Logan stood before the judge alongside his father. Logan knew he was in more trouble because he had thrown the first punch, but the judge had little sympathy for anyone in his station of life.
He was facing charges for battery against his father but the other man, realizing that he was also getting in trouble for the fight was willing to drop the charges.
Rory hadn't been able to come to court that day because she had classes, so for the first time Logan stood there by himself.
His court appointed representative presented the case to the judge, that they had both caused a public disturbance but wanted to drop charges against each other.
Logan hadn't even bothered to pay attention at his last hearings so he wasn't quite sure what was going on now, but he knew that the charges wouldn't be as serious as he had previously thought. But definitely there would be something else to add to his record.
He looked up suddenly realizing that he had been lost in a reverie, thinking about his previous times standing here.
The judge was looking over his records, seeing how many times Logan had been there before. He shook his head.
"Young man, you are on your way towards some very serious legal troubles." The judge began, speaking in a pedantic tone. There was little sympathy in the voice. "Now I know that you have been able to get off before because your family was wealthy, but you have obviously learned nothing from your previous experiences. Unfortunately, this man is willing to drop the charges of battery against you, so the most that I can charge you with is public disturbance. But I am assigning you the maximum fine in hopes that I will not see you in here again."
The judge banged his gavel and Logan, crestfallen, followed his attorney out to fill out the necessary paperwork. He really needed to get some form of employment, to pay off this fine, to help out Rory, to pay back Luke.
He passes his real father as he exited the building. He made no move towards him, just said quietly. "When I am someone, don't you dare ever come to me for anything. Got that?"
The other man just gave him a dirty look, and a confused look. It was doubtful that Logan would ever be able to make anything of himself now.
As
soon as he could Logan pulled out Rory's cell phone that she had lent
him and called her at the apartment.
"Hello?" A brusque voice
queried.
"Hey Paris, is Rory there?" Logan asked.
Without hearing anything else from Paris, Logan heard the phone being passed to someone else.
"Hey Logan, how did it go?" Rory asked.
"I have a fine, but no jail time. Dear old dad dropped the charges."
"Thats not as bad as it could have been. But stay out of trouble now, okay?"
Logan smiled a little. "I promise. I'll be back in not too long."
He got into Rory's car and started it up, fully intending to keep his promise. He felt relieved to have the latest court date behind him and he certainly didn't want any more. The fine was bad enough but he easily could have ended up in jail for a while, which would look even worse when he was trying to get a job. But as he was getting ready to pull out a thought occurred to him and compelled him to change his direction and try something else, one of his last options.
