This meant Mickey and I had to sit down with both the girls. During this Mickey informed them he, along with me, Rhiannon and Conrad (who I’d told all this and he’d in turn shocked me by telling me we had his full support “with whatever you need, Amelia”), would be going to the school to put a stop to it.

The girls freaked out and Auden stepped in and shared he thought it best to let nature take its course without parents getting involved. He’d also promised it would.

Mickey gave Auden’s assessment, “Two days, bud. Then, sorry, we’re steppin’ in.”

It didn’t take two days.

The next day in the high school parking lot on their way to Auden’s car (since they lived across the street from each other, he was now taking his sister, as well as Ash and Cillian to and from school), Polly unleashed holy hell on the girls.

Auden wasn’t around yet, but unfortunately for Polly, some of Kellan’s friends were.

They got Kellan. He came running. Auden heard word. He came running.

And two older boys, both good-looking, both popular, shared in no uncertain terms Pip and Ash were off limits.

Polly didn’t like that, shared it back and that was when the real mean girls, watching this from not very far, swung in.

According to Pip, Ash and Auden, who reported this to me sitting around my bar (while Cillian was hoovering through some homemade sugar cookies), they’d decimated Polly.

It was so bad that she didn’t go to school after that for two days.

When she came back, the new status quo had been established.

The bully had become the bullied.

Polly’s “friends” all defected, attempting to establish themselves with Ash and her crowd, who were not very accepting.

Auden wasn’t exactly arrogant about his call of the situation, but he did get in a few comments the like of, “Knew this would happen.”

However, as Polly was receiving her comeuppance, Kellan had finally drawn up the nerve to ask Aisling out.

Aisling was stunned and quietly thrilled.

Pippa was openly beside herself with glee.

The same could not be said for Mickey.

His first reaction was to flatly refuse to allow this.

Aisling was crushed, shared that with her mother and me, and both Rhiannon and I double-teamed him to relent.

He did.

Of a sort.

They could meet, being dropped off (since Kellan couldn’t drive yet) to have dinner at the diner. They had two hours. Then they were getting picked up separately.

However, this could not happen until during the Christmas break.

What Mickey didn’t know was that Kellan was walking Aisling to class, holding hands with her, and his posse was eating lunch with her posse.

Pippa shared this with me.

I did not share this with Mickey.

During this time, my kids had not quite made up with their father. He was trying and they were not rebuffing, but they stayed full-time with me.

Naturally, through all this, so much going on in such a short time at the same time preparing for Christmas, there had been an intermingling of families. The kids were getting used to each other. Auden was taking the lead as a big brother of sorts to all, including Cillian who wasn’t at his school.