Hi guys! Thanks for the response to yesterday's chapter! I am glad you liked the start and I hope that will continue. This chapter is still a little foundation building but then fun stuff will be coming soon. Thanks to thesameguest, goodgirlz333 and TheTBone for their help with this chapter.
Oh - and it's freakin' Fosters Monday! Wooooooo! Callie/Stef feels here I come.
"I'll come help you if you drive me to the concert tomorrow." Kasey finally answered, poking her tongue out in delight even though Brandon couldn't see her face.
Callie shook her head, flopping back onto the bed. This was not gonna end well.
"Yeah - that's not gonna happen. I'm not gonna lose my license too!"
"Brandon, you lied to Mom about your plans so you could do a beer run for a college party after a week of gloating about having sole use of the car. You're losing your license anyway. At least with this there's a chance we may get away with it."
"What chance? You realise you have to actually be out of the house for the whole evening?"
"It's handled. Moms already think I am working and I'll just pretend I came back earlier than I actually did. Moms won't notice for a little while." She replied confidently, the wheels still turning even though she hadn't worked out the specifics. Brandon was less convinced.
"How do I know you're not going to just tell Moms anyway?"
"Because I wouldn't do that. Not unless you go back on your word to help me. That's just leverage."
"Come on dude, what choices do we have?" they could hear Aiden say. Brandon sucked on his lip looking to the beer and back to Aiden. He didn't want to be at Kasey's mercy but at the same time it did seem like the only plausible option.
"If we get busted, deal's off. That includes if you don't actually get us going again."
"If you get busted you're not exactly going to be able to help me anyway." Kasey affirmed as Brandon took a few minutes and a few more whispers from Aiden before he blew out his trepidation.
"Fine. Come find us."
"Give me twenty minutes." Kasey vibrated with delight as she hung up, her joy quickly stifled by a death glare from Callie.
"What?" she shrugged, her face screwing up into a mixture of guilt and worry.
"Do you wanna come too? We can get three tickets..."
"Kasey!" Callie exclaimed. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you're gonna be in?"
"Only if I get caught..."
"Yeah, and when was the last time you said that and didn't?"
"Like...almost never, but there's always a first. And besides, this would be worth being grounded for the rest of the year!"
"You really would give up your entire junior year social life for one stupid concert? Possibly even your driving license."
"Moms will come on strong but let's face it, they'll be more just disappointed."
"And that's so much better?"
Kasey shrugged with some indecipherable sound of indifference, her head far too distracted with her blossoming plan.
"How are you even going to get away with it anyway? Even with being at work you'd be expected back too early."
"Well, that takes me to ten, the concert will finish round about then anyway with an 8pm start and no support so I just need Mom to be sufficiently distracted until about eleven or maybe eleven thirty latest in case of problems.
"And how exactly do you plan to do that?" Callie snarked before her face suddenly turned to dread on cue from a desperately suggestive smile that was pointing her way.
"Oh no. No no no no no. You're not dragging me into this." she moved her body round away from facing Kasey as her sister hopped closer to place her hands on her knee.
"All you have to do is hang out with Moms. Suggest a film or something. The English Patient! It's Mom's fave and she'll never interrupt it."
"The English Patient is Stef's favourite film?" Callie took a moment out of the imminent issue to convey her surprise.
"Don't ask - Ralph Fiennes is in it and the topless women remind her of Lena or something. Anyway, it's like 3 hours long so it's perfect. Someone can either fake me being back or I'll call and say I'm stuck at work. Or both."
"That's not just spending time with Moms, that's being a distraction. A super obvious distraction - with about a hundred variables that could go wrong at any time!"
"And I'll be too high from the concert to care."
"And what about the rest of us. You don't think Moms will flip out on us?"
"Well...a little but nothing serious. Hey, you could always just claim ignorance, I'll back you up. Please Callie, I'll do anything. Just name it - anything you want."
"Honestly? I kinda want to actually be able to do things with my sister. Kinda sucks to have one after 17 years and her never stay ungrounded long enough for us to ever actually do anything..."
"Oh come on. I'm not grounded that much..."
"Well you will be if you do this..."
"If you do this for me I promise I'll keep a low profile for a little while..." She pleaded, clasping her hands together. "Hey you can use that as a defence if we do get busted. You're doing this in exchange for me being a better person after it."
Callie screwed up her face, once again intrigued by how Kasey could flip any sort of logic around. She sighed heavily, there was nothing about this she liked or even had any faith in, but at the same time she knew bending was inevitable. Kasey was going to do this one way or another and at least this was the most harmless plan she would probably come up with.
"You don't even have to lie...just skirt around the truth." Kasey puffed her lip out as Callie squinted her eyes into another scrutinising glare.
As much as she hated Kasey's tornado like approach at times, she also knew that she never hesitated to fall on her sword for the other siblings when the roles were reversed.
Callie shook her head and dropped down, waving her hand in approval as Kasey leaped on her with a squeal, hugging round her stomach.
"I love you, I love you, I love you!" She sang as Callie shook her off.
"Enough!" She grumbled slapping her arm as Kasey giggled.
"You are the best sister ever." Kasey beamed as Callie shook her head, grabbing her book to block her view. She may be bending but she would make it pretty clear she wasn't going to indulge Kasey's excitement. It was about as big a protest as she could muster.
"Alright - I'm gonna go help Brandon..." She gathered her things and edged to the door, suddenly realising there was still another small hitch. She turned back to Callie who continued to read until she noticed Kasey's look.
"Uhm...you can totally cover for me now, too, right?" She whispered as Callie flopped her book down with a deadly glare.
"You know what, never mind, I got this..." She backed away slowly, deciding not to push it as Callie slowly raised her book up again.
"You are unbelievable. Why couldn't you just tell me that was all I needed to do? I could have got the kit myself." Brandon ranted as they drove around. The ease and speed with which Kasey had got the car going did not seem like a fair trade for what he would be risking the following night.
"That wouldn't make me a very good negotiator would it?" Kasey replied as they drove.
"Well it isn't exactly a fair exchange."
"What do you mean fair exchange? I just risked my ass sneaking out of the house. Sure you could have got the kit but you still wouldn't have known what to do. Of course why you took the car anyway is beyond me. You totally could have walked and you never would have been in this mess."
"We needed to carry the beer!"
"Riiight! The beer! The beer which Moms would have been thrilled to find out about after catching you rummaging in the garage looking for the jump start kit."
"Well you didn't get caught doing that...unlike what'll happen tomorrow which is why I'm not doing it."
The bickering had gone back and forth but it hadn't yet broached on Brandon going back on his word. The suggestion hit Kasey harder than she anticipated, partially out of anger but also partially regretting if she really had just risked this for nothing. She started at him venomously before folding her arms and playing her card.
"Fine. I'll tell mom." She threatened as Brandon puffed out his chest, readjusting his own stance.
"Well I'll just tell Mom how and why you helped me." he squared up, not willing to be defeated. "You'll still get in more trouble for trying to use it to sneak out."
"Right, so we'll just both end up definitely screwed. Great plan, bro." Kasey scoffed, her annoyance growing by the second but Brandon's too was perfectly matched. Whether it was the time in the confined space of the car or the frustration that she was pulling him into one of her reckless schemes he wasn't able to hide his frustration with her.
"You are such a pain in the ass."
"Well that's better than just being the ass." She fired back, the bitterness now switching to hurt at how stubborn he was being when, regardless of her motives, she had just done him a favour. "You know whether I did this for me or not, you still wouldn't have had an out without me."
Sensing that this was toeing the fine line of the banter of their usual digs and genuine hostility Brandon backed down a little with guilt and slowed on approach to the house.
"Shouldn't you get out here?" Brandon pulled up, his voice quieter but still with the remnants of their quarrel. "So Mom doesn't see you get out the car if she looks out. I'll distract her in the living room while you sneak in the back."
Kasey realised she hadn't even thought of that. She was torn between still being pissed at Brandon and grateful he had been observant enough to tackle that flaw in their plan during her distraction. Clearly he wasn't resigned to betraying her just yet. The moment of thoughtfulness softened her approach as she licked her bottom lip and unbuckled her belt.
"Look, whether you take me or not, I'm not a narc and I'm not going to blackmail you - but you do owe me. You made a deal and if it was the other way around you know I'd uphold my end." she reeled her belt up and opened the door angrily, moving to the back to retrieve the bike they'd stowed and the jump kit. After a moment of stewing he slapped his hands onto the wheel and cursed himself. He knew he was going to bend, just like Callie had done. He turned around to look at her through the open trunk.
"Look I'll do it. Like I promised. I'll need an alibi though - and there's no guarantee it's gonna work. I'm not going above and beyond." he finally conceded as Kasey hid a smile so as not to show that she was too grateful and lose her upper hand. Deep down she had always had faith he would follow through, after all it was exactly what she would do for him. She closed the trunk and moved round to the passenger door instead where he lowered the window.
"You have to explain why you're home early anyway, right?" She leaned in. "Say that you couldn't stay tonight because his brother was sick or something and his Mom didn't really want guests. Be pretty bummed about it and say that he suggested you do something tomorrow night instead. Another concert or something - something that you can get a late curfew for."
"How the hell did you think of that so fast?" He creased his forehead.
"What, you think I spent this car journey listening to you?" She scoffed as Brandon rolled his eyes.
"How exactly are we going to survive a road trip together tomorrow?" He asked, genuinely concerned, considering that today they had barely managed a half hour.
"We'll just not talk to each other." She suggested.
"Oh wow, I can tell this is going to be an awesome trip. A silent car journey with my pain in the ass sister and then a band I hate."
"You don't hate their music, you just think they're idiots."
"I think we'll barely even get twenty minutes of music..." He muttered as Kasey realised where they were descending into again and channelled her anger into clenching her fist instead of giving her response. They were going to have plenty of time to argue the next evening to waste any more time on it now.
"Let's just stick to one step at a time, OK? You persuade Moms you have a concert to go to, I'll react in a way that doesn't raise any suspicion, they'll buckle and we'll work with what we get - alright?" Kasey folded her arms as the porch light came on and they heard the door.
"Shit..." She dived down behind the wall, pulling the discarded bike towards her as Brandon quickly shifted the car in gear and threw her a look as she cowered. He gulped down and quickly pulled the car up the drive to see Stef by the door. Switching the car off he gave Stef his most innocent smile, Kasey's heart pounding as she strained to hear what was being said.
"I thought I heard a car. What are you doing back?" She queried, her tone suspicious. Brandon blew the air in his mouth out gently before giving her another smile preparing for initiation. There would be no going back once he started
"Aiden's brother was sick. His Mom seemed to be getting a bit twitchy so I suggested we just hang out tomorrow instead." He smiled as Kasey breathed out gently. Stef clearly hadn't seen her.
"Why were you stopped in the road?" She asked looking back to where she had seen the car come from. Kasey closed her eyes tightly as Brandon quickly tried to think of a reason.
"I got a call. Didn't want to drive with my phone," He gave her a proud smile as she put her hand on his shoulder. "That's my boy." She smiled. "I'm glad you missed the downpour - that was nasty."
"Yeah...well." He smiled as she guided him into the house.
Kasey peeked above the hedge and checked to see them walk through, following their silhouettes. She just had to get her bits and pieces back to the garage and slip back into the house. Creeping up the back she opened the door as low as she could to be able to still slide the bike underneath and roll in herself. Hopping back up off the floor she closed it down gently and replaced her bike in its position. There was very faint light coming through from the door to the backyard, but it wasn't giving her much scope. She mentally planned her route back to the house and hoped that Brandon was keeping Stef in the living room as he'd suggested. Distracted by her thoughts she missed whatever implement on the ground that caught her foot as she took a dive forward into a clatter of boxes. As a cloud of dust erupted through the noise she swore loudly and batted it away through a cough before freezing as the door creaked open.
"What the - ?" The light clicked on and she saw Lena standing at the door, her arms folded in a frightening stature of authority.
"What are you doing in here?" She queried as Kasey looked at the pile of boxes around her.
"I tripped..." She commented as Lena raised an eyebrow.
"Yes...well that's easy to do seeing as you were creeping around in the dark. What were you doing before you tripped?" She asked sternly as Kasey felt the hairs stand up on the back of her neck. She caught her bike in the corner of her eye and said the first thing that came to mind.
"Bike light." She blurted out. "I was testing my lights..."
"In the dark?"
"Well duh..." She hit back, blunter than she intended as Lena's eyebrows shot up. "I mean, I was worried they were getting faint so I wanted to check...before cycling back late tomorrow, you know. I'm doing the late shift."
"You're doing the late shift?" Lena repeated, not sure she was aware of this.
"Yeah...Cooper was meant to be but he had some family thing so I said I would switch with him. I thought I should check my lights. Be prepared, you know?" She smiled confidently as Lena looked her up and down.
"Well, did you check them?" She asked bluntly.
"Yep, all good." Kasey picked the boxes up around her, stacking them back into their place and collecting up anything that had fallen out.
"Alright, then get back inside." She flicked her head as Kasey passed her. This had almost worked out better than sneaking in. They returned to the house and Kasey quickly made her way to the living room, Lena following behind. They could hear Brandon making his case for the next day. The way his eyes lit up when Kasey returned, it was obvious he had been stalling.
She flopped down onto the sofa, being careful to look inconspicuous.
"So yeah, Aiden thought it would be a good alternative."
"What would?" Kasey asked, putting on her best snark. "A new personality?"
He threw her a glare even though he knew it was part of the act. Well, partly.
"Brandon wants to go to a concert tomorrow night." Stef informed her.
"What?" She sat up. "Now you're just copying me..." She scoffed.
"Yeah, but my band might actually show up." He replied.
"Alright, alright. Uhm, Brandon - exactly where is this show?" Stef asked, crinkling her forehead.
"It's about an hour north but I'll be home by midnight and it is a Saturday. Aiden really wants to go and he was pretty bummed about me not staying over tonight." It was a bit of an exaggeration timewise but it would give them a bit of a bumper.
"So in that case you want a late curfew..." Lena interpreted as Brandon shrugged. The two women looked at each other as Kasey watched them nervously, catching Stef's eye.
"Are you going to be impossible if we let him?" She asked as Kasey looked to Brandon and back with a shrug.
"Does it change whether I can go to mine?" She asked hopefully.
"Not a chance." Stef replied instantly as Kasey moved her head to look at the ceiling.
"Then what difference does it make anyway?" She humphed, hoping the indifference was convincing. Lena and Stef exchanged a telepathic note and both settled on an agreement through their code of shrugs and expressions.
"Be home by eleven, please."
"But it's an hour - the show would have to finish bang on ten..."
"Yeah but I don't like you driving back that late so take it or leave it."
"Alright...thank you." Brandon nodded throwing a brief look to Kasey before heading to the stairs.
"Maybe he can pick me up from work on the way home." She suggested.
"You have the late shift again?" Stef turned to her.
"7 till 10." She affirmed. "Well, give or take - you know what Saturdays are like." She dropped in casually to plant the seeds in case she needed some time bought. "Yeah well you're not hanging round there till eleven so that lift isn't happening, but at least being there for most of the evening will keep you out of trouble." Stef added flashing her eyebrows up at Lena who swung round towards the kitchen
"Always." Kasey smiled innocently as Stef squinted at her before following Lena out. As they left, Kasey exhaled deeply, satisfied, albeit amazed, that this had apparently all come together. She was now less than 24 hours away from what should be one of the most awesome nights of her life.
It would certainly be one of a kind.
Any ideas what may happen on their little road trip? Gonna happen next chapter so get your guesses in now. Make 'em as wild as you like because I bet nobody will get the specifics.
Next Chapter Preview: An unplanned turn of events lands Kasey and Brandon in unfamiliar surroundings:
"You are such a brat." He moaned, not having liked his own medicine as far as sibling teasing was going. Kasey's chortling took them a few more paces before the silence of the night was replaced by some faint music.
"What is that? Do you think they're having a party?" Brandon observed as it became clear it was coming from their desired location.
"Nah, it's probably just the wind blowing through an instrument factory." Kasey screwed her face up sarcastically as Brandon threw her a look of discontent. "I guess we're about to find out..."