Hi all, thanks for the feedback on yesterday's chapter! A pretty fluffy chapter again today so I hope that is OK with everyone. Thanks to Mea23 for her help with ideas for Jude/Connor and also thanks to TheTBone who was a life-saver in the Jesus/Stef scene. Hope you all enjoy! Would love your thoughts, as always!


"Hey Jude, look! There's Amber!"

"Wait, Amber who Paul likes?" Kasey peered over

"Yeah!"

"But who's she with?"

"That's TJ!"

"Oh my God - the guy Sarah wrote a note to?" Kasey asked before doing a double take. "And Paul was here with Jenny?" She wasn't sure when she had absorbed this information but it was spilling out of her mouth. She briefly considered calling one of her friends just to shake the 7th grade drama out of her system.

Jude looked between them unsure of how to jump in. He barely knew who these kids were or why he should be interested but even Kasey seemed to be.

"Hey, Connor!" the girl chirped over with a wave as the boy they had just been talking about turned pink. "I'm just gonna go say hi, wanna come?" he asked as Jude shook his head lightly. Kasey noticed his drop in attitude.

"You go say hi, we're not going anywhere" Kasey mediated so Jude didn't have to. As Connor bound off she turned to the shy little boy in front of her.

"You not like them that much?" He looked up at her and shrugged. "I just dont know them that well. I don't really talk to anyone except chased some ice around his glass with his straw.

"I guess he's been here a lot longer though."

"It can be kinda hard keeping up with everyone when you get to a new school. I remember it took Jesus and Mariana a long time to make friends. You're doing pretty well."

Jude sighed heavily. She could tell there was something on his mind.

"You know Jude, you can tell me what you're thinking. This is our day together. What happens in the arcade stays in the arcade." She smiled also coaxing one out of her temporary charge, half-hearted as it was.

"You've been with us one afternoon and even you know more about my grade than I do. I just don't care about all of this gossip and stuff. Is Connor gonna get bored?"

Kasey dipped her head to the side and tried to hide an audible response to the cuteness in his disheartened face.

"Jude, honey. Connor may have other friends but he's here hanging out with you, not those guys. You don't have to share all the same interests with your friends. There are tons of stuff that Cooper and Kelly and I do without the others. Some people just have a lot of friends, it doesn't mean he's auditioning you."

Jude didn't respond with any more than a hopeful sigh.

"You know what I think, I think Connor is pretty proud to be your friend and anyone would be. Remember what he did the other day?" She assured him

"I guess."

"It's OK if you don't care about the gossip, it just shows you aren't as nosy as Connor and me. Neither is more normal than the other. Mind you, I'm gonna need you to start taking an interest because I need to know what's gonna happen between Amber and Paul, got it?" she asked as he chuckled lightly. Kasey's face dropped.

"Dude, I'm serious. Was it just that one spin the bottle kiss or are we looking at a "tick yes if you like me" note. If I don't find out where this goes it's gonna bug me till you're in 8th grade...for real."

Jude laughed as Connor returned.

"Jude do you wanna have another race before the movie? It only takes like five minutes." Jude looked at Kasey who smiled her approval and the two of them ran off.

She dived into her pocket as she felt her phone buzz.

"Mom, not now, I'm trying to figure out how to get Jude out of the popcorn machine." Kasey watched across as the boys hopped onto the motorbikes.

"You better not have broken my brother, Foster." Callie replied through the phone.

"Ah crap, I really have to change this number in my phone. We're all good. He and Connor are racing each other on the bike racer. It's quite sweet. Anyway, what's up?"

"Just wondering if you wanted to come to a party later?"

"A party? Seriously? That not a bit risky for you?"

"Mariana's desperate to go and I don't want her to go crazy."

"Who's party is it?"

"Uhm...Wyatt?" Callie rolled her eyes as she heard Kasey laugh down the phone.

"Right, Mariana's desperate to go." Kasey teased gently.

"Do you wanna come or not?"

"To be honest I should probably be keeping my head down, but I'll see where I'm at after I get home. Now remember Callie, be safe. If you want to go further with Wyatt - "

"Don't break my brother." Callie cut her off before she could have the satisfaction of any more gentle teasing. "Let me know if you wanna join later." She was fast learning how to handle Kasey.

"OK, OK - give me a shout if you really need me. Have fu-un!" Kasey sang down the phone in a final dig before Callie ended the call shaking her head with a smile. One thing she could always give Kasey credit for was making her feel normal.

"OK you guys, let's go see this thing." She rounded up the boys and headed into the theatre.


Jesus took the fine tooth comb and parted his hair with pinpoint precision. He rubbed his hands down his pant legs nervously. He had met the Riveras over and over but never like this. He didn't usually take Mariana's snide comments to heart but for some reason her snipe about him not taking care of his appearance had really stung. What if it looked like he wasn't making an effort? He wanted to be taken seriously, not like some teenager who didn't look after himself. He needed to prove he could look after both of them. He had already spent a half hour primping - 28 minutes more than he ever usually would and now he was worried it still wasn't enough. He stroked at the brush of fur between his eyebrows. Mariana tweezed her eyebrows all the time - there was even that time she over tweezed in an obsessive effort to make them symmetrical and Stef had to threaten him to eventually empty his well of remarks. How hard could it be? There was no way he'd risk using one of his sisters' though. If either of them found out he would never live it down - but maybe he could find some in his moms' bathroom. He remembered countless times being taken there to poke splinters out of his hands with a pair.

He checked there was no-one around and tip-toed into their bathroom, already overcome by the range of products. He wouldn't have a clue where to begin and half the stuff he was pretty sure he wouldn't want to find or know about.

He rummaged through. There were lotions and gels and what seemed like a billion different kinds of night cream and he started to wonder what his Moms would look like if they didn't have all this stuff on. He finally found a small drawer of metal contraptions he picked up some scissors with a broad bar on the other end and quickly dropped it back down wondering what kind of torture device it was. He finally found what he was looking for. There were a few different kinds of tweezers, different shapes and angles and he realised he was glad he wasn't a girl. He spotted the ones that looked like they'd do the least damage but quickly whipped around driving them behind his back as he was caught off guard by a familiar voice.

"You looking for something?" Stef asked suspiciously as he stepped back to hide the drawer as if she wouldn't know it was there. She raised an eyebrow, trying to suppress a smirk.

Jesus' eyes darted around the room trying to think of something acceptable.

"Condoms." He immediately regretted blurting out, plagued by it being the first thing that came to his mind.

Stef raised her eyebrows as Lena appeared at her side with a look of intrigue.

"You were looking for condoms...in our bathroom...?"

"Uhm..." he stuttered as he fidgeted with the tweezers behind his back. "You know just being...prepared. For the future..."

"Honey we've explained to you what having two Moms means, yes?" she asked deadpan as Lena threw her a glare, inducing another smirk.

"If you need something, Jesus, you can ask us. We're not going go make fun of you." Lena assured him as Stef coughed away another laugh.

"I don't need anything...I was just...ow!" he yelped, dropping the tweezers he'd inadvertently nipped himself with while he had been tossing and turning them nervously in his grasp.

They clattered down to the ground as Stef tried desperately to hide in her face how adorable she was finding the scene.

"Honey...do you want to tidy up your eyebrows?" Lena asked carefully trying to suppress her own motherly affection.

"Sweetheart you could have just asked..." Stef stated sympathetically putting a hand on his arm. He launched it away, embarrassed.

"No. I just...I thought I had a splinter in my hand." he lied folding his arms.

"Well OK...but you know there's nothing wrong with wanting to care about your appearance. You don't have to hide it. Not that you should feel you need to worry about your appearance, of course."

"But you know you are looking a little thick above the nose there." Stef chipped in teasingly as Lena pinched her arm, hoping it may have more of an affect than another side-eye.

"Come on, he knows I'm only teasing. Sweetheart, it's pulling hair out of your face. There ain't nothing soft about that - trust me. You've not known pain till you've tried epilating."

"Ma!" Jesus replied.

"OK, OK. Look, let me help you." she bent down to retrieve the dropped apparatus.

"I need to go keep an eye on the dinner. I'll trust you to sort this one out. Nicely." Lena added with a flick of her eyebrow, knowing Stef's weakness at being able to remain subtle in amusing scenarios.

"I will, I will. Come on, love." she sat him down on the toilet lid and placed her fingers delicately either side of the bridge of his nose. She leaned over to almost touch before he lurched his head away.

"What are you doing?"

"What did you think you were going to do with them?" she protested. "Do you want them done or not?"

He eyed her suspiciously before reluctantly placing his head back.

She applied pressure on his skin again before placing the pincers around a hair, only for him to spring back just as she pulled.

"Ow!" He exclaimed. "You just yanked it out!"

Stef put the tweezers down laughing as he gripped at the tuft of hair she was trying to dismantle.

"Jesus - they're tweezers! How else do you think they work?"

"I dunno...but you don't do that with all of them, do you?"

"If you prefer we can wax it, rip them all off in one go..."

"What?" he yanked his head again. "Is this actually what Mariana goes through every day? No wonder women are permanently pissed!"

Stef raised her eyebrow quickly snatching another hair to pay him back for his comment.

He sprang up. "Why'd you do that?!" he moaned as Stef laughed again.

"Why'd you choose the moment one of the many women in your house has a sharp implement by your face to make that comment?"

"Now you're just being mean." He folded his arms.

"Sweetheart, you're the one who wanted to do this." She chuckled. "If you want me to stop, I'll stop, but I'm not gonna chase you round the room."

He rubbed at his brow looking at her suspiciously.

"It gets easier with each one, I promise. Soon you'll barely feel it. Come on." She patted the lid again as he edged towards her reluctantly.

"Okay...here we..." before the tweezers touched he flinched his head back again. Stef flapped her hands down into her thighs with a scolding look.

"I'm sorry..." he whimpered. "I just wasn't ready."

"Ready now?" she asked getting slightly frustrated.

He eyed her, before once again surrendering his forehead to her.

"One...two..." she began to count but as she once again squeezed it around the hair he jumped up for a final time.

"Nope. This so isn't happening. I'll take the unibrow." He ran out of the room leaving Stef to collapse onto the toilet seat shaking her head. She laughed to herself momentarily before grabbing the mirror and doing her own.


"That film was the best!" Connor chirped squeezing out a third sachet of ketchup over his fries.

"Wow, you're worse than Jesus." Kasey commented, fondly reminiscing about her brother.

Jude looked over and grabbed another sachet of his own to mimic.

"Another one? Really?" she challenged with a smile

"You gotta be shittin' me!" Connor added in, rocking slightly, quoting a catchphrase from the film they'd just seen. Jude chuckled, stuffing one of his fries into his mouth. Kasey rolled her eyes but couldn't hide her smile.

"I don't know how any of you guys can do that. Can you even taste anything else?"

"It tastes even better!" he plunged his hand in and started to pile them into his mouth before gulping down a milkshake. After the slushies, the entire packet of pic and mix and popcorn she was amazed they could even taste the ketchup.

"Did you like the film, Kasey?" Jude asked as she too broke into her meal.

"Actually, I did. Plus the scenes where Jason had his shirt off, hello! He could bazooka me any -" she stopped mid sentence remembering her audience. She cleared her throat as the two pairs of round eyes paused to wait.

"I mean, it was brilliant costume design."

Both boys laughed and Kasey looked down affectionately as Jude tucked in with a contented smile.

"You know my favourite scene was when he was running through the forest chasing that drug lord." Connor grabbed the salt shaker and motioned it leaping across the table, Jude grabbing the other and echoing the dialogue of the film. The two of them became lost in the scene and Kasey bit into her burger with a laugh as Jude's character collapsed down from Connor's gunshot only to produce another in the form of the vinegar. Both looked at each other and exclaimed their new favourite "You gotta be shittin' me!" before sharing a laugh.

Kasey shook her head and watched as Jude got so absorbed in the joy of it. For the first time that evening, she didn't for a moment resent having been recruited and realised that whether she liked it or not, she had acquired another brother she'd do anything to protect. She took another bite of her meal and wished Callie could see him like this.


Callie looked across the room and flicked through her phone. Kasey had said to give her a shout if she really needed her. Was boredom a good enough excuse? Drunken Wyatt was apparently more annoying than persistent Wyatt and she didn't even want to know what drunken Mariana would be like. She wished she had more friends. She glanced across at her phone and checked the time, calculating how long she'd have to endure this before it would be reasonable to pull Mariana out and get home. She looked over to her sat with Kelsey. Great. She shook her head and hoped that she would take her earlier advice to take it easy.

Mariana finished downing the beer that had filled her cup.

"Wow - keep up like that you're gonna need the rehab, girl. You must have known Jesus and Lexi were sleeping together?"

Mariana barely heard what Lexi was saying as she hoped the gritty taste of the beer would get better the more that she drank. After all, she had no intention of stopping. Jesus and Lexi were having sex? Really?

"They've been going out for like five minutes!" she complained wincing as the beer bubbled down unto her stomach. She lurched back a wretch but it still felt better than the image she couldn't help but flash up in her mind.

"Wow. That must super suck, I mean you being the only one still a virgin in one swoop. That's raw."

Mariana barely heard the taunt as Kelsey took another sip of her own cup.

"I can believe she wouldn't tell me." Mariana stormed up for a refill with Kelsey scurrying behind.

"What you mean when you've not been talking? Girl, I know I've been out the loop but I could feel the chill from rehab." she once again barely heard the statement as she sloppily poured a can into the red container.

"And Moms just give them the pill? Seriously? Jesus hasn't even been grounded or anything! I can't believe they're cool with this! Playing nice with her parents. I can't believe I even felt bad about seeing - " she stopped short of saying Ana's name but it seemed Kelsey had been distracted as it was. Two guys were coming towards them with a bottle of vodka.

"Maybe you need to find a guy of your own. See if your Moms are as cool about it with you." Kelsey licked her lips and grabbed the arm of one of the boys.

"Well hey Parker, fancy sharing with two single ladies?" the boy smirked a look at his friend as Mariana raised her eyebrows and nursed her glass. It was true. Why should Lexi and Jesus have all the fun?

"Looks like we better get four glasses." the other smiled.


Next Chapter Preview: Kasey helps make Stef's evening a little more awkward before making a new friend at Wyatt's party and Callie has her own problems when Mariana's behavious attracts some unwanted attention:

"Are you crazy?" Callie asked pulling her to the side.

"Shit, guys. That's a cop car!" Wyatt exclaimed as Callie gulped and Mariana laughed.

"Oops!"

"Are you kidding me?" Callie cursed to herself.