Callie POV
I stopped briefly at the start of the path that leads to the house. Through the window I saw how Stef carried something to the dinner table. I take in a deep breath and head down the path, up to the house.
Before I ring the bell, I look down to my clothes, to see if I was decent. Not that I can change my outfit, but I just needed to heck if I hadn't gotten some dirt on my clothes and if my shoelaces were tied.
I took the small shopping bag in my left and rang the bell with my right hand. As I waited for someone to open the doors, I took a small step back, held the shopping bag in front of me and held it both hands. The doors were opened by Stef shortly after I rang the bell.
"Callie!" She said what sounded like excited tone of voice. Not that I have heard Stef excited before, but if I needed to guess, this is what she would sound like excited "Great timing! Please...come on in" Stef said with a smile on her lips and stepped aside to let me in. Shyly I step over the doorstep.
"How was your work?" Stef asks kindly as she closes the doors behind me
I turn to face her "Good..normal. Like any other day" I say even though I didn't have work today
"That's good" Stef said back gesturing me to head further inside
I stop in the middle of the hallway, when I remember about the stuff I bought for them. Stef stops along with me. I reach in the bag and pull out the wine bottle first.
"I got you this!" I said handing her the wine "It's from Merlot grapes. I didn't know what Lena was making, so I went with wine that goes with everything. It is a very soft drink."
"Oh" Stef was genuine surprised as she took the bottle "You didn't have to Callie"
"And I got some grapes and chocolate as well" I said looking down to the bag
"You really didn't have to spend so much" Stef said as she looked to the shopping bag in my hand
"I couldn't come with empty hands" I said looking straight to her eyes
"Okay, then...Let me get that. I will go wash the grapes and open the wine," Stef said glancing down to the shopping bag "You can go take a seat. The kids are upstairs changing. They should be down shortly." She informs me before she takes off to kitchen
I nod back and walk in the dining room. The table was set neatly, napkins were folded and placed on the plate. Two candles, that stood on each side of the table, were lit. This looked way fancier than I thought it would.
I heard footsteps coming down the stairs and ,before I could turn around, I heard Jude calling my name.
"Callie, you came!" he called and the next moment he was up to me, hugging me tightly
"Of course I came. No one should miss out on free food" I said jokingly ruffling his hair. As all my attention was on Jude, I hadn't noticed the three other kids standing by the stairs as well. One of them cleared their throat and that got my attention. My head snaps up to them instantly and I take my hands away from Jude.
The girl was standing hands crossed on her chest, she was judging me by my looks already. By the look on her face, I can tell, she doesn't like me very much. Or at all. Her twin was standing, hands by his side. He looked nicer than the girl, but still, I didn't get the warmest feeling from them. And then there was the bio kid, who to me just emotionless. I guess he didn't think anything of me.
"Good you are all down!" I hear Lena's voice before she comes in my sight "Hi, Callie!" She greets me kindly as walks pass me carrying a bowl of chicken drumstick. Lena places the bowl down and then walks to stand between us.
"Callie" Lena says looking to me "Meet, the twins…" she walks two steps closer to them and places hand on the girls upper hand "This is Mariana and her twin brother Jesus. We adopted them 10 year ago" and finally she nods towards the taller looking boy "And Brandon, Stef's biological kid from previous marriage"
Then Lena turned towards me "Guys, this is Callie, Jude's sister."
"Pleasure to meet you all" I say as polity as I know how, I wave my hand slightly at them
"Hi!" the bio kid says first, placing his hands in his jeans pockets
"Hey!" Jesus nods back, looking at me. The girl remains silent as she continues to watch me closely.
"Please, let's sit down and eat!" Lena says and gestures us to head to the table
Lena takes the seat at the end of the table, facing the window. The twins walk around the table, Brandon takes the seat at the other end of the table. Jude and I take a seat opposite the twins. Stef joins us shortly, with an open bottle of wine and 4 glasses in her hand. She walks to the opposite side, to the empty chair next to Jesus, closer to Lena's end of the table.
Stef pours the wine and hands the first glass over to her me
"Um, no, thank you!" I decline politely the glass of wine she offered me
"Really, not even a small glass?" Stef asks surprised with a raised eyebrow, she was still holding the glass out
"Thank you, but no thank you! I don't drink" I say looking up to her
"Okay, good to know" Stef places the glass in front of her own plate and then pours two more glass, one of which she hands her wife, the other to her biological son.
"Please..." Lena gestures to the bowls of food in front of us, telling us to dig in. Soon, we all have food on our plates, drinks in our glasses.
"So, Callie" about a minute in the dinner, Lena starts the interrogation "Tell us a bit about yourself" Like always, Lena has a soft tone to her voice
I scooped up some salad on my plate and then look up to her "What would you like to know?" I ask and use the small pause to eat the salad on my fork
"Jude said you work in a restaurant" Stef says from my side. It wasn't exactly a question, but I got the point, they wanted to know about my job.
"Um, yes. I'm work as a waitress" I said glancing to Stef "At a restaurant called Dorado's Voce Del Mare. It's an Italian restaurant."
"That's why you knew about the wine so much?" Stef asks with a small smile on her lips
"Yes, I have to know the wines and drinks...I do have some knowledge, but like I said, I don' drink myself"
"Why is that?" Brandon asks "You must have drunk few beers or something in your teenage years. We all have!"
"No" I state back firmly "I have never drank an alcoholic beverage and never will!" When I looked back to Stef and Lena I explained further "You probably know that...our dad got behind wheel while drunk and caused the accident that killed our mom" The two woman nodded back "I just...after that I promised myself that I would never drink"
There was a small pause after that, where we all just ate for a minute.
"You said you worked at the Dorado's restaurant. Is it your first job?" Lena asks from the end of the table as she reaches for her glass of wine
"No. My first job was at a small burger place" I said reaching for my glass of lemonade in it
"Why the workplace change?" Stef asked curious leaning back in the chair
"The burger hunt was a good starting point, but I needed something more. No secret that in our world, it all comes down to money. I'm also not going to deny that I changed work because I wanted to get guardianship of Jude" I look to my side, to Jude. He smiles at me and continues to eat quietly "I needed...Judge needed to see that I had a job, with which I can support not only myself but Jude as well. And with my current job, I can do that!"
"I can name 10 more jobs, in the next 10 seconds, where you would earn more money than working as a waitress" Mariana commented from the other side of the table. I could tell by her tone of voice, that Mariana was basically laughing at me because I worked as a waitress.
"Well, sadly I couldn't get the other jobs" I said and looked down to the plate
"Why not?" Mariana asked even though I know she knew why. She wanted me to say it out loud.
"Because...I only have high school education" I say and try to stay as composed as I could
"Ah..such pity" Mariana muttered back in a mean way
"What school did you go to?" Lena asked after a brief pause to let me eat
"Crawford High School" I said pushing the salad around my plate
"Have not heard of it" Brandon mutters with the same mean manner as his sister "Must be a bad school!" I ignore his comment even though it was true. It had gone unnoticed and unheard by his parents as well. But his sister heard it and she snickered quietly along with Brandon.
When I look up to Lena, I see the way she looked at me. I could tell she knew that it wasn't the best school. In fact, I don't think it even counted as a good school. It was...average.
"That's...a public school, am I right?" Lean asks me back
"Yeah..." I drag "It wasn't really my choice to go there. We were all sent there"
"We?" Stef asks catching what I said
"The um...other kids...where I lived at"
"Where was that?" Stef asks sounding interested in the subject
I swallow back a lump in my throat as I look around the table. My hear rate increased and palms got sweaty as I glanced back to Stef, who was expecting an answer from me.
"...Group home" I say barely above whisper. This wasn't something I was proud off.
"You lived in a group home?" I was probably wrong, but I heard concern in Lena's voice. I hesitated with a head nod. Desperately, I wanted to change the topic. I was thinking hard to think of a question for them.
Brandon was my way out, as I remember Jude telling me he and Stef will drive to the airport to pick him up before the dinner today.
"Brandon...Jude said you study at NY? What university do you go to?" I ask changing the subject off of me
"Julliard" Her reply proudly "I study classical music"
"What instrument do you play?"
"Piano" He reply and looks down to his plate to pick up some food
"Wow...that's...quite impressive" I say back looking at him in surprise. I had not expected that.
"He's been playing since he was 6. And now he has a scholarship at Julliard!" Stef said looking proud of him "Lena signed him up for the first class" She places her hand over her wife's hand on the table.
"It wasn't piano I signed him up to, but just music after-class activity, so the wait till Stef get's off work would be shorter" Lena explains to me
"I was a single mother at that time. Just divorced, I had to work long hours to get the bills paid" Stef explains further "And Brandon had to wait after his classes. Usually he used to spend his time with Lena, sitting in her office, doing homework. When Lena mentioned that he could go to some after-class activities, I instantly liked the idea. He would meet new friends and the time would fly by faster"
"Where was his dad? Couldn't he watch him?" I ask her back before I even realized it. I hadn't meant to ask something so personal. It just slipped out.
Stef detained a small pause, I think it was a hard subject for her "...He had his own problems. He's an alcoholic. The divorce hit him hard...he wasn't at a good place at that time. I didn't want him around B at that time"
"Oh...I'm sorry to hear that. It must have been really hard" I said back sincerely and look up to Brandon "Is he...in the picture now?" I ask looking over to Lena and then back to Stef
"He's not drinking, so yeah...he is back in the picture" Lena confirmed it
"So you have 3 parents" I said smirking at their oldest son "You must be spoiled as hell as a kid"
Jude nudged me with his elbow in my side "Ouch...what?" I whisper back at him as I look to Jude at my side
Jude nodded Lena's direction barely visible. And that is when I remember about what Jude warned me about – don't curse in front of Stef and Lean.
"So sorry! I didn't mean to...it just slipped...sorry" Lean nodded back, acknowledging my apology.
To my horror Mariana brought the topic back up "You were saying something about living in a group home!" She said and I saw a small, mean looking smirk on her lips "How did you get there?"
I glare back at Mariana as I trying to think of something I can say back to that. It wasn't like I wanted to tell them that I was in Juvenile Detention for 5 months.
"I was placed there" I said avoiding the answer as best as I could
"How?" She asked to just push my buttons even more
"I'm sure you know how that happens" I reply back not breaking the eye contacted "You being a former foster kid an all, you probably know how foster kids are constantly place from one place to another"
"I'm sure it has an interesting story underneath it" Mariana pressed on the topic
"It doesn't" I reply back and bit my lip to not snap back at her or say something to her that I will later on regret. I needed to leave a good impression after all.
"Mariana, enough!" Lena said to her daughter firmly, but in a hushed voice. Mariana rolled her eyes and scoffed back at her mom, but did give up the topic in the end.
"Jude has a family you know" Jesus says out of nowhere when I had lifted the fork with food up to my lips. Slowly I lower my form back down to the plate
"I'm sorry?" I ask back confused
"He has a family! Why do you want to take that away from him?" Jesus states back
"Jesus!" Lena scolds the other twin as well "We talked about this!"
"What? It is just a question!" Jesus says back and looks back to me as he waits for an answer
I had to think very carefully what to say next. I certainly didn't want to cause a scene.
"You don't have to ans-" Stef speaks up,but I stop her
"No,no...It's okay" I say and look back to Jesus "I'm his family too, you know. I'm not just some stranger!"
"Yes you are! A stranger I mean!" Mariana says back harshly "You hadn't seen him or talked to him in two years and now you suddenly want him back or whatever! No, that's not how it works! You can't just come back in his life! You don't know him anymore, he is not the same kid that you left behind 2 years ago!"
"We were separated in foster care. That's not my fault! I thought you two would understand that...being former foster kids, you know what the system is like"
"Don't compare us with you!" Jesus snaps back "We are nothing alike! I would never leave my sister! She would never leave me!" Mariana nodded agreeing with her twin
A let out a frustrated laugh"I didn't leave him! I already told you, we-"
"Yeah, we know. Separated!" Brandon said from the end of the table "But that is not what we heard!"
"And what have you heard, if I may ask?" I turn to look at their oldest son
"That you were arrested!" He states, staring back at me. I had no idea how he knew that. My record is sealed, the judge sealed it. Did Jude really told them?
The room went silent. And it stayed that way for few seconds. All eyes were on me.
"The way we see it -you did something dumb, you broke the law, you got arrested, you got yourself separated form Jude. It wasn't the system, it was you! And now, after 2 years you want him back. You don't get to have him back!" Brandon says leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms on his chest
"Mom's may believe your act, but we don't!" Mariana states next
"You are a criminal. Once a criminal, always a criminal. How long will it take for you to get arrested again? How long until you leave your brother again? How long until you hurt him again!?" Jesus asked me, glaring down at me
"I'm not a criminal" I say back glancing around the table
"You have a record!" Brandon states back
"It is sealed!" I turn to look at him
"Doesn't change the fact that you broke the law and were in jail" Mariana says looking proud of herself
"It was a long time ago" I say back more quietly. No matter what I say, I won't be able to convince them otherwise. They had made up their mind's about me, before I even came here. It was no use.
"That's your answer?" Mariana asks "It was a long time ago and it is sealed?"
"I don't know what you want me to tell you" I looked between the three kids "Nothing I say, will ever be good enough for you!"
"How about you back up and let our moms adopt him. So Jude would have a real family! That actually loves him and cares about him" Jesus says harshly
"So he could have a chance at future" Brandon added "Because let's face it, it is not like you could ever send him to college or afford some actually nice stuff for him. You probably are counting cents as it is, it is not like you can support two people with a stupid waitress salary!"
"You should go! And leave Jude alone. Forever!" Mariana added lastly
I looked to Jude by my side, who was dead quiet. He was staring at his foster siblings in shock, but he hasn't said a word. Stef and Lena both sat with shocked facial expressions as well. Stef's mouth was lightly parted, her eyes focus on her bio son at the end of the table. Lena looked stunned. Her mouth opened and closed few times, but no sound came out.
I push the chair back, it makes a loud sound as the chair grate at the wood floor. stand up the next second and turn to leave the house.
I hear someone call my name, but I don't stop. I slam the doors shut behind me as I hurry away. I walk as fast as I can down the path to the street as two tears, that I was holding in, finally fall down my cheeks.
AN: It is so hard to write the kids mean. This was a struggle for sure. This isn't the best chapter I have written, I'm sorry for that.
