who didn’t seem to know how to talk to Jo-Jo without sounding like one of those idiot kids’ TV presenters.
And the best thing was that Jo-Jo had seen Daddy again for the first time since she’d been a little girl, and she’d met Uncle Jim!
She’d given up on Tigger.
But today was a Bad Day because Jo-Jo was in Trouble.
She’d tried to tell Daddy that he shouldn’t phone the school to find out how she was doing. She was doing just fine. Why couldn’t he just believe her?
Jo-Jo thought back to how she’d been playing chess with Uncle Jim in their hotel while Daddy spoke with The Principal on the vid phone, only he wasn’t speaking much other than, “Uh-hum…yes…I see.”
And here they were, the next day, right before The Snowflake pageant, in The Principal’s office. Daddy sat in one chair, Uncle Jim to one side and Jo-Jo on the other. Mrs O’Brien didn’t have a desk - later Daddy said it was ‘cause she was pretending to be all eagle-tarian or something.
Thing is, it wasn’t Jo-Jo’s fault - it was just that some kids were so damn stupid and they thought they knew everything and they didn’t believe her when she said her daddy lived on a starship. Then they hid things that belonged to her.
~~~~~
“We do not tolerate language like that, Joanna McCoy,” Miss Carr, her homeroom teacher had said. She hadn’t sounded cross, not like Mommy did right before she started crying, but Jo-Jo could tell Miss Carr was by how she took a deep breath before she spoke and how her eye twitched. Her daddy used to talk to her about Mr Spock, the Vulcan on the Enterprise. Maybe Miss Carr was a Vulcan, only she didn’t have pointy ears. Before Daddy came back, Jo-Jo liked to watch his video-messages over and over, sometimes before she went to sleep.
“I called Spock a hobgoblin, Jo-Jo,” Daddy said once, and his face came closer to the screen and his voice got like when he told her a secret so she had to lean close too, “but don’t tell the captain or he’ll put me in the brig!” He laughed really loud after that. The brig was like where the old kids in big school had detention. Her daddy’s laugh made her go all warm inside like hot milk and then she was giggling too and chanting, “Hobgoblin, hob-goblin!”
“Shush, Jo-Jo, or you’ll get my ass whooped!” And his eyes were all crinkly and dark.
~~~~~
She could feel three pairs of eyes on her in The Principal’s office.
“My daddy says hobgoblin too, so it can’t be a bad word because he never says bad words,” Jo-Jo huffed, folding her arms. Her legs swung several centimetres from the ground. She didn’t have shoes on, just her socks and the rest of her costume. This was bad timing. She’d been all happy and the grown-ups had spoiled everything again.
Jo-Jo raised her eyebrow and looked across at Mrs O’Brien who was smiling but she didn’t look happy. Another Vulcan. Jo-Jo hadn’t been into the Principal’s office before. There were some nice paintings on the wall; one was of a lizard and it was from Australia. Jo-Jo looked at the way its toes were all spread out and tried to do it with hers inside her socks.
“Doctor McCoy?” Mrs O’Brien said.
“Jo-Jo?” Daddy said, “I think you should say you’re sorry to Mrs O’Brien.”
“But I didn’t do anything. Saleem is so annoying. He said he knew where Tigger was and that he would never, ever tell me. “ Jo-Jo could feel her eyes get all hot and wet. She clenched her hands and swung her legs some more.
“Jo-Jo,” Uncle Jim said, and she looked at him. He had very bright eyes, like blueberry jelly beans. “Have you tried making friends with Saleem? Sometimes boys are rude to girls when they want to be friends, you know?”
Why did everyone think one thing and act a different way?
“He’s an asshole, Uncle Jim. I don’t want to be his friend.”
Uncle Jim looked like he was about to burst out laughing, and then Daddy kicked his foot.
“Joanna McCoy, you apologise this instant for cussing in front of The Principal. I’m sorry, Ma’am.” Daddy’s voice went all warm again, and he stood up and bowed a little like a fairy tale prince. Uncle Jim looked up at him then leaned across and took Jo-Jo’s hand,
“Come on, honey, you know that’ll make you feel good. And we’ll see about taking Saleem out for a milkshake or something to help you two get along. Perhaps he’ll find Tigger, meantime?”
Jo-Jo nodded. She wriggled forward in the chair and reached one toe to the floor then the other. She took a deep breath like she did when she was going to jump from somewhere high up and braced herself:
“I’m weally sorry, Mrs O’Brien, I promise to talk like a lady and be more polite in future. I do.” She curtsied and looked over her shoulder at Daddy who arched his eyebrow at her, and nodded.
“I accept your apology, Joanna, and I hope we never have to talk like this again. Now, perhaps you can leave me to talk to your daddy alone and you can step outside with Mr Kirk.”
“He’s a captain, not a mister, aren’t you, Uncle Jim?”
Uncle Jim showed her all his bright white teeth and took her hand, “Yes, I am, Jo-Jo.” And he said to the others, “We’ll be right outside.“
“And he’s famous!” She called over his shoulder as Mrs O’Brien closed the door on them.
Uncle Jim was warm and his arms were very strong, just like Daddy’s. He smelled all clean like trees did. She looked at the side of his face as he leaned against the wall and held her. He had sprinkly, beard dots all over his chin and he had pink lips like this rabbit she’d held on the school farm.
“Do you like rabbits, Uncle Jim?” she said.
“I like the ones with big floppy ears a whole lot.”
She’d never seen the school corridor from this height before and she prayed one of her classmates would walk past and see her. She wrapped her hands around Uncle Jim’s neck and touched his hair near his ears. It was sticky from some glue or something he’d put in it to make it stand up. Daddy was being a very long time.
“Jo-Jo, I’m going to have to set you down - you’re kinda heavy.”
“Do you know what I'm supposed to be, Uncle Jim? You can guess, if you like.”
Uncle Jim rested her gently on the floor and looked her up and down. “Let me see…white knee length socks, so you must be a character who could get cold…umm…big white t-shirt with big buttons down the front- are they real buttons, Jo-Jo?”
Jo-Jo giggled. “Don’t be silly! Mommy drew them on with a marker pen. Did you see they had smiley faces too?” She spread her knee length t-shirt out so he could see better. Mommy had bought it from a grown-up shop especially for the pageant.
“I did notice that. Was it Mommy’s idea?”
“No, it was Miss Carr’s idea. She’s my homeroom teacher. You still haven’t guessed!” Uncle Jim crouched down next to her and cocked his head to the side. He chewed his lip.
“You’re wearing a big warm scarf with bobbles…Are you a snow queen?”
“Silly, snow queens don’t get cold and they don’t need scarves. Have another guess, I don’t mind!”
“One more guess?”
“You can have three,” she said, “and you’ve used one up already.”
Uncle Jim put his hand on his chin and looked up at her paper crown. “Are you a princess?”
“Princesses have dresses and shoes!”
“One more?”
Jo-Jo nodded.
Uncle Jim scrunched up his eyes, he pulled at his bottom lip with his finger and thumb and stood up so she had to tilt her head up to see him, “I’ve got it!”
“Don’t say a polar bear ‘cause that would be lame and they’re extinct anyway.”
“A snowman!”
Jo-Jo threw herself against his legs and hugged him, “Daddy says you’re a young upstart but I’m going to tell him how clever you are then he won’t say it anymore!”
Uncle Jim laughed and tapped the end of her nose. “You need an orange nose, you know, like a carrot?”
“That would be silly, Uncle Jim.”
“There’s nothing I don’t know about snowmen, Jo-Jo. In Iowa we have snow every winter. Why is your play about snowmen when it’s warm enough to wear t-shirts outside?”
Jo-Jo beckoned him down so she could whisper in his ear. “I tried to tell Miss Carr. I said it would no more likely snow in Georgia than pigs might fly, and that it was a damned fool idea, but she wouldn’t listen. No one ever listens to me, Uncle Jim. Did that ever happen to you at school?”
“Sometimes. Maybe they just aren’t ready for your ideas yet. It’s always the way with smart kids. ”
“Like Einstein!”
Uncle Jim laughed. “Just like!”
The door opened and Daddy came out. He rolled his eyes.
“Did you get detention?” Uncle Jim had a cheeky face on, like the boys who talk back at the teacher.
Daddy’s eyes went very dark and he frowned at Uncle Jim. Jo-Jo suddenly got scared that they’d fight because Daddy had his cross face on and Uncle Jim had sassed him, but Uncle Jim took Daddy’s hand and Daddy’s eyes twinkled. When Uncle Jim winked at Miss O’Brien, Jo-Jo noticed she looked a little pink around the cheeks. Maybe she was hot.
“Okay, baby girl, we’ll talk later. For now, you go do your best and Uncle Jim and I will be sitting out front.” Daddy leaned and kissed her and they walked towards the school hall and she skipped alongside Mrs O’Brien back to her homeroom to join the rest of the snowmen.
2. snowmen
Jo-Jo never got chosen to read the big parts. It wasn’t fair. She listened to Lucy, who had long blonde hair and pigtails and a sweet smile, recite the opening part of the play without even looking at the words Miss Carr held up while she kneeled in front of the low stage.
“The little children waited and waited. They waited for something white and very, very cold - something which is good for fun and games!”
Jo-Jo hated Lucy’s baby voice and she hated that all the boys liked her best. She figured the baby voice may have had something to do with it.
Then all of her class ran onto the stage and sang a song about snowflakes and how fun it was trying to catch them with your hands; they sang how they were cold on your nose and on your fingers and on your tongue. She liked this song best because, at the end, all the children got to stick their tongues out at the audience when they ‘caught’ snowflakes. Everyone laughed and Jo-Jo saw Uncle Jim nudge Daddy on the arm and Daddy scowl.
For the next song, the children in a different class pretended to get dressed up in warm clothes so they could go outside and make snowmen. They sang a song about ten fat snowmen standing in a row, and they made their bodies all wobbly when the sunshine made them melt and they sat down on the stage until there was only one fat snowman, standing in a row.
Jo-Jo looked at Daddy and Uncle Jim. They had suits and shiny shoes. Uncle Jim kept looking at Daddy’s face and Daddy kept looking at Jo-Jo with his big eyes. She knelt up and waved with her fingers then Miss Carr shook her head and Jo-Jo sat down.
Saleem stood up and tip-toed to the front. He looked all stupid and she wanted to stick her tongue out at him. She caught Daddy’s eye and pointed at Saleem.
“That’s Saleem,” she mouthed at Daddy. He pursed his lips and looked at Saleem and not her. It wasn’t fair. He didn’t believe her either. Jo-Jo tried getting the message to Uncle Jim instead and then Miss Carr, from where she knelt in front of the stage, put her finger on her lips to tell Jo-Jo she should be quiet.
“There wasn’t lots of snow. The children were dis-“ Saleem got stuck on that word again, the damned fool, “dis-ap-pointed,” he finally managed to say.
Jo-Jo could see that Daddy whispered something in Uncle Jim’s ear. He would get a detention if he kept talking ‘cause it wasn’t allowed.
“There was enough snow for one snowmen and the children got cross. They all wanted to make a snowman,” Saleem finished and he stayed at the front and stared at all the faces.
Daddy and Uncle Jim were right in the front - Daddy’s tie-clip was a reindeer with a flashing red nose and Jo-Jo watched as it blinked and twinkled. Uncle Jim had brought it and she’d watched him clip it on for him earlier. They thought she’d been watching TV but she’d peeked because she wanted to know what the little present was. Daddy had kissed Uncle Jim on the nose and it was the grossest thing she’d ever seen.
Saleem was still at the front and he ignored Miss Carr who was waving and waving to get him out of the way.
It was Jo-Jo’s turn anyway so she stood up and went to him right across the stage. She took his hand.
“This way,” she said, and led him to the side where he sat down near to Miss Carr.
Jo-Jo took her place in the middle of the stage, and stared at Daddy. He smiled at her. She folded her arms and scrunched up her face. Then she stamped her foot on the stage and everyone laughed. She waited like Miss Carr had told her, until they were quiet.
“The children got vewy angry with each other,” she told the audience. There was more laughter and she saw Uncle Jim gazing at Daddy’s face again.
“This is a cross song,” the children sang, all making cross faces and stomping about the stage,
“This is an angry song,
Boo-hoo-boo-hoo,
Oh dear, what an angry song.”
The children stood with their hands on their hips looking cross until the children dressed as little suns in yellow t-shirts and wearing sunglasses, had run onto the stage too. They hugged the cross children.
“Don’t be angry, be friends,” Loren said to the audience, “We can make the snowman together!”
And that was the next bit, all the cross children made a snowman; two made the body (which was really a great big pillow stuffed full of old clothes so it looked like a body), another the head and balanced it on top, then they had buttons and eyes and teeth (all cut out of paper) and a scarf and hat. And Uncle Jim had been right. The snowman looked like a real one because it had a pretend-carrot nose.
Jo-Jo didn’t watch this bit; she’d seen it lots of times so she knew what was happening. She sang with the rest of the children while watching how Daddy’s face twitched and how he chewed his lips. She didn’t know why Uncle Jim’s hand touched Daddy’s cheek for a second - maybe he had some food on his face or something, but Daddy didn’t turn to look at Uncle Jim, only found his hand and squeezed it tight.
In the end, the children danced about, sang another song, then ‘went to sleep’ on the stage. They were tired out from all the snowman building.
The audience clapped and clapped and Jo-Jo liked bowing, but Miss Carr had told her she mustn’t so, because she wanted to make Daddy happy, she did as she’d been told. They were told to smile, big smiles, that was all.
She waved at Daddy and Uncle Jim and then turned to Saleem who still looked a little stage struck.
“Is your Mommy here, Saleem?”
“I’m not supposed to talk to you-“he said, lowering his eyes, “You say bad words.”
“Do you want to come for a burger with me and Uncle Jim and Daddy? If your Mom lets you!”
3. burgers
On Friday, school finished and Jo-Jo would be going home with Mommy after. So she had one more evening with her Daddy.
On Thursday, he picked her up from school.
“Can we still get a burger?” she said, looking at Uncle Jim for support. “You promised.”
“I hardly think a burger’s-“ Daddy was going to say no, she knew it.
“Come on, Bones,” Uncle Jim said,” once isn’t going to kill her.”
“Well, I suppose…”
Jo-Jo jumped onto Daddy’s lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Plus we’ve got a double-date, by the looks of it, “Uncle Jim said, winking at Daddy who snorted.
“I’ll make sure you get your free toy, don’t worry, Jim.”
Later, Jo-Jo looked at their reflection in the big window of the organic burger bar. It was the only one Daddy would agree to going to. Daddy and Uncle Jim were in their scruffy clothes now. Uncle Jim fed Daddy french fries while Daddy tried to slap his hands away. On the other end of the bench, she sat next to Saleem and told him all about how Uncle Jim had saved the Earth.
Saleem slurped his shake and pushed his plate away. “Joanna, I know, stop telling me, okay?”
Jo-Jo smiled and picked Tigger up off the bench and sat him so that he showed up in the reflection too. He had on a brand new Starfleet science uniform shirt like the one her Daddy wore.
“Thank you for finding Tigger for me, Saleem,” she said and planted a chilly nosed kiss right on his cheek.
“Eeeew!” he said wiping his cheek with the back of his hand and shuffling away from Jo-Jo.
“Oh, and Merry Christmas to you too, asshole!” Jo-Jo grumbled.
“Joanna McCoy!” Uncle Jim and Daddy both said together.
“So-rry!” she giggled, and waved at their reflection, “but he’s such an infant.”
~FIN~
A/N: The Cross song is not mine!
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