Author's Note: Once again, thank you to all the reviews and adds! You guys rock and I'm so glad you like this story, especially the dorky way I write Juice. Kurt Sutter has said that Juice is a computer whiz, but a social nerd and that's what I'm trying to convey. Also, a big shout out to Max, who left the longest, nicest review I ever gotten! Thank you!
"I'm thinking about having a dinner." Gemma said.
Clarissa and Clay both looked up from their plates. The three of them were seated around the table, eating their supper.
"When?" Clay asked.
Gemma thought for a second. "Maybe tomorrow night, if everyone can make it. We'll get all the guys, Summer and her boyfriend can come, Jax can bring his new girlfriend. It'll be fun. Our first one of the summer. Maybe we can barbeque on the deck or something."
"Sounds great, Mom." Clarissa said.
"Clay, be sure and invite the new kid." Gemma told him.
Clay grinned. "Get Ris to do it. She's all buddy-buddy with him now. Loaning him books and all." He looked at his step-daughter. "You know that's what he did last night? Left the party early to shut himself up in his room and read that book you let him borrow. Tiggy told me."
Clarissa shrugged her shoulders. "You say that like it's a bad thing."
"I think it's cute." Gemma said. "He likes you, Ris. You should give him a shot; he's way better for you than Chris ever was."
"I barely know him." Clarissa said. She stabbed a forkful of salad and shoved it in her mouth.
"So isn't that what dating is all about? Getting to know someone."
"Why are you pushing so hard for this, Mom?" Clarissa asked. "What if he doesn't even get patched in? Then what?"
"I'm not pushing for anything." Gemma told her. "We're just tired of seeing you so depressed. You have been for months."
"No, I haven't been." She argued. Gemma just smiled and pushed away from the table.
"I'm finished. I'm going to go start calling around and seeing who can make it tomorrow night."
When her mother left the room, Clarissa looked at Clay.
"All right, spill. Why is she pushing for me to hook up with this guy?"
Clay took a bite. "She just wants you to be happy." He said as he chewed. "After what happened with shithead…she wants you to be with someone who treats you right."
"Chris treated me right." She said automatically. Clay snorted.
"He treated you like dirt." He said. "You know how many times I had to keep from popping him in the face over something he'd say to you? Your brother, Opie, they all hated him."
"Yeah, well…we don't even know Juice." She said. "He could be a fuckin'…axe killer for all we know."
"Yeah, because that's likely." Clay said sarcastically. Clarissa flushed a little bit.
"We don't even know why he's in Charming." She said finally.
"Just because you don't know, that don't mean that the club doesn't know." Clay said. "I'm done too. Load the dishwasher for your mother, Clarissa."
He left the room. Clarissa scowled. She hated doing the dishes.
The next afternoon, her mother was on the phone once again, nailing down exactly who was coming. All of the guys, she thought. Opie was bringing Donna and Ellie. Bobby and Precious and their kids were coming, along with Kyle and April's family. Otto and Luann would be there. And Tig, Chibs, and Juice were all coming straight from the clubhouse.
"Can Summer make it?" Gemma asked. Clarissa nodded. She was standing in front of her bathroom sink, fresh out of the shower, a towel wrapped around her skinny body. The radio blared beside her
"Yeah, but not Brandon. He's working the night shift, so Summer's spending the night here."
"That's fine." Gemma replied absent mindedly.
"Jax is coming for sure?" Clarissa asked. Gemma looked at her, and leaned against the door jam.
"Of course." She said. "Why wouldn't he be?"
"Is he bringing Stank Leg?"
Gemma narrowed her eyes. "I told you to quit calling her that! Her name is Wendy."
"I know what her name is." Clarissa said, working some mousse into her blonde locks. Ashanti's 'Foolish' started playing on the radio and she cranked it up, so she could hear it over the hair dryer. Gemma rolled her eyes and started away from the door.
"You should wear your red and white striped shirt tonight." She said a few minutes later when she came back.
"That shirt makes me look like "Where's Waldo"." Clarissa replied. She wasn't sure her mother could hear here over Ashanti's refrain of "you ain't never gonna change, never gonna change, never gonna change", so she turned the radio down and repeated herself.
"It does not; it's very cute on you." Gemma grinned. "Wear with your white shorts, I bet Juice would love it."
Clarissa sent her mother the stink eye. "Oh yes, because I live my life to dress for Juice Ortiz." She said, sarcasm dripping from each word. "Puh-lease."
"Horizontal stripes make your boobs look bigger." Gemma said.
"I'm wearing my blue tank top." Clarissa told her as she pulled her hair back into a low ponytail and then secured it up with a clip.
"That one looks good too." Gemma said. "It brings out your eyes. Look, are you gonna be polite to Wendy tonight or am I gonna have to kick your ass? Because she's the first girl your brother has shown more than a passing interest in since-."
"Since Tara." Clarissa interrupted. "Yeah, I know. I'll be nice. She's all right, I guess. I just don't know her that well."
"Well, you have to get to know her." Gemma said. "Speaking of getting to know people, about Juice-."
"Jesus Christ, Mother, will you let that go?" Clarissa shouted. She turned the radio back up and Gemma grinned. Nice to see she had gotten under the girl's skin.
When Juice turned off his bike, he stared up at the Teller-Morrow house with a slight feeling of awe. It was really nice. Having grown up with a five floor walk up, sharing a tiny, two bedroom apartment with his grandparents and brother, this house seemed huge.
"You gonna stand there and gawk all day, Prospect, or are you coming?" Chibs asked when realized Juice wasn't behind him.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Coming." Juice caught up with the older man.
Chibs didn't even bother to knock; he just walked in, with Juice on his heels. The first thing Juice noticed about the décor was the pictures. There were framed pictures everywhere, some hanging on the walls, some propped up on tables and counters. There were pictures of Gemma and Clay, pictures of Jax and Clarissa. He paused at one of the brother and sister together; Jax couldn't have been more than nine, which would've put Clarissa at about three. There was another little boy in the picture too, and Juice realized it was Thomas, Clarissa's twin brother who had died when they were six.
"Quit gawking about and come on." Chibs hissed and Juice caught up to him again. He followed the Scotsman through the house and out the back sliding glass doors where everyone else was.
The grill was already going kids were running around everywhere. Clarissa was sitting in a lawn chair wearing a bright blue tank top and a pair of white shorts that made her tanned legs look impossibly long. She was laughing with another blonde girl, who Juice recognized as her best friend Summer.
Summer Trager was Tig's niece and had been Clarissa's best friend since kindergarten. She was a short, curvy girl with reddish blonde hair and big green eyes.
"I think he's cute." She whispered to Clarissa when Juice stepped out on the deck.
"You think everyone is cute." Clarissa replied, not wanting to admit that she like the way Juice looked in his jeans and t-shirt, the way his Prospect cut hung on him.
"I know, but I think he's cute." Summer giggled. Clarissa rolled her eyes. "Don't you?"
"He's all right." Clarissa shrugged. But she couldn't help smiling at him when he took the lawn chair beside her.
"Hey." He said.
"Hi," She indicated her friend. "You know Summer?"
"Yeah, we've met." Summer grinned at him. "Hello, Juice."
"Hi." He answered, feeling stupidly shy. When he was in school, girls like Summer never smiled at him like that.
"You look nice." He said awkwardly to Clarissa.
"Thank you."
Summer giggled again. "You two are so cute." She stood up. "I'm gonna go talk to Uncle Tig." She sashayed off to where he uncle was drinking a beer.
"Um…" Juice couldn't think of a single thing to say.
"Do you like the book so far?" Clarissa asked suddenly. "Christine, I mean."
"Oh, yeah." He nodded. "Yeah, it's good. I'm only about half way through it, though."
"Have you gotten to the part where…wait, no." She stopped. "I don't wanna give anything away, in case you're not there yet."
"It's okay." He said. "I'm just past the part where those guys beat the shit out of the car."
"Oh." Clarissa nodded. "But you like it, though?"
"Yeah." He said again. He didn't admit that it was because she had loaned it to him. She could've asked him to read the phone book and he would've found it thrilling.
There was a bit of a ruckus when Bobby and his family showed up, the two kids running off to join the others. Bobby held up his guitar.
"Look what I brought, Ris." He said. "After we eat, girl, you and I are going to entertain."
"Great." Clarissa answered. "I'll have to go get mine. It's in my room." She looked at Juice. "You wanna come with me?"
"Uh…" He looked around. "I guess."
"Come on." Clarissa said, ignoring the titters of the others. "I'll show you my room."
He followed her back into the house and up the stairs. There were more pictures on the stair case, school pictures alternating between Jax and Clarissa, getting younger as they climbed. At the top of the stairs he was greeted with a grinning five-year-old Clarissa, her blonde hair in pigtails, her two front teeth missing.
"This is my room." She said, opening the door. He wasn't sure what he expected, having actually never been in a girl's bedroom before, but he was pleasantly surprised.
The walls were hot pink, and the furniture was white. She had a huge bed with a canopy on it. The floor was wood like all the other rooms, and everything, from the bedding to the curtains to the rugs, were done in black and white zebra print. Her walls were decorated with posters and pictures.
"Just let me get my guitar." She told him. He paused by her bookcase which was crammed with books and movies.
"I didn't know you played." He said.
"Bobby taught me how, gosh, like ten years ago." She shrugged. "I like it. Come on."
When they got back downstairs, everyone was preparing to eat. Juice filled his plate, not really paying attention to what he was eating. He knew he was being ribbed for going up to Clarissa's room, but he didn't care.
After they were done eating, Bobby grinned at Clarissa and held up his guitar. She rolled her eyes in a jokey way and picked up her own.
They played classic rock songs, some Juice knew and some he didn't. Bobby's voice was deep and smooth; Clarissa's high and clear as a bell.
"All right," Tig said after they had done about three songs. "I wanna hear Ris and Gemma do one together."
"Yeah," Luann, Big Otto's wife, said. "DO Angel from Montgomery, Gem."
Gemma looked at her daughter. "What do you think?"
Clarissa shrugged. "If you want."
Gemma moved to sit next to her and Clarissa began to strum her guitar. Together, they began.
"I am an old woman,
"Named after my mother
"My old man is another,
"Child who's grown old"
Juice leaned back in his chair, listening to this song he had never heard. Clarissa and Gemma's voices blended perfectly together, he thought. He closed his eyes; he could still faintly smell the barbeque and the Citronella candles Gemma had lit to keep the bugs away. And he knew, in his gut, that this was where he was supposed to be.