Chapter Text
"Do you have a-"
"No."
"Wanna be mine?"
***
"Hey, Jude? Jude? Jude!"
Jude Jacobs--soon to be Adams-Foster--blinked out of his dazed stupor. Lena took a sip from her tea-filled mug, steam rising to surround her nose, before she lowered the cup and cocked an eyebrow at the boy. Jude's brown eyes flicked to his oldest brother, but Brandon was nodding his head to the music that was practically erupting from the earbuds of his headphones. The boy finally looked at Stef, his eyes begging for help, as he took a sip of water from his glass. The woman must have been hungry this evening, for upon arriving home she had changed out of her uniform so quickly that she was wearing mismatched pajamas. Stef twirled spaghetti onto her fork.
"Love, Mama's called you about three times."
Jude almost shrunk into his chair. How could he have been so rude? He was going to ruin his chances of adoption, just like he always did.
"Sorry.", the boy almost whispered.
Lena's eyes softened and Stef ordered Brandon to remove his earphones ("You're going to burst your eardrums!").
"Is everything alright, sweetie?"
Jude's cheeks flushed pink, causing his almost moms and a now focused Brandon's eyebrows to raise. The young boy quickly looked down at his plate, twirling his fork mindlessly. The reason he was so out of it, was because he was anything but okay. Jude had always liked the interesting boy that sat diagonal from him in science class. He was nice enough and pretty smart. Yet, Jude had been very surprised when Connor Stevens asked him to be his partner. No, actually Connor hadn't even gotten a chance to say the word partner; Jude had answered him so quickly.
The thought made his pink cheeks darken, which in turn caused his family to glance among themselves.
The thing was: Jude wasn't gay. At least, he had thought a few girls were pretty before, but never any boys. It was just...those words...
"Do you wanna be mine?"
And Jude couldn't help but think: Yes, please. Take me, I'm yours.
But what exactly did that mean? That's what Jude had been trying to figure out as their teacher asked them to return to their seats.
"Alright, does everyone have a partner? Terrific. And did those with phones exchange phone numbers as instructed? Great. Now, we're going to play a game."
The students cheered and Jude was immensely grateful for the distraction...not that Connor stretching his back wasn't a distraction...wait, what?
"Don't get too excited. I'm passing out slips of paper, so everyone take out something to write with. Once you get your paper, write your partner's name at the top and under their name write one paragraph-"
The class collectively groaned, and their teacher sighed.
"Write one word that describes your partner.", she continued, "Then fold it in half. When I see you've folded it, I'll come to you with a box."
She glared at her class, while straightening her shirt. "I'll be reading these out loud, so only nice things. Got it? When you get you paper, you may begin."
With a black ink pen in one hand, Jude contemplated how he could describe Connor. Callie always said think about how you feel, then connect it to another person's experience. The boy closed his eyes and remembered the fast beating of his heart when Connor smiled, the blush he had been fighting off, the increasing nervousness and excitement and...
And then he thought of Mariana. The girl was lounging on her bed, painting Jude's nails dark blue--"Jude, this is not dark blue! The shade is 180 Indigo Night from Revlon's ColorStay collection. God, know your nail polish!"--while also telling him about her newest crush.
"God, Jude, I was blushing so hard...." Check.
"I was like, nervous and excited at the same time. I swear I was about to vomit. In a good way." Check.
"And when he smiled, Jude, my heart just stopped. Like, it seriously stopped beating." Well...his heart hadn't completely stopped, but close enough. Check.
Alright, he had found a match. But, what word had Mariana used to describe the guy? Jude was drawing a complete blank.
"He was so...."
"Jude, his hair made him so..."
"I've never met someone so..."
Aha! He had finally remembered.
So, in the blink of an eye, Jude wrote the word 'cute' neatly under Connor's name, folded his paper in half, and dropped it right into the shoe box his teacher provided. Content, the boy watched silently as his teacher weaved around desks, collecting more slips of paper. It wasn't until she had finally made it back to her desk that Jude almost had a heart attack.
He had just written the word cute under Connor's name.
And to make matter's worse, Jude wasn't quite sure if he was freaking out at the prospect of Connor finding out that Jude thought that he was cute in front of the whole class, or just the fact that Jude found Connor cute, at all.
As their teacher read off partner names and adjectives, Jude sunk lower and lower, wanting to just hide under his desk.
"Jude.", their teacher read. "Sweet. Aww, looks like someone has a little crush on you, Jude."
Jude's cheeks heated. If you had any idea, how worse mine is...
His classmates cooed at him, some teasingly and others genuine. Jude was so over-whelmed by the attention and his internal nervousness, that he was completely unaware of Connor's cheeks that were dusted a light pink due to the beginning of a blush.
A few more names were drawn, and his classmates once again settled down. That is, until Connor's name was drawn.
"Connor.", their teacher read, and Jude wanted to just implode.
"Cute. Oh my god, that's adorable.", their teacher almost squealed.
Connor spun around in his seat, staring at Jude incredulously. His mouth was slightly opened in shock, his cheeks blushing red, his eyes blinking rapidly, before he awkwardly cleared his throat and spun back around to face the front of the room. Now, Jude just wanted to disappear.
Daria's voice was heard above all of her classmates shouting as she called out, "Wait. Aren't Jude and Connor partners?"
And Jude really didn't understand why the floor hadn't opened up and swallowed him whole, considering he had been begging it to for so long.
"I wrote it."
Oh, Taylor, you angel, you goddess.
"It was just a prank on Jude.", the girl gave a light laugh. "Sorry. I guess it wan't very funny."
The teacher glared at her. "It most definitely wasn't. Anything you would like to say to Connor and Jude?"
"Right. Sorry, Jude."
Jude could only gape at the girl. Good 'ol Taylor.
"And to Connor?", their teacher asked through clenched teeth.
Taylor smirked. "Jude's adjective wasn't a prank, though. Connor really thinks that Jude's sweet. Isn't that just adorable?"
Connor glared holes into his best friend, and apparently Taylor could feel it because her smirk widened into a grin.
Their classmates once again erupted, and the teacher sighed as the bell rang.
***
"Jude? Jude, sweetie, you're scaring us."
"Oh. Sorry.", Jude blinked out of his second daze.
Stef placed a hand on his forehead. "No temperature."
"Maybe you should stop interrogating him. He's probably just stressed."
The blonde placed her hands on her hips in true officer fashion, raising thin eyebrows at her eldest son. "Interrogating?"
"You, know. I'm an officer, so I know when something's wrong.", Brandon said in a high-pitched voice. "Not to mention, that everything's usually wrong!"
"Excuse me, Mister-"
"Guys.", Lena snapped. "Not now. Can at least one conversation not be about you two, for once?"
Both mother and son opened their mouths to protest, but shut them upon Lena's glare.
"This is about Jude, and-"
"I'm fine, guys, really.", the boy protested.
"And that blush of his.", Lena muttered.
"I'm fine!", Jude squeaked, before clearing his throat, his cheeks heating up once more.
Brandon snorted, before sing-songing, "Someone's got a crush..."
Stef and Lena shared a look and Jude stabbed a meatball.
"Can we please just eat?", the boy tried, not denying it at all.
"Alright."
Lena smiled into her mug. "Let's eat."