Aristotle Lawson grew up in a blessed household, but didn’t truly appreciate what he had before his parents passed away. He took advantage of his loving parents who gave him freedom to be himself and do what he wanted. He started getting into a lot of unpleasant pastimes, and even dragging his childhood friends into a few. It usually wasn’t anything major, but definitely enough that their group started to be labelled as delinquents by a few of the adults in the community.

The only one that didn’t get labelled as that as much was his Teddy Bear. Aristotle was always protective of Theodore and refused to bring him along for most of the crazy parties the next town over. He insisted that Theo continued with his drama club activities, and would pick him up after each and every practice. After spending time with his Teddy, Aristotle would then decide which rave to attend next, sometimes not even returning home for a few days.

He hadn’t really understood how lucky he was to have the family he had until his boyfriend got disowned when their relationship came to light. His precious lover had come over crying with a bruised cheek and a small duffel bag one evening. Aristotle wasn’t even at home and had to be informed via a call from his mother. That was the beginning of the seed that told him that he needed to shape up.

The seed was planted but had not truly been watered until his only love ran away after he had gotten it in his head that Aristotle had knocked up one of their friends. The very fact that his lover and childhood friend couldn’t even trust the love he had held for him was a huge shock to Aristotle. Those years after that became the worst years of his life. The final straw that made him finally shape up though was the death of his parents and how afterwards he found a series of journals addressed for him.

His mother had started writing letters of hopes and dreams for her child from the moment she learned she was expecting. Aristotle learn through them that she had a miscarriage before him and was terrified that it was going to happen again. She had decided to comfort herself by writing small letters to her unborn child. It had ended up becoming a habit that carried over even after he was born. What mother doesn’t have constant worries about her children?

In the journals she recorded each step, inch grown, and new word he learned. She worried over each new change that arose. Praying in each and every entry that he would grow up happy and safe, and worrying if she was raising him right. She wrote about everything she and his father wanted to do with him when he was old enough. She even mentioned how they had come up with his name. She pondered about what each of his firsts were going to be like and made sure to update the journals when they each happened. She cooed over every sweet moment, and grieved over all the sad moments. She would ponder and compare the difficulties her generation faced versus the generation his would face. When he was old enough to start school it was a whole new set of worries ranging from the friends he would make to the quality of the teachers, to the feeling of missing him everyday as she tried to get used to being away from him for so long.

When the middle school years came around Theodore noticed an increase in prayers for him to stay safe and hope that he knew they loved him no matter what happened. In the entry about him coming out as bi, his mother just wrote how proud she was that he had the confidence in himself to be who he was, and happy that he felt secure enough to tell them something so important. The entry about Theodore being introduced to the family was full of compliments and hope for a long and loving relationship. She continued to emphasis in later sections about how much a part of the family Theo had become, especially those after he had moved in downstairs. She started to include more letters about Theo and how good he was for Aristotle. The only time she had rebuked Aristotle anytime throughout the journals was in the letter where she had found out why Theodore had left. Then there was an increase of entries about how worried she was about her son and his unsafe lifestyles, yet always making sure she wrote that her love still conquered everything he could be going through.

The final entry Aristotle’s mother wrote was a simple letter from the day before she passed. She had found out where Theodore was staying and said that they were planning on going to talk with him. She had wished to patch up the relationship between the two boys since it tore her up inside to see her two favorite boys at such a sad place in their lives. She didn’t go into details about what she knew, but kept mentioning how depressing it was based on the information she had gathered. She then went on to portray just how much she loved them both even when they were at such low points in their lives. Finishing the letter like all the others: “I love you baby through space and time. The love of your mother is greater than any philosopher could comprehend. Love, Your Mommy Dearest”.

Aristotle immediately started to bawl his eyes out like a little kid for a whole day afterwards. Then he got up and threw away all of the things that would tempt him to go back to his old ways before sitting down at a computer and searching for a college to attend.

After a few weeks of research and confiding in the friends that were a good influence and had stuck with him through thick and thin, and had refused to give up on him, Aristotle had finally decided on a college to attend and started on the path to turn his life around.

He ended up taking almost eight years in total from the moment of his parents passing to study and enter college, get a degree as a history teacher, and then get hired by his Alma Mater. He had also ended up getting his theatre certification since it reminded him of Theodore.

What he was most worried about was if his Alma Mater would even have a position open for him, but surprisingly his old history teacher had been wanting to retire soon and was just waiting for a replacement to fill his shoes. Even the position for taking over the school’s drama club was easier than he thought it would be since the previous advisor had become the advisor for some other clubs and was in over their heads with keeping each club running.

He quickly settled back in at his old school as a teacher. He surprisingly could recall more memories in this school than he thought he would. He was even glad to be back. Within his first week of being a teacher Ann had invited him out for congratulatory drinks and catch him up on all the Oakhaven gossip he had missed while he was out of town studying at his college. (He had gotten a temporary apartment in the city that his college, Eastedge University, was located.) She still wouldn’t give him the contact information of Theodore though, no matter how much he tried to pry the information out of her. She just kept insisting that it was not a good time yet. He pouted a lot that night since he had done all this work to turn his life around, yet still hadn’t been able to convince Ann to let him meet his adorable Teddy Bear.

Two years later he was standing in the music classroom writing on a whiteboard when he had heard the soft voice he had thrived on in his dreams each night. A voice that kept him going each sleepless night full of studying. What had drove him to become the advisor of the drama club that the voice had been apart of for most of their middle and high school life. A voice he had almost given up on hearing in the same room as him ever again.

“Hey Ari! It’s been a while!” When Aristotle whipped around there he was. Dressed up in an elaborate Goldilocks Mother Bear costume. He had always been the one to overdo it when dressing up.

“Teddy?!” Aristotle really couldn’t believe his eyes. It was really him, aged a little bit, but it was his Teddy Bear. He stood rooted, unable to move. He had dreamt of this reunion, and it was finally here. “Y-you’re back?”

Theodore smiled his adorable smile. “Yeah. I’m back. For good hopefully. The gang can now be complete again.” As the chuckle escaped from Theodore’s mouth Aristotle grew pale. What if he still thought… Theodore somehow knew what Aristotle was about to worry about and quickly cleared the air. “Don’t worry, I’ve already heard the truth. I’ve just been… busy with something.” Aristotle noticed Theodore’s focus shift lovingly to someone else. He also shifted his gaze curiously, and noticed Vivian standing confused to the side with Philip. “I believe my step-son has been in your care this past month.”

“Step-son? Vivian is?” You got married? Aristotle had a million questions but they could barely escape his lips.

“It’s a long story, but yeah. I ended up taking my ex-wife’s last name so I’m longer Theodore Periwinkle anymore either, I’m now Theodore Thorpe. Which frankly I prefer anyways.”

Aristotle didn’t miss the ex-wife part and felt a little momentary relief. “I guess we have a lot to talk about and catch up on then.” Aristotle smiled softly at his old boyfriend. “And not just about Vivian’s outstanding grades and performance here.”