I was sitting in Lins dressing room Saturday, eating a salad. He was working on something, his headphones were in and his leg was shaking. I was curled up content on the couch. Eventually his phone rang, he pulled his headphones out and answered it.
"Rebecca?" I heard him ask, and that caught my attention, "yes this is Lin, Rebecca why are you calling? The adoption has been finalized for months."
Rebecca was my social worker. She was the one that checked in through all of the fostering I was in in New York.
I looked at Lin and he seemed nervous and upset.
"Sweetie?" Lin looked at me, covering the phone with his hand, "can you go into Leslies room for a bit?" He asked.
"Yeah, sure." I stood up, carrying my salad, he stopped me on my way out, grabbing my hand.
"I love you." He looked at me seriously.
"I love you too Dad." I smiled, then left the room. I walked down to Leslies dressing room and lightly knocked on the door.
"Yeah?" I heard him.
"It's Abi, can I come in?" I asked.
"Oh! Of course, come in!" He seemed excited. I opened the door and slowly walked in. I saw Leslie sitting on his couch with a video camera in front of him. "Abi, I'm doing Ask Odom Jrs. You can help!" He smiled, and motioned for me to sit next to him. "So hey." He smiled at the camera and nudged my rib, seeing as how I had like, half a bite of Caesar salad in my mouth. "It's time for some hashtag Ask Odom Jr.'s and I have a special guest. I'm guessing most of you know her, um, Lin-Manuel Miranda's little bundle of what's good in life, Abi Miranda."
"Hi." I smiled, "I'm eating a salad." I added.
"You are. And I am jealous." He said, pulling his phone out of his pocket.
"You can try a bite, it's really good." I offered, handing him my fork.
"Oh! Thanks." He said, taking a bite of my lunch. "That is good." He added, scrolling through Twitter for the questions. "Thank you, Lin-Manuel Miranda's bundle of what's good in life."
"Oh anytime." I giggled.
"Alrighty, first question comes to us from Lisa Falkenburg, who's handle is @jamiemaddie, now, Lisa asks, what was the first musical you remember seeing live?" He thought for a second, "I don't know, I feel like it was, ugh, I saw an amateur production of Camelot." He announced then looked at me expectantly.
"Oh!" I lit up a little, "when I was like, eight, my biological grandpa took me to see The Lion King."
"Alrighty." He smiled at me, "next question, comes from Kara McSandon, her handle is @lovelessmarriage which I hope is homage to Congratulations, if not, Kara I'm so sorry. So, Kara asks, if I could describe Lin in three words what would they be. I would have to say, eccentric, caring, genius." He nodded, finalizing his answer. "Now, let's hear from someone who lives with him."
"I would say, loving, overprotective, and dedicated."
"Oh, well that's cute." He smiled.
"Well, he is loving, you can attest to that, and I mean, if you've ever stage doored and he came out, he like, he has this super human grip on me." I laughed.
"He has his reasons sweetie." Leslie said.
"I know."
"Okay! Next question."
•••
Lin's POV
"Hi, this is Rebecca Larson with Child Protective Services, is this Mr. Lin-Manuel Miranda?" I immediately got nervous when I heard her voice, this was Abi's social worker, why on earth was she calling, she wasn't supposed to be involved in our lives anymore.
"Rebecca?" I asked then noticed Abi perk up from where she was sitting, "yes this is Lin, Rebecca why are you calling? The adoptions been finalized for months." I looked over and Abi was watching me intently.
"Yes, well I'm afraid I have some bad news, we've received several calls indicating that you and your wife may be unfit parents." My heart dropped, "we're going to need to have time to sit down with you, do another home study, and reassess your adoption."
"Sweetie?" I asked Abi, covering the mouthpiece of the phone with my hand, "can you go into Leslies room for a bit?"
"Yeah, sure." She said, standing up. I reached out and grabbed her hand, stopping her for a second.
"I love you." I said, seriously.
"I love you too Dad." She smiled at me, and left the room.
"Mr. Miranda?" I heard Rebecca's voice in my ear. "Is there any time we could schedule to talk about these accusations. They are very serious."
"I know they're serious." I snapped, "I have tomorrow and Monday off." I sighed, not believing I was caving.
"Okay. We can do tomorrow. So, all we need is to talk to you as a family, and then we'd like some time to talk to you and your wife alone, and Abigail alone, and then if you could call someone close to the family and ask them to be there, please no one related, so not your parents or your wife's parents." She rattled off this enormous list.
"Alright, I take it this is at my apartment." I rolled my eyes.
"Yes. Thank you, I will see you tomorrow at 10:45 a.m."
"Thank you as well Mrs. Larson."
"Goodbye." She said and hung up. I groaned and almost chucked my phone across the room. I could lose my daughter. I could lose her, I can't lose her. I've been having nightmares about her death, now it's a realistic possibility that I could be ruled an unfit parent.
•••
Abi's POV
"Abigail?" I perked up, hearing Lin at the door to Leslies room. "Can you come out?" He asked.
"Sure." I called to him, then gave a little wave to the camera. I got up and left his room to see my dad, who was obviously pre-occupied.
"Abi, what did you do with your inheritance?" He asked, walking back to his dressing room.
"Oh. Um... Nothing yet." I lied. I didn't want to say I donated it. I just felt bad about saying 'yes I anonymously donated over 300,000 dollars to charity'
"Oh, okay. On an unrelated note, did you know I get updates from Graham Windham every Friday, letting me know donation amounts?" He asked.
"No Dad, that, shockingly has never come up in conversation before."
"Oh, well, someone anonymously donated 309,541 dollars and 12 cents." He announced, "which, ironically, was exactly how much money you got in inheritance."
"Okay, I donated it." I groaned.
"Abi I'm so incredibly proud of you." He said and I blushed, "that's a lot of money, that's going to help a lot of kids. I'm serious Mijita, that's really generous, and I couldn't be prouder." He gave me a little hug, "you're an amazing kid."
"You're an amazing dad." I replied, returning the hug.
"I hope so." He whispered, and lightly rubbed my back.
•••
I'm sorry this was late
I'm really tired
I have a tough schedule
APUSH, pre-calc, Spanish 3, Chem, English and Choir.
Now that I'm back in Spanish my translations are going to be less cringy.
Unless of course, someone would be willing to like, be a translator?? Like, someone I could message and ask how to say various things without it being obvious that I'm going to fail my 3rd period Spanish class.....
I'm sorry this is absurdly late.
THANK YOU FOR ALL THE GLASA THINGS THEY MADE ME SO HAPPY.
I love you all
Thanks for reading!
- Abi
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