Bette wiped her forehead of sweat from moving the furniture. “No, no. It’s fine. I’m fine. Bring those little brats on.”

“That’s the spirit!” Tina hugged her. “If they give us any trouble, we’ll just slip em a mickey.”

“Right.”

So Tina and Bette opened the doors to their home, which had now become the new headquarters for ‘Share Care.’

By nine am six children were habitants of the house. Four were between the ages of one and five, the other two were infants. Tina ran back and fourth from the nursery to the bathroom, slinging a bag of diapers over one shoulder and holding two bottles in her hands.

“Why did we agree to this?” She was now regretting the endeavor.

“Because you said it was a good idea, remember?” Bette chased the toddlers around in circles, holding her stomach for fear of throwing up.

“Oh, yeah. I remember. Why didn’t you stop me?”

***

“You handled yourself so well at the studio. It was like, Alice the professional.” Dana had been utterly grateful for her girlfriends intervening. How could she freeze up like that? And in front of Ellen?

“Well, I’m glad you think of me as a professional.” Alice buttered her toast. “So you talked to your parents, right?”

Dana had in fact spoke to them, but was on bad terms with her mother in particular. “She wasn’t very persuadable. I tried begging, but”

Alice tossed a piece of bread onto a plate with scrambled eggs and set it down in front of Dana.

“We are just going to have to talk to her face to face, then.”

Dana took a bite of her breakfast. “We?”

“Yes, We. We’re a team, aren’t we? I mean, I cooked you breakfast.” She pointed to the black toast and brown-tinged eggs sitting on the table.

Dana tried to hide her disinterest of the food and smiled. “Yes. You certainly did.”

***

“I am so excited about this, Taylor. We’re going to have so much fun!” Jenny had finished packing her bags and was fishing out her best lipstick from her make-up drawer.

“I know we will. Hey, maybe you’ll meet some hot chick and hit it off.”

Jenny wasn’t sure if Taylor was serious or not.

“Joking.”

“Oh, good. Because I really look forward to spending time with you.”

Taylor threw her black duffel bag into the corner of the room and plopped herself onto Jenny’s queen size mattress. “There’s no one I’d rather be with.”

***

“Oh, great!” Bette moaned. “Great, just flipping great!”

Tina was stuck in the nursery, trying to get the two infants – in addition to her own two little ones- to get to sleep. “What? What happened?”

Bette stormed into the room, then quickly regretted it when she saw the babies lying down in their cribs. “Sorry,” she whispered, “but little Johnny Stewart just peed all over our bathroom wall.”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Tina raised her voice.

Bette saw the children stir and silenced her with her hand. “Shh. So what do you propose we do?”

Tina sat down on a chair by the nursery window. “*****, I don’t know. These one’s will probably fall asleep on their own. I’ll go clean up the mess, you think up the punishment.”

Bette’s eyes widened at that. “Punishment. That’s perfect. We’ll just lock him in the closet until his parents get back.”

Tina threw her a glance.

“I know, I know. No closets. I could make him watch one of those horrible Barney videos.”

Tina tried not to laugh. “You do know that those kids actually enjoy watching Barney.”

“They do? Geez, parenting is harder than I thought. Alright, I’ll make him sit in the corner for twenty minutes.”

Tina stood up and prepared herself for what she would be faced with in the bathroom. “Be my guest. I know I’m going to have a stern talking with this trouble maker Johnny Stewart.”

“Okay, meet me back here in a half hour.”

“Roger that.”

***