"I'm happy you found your forever home." Mr. Duncan congratulated me outside the courthouse. He had come to visit us and was officially no longer my caseworker.
I smiled up at him, happy to see him for once. I had thought long and hard what my life would be like without the Atkins. "Thanks for finding them for me, Mr. Duncan."
He looked surprised, but returned a smile of his own. "It's part of my job, Jake. Seeing a kid end up in his forever home is always the end goal."
"I thought the state is always about reunification?" Noah rolled his eyes.
Mr. Duncan shrugged, helpless. "We have our guidelines to follow. I do what I can." He shook hands with Mom and Dad. "Mary, Wayne, thanks again for your hard work. Let me know if you guys are interested in fostering again."
Mom looked apologetic. "Probably not anytime soon. Don't cross us off the list, but-" She smiled my way. "We have our hands full at the moment."
Feeling embarrassed, I turned away and started to thank my friends that showed up.
Alisha took charge, inviting everyone to her house for a celebration. Her parents and our parents started talking about where to order pizza from and how much they would need to cover everyone present.
"We have to hit the road." Jeremy said to me, holding Rose's hand.
I nodded, understanding. He had a game tonight. It was okay for him to skip some of his pregame workouts and preparations, but I didn't want him to miss it all. "Thanks for coming." I smiled.
He reached out and messed up my hair that Mom had meticulously done. "Anything for you, kiddo."
Rose smiled too. "Let me know the next time you boys can come to a game."
"It'll be harder with school starting next week." Dad had come over to say, resting his arm around my shoulders. "We'll have to coordinate on the weekends."
Jeremy nodded. "Sure. I understand. I can also visit on my off days. Once the season is over, there'll be more time and opportunities for me to come over."
Dad nodded. "It's all about balance. You're welcomed to come over anytime." He smiled at Rose. "You too."
Rose blushed. "Thanks."
The crowd started to get smaller as I said goodbye to those who couldn't stay or couldn't make it to Alisha's. With two cars, we had to split up. Mom and Dad took our grandparents. Zeke took me, Noah, and Dave. Kyle went with Marie and Kaylee. It didn't matter so much how we got to Alisha's, but it did stagger our arrival times.
As we filled up her backyard, it definitely had a party feel to it. Similar to Noah's birthday, the a.d.u.l.ts hung out on one side and us teens hung out on the other.
Mom went around taking pictures of me with all my friends. Me and the guys from the team. Me with Dr. Moore. Me with a few classmates. Me with Kaylee and Alisha. Me with Noah, the twins, and Zeke. Me with my grandparents. Me with the coaches. There is no one I didn't take a picture with.
"I think Mrs. Atkins is more excited than either of you." Alisha said as we ate pizza that the a.d.u.l.ts ordered.
"She just likes to doc.u.ment things like this." Noah shrugged.
"You like to take pictures too." Alisha pointed out. "But for real, she's like really, really, really excited."
"She worked hard." I explained, smiling towards Mom's general direction. "I think she's just reveling in the success of me getting adopted. Her and Dad had to do a lot of classes, training, and interviews. It probably wasn't something they had planned on doing before. Plus, there's a lot of stories of how adoptions don't go through."
"Were you worried about it not going through?" Kaylee asked.
I shrugged and turned my attention to my food. "Not too much. Even if they got denied, I would still get to be with them. I don't have any other parents but them."
"He would have cried." Noah ratted me out. "Jake's a big cry baby."
The girls laughed at my look of distress.
"I think Jake Atkins has a nice ring to it." Alisha told me, smiling.
"Probably has something to do with him dropping an extra syllable." Kaylee stated plainly.
Alisha looked at me. "Did you ever think about taking Jeremy's last name? That should have been your last name originally, right?"
I shook my head. "I never thought about it." I always wanted to be an Atkins.
"Speaking of Jeremy, how's he and his uncle drama?" Kaylee asked. "Did he cut him off completely?"
I shrugged, not sure. "We don't talk about it. And now that the news is over it, there isn't much to be said." I thought about how hard he took it. "I think…he's distracting himself with baseball for now."
"Yes!" Noah exclaimed. "He needs to! The A's have never looked so good." He grinned my way. "And with you as an 'in', we can even go to some playoff games. That would be so awesome."
I smiled and nodded. If that happened, I would definitely take Noah to a playoff game. He would die from the excitement.
We spent the rest of the day there, talking about everything and nothing. As people would leave, they all stopped by me to congratulate me again. There was a lot of the talk from the guys on the team how there would still be four Atkins on the team and that the other schools might be scared that Zeke repeated. It was a good time.
Later that night, Mom and Dad told us the plan for taking Zeke to school. Tomorrow, he would have to pack up all his stuff in the family car and we would have the option to go with if we wanted to, but we would have to take an additional car if all of us went.
"If we go, can we stay the night?" Noah asked.
"Where the heck would we stay?" Dave asked. "Do you want all of us to squeeze in one tiny room?" He scoffed. Then looked at Zeke. "No offense, but I'll pass. There doesn't seem to be any reason for us to go. I'll help you pack the car though."
Zeke shrugged. "Yea, it's not a big deal. Rhys will be there to help me move my stuff into the dorm." He looked to his parents. "Are both of you going?"
"Of course!" Mom exclaimed.
Dad nodded along. "We wouldn't miss it for the world." He looked to Noah and me. "Did you two want to come?"
Noah nodded. "Yea! I want to see! I'll help too."
I nodded after him. If Noah's going, then I want to go too.
Kyle spoke up. "I'll stay home too. Probably get some pitching in, then maybe go on a date with Marie."
Dad squinted at him. "No girls over while we're away." He looked to Dave. "You're in charge."
"Yes!" Dave pumped his fists.
"What? Why?!" Kyle looked stunned.
"Because Dave's not in danger of i.m.p.r.e.g.n.a.t.ed a nonexistent girlfriend." Dad said.
"Oh, burn." Noah looked at Dave with a smirk.
Kyle looked to be in a better mood.
Dave rolled his eyes. "Whatever."
"So will you guys be gone until Sunday?" Kyle got the conversation back on track.
"No, we'll be back late tomorrow night." Mom said. "We'll get Zeke settled in. Hopefully have dinner with Rhys and his parents, then we'll come home."
"Sounds like a plan." Dad nodded in agreement.
"Mr. Johnson won't be there." Zeke said. "He's on a series of away games with the team."
"That's too bad." Mom sighed. "He's really missing out on move-in day."
"Mom, it's not a big deal." Zeke's lips twitched, revealing a small smile. "We're not even moving a state away. For Rhys, it's even closer than you guys."
"You wouldn't understand." Mom brushed him off. "Our oldest sons are moving out. This is a huge milestone." She started to tear up. "Back to back big days. I don't know how I'll get through this weekend."
Dad pulled her into a hug and the rest of us stealthily made our way out of the kitchen.
"You really cool with us not going?" Kyle asked Zeke as we climbed the stairs. "Like, I'll go, if you really want me to."
Dave laughed. "You're acting like Zeke is Jake. Zeke's a big boy. He can move into his tiny dorm room all on his own if he really wanted to."
Zeke answered. "It's really not a big deal. I'm not moving that far away and I'll be home one weekend a month."
"Ew." Dave snorted. "Why would you come back? Live your college life."
Kyle gave him a small shove. "Can't you think about Mom for a second? She obviously isn't ready for Zeke to be on his own."
Dave scratched his nose. "Oh. Right."
