Chapter 1: Trouble in the Water
Callie leaned against the station wagon and closed her eyes, drawing in a deep breath before letting it out. She wished that the school's parking lot was outside the range of the PA system as she heard Lena's voice once again, this time more sharply and directing the message at her instead of Wyatt. "Callie Jacob, please report to Vice Principal Lena Adams' office immediately."
Neither of the announcements were a surprise to either of the youth. "Seven minutes. Pretty impressive," Wyatt called from inside the car, referring to the length of time it had taken Timothy, their English teacher, to walk from the car to the administrator's office to effectively turn the both of them in.
"Yeah," Callie laughed nervously as she wished the butterflies in her stomach would settle. She couldn't believe her luck. Having recently been grounded for two weeks after being caught blowing off her classes, she knew the current predicament she found herself in was not going to lend itself to earning back Stef and Lena's trust. Her mind wandered to that morning, which had started out just as any other day. Callie had gotten up early to help herself to a cup of coffee and was relieved when Stef was the second person to come downstairs, offering a rare opportunity for the two of them to enjoy each other's company without the rest of the family. Although there were times Callie was still afraid of the woman, her wariness had significantly abated in the last few months and she was beginning to feel a bit more secure around her and Jude's soon-to-be-adoptive mother. And while her and Stef never did too much talking in the mornings, they shared a simple routine when it came to the first meal of the day.
Stef poured milk into a bowl of cereal before handing it to Callie, who gave a meek smile in return. She was constantly surprised at how intuitive the woman always seemed when it came to understanding what she needed. Breakfast in particular had been a sticking point for many weeks after her and Jude came to live with the family, as neither of them were used to eating in the morning. In previous foster homes, it was how they ensured they would get adequate portions at lunch and dinner. Even when they lived with their parents, breakfast together as a family was a rare treat. Typically her and Jude would raid the kitchen and take whatever they could find into the living room where they crammed in as many cartoons as they could before they had to leave for school while their Mom and Dad got ready. The pattern repeated itself on weekends so that their parents would have a chance to sleep in.
Callie had learned just how different this home was from all the other ones they had been in. With all meals, Stef and Lena had a rule that everyone had to show up and eat together; even if you weren't hungry, you had to show up and try to have a few bites of something. Grudgingly, Callie had obeyed but she discovered just how much harder it was to eat in the morning than she thought it would be. After years of skipping a morning meal, it was as if her body was revolting; she gagged and threw up each time. It was the cop who had come up with the idea of introducing small portions at breakfast to help Callie's stomach keep it down and get used to the influx of calories. Every few days, Stef would slowly increased the amount she was preparing for her and to everyone's surprise, Callie had thus far made her way up to a small bowl of cereal and a slice of toast. It was one of the many ways Stef showed she cared for Callie.
As Stef handed over the Arts and Media section of the morning paper, Callie realized that things were finally feeling as though they were returning to normal. After getting busted for skipping a month ago, the women had kept her on an extremely short leash even after her grounding had ended. The teen knew that it was not entirely undeserved; however, she couldn't help but feel discouraged at having to earn their trust again. Over the course of the last couple weeks, Callie was making it to all her classes, doing homework, and hadn't missed curfew once. Getting her phone privileges back was something she was definitely very thankful for, as it meant she could take photos once again.
After dropping Jude off at his classroom, Callie had attended her first two classes; however, a sense of dread had started to build the moment her timetable reminded her of third block. Her Science class had began a Genetics unit last week, which she had a genuine interest in. But when the teacher went through details of the end of term project, Callie was discouraged that every student would be expected to create a genetic family tree to illustrate how certain traits were passed through generations, which they would do an in class presentation on. They would also have to fill out a worksheet on maternal and paternal characteristics, like the presence of dimples or widow's peak, eye colour, and hair type and colour, among others, to figure out if traits were dominant or recessive. These features would also need to be gathered from other family members, like siblings, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. From this information, the probability of the same traits appearing in the offspring could be predicted.
Callie only needed to briefly flip through the worksheets to confirm that there would be no way she could even make a dent in the assignment, which was worth a significant portion of their grade. She remembered what her Mom and Dad were like but not in those small details the assignment wanted them to capture. On top of that she had never met her grandparents on either side, and her and Jude had no extended family that they knew of as both Colleen and Donald were estranged from their families. Callie only knew that her Mom's parents didn't approve of her being with Donald, and when she got pregnant in her early 20's, they eventually lost contact. Her Dad never spoke about his family and being a quiet child, she never thought to question it. But her and Jude had figured they had no one else but each other in the family, since they had gone directly into foster care after the car crash.
It wasn't so much the grade Callie cared about, though; she could easily make up the details so she would do well on the assignment but she didn't feel comfortable with that idea of being too ashamed to be truthful about her parents. It was more that she was irritated with herself for allowing the content to upset her so much. How could she not remember these basic details about her parents? The in-class presentation especially was like salt being dumped on an open sore: having to sit and listen to her classmates drone on about their intact families and waving in her face what she and Jude could have had, had her Dad not been drinking so heavily that night.
It was just as she suspected: Anchor Beach was so privileged that it was easy for its teachers to assume every student came from biological families that would support such an assignment. None of them had any concept of what life could be like otherwise, how terrible things could really get, Callie fumed as she recalled the homes that Bill had put her and Jude in. The yelling, the drinking, the violence, the humiliation of foster parents reminding her of past failed homes and worse, her parents being nothing but irresponsible drunks. That even their family didn't want them. Being hungry and humiliated when she tried to help herself to stuff in the kitchen, only to be reminded that they were kept separate "for the family." The sense of foreboding before the first time she knew she'd be struck. Being told to lay down on her bed and turn over onto her stomach and trying to mentally prepare herself.
Callie had long given up on the idea of her and Jude ever having a family with some semblance to the one they had with their Mom and Dad, and had come to accept it so readily that she hadn't thought about it until this assignment. Knowing she would have little success at sitting through another Genetics class without doubling into a panic attack or her incomplete homework being noticed by the teacher, she decided instead to explore the tide pools on the beach. Callie anticipated that Lena's guard might be lowered enough after she was caught skipping a month ago, that she would be able to get away with it just this once without being caught.
As Callie made her way out of the school's back exits, she ran into Wyatt who had also decided to forgo Science. It had spiralled from there. They bought marijuana from an entrepreneurial sophomore and made their way back to his Mom's old car, only stopping at an empty metal garbage can to set fire to the Genetics syllabus and course material. Then they promptly hotboxed the car, Callie trying to forget about the stupid assignment and quell the worries in her chest about how she would avoid it.
Unfortunately, their fun was short-lived as they jolted to the sound of someone opening their passenger door suddenly. Unbeknownst to them, their English teacher was parked in the next stall over. He had been running late that morning and by the time he arrived, he was so focused on making it into the building that he had forgotten his lesson plans behind in the car. Class materials in hand, Timothy had just shut his car door when he caught a whiff of the stench of marijuana in the air. Looking over to the adjacent car, he spotted Callie and Wyatt amidst the hazy interior, two open beer cans sitting in the cupholders. He felt annoyance at now having to deal with the youths on top of everything else he had on his plate.
"Callie. Wyatt. I'm afraid the both of you need to come with me to the office," Timothy said firmly. He shook his head both teens refused to budge from their seats and Callie smirked at him, trying to look as nonchalant as possible, but not before he had seen her face fall. Timothy felt a pang of guilt as he remembered Lena telling him how desperate she and Stef were to get the girl on the straight and narrow. He sympathized with how difficult it must be for Callie to not only have to adjust to her new surroundings but to have a parent to be in a position of authority at school on top of that. He recalled how difficult it had been when she had joined his class four months ago to develop an ounce of rapport with the girl, which undoubtedly he would lose after going to Lena about what he had seen her doing.
"Callie Jacob, report to the main office immediately," Lena's voice cut through her thoughts like a knife. The terseness was evident in the Vice Principal's words.
Shit, Callie thought, remembering the morning and how everything was finally feeling okay again. All of that was going to be undone. She tried to tell herself not to care and that Stef and Lena would likely just ground her again and yell at her; it would suck but she knew she could deal with it. In the meantime, Callie needed to hatch a plan; soon Lena would call Stef at the station who would immediately start to look for her.
"Fuck," she said to herself, before shooting a glance beside her at Wyatt, "I gotta get home. To change my clothes," she quickly clarified in response to the confused look he was giving her, "so maybe I have a chance to convince Stef I wasn't doing what—"
" —we were doing?" Wyatt asked, smiling. "Want me to drive you? I ain't going in to see Lena by myself."
"No, I'm good," Callie smiled back as she got out of the car to grab her bag from the backseat. Cursing to herself again for wasting valuable time, she reassured herself. All she would have to do would be to get in the shower and help herself to Mariana's shampoo to mask the smell.
"Stef knows your car," Callie explained. "If she sees us driving then shit will really hit the fan," she smirked playfully at the boy before sticking her tongue out at him. "See you later!" she called as she turned around to start booting it home.