Hey peeps! Good Behavior is such an outstanding show, and it got the wheels in my head turning about what things would be like if Jacob was older and Letty and Javier had a teenage daughter! The fandom is pretty small but I hope I am doing the character's justice!
Cast List
Isabelle Drummond as Santina Pereira
Michael B. Jordan as Grown Up Jacob
Josh Hutcherson as Tommy Crawford
Issa Rae as Erica
Saffron Burrows as Marianne Crawford (nee Walters)
Jeff Goldblum as Jordan Goddard
Odeya Rush as Jamison Goddard
America Ferrara as Grown Up Daniella
Gina Rodriguez as Grown Up Sofia
Kimoko Glenn as Momoko
Shannon Purser as Olivia Olive
Olivia Holt as Paige
Sissy Spacek as Lulu Walters
Chapter One: Life Skills Retreat
Scattered chatter buzzed throughout the auditorium, the room filled with parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and even some teachers. The reason why these families and faculty were waiting around was because at any moment, a group of students would be returning from their senior life skills retreat.
"This is taking forever." Javier Pereira rolled his head back, his wife Letty Raines-Pereira putting her hand on his knee.
"It shouldn't be much longer." She said, giving his knee an affectionate squeeze.
"Yeah but how much longer?" Jacob Raines asked his parents. "We've been here for nearly two hours."
Jacob had grown into an exceptional young man. Graduating first in class from Brown, he was currently in medical school earning his M.D. to become a doctor in sports medicine. Letty was glad to have him closer to home. She had almost lost him for good when that monster Shawn came back into their lives, but luckily her son realized his reformed ways were nothing more than a perfectly constructed facadé.
"Hey," Letty's mother Estelle nudged her grandson. "it's for your little sister, Jacob. And if the past seventeen years haven't been an example, you've adored her."
They were of course talking about Javier and Letty's only daughter, Santina, whom they were currently waiting for to arrive at the homecoming ceremony.
Overachiever was truly an overstatement to describe Santina Michelle Pereira. More like over overachiever. Straight A student, never missing a day of school even if she got sick, she only agreed to go on this retreat upon securing early homework and extra credit from her classes for the two days they would miss.
She was the vice president of the student body (she was briefly the president but after much begging from her parents decided to switch positions with her best friend Olivia, whom had been the elected Vice President), president of the Habitat for Humanity club, not to mention captain of the cheerleading squad and always had a part in whatever play the school put on. Santina tutored kids on the weekends and volunteered at a retirement home when she could in addition to working at her aunt's hotel. How she had time to sleep, let alone anything else, was miraculous.
Santina had been accepted into Cape Fear Academy, one of the most prestigious private charter schools in the state, but she had decided against it and was in her senior year at John T. Hoggard High School, which happened to be the alma mater of both her mother and brother.
"Jacob, I'm in as big of a hurry for this to end as you are, the sooner we leave the sooner we can have an actual homecoming! Woo!" Estelle's husband Rob cheered. Letty still found it hard to process that her former classmate had actually married her mother. While a natural space cadet, Rob had a good heart and seemed to really love Estelle.
"Christian said she did really well." Letty said.
Javier nodded. "I wouldn't expect anything less."
Santina had her mother's rebellious streak, constantly wearing wigs to express herself. A blonde layered shoulder length for the debate tournaments to look more sophisticated, a red bob or a brown pixie cut for sassiness. Like her mother's, the red bob was Javier's least favorite.
"Alright, everybody stand up!" Christian Woodhill clapped his hands at the crowd. "They're going to be here soon!"
Everybody rose to their feet as the retreat leaders gathered around the side door of the auditorium, thunderous applause erupted as the doors flung open. They watched the kids pouring in, Letty nudging Javier when she found their daughter, who was also looking around for her parents.
"Look! There she is. Santina!"
Santina turned around as she walked into the auditorium, her face breaking out into an Olympic gold winningly perfect smile as she waved to them.
Santina really stood out amongst the crowd of cookie cutter kids. Of course, Letty and Javier were biased because she was their only daughter, but she truly was a beauty. Tall with jet black hair that went almost to her waist, large round brown eyes and full lips with the cutest figure. She was wearing a baby blue terrycloth Juicy Couture outfit that had a black and white stripe going down either side of the pants, and a black camisole that showed some of her toned midriff. Javier hated that top and kept trying to get rid of it, but it always found a way back into her drawer.
"She's wearing that top again." He grumbled under his breath.
"Lighten up, it's her favorite."
The kids all sat down on the floor near the stage as Christian explained some more about the retreat to the families. The purpose of the retreat was for the children to learn about leadership, trust, friendship, overcoming obstacles and how to apply the lessons to everyday life. After the kids were presented with a necklace symbolizing their journey by their group leader, they would individually speak about their experience and hug their family before joining the others.
Santina got up from the floor, a tall girl in a purple dress putting a circular silver necklace around her neck and gave her a long hug before Santina made her way up to the podium.
"Hi, I'm Santina Michelle Pereira." She waved and smiled at the crowd. "High school isn't an easy time for anybody, most of us have a tendency to put up a facade. But not this group." She looked over at the group of kids all sitting on the floor. "No, we didn't hold anything back, we broke down all the walls and revealed true colors, unafraid of the possible wrath of judgement. I wouldn't have wanted to go through this journey with anybody else and feel so proud to walk away with forty nine new friends. I also want to thank my family." Santina smiled over at them. "I can't believe you're all here for me! Your letters left me incredibly overwhelmed with love. Thank you, especially to my wonderful parents and brother. I love you so much."
"Thank you, Santina." Christian gave her a hug before she left. Letty was glad that he had returned to teaching, he was better off with students that could actually go places than parolees that genuinely didn't give a rat's ass. He was actually the one that had organized this whole retreat, and it had been a smashing success over the years amongst the students and faculty.
"Mom! Daddy!"
Santina wrapped her arms around her father the moment she came down the aisle.
"Ah, princesita!" Javier had a huge smile on his face as he embraced her daughter. There were still essences of the hot blooded Argentinian that Letty had fallen hard for all those years ago, but there was no denying he was absolute sucker for his daughter. Santina was definitely her daddy's little princess. "Did you somehow get taller in four days?"
Santina shook her head. "No, you're just short." She couldn't help but start giggling, to which Javier rolled his eyes.
"Very funny."
"I missed you all so much!" Santina hugged her mother before squealing at the rest of her family. "Jacob! Nana! Gramps!"
"Hey, little sis." Jacob hugged his sister before messing up her hair.
"Jacob! Cut it out! Not the hair, you know it's perfect." Santina giggled before hugging her grandparents.
"We missed you too, baby." Letty smoothed out her daughter's hair. "We're all going out to dinner, we should probably get going."
Santina shook her head. "That sounds great but I have to say goodbye to everybody after the rest of the speeches. I should get back over there. It shouldn't be too much longer." She chastely kissed her parents good bye before returning to the floor with the other kids.
"Sounds like she really enjoyed herself." Estelle whispered, to which Letty nodded with a smile.
"Absolutely."
"Oh, my gosh. It was such a blast! We went hiking all the way to the top of the hill and it overlooked the entire landscape, it was so beautiful! We also did these really cool leadership exercises and zip lining- oh, my gosh, Mom! There was zip lining! Did you know about this when you went to the parent meeting with Christian?"
Letty laugher, sipping some wine. "Yes, sweetheart, I did."
"And Dad was ok with it?" Santina looked over at her father, who shrugged.
"Sure, kiddo. I was just fine. I wanted you to have fun." He smiled, wrapping his arm around his daughter as they were all relaxing after dinner.
Estelle and Joey had left to go back home, Jacob had gone over to his girlfriend Erica's, she had been working late and missed Santina's homecoming ceremony. Jacob and Erica had met in graduate school, she was training to become a social worker, and the family absolutely loved her.
"Well, thanks." Santina rested her head on his shoulder, with Letty on the other side of them as they all watched In Her Shoes, one of Santina's favorite films. "The Mike and Ike's and gummi bears made me smile."
Letty grinned. "Of course we would pass our favorites on to you."
"Definitely. You would not believe some of the revelations I heard. I'll keep their identities a secret, but all I can say is this: drugs, sex, abuse, and coming outs. It was so unreal."
"It was that kind of experience, SanSan. Remember when you're brother went on it? What did you reveal?" Letty asked, to which Javier somewhat glared at her.
"Letty, my dear, it's like a birthday wish. She can't say."
Santina shook her head. "No, I can. Basically, all I talked about was that I know I'm an over-the-too perfectionist and I need to relax more."
Javier nodded. "That's indeed true."
"We've told you that at least a million times, SanSan."
"Mmhmm." Santina agreed. "I also said about how it seems like you two and Jacob have your sad moments and how I'm always trying to make you guys happy."
"We are happy, we have you." Javier gave her a kiss on the head while Letty squeezed her hand.
"You're our miracle baby."
"I know, and I'm glad. Ooo!" Santina squealed and clapped her hands. "It's my favorite part and my favorite poem! You know I love ee Cummings."
Javier and Letty looked at each other for a long moment of silence, Santina oblivious to their look as she intently watched Cameron Diaz recite "i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)".
"Honestly, there were a lot of laughs and tears and hugs. In the end, I'm just a normal teenage girl. Normal high school, normal family, normal friends, normal job, normal boyfriend. I'm almost boring."
No matter how much time had gone by and how seemingly happy they were now, Javier and Letty would always be plagued by their respective pasts, Javier as a hitman and Letty as a druggie con artist. Santina could never know the truth, but there were still some truths they kept from each other...
