A/N This has quite a bit of AU in it, and I'm just working with theories, ideas, boredom. None of this is meant to be taken seriously...at all. I don't have a beta.
Title: It's My Life, and I'll Scream if I Want To.
Rating: T to possible M
Characters/Pairings: Cally, Diana, Galen, Lee, Kara, Sam, Adama, with appearences made by: Nicky, Jammer, Tarn, Socinus, Anastasia, Tigh, Laura, Sharon (Athena), Sharon (Boomer), Karl, HotDog, Kat, Racetrack...ok...pretty much the entire cast. Cally/Galen, Diana/Sam, slight Kara/Sam, Lee/Kara, Adama/Laura, HotDog/Kat, Athena/Karl.
Summary: Cally Henderson was never a 'normal' girl. She had a bright shiny future, she was going to be a dentist! But she became a deckhand, and her life changed ... for the better is yet to be determined.
Disclaimer: I do not own BSG or any of it's characters (except the unfamilar OCs). They are property of Ronald D. Moore and co.
Warnings: Some adult sexual refrences, drinking, drug use, violence, and swearing.
Cally Simone Henderson was a thirteen year old genius with a mind to get the truth from people. She had always knew what she wanted to do in life. Dentistry. Yes sir, her life would revolve around those shiny white things in your mouth. She was proud of herself, she had straight A's, she played volleyball, and she was fairly popular . She had what every girl at Casemen-Adama-Shiri High School wanted . She would watch some of her other friends talk about how they were gonna go off and become pilots in the Fleet, she scoffed. Join the fleet? Who would do that? Not her.
When she was fourteen, things started to change. Her father took a job with a shitty boss and a low pay. Her older brother entered the fleet, and got killed accidentally by a rogue missile. Her family was in despair. She spent a lot of time at her family friend's houses, the Adamas and Seelixs.
Fifteen was no better. Cally became clinically depressed after she heard that her sister had been raped by her boyfriend. They had kept it from her, her parents had. Wanted to spare her the gruesome details about why her sister moved out and dropped out of school, why she never saw her anymore. Cally started her anti-depressants then.
Sixteen was better. Okay...that's a lie. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good either. She started dating guys she didn't feel any attraction to emotionally, she had smoked once, but stopped. She didn't know what to think anymore.
Seventeen hit her hard.
"Cally, can I ask you a question?" Daniel, her current boyfriend asked one crisp , summer day during study hall.
"Sure Dan, what's up?"
"Where…where are we going with this relationship?" Cally looked up at him questionably.
"What do you mean?" Cally turned the page of her physics book and answered another question in her notebook.
"Do you ever think…we'll …y'know. "
" Oh Dan, I don't know, we're so young, do you really think of getting married this young?" Daniel laughed . "What?"
"That's not what I was talking about."
"What? Then what were you…oh my gods…" Daniel raised an eyebrow.
" Now she gets it."
"Daniel, no, never." Cally began to collect her books and walk away.
" Don't walk away from me you bitch!" Daniel got up and grabbed her arms tightly.
" Don't call me a bitch." Cally growled. "Frak you. Y'know, the Adama's are here today, Commander Adama's wife and her sons. They could make sure your future in the fleet won't happen. They aren't fond of pervy frakkers like you, I know that for a fact, I'm friends with their sons. The Adama's are one of the most powerful families in the colonies."
" You'll regret this!" Daniel shouted to her retreating form.
" Bite me!" Cally hissed.
Cally went into the girls bathroom and into a stall. When she was sure no one was there, she cried. No one knew about the fragile girl on the inside of that stunning , strong, intelligent girl. No one knew about her dysfunctional family, or about the fact that she spent more Yule Tides at the Adama's and Seelix's then her own families. That her father was mistreated at work, her mother could barely hold on with her five children and her job as a deckhand on Battlestar Pegasus. That's one of the reasons Cally didn't want to join the Fleet. How could she possibly raise a family if she was in the fleet if her mother couldn't? No. She wouldn't go down that path.
Cally wiped her eyes and got up and out of the bathroom. She knew she had to toughen up, no one could see her like this, it would shatter everything. She walked down the hallways of the high school, head hanging low, mind feeling hollow. Her friend Diana spotted her and walked over .
" Heya Cal, what's goin' on? You looked like you just failed your physics class , or that you couldn't be a dentist. What's up?"
" I broke up with Daniel."
"Oh my gods! What did he do to you? Do you want me to snap his neck? Seriously, anything girl, I'll do it." Cally chuckled at her friend.
" Nah, it's okay Ana. I'm fine. Hey, do you know if Lee and Zak are still here?"
" Yeah, their out in the pyramid courts. Lee's a pilot! I'm so jealous." Cally rolled her eyes and waved goodbye to find her friends.
She found them exactly where Diana said they were, on the pyramid courts, playing one on one, laughing. They were happy. She felt sick.
"Hey! Keep that concentrated look on your face and it might get stuck that way! Di'nt your mom ever tell you that cockiness ain't that attractive?" Lee and Zak looked over and smiled.
" Hey Cally." Lee said, walking over to her and giving her a hug.
"Hey Cals." Zak smiled.
" So, why are you guys here?"
" Mom just wanted to visit her old High School. Figured she'd drag her sons along with her. Gods I can not count the amount of times I got in trouble for ditching classes to play out here. Brings back memories." Lee sighed.
" You? Seriously Lee?" Zak asked in mock disbelief.
"Wise ass." Lee tossed the ball to Zak and turned to Cally. "What's wrong? You look like you've been crying."
"My…now ex-boyfriend…he…made some suggestions that were inappropriate…so I dumped him." Cally felt like pinching herself, why did she always tell him what was wrong? She trusted Lee, he was a gentleman, kind but firm in authority.
"What's his name?" Zak asked, his 'older brother' self turning on instantly.
"Guys, it's okay, he can't hurt me."
" Yeah, but it's not like a little threat will hurt." Lee said. Cally smiled.
"Thanks, but really, it's okay."
"If you insist." Zak gave an exasperated sigh.
"Yes I do." Cally smiled gently. "I gotta go, but I wanted to see you guys first. Maybe we could do lunch this weekend?"
"Pizza and pie?" Zak asked. Cally giggled.
" Yeah Z, pizza and pie, same as usual." Cally waved to the Adama boys and walked home.
When she arrived, she knew that the rest of her day would not be good. Her mother was crying, her father was slumped down at his desk, face covered, her siblings looked at her when she came and tried to smile and cheer up, but Cally saw the lie behind the smile.
"…what's up?" Cally asked, setting her book bag down on the couch. CiCi, her younger sister looked up at her sadly.
"Daddy lost his job, he was wayed off."
"Laid off, not wayed off squirt." Robert, Cally's other older brother remarked. Cally sighed and sat down on the couch.
"Frak." Cally hissed.
" No cussing 'round CiCi." Robert snapped. Cally stuck her tongue out at him. "Real mature"
" Oh frak you."
"Cally!"
" Bobby!"
" CiCi!" CiCi shouted, trying to fit in. Her two older siblings looked at her for a second, and they smiled.
"You know what this means Cal." Robert looked at her curiously.
"No. No no no." Cally shot up and glared at her brother. "No way, in the name of the twelve colonies am I joining the colonial fleet."
" Cally! There's no way you can pay for dental school with the amount of money you have at the bank, and now mom and dad can't help you with your finances…"
"What happened to mom?"
" They rotated the crew, she will be transferring to Deck 7 on Battlestar Atlantia. They pay less on that battleship. We'll barely make enough money to live."
" MOTHER FRAKKER!" Cally stormed out of the living room, went into her room and jumped on the bed, crying. She'd have to move from all her friends, her family, she might never get out of the frakking ship.
"This is just perfect." she growled. She picked up her phone and dialled Diana's phone number.
" Hello, Diana Seelix speakin'."
"Hey Di, it's Cal."
" Cal, what's wrong ? You sound upset again. Did Daniel harass you? I'll gather Lee and Zak and go murder him. Can't make anything stick to, you just don't criminalize an Adama, besides Lee's grandpa could get us out."
" No, no, nothing like that." Cally sighed " My dad got laid off and my mom has to move to a new battleship where they pay her less. I…I'm going to have to… "
" Oh my gods! Cally! Oh! We could train together! Oh we'd stay together through our next part of life to, that would be awesome, I was gonna miss you when I flew off." Diana squeeled, instantly realizing what Cally was getting at.
" But I thought you were going to flight school."
" Yeah, well it turns out , family really does …mean everything."
"Oh gods, are you kidding? They denied your request just because you come from a lower class family? Why didn't you ask Lee or Zak about it? "
" I did, and they tried, and the Old Man tried too, do something, but the board, they didn't like the sounds of it."
"I'm so sorry Di." Cally rubbed her temples, this wasn't the best day.
" So, we get to train to be deckhands together. That'll be fun." Diana said over the phone.
" Yeah." Cally sighed "It'll be fun."
A/N And that's chapter one.
