AN: Update time! Thanks for those who've reviewed and alerted over the last few days :) Thanks Nichole and Angel! More family drama and Madison drama coming up soon :) I hope you all enjoy this chapter!
"In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure." – Bill Cosby
Chapter 10
The next Wednesday afternoon, Violet was sitting on Aubrey's bed when she crowed excitedly, "I told you so!"
"Be quiet, will you! We don't want Mom and Dad to hear," Aubrey said tensely.
Veronica was already home from work, because she had picked the boys and Violet up from school. She'd cut back on her hours at work, as she had promised Logan. Logan of course was working from home, and had minded Maegan for the first time. Aubrey was already home from cheer practice because they'd finished early because the captain, Rose, had a dentist appointment. Caroline, who was for all intents and purposes the vice captain, could've continued the practice, but the girls just decided to have an early mark.
Violet giggled and said, "Fine, fine. But I did tell you, I said that by the end of the fourth week of school, someone would've asked you out."
"Yeah, you're a real genius," Aubrey retorted dryly.
"So, I want details! You haven't even told me who asked you out," Violet said, her voice more quiet.
"It was Dan Moss, he's a junior," Lily said.
"And an 09er," Violet added.
"Of course. Guys who aren't 09ers seem a little intimidated by me, it's hard to get them to talk to me. Oh, except for Justin of course," Aubrey replied.
"So, what did you say?" Violet asked.
"I told him that I'd need to think about it," Aubrey replied.
"Oh, I'm sure he loved that," Violet said dryly.
"Yes, I think he thought I was being snooty or something, being a freshman and telling a junior that I needed time to think about it," Aubrey said a little sadly.
"Did he say that he thought you were snooty?" Violet asked.
"Oh no, he just looked a bit put out. He was actually all nice and casual about it all, just told me to let him know," Aubrey said.
"And it's for Homecoming, right?" Violet questioned.
"Yes, he asked me to Homecoming, but he also asked me if I wanted to see a movie this weekend," Aubrey replied.
"Well, do you want to?" Violet asked.
"Well, yeah, I guess so. I mean, he's a junior, he's on the football team, he's rather attractive, and he's nice," Aubrey listed.
"Glad to see nice made it in there, if it was a last though," Violet pointed out.
"Oh, shut up, Vi," Aubrey retorted. "I guess I would've said yes right when he asked me, except for that little factor called Dad. Mom shouldn't be anything to worry about at least."
"Well, at least Dad did make that new version of the boy lecture the other week," Violet said optimistically.
"I suppose," Aubrey agreed. "So, do I tell Mom first? When do I tell her? Do I tell them both at once, and in public? Do I not tell them, and just announce that I have a date?"
"Oh you have to tell them. Just tell Mom what you told me, put it simply, then leave Daddy to her," Violet suggested. "You'd better tell her tonight, so you can give Dan an answer tomorrow, otherwise you'll have to explain why you're delaying."
"And that's be great. 'Oh Dan, the reason why I'm stalling is, that I have to ask my Dad's permission, and he's kind of scary. Plus, my mom owns a gun and has a license to carry a concealed weapon'. Yeah, that'd send him running for the hills, and any other guys who might've asked me out," Aubrey said wryly.
"Exactly, so you need to have this first, scary time out, otherwise your dating life will be doomed," Violet said. "Go on, no time like the present. Find Mom. I'll be waiting here, reading this magazine, until you return triumphantly."
"Thanks Vi," Aubrey said. "See you soon, hopefully."
"Don't worry, I'll send the boys in on a rescue mission if I don't see you soon!" Violet called to Aubrey's retreating back.
Aubrey went downstairs, and found her mother in the kitchen, baking a batch of snickerdoodles. If all else failed, they could be given to Logan to help ease the pain of what Aubrey had to say.
Aubrey quickly and quietly told her mother the condensed version of her discussion with Violet.
Veronica looked suddenly more tired, and felt rather old and a little sad. But the look of intrigue and hope on her daughter's face, and the knowledge that she was counting on her to tell Logan and smooth the way steadied her, she needed to be a supportive mom for Aubrey, and she wanted her daughter to be happy.
"I'll go and talk to your father now, that's what you want, right?" Veronica asked.
"Yeah, I want to give Dan an answer, and I want to get it over with. Dad knowing, I mean," Aubrey said confusingly. "You had better take a few snickerdoodles with you for Daddy."
Veronica nodded, and put together a plate of snickerdoodles and wandered into Logan's office.
There was an addition to Logan's office, Maegan was playing with her toys, set up in a playpen, so Logan could keep an eye on her. Lily hadn't come to pick her up yet, and wouldn't until a little after five.
Maegan would hopefully be useful in helping to keep Logan from blowing up.
"Mmm, snickerdoodles, my favourite," Logan said, upon smelling their aroma.
"Lots of things are your favourite," Veronica said lightly. "Logan, I need to talk to you about something."
Logan swivelled around fully, and looked seriously at Veronica.
"Ronnie, is everything alright?" Logan asked in concern.
"Oh yes, everything's fine. You just mightn't think so," Veronica said with a small smile.
"Just tell me," Logan pleaded.
"Well, it's this way. A boy asked Aubrey out, to a movie, and to Homecoming, and she wants to say yes," Veronica said in a rush.
Logan sat very still, then went a charming shade of green. Then he opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. It was very much a rarity, to find Logan Echolls speechless.
Eventually Logan managed to say, "She hasn't said yes yet? So she hasn't said no either?"
"No, she said she needed time to think," Veronica answered. "Which really meant that she need to talk to us."
"Can we say that she can't?" Logan asked hopefully.
"No we can't, but we could get Aubrey to get Caroline go too, with a boy too of course," Veronica replied. "That way it'll be a double date, removing any alone time, and Dick can be miserable with you."
"I'm still a fan of locking her in a tower until she's thirty," Logan said sadly.
"Well, I'm glad you know that you can't," Veronica replied.
"Well, can I at least meet the guy, and scare him thoroughly?" Logan asked, brightening considerably.
"I think that would be alright, it is a father's job after all," Veronica allowed with a smile. "I think you're going to be just fine at that particular task too."
"I quite agree with you Sugarpus," Logan said, almost gleefully, especially in comparison to his prior dull mood. "Oh, what's his name?"
"Dan, or Daniel I guess, Moss," Veronica answered. "Don't worry, I'll do a background check in a few minutes."
"I'm so glad I married you," Logan said genuinely. "And go figure, she wants to date someone named after our old dog."
Danny, the dog, had died a couple of years before, just of old age, but he hadn't been replaced, as the idea had been preposterous to the children. They didn't want a new dog, not just after their faithful old one had died.
"Speaking of dogs," Veronica began. "I think it's about time we got another one. Danny has been gone a while now, and I think the kids would be fine with it. I miss having a dog around the house."
"Okay, we can look in to it," Logan replied. "Maybe start looking around this weekend?"
"Sounds good. Don't forget we have to go to Aubrey's first game too on Friday," Veronica added.
"I won't forget. Oh, maybe I'll be able to find this Dan character, and give him a bit of a pre-date scare. Maybe he will be so scared he'll back out of the date," Logan said hopefully.
"Yes dear," Veronica said airily, ignoring his silliness. "I'm going now. I have children to check on, and background checks to run!"
Veronica disappeared to her bedroom, where she'd left her laptop when she'd come home from work. She quickly ran a search on Daniel Moss, and once she was satisfied, closed the lid and walked across to Aubrey's room.
Aubrey and Violet were lying on Aubrey's bed, and both had their homework spread out around them.
"You can go out with Dan, Aubrey," Veronica said. "I talked to your father, ran a background check, so you can go."
"Mom!" Aubrey exclaimed. "You ran, a background check?"
"Yes I did, it's something that I'm not going to budge on, and your father is in full agreement. Besides, I said you can go. One speeding ticket doesn't make a boy dangerous after all," Veronica replied.
Aubrey looked like she was about to keep arguing about the whole background check thing, but then changed her mind and said, "Thanks Mom."
"There's one last condition though," Veronica added.
Violet and Aubrey looked very curious.
"We want you to see if Caroline will go to the movies with you and Dan on Saturday night," Veronica said.
"Oh that won't be hard, guys love Caroline, especially as they haven't been able to go out with her, thanks to Uncle Dick," Violet said with a giggle.
"That's it? I'm sure Care be happy to come, with a guy, but I'm not so sure Uncle Dick will be happy about it," Aubrey said uncertainly.
"Yes, Uncle Dick will be miserable about it, that's the point. He and your father can be sad, old men together," Veronica said cheerfully. "So, I guess you have people to call, and arrangements to make now? Well, I'm going to leave you to it."
"Thanks Mommy," Aubrey said quietly.
"I'll go now too," Violet said, collecting her things. "I wasn't getting much done in here anyway."
"Okay," Aubrey said distractedly, reaching for her phone.
Violet and Veronica smiled, and left the room.
Aubrey dialled Caroline's number.
"Care, it's me," Aubrey said.
"I know, silly! I've kind of had caller I.D. for forever," Caroline replied, laughing.
"Right, of course," Aubrey said sheepishly.
"So, have you asked your parents? Can you go?" Caroline asked.
"Yes, they said it's fine," Aubrey began.
"How exciting!" Caroline squealed. "Now I just need to decide which boy I should date, seeing as Daddy changed the rules, and everything will be great!"
"Well, yes, that's the thing. If you could perhaps, choose a boy by Saturday, that would be super," Aubrey replied.
"Ah, why?" Caroline asked, confused.
"Because Mom and Dad said that they want you, and some guy, to come with us on Saturday, like a double date. What they really want is an unobtrusive chaperone," Aubrey said dryly.
"Done! Brent Crawley asks me out every couple of weeks, so it's about time I say yes. Wow, this whole being allowed to date thing is a bit of a novelty," Caroline replied.
"I know, and I can't actually believe you didn't date at all last year. I mean heaps of guys wanted to date you. You could've worked it so that Uncle Dick didn't know," Aubrey said.
"Yeah, I know, it's because I'm hot and rich," Caroline said with supreme confidence in her own beauty. "I mean, I could've, but Daddy would've known, and I would actually hate to crush him like that."
"And make him angry," Aubrey added astutely.
"Yes, that too. And besides, there weren't that many guys I actually wanted to go on dates with anyway," Caroline returned. "This way is so much better, you're at Neptune High with me now, and Daddy's let up on his stupid rules. We're going to have so much fun!"
"Yes we are!" Aubrey agreed happily. "Well, I've got an English paper due tomorrow for Mrs Hastie, so I'd better do."
"Okay, you're such a good student," Caroline said. "Wait, so tomorrow, you can tell Dan yes, I'll hunt Brent up and suggest that going out might be a good idea. I'll manage it all, and we can make plans to see a movie Saturday night."
"Very good, but I am going now. We can talk tomorrow, and we've got dinner at your place too," Aubrey said. "Bye Caroline."
"Bye Aub," Caroline returned, and hung up her phone.
Caroline got up then, and breezed down stairs, singing cheerfully.
"What's got you so happy?" James asked, as she walked past his room.
"Never you mind Jamie, you'll know soon enough," Caroline said airily, continuing on her way to find her mother.
Caroline had no such qualms about telling her mother her plans for the weekend, she wasn't even really bothered about talking to her father about it either. She giggled to herself, thinking about the fact that she was about to tell her parents she was going on a double date on the weekend, when she actually hadn't secured a date. She would of course, Caroline Casablancas was adored by most people in general. There were of course those her thought her snobby and bitchy, which she was from time to time, but for the most part, she was well liked. Her sunny smiles, vibrant laugh, popularity, beauty and wealth saw to that.
"Mom," Caroline began, upon finding Mac working at her laptop.
"Yes Caroline, what is it?" Mac asked, spinning around.
"I just wanted to say that I have plans with Aubrey to go on double date, this Saturday. It's just to a movie," Caroline explained serenely.
"With who?" Mac asked calmly.
"Brent Crawley, he's a junior," Caroline answered.
"Okay. Has Aubrey spoken to her parents about this?" Mac queried.
"Yes, she spoke to them before she rang me," Caroline replied.
"Alright, I guess I'll ring Aunt Veronica later to talk about it. Well your curfew will be eleven, like normal. Do you want to talk to your dad or will I?" Mac asked.
Caroline swallowed and said, "I'll do it Mom."
"Good luck sweetie," Mac said cheerfully.
"Thanks Mom," Caroline said sarcastically.
Caroline walked down the hall, and into her father's office, where he was having a heated discussion on the phone.
"No, I told you specifically not to hire him. I wanted the other guy. It's my business, so you'll run it the way I tell you to," Dick said, his tone fairly radiating annoyance.
Dick owned a number of companies, and oversaw them, with a little help from Mac. This form of work allowed Dick to have a large income, without having to do very much, and it suited him enormously.
"No, just do it, and ring me when you've taken care of it," Dick said, then hung up.
"Hi Princess, sorry about that," Dick said, turning to Caroline.
"It's alright Daddy," Caroline replied.
"What's up?" Dick asked. "How was your day?"
"My day was good," Caroline answered. "In fact, I wanted to tell you that I kind of have a double date, with Aubrey, for Saturday night. Is that alright?"
"Logan is letting Aubrey go out on Saturday night, with a boy?" Dick fairly roared.
"Calm down Daddy," Caroline said soothingly. "Yes, he is. Remember, you told us that it was okay for us to date. Just that we had to ask you first. This is me asking."
"I know what I said, and what Logan said, the damn idiot," Dick fumed. "I didn't think that you'd actually start dating practically straight away."
"Dad, it's just one movie. Aubrey will be there too," Caroline explained calmly.
"Fine. But if you're home one second after eleven, there will be trouble!" Dick insisted. "Oh Caroline, do you really have to go out with this boy? What's his name?"
"His name is Brent," Caroline answered, hoping that she could actually get him to agree to go out. It would certainly make things more difficult for her if he didn't.
"Brent. Brent what?" Dick asked calculatingly.
"Brent Crawley. Mom is already ringing Aunt Veronica, I'm sure they'll take care of the background check," Caroline said dryly.
"I wasn't thinking that at all," Dick protested.
"You were Daddy, I know you. Besides, you already told us you'd be running background checks," Caroline retorted.
"Are you sure you have to grow up?" Dick asked, pulling Caroline into a hug.
"I'm afraid so, Daddy," Caroline answered. "But don't worry, I'll always be your princess."
The next day, Veronica was sitting in her office, reading her case notes regarding Brandon Keating, and the hate crimes against African Americans.
A black church in Louisiana had been burnt to the ground the night before, thankfully, no one had been hurt. Most of the crimes involved people being hurt. There were beatings, shootings, stabbings, bombs, the odd hit and run. There seemed to be no real pattern in the crimes, just that they were all against the African American community. Therefore the media hadn't suggested that the crimes were connected, which was good for the FBI's investigation.
The FBI had found that the crimes were organised by one group, National Alliance, but they hadn't been able to find out where they met, and who their leaders were. They had some suspects, thanks to information gained from interrogating people that they'd arrested from the various crimes over the years. Brandon Keating had been seen with some of the suspects, and then all his public remarks had been closely analysed, and it was clear that he was a white supremacist. Then, eventually, the FBI had contacted Veronica and put her in charge of getting to know Keating, following him and then, finding out where the National Alliance group was based out of, and who were the main people in charge. Any paperwork that Veronica could get her hands on would be helpful in capturing, charging and convicting as many people as possible.
Veronica looked at the information before her, and sighed, her work was more than cut out for her, and she had yet to tell Logan that Madison and Brandon would be attending the dinner party, which was just over a week away.
AN: Thanks for reading! Please review :)