The car ride had been the definition of hell. No one even dared to speak during the ten minute trek except to decide that they'd be venturing to a little old Italian restaurant. For once in maybe ever, no one had argued about the pick, keeping silent because of the discomfort of the extra addition. Every painful stop of the stoplight, every tedious turn signal, every painstaking roundabout was filled with a silence too awkward for words.

Alex wanted to kiss the ground of the restaurant parking lot as Brandon parked the car and the group uncomfortably exited. Of course, it was very possible the dinner wasn't going to be any more enjoyable, but at least there'd be other people around. The crowd would at least provide some noise, and, you know, there was food too. Food was always a very good thing.

Brandon hesitated as he put their last name on the waiting list. "Foster," he'd stumbled a bit, looking directly and purposefully at Alex as he did it. 5/6 were Fosters, 83%, but Alex never would be. She was the odd one out, and she'd never fit into this family, her last name a glaring sign of that.

They all huddled into a corner as they waited for their name to be called and for them to be seated. Callie had her hands on Jude's shoulders; Mariana and Jesus were smashed together, looking at something on Mariana's phone, while Brandon leaned against the wall, his arms crossed, his eyes still carefully fixated on her. What was the dude's problem, anyway? And could he please make his Edward-Cullen-like staring less obvious? It was starting to freak her out. She had to hold herself back from doing something completely immature like sticking her tongue out.

"Foster," the maître d called, leading them back to a table and handing them their menus. "Your server will be with you in a moment," he promised, leaving them to shuffle into the booth.

As expected, Callie and Jude slid into one end of the booth, Mariana and Jesus in the other, leaving Alex and Brandon on opposite sides of the table, but still directly across from each other, giving him ample time and maximum efficiently to continue staring like a total creeper. Super.

"So," Mariana said casually, the first one brave enough to start a conversation. Alex could've hugged her. "Where are you like, from?" she asked, picking up a menu.

"New Jersey," Alex said, not being able to help a relieved smile at having the first question directly to her not filled with an expletive or sarcasm.

"That's like pretty close to New York, right?" Mariana asked again.

"Yeah, the states are right next to each other," Alex nodded.

"Have you ever been to New York City?" Mariana asked, her face growing excited, her eyes widening.

"Sure, a few times actually."

"Oh my god, you totally have to take me some day. Preferably during fashion week," she specified.

"What's fashion week?" Jude asked from his place squished against the wall.

"Oh my god, Jude, it's the best thing ever," Mariana explained seriously. "The whole world like gets together and all the major cities have all these awesome fashion shows from the best designers on earth."

"Whoa, cool," Jude said, his eyes widened as well at the same time Brandon's rolled.

"Screw fashion week," Jesus added. "I'm in, but only for the pizza. Is it really as good as everyone says?" he asked Alex.

"Better," Alex nodded.

"Dude," Jesus said, before returning his attention to his menu.

"I'd like to go too," Callie added, "but because of all the landmarks. You could get some really good pictures of the Statue of Liberty, Time Square-"

"Me modeling in front of the Statue of Liberty and Times Square," Mariana interrupted, as she and Callie laughed.

"You're so vain," Callie accused over a giggle.

"What?" Mariana defended. "Those are all perfect spots for senior pictures."

"Mariana, we're sophomores," Jesus reminded her.

"It's never too early," she said, squinting at him.

All the talk of their imaginary trip was interrupted by their waitress arriving at the table. "Sorry about the wait," she apologized.

"It's all right," Brandon assured her, actually meaning it, quickly looking around the table with a softer expression. Everyone was starting to enjoy themselves, and even if he couldn't make himself have fun, at least everyone else was. If his siblings liked her, maybe he didn't quite hate her.

"Are we ready to order?" the waitress asked, pulling out a small notepad and clicking a pen open.

The group nodded a consensus of yeses. "I'll start," Jesus eagerly volunteered. "I'll have a double order of the spaghetti, extra meatballs," he said.

"Simplicity, I like it," Alex said.

"Ew, no, do you even understand how fattening that is?" Mariana replied as Jude ordered his small kid's pizza.

Callie went with the fettuccine and Brandon's choice was lasagna.

"I'll have the half-sized order of the Caesar salad, hold the croutons, no chicken, dressing on the side," Mariana specified, "make sure the dressing is on the side," she reiterated seriously as the waitress shot her a dirty look.

"Well you're not getting a good tip," she said under her breath with an equally dirty expression in response.

At last, only Alex was left. She hadn't even cracked her menu open. She was going to order the same thing as Mariana did, as she felt it might be safest given she was the most open and talkative, but there was no way in hell she was ordering basically lettuce. Fettuccine wasn't her favorite, the kid's pizza would be the size of her pinky finger, and she'd probably hurl and look crazy ordering Jesus' order.

"I think I'll go with the lasagna too," she decided, handing her menu to the waitress. Lasagna was a classic favorite of hers, and as stupid as it probably sounded, maybe, just maybe, their mutual love of red sauce would help her and Brandon bond a little. Or at least, you know, make it not feel like they were rival districts in The Hunger Games or something.

"I love your nose ring," Mariana said as the waitress went to put in their orders.

"Oh," Alex laughed, touching the stud. "Thanks."

"I have my nose pierced too," she informed her.

Callie scoffed in reply, "more like mutilated."

"That's totally unfair!" Mariana said. "I have it pierced, I just went about it untraditionally," she explained.

"Yeah, you did it yourself with a needle and moms went ape," Jesus said, laughing at the memory of his moms' reactions.

"Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that it's pierced," Mariana shot back.

Callie laughed as she took a sip of her water, and Alex managed a small smile.

"You didn't even go to get it done?" she laughed.

"No, my moms would've said no, okay?" Mariana said, laughing at herself at this point. "I took it out since then anyway. It was urgent at the time."

"What urgent situation would've prompted you to punch a hole through your own face?" she laughed as Mariana's face went straight, snapping up to look at Alex with a now serious expression.

Shit. Had she gone too far and hit a touchy subject? Mariana and Callie were the major players on her team right now, and losing them would be fatal. She had to start being more careful with what she said.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to -" she quickly started to apologize.

"No, you didn't say anything," Mariana rushed to assure her. "It's just," she laughed out her nose, "my mom, well, Stef, used the exact same words as you just did."

"Really? That's a weird coincidence," Alex replied, trying to shrug and laugh it off. But deep down a little part of her savored that. Maybe they had more in common than she'd thought.

"Yeah," Mariana said, "really weird," she said, stirring her iced tea, more reserved now, but still smiling slightly.

The rest of the pre-meal passed by much the same way as pre-ordering did. It was a drastic improvement from the car ride, even though Jude accidentally spilled his drink and Mariana chastised Jesus for a solid ten minutes for asking the waitress if there was any way he could have a side of ketchup with his spaghetti.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and having a good time as they got their food and starting eating. The meals were delicious, and now that there was conversation to accompany it, it was turning out to be a good time. Well, conversation from everyone except Brandon, that is. He was still acting sullenly, but he grinned at a few of the jokes being told, which Alex thought was better than nothing.

Before long, most of the plates had been cleared and the waitress brought a fairly large bill to the table. Brandon reached into his pocket to pull out his wallet and Alex's heart stopped. She patted her pockets, and swiped her hand about the booth seat, her face blushing bright red. She didn't have any money on her.

She bit her lip, at a loss as to what to do. This was so embarrassing. She'd have to try and borrow money from Brandon or maybe even one of the other kids if they had any. She could try Mariana, Jesus, or Callie, but they were all laughing at some private joke and interrupting would be awkward. Plus, Brandon already had his wallet out. She really didn't want to do it, but she didn't see any better options.

"Uh, Brandon," she asked in almost a whisper. His head shot up at her, his hand still in his wallet.

"Is there any way I could borrow some money?" she asked.

His face became disgusted in an instant. "Money for what? Is that what this is about? You're just using us for our money?"

"What?" Alex asked, confused at his accusation.

"You have the nerve to show up at our house, come to this dinner, and then ask me for money so you can, what, go somewhere else? Buy drugs? What?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?" Alex asked, her eyebrows knitted, growing angry and defensive herself. "I meant for dinner."

Brandon's face flushed crimson. "Oh."

"Yeah, excuse me for forgetting my purse but it's been kind of a crazy couple of days, it just slipped my mind. Won't happen again," she said bitterly.

"No, I just, I thought you meant-"

"I know what you thought," Alex spat back, sighing.

The two stared each other down, the other side of the table still oblivious to the icy exchange going on next to them.

"You're not borrowing it," Brandon said with finality.

"Fine, I'll find a way to pay," Alex said venomously.

"No, I mean, you don't have to pay me back," he said, his voice softer now.

"I'm not some charity case," Alex shook her head.

"You're our family though," he said. Alex could tell he didn't really mean the words, his voice was holding back, but at least he had said it. At least he was trying.

"Still, I'll pay you when we get home."

"I'm not going to let you do that," Brandon said. His voice had Stef's rigid, this-isn't-open-for-discussion stubbornness to it. She wasn't going to win.

"Well thank you, very much," Alex nodded in grateful acknowledgment of the gesture.

Brandon nodded back. "Plus, my moms gave me most of this. And Lena would kill me if she found out I made you pay."

"Really?" Alex asked. She'd actually thought over what she was going to say next, but ventured to say it. It was risky, but with Brandon, she didn't really have much to lose. "From what little I've seen, I'd figure Stef's more the killing type."

Brandon smirked. "Yeah, well you've never had Lena give you 'the look.'"

"The look'?"

"It's lethal," Brandon assured her. "It's reserved for serious trouble and it'll make your blood run cold," he said, over-exaggerating, but only a little.

"Damn, Lena sounds like a badass," Alex replied, making Brandon snicker a little, which Alex thought may have been her biggest accomplishment maybe ever.

"It's only matched by my mom's threatening whisper," Brandon warned.

"Whisper? That sounds kind of lame. I think maybe you're just a pussy," Alex egged on a reaction.

Brandon shook his head and blew air out of his mouth. "I'm not. You get on the receiving end of the whisper and then talk to me. I bet you'd cry."

"I bet I wouldn't," Alex laughed.

"Well we'll see. But I mean hopefully you'll never have to experience it."

"Hopefully," Alex agreed.

Brandon looked down at his watch, "we better get going or else we're going to be late and we're all going to experience it," he said, standing up and leading everyone out of the restaurant.

The car ride back home was leaps and bounds better than the one to the restaurant. It was amazing what some breadsticks and talk of New York City could do to change people. The chatter was plentiful, and for the first time in a long time Alex actually felt truly happy. This was nice. They were nice. It was good.

They all moseyed into the house, holding takeout boxes and to-go cups as they entered through the back door into the kitchen.

"Moms! We're home!" Brandon yelled to the house, though it wasn't necessary considering they were sitting at the kitchen table, straight-faced. "Oh, sorry, I didn't think you'd be down here," he froze. "Is something wrong?"

The kids stopped just inside the back door at the interruption, all seeing the stoic expressions on their mothers' faces. Lena tried her hardest to perk her face up.

"Oh, kids, don't take your shoes off!" she said, jumping up from the table, intercepting them.

"What's going on?" Callie asked, confused. It was all going so well. Had something happened with her and Jude?

"Nothing, nothing," Lena reassured them. "We all just need to make a quick run to the grocery store," she said, making a shooing motion to herd them out the back door again.

"What? It's 8 o'clock at night," Mariana said, puzzled.

"And didn't you just go yesterday?" Jude asked.

"I'm in," Jesus said, heading back to the car, the only one not opposed or questioning this plan.

"Well yes, but, you all were complaining about what I bought so we're going again, all of us this time," Lena said ad-libbing. It was the best excuse she could come up with.

"Can't this wait until tomorrow? America's Next Top Model is new tonight," Mariana complained.

"Nope, it can't wait, let's go, everyone but Alex."

"Why wouldn't Alex come? She's the-" Jude asked innocently.

"Just go!" Lena said frazzled, resorting to physically shoving them out the door and trying her best to ward off questions as she did so.

Alex stood by the table, the place she'd been tossed in all the commotion. In all the hustle and bustle, the door hadn't latched completely, and Stef stood up, going over to shut it, sealing in the threatening quiet.

"Sit," Stef demanded in a whisper as she practically slammed the door.

Alex immediately did as she was instructed. Brandon was right.

Stef took a deep breath, her hand still on the doorknob, facing the wood. She tried her very best to compose herself.

After a few moments, she turned to look at Alex. Her voice maintained the eerily quiet, even tone as she spoke.

"Let's talk."

Oh snap. It's going down. (I'm yelling timber.) But anyway, what did you think? How'd you like the dinner scene? And any thoughts or predictions on how the Alex/Stef conversation is going to go? I think we can all agree it's probably not going to be pretty... Thanks so much for all the reviews. This story is so close to hitting 100 and this is only the 10th chapter which is epic crazy awesomeness. Thanks, people. You rock.

Grace, Liz – you homies are the best.