Thanks for all the love so far. I've missed these OC's myself so it's good to hear that so many of you are excited to read about them. Thank you for giving the story a shot! It's much appreciated. Stay warm out there!

Chapter Two

Carol caught a glimpse of Andrea through the window and couldn't help but to smile despite her uneasy feelings about seeing her daughter. The fact that she felt uneasy seeing her in the first place had a lump forming in her throat. It shouldn't be like that.

When she walked into the room she was happy to see that it wasn't packed. There were a few families scattered here and there but Andrea had grabbed the table in the corner furthest away from everyone else. She smiled at her friend and then her eyes slid over to the girl in the chair. Her steps almost faltered and her smile grew brittle on her face.

Sophia was slumped in her chair, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. She was wearing a black hoodie over a black tank top that was cut much to low. An array of necklaces adorned her neck and she could make out a small hoop in the center of her bottom lip.

She looked like the poster child for teenage angst.

She took all of this in within a matter of seconds and she hoped that the look on her face hadn't changed. When she sat down at the table Andrea pushed a pile of junk food at her. She grinned. Sophia looked up, her eyes lined in black, and offered Carol a small smile.

"I got your letters right before coming down here," she said as she opened a can of Sprite that Andrea had handed her.

Andrea offered an uneasy smile. "So, everything is still set to play out smoothly. As of right now, you have ten more days. That's less than two weeks away. What do you want to do when we pick you up?"

"I'm gonna grab a soda," Sophia said quickly, standing up.

"Sophia, we just got here. You could have gotten one when-"

"It's okay," Carol said quickly, cutting Andrea off. She couldn't stop looking at Sophia's jeans. It looked as though someone had melted the girl and then poured her into them. They were full of holes and she was wearing a pair of black combat boots that came up to nearly her knees. She blinked and then followed the girl with her eyes until she made it to the vending machine.

"Carol, I'm sorry," Andrea muttered.

"Did you buy her those clothes?" Carol asked, raising a brow.

"Not exactly. She suddenly had a new wardrobe around the same time four hundred dollars came up missing from my purse," Andrea said, glancing up.

"She stole from you?" Carol whispered harshly.

Andrea shook her head. "This isn't the first time."

"It's going to be the last," Carol said, unable to hide her outrage. "After everything you've done for her? I can't..." She shook her head and looked away. "Andrea, I am so sorry."

"I'm worried about her, Carol. It isn't just the money or the fall in her grades or the skipping school. It isn't even her getting caught shoplifting. I think... I think she may be doing drugs."

Carol opened her mouth to say something but Sophia was suddenly there, sitting back down in the seat and taking a long drink of her Coke.

"Did I give you two enough time to talk about me?" She asked, her eyes sliding between the two women. "I could go to the bathroom or just go wait at the car if that would make it easier on you."

"Sophia, please," Carol said, forcing her voice to remain calm. Who the hell was this person?

Sophia sat the can down on the table, refusing to look at either of them now.

Andrea and Carol shared a look and Carol decided that no matter what, this visit wasn't going to be a catastrophe. "So, what do you have in mind? What are we doing when you guys pick me up?"

Andrea tried to smile but she kept casting nervous glances at Sophia. Finally she sighed and looked at Carol. "We definitely have to go out for dinner. And then we need to buy you some decent clothes. I'll put it on your tab," she winked.

Carol nodded and then tugged at her scrub top. "I was thinking something in a lighter shade than this. Or a darker shade than this. Actually anything but orange at all will be nice. How is school?" she asked, trying to meet Sophia's eyes but the girl didn't seem willing to look at her.

"Fine," she said with a shrug.

"She's brought a few grades back up," Andrea said quickly.

"That's good," Carol said, wishing that this visit didn't have to be so tense but wishing didn't help anything. They got through the strained conversations with Sophia giving very little input about anything at all. Andrea's words kept repeating in her mind. Drugs? Not Sophia. Surely that wasn't something her daughter would ever do.

When it was time for them to go Carol stood up when Sophia did, grabbing her and hugging her tightly before the girl could escape. Reluctantly she felt her thaw out and finally hug her back and that small gesture gave Carol more hope than she could have ever asked for.

Somewhere under the standoffish attitude and black clothing, her little girl was still there.

~H~

Damon wasn't sure about sticking around after they made it to the party. He had to drag Piper away from two fights and there weren't many people there that they actually knew.

"This is fucking lame," Piper muttered as she pushed her way through a small crowd of party goers.

"Yeah. I was expecting something a lot better than this," Damon said, his eyes taking in the scene in front of them. There was a fire burning right outside the old barn and there were lights inside but he wasn't sure if they should even go in. They had heard about the party second hand and they were basically crashing it.

Piper sighed and nodded towards the barn. "Let's at least check it out and if we don't see anyone we actually like, we'll just go back to your place. How lame are we, anyway?"

"We ain't lame. We're selective. You really wanna be a part of this fuckin' crowd?" There was loud techno music blaring from somewhere inside and it was starting to give him a headache. Most of the people here were preps and jocks.

Piper shook her head and scowled, looking a lot like Merle at the moment. "Hell no, but you know, if you wanted, you could be. Since we started high school they've been on your ass about joining the football team."

He snorted. "Yeah, and you're the perfect size to climb to the top of a pyramid of cheerleaders too."

She made a face and he laughed. "Fair enough. Let's just face it. We're Dixons. To be anything on top of that would screw up the balance of the universe."

He nodded. "Agreed."

They made their way to one of the kegs, keeping their eyes on the crowd. "Which one of us is getting drunk?" She asked.

He shook his head. "Go for it. I don't wanna drink around this crowd."

She filled up a cup and then they both looked for a place to sit down. He was just about ready to say fuck it and go back home when he noticed a guy he knew, and despised, sitting on a bale of hay across the wide isle from them. The guy, Ron, grabbed the hand of a girl walking by, pulling her down onto his lap. She looked like she was trying to get away from him but then he reached into his pocket and held out his hand to the girl. She stopped fighting, studying whatever the hell Ron had in his hand. She looked undecided for a brief moment and then he whispered something into her ear and finally she took whatever it was, chasing it with a few large gulps of beer.

"What?" Piper asked, following his gaze.

Damon shook his head, ignoring the uneasy feeling that the scene gave him. He didn't know this girl and it was pretty fucking obvious that she was strung out on something. It wasn't his problem though. He'd just watched her take whatever Ron had offered willingly so if she found herself in a bind later, that was her own stupid fault.

"Dude, I still can't believe she turned into that," Piper said, shaking her head in disgust.

"The girl?" Damon asked, his eyes lingering on the two. The girl slid off Ron's lap but stayed next to him. Ron's arm went around her as her head dipped and fell into her hands. She swayed slightly.

"That's Sophia Peletier. Last year we partnered up with her for that bio lab we had to do. We worked with her for like two weeks."

Damon felt his eyes widen. He remembered Sophia. She had been quiet and super fucking shy. She never really said much but Damon remembered thinking that she was pretty cool. She was cool because she didn't seem to try to go out of her way to make people like her. She was her own person and had no fucks to give. The black clad doped up girl across from them was nothing like the girl he had met. "What the fuck happened to her?"

Piper shrugged. "Maybe she got tired of being invisible."

"She wasn't," he muttered.

"Dude, after that lab was done neither one of us bothered even saying hi to her in the hallway."

Damon glanced down at Piper. "That was pretty shitty, man. Why the hell do we do that?"

Piper shrugged. "I don't know. It ain't like we meant to. And I'm doubting that us not talking to her caused her to end up like that. But I remember she didn't have many friends or anything back then."

Damon looked back up just in time to see Ron leading her towards the back of the barn where the shadows were heavier. The guy was practically dragging her but she clung to his neck, maybe just to stay upright. He shook his head looked away again. "Let's get the fuck outta here."

Piper was watching Ron lead Sophia away and nodded but Damon could tell that she was uneasy about leaving. "Right. Let's go."

They took off towards the open doors, weaving through the throngs of people. He felt a little sick to his stomach and Piper had dumped out most of her first cup of beer. This had been a complete waste of gas money and time.

"Damon?" There was uncertainty in Piper's normally self assured voice.

He looked down at her and nodded, turning around and then storming towards the back of the barn. If he just let something like that happen then he was just as bad as that dumb son of a bitch, Ron. Shit like that made him sick. Maybe the girl was a full blown idiot but she didn't deserve what she was about to get.

They found them in the tack room, on the floor. Damon didn't try to make his presence a secret either. Ron had the girl on the floor and, thankfully, he hadn't managed to do much just yet. He was just working her shirt up when Damon grabbed him by the back of the neck and hauled him up.

Ron cried out in surprise and Piper quickly knelt down beside the girl, pushing her shirt back down. Sophia shook her head slowly but her eyes were closed and she seemed completely out of it.

"What the fuck are you doing, Dixon?" Ron yelled when Damon tossed him into the corner. He was on his feet quickly.

"Interrupting a date rape you sick asshole," Piper snapped. She tried, unsuccessfully to pull Sophia up to a sitting position.

"Whatever," Ron barked. "She was asking for it!"

Damon hit him. He hadn't been planning on hitting him but it was just one of those things that happened without him thinking much about it. The hit caught Ron right in the center of his face and blood sprayed everywhere but Damon didn't even give him a second glance. He turned, seeing Piper still struggling with Sophia. The girl was skinny but she was taller than Piper and at the moment she was all dead weight.

"What the hell are we gonna do with her?" Sophia asked.

Damon pulled Sophia up from the floor easily and Piper moved to her other side. Ron was still rolling around on the floor, his hands covering his face as he made pathetic sounds. "We take her to Daryl. He's gonna be pissed but he'll know what to do."

Piper scowled down at Ron and then hauled off and kicked him between the legs as hard as she could. Damon winced. "Extra dose of cock block you dumb fucker," she spat as they led the semi conscious girl out of the barn.