Mariana had walked home from school after dance team practice and dropped her backpack by the door and headed right upstairs.
She got into her room and slammed the door shut behind her. She walked over to her bed and flopped down on top of it and let out a scream into her pillow. She was having a HORRIBLE day and hadn't realized that Callie was in the room with her.
Callie knew it was odd for Mariana to be in such a bad mood, so she walked over to her sisters bed, sat on the edge and put he hand on Marianas leg. She wanted to let her sister know that she was here, but also knew that sometimes people just need space. Once Mariana felt Callie's hand on her leg, she sat up and started slowly telling Callie what had happened.
Before Mariana could get in any words she started crying. Not just a few tears but sobbing. She collapsed into Callie's lap and Callie just sat there stroking her hair until she fell asleep.
Lena called the girls for dinner and when they didn't answer she sent Stef up to rush them down. Stef got up to the room and was puzzled by what she saw. Stef asked Callie "What happened here?" Callie just shrugged and said she didn't know. She just knew that Mariana was sleeping. Stef and Callie decided to let Mariana sleep and headed down for dinner.
After dinner, Callie went back up to her room, quietly, so as to not wake a sleeping Mariana. What she found when she got in was not what she had expected. She found her younger sister ripping up all of the pictures that she had from dance team. Mariana still didn't want to talk, so Callie didn't press it but told her sister that she was there no matter what, even in the middle of the night.
The next morning Mariana knew that she had to go to school. She had spent half the night trying to figure out how she could fake sick for the day. Then she remembered that she had a major exam in Timothy's class and she just couldn't miss it. She got to school and made it all the way to lunch without issue. At lunch she spent some time trying to find a sibling to sit with since she couldn't sit with "them". Jesus noticed her wandering and offered to let him sit with her. He asked her "why aren't you sitting with the dance team? You always sit with them". Mariana had decided that she didn't want to be so angry any more, and told Jesus that she had been kicked off the dance team once they found out that Lena was no longer the vice principal. The girls on the team had always assumed that having Mariana on the team would look good to Lena and they would get special treatment and the fact that Lena was gone meant the team didn't need or want Mariana anymore. They had used her.
This information had angered Jesus to no end. As he was about to get up and go confront the team when the lunch bell rang. Mariana telling Jesus her problem made her feel a little better but it had made Jesus feel worse. He had spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out how to get back at the team. Jesus, Brandon and Jude had decided to walk home together that day and he told them what had happened. The boys had decided that any team that didn't want Mariana didn't need the rest of the family. Brandon decided that he would just stop tutoring Kaitlyn, he was only doing it as a favor to Mariana anyway. Jesus was in a bit of a harder problem, he had been wanting to break up with Hayley for a while and this was one more reason but he knew that he had to do it gently. He was working on that. Jude decided that no one messed with his big sister and got away with it. So on their next practice, he borrowed the stereo from the AV room before practice so they couldn't use it. While he knew it was only a small act of rebellion and it likely wouldn't affect the team in the long run, even for a brief moment it would tick them off and that would make his day.
Callie who had a locker next to one of the dance team members, decided that she would ask that member why they got rid of Mariana until they took her back onto the team and apologized.
At the end of that week, her siblings plans had worked and Mariana had been asked back on the team. She decided not to go back to the team but was glad knowing that this time it was on her terms and not theirs. She was also so incredibly proud to be a Foster knowing that her siblings had her back no matter what.