Carrying on the Torch

Disclaimer: I don't own Good Luck Charlie

A/N: this is in Dee's perspective. You will see why as you read.

Chapter 25 (The Disgruntled Queen)

When she made it to Dee's two story home, she could see her friend leaning against her balcony rail. The wind was blowing through her hair and through the hideous pink ballroom dress that, obviously, her mother would have made her wear. Her expression was that of boredom and aggression while two guys, one on either side of her, were trying to talk to her. Charlotte knew one thing for sure, she needed to act fast and get Dee the hell out of there, otherwise those two guys were about to catch some serious air over the balcony within the next few seconds.

She walked swiftly to the front door, which was wide open. Inside, Debbie and her husband, Rick, were chatting with several well-dressed guests. Debbie looked over at her and smiled. She extended her hand, which held a glass of white wine, and the others followed her gesture. "This is my daughter's good friend, Charlotte Duncan." She wouldn't have to curtsey for them, would she? She smiled pleasantly and waved at them. The others murmured something, then turned back to Debbie. "Dee's upstairs, Charlotte, dear. I believe she is entertaining some of the wealthy boys."

She stifled a laugh and hurried past the group. "If you say so, Mrs. Dooley. Looks more like she's ready to throw them off the balcony." Debbie sighed with exasperation and smacked her forehead. Charlotte snickered to herself and rushed upstairs. Once she made her way to the balcony, she heard Dee giving a very scary warning growl. One of the boys had their hand on her back, and it was sliding, lower. "Um if you don't take your hand off my friend, I'm going to throw you over the balcony." Dee gasped and quickly spun around, grinning as the boys quickly stepped away from her. Smart move.

"Charlotte! What are you doing here?" Dee quickly ran over to her and hugged her. She was ecstatic that her friend was here, finally those grabby boys would leave her alone. She felt so disgusted with herself, they were treating her like a common hooker. At least, that's how she felt they were. She just wanted to leave, as much as she loved her mother, she did not want to be at another one of the woman's godforsaken balls. Her voice lowered to a whisper. "Quickly, let me get dressed, and please say you'll sneak out the back with me so we can go hang out somewhere! I'm losing my mind here!" Thinking fast, and still feeling their burning stares on her, she let out a soft growl and turned to the boys. They froze under her glare as she whipped her hand towards the door. "Leave! I am done with you!" Without question, they hurried into the house. Thank god they didn't argue, she was afraid they would. Most times the rich boys would start arguing with her, and if they didn't get what they wanted, they threatened violence. It was like they were raised by wolves! She rubbed her temples and walked towards the railing, moaning with frustration. "I swear to god, you'd think wealthy boys would learn etiquette, not grab the ass of the first girl you see!"

"They did seem kind of grabby." She rolled her eyes and glanced over as Charlotte walked next to her. The girl was smirking. This wasn't a joke. Though, she wasn't intentionally bitter at her best friend, she just knew Charlotte didn't really understand the whole thing that happened at these balls. She saw Charlotte eyeing the brown arm chair and the wide swinging bench on either side of the door and smiled. She loved coming up here and swinging on that bench every morning, or just doing her homework. Either way, it was always peaceful, and she needed that peace in her life. "Maybe they don't know how to act towards a girl?" Charlotte turned around and Dee felt a surge of frustration shoot through her body. She was always complaining about this, those boys treated women like sex objects!

"Ugh! I've had it with rich boys and mom trying to get me to want to marry into a wealthy family!" She through her hands up in defeat and turned to Charlotte. Her hands pointed to the gaudy pink dress that her mother had begged her to dress up in. "Look at this tacky as hell dress! Every single month! So what if I don't want to date a rich boy? So what if I don't like those private school kids who are too arrogant to understand that when a girl says no, she means no, damn it! Look at us, Charlotte, we're fourteen, I'm turning fifteen on the 3rd! I don't want to worry about all this marrying into a wealthy family. I don't even want a wealthy family!"

"Yeah, besides, you've had your eye out on the one guy in science class, right?"

"Someone smart, yes. I want someone smart, not someone that's automatically wealthy. Besides, they know more about respecting women than wealthy people do! The rich boys are the snobs who expect women to pick up after them, do everything for them, get hit by them and not leave them, and finally just…" She stopped and tried to catch her breath, but her breathing was too heavy and her voice still laced with anger. She had so much hate for overly rich kids. With the exception of her own family, rich boys were like horrid little monsters! "Rich boys just use women." As her mind traveled to a prior ball, she tensed and slowly bowed her head.

"I don't know, Mason's family is wealthy." Mason? Mason was wealthy? He wasn't like the others, though. He knew how to treat women. In her mind, the difference between the rich and the non-rich was, the rich didn't learn how to treat women with anything but disrespect. The rich girls even let them abuse them! The ones who weren't rich, or the ones that had parents that actually respected one another and didn't give the image that it was okay to disrespect one another, they were the ones that came out all right.

"He's an exception…" Charlotte's eyebrows lifted as Dee scoffed away a quiet sob, she didn't want her friend to know something was wrong, but she was sure that was failing. Fast. "He's actually nice, he cares about people. You have to remember, his aunt and uncle weren't automatically rich, they know how it goes. They know what it means to respect each other, whereas these rich brats have parents that don't respect each other…"

"What makes you so adamant about it?"

Oh Charlotte, so naïve? No, it wasn't her fault, she didn't know. She didn't know about the boy a few months back, the rich boy who wanted something more from her. The same thing those two damn boys that were on the balcony wanted just moments ago. "I have my reasons…for being so adamant and for hating these damn balls that my mom throws all the time. Even dad doesn't care for all this!" She felt her throat clench up and gagged, trying to breathe. Her body shivered and her eyes clenched shut. "If you didn't show up when you did, I don't know, I kind of froze up." Why shouldn't she? She was afraid of saying no to those boys, afraid they would try to hit her and tell her she needed to do what they wanted or what they said.

"You? I was worried you'd throw them over the ledge. Why don't you just tell your mom how you feel?" Dee laughed once and whisked her thumb through her watery eyes. She nearly flinched as her friend moved a concerned arm around her shoulders. She looked over and met Charlotte's sad eyes. "Are you okay?"

"No. Why would I be okay?" She softened her voice. Images of that sixteen year old, black haired rich kid holding her down flashed through her head. His hand clenched around her throat and his free fist raised high in the air. She shuddered as she remembered her father tearing boy away from her, but the damage had been done. "I didn't tell you…the reason I hate all these rich people, minus my own family. Mom had to throw one of her damn rich balls about five months ago, as always, she never has time to be a normal mother and keeps trying to push her daughter off to some wealthy…." She choked up and her body started to tense. It wasn't hard to tell her friend knew what was coming. A part of her didn't want to say anything, but she needed someone to hear. She needed to get this off her chest. She wiped her eyes and turned her gaze out to the house across the street. "Some rich brat, sixteen or seventeen, was so sure that I might choose to go out with him. He was so pushy, so arrogant, and he just wouldn't accept 'no'. He started getting a little…physical…"

"Dee?" The boy didn't touch her, he didn't force her to do anything, but he wanted to. When she kept pushing away his advances, he kept getting more and more aggressive. After enough of this 'dance', he struck her and pushed her to the ground. He put his hand to her neck and she gazed up at him, fear crossed her eyes, he lifted his hand to strike her. She had turned away, going limp, but the blow never came. When she opened her eyes, her father had him pinned to the ground, his own fist was trembling in the air, but he knew it would look wrong if he punched out a teenager.

"No, nothing happened. Daddy walked in and the guy was holding me down, about to hit me because I was rejecting his advances…Dad pulled him off me. I begged him not to tell mom, because, well, I know how much she enjoys these damn social meetings."

Charlotte opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, the girls heard a loud gasp, followed by the sound of glass shattering on the ground. They turned around to see Debbie holding her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide with shock. On the ground were the remnants of a priceless glass tray and two chocolate cupcakes. Dee's eyes widened and fear shot through her, had her mother just heard everything? She didn't want that, she didn't want to worry the woman. Her eyes moved to the broken dish and her hand flew to her mouth, the dish was an expensive present given by one of her mother's wealthier friends. "Mom! Your dish…you got this from Mrs. Burgess! It cost a fortune!"She ran over and crouched down, trying to scoop up the pieces, hoping in vain that she could save the tray for her mom.

"I-I don't care about it…it means nothing to me…" She froze, her mother's words stabbed at her, shocked her. She looked up with shaky hands. Her mom's hand moved to her chest and her eyes were wet with tears. The woman slowly knelt down beside her and gazed into her eyes. Guilt, sadness, concern, and love flooded the woman's eyes. "I-I wanted to see if you girls would like to try my cupcakes…" Dee's eyebrows lifted in the center and she felt her mother gingerly caress her right cheek. "Dee…"

"How much did you hear?"

"Enough to know you don't like that dress…" So, she heard everything. Was Charlotte still here? Probably, but she didn't care. She felt her mother pull her into a hug. The woman spoke with a trembling tone. "W-Why didn't you tell me about that boy? I thought there was a reason you and Rick seemed to disagree with these last few…god I didn't know…why didn't you tell me you didn't like these balls?" What? Would it have made a difference? It was like these things were her lifeline.

"You're always so hung up over these things. I didn't think it would matter." Debbie gasped once more and moved back, her eyes wet with tears. She lifted her hand and started running it lovingly through Dee's hair.

"You're my baby girl, of course it would matter. I only pushed it because that's how my family was…your uncle Michael and Aunt Abigail were pushed to marry into wealth, they did the same with their children…even your grandparents. It was tradition, so I only thought…"

Who really cared about how her aunts and uncles married? Or her grandparents, really. Why should she have to follow the status quo? "You weren't thinking of me, Mom. How was I supposed to know you'd even listen. Just because we're wealthy doesn't mean we have to marry wealth!"

"I'm sorry baby." She hugged her daughter tighter and looked over to the swing chair. "Come here…" To be polite, Charlotte stepped back into her friend's bedroom. Mother and daughter moved to the swinging bench where Dee curled up and put her head in her mom's lap. She tucked her legs in and sniffled as her mother tenderly played with her hair. "I'll always be a mother before I am a wealthy woman. Do you know what that means?" Her heart cried out and her stomach flipped. She was confused, her mom cared more about her than these fancy shindigs that she hosted? This was news to her. Debbie bent over and kissed her daughter's left temple. "It means I'll always love you more than anything in this world, no item of value could ever take place over you. If you're not happy, then I'm not happy."

She sobbed lightly and closed her hands on her mom's blue gown. "I hate these balls, Mom. The rich guys always try something. That one guy five months ago was just the only one that tried to hit me, but most threaten to hit me whenever I tell them I'm not interested. It's like they expect me to submit to them. I'm not like that. I don't want to be that woman. I don't want to be the wife of someone who expects me to be their slave. I want to be treated like an equal, I want to be with someone who would love me and not think all I was good for was popping out babies!"

"I know baby, I don't want that for you…I just want you to be happy. I'm so sorry…" Her body twitched with each frustrated sob. This was the first time she really talked to her mother about all of this. "Now, you like a boy in your science class?" Dee chuckled and her cheeks slowly turned bright red. It was just a silly little crush, nothing more. The blush confirmed Debbie's question, however. She groomed Dee's hair and exhaled softly, gazing at her daughter with pride and love. "I think a part of me really just enjoyed the wealthy life too much, and if that's not the life you want, then I'm not going to force you to live it. You're worth more to me than anything of monetary value…I love you Dee, and I'll always love you."

"I love you too mommy…" She uncurled her fingers and looked up at her mom's wet face. Her mother smiled down at her and moved her hand to hers, holding it gently. She smiled back at her mom and closed her eyes. "You don't have to call off the party if you don't want…"

"No, I'm going to. I want to give those boys a talking to…Did I hear you say they were 'grabby'?" Dee slowly sat up and wiped her eyes. Her breathing was a bit shakier than she wanted, but it was becoming so difficult to calm down.

"Grabby, touchy, whatever you want to call them…one of them was reaching for my butt when Charlotte walked in." She looked around and blinked, Charlotte was gone. That only meant one thing, the girl was about to go ape-shit on those rich boys. "Uh oh…" Her eyes drifted to the street, where she saw the two boys running, screaming something about the crazy girl. She took a sigh of relief and looked to her mom, who was gazing at the street with amusement. "Well then…"

"Those Duncans, always so crazy." Debbie chuckled and closed her eyes. "You do have a good friend there."

"I know…she's awesome."

"I think I'm going to go downstairs and tell the guests to go home. You can change if you'd like and come down. I think your father and I will be happy to sit with you and watch a movie, if you'd like?" A movie would be awesome, just some time alone with her family. Truly, that was all that mattered.

"Okay. I'll be down in a few." Debbie smiled at her and moved her bangs from her forehead, then leaned forward, kissing her head tenderly.

"I love you, sweetie."

"You too, mom." After Debbie left, Charlotte walked outside and sat next to her. She blinked a few times and slowly smirked at her friend. "You, uh, chased the boys away?"

"Well I had to, they were getting too personal with my best friend." Charlotte took a pause and moved her hand to Dee's arm, looking at her with great concern. "Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine, thank you. So…why did you come here, not that I'm not extremely thankful to have you here to talk to."

"What are friends for?" She chuckled as Charlotte hugged her close. Her heart swelled and she hugged her friend back. "I was going to ask something in regards to the reunion, but I'm not too worried. Mason's grandpa's bringing Tyler and Regina's aunt is probably going to swing by with her kids."

"Oh, were you going to ask about my cousins?"

"Yeah, but I don't want to worry about it." Dee slowly nodded and wiped her eyes once more. God she was grateful for Charlotte, more so than anyone in this world. Of course, Regina was right up there with her, they were truly the best friends a girl could have.

"Mom said that maybe she could get dad to watch a movie with us…maybe you'd like to watch too?"

"I'd be happy to!"

"Great! I'm going to go change out of this dress…" Which she was more than happy to do. Maybe now, her mom wouldn't be throwing those balls all the time anymore. Or at the very least, she wouldn't be trying to push her in with some wealthy kid. Things were indeed looking up for her, no doubt about that.

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