Title: Family Night

Author: Kayla

Summary: Eight-year-old Arianne has quite a presentation prepared for Family Night.

Disclaimer: Sanami Matoh owns FAKE. You get it, don't'cha?

Rating: PG

Warnings: Fluff (extremely sugary fluff)

Note: This is probably obvious but this takes place five years after In Trusting Eyes

"Don't be nervous, sweetie," Miss Shelley had said, when Arianne had arrived at school that morning. "I've looked over the paper you made, and you're going to do an amazing job tonight at Family Night."

Arianne was admittedly one of the shyest girls in Shelley's second grade class at Williams Elementary School. She loved to talk, of course, but she felt much better talking when one of her Papa's, or Bikky… or Aunt Caroline came over. When she was around strange people, she felt shy, and wanted to hide away until it felt safer.

When she had seen the school auditorium fill up that night, she felt terrible. She knew that her entire family was in the audience, but still, she never imagined that the second graders would have such huge families. Of course, her family was the largest of all.

She was worried of course. Most of her friends were doing very short papers, telling the people about their Mothers and Fathers, pets, brothers and sisters. But she was telling them about the ten people who meant the most to her, plus her own Mommy and Daddy, who made twelve.

Ryo had told her that she was going to do a good job. "Just smile, and pretend you're talking to us."

Ari had decided not to tell Ryo, or Dee, or any of the big people about her paper. She worked on it forever with Bikky and Cal, and they had told her that it would make Dee and Ryo very surprised. She wanted to surprise them, make them very happy. They had been very sneaky, trying to get everything she needed. Arianne was almost worried that she was lying, but Bikky said that it wasn't lying; it was a surprise.

Dee's advice had been different. He had told Ari to "break a leg," and that had led to a whole conversation that taught the girl what that meant. Ari thought it was funny for her Papa to say to her.

Caroline had come over with Toby and Kyle a weeks ago. Sarah couldn't come over that day. "Good luck Ari," Kyle had said. Kyle was in High School, and was very big in Ari's opinion. Sarah was even bigger and she went to the same school.

"Have a lot of fun," Caroline had said.

Toby, who was only five, and in kindergarten, didn't really know what to say to Ari, so he just said, "Ari's gonna be so cool at our school. I wanna see her!"

Now, it was time. She had been waiting for a long time, for her turn, and now it was time. Miss Shelley was saying her name. She could hear her say that Arianne Baker-MacLean was the next person up. She walked out onto the stage, and everybody was quiet. The things she had taken with Bikky's help were lying on a table.

"Hi," she said quietly, seeing her family taking up a long row of the audience. They were so big, there were so many of them. She smiled and forced her voice to get louder. "My name's Arianne, and I am eight years old. My family is very big. This is my Mommy and Daddy."

Ari smiled nervously, as she held up a big picture of her Mommy and Daddy. She wondered if people would start to think that they were alive. It was different than most kids, whose parents were alive. "My Mommy and Daddy died when I was three years old," she said quietly, to the sound of a sad silence.

She smiled in response to the sadness, but then laughed. "It is very sad," she said, nodding intelligently. Her blonde hair fell in her face when she did this. "I wish that they didn't, but my Papa says they are happy." She held up a picture of Ryo and Dee, and then a poster than said NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT.

"When I was three, my Papa's came to get me. My Papa's Dee and Ryo are police detectives."

Everyone laughed. She hated the way she said detectives, as the word always seemed to come out funny. But Bikky had told her that it was cute, so she hoped that's what these people were thinking. "They fight the bad guys in the city," she said excitedly. "It's a cool job. Papa Ryo took me to the police station and it's big!"

Ari could sense a bit of quietness, but Bikky had told her to expect it. "It'll be quiet for a minute," Bikky had said, nodding at her. "Some people will react weird cause you have a different family, but it'll be okay."

Ari laughed. Her 'big brother' Bikky thought that she was stupid sometimes. He thought that she didn't know that people would find her Papas weird, because they were boys who loved each other, when boys mostly loved girls. She understood that very well. She knew that people were stupid sometimes. Really, really stupid.

"My Papa brought Bikky to me," Arianne said with a proud smile, as she displayed another image. He doesn't live with my Papas, and me but he comes over a lot. He plays basketball, and is super good. He got married one year ago, to this girl." She pointed to the picture proudly, as the audience laughed.

"Bikky and Cal had a big wedding," Arianne said with wide eyes. "Everything was so pretty."

She breathed deeply, looking to the section. Caroline and Steven were looking up; she was ready to talk about them. "My family has other people too, cause it's so big. My Auntie Caroline was one of my daddy's friends. Her and my Uncle Steve have three kids. Sarah and Kyle are big kids that go to the High School. Toby is only five years old and I love playing with him. He was born only a little bit after I went to live with my Papas."

There was a slight awed sound, and Ari thought it meant that she was doing a good job. She breathed slowly. "Last is my Grandma Evie," she said quietly. "My Grandma Evie is Caroline's mommy and she's really…really…nice. She stays at home a lot, but she loves to read books with me. And now that I can read, I read to her."

Ari smiled, placing her last prop back down. "Thank you for listening," she said politely. "I took longer than the other kids, so I'm sorry. I just have a really big family. And they're all the coolest people, so thank you very much. I just have the best family ever."

The audience clapped and cheered. Ari smiled confidently, and walked to the side of the stage. Standing in a small room with her classmates, she waited for the rest of the class to finish with their stories.

"You did a really good job Ari," said Casey, a girl from the same High School as Sarah and Toby, who helped out Miss Shelley's classes all the time. Ari really likes Casey, because she was always smiling. "A really, really good job. You're family sounds really amazing."

Arianne could not help blushing. She had wanted so badly to do good, and it was really nice to hear this. "Thank you Casey," she said shyly.

"Really, Ari, you're an eight year old natural. It's brilliant."

Ari smiled, embarrassed, and then went to wait for her friends to finish. Before she knew it, her entire family flocked into the classroom, where they had been instructed to meet her after all the children finished. Toby was first, screaming out, "ARRRRIIII!"

She laughed, hugging the young boy. "Hi Toby," she said slowly, as things became a little blurry.

"That was cool, Ari!" Toby said excitedly.

"Yeah, you did a great job girl," Sarah said, following her brother in hugging Ari. She smiled. "I couldn't believe what a good speaker you are."

Caroline spoke next, hugging the girl too. Ari laughed, wondering why everyone wanted to hug her so much. "Ari, that was wonderful!" Arianne noticed that Caroline's eyes were messed up a little. Her make up, or something like that, was very messy, and all over her face. She was crying, Ari concluded.

"Caroline," Ari said slowly. "Did I make you cry?"

"A little sweetie," Caroline smiled, and Steve's arm was around her back. "I just really liked it. It was very beautiful."

Ari noticed her Papas, both of them standing behind everyone else, waiting for their own turns to talk, but Ari tried not to be anxious. "Wow," she said softly. "Girls cry when they're happy sometimes I guess."

"Not just girls," Bikky said, pointing at Dee in front of Ari. Ari laughed, knowing that he was being funny, trying to make her laugh. She couldn't really tell for sure, but maybe her Papas were crying too.

"Did I do a good job?" she asked Ryo slowly.

He didn't say anything, so for a moment, she thought he hated it. She tried to remember what she might have done wrong. She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Did you hate it?" she asked.

"No," he said, and it sounded like he was running and had to breathe hard. His eyes were watery too. "No, sweetheart it was…it was so…it was just…"

"What he's trying to say is it was amazing." Her Papa Dee answered for Ryo. "He's just really happy you said all of that Ari. You made us so proud."

"Did I really?" She was so happy when Ryo nodded in response. "Thank you Papa!"

Caroline smiled slowly, as if she wanted to talk. Ari looked up at them, and Sarah instead said something. "And guess what?" she said excitedly. "I worked on videotaping your speech, and now we can let your Grandma Evie see it."

"Good," Ari said, grinning. "I want my Grandma Evie to see that I talked about our books."

"She'll be delighted, sweetie," Caroline replied softly. "My mother will be delighted."

Ari nodded, but couldn't help something that was sort of bugging her. "Papa Ryo?" she asked slowly, knowing her voice sounded babyish. "Papa?"

"What is it sweetheart?" he asked gently.

"Do you think my Mommy and Daddy would have liked this?"

She could feel the pausing around her, as Ryo and Dee looked at each other, and Caroline's eyes went down. Sarah pushed Kyle and Toby to the side and Steve turned his head. She might have said something wrong.

Yet Ryo was smiling. "Ari, your parents loved this with every bit of them!" he said enthusiastically. "Your mother was such a speaker herself. I bet she's proud of you now."

"Really?"

"Really Miss Ari."