Stef sat casually in the kitchen, a cup of coffee in her hands.

"Mariana! Get back here! Give it back, you—" She heard from the stairs. Suddenly, a speeding ball of sass, brown hair, and fashionable fabrics whizzed past her and into the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

She stood up from her stool, standing in the middle of the kitchen as her oldest daughter nearly collided into her, instead slipping and careening to the ground.

"…What the…" Stef stammered out before her eyes flew to Callie on the kitchen floor. Mariana peeked her head out of the bathroom door, also peering at Callie, who laid on the floor cradling her elbow. Stef bent down to Callie's level and rested one hand on her back and the other on her leg.

"What happened, baby? What hurts?" She asked, still very much confused about the situation.

"Nothing. I'm fine." Her daughter responded, but winced through the end of her sentence.

"Callie." Stef coaxed.

"Umm… my elbow… and my knee, too." She clarified to her mother.

"Ok. Listen, why don't we get you over to the couch and I'll take a look at this. You think you can stand?" Callie nodded.

Stef reached down to help her up, wrapping Callie's good arm around her own shoulder and steadying Callie's body against her own. "You okay?" Stef whispered to her daughter as she brought her to the couch and set her down gently, minding the girl's injuries. She gingerly picked up Callie's arm and inspected her elbow, letting out a breath when her daughter was able to bend it without too much pain. Stef then moved to kneel in front of the couch and rolled up Callie's pants to her knees.

"Ow…" Callie whined, looking at the dark bruises already appearing on her leg.

"Mariana, please grab two ice packs from the freezer for your sister. Thanks, love." She said as she took the ice packs from her daughter's hands. She held an ice pack on Callie's knee before handing Callie the second one, which she rested her elbow on. Stef rubbed Callie's leg as she knelt in front of the couch as she eyed her two daughters.

"Now why exactly were you two sprinting and thrashing around the house again?" Stef asked with a bit of humor in her voice.

"Uhh…" Callie stuttered, trying to come up with a reasonable lie that would persuade her mother to drop the subject.

"Callie has pictures of a cute guy on her phone." Mariana said, shrugging, as she leaned her elbows on the arms of the couch. "She won't tell me who he is."

Callie cringed as she watched Stef's eyes travel from her sister to back to her. She gave Mariana a death stare but her sister couldn't care less and instead looked at herself through the mirror on the other side of the room.

"Oh, yeah? And who is this boy that we don't know about?" Stef asked as Callie's gaze shot down to her lap. Callie stayed silent, willing to just disappear in thin air. Stef sighed. I guess it won't be that easy… She thought.

"Miss Thing, I see you've got Callie's phone. Let's see just who you were talking about." Mariana unlocked the device and held up Aaron's picture.

"Who is that, Callie?" Stef asked in a no-nonsense voice.

"Just a friend…" She mumbled back.

"A friend that I've never heard of or met?" Stef asked. Callie shook her head.

"Hey. Look at me." Stef snapped, fed up with Callie avoiding eye contact. She tilted Callie's chin until her daughter met her gaze. She felt her heart melt a little when she saw Callie's big, scared eyes, but she knew that this was a time when she needed to be firm. "Who is he?" She asked. "What's his name?"

"His name is Aaron. He's in photography club at school. We met a few weeks ago." Callie said.

"…Okay…" Stef said, visibly calmer. Callie swallowed thickly. Ok, Mom just thinks he's a friend from photography club… I'm not lying… maybe she'll just drop this whole thing. Callie thought. Stef had other plans.

"But if he were just your friend from school, I don't think you would look this guilty." Stef hypothesized.

She looked over at Callie, who appeared nervous and shaky. I have to handle this delicately… She thought.

"Mariana, go upstairs, please. I need to talk to your sister for a minute."

"But mo-om!" Mariana retaliated.

"Now, please. I'm not asking you again." Mariana huffed as she dragged herself upstairs. As soon as she heard Mariana's bedroom door close, Stef stood up and sat next to Callie on the couch.

"Is there something you want to tell me, Cal?" Stef asked, shifting so she could have a good view of her daughter.

Callie sighed. "Promise you won't get too mad?" She asked.

"Well, honey, I can't really promise you that." Stef said. Callie closed her eyes for a minute before opening them again and beginning to speak.

"Umm, a couple of weeks ago, Aaron and I were hanging out at lunch, just talking, when we started talking about the ocean. He mentioned seeing this really pretty beach once in this book of beautiful places in San Diego, and I recognized the name because that's the place that my mom would take Jude and me sometimes on walks. He said that he really wanted to take pictures there sometime, so I told him that I knew how to get there. Anyway, it was a really nice day and everything so we wanted to go right then. He had a free period at the end of the day and asked if I would show him how to get there. I had English for that period but I thought he was really cool and I wanted to go… so I left with him. I know it was really wrong and I'm sorry. I thought I was gonna get busted but then I noticed that Timothy accidently marked me present and I just kinda thought I wouldn't tell you… It was really bad of me… I'm really, really sorry." Callie let out a breath and looked up at Stef.

"Callie… You know how wrong that was. Skipping classes is never the right thing to do. This is so out of character for you."

Callie gulped. "There's something else… He's not just a friend, not really, anyway. When we were on the beach, he kissed me. It was nice… I… uh… I think I like him."

Stef had no words for how she felt. She was feeling kind of weird about the fact that her little girl had kissed someone, but she had to remain consistent and collected if she was to drive home her point to Callie.

"Callie… I get that you are 14 and you want to feel independent and make decisions and have crushes and a boyfriend but your actions that day were out of line. You could have waited until after school or the weekend and had Mama or me drive you but you ran off by yourself without letting anyone know where you were. You ditched class and instead of coming clean to me or Mama you covered it up and lied about it. These are not smart choices you are making here, young lady. I am grounding you for two weeks right now and when Mama gets home, I am going to have a long chat with her and she will add on something else to your punishment."

"I'm sorry…" Calle said again, feeling ashamed as her mother looked down on her disappointedly.

"Yeah, Callie, I know that you're sorry, but there are some things that I have to teach you as your mother and this is one of those things. Now you need to stay on the couch and off of that knee for a while. No T.V, I'll be right in the kitchen so I'll know if you start watching something. And this," She said, reaching for Callie's phone, "This will be mine for a week, or longer if you try anything funny. This is strike one." Stef exited the living room, leaving Callie alone with her guilt.