Florida
When the young blonde snuck into the classroom after the first bell, her best friend asked, "Caroline, what wrong with you? You are late again." Not having the time to talk without getting in trouble with their teacher the blonde told her friend, "Nothing. I just didn't get much sleep last night and had a hard time getting up this morning." Laughing the young brunette teased her friend, "So what kept you up last night… or should I say who? umm." Frustrated Caroline answered, "Seriously Charlotte. You know it's nothing like that. I will explain later after class." An hour later, Caroline explained, "My mother says we are taking in some foster kid." Charlotte thought this was crazy because Caroline's mother Virginia didn't even take care of Caroline as it was. Calming down because Charlotte agreed with her, "I know. I get that the kid needs a family but it would just be a mess. It would not surprise me if Virginia just wants to take this kid in so she can get more money to spend on her 'meds,' but there is really nothing I can do about it. This totally sucks."
A week later, Caroline and Charlotte were practicing on the football field when Caroline's new foster sister Emma showed up. Emma waited for them to finish cheerleading practice so she could get a ride home. She was halfway done with her homework for that night when they finished and joined Emma. Charlotte told Emma to get her stuff packed up because Chris didn't like to wait and would leave without them. Chris was the star quarterback and Caroline's boyfriend but Emma thought he was stupid. Of course she didn't say anything because it wasn't her place to tell Caroline who to date. Jessica, one of the other girls on the cheerleading squad, was flirting with Chris when Caroline, Charlotte & Emma got to the car, but Caroline just rolled her eyes saying, "We should get going." Busted and not wanting Caroline to get her kicked off the squad, Jessica just said, "Of course. Bye, Carly, Caroline, Chris. I will see you guys at the game tomorrow." Confused Emma asked, "Who's Carly?" as they pulled out of the lot. Charlotte answered, "I am. Everyone calls me Carly at school." Understanding Emma replied, "Oh, I thought everyone was calling you Charlie, but Carly makes much more sense. Charlie sounds more boyish like short for Charles or something." Caroline reprimanded, "Emma, that's…" but was just off by Carly, "No it's fine. I guess Carly and Charlie do sound a lot alike but it is Carly. Although you could call me Charlie if you want but I would prefer Carly or Charlotte."
At the football game, Emma sat with Charlotte's parents because Virginia really never came to any of the games and Caroline was with Charlotte near the field getting ready for their half time show. It was late fall but still a beautiful night and Emma was getting hungry so she walked over to the snack tables. While getting some lemonade and chips, Emma heard muffled noises coming from under the bleachers. Looking towards the source of the noise, Emma found Chris on top of Jessica. Alarmed that neither of them were fully clothed, Emma backed into the table and knocked over the lemonade. Jessica heard the commotion and pushed Chris off of her to see what happened. Annoyed Chris pulled his pants up and turned to see what startled Jessica only to find Emma standing just outside of the bleachers.
Realizing that Emma just caught him cheating on Caroline with Jessica, Chris worried that she would say something to Caroline. He was already having enough trouble trying to get Caroline sleep with him and it was no brainer that she would dump him if she knew he was cheating. With no apparent way to explain what Emma saw, Chris panicked when she started backing away from him. Grabbing Emma's arm and throwing her on the ground, Chris yelled, "you better not say anything to anyone. You saw nothing." Scared, Emma just shook her head in disagreement, prompting Chris to grab a baseball bat off the bleacher nearby. Seeing the anger in Chris, Jessica told Chris, "give Joey back his bat." Fuming mad Chris exclaimed, "No, she will tell Caroline!" and started to beat Emma with the titanium bat. None of the screaming or crying stopped Chris, he just kept swinging the bat at Emma until Joey and his friends Jim and Josh were able to tackle him and get the bat back.
Meanwhile, Charlotte and Caroline are on the football field with some of the other cheerleaders doing the half time show. During the final of half time show, ten of the girls built a pyramid with Caroline on the top. When Caroline was mid flip off the pyramid, she heard screams. They all heard people yelling and crying. Concerned Caroline looked around until she spotted Chris and Emma curled in a ball screaming. With everyone distracted including Caroline and the catchers, Caroline fell almost thirty feet to the ground along with two of the other girls that were flipping off the pyramid at a shorter distance. As the flyers and catcher crashed down, the rest of the pyramid came tumbling down causing multiple injuries for those involved.
Although Caroline had the worst injuries of the cheerleaders with a concussion, broken neck, twisted ankle, shattered knee, dislocated arm, broken ribs, and slipped discs in her back, Emma was even worse. Over a month later, Caroline woke from a coma but Emma was still out. It wasn't long before everyone told Caroline about what happened or at least their perspective of it, but it wasn't hard to figure things out. Caroline knew Chris was cheating on her but didn't know what to do about it. Aside from not sleep with him because he was sleeping with almost all of the girls on the cheerleading squad. But none of that mattered now Chris hurt Emma. Ok everyone got hurt as an extension of Chris hurting Emma. All Caroline could think was that it was hurt fault that Chris hurt Emma. If she had just broken up with Chris before he would not have hurt Emma. While she didn't know this for sure she wanted Emma to be ok. Emma had to be ok. Caroline would do or give anything. While everyone healed, Caroline went to see Emma every day until she finally woke up over a month later.
After Emma woke up from her coma, Caroline took care of her. Emma didn't blame Caroline for what Chris had done but she developed a deep mistrust of men. This really wasn't a problem since Caroline protected her from everyone. Caroline while only 8 years older than Emma was more of a mother figure for Emma. They did still have a sibling relationship and even that as friends but they didn't not always see eye to eye. They had different schools, teachers, and friends aside from Charlotte, whom had grown to look at Emma as a little sister over the year and half Emma had stayed with the Bensons. The three would hang out and watch movies or play games when they couldn't go outside. Between Charlotte and Caroline, Emma learned many sports and hobbies. Of course, they taught her many everyday things as well and helped her with her homework when she needed it, but she didn't need it that often. Emma was a perceptive child and could not only learn quickly but tell when someone was up to no good. Usually this was Jessica, Chris, and some of their other friends, but Emma found herself constantly questioning Charlotte's father Mr. Roberts and Caroline's new boyfriend Casey.
Initially Caroline and Charlotte didn't see them the same way Emma did but they eventually learned that Casey was a self-centered pig that only cared about himself and would do anything to save himself. It took longer for Emma to get them to see Mr. Roberts the way she did. Even if Emma didn't know what was exactly wrong with Mr. Roberts, but she felt that underneath his caring fatherly exterior was a disturbed man. This proved true just before Charlotte and Caroline's graduation. Caroline forgot that Charlotte went with her mother into the city for the night and went over to the Roberts house because of the storm. Mr. Roberts insisted that Caroline stay and convinced her that it was safest for her. Although Caroline was safe from the storm, Mr. Roberts took the opportunity to let her know how much he appreciated her and believed that she had grown into a beautiful woman. Even though Caroline had grown uncertain about whether she should stay because she sensed something was off, she stayed and had dinner with Mr. Roberts unaware of the drugs he was giving her. After the drugs kicked in, Mr. Roberts was easily able to get Caroline to go to bed with him.
Charlotte would not listen to Emma when she tried to insist that Mr. Roberts was the one in the wrong after she found Caroline in bed with her father in the morning. Caroline didn't really know what to say and had a hard time trying to fix things between her and Charlotte. By late afternoon Charlotte was even angrier at Caroline so she went to leave with Emma. At this point Emma seemed to be the only person Caroline cared about so Charlotte figured it was the best way to hurt her friend. Emma struggled against Charlotte and tried to explain until Caroline caught up and got Emma away from Charlotte before she left school. Charlotte was still angry and left them behind but didn't get off school grounds before she was hit by another car in front of Caroline and Emma. Other students, and faculty rushed to the scene as Caroline ran to the car trying to get her friend out. The paramedics and police arrived quickly and had to remove Caroline from the area and sedate her.
With Charlotte in surgery at the hospital, Mrs. Roberts insisted that Caroline and Emma receive medical attention in addition to her daughter. The doctors had finished their examinations and told Mrs. Roberts that the girls were fine but she questioned if they had done a blood or urine test on Caroline. Waiting with Mrs. Roberts while the doctors ran more test on Caroline, Emma had a front row seat of the fight when Mr. Roberts arrived. After Mrs. Roberts hit him, doctors separated them. But after the doctor confirmed that Caroline had been drugged, Mrs. Roberts would not calm down. She went back to yell and scream at her husband, "I can't believe you. You said you would never do it again. You lied … and killed our daughter." With tremendous guilt over what had happened Caroline left town in search of her biological family before anyone was able to explain what had really happened or tell her that everything was going to be alright. Mr. Roberts was arrested but nothing ever came from it because Mrs. Roberts took Charlotte and left town as well. With everyone gone, Emma ended up back in foster care and left Florida for good.
