OK - here is second chapter for today! As I said probably no update tomorrow but this chapter ties up Kasey's hellish night anyway!
Him?!" Stef looked at her daughter in disbelief. Kasey was speechless.
"Ms Foster, I couldn't let Kasey take all the responsibility for this..." Evan held his hands up in the air.
"You, be quiet! Do you have any idea the trouble you've caused? Two of my kids are in the emergency room - one of them could be facing a summer of school resits and the other has been dragged into this huge mess of cover-ups."
Evan was absolutely terrified to be having his head torn off by a woman he'd never properly met before.
"I..."
"I said be quiet!" She then turned to Kasey.
"So I'm gonna just throw this one out there and assume that it's no coincidence this numbnut was talking to me in the coffeehouse for ten minutes the other day?"
"Well...as I said, we went out for coffee a few times..."
"And you used him to distract us so you could sneak out and not get caught ditching school? How in the world was that not gonna come back and bite you in the ass? How is it you can be so smart and so stupid at the same time?"
Kasey didn't have a good answer.
"Well, you have to admit, you enjoyed our conversation." Evan quipped, the alcohol and painkillers maybe clouding his better judgement of the capabilities of the woman standing in front of him. Stef turned on him and he shuffled back for fear of being attacked.
"Oh you know what I can see why you two get along..." she spat angrily. "Just...what are you even doing here?" She demanded.
"I told you, I don't want Kasey to take the full fall for this...I took her to the party, they were my friends, I started the fight, please Ms Foster, even if you tell me to never go near your daughter again just please don't think any less of her for all of this. I'm responsible."
Stef paused for a moment.
"So are you saying that you're the adult here? See that kind of sounds like you're acknowledging the fact you're involved in an inappropriate relationship with a school girl! A school girl who by the way has two parents who are cops, but then you know that because you spent 10 minutes distracting them while they were on duty."
"To be honest you looked more like you were getting coffee..." Kasey cringed as she could hear Evan digging his hole even deeper - a game that she was all too familiar with. Her Mom's rage had gone practically non-verbal. Gathering herself she managed to find her voice through a twisted whisper "I swear to any God that may have ever existed I am this close to arresting you purely for pissing me off." Evan was about to respond but Kasey gave him a look that confirmed it would be a bad idea.
"I'm sorry." He conceded. "I have no excuse for what happened except that I love your daughter...and it's because of that...well I'm just really sorry." Stef looked him up and down.
"I really think it's best that you go." She warned firmly after taking a deep breath. Kasey began to protest but Stef silenced her with her hand. Evan nodded. "I'm sorry, again." He said and turned to leave.
Stef stood for a moment with her eyes closed.
"Mom..."
"Kasey just zip it. I could strangle you right now...I mean actually murder you. How many times have you snuck him right under my nose?" She was back to the yelling.
"Just those two times...OK well three if you count when he showed up last night..." Kasey flinched as her Mom's hand whipped up to her forehead.
"You know what, just go to bed. I need to talk to your Mom...and your Dad, who by the way will be looking for Evan's head on a platter. I mean for God's sake Kasey your parents are cops! Did you really think we would react in any other way?"
"And you wonder why I didn't tell you?" Kasey was getting tired and losing her composure. Stef managed to maintain hers long enough to avoid flying off the handle at her daughter's clumsy response.
"We'll decide your punishment tomorrow, with all things considered. But I tell you one thing, even if we do let you keep seeing this boy you're gonna be grounded so long it really will be love if he's still around." Kasey just remained silent. "Go to bed. Oh, and give me your phone. I don't want you texting him." Kasey opened her mouth to protest but again she could see resistance was futile.
Begrudgingly she handed it over and turned to go up to the stairs before pausing at the bottom.
"I am sorry, Mom. For letting you down." Stef had to choke back at hearing her daughter so full of regret. She remembered what Lena had said about her being a good kid who had made mistakes. Somehow the understanding she had come to earlier on with that had been clouded since the full extent of the mistakes had been laid out to her – especially the representation of them on her doorstep. She had made a lot of mistakes but Stef could see in so much of her conduct the place where they had come from. "Just go to bed." She disappeared up the stairs. Stef collapsed down on the couch hoping Lena would return soon.
"Stef.." Lena softly shook her wife awake. She had drifted off but snapped awake at the interruption.
"You're home - how are the boys?" She sat up and looked over to her bandaged up sons.
"Well there'll be no piano for a couple of weeks, hairline fracture at the base of the thumb, but the doctor said it should be back to full use soon."
"Base of the thumb? You really do punch like a girl." Brandon glared at his Mom as Lena knocked her arm to reprimand her teasing.
"And what about you knucklehead?" She said sternly, quickly changed the subject.
"Just a couple of stitches in my lip and a sprain. I should probably cut down the amount of writing though..." he tried.
"In your dreams young man." Stef said sleepily. "Though at least you won't be missing any volleyball anyway seeing as you won't be playing for a while." Jesus sighed, though he was by far the most used to being punished in the house.
"I take it the girls are in bed?" Lena asked.
"Yeah, I sent Callie up a while ago as she didn't really have anything to add, and I thought it best to send Kasey up for her own safety." Lena's expression dropped. She realised there had clearly been more uncovered. "Oh and Evan dropped by." Lena's expression changed to shock.
"He was here?" Brandon spat. "I hope you kicked him out." He humphed.
"What is your problem with him dude?" Jesus interfered defending Evan. "I really like him."
"You barely even know him!" Brandon snapped back "You just like him because he has a Padres tattoo."
"Enough." Lena sighed almost effortlessly. She was too tired to express any strong emotion and wasn't going to waste it on bickering.
"A tattoo. Why am I not surprised." Stef snarked before turning to Jesus. "Though by the way, young Foster, from what I hear you know him better than I would have liked." He looked innocently at his Mom turning his attention away from his sulking brother. She was sat forward elbows on her knees and forefinger covering her mouth as she spoke. "Yes, Kasey told me about you helping them sneak around."
"Oh..." Jesus' expression turned to guilt as Stef stared him down, still threatening even from her tired pose. "And you're not allowed to be mad at her for telling me either, not after you went to that party after she told you not to." There was enough angst in the house for her to want to add any more.
"It's OK, I'm not mad." He responded. He was by far the most laid back of all of the kids and he was no stranger to being in trouble.
"I would be." Brandon sulked again.
Stef pushed herself off the sofa to square up to her eldest. "OK enough of this feeling sorry for yourself Brandon." He looked shocked at his Mother snapping at him. "Your sister has done some stupid things but nobody made you go down there. If you're going to insist on playing the hero you need to start taking responsibility for it." Brandon was surprised his Mom was defending Kasey over him but he knew better than to bother trying to argue, besides, his bitterness was even starting to weigh him down. He grumbled an apology.
"I think it's time we all got some sleep - it's been a long night. Boys, we'll pick this up in the morning after your Mom and I have talked everything through."
"Night Moms." Jesus bounced giving them both a kiss.
"You know you could look less pleased with yourself..." Stef grumbled as she patted his arm and sent him up to bed.
"Sorry - but these are my first big battle scars and it's kind of cool" he beamed examining his hand.
Stef rolled her eyes muttering something about showing him battle scars and smacked him slightly harder as he bound away. It was hard to stay mad at him when he seemed so oblivious. Brandon followed him still in a sulk, his "goodnight" barely audible. Both Moms collapsed next to each other on the couch.
"What a night." Stef sighed laying her arm across her forehead. Lena put her hand on her leg.
"So...how are you doing?" she asked massaging her thigh gently.
"Oh you know...I just found out my daughter has been sneaking a 19 year old around the house right under our noses, skipping classes to weirdly attend different classes which I don't even know what that means or whether we can be mad about it...and on top of that been taking her siblings to college boozers for some late night brawling. And the worst part is...part of me doesn't think that she did anything wrong."
Lena looked at her with a mixture of shock and intrigue.
"Well, I mean obviously not the drinking and sneaking or ditching...but the reasons why she did it that way. I think I'm beginning to get it. Much as I hate to admit it - I don't think this boy is just some teenage fling. She really cares for him...and I think he does for her. I mean the dummy came round here - he wouldn't have risked showing his face if he wasn't fiercely loyal. Let's face it, if she was just 6 months older we wouldn't think anything of it. She's at that awkward age where the line between adult and child is so fine - I mean if anything she's more mature than him. She was trying to have the adult relationship she yearns for but only knew how to do it using teenage tricks."
"So what are you saying?" Lena asked calmly. "You don't think we should stop them seeing each other?"
"Honestly...I'm not sure it's in our power to even try, not when all this is over."
Lena nodded in understanding. "We can't turn a blind eye to it though - I mean it's illegal...and there's no way I can not throw the book at her for skipping that many classes."
"Oh don't get me wrong - we need to punish her...speaking of that though, do you really think the school will make her resit or do summer school? I mean, her overall grades haven't suffered. If anything, some have improved."
"I think we can probably talk Carina down from resits. Tell you what though, I'm going to have her on monitored classes for the rest of her time at school. Nobody uses my signature to sneak around and gets away with it."
"I'm tempted to monitor her for the rest of her natural life..." Stef snarked maliciously.
"She had him in the house?" Lena asked having taken some time to process.
"Yep. He came by the other night uninvited to ask her out, I'm assuming drunk as he'd have to be pretty stupid to do otherwise and then today when we were out apparently, both of which Jesus seems to have covered for." Stef screwed up her face as Lena rolled her eyes.
"We really have to crush some of that boy's self-sacrificing loyalty." She joked before Stef continued.
"Then the most annoying thing, Mike and I nearly caught them ditching school the other day and he acted as a diversion so Kasey could sneak past us." Stef relayed to her wife.
Lena couldn't help but laugh to herself in a desperate sigh. "She is one sly fox that girl. If only she could focus it towards the greater good instead of running rings around us. You're right though, short of locking her in a cage I doubt there is much we can do to keep them apart."
"Hey now there's an idea..." Stef considered. They both laughed quietly to each other more out of exhaustion than anything else.
The two shook their heads and continued to discuss the various roles each of the children had played until they both were too tired to stay awake.
"We're gonna have a busy house." Stef quipped before finally succumbing to the call for sleep.
Chapter 22 Preview: Sentencing!
"Let's get this over with." she invited, bracing herself.