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Being a middle school teacher was, for the most part, totally and entirely unremarkable. The kids were growing out of the phase where they’d say incriminating things about their parents, accusing them of drinking and driving for drinking water while driving, but still too young to have meaningful conversations with. As a result, the middle school teachers of North Hills Charter Academy turned their attention to the drop-off and pick-up lines they tended to.
Kayla Cansino was a relatively new teacher at the school, but she’d been made privy to the whole pick-up situation. While she was happily married, she knew that many of her female–and male, let her not discriminate–coworkers had a bit of a thing for the firefighters who came in, or at least, two very particular firefighters that came in.
Thanks to the nosiness of her coworkers, Kayla knew their names to be Evan Buckley and Eddie Diaz. The story went, according to urban (her coworker Craig might have been a little too involved in this, but she was thankful for drama was not based on faculty not getting along) legend, that Eddie Diaz and Evan Buckley were exes who co-parented their kid, and kept getting back together and breaking up.
Kayla, knowing that Craig Pelton was best known for his elaborate costumes and schemes, took this with a grain of salt. Gossip and rumours aside, it was clear that a whole group of firefighters rotated dropping off and picking up their kids, and no one knew exactly what their relationship was to one another.
This was a school in Los Angeles, catering to preschoolers and eighteen year olds alike, so Kayla did sometimes wonder why no one had ever asked the two about their relationship at one of the many, many, many PTA events the school had held over the years, but she was new here, so what did she really know?
Besides, she was almost entirely sure that the whole relationship between Evan Buckley and Eddie Diaz was fashioned through the intense boredom and longing felt by her peers. It couldn’t possibly be anything more than an urban legend.
1. The Time They Carpooled
So it turned out that Kayla Cansino was very, very wrong. Usually, the teachers rotated through drop-off and pick-up duty, and she had never once managed to be on duty when Evan Buckley or Eddie Diaz were there.
That was, until one fateful February morning, when she’s covering for a fifth grade teacher who got way too drunk the night before (it was a Wednesday), and a Jeep rolls up and she witnesses, with her own eyes, an almost certainly illegal amount of people climb out of it.
She sees a couple of students she recognizes–Christopher Diaz, for one, the child best known for being co-parented by the two firefighters Kayla sees in front of her right now. She also recognizes Jee-Yun Buckley-Han, who had just started kindergarten. And by recognizes, she means that she has to take the girl down towards the preschool entrance, where she watches Evan Buckley sign her name as he signs her in.
This makes sense, she thinks, Evan Buckley and Jee-Yun Buckley-Han. He’s related to the kid, somehow, the last name gives it away. She could be his daughter, she guesses, but where’s the Han of the Buckley-Han? There’s three other kids with them–a girl named Mara, who’s about Chris’s age, and Denny Wilson, another kid in their grade. The last kid, Kayla doesn’t recognize–but he’s definitely older than the others; a high schooler for sure.
While she understands how Eddie Diaz and Evan Buckley would be dropping off Christopher and Jee-Yun, how did the other three kids get into the mix? She had so many questions. They all seem to be familiar with each other, but Mara and Jee-Yun especially.
“You have a good day,” Kayla hears Mara tell Jee-Yun. “And we can play together after school,”
At lunch, she’s talking to her friend Cindy, another middle school teacher. “I understand carpooling if you live near each other, but five kids really feels like a bit much.”
“And here I thought you didn’t believe in the whole co-parenting firefighters conspiracy theory,” Cindy teases, doing that last part in air quotes.
“Hey, whether or not they’re dating is none of my business. I just want to know why a man who supposedly has no kids is dropping off five of them in the morning,”
“You don’t think Christopher is his kid?”
Kayla shrugs. “I don’t know. And then there’s Jee-Yun, too,”
“Jee-Yun’s not his kid, she’s his niece. I’ve done enough afternoon pick-ups to know who her parents are. Plus, she calls him Uncle Buck,”
“What about Mara and Denny? And the high schooler?”
Cindy explains that Mara and Denny are Mara and Denny Wilson, the kids of Hen and Karen Wilson. “Henrietta–or Hen, as she asks us to call her, is another firefighter. I think she works with Eddie and Evan. Karen’s a rocket scientist. She used to do the best presentations for career day.”
“But who’s the high schooler?”
“No idea,” Cindy shrugs.
“The two girls–Mara and Jee-Yun. They kind of act like sisters, don’t they?”
Under ordinary circumstances, Kayla wouldn’t think too hard about a man dropping off his niece, leading a bit of carpooling. Sure, Evan and Eddie could just be good friends. But good enough friends to come together in one car to drop off Eddie’s son, Evan’s niece and three other kids–the kids of their coworkers? Now, Kayla just had more questions.
2. The Time At The Bake Sale
Thanks to Cindy, Kayla knew that Hen and Karen Wilson were married. But watching them now, at the PTA bake sale she’d been roped into helping with, she thinks that she’d figure it out pretty quickly.
However, knowing that they were married–and that Mara and Denny were their kids, didn’t really explain the rest of the kids. This time, they brought someone else with them.
“I hope you don’t mind that we brought help,” Hen had told Kayla, who hadn’t minded at all. The more volunteers, the better, she thought, especially as she watched half a dozen kids running around, their sugar highs showing no signs of wearing off.
The help in question happens to be a girl who couldn’t be older than twenty-two, who introduces herself as May Grant, a former student at the school. She doesn’t say much more than that, and it hits Kayla, when she’s getting ready for bed that night, that she has no idea how the girl knew Hen and Karen Wilson. She doubted that a girl this young was a rocket scientist, and she figured that it was very unlikely for the girl to be a firefighter.
Kayla sees a part of herself in the girl, but she can’t quite place it.
“How did you know you wanted to be a teacher?” May asks, as they’re cleaning up the tables that were set up in the school’s gym.
Kayla shrugs. “I never planned for it. I had no idea what I wanted until I was almost thirty, and a friend of mine called me here and I figured it was worth a shot. I know I should probably be telling you something better, something about chasing your dreams, but I was never the kind of person to have that many of those,”
“Eddie kind of said the same thing. I asked him how I know when I’m doing the right thing, and he told me to tell him when I figured it out,”
Kayla can’t help but laugh at that. She figures that this is the same Eddie as Eddie Diaz, father of Christopher Diaz.
May continues. “When you’re a kid, it seems like adults have all the answers, and then you grow up and you realize…”
“We’re all just making it up as we go along,”
“Yeah,” May says, “that,”
So May knew Eddie well enough, as well as Hen and Karen. She’s still not quite sure how that fits into things.
3. The Time The Cops Show Up
By now, Kayla knows better than to expect normalcy from Christopher Diaz and Co., but that did not mean she was in any way expecting to see a cop car roll into the pickup line. She’s been chosen for pick-up duty this time, and she’s on duty with one of the kindergarten teachers, George Clements.
The two of them exchange a look, and it’s clear to Kayla that George–even as a tenured teacher, had never seen this before. “Did something happen?” Kayla asks, and George shakes his head. It was, until then, a completely normal day.
Luckily, the two of them aren’t given much time to mull over things, because a Police Sergeant makes her way out of the car and heads towards the two of them.
“I’m here to pick up Jee-Yun Buckley-Han, Mara Wilson, Denny Wilson–and uh, Buck and Eddie’s boy” she says the last part almost to herself, “Christopher Diaz. Do you need to see some ID? I know I haven’t picked up Jee or Chris before,”
Buck and Eddie’s boy? Kayla thinks. She knew Eddie was the kid’s dad, but Buck? She’s drawing a mental map in her mind, wondering what Buck could be a nickname for. As she goes through that, George gets the grace of looking through the pre-approved list of guardians eligible to pick up the kids. “I think we’re going to need your name, to start,”
“Oh. Right. You’re new here, aren’t you?” The woman says. “I’m Athena Grant. LAPD Sergeant," Kayla doesn’t tell her that she could tell from the car.
“Kayla Cansino. I’m a middle school teacher,” Kayla says, as George continues to comb through the list.
“That’s nice,” Athena says, and it almost sounds like she’s about to say something else when the high schooler she’d seen Eddie and Evan drop off runs up to her.
“Did you seriously have to show up in this car?” He asks.
“Harry, it’s either this or you walk home.”
“Oh come on,” he whines out.
More parents start to come up, so Kayla has no more time to linger on their relationship.
In fact, it isn’t until after Athena’s squad car is packed with the five kids, pulling out of the schools’ parking lot, that she even makes the connection between Athena Grant, the LAPD Sergeant and May Grant, the former student who’d come in with the Wilson’s during the PTA bake sale.
They’re about to go home when Kayla turns to face George. “Hey, how many people are approved to pick up those kids?” She knows that she doesn’t have to clarify; as weird as blended families in LA tend to get, there’s only five kids who’ve been picked up from school in a police Sergeant's car.
“They each have emergency contacts–Jee Yun’s got her parents–Maddie and Howard Han, her uncle, Evan Buckley–” Buckley, Kayla thinks. She remembers what Athena called Christopher, Buck and Eddie’s boy. Buck, she thinks, must be short for Buckley. “She’s also got Anne and John Lee, her grandparents, as well as an Albert Han, listed as another uncle. But if you mean people all of the five kids have, there’s about eight commonalities,”
“And do we know anything about them?” Kayla presses. She knows that Evan Buckley–Buck, according to Athena, at least–Eddie Diaz and Athena Grant are on the list–she’s seen proof of that with her own eyes.
It’s safe to assume, she thinks, that Hen and Karen Wilson as well as Maddie and Howard Han are also on that list–given that their kids make up three of the five that Kayla watched be herded into Athena’s car. But if she’s right, then who’s the eighth?
George shrugs. “Are you really that invested in the personal lives of your students’ guardians? You need to watch some reality TV,”
Kayla stutters, trying to deny her obsession, but it’s too late now.
When she’s driving home, she thinks about what Athena said again. Buck and Eddie’s boy . She meant Christopher, she said as much, and Eddie Diaz was obviously the boy’s father. But this woman, who was clearly close enough to the pair to be pre-approved to pick-up their (?) son had called him Buck’s boy . She thinks now, to the quick glimpses of Buck that she saw, and thinks that there’s some resemblance between him and Christopher.
But maybe George is right–maybe she is too invested in this.
4. The Time Kayla (almost) Figures It Out
It takes a lot longer than Kayla had anticipated to figure out who the eighth common guardian is. She sees Evan and Eddie again, and she’s really helpless, because she really, really wants to know if they’re together or not. She thinks about just dropping a “your son” while talking to Evan, just to see how he reacts. On Christopher’s paperwork–according to Cindy, that was, because Kayla would never break confidentiality laws–Buck is not listed as a parent, but Kayla’s been in LA long enough to know a title doesn’t mean anything.
The two really act like a couple, for what it’s worth. They’re almost entirely in sync, working seamlessly together to lure a kindergartener, three middle schoolers and a teenager into the car.
“I don’t know why I couldn’t just walk home,” The teenager–Harry, of course, whines.
“What, you don’t think we’re cool anymore?” Eddie retorts, and Kayla totally-not-creepily watches him adjust the carseat for Jee-Yun, who he’s holding in his arms. She isn’t the only one either; she catches Evan doing the same thing out of the corner of her eye. Interesting.
“Can you take me to May’s instead of Mom and Bobby’s?” Harry asks. May–that must be May Grant, who of course, must be his sister . Bingo, Kayla thinks.
Evan gives him a look at that. “What are you hiding from them?”
Harry groans. “You’re supposed to be Bobby’s bonus kid, don’t snitch,” That’s two mentions of Bobby now–he’s seemingly Harry’s stepdad, as well as a father figure for Evan, and Athena’s husband, most probably. Watching this interaction unfold gave Kayla some insight into the dynamic between these families, but still only just a little.
Regardless, Eddie just laughs at Harry’s complaint. Evan gives Eddie a dirty look.
“Come on Buck, it’s true,”
“Take that back or you’re not getting a home-cooked meal tonight,”
“But you promised to make Bobby’s lasagna,” Eddie and Chris exclaim in complete unison. Like father, like son, Kayla supposes.
Kayla sees Karen come in several times–almost never with Hen, and Kayla would be lying if she said that her favourite days weren’t the ones where Karen was picking up the kids. They all love her, there’s no doubt about it. Harry doesn’t even complain about being forced into the car with the younger kids.
Then there’s Maddie, who always hugs Mara extra tightly when she sees her. Even if Kayla knows nothing about their family dynamics, it’s heartwarming nonetheless.
There’s exactly one time when Hen Wilson and Howard Han come in together, and it throws Kayla entirely off-kilter. That is, of course, until she realizes that the pair must be best friends. There’s something different about them, compared to the way that she sees Evan and Eddie act, but she just can’t put her finger on it.
It takes about three months before she finally sees Bobby–the man who she assumes to be Athena’s husband, and May and Harry’s dad. Or, step-dad, she supposes, remembering how Harry called the man by his name, and not dad.
He really is, for a lack of better words, such a dad. From the moment he steps out of his car, all five of the kids come running towards him. Jee-Yun yells out his name is her adorable little kid voice, and he smiles and lifts her up.
“Oh my, you’re so big now, aren’t you?” He smiles, pretending to work out his arms while holding her. It’s really endearing.
He ruffles Chris’s hair when he sees him. Chris had been in a bad mood today, and Bobby seems to notice this too. “I’m sorry that Buck isn’t here to pick you up,” There it is–another mention of Buck, or Evan Buckley.
“He promised,” Chris says. “He said he’d pick me up today,”
“I know, I’m sorry, kid,” Bobby extends an arm to Chris. “He really, really wanted to be here,”
“Then why isn’t he?” Chris says, and he whispers the next part so quietly that Kayla is almost convinced that she made it up. “Why does everyone leave me?”
“Chris–” Bobby starts, but Christopher doesn’t let him finish, he just gets inside the car silently.
Of everyone approved for pick-up of those five kids, it seems that Buck is the only one without a kid of his own. But with the way Chris talks about him, Kayla thinks that he might as well be.
5. The Time At The Parent-Teacher Interviews
Even though Kayla isn’t Christopher’s teacher, she’s still a middle school teacher conducting parent-teacher interviews at the same time, just two classrooms over.
She steps outside for a moment, after an hour and a half of back to back interviews (as much as it pains her to say it, parent teacher interviews are her least favourite time of year), after an interview finally–FINALLY!–finishes early to see Evan and Eddie standing outside of Christopher’s teacher’s classroom.
Interesting, she thinks, not at all for the first time, very interesting.
And to Kayla, them both being here–as well as everything else she’d heard and seen last school year–makes the two of them co-parenting Christopher an indisputable fact. However, this was LA, there were plenty of people who were being co-parented.
If it wasn’t for the way the two of them seemed to be attached at the hip, Kayla would almost think they’re divorced. Maybe they’re one of those weird (no offense) best friends who started to date and decided they were better off as friends and actually meant it.
That would explain how close the two men were, Kayla supposed, how they seemed to toe the line in between platonic and something different, something more, from the way that they carried themselves and existed in each other’s spaces. But she still didn’t know for sure.
+1 The Time At the Gay Bar
Kayla, being a married woman in her mid (late) 30s, was not exactly the kind of person to frequent gay bars; because why would she? But Craig, the most, uh, flamboyant, of her coworkers, was really insistent on having his birthday party at the gay bar – and by birthday party, it was really just Craig forcing all of his coworkers to go out and celebrate him. Although Kayla didn’t know the man very well, it seemed like a very Craig thing to do.
So here she was, for the very first time in her life, surrounded by an interesting mix of middle school teachers and very sweaty, very glittery mesh and leather-clad men, as Britney Spears blasted through the speakers.
Kayla spends the first part of the night in the corner, nursing a Vodka Cran, not really sure if she wants to put herself out there - and frankly, now that she isn’t in her twenties anymore, she finds that she quite enjoys the people watching, seeing all of these young people (even if she’s plenty young herself, thank you very much) find joy on the dance floor.
It isn’t long until she finds herself drawn to a very familiar face - in the darkness of the gay bar, she has to stare a little longer than would be considered socially acceptable before she realizes that she’s staring at none other than Evan Buckley, the maybe-father of North Hills Charter Academy Sweetheart Christopher Diaz.
He looked…well, his hair was curly - and from a totally objective unbiased point of view, Kayla found that it suited him very well. He’s grinning from ear to ear, holding what looks like two beers and wearing a mesh shirt that had “Hustler” printed on the front. Using her excellent deduction skills, Kayla made the incredibly astute observation that this man was probably not heterosexual.
Well, that supports the theory that he could be dating and/or common-law married to North Hill’s DILF of the Year, Eddie Diaz. The dance floor lights up - in rainbow fluorescent lights, were you expecting anything else - and Kayla gets a better view of the man, as he makes his way out onto the dance floor with what seems to be a friend of his.
Kayla doesn’t recognize this man - he seems a bit younger than Buck, but not by much. He’s definitely not anyone on the approved pick-up list, she thinks, as she watches him sigh as Buck forces him to dance, a grin that’s truly contagious plastered on the blond’s face.
“Hey,” someone says, and Kayla realizes that she’s maybe been looking too long at the firefighter. She looks up at the voice talking, and sees Cindy.
“Hi,” Kayla smiles, “I had no idea you were coming,”
“Ouch,” Cindy says, sitting in the chair across from her. Her eyes follow where Kayla’s were, just a moment ago, landing on Evan Buckley and she smirks. “Did you see the Wilsons here with them?”
“The Wilsons too?” Kayla echoes, her eyes drifting back over to where the blond was standing and sure enough, there the couple were, slow dancing together. She couldn’t help but smile, seeing them together like that.
“Let’s go dance,” Cindy says, offering Kayla a hand. “I have an idea,”
“Please don’t tell me you’re going to hit on Buckley as an “experiment”, Cindy,” Kayla sighs. And Cindy just grins, as if to say, if you don’t want me to lie, I won’t say anything at all.
They make their way to the center of the dance floor, dancing to the Troye Sivan song that’s playing now. And now that they’re in the middle of the dance floor, Kayla now has an absolutely perfect view of Buck dancing - but he’s dancing with another guy, not the one from earlier and Kayla really probably should look away because what they’re doing is definitely not PG.
So, not together then.
“Kayla. Look,” Cindy hisses, spinning Kayla around with no warning.
And then she sees it, what Cindy must be referring to - Eddie Diaz, who’s standing at a table with the guy from earlier, drinking his beer without taking his eyes off of Buck. If Kayla hadn’t already seen how they acted about each other, she’d be halfway to calling 911 right now. It wouldn’t be until a few hours later that she realized that Buck and Eddie were 911.
“You think he’s going to go and get his man?” Cindy asks.
“God, I sure hope so,” Kayla sighs, even as she remembers that she told herself she wasn’t going to get too caught up in this. Oops.
Three minutes and seventeen seconds.
That’s how long it takes for Eddie to finish his beer, all while staring daggers through the man Buck was dancing with (which Buck definitely had to notice - come on), stalk up to the two of them and literally untangle the two men from each other, pulling Buck in.
Without Kayla even saying a word, Cindy directs their dancing closer to the two men - so much so that they’re within earshot.
“Dude, what was that?” Buck starts.
“Don’t make me say it,”
“Say what ?” Buck stresses, and even Kayla can hear the genuine confusion in his voice.
“You were letting him dance all up on you, like you’re just some- like you’re not in public,” Eddie raises his voice on the last word.
Buck laughs. “Eddie. It’s a gay bar, come on. This is why we came here. Why’d you come if you have such an issue with me dancing with a man?”
“I don’t have an issue with you dancing with a man,”
“Are you sure?” Buck retorts. “Because it kind of feels like you do,”
“I don’t have an issue with you dancing with a man,” Eddie repeats. “I don’t like that the man you’re dancing with isn’t me.”
“Oh.”
“Oh.” Eddie repeats.
“So you’re saying that you want to dance with me?”
“You’re an idiot sometimes.”
“But I’m the idiot you trust the most in the world,”
“You’re my best friend.” Eddie says, and there’s the undertone of something more in there. Kayla guesses that it’s safe to say they figured it out.
“How long until they get married?” Cindy says, as the two women make their way back to Craig’s table for cake.
“A month. Tops.”
“$20 says they’ll show up to drop Chris off wearing wedding bands next week,”
And Kayla gave those $20 to Cindy with pride.