~Down By the Beach~
"Are we there yet?" whined Jude from the backseat of the car. Callie playfully elbowed him in the side.
"Jude, stop being annoying. We're all just as tired as you are, buddy." That much was true. The five Foster kids had been piled into Lena's car- Jesus and Mariana in the second row of seats, Callie, Brandon, and Jude in the back, and they had almost hit their limit with each other. Stef smiled from the passenger seat.
"We're almost there, guys," she reassured the restless adolescents.
Mariana wasn't so sure. "Are you sure about that, mom? We've been driving through nothingness for three hours now," she grumbled.
"Honey, this isn't nothingness! We've been driving down the coast! Don't tell me you guys get tired of looking at the Pacific." Lena chirped, seemingly unfazed by the monotony of the car ride. She looked in her rearview mirror back at Callie. "How do you and Jude feel about embarking on your very first Foster family vacation?"
Callie shrugged and smiled. She had never been camping before and wasn't sure how to feel about it. Her troubled past didn't seem to allot any time for fun family vacations.
"I can't believe you guys wouldn't let me bring Lexi along." Jesus frowned, crossing his arms.
"I'm sorry we crushed your dreams of hooking up with someone in a tent." Mariana quipped.
Brandon rolled his eyes. "I can't believe we'll have to deal with an entire week of these two." Callie and Jude nodded in agreement, snickering at the twins' bantering.
Brandon nudged Callie's shoulder and pointed toward a bluff overlooking the ocean. "That just happens to be the best stargazing spot in the world. We can check it out tonight," he grinned.
Callie gave a small smile. "That actually sounds really great."
Mariana and Jesus exchanged looks. Brandon and Callie had gotten quite close ever since the quinceanera.
"Someone might still end up hooking up in a tent after all," Jesus quietly commented, causing Mariana to erupt in giggles, which then attracted skeptical looks from Brandon, Jude and Callie.
The moms remained blissfully unaware of what was going on in the back of the car.
"Look kids, we're here!" Lena parked the car in front of a large, decrepit beach house.
Lena, Stef, and the Foster children eagerly emerged from the vehicle, happy to finally stretch out their limbs after a three-hour drive.
"Mom, where are we? I thought we were going camping." Brandon asked questioningly, giving the old house a once-over.
"Surprise! Grandma let us borrow their old beach house for the week. Now we won't need to worry ourselves with tents and sleeping bags." Stef announced, motioning for the kids to help wheel the suitcases and duffel bags to the front of the home.
The kids did not look excited. Everything in the home was coated in a fine layer of dust, and there were cobwebs everywhere.
"Do you remember the last time your parents actually came here?" Lena muttered under her breath, imagining the amount of cleaning that would be necessary to bring the house back to a livable condition.
Stef shrugged uncomfortably. "So it's been a few years . . ."
"Or decades." scoffed Jesus.
"That's enough, young man."
Lena grimaced, then closed her eyes and sighed. "I'm sure if we all work together to clean this place up tonight, it'll be as good as new, and we'll have the rest of the week to hit the beach."
Stef smiled. "So it's settled. We'll spend today fixing the place up, then!"
She rattled off a list of assignments, delegating chores while the kids groaned at the thought of spending any of their precious week off of school doing housekeeping.
~OoO~
"I'm not usually one to complain, but I can't believe we're spending the first day of spring break cleaning." Brandon grumbled, rubbing at the glass window.
"Cleaning isn't that bad," Callie shrugged, already on her fourth windowpane while Brandon was just finishing his first.
"How are you so fast at this?"
Callie paused in her cleaning for a second, hesitating for a second before continuing.
"Our old foster father pretty much gave me and Jude nothing but the bare essentials. Whenever Jude needed shoes or didn't have enough pencils for school, the dad wasn't the most understanding. So then I decided to wash windows at a restaurant in the neighborhood for extra money."
Brandon eyed her, slightly amazed at her determination to make things easier for her brother, and saddened as well that things had been so difficult for her in the past.
Feeling his stare, she looked over him and managed a slight smile. "You don't need to feel sorry for me or anything, you know. I just had to do what I had to do."
He cleared his throat, slightly embarrassed that he was caught staring. "I don't feel sorry for you. I just really admire how hard you try, is all."
Sensing that the conversation was getting a little too heavy for her taste, she turned her attention back to the window. By now, night had fallen, and all that was left to do was to finish up the windows. She caught sight of an old lighthouse not more than a mile away. The sight of a shadowy figure in the window of the lighthouse piqued her interest.
"Hey, Brandon?"
"Yeah?" he mumbled.
"Stef said we were the only ones within a few miles of here, right? That this was pretty much private property?"
Brandon nodded, not quite sure where Callie was going with her statement. "Yeah . . . what about it?"
"Just come here a second," she beckoned to him.
Intrigued, Brandon followed Callie's index finger as it smoothed over the glass and pointed in the direction of the lighthouse. The shadowy figure had disappeared, but just as Brandon was losing interest and Callie was about to tell herself that it was just her imagination playing tricks on her, the figure reappeared, putting both teens at unease.
One thing was for sure; this was going to be a very interesting week.
This was basically the boring let's-set-everything-up chapter. I'm really excited to write this- there'll be a good mixture of mystery, romance, and Foster family bonding.
Reviews are always appreciated. :)