By Sunday afternoon, Stef and Lena were starting to wonder if Callie's justice had come at too high of a price. "She's terrified of going back to school," Lena told her wife as they sat in the kitchen, talking about what they were going to do.
Stef looked out the window. All of the kids were in the backyard; Jude and Jesus were tree-climbing while Mariana did her nails and Brandon played his small keyboard. Callie was curled up in a lounge chair, her mind a million miles away. "Yeah, I know," Stef replied with a sigh.
"If it was any of the other kids, I wouldn't hesitate in telling them that they can't dodge their problems, but... the other kids are better equipped to handle their problems at the moment." Given everything that Callie was already dealing with, this latest challenge had been the last thing she needed.
"What's our alternative, Lena?" Stef wondered. "Send her to another school? She'd be totally isolated from the other kids; I don't think it would help matters."
"I'm not saying that," she protested, "But we need to do something."
"How's it coming with that therapy program you were looking at for her?"
"I'm trying to pull strings to get her into one of their outpatient programs. I think with family support, Callie can manage herself well enough that residential treatment is overkill. And I don't want her to feel like we're abandoning her to be someone else's problem."
"Agreed."
"But, in the meantime, we still have to figure out how to safely make life go on for her." Their conversation got put on pause as the back door opened and Brandon and Mariana came inside.
"Are there still cookies left?" Mariana asked her mothers.
"Um, yeah, I think so." Lena pointed to the container on the counter. She went to get them while Brandon grabbed a jug of lemonade out the fridge and some cups.
"Dinner's in a couple hours," Stef reminded them.
"We won't have too much," Mariana promised. She was about to go back outside, but Brandon hesitated.
"Hey, Mom? What do we do for Callie?"
She sighed. "Yeah, Mama and I were just discussing that."
"People at school are still talking about it," Mariana told them. "I got a few messages on Facebook about the picture."
"Me, too," Brandon quietly admitted.
"They're so immature," Mariana exasperatedly declared. "It's not like it was her fault a creep took advantage of her. But everybody's treating her like she's Hester Prynne."
Lena frowned. "Who?"
"From the Scarlet Letter. We're reading it in English. She had to wear a big red A all the time because she had an affair with somebody."
"We remember the book, sweetie, the name just didn't click," Stef told her.
"Oh, okay. Anyway, everybody was horrible to her, just for that. And that's how people are judging Callie: like she's got some mark of shame. Just for one stupid thing!"
"People can be ignorant," Lena agreed.
Jesus came in through the back door and almost collided with his sister. "Oh, there you are," he told her. "We were wondering what happened to the munchies."
"Coming, coming," she told him as she went outside. Brandon followed, and made sure he poured a glass of lemonade for Callie before anyone else.
She forced a smile when he sat it down on the table next to her. "Thanks," she whispered.
"No problem." As Brandon went back over to his keyboard, he thought some more about the conversation they'd had inside. And then he got a really good idea.
The next day at school, Lena was on her way from her office to the faculty lounge for lunch when she heard a bit of commotion down the hall. As she went over to investigate, she found that Brandon, Mariana, Jesus, and Jude were standing by a table in a corner, handing out papers and a small object to each of the kids that came by.
"Hey, guys. What's going on?" she asked them.
Brandon wordlessly handed her one of the papers. At the top, in big letters, were the words 'FACTS ABOUT SEXUAL ABUSE AND VIOLENCE.' The sheet was full of statistics on abuse with teenagers, how often abuse doesn't get reported, and the after effects. They'd also included websites and phone numbers for getting help.
"Do you want one?" Jude asked his foster mother, offering her a teal awareness ribbon. Each of the Foster kids were wearing one and they had been giving them out to the students that passed by. Lena could see a few other kids in the hall already had the ribbons pinned to their shirts.
"Definitely," she replied. "This is amazing, you guys." Behind the table, they'd taped posters to the wall with sayings like 'No means No', 'Nobody Asks For It', and '40%+ of sexual assault victims are under 18'. "Really amazing."
"We wanted people to understand," Mariana explained. "We're trying to get rid of all the wrong assumptions out there."
"And who knows," Jesus added, "Maybe more people will start to speak up."
"Instead of a mark of shame," Brandon told her, "We made a mark of support."
Lena decided that eating lunch could wait; she instead went back to her office to make a phone call.
"Hey, babe," Stef answered her cell phone, having seen Lena's name on the caller ID. Stef had stayed home from work for the day to be with Callie. Their foster daughter was currently in the dining room, trying to catch up on all of her missed homework.
"Hey. I think you should bring Callie over to the school," Lena told her.
Stef frowned. "What?"
"I know we agreed last night that she could have a day or two off, but... I really think you should bring her over here, even if it's just for a little while."
"Why?"
"Because there's something that she ought to see."
The anxiety level in the car during the drive over to Anchor Beach was high. Stef caught Callie nervously bouncing her leg or drumming her fingers against the door multiple times.
"You don't have to stay," she reassured her foster daughter for at least the third time. "We'll just see what Lena found and then take it from there, okay?" Callie nodded.
By the time they came inside, lunch was over, so there were far less students out in the halls. Stef saw her wife, eldest son, and younger daughter standing by the door to the front office. "What's going on?" she asked Lena.
But she just looked to Brandon and Mariana; they had been the masterminds. Mariana took Callie's hand and led her down to the hall to their info table. Brandon followed and they watched as she read each of the posters.
"I don't understand," Callie finally said.
Mariana gave her one of the ribbons. "This is a symbol that you're stronger than anyone else in this place," she told her sister. "And a symbol that we're with you, no matter what."
"We handed out over a hundred of them today," Brandon added. "And saw a lot of people wearing them. You've got nothing to be ashamed of, not anymore."
Callie looked at everything they'd done again, a small smile slowly crossing her face. "Thank you," she told her siblings. Callie looked back at Stef and Lena for a moment, then took a deep breath. "You feel like going to Chemistry?" she asked Brandon.
He grinned. "Normally, no. But if you're going to go... sure."
One chapter left...
