Emily just chuckled and shook her head. "Is this what it's always like at Southwind?"
"No," I assured her. "We have extra company right now, which makes it easier. Believe it or not, it's usually a lot more quiet."
Cessily scoffed as she joined us. "If you don't count her insane love life as exciting."
"Oh, it sounds pretty exciting to me," Emily assured Cess. "I have to say, I love that those guys are so comfortable showing it. Zeke's noticed too, and he's stopped saying that he can't be gay. He's started talking about cute boys. All celebrities, but I'll take it."
When the guys started to come back in, the three of us each grabbed a box and headed out. That kept us from having a traffic jam at the door, but the getting up and down wasn't easy. Cessily decided to hop down, and then we started a relay system. Emily and I would carry boxes to Cessily and Faith, and they would pack them inside the SUV.
Bit by bit, the rooms began to get a little less crowded. The vehicles became full. When the blue truck was out of room, they moved onto the black one. A table, chairs, and Zeke's dresser all fit in the back of that before the guys decided that it was time to unload the first round. Zeke and Faith yelled out that they were going too, and Emily told her son to make sure things were set up decently.
Ash said he was staying behind since there was an odd number. Billy paused to say something to him, then most of the guys headed out. When Ash jogged up the stairs to come back inside, he was grinning.
"Blaze is an overprotective and paranoid man," he proclaimed as he headed over for a box. "If we get the SUV full, we can unload that while they get the rest of the furniture.”
Cessily groaned. "And if I wanted a break?"
"Welcome to life in the country," Ash joked as he headed back out.
But Emily held up a finger. "What does he mean about Blaze?"
It was Cessily who answered. "He deals in problems. That means Billy always sees problems." Then she looked at me. "And now I'm going to end up calling him that the next time I'm in Washington."
"He likes it," I assured her as I grabbed my own box. "He says he doesn't, but he never corrects me."
"Are you picking on him?" Cessily teased.
"Reminding him that he doesn't always have to be a hard-ass," I explained.
Emily grabbed her own box and followed as we headed out. "So he's important too?" she asked.
Ash heard and just laughed. "All of the Shades are. Gran and Bea had a way of teaching us how to succeed, and we all had dreams that were just a little too big. Cessily's a pretty famous attorney. Darnell protects resource tycoons - usually natural gas. Billy works with politicians. You'll probably see him on CNN at some point. He'll be the guy in the background."
"Ash and Violet were famous models," Cessily added. "We're not all celebrities or anything, and quite a few of us are just normally successful."
"What's normally successful?" Emily asked.
"Cy's a doctor," Cess explained. "Darnell owns a security company. Sounds like another of our girls is dating a professional bull rider."
"Scarlet's with an Olympic horse guy," I added. "She works in his barn and is hoping to become a trainer."
"Still?" Cessily asked. "I know she got hurt really bad a while back."
"Again," I corrected. "Bea made her love the horses, so she's making a career out of it." Then I looked at Emily. "See, that's the thing. There's no one right way to get ahead. If we do what we love, then we have a passion for it. When we try to push through the grind that society says is normal, we end up stuck in the rat race, never able to get ahead."
"Like me," she realized.
"Like youwere," I corrected. "Now you're a part of Southwind, and I'm hoping that you'll be a big part of shaping a new future for all these kids."
"It's overwhelming," she admitted as the group of us headed back inside for the next round. "I kinda feel like my only qualification for this position is the random chance of my son being gay."
"In a way," Ash said, "it is. You were handed a situation. Some people would've tried to pray it away. Others would've kicked him out. Instead, you stepped up and made it clear that you have what we need. It's not about Zeke being gay. It's about you being compassionate and accepting him for who he is. You didn't try to change him. You tried to love him and help him. That's all we do with the students."
"It's what Gran did with us," I said. "The reality is that we weren't necessarily easy to love. We all showed up angry, and we wanted to fight back against something, so Gran gave us something good to fight. She directed us without trying to change us. She used our own interests and abilities to prove that we weren't the losers we thought we were."
"Because we were all bad kids," Cess added. "Before we got off the bus at Southwind, we'd been told that we wouldn't amount to anything, we were worthless, pieces of shit, and worse. I was going to grow up and be a prostitute, according to my caseworker. That's what happened to girls like me." She smiled. "And Gran dared me to prove them wrong."
"So what am I supposed to do?" Emily asked. "Keep an eye on the kids to make sure they don't sneak out, sure. But what am I really supposed to do?"
