Sunshine Vellenueva shook her head as she parked her truck in its usual spot at Teller-Morrow. She had managed to survive the long day of classes but was now slowly getting a headache as she listened to her mom go on and on about what classes she felt Sunshine needed to take in college. What she thought Sunshine needed to do with her life. She was annoyed but she knew if she snapped at her mom, she'd be hauled back home. "Mom, I'm listening but can you slow it down, I'm getting a headache. I should've eaten a bigger snack or something."
"I'm just flipping through this catalog for Berkeley, I think that would be a good university for you. You could go and study to be a lawyer or something. You'd be really good with it." Elena smiled at her daughter before closing the catalog as she watched the teen climb out of the beat up old truck. "I can't believe this damn thing is still running, your dad loved this thing, when he wasn't on that damn bike of his, he was in this truck."
"Mom, stop talking please. My head is killing me, I can't handle it right now. I also don't want to be a lawyer, I don't think I'd be good at it one bit." She shook her head slowly as she rubbed her hands on her jeans. "I had a long day, I came here to work for a few hours and then go home and shower before I sleep."
"If you had a long day the last thing you need to do is work." Elena shook her head. "You should be at home, doing homework and resting Sunny."
The teen rolled her eyes as she walked towards the office. "Working relaxes me, it's easy and I get my homework done while I work. Mom, you're the one that's giving me the headache. You talked nonstop about what you think that I should do when I go to college. It's not about what you want or what you think is best for me. It's about what I want and what I think is best for me. After all, I'm going to be the one taking the classes and starting a career with the degree, not you."
"Sunshine," Elena started before stopping herself as she watched the brunette disappear into the office, closing and locking the door so she couldn't get in. "Chico, you said having a girl would be fun. Ha, not for me."
"Didn't I tell you about how girls needed to be killed before they can grow up?" Gemma smirked at Elena. "She's a good girl, she's doing what she needs to do, she's not a kid that you need to be right on top of Elena. She's like her father, determined and a free spirit."
"Gemma." Elena hugged the woman tightly and smiled. "I know she's a good kid, I'm just trying to keep her on the right path in life. She's on her way to college soon, I don't want any of that to change."
Gemma smiled and nodded slowly. "She's going to veer off that path if you're too hard on her. I've seen it happen plenty of times. Look at me, look at you, look at the rest of the women around here. You think we would've ended up here had our parents not pushed and told us who not to date and what to do? My parents practically died when I came home with a gang of bikers and a baby on my hip."
"My mom gave me hell about Chico until the day he passed." She nodded her head slowly. "Told me that if I had been smart, I would've aborted Sunshine and gotten far away from Chico. Started a new life with someone better for me. I couldn't even talk to her for a while for her even suggesting to get rid of Sunshine. Even when I had her, she wanted Sunshine out and put up for adoption."
"Mothers just want what's best for their children, even if it sounds harsh." Gemma sighed as she pointed towards the lot. "You can't stop that though. For some reason my Jackson and your Sunshine are just drawn to each other. I can't even believe it. When they were younger they would give each other hell all of the time. Remember when Sunny held Jax and Opie's heads under the water when they were bobbing for apples."
Elena laughed and nodded. "I remember that and I remember John getting on her about it. He told her not to kill off her only friends because she may need them down the line." She shook her head. "She seemed to take well to John."
"I think that was the Chico in her, John and him were good friends." Gemma nodded slowly. "I know you don't like Jax and your girl together. I can see it in your face."
"I don't want her distracted. I don't want her to end up knocked up. That's what I'm worried about. I can force feed her birth control but it still could happen." Elena shook her head slowly. "I don't want her trapped in Charming."
"What's so wrong with being trapped in Charming?" Gemma smiled. "I know what you mean though. I however think she's way smarter than that. I don't think a slip up will happen. I think if any of these little teens are going to end up pregnant it'll be Donna or Wendy, you remember that Case girl right?"
"I do not remember Wendy but I remember her mother." Elena shrugged. "All of these girls need to be smart and realize that there is more to life than being an Old Lady. No offense Gemma, you do what you do well, you're a queen around here but not all of these girls are going to be cut out for this."
"None taken because I agree with that. Not everyone is cut out for this life." Gemma smiled. "Your daughter is one of those people. Not cut out for it."
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"Look, you did very well on the English portion of your practice test." Sunshine smiled as she slid the paper back towards Jax. "Now, we gotta get your math up but I think you can pass it if you were to take the GED test in the next week or so."
Jax nodded his head, looking at the test before up at the brunette. "That's good." He smiled as he grabbed her hands. "Your head stop hurting yet?"
"It stopped hurting after the first time we had sex." She laughed as she squeezed his hands. "My mom is out of control, now I am even more eager to get out of the house and off to college but I feel like she'd find a way to move into the dorm with me or some shit. Or she'll try to offer me an apartment and just move herself in. I love her but I can't handle the pressure. Just being here with my aunt while my mom was still in Oakland, I loved that. It was nice and peaceful. My aunt just let me be myself."
"While you were dealing with those customers earlier, I went to go find my mom, heard her and Elena talking." He shrugged his shoulders. "They were talking shit, betting on which of the girls around here will end up pregnant. They just want to gossip so much."
"Lord." She shook her head as she closed the workbook and sighed. "At least she's not around to talk my head off. Her and your mom can gossip all they want to." She shrugged her shoulders, her fingers messing with the ends of her hair before she looked at Jax. "I gave up smoking, it's harder than expected and I now have this habit of fooling with paper or my hair."
Jax shook his head as he passed the brunette a blank piece of paper. "You didn't have to give it up completely, a cigarette here and there won't be too bad. Just none of that pack a day type of shit." He shrugged, trailing his fingers through her hair before smiling at her. "Besides if you stop smoking who will I get upset with for swiping my cigarette? I sure as hell ain't sharing them with Ope."
"You're such a bad influence." She giggled as she shook her head and covered her face. "I think you should know that I really want to get to know this version of you as best as I can before I go off to college and become some big hotshot lawyer. My mom wants me to be a lawyer."
"Well, if you do let her decide for you and you become a lawyer, then I'll keep you on retainer in case I ever need a lawyer to argue my innocence." He winked at her and nodded. "You just now how to use your words and you definitely know how to start building that wall between us. Arms length huh?"
Sunshine shrugged as she looked at Jax carefully. "I'm not trying to build a wall at all Jackson, I am just trying to be realistic and see things from all sides. Like, could we do something long distance? Could it work if we couldn't make it to each other over weekends? That's where I'm at with this situation. Then I keep reminding myself to stop, breathe and take it day by day."
"Yeah, you need to get out of that head of yours." He shook his head and smirked. "Day by day darlin', it's the only way to do this." He stood up, holding his hand out for her. "Come on, let's run to the diner. I'm craving a burger and shake."
"I could use some mac and cheese from the diner. I like the way that Layla makes it for me, with the extra cheese and breadcrumbs." She grabbed his hand as she stood up, letting him walk her towards his truck. "You think they'd make me those garlic fries again? Last time the waitress looked at me like I was insane."
"I think they'll make you the fries again, that waitress just doesn't like you. She thinks you're a little spoiled brat." He shrugged his shoulders. "I heard her talking about it to the cook."
"I take offense to that." She laughed as she got into the truck and shook her head slowly. "My step dad did spoil me, he still tries to spoil me to be honest." She shrugged her shoulders. "He sent me a few letters, they had money orders in 'em to cover any application and college costs. He told me he still loves and cares about me, he just couldn't deal with my mom, her attitude and her trust issues anymore."
"I don't even remember your step dad." Jax shook his head slowly. "I just remember one day you being here and the next your mom announcing that you guys are moving to be with her fiance in Oakland. You begged and begged to stay here with your aunt but your mom wouldn't let you."
"He's some big shot bounty hunter guy in Oakland, he's a little corrupt if you ask me." She shook her head slowly as she tapped on the dashboard. "I think he's alright, I mean he's basically the only other father figure I had in my life but his anger man, sometimes that was just astounding, to see a grown man through a temper tantrum and send his fist through the wall. Don't look at me like that, he never laid his hands on me. I see those wheels turning in your mind."
He nodded his head slowly as he steered the truck towards the diner. His mind settling at hearing Sunny deny any form of abuse by her step dad. "Does Elena still know that he's giving you money and talking to you?"
"Oh no, if she knew that, she'd go insane. When the divorce papers were served to her, she slashed the tires of his Benz. It was a mess, then when we got home and he arrived a few hours later, she literally beat on him until the police came and took her away. He didn't press charges but I guess the state did on his behalf." She shrugged her shoulders. "It was just a very messy divorce and it's always easier to blame the man for everything that happened and my mom does just that but she was at fault, she is so untrusting that she really drove away a good guy."
"I don't even know what to say to that, your mom is intense I know that much but I didn't think she was violent. She's so tiny." Jax chuckled and shook his head as he parked his truck. "That's crazy."
"Learn something new every day." She got out of the struck, fiddling with the cash that was stuffed in the front pocket of her jeans. "My treat today, you never let me pay but today I'm going to love." She flashed a smile at Jax as they walked into the diner. "Oh look, our friend Donna and her little friend Tara."
"Oh, isn't Donna your new best friend? She was dressing more like you this weekend." He laughed as he led her to their usual booth. "It's weird."
Sunshine shook her head as she smiled and waved at Donna. "She's a follower but I think one day she'll find her inner leader."
"Hello Jax, Sunshine. You want your usual?" The waitress smiled at the couple. "Or do you wanna try our daily special?"
"Hey Ginger, can we get the usual please." Jax smiled and nodded. "I will take extra fries too."
"Finally falling into the extra fries thing." Sunny smiled as she pulled her legs onto the cracked brown vinyl of the booth. "I want to take you somewhere special soon. Like I have this cool little secret hideaway that I think you could appreciate and enjoy as well."
"I don't know if I wanna go to a hideaway, what if I piss you off and you just dump my lifeless body there?" He chuckled as he reached across the table and flicked the brunette's nose. "I gotta be careful around you. You earned a nickname from one of the Tacoma guys that was visiting us last week."
"Oh! Happy!" She nodded her head eagerly. "He told me that he appreciates my silence and that people should watch out for it. He is cool though, he's so cool."
"He said you helped him out with some truck he was working on, called you Death." Jax shrugged. "It's an unsettling nickname."
"That's because he asked me what I feared in life the most, so I told him I feared not accomplishing a whole lot of of my goals and dreams before dying." Sunshine shrugged. "He thought it was cool that I didn't say I was afraid of dying. I have so many things to tick off my list, like I want to be a real published author, I want to graduate high school, college, possibly have a family in the future. I don't know what life has in store for me though, so that's very exciting."
"You're weird." He kissed her and smirked. "But I love it a whole lot."
"What's your biggest fear then huh Teller?" She irked an eyebrow at him, a smirk on her pink lips as she eyed him carefully. "Can't be death either since you're going to be a Son. Is it Gemma? I've seen her put fear in some of the guys at the clubhouse as well as some customers."
"My biggest fear?" His brows knit together in concentration as he thought about the question he was asked. He had never thought about it before, he never really had a reason to. Now that it was out in the open, he didn't want his true fear to be known. It would be too girly, too anti-outlaw. "I don't know, I guess my biggest fear would be ending up like my dad. Gone too early. I know he was doing what he loved but still, I couldn't imagine going out before I really got to live a complete life."
"I can see that." She nodded her head slowly as she watched the waitress set the food on the table. "Thank you." She smiled at the woman before abruptly turning her attention back onto the Jax. "Mountain of fries you have there babe, I want some of them if you can't finish all of that off."
"Eat your own food." He shook his head as he watched the brunette drizzle an obscene amount of ketchup on her fries before adding ranch dressing. He scrunched up his face and pretended to vomit. "That is disgusting, why would you do that to perfectly good fries huh?"
"It's good, don't knock it till you try it." Sunshine shrugged as she started to eat her fries, her fingers becoming covered in the sauces before she frowned. "Next time, I'm going to have to eat these things with a fork or something. This is too messy."
"Next time I'm hiding everything but the ketchup." Jax smirked at the brunette before holding out some napkins before passing her a fork. "There, you can eat your fries like a little prissy thing Sunny."
Tara moved around her dad's black Cutlass that she had borrowed, she was on a mission to get down to the bottom of why her best friend Donna was all of a sudden acting distant. She couldn't think of anything that she had personally done to the brunette, so she needed to get answers as to why Donna was trying to shed her mean girl attitude.
She walked up to the front door, knocking on it softly before taking a step back and patiently awaiting an answer. Her green eyes scanned the shabby front yard before her face involuntarily wrinkled up in disgust. She checked herself before turning back around just as Donna opened the front door. "Hey D!"
"Hey T." Donna smiled as she opened the screen door, allowing her best friend entry into the home. "What's up? Not every day do you make house calls."
"I came to talk, I wanted to see if we were still cool." Tara followed Donna through the house and to what she assumed was the brunette's bedroom. In the years that they had been friends, the hang outs were usually in public or Tara's house. On a few occasions she had spent the night at Donna's but that was before Donna and her family had moved to the opposite side of Charming. The side that was deemed bad and unfavorable. "You're kinda acting like you don't want to hang out with me anymore."
"Oh no." Donna shook her head as she sat on her bed and resumed painting her nails. "I just was rethinking the whole being mean to Sunny thing. She's actually pretty cool once you get to know her and stuff."
"What do you mean?" The brunette tucked her hair behind her ears, crossing her arms over her chest as she sat on the foot of the bed, her eerie gaze on her best friend. "Since when have you ever hung out with Sunshine one on one to know that?"
"Never." Donna mumbled as she blew on her nails briefly before beginning to wave them frantically through the air. "Ope and I were invited to go on a double date situation with Jax and Sunny. Opie agreed to it and I had to go. It was so fun though, we got cute little pictures, Opie won me that giant bear over there and Sunny even took care of me when I got too drunk. Slept over her place too. It was like a cool slumber party. You never take care of me when I get too drunk T, you're always right there with me. It was nice to have someone to hold my hair back when I got sick."
"You're trading in years of friendship because she took care of you for a few hours?" Tara shook her head as she stood up from the bed. Hardly believing what she was being told by her so called best friend. "So, I'm just replaced like that? You can't have two best friends and I don't know why you want to befriend someone like her to begin with."
"I'm not replacing you." Donna looked at Tara and rolled her eyes. "I'm not trying to replace you Tara! I'm just saying that she's cool and I liked hanging out with her. I'm not going to lie and say it was a miserable time because it wasn't a miserable time. The four of us hung out and it was actually pretty fun. The only time we used to double date was when you needed me as a front for your curfew or you wanted to spend all night with Jax and you'd tell your parents that you were spending the night at my house, which you never actually do. What's up with that huh?"
"Because Jax isn't a double dating type of person. I can't just push things on him." She shook her head again as she dropped her arms to her sides. "Maybe you need to rethink things. Like I really want us to stay friends but I don't want you to hang out with Sunshine, she's my sworn enemy Donna. It's disrespectful of you to befriend her."
Donna stood up from her bed, moving to her door and opening it before looking back at Tara. "Well, I'm going to need the time to rethink. I'll let you know what I choose to do when I see you at school. While I'm doing some rethinking, maybe you should do some also. Like why you keep falling lower and lower over this Jax bullshit T. He doesn't want you right now, you're making yourself look stupid over a guy. You're like all the rest of the girls that used to trip over themselves to talk to Jax when you and him were dating. You're them! You don't see that happening right now with Sunshine and Jax, do you? She gives respect and in return she receives it. Take a page, take notes. I'll see you later T."
Tara looked at Donna carefully before shaking her head slowly. "Or maybe those girls are just afraid of her because she's practically Opie's size." She shrugged as she walked towards the door. "Make the right choice Donna, I'd hate to lose my best friend over something like this."
AN: So, so, so, so, so very sorry that this update took this long to be published. I just had to really sit down and plan out each and every chapter of this story so updates can come faster. With that being said, like always, I want to thank those that are supporting this story and are now invested in the characters. I also want to direct you over to my tumblr, fairytellerxo where you can find pictures of the OCs, Sunny, Donna, Tara and Jax have been picked. Opie however, I'm still trying to find the most perfect FC for him like I did with the rest of them. So, if you're curious as to what I made them look like as teens, head on over. If you want sneak peeks and more information on characters, like quotes and inspiration as to their personalities than the blog is the place for you to be at. If you don't want to venture that far and have questions, leave them in a review or PM me and I'll happily answer any and all questions for you. :)
